After more than two decades of frustration, Stittsville parents can finally celebrate the announcement of a new public high school today.

On Friday, Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli announced a $37.4 million commitment to build a new public school in Stittsville for children grades 7 to 12.

"It's called the village of Stittsville but 30,000 is a small city," Minister Chiarelli said. "They've been very, very strong in their advocacy for this school and this year they were successful."

Stittsville is one of the fastest growing communities in Ottawa and is currently served by just two Catholic high schools and three public elementary schools. 

Some families now have no choice but to bus students to about 20 kilometers away to South Carleton High School in Richmond. 

10-year-old Callum Edwards said he hopes the school is open by the time he enters high school.

"It would be pretty good because then I could still walk instead of going on a bus with a ton of different people," he said. 

Edwards' mom agrees.

"Our first has gone to the Catholic School because it's walking distance and our closest public high school is too far," said Donna Edwards. "Having something local is number one and that's amazing."

The Ottawa Carleton District School Board has final say on where the school goes, but board's Director of Education Jennifer Adams said they are looking as securing a property in the Fernbank area. 

"We are thrilled with the announcement," she said. "We think it is great for the community. We have a number of feeder schools that will feed into this and we are building a community school of over 1,300 students." 

But with an election looming, Chiarelli said a funding delay is possible if a new government comes in.

"In a normal course it would proceed, but it is not unusual for new governments to come in and decide they want to take a fresh look and some projects get put on hold until they can do that analysis and create the first budget," he said. 

Parents and students will have a chance to voice their opinion on the new school later in the planning process. 

"The fun really begins now and the first thing is to determine the site, we have a site on Fernbank and we will be looking forward to securing that," Adams said.

The OCDSB is hoping to open the school in September 2021.