www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday September 8, 2007 - 9 Liberals promise to rebuild St. Thomas Aquinas By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF A nearly $15 million grant, courtesy of the province, has moved St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School one big step closer to the complete tear down and rebuilding it needs. The long-suffering structure has endured more than a decade of renovations and patchwork ever since the Catholic board purchased it from the public board for $1 back in 1990. Yesterday, under the water-damaged roof of the St. Thomas Aquinas gymnasium, Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn announced before hundreds of students that the government was providing money for a more permanent solution. "I'm very, very pleased today to be here and announce to you that the provincial government is providing close to $15 million towards St. Thomas Aquinas and the Halton Catholic District School Board for the complete rebuilding of St. Thomas Aquinas," said Flynn to the cheers and applause of all those present. Flynn noted that the need for the funds had been made clear to him four years ago when school officials invited him on a tour of the facility. "They showed me some of the conditions that you had to live with on a daily basis," he said. "They showed me the basement where the water came through the walls. They told me you had to go up to Loyola for shop classes because there simply wasn't enough room here. They told me that if you are a student with physical challenge or physical disability you had to take a number of elevators to get from one end of the school to the other because the floors simply didn't line up." Several years of advocating in Queen's Park later and the money has arrived, and no one is happier to see it than Halton Catholic District School Board Chair and Oakville Trustee Alice Anne LeMay. "It's been a long, long road to finally getting some funding for St. Thomas Aquinas," she said. "There was a new grant system that was put up called `prohibitive to repair' and of course we thought to put Thomas will. "If we could do something with this place in the next two years that would be a major miracle," said LeMay. "But I believe in miracles." DEREK WOOLLAM / OAKVILLE BEAVER GOOD NEWS: Oakville Catholic school trustee Pauline Houlahan applauds Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn's announcement that his government will provide $15-million towards the rebuilding of St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Aquinas on that and through the work of the trustees, school councils and Kevin Flynn we managed to convince the Minister of Education that St. Thomas Aquinas was a worthy school because it was the only school in this system that was not up to what we wanted in a building for the students to learn in." As happy as LeMay was to receive this funding, she was also quick to note that more would be nice. "The only problem with almost $15 million is that it's almost half of what we need," she said. "This new building is going to go ahead, but it won't happen over night. It will probably take us a few months to figure out how to do it, but we will do it and with God's help and all the prayers of everybody here it won't take as long as we think it's going to take." LeMay later noted that a considerable amount of work will need to be done by the board to supplement the province's funding. "You have different options. The money you have in reserve, land you can sell, if we change the boundaries for where the students are coming from to St. Thomas Aquinas. That generates more grants for this particular area," she said. "There's lots of different options that we're going to have to look at to make sure this happens." With a provincial election looming on the horizon, the timing of this announcement may seem like a votegetting ploy, however Flynn insists it's not about politics. "It was a battle down there (Queen's Park). There was a huge competition for these funds. The announcement came out in the early summer and we were going to have a (public) announcement in the summer, but between my schedule and Al Bailey's schedule we couldn't get it together," said Flynn. "Then the more we thought about it, the more we thought that the students were going to be the ones benefiting, they were on holidays at the time." The gesture was indeed appreciated as hundreds of uniform-clad St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School students shook the very ground with deafening cheers and applause after the announcement was made. Although LeMay acknowledges thatnot all the students present may be with St. Thomas Aquinas long enough to see the construction completed, those in the lower grades, she says, definitely Images International is very pleased to welome Senior Stylist Irene Crisostomo to their team! With more than 10 years of experience working at New Generation hairdressing shop in Oakville, Irene specializes in innovative hair design and styles, highlights (foil and cap), colour, rollersets and updos. With this exciting addition, Images is offering a 20 per cent discount to new clients when they present this ad. 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