Two Wasaga Beach high schools? It’s possible, if the Simcoe County District School Board gets its way.
The public board has put together its newly ranked list of capital priorities — voted through by trustees at the first regular board meeting of the new school year on Aug. 28 – with a Wasaga Beach secondary school leaping ahead this time to No. 2 on the list.
“I don’t know if you heard a few moments ago that there was a rumble, but that was from people in Wasaga Beach thanking you. I think I can hear the clapping,” Collingwood/Wasaga Beach trustee Mike Foley said during Wednesday’s meeting. “I’m ecstatic.”
The board’s ranked list being sent to the province for consideration for 2024-25 capital priority funding cycle are:
- Warnica Public School (growth accommodation/replacement school)
- New Wasaga Beach secondary school (growth accommodation)
- New Tottenham elementary school (growth accommodation)
- New Stayner elementary school (growth accommodation)
- New Bradford secondary school (growth accommodation)
- Emma King Public School (growth accommodation addition)
- Ardagh Bluffs Public School (growth accommodation addition)
- Baxter Central Public School (growth accommodation addition)
- Nottawa Elementary School (growth accommodation addition)
- New Barrie southeast elementary (Hewitt's area, growth accommodation)
- Huronia Centennial elementary school addition (growth accommodation addition)
Warnica, located in south-end Barrie, topped the list this time around because, as superintendent of business and facility services Corry Van Nispen explained to trustees, its current students will need to be bused to other schools when construction is taking place, and the board only has a three- to four-year window in which the surrounding schools will have the capacity to take on those students temporarily.
“Based on enrolment projections, we will not have the ability in the future as the alternate school locations will no longer have the capacity to support this project,” said Van Nispen.
Meanwhile, both the local public board and the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board put forward a proposal in the last round of submissions for a school serving high school students in Wasaga Beach.
In May, the province announced it had chosen the Catholic board’s junior kindergarten to Grade 12 proposal, but then-education minister Stephen Lecce didn’t rule out an option to approve another secondary school for Wasaga Beach in the future.
The board acquired land at the corner of Sunnidale Road South and Sun Valley Avenue for the Wasaga Beach secondary school project earlier this year, which is why the project was moved up the list this time, previously from No. 12.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Van Nispen said the design of the school will mirror the design of Orillia Secondary School (OSS), which opened in 2016.
If the Wasaga Beach project is approved by the province, he said the board is aiming for a 2029 opening date.
New in the province’s last capital priority call, and continuing this time around, are requirements for boards to provide a summary of key project milestones and details on site identification, design plans, project timelines and cost estimates. Priority for funding will be given to projects that are considered "shovel-ready."
Also included in the call is a move toward design standardization of schools, where priority will also be given to projects that replicate already-built designs from other areas. Boards are encouraged to explore innovative ways to build schools, which could include vertical schools (four or more storeys) and podium schools (schools built in mixed-use developments).
There were two projects on the list that the board has not yet completed site acquisition: the new Bradford secondary school and the new Barrie southeast elementary school, in what is referred to as the Hewitt’s secondary plan area.
When asked following the meeting at what stage the board was in regarding site acquisition for those two projects, Van Nispen said negotiations are still ongoing for the Bradford project, but that the identified site is in Bradford’s south end. For the Barrie project, the site is off Lockhart Road.
“With those two projects, we have a path to acquisition identified. We’re working with lawyers and landowners. There is some privacy involved with it,” he said. “As soon as we are able to make that announcement, we will.”
The Bradford project’s design would also be based loosely on the design for Orillia Secondary School on 20 acres. For the Barrie project, the design will be based loosely on Marshview Public School in Bradford, which just opened in April 2023.
He said if approved by the province, the projected opening date for the Bradford project would be in 2030, while the opening date for the Barrie project would be in 2027.
When asked on Wednesday by New Tecumseth trustee Sarah Beitz why an Alliston elementary school didn’t make the list this time around, Van Nispen said there are many needs the board has identified that didn’t make the list, because the board hadn’t yet completed site acquisition or design on those projects yet, or negotiations were ongoing with potential partners, to get them to that “shovel-ready" place.
Other examples of projects such as these include a replacement for Collingwood Collegiate Institute, a new Barrie southwest elementary school, an addition to Coldwater Public School and a new Midhurst West elementary school.
“The list that we have for our capital priorities is not our complete list of projects that we are working on,” he said. “Those projects don’t put the checks in the boxes ... that the ministry is looking for.”
In the last round of capital priority funding announced this past spring, the province approved four of the board’s top priorities from that submission: a new Angus elementary school, a new Barrie elementary school, a new Alcona elementary school and an addition for Nantyr Shores Secondary School, which is also located in Alcona.
School boards must send in their new wish lists to the province by Sept. 16 for consideration.
The province is expected to make announcements on which projects will be awarded funding in the spring of 2025.
