A new private school will open in Summerland next fall, at the location of the former Glenfir School on Pierre Drive.
Unisus International School will follow the International Baccalaureate program when it opens in September.
Cindy Leung, operations director with the school, hopes to bring in students from around the world when the school opens.
At present, she is in contact with interested families in the Okanagan Valley as well as families in more than 30 countries.
Related: Thriving international education sector in B.C. boosts provincial economy
“I need to get the right mix of students,” she said. “We want to come out as a forward-thinking school.”
In order to accommodate the international students, the school will build a dormitory on the seven-hectare property.
The dormitory building will be able to accommodate up to 100 students, but to start, Leung hopes to bring in 40 international students.
She expects to have the dormitory completed by the end of July.
If the dormitory is completed before that date, the school may offer summer camps or day camps this year.
Related: Medical school sought Glenfir property
Leung is also working to hire an inaugural head of school and is now in the process of short-listing the candidates for this role.
When the school opens its doors next fall, it will accommodate students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 9. Higher grades will be added each year and the Leung expects the school will have its first students graduating in the spring of 2022.
She said she expects the school to have benefits for the community once it is in operation.
“This school will put Summerland on the map,” she said.
There are 4,655 schools worldwide offering the International Baccalaureate program, including six in British Columbia. None of the B.C. schools offers boarding.
In all of North America, only three schools with the program include boarding, only one of these in Canada.
“Having the right program to start in this property will attract many families into Summerland and also the surrounding Okanagan region,” Leung said in a letter to municipal council earlier this year. “I truly believe that this property is ideal for attracting international and local students and having the school as an IB Continuum school will drive the demand from parents wanting to enrol their children.”
She added that it will provide parents with educational choices for their children.
“It’s really a choice for the family,” she said. “My children got so much benefit from private schools.”
The Glenfir School building was constructed in 1996 and expanded in 2006. The building has an area of 3,700 square metres and can accommodate 275 to 300 students. The school closed its doors in the spring of 2011 and has been closed since that time.