Two new schools to be built in Dartmouth, Bedford to keep up with demand

Nova Scotia is adding two new schools to the Halifax region.

Nova Scotia has updated its five-year school capital plan to keep up with the province’s growing population.

The plan now includes 19 new or replacement schools. Two new schools have also been added to the plan, which will be built in Dartmouth and Bedford.

“The population in both are exploding and we know that the schools are at over capacity,” said Brendan Maguire, minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.

“And the Regional Centre for Education, along with the municipality and the department, we have our numbers that show how large these communities are going to grow over the next five, six, seven years and we know that a new school is needed in both.”

Three new schools are scheduled to open in the 2025-26 school year.

Those are:

- École sur la péninsule d’Halifax and St. Joseph’s-Alexander McKay Elementary School, which are both in Halifax

- École Baie Sainte-Marie in Clare, which will serve French first-language students

The province says the updated plan also includes continued funding for maintaining schools and adding modular classrooms.

The province is spending more than $1 billion over multiple years as part of the school capital plan to help build and maintain new facilities.

Twelve of the 19 new schools will be in the Halifax Regional Municipality and three are Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP) schools that support French first-language learning.

The plan also changed the CSAP school École des Beaux-Marais in Chezzetcook to be a pre-primary to Grade 12 school, instead of pre-primary to Grade 8.

Last year, the following five new schools opened:

- Breton Education Centre in New Waterford

- Springhill Elementary School in Springhill

- École Wedgeport in Wedgeport

- École Belle-Baie in Torbay

- Eastern Shore Consolidated School in East Chezzetcook

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