Since the take over of the council in 2007 by the Scottish National Party, East Ayrshire Council has invested heavily in the modernisation programmes of schools throughout East Ayrshire as part of the "Scotland's Schools for the Future" programme. The first school in East Ayrshire to benefit as part of this programme was most notably Grange Academy which, in 2008, was re-housed in a new state of the art school which was constructed adjacent to the existing school building which was constructed in the 1960s. This programme of extensive modernisation paved the way for the advancement in plans to modernise nearby St Joseph's Academy in Kilmarnock, which, like Grange Academy, was constructed during the 1960s and in need of restoration repairs. When opened, St. Joseph's Academy also included St. Andrew's Primary School on the same campus, similar in style to the way in which both Grange Academy and Annanhill Primary School share a building within the same campus.