We're getting ever closer to seeing a new joint-use school on South Hill with a location and project manager nearly locked down.

Earlier this year, it was announced that the Prairie South and Holy Trinity Catholic School Divisions were making plans to replace four of their schools on South Hill with one combined facility. This was due to the ageing infrastructure at Prairie South's Empire and Westmount schools, and Holy Trinity's St. Mary and Sacred Heart schools. Instead of trying to build four brand new schools, the two divisions decided to pool their resources and build just one school where they could share the same facilities.

Tony Baldwin, director of education with Prairie South explains where they are in the process.

"Once we have the location confirmed, we have the process to get a project manager pretty much done. So I think that in the next week or week and a half, we should have both of those pieces in place and then we'll be able to start on the design."

Baldwin says that the design of the school will get input from various groups, including students themselves.

"That's gonna be the most exciting part of the process for me because that's going to be an opportunity to work with staff and school/community councils and kids that are going to be students at this school to think about what will be the best for the students."

It has yet to be decided what will be done with the existing schools and property.

"That depends on a lot of things. Part of the process moving forward will be to make a determination as to what we're gonna do with the buildings and property."

When the new facility finally arrives it will no doubt be put to good use for the generations of Moose Javians to come.