Modular Classrooms Coming to Birchwood
by Darren Becker
Quebec’s Minister of Education has authorized $2,008,049 for the addition of 6 modular classrooms at Birchwood School. The funds are available to immediately begin the planning and design work. The Lester B. Pearson School Board expects the new classrooms to be ready for the 2026-2027 school year.
Thanks to the grant obtained from the MEQ, six modular classrooms will be added, which will create up to 150 new student spaces in the region. This will help relieve pressure on local schools and provide a better learning environment for the entire community. This initiative aims to temporarily address the growing needs of families and ensure that every student can thrive in a school setting conducive to success. The school board continues its efforts with the municipality of St-Polycarpe to establish a school there and is still searching for a second site within the Vaudreuil-Soulanges MRC.
Birchwood School is the newest in the LBPSB and opened in 2011. It has 345 students. The other anglophone elementary schools in St-Lazare have between 320 and 440 students. Three out of four have more students than their capacity.
This initiative will quickly offer more spaces to children in the region. This project is a direct response to the needs expressed by the community and represents an important step to support the educational success of youth while waiting to secure the required land for the construction of two new schools.
The school board is looking at other schools that could benefit from these new student spaces.
