TVDSB unveils plans for new southwest London school also set to open overcapacity

The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) has unveiled plans for a new school in southwest London that it says will ease some of the growing pressure in the quickly developing part of the city.

The TVDSB received funding approval from the Ministry of Education for the new $20.7 million elementary school. At a virtual meeting held Thursday evening, board officials revealed that the school, tentatively named New Southwest Public School, is expected to have capacity for 804 students, and will include a five-room child care centre for 10 infants, 30 toddlers, and 48 pre-schoolers.

The school is set to be built on the corner of Regiment and Pack Roads, south of Southdale Road. 

Still, with development ramping up in the area, school board officials say this is just the first of several new schools needed in south London to keep up with current and future enrolment. 

"This is the first of several schools we are going to need in the south of London. We're making those cases to the ministry as regularly as we can," said Geoff Vogt, superintendent of facility services and capital planning for TVDSB. 

Much like with the recently opened Summerside Public School, which had portables on site to deal with an excess of students before it even opened, Vogt expects the new school will also have portables. 

"With the amount of development we're seeing in southwest London, we will have considerable pressure on our school sites for the foreseeable future."

The project in the southwest is currently in the design stage, with the school board saying the layout is in the hands of the ministry for approval. The website for the project also shows a 5.76 acre plot is being purchased from a developer, with the land acquisition submitted to the province for approval in early September.

A completion date is not yet available, however according to the school board, construction on a school this size typically takes 18 to 24 months from the time ground is broken.

"We don't have a line of sight on a completion date. We do have hurdles to cross with the Ministry of Education and the municipality. We hope, over the next couple of months, to have a much better handle on that," Vogt said.