The Superintendent of the Kamloops-Thompson School District is hoping – and expecting – to see a funding announcement made for the new Pineview Valley Elementary school as soon as next month.

Rhonda Nixon tells NL News the school district has done what is needed of it to get to this point in the process to build the new school.

“I would say that it would be concerning if we didn’t hear about [a funding announcement] until next year,” Nixon said.

“We actually have to get started on the rest of the process so once you get that letter that says capital project funding agreement is in place, then we start to start to engage in designing what is essentially a plan to build and get RFPs and so on out there to be able to secure who is going to build the school and start building it.”

In September, the SD73 said it was “one step closer” to the new Pineview Valley School after a letter from the Ministry of Education which said it was in support of the school district moving ahead with a business case for the new school.

“This is a major milestone in obtaining ownership of the land,” Board Chair, Heather Grieve, said, at the time.

“Once the land is transferred from the Crown to the District through Land Titles, a business case, which is in the final stage of completion, will be submitted to the Ministry for funding approval. We are one step closer to a new school in Pineview Valley.”

The province has also approved the transfer of 2.28 hectares of Crown Land, south of Snowberry Crescent and east of Python Lake, to the district in order to build a school.

There is no word on a what this new Pineview Valley School will look like or when construction will get underway. A new school in that part of Kamloops has been one of SD73’s top priorities for a couple of years, with the district expecting it to cost at least $33-million.

“We are very hopeful and do believe that we will have and see a funding announcement,” Nixon added.

“We are not assuming anything but we do believe that it is just right around the corner and once that happens, we can start talking particulars and we’ll be excited to do so because all of us want to see a new school in Pineview.”

However, she also noted that even if SD73 got the funding announcement this year, the new Pineview Valley school is only expected to be ready in 2026.

“It is not automatic because as I said, it does take a lot of drafting and RFPs and so we’re a number of years away still, even if we got the announcement right away,” she said.

“We really are pressured to get a new school in that are. My hope is that its earlier and not later.”