St. Lazare makes new school a priority

While the Lester B. Pearson School Board’s project to build a new elementary school in the off-island is still in limbo, St. Lazare’s recently elected town council has made it a priority to find a suitable site to offer.

The subject was a hot-button election issue this fall and new St. Lazare Mayor Pierre Kary said he campaigned on it, defeating Michel St. Louis and outgoing mayor Paul Carzoli in the Nov. 1 vote.

Last week, St. Lazare appointed District 2 councillor Nathalie Richard to head a search committee to find a site of about 25,000 square metres in size which the burgeoning town could offer to Pearson. She is to make a recommendation to town council but there is no time-table for her to complete her task, the mayor said. “Residents have given us a mandate to do this,” Kary said. “We were told by residents that this infrastructure was dear to the community; they want to send their kids to school locally. Our role is to respond and anticipate the needs of residents.”

Kary said the town will consult with Pearson officials as their search progresses. “We are still in the selection process, looking to see what site is best” he said. “Some sites the city already owns, some are privately owned that we would have to acquire and some have been offered by private land owners as a straightforward donation.”

Kary said location is a key consideration, since there will be added costs if the site is not a serviced (roads, water and sewage) area. “There are two schools of thought,” the mayor said, adding an existing neighbourhood will have good access and services but may not be welcomed by nearby residents and out-of-the-way site, with homes to be built around it in the future, does not have services.

The English-language board has been looking for a site since Quebec approved about $8 million for a new off-island school last fall. The initial plan was to have the school built for the current school year, with construction starting this past summer. Pearson's first choices for a location would be in either St. Lazare or Vaudreuil-Dorion but no deal has been made yet. “The signals are positive but there is nothing firm as of today,” Pearson chairman Marcus Tabachnick said of St. Lazare’s recent initiative. “There is no doubt that they have identified this as a priority issue. We appreciate that. There has been nothing further from Vaudreuil-Dorion.”

While the province provides funding to build a school in a region where numbers warrant it, the requesting board is expected to negotiate with a municipality to provide or purchase a site.

Kary said the town also plans to identify a second potential site for a new school, this time for the Commission scolaire Trois Lacs, which may request one in a few years. “We have to be ready,” he added.