Rebecca Waffle was excited to bring her daughter to Roseland Public for her first day of kindergarten. “You’re gonna do so good and have so much fun. Look at all the kids,” said Rebecca while trying to encourage her daughter Hope. Thousands of kids went back to school across the region as parents soaked in the opportunity to drop their kids off. “Colton is in senior kindergarten today so he’s excited,” explained Danielle Martin. “Mommy is ready and he’s got his lunch packed up and he’s ready for school and we’re ready for the routine again.” When asked about his excitement level, grade 6 student Jaber Gumma offered this, “out of ten it’s like a 6.” Chad Cavanaugh dropped off his son Owen. “Great to see the kids back in the school environment and be with their friends. I’m excited to see my kids happy and be with their friends.” First day wasn’t just for the kids. For Dustin O’Neil, it was his first day as principal of Roseland Public School. “This is my first day of my 30th year working in education and I’m just as excited now as I was on my first day. It never gets old,” he told CTV News. “So far it’s been a great start.” The build up to the first day is real. “The first day of school the night before is always a little bit anxious about what could possibly happen,” said Vicki Houston, CEO of the Greater Essex County District School Board. Nothing prepared her for today’s surprise at Vincent Massey Secondary. A main water break forced the closing of the school. “Never want to do that on the first day of school let alone any day of school but due to the health and safety for everybody involved it’s a call that we needed to make,” Houston said. The water break occurred outside the school, forced the closure of the laneway between Glenwood and the school leaving the building with no running water. “The requirement is if you’re more than three hours with a facility of that size without running water or washroom facilities, obviously you can’t keep people in those buildings.” Houston was told the problem would be fixed by late afternoon Tuesday and students will enjoy their first full day of school Wednesday. The inconvenience left students scrambling to find a way home. In terms of enrollment, Houston says the Public Board anticipated a minor decline but have picked up a substantial number of registrations in the last few weeks so they’ll have a better idea of where they land later this month. As for the Catholic Board, they are up at both the high school and grade school levels by a total of 700 students. They have roughly 8,800 elementary students and about 15,200 in high school. “We’ve been able to diversify our offerings from international Baccalaureate to french immersion to the work we’ve been doing to enhance and grow skilled trades across the system,” said Director of Education John Ulicny. Both boards embarked on extensive renovations to schools in their system amounting to millions of dollars. “We could spend a lot more on renovations that we receive from the ministry,” Ulicny noted. “We do need to prioritize our renovations based on the funding we receive but these renovations go a long way in ensuring that the environments meet modern learning environments and they also address one of the areas of concern that is often raised around heating and cooling issues in our buildings.”
