Students at Waterloo‑Oxford District Secondary School, located in Baden and serving New Hamburg, Ontario, are facing a new timeline for their final tests after a winter storm on January 26, 2026. Because all school buses were cancelled and schools were closed that day, the school has moved all remaining exams forward to ensure students who cannot travel because of the weather are not disadvantaged.
Under the Waterloo Region District School Board’s inclement weather procedure, when an exam or evaluation day is cancelled those assessments are written on the next school day and all subsequent exams are pushed forward one school day. That means exams originally scheduled for Monday will be written on Tuesday, January 27; Tuesday’s exams will move to Wednesday, January 28. A professional development (PD) day scheduled for Thursday, January 29, remains unchanged, so the set of exams originally planned for Wednesday will now be written on Friday, January 30.
The change affects roughly 1,200 students at Waterloo‑Oxford, many of whom live in rural areas and rely on Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region (STSWR) for travel to school. Final evaluations account for 30% of a student’s final grade in each course, and the board’s policy shifts the schedule to avoid penalizing students who are unable to get to school because buses and roads are unsafe.
Principal Carolyn Salonen and her administration are overseeing the logistical shift — ensuring exam materials remain secure and that supervised study spaces and classrooms are ready. Although schools were closed on January 26, WRDSB guidance encourages students who remain at home to use their virtual classrooms and asynchronous learning resources to continue studying. More information is available on the Waterloo‑Oxford school website and the CWOSSA school profile.
