Waterloo Region District School Board is the public school board for the Region of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It operates 105 elementary schools, 16 secondary schools, and other facilities, serving more than 64,000 students in the Region of Waterloo. It has approximately 6,800 staff and a budget of $675 million. It is the largest public sector employer in the Region and the second largest employer overall. In early 2018, the director of education is John Bryant. The board serves Waterloo Region, which consists of the cities of Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo, and the townships of Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot, and North Dumfries. Within the townships, WRDSB operates schools in the communities of Ayr, Baden, Breslau, Conestogo, Elmira, Floradale, Linwood, New Dundee, New Hamburg, St. Jacobs, and Wellesley. Trustees are elected every four years by the public school ratepayers in their area. Four trustees are elected in Kitchener, three trustees are elected in each of Waterloo/Wilmot and Cambridge/North Dumfries and one trustee represents Elmira/Woolwich. Although trustees are elected in specific areas, once they are elected they must represent the entire region. Annually, two students are elected by their peers to represent the student voice on the school board. They have a voice at the table but no binding vote. Every year in December, the trustees elect a Chair and Vice Chair for the coming year. Board policy dictates that no one may serve in either role for more than two consecutive years. In 2016, the trustees published a new Strategic Planconsisting of three priorities to provide "first class public education to Waterloo Region". In January 2018, the Board announced that it was considering the building of up to 12 new schools and the expansion of 11 existing facilities over the subsequent years, due to an increasing population. An additional 7,100 new students were expected by 2027. At the same time, the Board was considering a study of the feasibility and benefits that might be provided by year-round schooling, but did not agree to proceed with a pilot programme. The Waterloo Catholic District School Board operates the Catholic schools which educate approximately one of every three students in the Region.
Safe and secure schools policy
The School Board was criticized for its role in maintaining, but keeping secret, a file on Ronald Wayne Archer, a teacher convicted in 2000 of four charges relating to ongoing sexual abuse of a student. Members of the public believed that if the file had been disclosed to principals, the abuse could have been prevented. In 2001, the Board created new policies to prevent this kind of abuse in future. A Safe and Secure Schools policy was developed including a Code of Conduct that outlines expected behaviour standards of all members of the school community: students, parents, guardians, volunteers, staff and visitors. In 2017 It's OK to be white posters were taped to the doors of two collegiate institutes. A spokesman for the school board said "Our schools are safe spaces. We want to see them be safe for all of our children, so to see this kind of thing emerge is a worry."
