Some former students and staff at Catholic Central High School are describing their time at the Windsor school like "being with family."
A homecoming was held Thursday at the school 441 Tecumseh Rd. E., with former staff and students invited to visit and walkthrough the building before the doors close for good at the end of the school year.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board will be moving students and staff to a new $30-million school, set on an 11-acre piece of property between Ouellette Avenue and McDougall Street, replacing the current building which has been in use since 1987.
Darlene Kennedy, a former principal at Catholic Central, says it's the people that make the building.
"Students should have an opportunity to have many of the things other people have, that they've never had. We never had a track and field, we never had so, so many things," she says. "I'm really happy that they're now going to be going in and they're going to have computers and wifi."
Mike McKittrick, was one of the first 13 teachers hired at the school as a physical education teacher. He spent 28 years of his career at Catholic Central and calls it a "magical place."
"We had 72 different nationalities in the building, it was a big melting pot," he says. "Everybody came together, everybody got along. We had no athletic facilities other than a gym but we did really well athletically based on the talent and multiculturalism we had in the building."
Jeff Gendron was a member of the Class of 1992 and has been serving as Campus Minister for the past 10 years. He says CCH is a big family.
"A lot of out students have come back over the years and contributed not only financially, they've offered their time here. They come back and help with the basketball program, the music program, so it's a big family," he says. "We've been around for 36 years and we've been waiting a longtime for a new building."
The new Catholic Central High School, which will house over 900 students, is expected to be completed by August 2022 with plans to open in time for the 2022-2023 school year.