Provincial release:

The Province is building three new schools in Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to replace aging infrastructure and meet the new demands of these communities.

The three schools will be built in Dartmouth, Armdale and Bedford and grow combined school capacity by more than 800 students.

“I’m very excited to be adding even more school capacity in HRM by investing in three modern, accessible schools with space for more students to learn,” said Becky Druhan, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development. “We’ve heard from and listened to parents. Now, with these replacement schools, we are supporting the well-being and success of the next generation of Dartmouth, Armdale and Bedford students.”

The new schools are:
– a pre-primary to Grade 6 school in Armdale to replace John W. Macleod – Fleming Tower School (currently two buildings)
– a replacement pre-primary to Grade 8 Shannon Park Elementary School in Dartmouth
– a pre-primary to Grade 6 school in Bedford to replace Sunnyside Elementary’s Fort Sackville and Eaglewood Drive school sites (currently two buildings).

These replacement schools are new additions to the government’s five-year school capital plan, ensuring Nova Scotia is addressing growth through maintaining and refreshing current schools as well as building new schools. The plan already included seven new Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) and two Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP) schools in HRM.

Work to identify sites for the new schools is the next step. Once sites are recommended by the Department of Public Works, site information will be shared with school communities. Once sites are selected by the government, HRCE will form school steering committees made up of parents, community members and school staff to provide input on design of the new schools.

Quick Facts:

– the seven HRCE schools already advancing through the school capital process are Clayton Park-Fairview Junior High School, St. Joseph’s-Alexander McKay Elementary School, Eastern Shore Consolidated School and new elementary/junior high schools in Timberlea, Port Wallace, Middle Sackville and Bedford

Additional Resources:

HRCE capital projects: https://www.hrce.ca/about-hrce/operations-services/capital-projects

News release – School Capital Plan Addresses Growth, Invests in New and Existing Schools Across Nova Scotia: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2023/06/16/school-capital-plan-addresses-growth-invests-new-and-existing-schools-across-nova

News release – Progress on New Halifax Schools: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2024/09/24/progress-new-halifax-schools