The Cape Breton School is switching to modular classrooms for growing numbers of students

A population boom in New Waterford was something Darren O’Quinn hadn’t expected five years ago.

Now so many people are moving into the community that the Cape Breton Regional Municipality councilor says the local primary school needs to be expanded.

“For the first time in a long time in New Waterford, we’ve seen this influx of people coming into town. It’s amazing,” O’Quinn said.

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Center for Education acquired a former baseball diamond adjacent to Greenfield Elementary School and plans to open four modular classrooms there by September.

O’Quinn said the arrival of families originally from Nigeria and India, along with former residents returning home, has made New Waterford a thriving place again. This has increased school enrollments.

“The school has had the cafeteria, the library, things like that are now used as classrooms,” he said. “We’re at that point where there’s really no room for the kids.”

The Center for Education said growth in New Waterford was higher than expected.

Lewis MacDonald is Director of Operations of the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Center for Education. He said the four modular classrooms will be built off-site before being moved to the old ballpark and connected to services.

Modular classrooms are common in larger cities due to the ease of creating additional space with minimal disruption to the main building.

“For example, if we were looking at an addition to the school, I couldn’t even tell you what the time frame for that would be,” MacDonald said. “Besides, it’s kind of strange how we’d add to Greenfield Elementary.”

The increase in enrollment is something O’Quinn looks forward to for his community.

“In the city every day you see new faces that you’ve never seen before,” he said. “It is awesome.”