West Niagara High School welcomes students for the first time

Today was the first day of school for some school districts in the area, and for a handful of students in the Niagara Region, it was their first day inside a brand new high school.

After years of waiting, West Niagara Secondary School opened its doors Tuesday to nearly 1,500 students.

But, some students weren’t impressed with the new building as temperatures soared, not only outside, but inside.

With the school’s opening, Grimsby Secondary School, Beamsville Secondary School and South Lincoln Secondary School are all closed, even though construction in the new building is still ongoing.

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One student said the auditorium is not done yet, and they will likely have to attend their drama class in a normal classroom.

The school was supposed to open for the first time last year but that didn’t happen.

“There were some delays in the opening of the school given some soil remediation that was needed for this area, so there were some associated costs with that, that the school board was able to cover,” M.P.P. for Niagara West, Sam Oosterhoff said.

Students say they’re excited to finally get in the new school, but there are a few issues that are coming with it. One being the heat inside the school, the other being the traffic during drop-off this morning.

Students say there was a long line of cars on the road this morning, making for a dis-organized start to the day.

“I was honestly walking faster than the cars on the street… I think it’s pretty dangerous as well, not a lot of crosswalks or anything like that,” a student said.

Oosterhoff said he hasn’t received any complaints about these issues, but says he is confident the school board will address them.

“I’m sure that those are going to be the kinks that get worked out when there’s an opening of a new building and traffic patterns around that… I’m sure the school board will be working closely with the region to make sure that those are ironed out as well,” Oosterhoff said.