ARNPRIOR – While plans for a French Catholic Elementary School for Arnprior have been on the books since 2015, projected cost over-runs and staff transfers keep pushing back the plan.

The new school would be under the authority of Le Conseil Des Ecoles Catholiques Du Centre-est (CECCE) and is expected to be built on Baskin Drive across the street from A.J. Charbonneau Elementary school.

In the fall of 2018, the board held an information session for parents at the Quality Inn in Arnprior conveying the bad news that, after a second round of requests-for-proposals, it was still going to be too expensive to build the school. Then, almost a year ago (March 8, 2019), the CECCE advised parents an architectural firm was making blueprint revisions in preparation for a third round of proposal requests.

The new blueprints were completed by June, 2019 and the board then asked the Ministry of Education for both an approval to proceed, and some additional funding to make the school a reality.

The CECCE says it has heard nothing from last June up until now. Last summer the board transferred the new school’s intended principal, Richard Carrier to another assignment.

The Arnprior principal position is vacant, but the CECC says another individual will be appointed once there is progress to report.

• Courtesy Oldies 107.7 FM