Construction going ahead on a new Catholic Central high school in Windsor

An artist's rendering of what the new Catholic Central Secondary School will look like. (WECDSB - image credit)

Construction is finally going ahead on a new $30-million Catholic Central High School in Windsor.

"For many years, there have been calls for improvements in the physical spaces between schools in Windsor, and I often was asked by parents that they felt ignored and they wanted to see more meaningful improvements to the facilities," Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in a virtual news conference Thursday.

Plans to build a new school have been in the works for years, with the province giving the board the green light to move forward on construction at the start of this year.

The conference Thursday was attended by officials from the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and MPP Rick Nicholls.

The money comes from a $550-million program to build 21 schools across the province.

Oscar Construction has been chosen to build the school, which will be located on land that stretches between McDougall Street and Ouellette Avenue in South Windsor.

An artist's rendering of what the chapel at the new Catholic Central Secondary School will look like.(WECDSB)

School board chairman Fulvio Valentinis says some preliminary work is underway on construction.

"You're going to be seeing quite a bit of action in the coming days, in the coming weeks, because we have a tight deadline. We intend to meet it and the contractor's committed to doing it. So if you go out there in the next few days, you'll see them working," said Valentinis.

The state-of-the-art school will have capacity for 900 students. It's expected to be complete for September 2022.