It’s Back to School Week for thousands of students in the London area

After two months of vacation, children and teenagers will today take out their pens, lunch boxes and backpacks to return to school at public and Catholic schools in the region.

Children returning to Eagle Heights Public School on Oxford Street West will return to a building with a $9.2 million expansion that will accommodate 300 more students and enlarge the school’s library and administration area. There’s also a new bus lane that will help alleviate bottlenecks that have been a source of frustration for parents in the past.

Before the extension, the school had 18 classrooms for the 1,000+ pupils that attend the school. The school serves a large part of the rapidly growing West London area.

Eagle Heights is one of eight construction projects currently underway by the public school board, valued at more than $200 million.

The Thames Valley District School Board is grappling with a $7.6 million budget deficit and the fallout from a retreat of 18 senior staff members to a downtown Toronto hotel earlier this summer.

Meanwhile, the London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB) is the fastest growing Catholic board in the province, with a 30 percent increase in students over the past five years. The record growth is fueling a huge recruitment drive and new building projects.

“LDCSB has gained more than 1,500 students this year and has added almost 6,400 students since 2020, which is equivalent to about 20 primary schools,” the school board said in a statement.

To accommodate the growth, the board has hired 450 new employees since the beginning of 2024, including more than 100 new teachers.

“Every year we break the previous year’s enrollment and employee numbers,” said Vince Romeo, the board’s director of education. “We continue to hire teachers and staff in almost every sector, and we build new schools and add portable spaces.”

With all those kids back on school buses and parents on the road, drivers will have to be more patient, police warn. School bus companies are urging parents to check their emails for daily cancellations amid a provincewide driver shortage.

“Always use a zebra crossing and obey traffic lights,” said Sgt. Ozzie Nethersole of the London Police Service’s traffic management unit. “If you cycle to school, always wear a helmet.”

He added that drivers should always stop for school buses and be alert for children crossing the road.

“Safety is a shared responsibility,” Nethersole said.

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