An addition to St. Bernard’s Catholic School in Orillia will create dozens of child-care spaces.
Work is underway on the 6,600-square-foot addition at the Oxford Street school.
The addition will consist of three rooms, for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, with a child and family centre. It will provide before- and after-school care.
“There’s very little daycare in the south end of the city. It was needed,” said Francis Smith, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board’s trustee for Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Ramara and Severn.
There will be 49 spots available, and Smith expects they won’t take long to be filled.
Notre Dame Catholic School, on Atlantis Drive, has hosted child care since it opened, and it is at capacity.
“It’s a lot less expensive (than other forms of child care),” Smith said.
For a while, it was uncertain whether the $2,156,800 addition at St. Bernard’s would happen. The previous provincial government had given the project the green light, but that was halted when the current government came to power last year.
“It was very difficult to get,” Smith said. “It was a hard-fought battle to get the extra funding from the government.”
The child-care addition is expected to be ready in January.
