An official groundbreaking was held Thursday for new elementary and middle schools on Constellation Avenue in Langford.
The schools, which are due for completion by September 2022, will add a combined 1,200 new student spaces to the fast-growing Sooke School District.
The elementary school has been named Pexsisen, a Lekwungen and Sencoten word pronounced “pux-see-sung” and put forward by Butch Dick of the Songhees First Nation. It means “the opening of hands” or “to have one’s hands wide open.”
The other is Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School. Lellum comes from Chief Russ Chipps of the Beecher Bay Nation and encompasses “house and the idea of community, where we raise our children.”
Names for the schools were chosen by the Sooke School Board from hundreds of suggestions. They are being built on a 6.5-hectare site in Langford’s Westhills area.
Funding of $88.6 million for the schools was announced by the province in June 2019.
Five school sites have been purchased in the district over the past three years.
There are about 11,300 students in the district, which is expected to grow by about 300 students a year expected over the next 15 years.
