The provincial government has announced a site for a new kindergarten to Grade 8 school in the central peninsula of Saint John.
City officials confirmed to Global News that around five homes would be bought out. Coun. Gerry Lowe said he spent the past number of days meeting with some of the residents in the area, some of whom have been there for “decades.”
“You’re living in a home, and someone asks you to sell it, we buy it, and they’re going to put a school behind it,” Lowes said.
“It’s tough; it’s tough dealings. I know a lot of them. I grew up in the south end. It’s not like buying a sand pit or a land of forest. It’s a residential area, and that’s where the residents wanted it to go.”
According to Donna Reardon, mayor of Saint John, those acquisitions of land will be handled through the province, which said all pieces of land had been acquired. She said that some of the lots are vacant, but others are homes with residents.
The school is expected to replace the Prince Charles School and the St. John the Baptist/King Edward School. The expected capacity will sit at around 450 students, with $2 million in funding through the 2023-24 budget.
In December 2021, Minister Dominic Cardy committed $2.2 million of his department’s 2022-23 capital budget toward buying land for the school, which would replace St. John the Baptist/King Edward School and Prince Charles School.
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An updated number could not be provided immediately.
Readon said that there was a special evaluation for some of the lots that were acquired, but that “hey will have to vacate this premises.”
This comes on the heels of an announcement last week that didn’t include the school for the Central Penisula. The school has become a sore spot for residents in the area who have been pushing for the province to open a school in the area.
Minister Arlene Dunn said that while social media posts earlier in the week pointed to Rainbow Park being torn down to accommodate the new school, the province does not have any plans to remove the site.
— with files from Robert Lothian and Tim Roszell
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