Local businesses step up to support new school opening in Markdale

A new elementary school officially opened its doors to students in Markdale after local business leaders stepped in to help make it happen.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening of Beavercrest Community School, a new educational center in the Town of Markdale, that wouldn’t have been possible without the support of local businesses.

The new facility is equipped with 17 classrooms that have the latest technology to enhance student learning.

Tennille Schultz, the school’s principal, is excited for students and the town to have the school operating before the end of the school year.

“I was impressed with the size of the classrooms and the hallways,” said Schultz. “The color scheme that they used, we did not have at the old Beavercrest, so it was nice that we were moving into a new facility.”

The community rallied around the idea of building a new school after it was almost shutdown in 2016, and multiple local businesses stepped up during the process, including Chapman’s Ice Cream, and offered to buy the school to keep it open.

Ashley Chapman, CEO of Chapman’s Ice Cream, said the closure of the school would have hurt the local economy.

“When all this came down the pipe that we were going to lose our school, we were desperate to change the way it was going, and it would have killed our town and our business would have suffered as well,” said Chapman. “We love it here, we want to see it thrive, not die.”

Chapman’s employs over 600 people in the community.

“It’s the canary in the coal mine and once that goes... to get a school back is just incredibly difficult,” said Chapman. “I grew up in this area. I went to Beavercrest when I was a kid, so seeing that shut down just arbitrarily without a real look at the numbers and growth that were there happening at that time, it was heartbreaking.”

The school was built on the same property as the old school, directly beside a new neighbourhood.

During the design process the school underwent three expansions to accommodate the rapidly growing community.

“We only have one school,” said Grey Highlands Mayor Paul McQueen. “No school in Markdale does not make sense - you start to lose families in your community, so we fought hard, the community fought hard.”

The school will use the summer to complete the finishing touches on the interior and exterior of the new building. A new playground will soon be built on the property ready for students to use by the beginning of the new school year in September.

“This community values education and this community values that education is within their town,” said Shultz. “They are happy to know that the new building is here and it’s a lovely building in a nice subdivision and that their kids are close to home learning.”