Two schools in Saint John’s north end will be replaced, the provincial government has announced.
Just over $110 million has been earmarked in the 2023-24 capital budget for public schools in the province.
About $5.5 million of that is for three new projects, including a “replacement” for Hazen White-St. Francis and Centennial schools.
In 2018, the Anglophone South District Education Council recommended closing the schools and building a new K-5 school to replace them.
According to their websites, Hazen White-St. Francis currently has 154 students while Centennial has 205 students.
Meanwhile, four other projects at “various stages of planning and construction” will also continue, including the “design of a new kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school in Saint John’s central peninsula.”
Last year, the province set aside $2.2 million in the 2022-23 to buy land for the new school, which will replace Prince Charles School on Union Street and St. John the Baptist/King Edward School on St. James Street.
While the province has yet to officially announce the location of the new school, a report obtained by our newsroom shows it is eyeing property in the area of Rainbow Park.
Provincial officials have to buy two properties at 98 and 102 St. James Street to “complete the land assembly for the new school in the South Central Peninsula.”
Both of those properties, located between Charlotte and Sydney streets, back onto Rainbow Park, according to property records.
The province is also paying $127,000 for three unidentified properties owned or controlled by the city as part of the land assembly, according to the report.
Alycia Bartlett, director of communications for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, told our newsroom Tuesday that there were no new site selection updates to share at this time.
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