cole Champlain being moved away from industrial park

A Moncton school is being moved away from an industrial park after a decade of complaints by parents and staff about air quality issues.

cole Champlain is getting a new building at the corner ofErinvaleDrive and Newcombe Drive,Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Marie-Claude Blaisannounced on Thursday.

Our students and staff need a healthy, safe, and positive learning environment," she said in a statement.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2015, with the new school slated to open in September of 2016, Blais said.

"Today is a great time of celebration for the school community of cole Champlain," saidStephanie Hopper, chair of the cole Champlain Parent School Support Committee.

"We are fervently looking forward to the beginning of the construction and the opening of the new school," she said.

Parents have been lobbying the provincial government to either find a new location for the school, or move the nearby businesses.

Earlier this year, the school was evacuated due to a strong smell of propane gas.

Building a new school will also ease pressure on the Francophone South SchoolDistrict, which includescole Le Mascaret and cole LOdysse, the education minister said.

The building will accommodateup to 780 students, from kindergarten through to Grade 8, with34 classrooms andfive kindergarten classes, said Blais.

It will also include a science lab, arts and music rooms, a technology room, two multipurpose rooms, an early childhood room, a library, a cafeteria, and two gymnasiums, she said.

cole Champlain was built about 40 years ago.