Leamington council has voted to demolish the former Leamington District Secondary School.
The building on Talbot Street West has sat empty since 2017, after a $32 million replacement opened.
The lands were purchased by the municipality in 2020 with the hopes of turning it into badly needed housing.
Plans for nearly 300 units fell through and were scrapped in early 2025 after failed negotiations with Amico Properties.
On Tuesday night, council awarded the demolition tender to Salandria Ltd., who submitted the lowest bid at $822,000.
The work will involve asbestos abatement, tearing down the buildings and restoring the site, a process expected to take five to six months once underway.
The teardown brings with it another complication: Chimney swifts, a threatened bird species, that have been nesting inside the school.
Robert Sharon, director of infrastructure services, said legislation requires that if a threatened bird species habitat is demolished, it must be replaced in a timely fashion.
"The reason that both the provincial and federal governments require those is because you already lose a single season when you remove that habitat, and they want the habitat restored as soon as possible, typically you get sort of one window because they are migratory birds," Sharon said.
Sharon said administration did look at leaving the chimney on the property and building around it, however there are structural safety concerns.
"The fact of the matter is, that chimney will not have the structural capacity to stand on its own. The first 31 feet of the chimney is supported by the actual school itself, and then only the top 25 feet is freestanding," he said.
Sharon said they had move to quick to facilitate a plan.
"Recognizing that council's desire was to have this school demolished as soon as possible, we didn't have, say a couple years, where we could explore various things, and look at other options, so it was a time crunch," Sharon said.
Ottawa has given Leamington until March 2026 to finish the habitat work nearby.
The cost is an estimated $640,000, with both projects funded from the town’s $5 million contingency reserve.
Administration will now tender the habitat work and award the project if it comes in at or under the estimated cost.