The Western Quebec School Board is proposing that the entire student body and staff of Onslow Elementary School relocate to the Pontiac Continuing Education Centre in Shawville for the 2026-2027 school year to allow for major renovations at the Quyon school. 

This move would push students and staff of the Continuing Education Centre, which is attached to the back of Dr. S. E. McDowell Elementary School, to the school’s former building at 26 rue Leslie in Campbell’s Bay for the year. 

“We need to redo some structural renovations on the concrete floor, and also redo all the interior of the school. We have to make it more aligned with the new needs of the school, and unfortunately all those renovations will last more than a summer,” explained Pascal Proulx, the assistant director general with the school board. 

Renovations, which will cost about $4,700,000, will involve a fairly comprehensive gutting of the school’s interior, reorganizing its floor plan to make space for another classroom, installing an air conditioning system, and potentially expanding the school to build a new staff room and library. 

While the board usually prefers to organize renovation work to occur during summer months, the scale of the upgrade slotted for Onslow will take much longer than that, which is why the school needs to be temporarily relocated. 

“[Onslow] won’t merge with McDowell, we’re just relocating Onslow to another building,” Proulx said. 

“Everything that happens right now in Onslow will continue to happen. The only small difference is the fact that right now there is only one gymnasium in McDowell so they’ll have to share the same gymnasium.”

Now, those implicated are mulling whether such an upheaval would be feasible, and what measures would need to be taken to ensure it happens as smoothly as possible. 

Hollie Leach, parent representative and chair of Onslow’s governing board, said the news came in an emergency meeting on Nov. 13. 

“I was really happy to hear. I think this is going to be great for Onslow and for our little town. I’m hoping it does happen [ . . . ] We’re hoping that maybe having a brand new English elementary school might entice people to want to move here,” she said, also highlighting the planned air conditioning as a win for the school. 

“I find our summers are starting earlier and ending a lot later, and the kids are actually missing school on days where it’s too hot because you can’t go and learn whenever it’s that hot.”

Busing, daycare concerns 

Leach said since learning of the renovation plans, the primary concerns she’s heard from parents are around bus routes, and what will happen with the small daycare that runs out of Onslow.

“Most parents are worried about the busing, because it is an extra 20 minutes for kids who are used to only having to go as far as Quyon,” Leach said. 

On this subject, Proulx said the board is exploring the possibility of adding new buses, changing certain routes, or possibly changing school hours to ensure those with longer commutes can still make it to school on time. 

In terms of finding a new home for the daycare, Leach said the school board had reached out to her in her capacity as board member of Quyon’s Maison de la Famille to see if it could host the daycare for the year, a proposal of which she said the family centre board was supportive. 

THE EQUITY reached out to the Continuing Education Centre to hear how these changes might impact its programming, but did not hear back before publication deadline. 

Proulx said some renovations will be needed at the Campbell’s Bay building this coming summer before the school can move into it. 

The school board is hosting public consultations this week with the governing boards at Onslow (Nov. 24), the Continuing Education Centre (Nov. 25), and McDowell (Nov. 26). 

Another consultation will be held on Jan. 19 with the school board’s parent committee, and the final vote on the matter will occur Jan. 27. 

“First, we are talking to all the people who will be involved to make sure we get their worries and comments, and their approval. Because at the end, if it’s a big ‘no’, the commission won’t go forward.”