Wednesday February 25th, 2015 – 10am
Posted Feb 25, 2015 11:28:25 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
10:00 – School Board reconsiders
Lila Read, Superintendent of Education, Waterloo Region District School Board
The Waterloo Region District School Board is reconsidering their policy of closing schools when the temperature, with the wind-chill, reaches -35. Many parents were caught off guard when schools were shut down last Friday. While officials say there was support at the board table for the decision that was made, the policy will be looked at for review – as they’ve heard from the community and will consider their feedback. There is no set date when the policy will be brought back to trustees. On Monday, we spoke with Kitchener Conestoga MPP Michael Harris – who criticized the decision to close and told 570 News he would be writing a letter to the board. Board Chair, Kathleen Woodcock expressed surprise at that, saying education is the responsibility of the school board.
Meantime, a grade 11 Guelph student has started an online petition – it has over 1-thousand signatures so far – that calls for more ‘reasonable and considerate’ decisions in frigid weather. Alexander Toth says students were outraged that they did not get a day off on Friday nor on Monday, when it reached -35 degrees in North Wellington, Centre Wellington and Dufferin County, but not Guelph.
10:30 – LRT: planning overview
Darshpreet Bhatti, Director, Rapid Transit, Region of Waterloo
You might want to start finding an alternate route if King St from Victoria to Union is part of your daily commute. ION construction is set to start in early March. You can expect delays and inconveniences – regional officials say ‘it’s short term pain for long term gain’ – and that they’re doing their best to try and lessen the impact and inconveniences to businesses, residents and drivers. The intersection of King/Victoria could be closed for up to 18 months. Even when lanes are opened again – there will still be ongoing construction into 2017. Emergency crews and local traffic will have access through King St at all times. A week ago today we learned that local events like the Oktoberfest and Santa Claus Parade would be affected, as well as the Buskers Festival.
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