Heather Wright/The Independent

Students may be in the new Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 in Forest after the 2028 March Break.

That from the associate director of education of the Lambton-Kent District School Board, Brian McKay. It’s received approval to build the school which includes three child care and two EarlyON rooms at a cost of $74.1 million.

In July 2023, the Ministry of Education projected the cost of the building to be about half that – $39.8 million.

The board first began considering the consolidation of schools in the Forest area in 2016. After a school review, trustees approved bringing students from Aberarder Central School, Bosanquet Central School, Kinnwood Central School and North Lambton Secondary School to one spot for a Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 School in 2017.

It took another three years for the province to approve the purchase of land in Forest for the school at a cost of $4.7 million in 2021.

The board and the Ministry of Education planned for what was anticipated to be a $27.4 million building, but in July 2023, the plans shifted. The board said the school would be built to house up to 1,186 students and provide 49 child care spaces in a three-room centre. That pushed the price of the new school to $39.8 million.

McKay says that $74.1 million announced Wednesday reflects the increased cost of construction since 2018. McKay says in 2023, when the size of the school increased to house 1,186 students, the province adjusted the funding by $12 million.

“Yet that did not adjust the original cost of the building for the other 1,000 students that we originally received approval for seven years ago,” said McKay. “There was a big catch up in that other area that we were still waiting for the ministry to make a decision.”

McKay says the board should make a decision on the contractor of the new school in October but he expects the majority of the work will begin next spring.

“The true groundbreaking wouldn’t be till spring thaw, and then our hope still is, where we’re looking to a construction completion around January 2028, with then that would give us two months to prep the school, equip the school, and then be able to move students in after March Break of 2028.”

McKay says it has been a long process to get to construction – including concerns from the four school communities merging but he says the parents “steadfast support of the board and this process” has helped the board get to the point of construction.

This will be the first school the Lambton-Kent District School Board has built since PE McGibbon in 2010.