It's hoped a renovation and addition at Sarnia Christian School is complete by the time students return in September.
Principal Len Smit said crews are working on the finishing touches, and final inspections have been scheduled, at the Exmouth Street and Pontiac Drive site.
"We're hoping that most of the work is wrapped up," said Smit. "We are waiting on the cabinet people to finish a few things and we're trying to finish our new junior kindergarten naturalized playground."
The new play space was added after two specialized kindergarten classrooms were built.
(A new j/k naturalized play area waits for finishing touches at Sarnia Christian School. Image courtesy of Principal Len Smit.)
"We have volunteers coming in and working with DeGroot's Nurseries. We hope to be laying sod and getting it ready for school to start."
While Smit couldn't detail this year's enrollment numbers yet, he said the school is definitely experiencing growth.
"This is a project that, due to COVID, kind of stalled. Last June, we decided to go ahead with the project and it's a good thing we have, because classes are full and we're stopping enrollment at certain grade levels due to capacity problems."
Smit said the independent school has been in Sarnia for 70 years, but the building project couldn't have happened without support from people in the community.
"I'm sure we are over budget from what we planned two years ago because costs have gone up, and then you always add things along the way. We're actually doing a lot of extensive work on the older part of our building as well at this time."
Smit said a few local businesses have even donated materials and their time to help get the project done.