Elizabeth Ziegler Public School in Waterloo to remain closed for next school year, WRDSB says

Elizabeth Ziegler Public School in Waterloo will be closed for the 2025-26 school year over safety concerns with the building.

The school was closed to staff and students on March 4 when a large piece of concrete fell from the facade of the nearly 100-year-old school.

The Waterloo Region District School Board then extended the closure to two weeks, then until the end of June.

On Tuesday morning, as students were preparing to return to in-person learning in portables on the school grounds, director of education Scott Miller told CBC K-W's The Morning Edition the school would not open this fall, either. He said that comes after receiving an engineering assessment of the school.

"We did receive an interim report which, as we shared at the community meeting, was we were no longer going to have occupancy of the school," he said.

"In addition, and we've also shared with the community, that we won't have occupancy for next year either. We are looking and finalizing plans for next year and hoping to communicate that in the near future."

Portables and moving students

During a community meeting last month, Miller and other senior officials with the school board said both annual and monthly health and safety inspections are carried out at every school, but these are primarily visual inspections that would not have caught a structural issue like the one that closed Elizabeth Ziegler Public School.

In the meantime, some students and staff have returned to the school grounds, but learning will take place in portables. English stream students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 are in the portables. Washrooms and offices are also in portables on site.

For students not returning to the school:

• French immersion students have been moved to Sandowne Public School.
• Congregated Alternative Continuum of Education (or ACE) Program students have been moved to JW Gerth Public School.
• Students who are part of the enrichment program moved to Brigadoon Public School.

"We've really been trying to listen to staff and certainly our parents and families and their feedback was whatever we could do under these unfortunate circumstances was to keep the students together," he said.

"That's really what we've been striving to do. And it's not ideal, but certainly being able to have a good half of the school here attending at Elizabeth Ziegler and the other half at Sandowne, we've been trying to do our best to do that."

Next steps

Miller said as for the future of the school building itself, it's unclear what needs to happen next and they're still waiting for answers. The board has hired an architect and an additional engineer to look at the heritage building. As they do that work, he says it will be another four to six weeks before they have answers on how to move forward.

"We're looking at all options right now  and bringing in some other people to help consult and look at those things will help give us a better picture of, of what the next steps will be," Miller said.

"Now we're going to look at some other options for next year," he added, noting the portable situation works for three months, but it's not ideal.

"We're just grateful the way that staff has engaged in and supported this work. Also, certainly for our students and our families, this is something that we feel we can manage for a short period of time, but it's not a long term solution," he said.

"We will be looking at at further ways to accommodate next year and, again, with those same priorities, trying to keep the school community together and ensuring that we do everything possible to listen to community feedback to be able to do that."