Catholic Central high school gets $26M funding for new building

By Vanni Zhang

The provincial government has announced funding for a new Catholic Central High School.

The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board applied to the provincial government for funding seven times for the past seven years.

Funding was announced Sept. 31. Students and teachers celebrated when they first learned the news.

A new Catholic secondary school for 850 students will be built to address the aging facility’s condition and renewal backlog at Catholic Central Secondary School.

The new school will cost an estimated $26 million and will be located on the site of the old Windsor Arena downtown.

Ryan Turgeon, a dramatic arts teacher at Catholic Central, has been teaching with the WECDSB for eight years.

“It’s fantastic news for the students and teachers and staff,” said Turgeon. “The facility will be innovative, include all new technologies, new layouts and new ways for our students to learn.”

The replacement for Catholic Central is one of seven new schools the province has committed to build.

“We are excited,” Turgeon said. “When the announcement came, we were just beyond excited because the new school is not a dream but a reality.”
Students are excited as well.

“It’s a really good news for our school,” said Aeden Bakla, a Grade 11 student at CCHS.

According to the press release on the Ontario government website, the provinces will be building 28 new schools and will also update 23 current schools. This will make it so more students can have access to state-of-the-art learning facilities with many new programs.

Since 2013 the province has given more than $2.5 million in capital funding towards school boards which has supported 155 new schools and 156 additions and renovations.