Hundreds of dislaced students from Waterloo's Elizabeth Ziegler Public School (EZPS) are set to attend nieghbouring Sandowne Public School, causing the student body to more than double in size.
The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) confirmed late in the summer that Elizabeth Ziegler will remain closed for two full school years. This comes as a result of extensive repairs and renovations listed in an engineering report commissioned after pieces of the building's facade fell from the school back in March, forcing the building to close for the remainder of last school year -- a closure that has been extended to September 2027.
Despite this, WRDSB's director of education, Scott Miller, says he's remaining positive.
"It's an exciting time of year," he told CBC News.
"We've worked hard to ensure that Sandowne is set up to welcome the Elizabeth Ziegler students. That school community has grown drastically as a result of the decisions we've had to make," Miller said.
Sandowne's enrolment in the 2023-2024 school year was about 240 students. This year's arrival of EZPS students will bring the student population up into the high 600s, according to the WRDSB.
To handle the influx, Miller said the board has added 12 portables to the site, expanded the parking lot, and launched a reforestation project to replace trees that were removed to make room for the extra classrooms.
But Waterloo's Dave Earle, who has two children from EZPS now attending Sandowne, is concerned the drastic increase in student population might mean less time for the things he believes are important.
"Last year when we finished the school just in portables, they had no library time, they had no assemblies," he said, "It was just whatever they could do outdoors."
In response, Miller said families can expect that students will still have access to gym classes, libraries, and extracurricular programming despite a heavy reliance on portables.
"As far as programming, often when you have a larger enrolment, it does allow even for more extracurriculars or larger and more robust programs that sometimes just aren't available when you have a smaller population," he said.
Miller said the board is also looking to add an "outdoor classroom." He said they'll be looking at community feedback to determine what that should look like in the coming school year.
But for Earle, the extended closure and the transition have also been frustrating.
"One year of putting things on hold or whatever is fine," he said. "But two years feels overwhelming."
"We're going to have to deal with two big moves, one to Sandowne and then, if they're there for two years, they'll have made friends and they'll have to break all those [friendships] to come back," he said.
While the board expects that the repairs will allow Elizabeth Ziegler to reopen in September 2027, Earle worries that shifting timelines could mean even longer delays.
"If they can quickly switch it from one whole year to two whole years, it just makes me nervous that it's going to be three -- or my kids won't go back to Elizabeth Ziegler."
Miller, who has been with the WRDSB for 30 years but is preparing for his first full year as director of education, said the board is committed to supporting families during the transition.
"We really appreciate the way that the community is welcoming the Elizabeth Ziegler students and families," he said.
Adding that he wants to "continue to build on that really positive community feel that already has been established."