Saint John’s south-central peninsula will be getting its long-awaited new K-8 school, but when and where it will be built still remains unknown.
Education Minister Dominic Cardy announced Wednesday that $2.2 million has been set aside in the 2022-23 capital budget for land acquisition.
“The new Saint John school will help address outdated infrastructure in the area and promote growth,” Cardy said when tabling his department’s budget in the legislature.
The new school will replace Prince Charles School on Union Street and St. John the Baptist/King Edward School on St. James Street.
Cardy did not provide any details Wednesday about where the new school will be located in the south-central peninsula or when exactly it will be built.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Education did not offer any firm details either and said the minister was unavailable for an interview.
“The department is in the preliminary stages of planning. Details regarding costs and timelines will be announced as planning progresses,” Danielle Elliott said in an email.
Cardy also announced $1.5 million to acquire land for a new K-5 school on Fredericton’s north side. The new school will replace Nashwaaksis Memorial School and McAdam Avenue School.
“We need to be fiscally responsible. That means allocating our limited resources thoughtfully,” he said.
“New Brunswick is growing and we have to focus on areas with the greatest need while ensuring that all of our communities have the resources they require for their students to thrive.”
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s overall capital budget for 2022-23 is $84.7 million.
In addition to the new schools, there is $8.8 million set aside to support the provincewide ventilation program, and $25 million for capital repairs, upgrades, equipment, and the wood dust collector program.
There is also $47.2 million for four projects at various stages of planning and construction:
- a kindergarten-to-Grade 5 anglophone school on Cuffman Street in Fredericton
- a kindergarten-to-Grade 8 anglophone school in Moncton’s west end
- a kindergarten-to-Grade 8 anglophone school in Hanwell
- a kindergarten-to-Grade 8 francophone school in Moncton
The new schools in Saint John John and Fredericton were at the top of the department’s priority ranking list for school infrastructure projects.
Capital projects are identified as priorities using what is known as the Quadruple Bottom Line Analysis, which Cardy said supports “evidence-based decision-making.”
“Every year, we take the top 15 projects off of that list that has to be reviewed every year, and put those into basically a guaranteed-to-be-built-or-dealt-with list,” he said.
That list is called the Stable Departmental Infrastructure Priorities list, or SDIP for short. Cardy said each project will remain on the list until it is funded and built.
“It’s a way of guaranteeing that we’ve got a bit more stability both for the people who are going to be responsible for building the schools, but also the communities who are going to be asking questions,” he said.
The following projects are included on this year’s SDIP list:
- New school to replace Campbellton Middle and Lord Beaverbrook schools;
- New school to replace Hazen White-St. Francis and Centennial schools;
- New Carleton County-area kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school to replace several local schools;
- Upgrade and addition for École Saint-Henri;
- New school to replace George Street Middle School;
- New school to replace Salisbury Elementary School;
- Upgrade for Polyvalente W.-Arthur-Losier;
- New school to replace Forest Hill and Liverpool Street schools;
- Addition for École Abbey-Landry;
- Upgrade for Polyvalente Louis-J.-Robichaud;
- New school to replace Grand Bay Primary and Inglewood schools;
- New school to replace Forest Glen and Sunny Brae schools;
- Upgrade and addition for École Mathieu-Martin; and
- Upgrade and addition for École Sainte-Anne.
