The Greater Essex County District School Board has announced almost $24-million for a consolidated secondary in Amherstburg to replace the existing General Amherst and Western High Schools.
In addition $9-million, plus land acquisition costs is pledged for a replacement for Prince Andrew School in Lasalle.
Board Vice Chair Ron Leclair is the trustee representing both communities.
He says this is great news with the Lasalle announcement somewhat of a surprise: "we worked very hard as a board as an administration to come up with a plan that the ministry accepted. Obviously getting the build at Prince Andrew is icing on the cake"
He says this supports the plan he called for to bring the 2 Amherstburg schools together as a dual campus.
Board Superintendent Todd Awender says the first step is to identify the locations for the 2 schools: "we have been meeting with the municipalities, we're in the process of determining what sites are appropriate. Then once we get that we'll have our architectural firms bidding to start the designs with consultation from a whole bunch of people around"
While it hasn't been confirmed, the plan for Amherstburg could see the new school built at Centennial Park where the old arena stood with the Amherstburg Municipal building going to the current site of General Amherst.
A number of potential sites have been identified for the new Prince Andrew School, but none has been made official yet.
Awender says once the sites are in place, they'll engage architects and builders through the tender process.
He expects the new schools to be ready for the fall of 2019 or 2020.