FORT FRANCES – Construction of the new public school building for Rainy River is on track for completion before next Christmas, the Rainy River District School Board’s director of education said Tuesday.
If all goes according to plan, the border town’s kids will start attending the JK-12 school on the first school day of 2025, Heather Campbell said in a phone interview.
“We're on budget and it’s moving ahead,” she said.
The school building, which will also accommodate a daycare centre and an EarlyON Child and Family Centre, is being put up at a cost of more than $30 million. Campbell said construction costs are entirely covered by funding from the province.
“We’re very grateful to the government of Ontario through the capital priorities (program) to support this new school for the town of Rainy River and the surrounding area,” she said.
In December 2020 the Ontario government announced funding for construction of a new school in Rainy River to consolidate the town’s public elementary school and Rainy River High School.
A May 2022 news release from Rainy River District School Board said the board had received “approval to proceed in the amount of $23,541,549 from the Ministry of Education” for a building to house a junior kindergarten to Grade 12 school, 39-place childcare centre and EarlyON Child and Family Centre, which will offer programs for children aged zero to six years old.
In early July 2023, Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce attended the start of the new school’s construction, which they said is supported by $30.2 million in provincial funding.
Rickford spoke at the groundbreaking of “improving access to quality education” and “making Northwestern Ontario one of the best places to live, work and play.”
