Durham Catholic Board wants to partner with the City of Oshawa on an artificial turf field for the ‘new’ Paul Dwyer High School

The Durham Region Catholic District School Board wants to partner up with Oshawa on a joint use artificial turf field when they construct a new high school in the city’s north-east.

The school board got the go-ahead in 2020 to build a replacement for the ageing Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic School at Stevenson Road and Rossland Road. The new location will be on the other side of the city on a 12.7-acre school block on the south-east corner of Greenhill Avenue and Harmony Avenue, just north of the city’s Delpark Community Centre.

As part of the design and planning stage of the multi-year project, the school board is “seeking partnerships” for the programming and facility infrastructure. The “most significant,” Catholic Board Superintendent of Business, Finance and Facilities Services Scott Grieve said in a letter to the City, would be the joint development of the artificial turf field and track.

No mention of funding requirements was made available, though artificial turf fields typically cost between $750,000 and $1.3 million; about double the price of a natural grass field.

The school board is also looking for shared parking and driveway access through the City-owned Delpark Centre and a reduction in the size of the residential storm management pond in order to “maximize our site” for shared usage.

The “Correspondence Requiring Action” item will on the agenda for Tuesday’s Community Services Committee Meeting.