Kitchener neighbourhood awaits resurrection of St. Patrick

A demolition crew works to tear down the previous St. Patrick college in 2016.

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KITCHENER — It was there for nearly 50 years. It has been gone for 5 years after falling into break. Now it’s coming again.

St. Patrick Catholic Elementary Faculty will get its second life in the identical suburb the place its first life ended as an empty shell preyed upon by vandals.

This sounds OK to neighbour Line Coutu. She despatched her son to the unique St. Patrick college and volunteered there earlier than its demise.

“It must be higher than house buildings,” she mentioned Thursday, after being instructed a brand new college valued at $15 million is returning to the sector throughout the road from her dwelling.

The Ministry of Training introduced three new elementary faculties this week. Two different faculties have little historical past in comparison with the one introduced at Thaler and Burgetz avenues in east Kitchener.

That is the place the unique St. Patrick college opened in 1968. College students within the neighbourhood attended till 2010.

By the point St. Patrick closed it was half-empty and decaying because the Waterloo Catholic District Faculty Board struggled via a chronic enrolment decline.

Remaining college students have been dispersed to different faculties. The constructing sat empty whereas bricks fell off and the positioning was re-evaluated for housing.

The following six years have been tough for neighbours. Vandals focused the empty constructing, tagging it with graffiti, prying open the doorways and breaking in as the previous college was left to crumble.

One neighbour recalled smelling mould and seeing water inside the place ceilings had collapsed. One other noticed vandals there at evening and nervous the deserted constructing would burn down.

In 2016 the varsity board demolished the unique college after repeated vandalism. Neighbours cheered. However there was no plan at the moment to resurrect St. Patrick.

The college board briefly put the property up on the market. At one level a house builder proposed shopping for it. The deal fell via when metropolis planners balked at what they deemed an incomplete proposal involving 4 semi-detached dwellings.

5 years later, the board-owned web site remains to be vacant however enrolment has circled.

Since 2014 the Catholic board has been rising once more after accepting extra non-Catholic college students, and after households from the Higher Toronto Space started transferring down Freeway 401 seeking cheaper housing.

Planners anticipate nearly 40 per cent extra elementary college students within the subsequent decade. The board plans to open 5 new faculties and develop one other college by 2024.

“The necessity for these new faculties has elevated considerably over the previous few years,” mentioned Jeanne Gravelle, chair of the Catholic college board.

St. Patrick in its subsequent life could have house for 527 college students and one other 88 youngsters in baby care. It could open by 2024.

Line Coutu hopes the following college will embrace group house accessible to the neighbourhood that borders on River Street. “One thing for the children,” she mentioned.