October 29th, 2013
The Waterloo Region District School Board is undertaking a system fiscal review to identify opportunities to reduce costs, implement operational efficiencies and optimize the allocation of resources to address the board’s budget pressures and support the Board’s long-term strategic plan.
In order to avoid a budget deficit in 2014-2015 and return the board to a sustainable fiscal position, the board must identify a minimum of $4.6M in operational savings. A thorough review of all areas is being undertaken and in order to preserve direct classroom programs and services which support student achievement, a number of non-classroom expense areas have been identified for review.
One potential cost saving measure is to increase the use of existing buses – using the same bus 2 or 3 times to pick students up in the morning and afternoon reduces overall costs. In order to do this, school bell times, or start and finish times, need to be staggered across the system.
The proposed changes for Empire Public School for 2014 – 2015 involve a change of 10 minutes at the beginning and end of each day. The Empire school day would start 10 minutes later at 9:20 am and end 10 minutes later at 3:40 pm. School Council meets on Wednesday November 13th and this will be one of the agenda items for that meeting. Parents are invited to give their individual feedback through an online survey that will be open until November 14th. You can access the survey via www.wrdsb.ca or by clicking on the following link. http://www.wrdsb.ca/bell-times-consultation/
If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact the school.
Sincerely,
Kelly Wilkinson
Principal