October 30th, 2013

The WRDSB is currently anticipating a budget shortfall of $4.7 million for the next academic school year.  As a result, the board is looking at a variety of ways to find efficiencies within the system with the goal of limiting the impact to school programs and resources.  One area in which the board is investigating savings is to look at the transportation costs by adjusting the start times at schools.  By adjusting the bell times, the board could realize a savings of up to $1 million.

The WRDSB has recently provided all schools with their proposed bell times for the next academic school year, 2014-2015.   Principals have been asked to consult with their school council and parent community on the proposed change and provide feedback by November 14, 2013.  As this is a tight turn around, our school will not have the opportunity to address this at our next council meeting which is scheduled for October 20, 2013.

The WRDSB website has a newly posted survey regarding the proposal at:  http://www.wrdsb.ca/bell-times-consultation/

The survey will include the applicable proposed changes to our school’s bell times. If the change goes through, we will be starting school 10 minutes later from this year’s bell time.

Our proposed bell time for 2014-2015 is 9:10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Parents have until November 14, 2013 to complete the survey.   Survey data will be provided to Trustees at a Board meeting in November to assist with their decision making process.

Any additional comments or questions can be sent to belltimes@wrdsb.on.ca