Plans for a high school on the north side of Highway 97 are starting to pick up some steam.
The Central Okanagan School District's Secretary-Treasurer Larry Paul says the project they want to pursue would be to join with the City, and build a joint high school-rec centre project on the land surrounding the Parkinson Rec Centre.
"The old Dr. Knox site, which is at the back of the Parkinson Rec, we own 11 acres. So we'd work out some sort of agreement with the city that we'd jointly manage the property, or have joint tenancy - some sort of legal process to say that we both own the property. Then we could work together to both put our buildings on the property," he said.
He says all that would need provincial approval.
"We'd like to take now a proposal back to the government, that shows how we've worked with the city with the concept, see if they would support funding that, and then of course the city has to work on their side of it as well," he said.
"Something's going to happen there. They're going to rebuild Parkinson. We're going to build a school. It's a matter of do we do it together, or do we do it apart? My preference would be to look at how do we put it together."
Initial cost estimates peg the construction at roughly $70 million, for a school that would need to house north of 1000 students.
He says the completion of such a project is likely at least 5 to 6 years away, with provincial approval happening in a year, at the very least.
The district is also finalizing the design of a new middle school in the Mission, and moving forward with another middle school in Lake Country.