The expansion project at St. Joseph’s Catholic Secondary School is moving forward now that a tender has been awarded. During the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB) meeting earlier this week, the board awarded the tender of the project to Alliance General Contracting of Windsor Inc. This project will include an eight-classroom addition at the high school. In March 2024, the Ministry of Education awarded the Catholic board with just over $3.6-million in funding for the construction of the expansion. The Ministry then provided an additional $450,000 in June 2025 toward the work. Despite having $4.1-million in funding for this project, Alliance General Contracting came in at the lowest bid of $2.9-million. “Our student enrolment at St. Joe’s Catholic High School is 1,350, we do have seven portables on site. So the eight classroom addition will be situated at the northeast end of the site, which is McHugh and Clover,” said Emelda Byrne, director of education. She said there is the hope that the board will be able to keep the remaining funding since the project was under budget. “We’ll have to wait to see when the project is done if we have extraordinary costs that have to be taken into account - overrun costs. And then we’ll have to ask permission from the Ministry of Education if there are leftover funds, basically if we can use it again for perhaps other capital projects.” Byrne said she’s not sure exactly when the construction will begin, but says the contractor is available to start the project on Oct. 1. The work is expected to be completed by December 2026. — Meagan Delaurier/AM800 News
