Waterloo students to attend alternate schools for rest of 25/26 year

Students at Elizabeth Ziegler Public School in Waterloo won’t return to the building this school year or the next, with the board planning to send students to alternate schools for the 2025/26 school year.

A slab of concrete fell from the school’s façade at the end of February, prompting a shutdown of the school and a switch to at-home learning for its student population.

On April 1, students returned to in-person learning. French immersion students are being bussed to Sandowne Public School, congregated classes are attending schools to the south of Kitchener, and the rest of the students are learning in portable classrooms located on Elizabeth Ziegler grounds.

Next year, most students who attend Elizabeth Ziegler, including full-day Kindergarten students and Grades 1 to 6 regular track and French immersion students, will attend Sandowne Public School, a school near the intersection of Bridge Street and Lexington Road in Waterloo.

To help accommodate the Elizabeth Ziegler students, the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) will be adding 12 portable classrooms to the Sandowne school grounds, like what is installed at Elizabeth Ziegler now.

Sandowne’s current population is around 250 students. This move from the WRDSB could nearly triple the student population.

Families who wish to have their children attend a WRDSB school other than Sandowne can put in an out-of-boundary request, but there may be limitations keeping that request from being accepted, and transportation to those schools will not be provided.

Congregated classes and enrichment classes will attend JW Gerth Public School and Brigadoon Public School, both located south of Elizabeth Ziegler in Kitchener.

The full details of the engineering report, detailing the damages and shortcomings of the nearly-100-year-old school are still in the works, and the board doesn’t expect to receive a final report until up to six weeks from now.

According to the WRDSB, its decision-making has been guided by the goals of keeping the school community together, minimizing disruptions, ensuring safety, and providing clarity.