The Lambton Kent District School Board is "immersed" in the design process of a Kindergarten to Grade 12 school in Forest and hopes to begin construction in the spring of 2023.
The purchase of land, located on a site directly west of the Shores Recreation Centre, was finalized in February after being selected in November 2021.
Superintendent of Business Operations Brian McKay said the approximate size of the property is 20 acres. The facility will include a two-room child and family centre and a one-room child care centre.
McKay said the board is currently working with community stakeholders, including Kettle & Stony Point First Nation, to develop plans for the school design. The final design will also require approval from the Ministry of Education.
"We are reaching out to connect with all of our stakeholders over the next several months. The overall design, just due to the complexity of the building, will probably take about eight months to complete," McKay said. "Once completed, we'll then issue a tender document, looking for general contractors to bid on the property."
It's hoped the tender will be issued by the winter of 2023 with groundbreaking to follow in April 2023.
This is the public school board's first K-12 school that's being built so it's unknown at this time whether more projects like this will follow in order to address declining enrollment.
"We hope to be able to address whether there's an obvious need and demand for other K-12 developments in the board," said McKay. "We do really want to see what our stakeholders tell us about the design and then take what we've learned in this K-12 experience and then have those discussions in other areas of the board, if and when we get to the point where we're building new schools."
The K-12 school in Forest will consolidate students from Aberarder Central School, Bosanquet Central School, Kinnwood Central School, and North Lambton Secondary School.
-With files from Stephanie Chaves
