School report · Lexington Public School, Waterloo
Lexington Public School has more than three times as many students as it has permanent places, the highest rate in the Waterloo Region District School Board. The board approved a 13-classroom addition in 2010. It was never funded. Here are the numbers, the history and the sources.
The numbers
Capacity here means permanent space. The official count, called on-the-ground capacity, “does not include portables or portapaks.”[2] Enrolment is the Ministry of Education’s October 31 headcount.
From the board’s 2020-2030 accommodation plan. No newer figure has been published.[2]
355 ÷ 113. The next-highest school in the board is at 150%.
Of 4,790 schools, in the latest province-wide data. A calculated rank, not a Ministry list.[3]
What this does and does not mean. Students at Lexington are not going without a classroom. The board’s plan says: “Temporary accommodation is provided at Lexington PS using a 12-room portapak. The gymnasium structure is not permanent.”[2] Published class sizes averaged 23.6 students in 2024-25.[7]
The problem is not packed rooms. It is that most of the school’s students depend on space that was never meant to be permanent.
How it compares
Of the 120 schools in our public board with a published capacity, no other is above 151%. On the most recent province-wide data, seven schools in Ontario ranked higher.
Students as a share of permanent capacity. Top ten of 120 schools.[1][2]
Students as a share of permanent capacity. Top ten of 4,790 schools.[3]
2020-21 is the last year in the province-wide file, which Western University published from the Ministry’s School Facility Inventory System. The rank divides average daily enrolment by permanent capacity and covers elementary and secondary schools together. The seven schools above Lexington have between 46 and 96 permanent places each. In the same data, Lexington was the highest of 170 schools across both Waterloo Region boards, public and Catholic.
Who decides
The board can plan an addition. Only Queen’s Park can fund it.
School boards in Ontario do not pay for new schools or major additions out of their own budgets. They apply to the Ministry of Education’s Capital Priorities Program. The province sets the requirements, judges the business cases and decides which projects get money.
That leaves the board with a narrower job that still matters: choose which projects to put forward, make the strongest case for them, and tell families plainly what happened.
For Lexington, the board asked in 2012 and the province did not fund it. In the four funding rounds from 2021-22 to 2024-25, the project was not put forward at all.
The history
Every entry below comes from a board report, a board letter or provincial data. A child who started junior kindergarten in September 2012, when the addition was meant to open, finished Grade 12 this past June.
Enrolment fell in 2012-13, the year boundary changes approved in the 2010 review took effect.[4] Permanent capacity rose from 58 to 113 places by 2014-15, after three kindergarten rooms were built. It has not changed since, while enrolment has grown by about half, from 232 to 355. In 2011-12 the provincial file counted the portapak as capacity, so that year has no permanent-places figure.[1][3]
| School year | Students | Permanent places | Share of capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | 368 | Not comparable | — |
| 2012-13 | 244 | 58 | 421% |
| 2013-14 | 246 | 95 | 259% |
| 2014-15 | 232 | 113 | 205% |
| 2015-16 | 250 | 113 | 221% |
| 2016-17 | 272 | 113 | 241% |
| 2017-18 | 312 | 113 | 276% |
| 2018-19 | 345 | 113 | 305% |
| 2019-20 | 350 | 113 | 310% |
| 2020-21 | 350 | 113 | 310% |
| 2021-22 | 350 | 113 | 310% |
| 2022-23 | 355 | 113 | 314% |
| 2023-24 | 350 | 113 | 310% |
| 2024-25 | 355 | 113 | 314% |
1955to 1984
Lexington opened in 1955. The board closed it on June 30, 1984, moved its students to Bridgeport Public School and mothballed the building “in case the site was needed in the future.”[4]
1993
The school reopened with “two 6 classroom porta-pack wings and a demountable gymnasium structure” added to the original building. A later staff report says: “When the school re-opened, it was projected to be viable for 10 to 15 years.”[4]
2009
The board started an accommodation review of east Kitchener-Waterloo schools, partly because of “the need to address the temporary nature of Lexington P.S.” An engineering assessment that April found the school “appears to be in reasonably good condition” and would stay that way for another five years with proper maintenance.[4]
2010June 21
The board approved in principle “a thirteen classroom addition and renovations at Lexington Public School at an estimated amount of $4.2M, to tentatively be completed for September 2012.” The plan included a permanent classroom wing and improvements to the gym. The approval was “subject to and contingent on obtaining Ministry of Education funding.”[4][5]
2012May
At the Ministry’s request, board staff submitted an updated list of priority capital projects. Lexington’s addition was on it.[5]
2013January 24
The board told families in a letter: “Unfortunately, the Lexington P.S. addition and 410 Falconridge Drive school projects did not receive funding.” It added that the projects “remain as top priorities for the Board overall, and will be submitted again.”[5]
This is the only provincial decision about Lexington in the board records I could find. It was made under a previous provincial government.
2013September
A separate three-classroom addition for full-day kindergarten went ahead. The board said it was “strategically located so that replacement of the porta-pack classroom wing and other renovations may still occur once funding is allocated.”[5]
2018January
The board’s draft 2017-2027 accommodation plan records that the 13-classroom business case “was never approved by the Ministry and is no longer within the priority list.”[6]
2021June 21
Trustees adopted the 2020-2030 plan. Its short-term recommendation: “Consider temporary accommodation renewal, facility expansion or facility rebuild at Lexington PS.” In the plan’s chart of building condition against how full each school is, Lexington appears only in a footnote: “Lexington PS excluded from chart.”[2]
2021to 2024
In each of four provincial funding rounds, board staff listed a Lexington rebuild among the projects not sent to the province: “Does not meet criteria; ineligible project.” The rows are reproduced below.[9][10][11][12]
2025September 15
A board report still lists the “Proposed Lexington Public School facility rebuild” under short-term actions for 2020 to 2025. The same report says details of the next provincial funding round “have not yet been released.”[8]
The screening lists
Before each funding round, board staff list the projects they considered and did not send to the province. These are board staff’s words, not a provincial decision. This is Lexington’s row each time.
Committee of the Whole, May 10, 2021
E25Facility rebuild at Lexington PSDoes not meet criteria; ineligible project for 2021/22
The row as printed in Appendix B of the staff report.
Board meeting, February 28, 2022
E25Facility rebuild at Lexington PSDoes not meet criteria; ineligible project for 2022-23
The row as printed in Appendix B of the staff report.
Committee of the Whole, October 16, 2023
E25Facility rebuild at Lexington PSDoes not meet criteria; ineligible project for 2023-24
The row as printed in Appendix B of the staff report.
Committee of the Whole, September 16, 2024
E25Facility rebuild at Lexington PSDoes not meet criteria; ineligible project for 2024-25
The row as printed in Appendix B of the staff report.
On the same lists, staff explain why other projects were held back:
Lexington’s row never names the requirement it failed. The same unexplained line appears beside rebuilds or additions at Clemens Mill PS, Sunnyside PS and Waterloo Collegiate Institute.[12]
The provincial rules
Projects that relieve accommodation pressure, replace schools in poor condition, support past school consolidations, serve French-language rights holders, or add child care to a larger project. They are expected to be shovel-ready.
The board’s reports list exclusions that include “projects addressing the renewal needs of a facility,” land-only requests, child-care-only requests and pressure caused by specialized programs such as French Immersion.
Priority goes “to projects with utilization equal to or greater than 100% (including capacity available in nearby schools) in the 5th year after opening.”
The board chooses its projects and submits a business case for each. The Ministry of Education judges them against its criteria and decides what is funded.
The province’s test counts space in nearby schools, and Lexington’s neighbours have room. The board’s 2020-2030 plan recommended that staff consider a boundary study for the area “to balance enrolment and facility utilization.”[2]
Is that why the rebuild is screened out? Is it the rule against renewal projects? Something else? The screening list does not say, and families should not have to guess. That is why I would ask for a public report on what Lexington needs to qualify.
| School | Students | Permanent places | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lexington PS | 355 | 113 | 314% |
| Lester B. Pearson PS | 595 | 654 | 91% |
| Bridgeport PS | 310 | 507 | 61% |
| Millen Woods PS | 275 | 496 | 55% |
| Sandowne PS | 245 | 458 | 53% |
What I would do as trustee
I’m Brian Best, and I’m running for public school trustee in Waterloo and Wilmot. This school needs permanent classrooms, not another decade of paperwork.
I would move that trustees decide, in public, whether to submit Lexington in the next funding round, with a staff report explaining what the project needs to qualify.
I would move to publish every capital request, every screening reason and every vote. Parents deserve to see what we are asking for and what is stopping it.
Make no mistake: Queen’s Park needs to step up here. When the board asks and the province says no, families should hear that plainly, from the board, with the reason attached.
A trustee cannot fund a school or promise how a vote will go. A trustee can move the motion, ask for the report and make the answer public.
School facts
Sources and method
Ontario Ministry of Education, enrolment by school, 2024-25
October 31 headcount, rounded to the nearest five. Lexington PS is school number 588326.
WRDSB 2020-2030 Long-Term Accommodation Plan
Review Area E25 on PDF page 100: capacity, portapak, recommendations and forecast. Figure 13 footnote on page 31. Definition of on-the-ground capacity on page 106. Adopted June 21, 2021.
School Utilization in Ontario, Western University
Ministry School Facility Inventory System records, 2010-11 to 2020-21. Source of the provincial rank and of capacity by year.
Staff report on the East Kitchener-Waterloo accommodation review, June 21, 2010
School history, the 2009 condition assessment and the recommendation for a 13-classroom addition.
WRDSB letter to the Lexington community, April 30, 2013
Confirms the 2010 approval in principle, the May 2012 submission, the January 24, 2013 funding announcement and the kindergarten addition.
Draft 2017-2027 Long-Term Accommodation Plan, Committee of the Whole, January 22, 2018
Review Area E25 history: the business case “was never approved by the Ministry and is no longer within the priority list.”
Ontario Ministry of Education, class size data by school
Lexington Public School, 2024-25.
Community Planning and Facility Partnership Opportunities report, September 15, 2025
Lists the “Proposed Lexington Public School facility rebuild” under 2020-2025 short-term actions (PDF page 9) and reports the outcome of the 2024 submissions (page 8).
2021 Capital Priorities Program Submission, May 10, 2021
Screening list in Appendix B, PDF page 31. Eligibility rules in the body of the report.
2022-23 Capital Priorities Program Submission, February 28, 2022
Screening list in Appendix B, PDF page 21. Outcome reported to Committee of the Whole on October 17, 2022.
2023-24 Capital Priorities Grant Program Submission, October 16, 2023
Screening list in Appendix B, PDF page 18.
2024-25 Capital Priorities Grant Program Submission, September 16, 2024
Screening list in Appendix B, PDF page 52.
The province announces $31.3 million for the new Rosenberg II elementary school in Kitchener. The release does not say which funding round it came from.
If something here is wrong or out of date, email brian@best4schoolboard.com and I will correct it.
Last updated October 10, 2026
More school reports are coming