Heather Wright/The Independent

Students should be in three new classrooms at Plympton-Wyoming Public School by September 2027.

That’s according to Brian McKay, associate director of education with the Lambton-Kent District School Board.

Monday, the provincial government announced the board would receive $2 million to create three classrooms for 69 students at the Wyoming school.

In 2018, the board expanded the Wyoming elementary school and closed South Plympton Elementary School just south of the Wyoming and sent the students to the renamed Plympton-Wyoming Public School. The new school was built to house 257 students but with rapid growth in Wyoming, enrolment swelled to 301 students by 2025. There are two portables at the school.

The board’s estimates show the school’s student population is expected to grown to 349 by 2030 and 387 by 2035. With the $2 million funding, the province says 69 new spaces will be available, bringing the capacity of the school to 326 students – 20 fewer spaces than the board projects will be needed in Wyoming in five years.

McKay says the addition will be on the southwest part of the building with construction beginning this summer. Once it is complete in the summer of 2027, the two portables now on site will be removed.

The Wyoming expansion will be the second large construction project the board will manage in 2026-2027. The board is also preparing to build the $74 million Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 school in Forest.

Following the announcement of the three-room addition, Wyoming residents on social media questioned why the province and board are willing to spend $2 million now on the school which was just overhauled eight years ago, but it wasn’t willing to keep South Plympton School open.

McKay says the Wyoming area has changed significantly since then, noting that one subdivision which almost filled wasn’t in the works. And more homes with more potential for elementary school students are on the way with at least one more subdivision in the planning stages. The pace of development in Plympton-Wyoming and Lambton Shores has been difficult to anticipate, McKay says.

“In the last three to four years there have been significant changes,” he says. “We used to be a stable population base or a declining population base. That’s changed – overall, we’re a steady growth board.”