Completion of Kingston West Catholic Elementary School delayed by a year
Kingston’s newest Catholic elementary school, originally slated for completion in September 2023, will not be opening in time for the next school year.
Parents with students in the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board (ALCDSB) received an update from the school board on the evening of Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2023. The update was a follow-up to communications to parents from the school board on March 8, 2023 – which had celebrated that the board had “successfully completed” its “Kingston West Boundary Review” at a special meeting the day before. While that update to parents outlined plans for transferring students from existing schools to the new one, the update parents received most recently indicated that the amalgamation of students into the new build will not be happening on the planned timeline.
“This letter provides an update on the opening date for our new Kingston West Catholic Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 school,” the communication began.
“The Board of Trustees were updated on Tuesday, Apr. 25 regarding the proposed opening date of fall 2023. At this meeting, Trustees were provided with information related to project delays, due to the ongoing pressures of construction supply chain issues and product availability,” the letter continued.
“These unforeseeable circumstances have created a lag in completion timelines.”
As a result, the letter detailed, the new school now has a projected opening date of September 2024. Students that had been eligible to attend Kingston West Catholic Elementary for the 2023-2024 school year will now stay at their “home school” for the duration of that school year, and further information about the new school will not be shared until the fall of 2023, according to the letter, which is signed by David DeSantis, Director of Education for the ALCDSB.
The Province approved funding for the project in June 2021, and the school board originally received approval to award the tender for the construction of the new build — located at 386 Holden Street — in December 2021. At that time, the over $20 million project was slated for completion in the fall of 2023, and set to include:
- 481 elementary student spaces
- Four new childcare rooms, providing space for 73 new licensed child care spaces
- Three new rooms for EarlyON Child and Family Centres
The project broke ground in April 2022, when the timeline for completion and opening remained the same: Fall of 2023.
Asked for information on what is behind the delays, the ALCDSB sent Kingstonist a copy of the April 26, 2023, communication to parents from DeSantis, and a link to the board’s webpage on active construction projects. There, in the section dedicated to the Kingston West Catholic Elementary School, the link to learn more about the project is dead, meaning nothing happens when it is clicked. Kingstonist inquired with the ALCDSB about where to find the information that link is supposed to redirect users to, however, no response was received by time of publication.
Kingstonist will continue to provide updated coverage on this matter as more information becomes available.