Beavercrest Community School Groundbreaking Ceremony (Photo provided by Jamie Pettit)
The Bluewater District School Board (BWDSB) held a ground breaking ceremony today, marking the start for the construction of the long awaited replacement to the Beavercrest Community School.
BWDSB Communications Officer Jamie Pettit says the ceremony today at 10 a.m., had a number of people in attendance at the location of the new junior kindergarten to grade eight school at 101 Main Street East in Markdale.
“This is a significant step forward,” says Pettit. “It really symbolizes the fact that we are ready to move forward, so work is going to commence right away at the site, which is basically the site of the current Beavercrest Community School property and things are going to move ahead quickly we are hoping,” says Pettit.
He says this was an occasion the BWDSB, community partners and the Markdale community has been looking forward to for a while.
“The process began several years ago when it was approved by the Ministry of Education that we would receive a new replacement school for Beavercrest. There has been a lot of back and forth between the board and the ministry,” says Pettit.
Recently the board’s business committee says the Ministry of Education provided the necessary approval on May 30, allowing the project to proceed.
He says the new school will be able to accommodate 328 people, and feature a two-room childcare centre and two-room EarlyON centre.
“Certainly taking into account our current students and also future students. For young families who are seeking childcare, having the childcare in the school exposes those young children to school setting and gets them prepared to make it a smoother transition when they go from childcare to kindergarten,” says Pettit.
He says pending a lack of interruptions, they hope to open the doors to the new facility in time for the 2024/25 school year.