Surrey's school troubles continue as the district is seeking $5.7 billion from the B.C. government for new school builds.
At the May 14 regular school board public meeting, trustees approved the 2025-26 capital plan over the next five years for 76 large projects, including 27 new schools, 21 school expansions and two school replacements.
“We have 14 new schools or sites that we need along Fraser Highway to be built, and have to be built today,” trustee Laurie Larsen said, referring to the Surrey Langley SkyTrain expansion project.
“A lot of parents would look at a school a block away or across the street, they move in and go to register in September and find out the school they have to go to is three-and-a-half, four or five miles away.”
Dave Riley, the district's executive director of capital projects, presented the plan – which outlines a need for $670 million more than last year. Currently, the district has about 84,000 students, with 79,000 in K to 12.
“This year, we are expecting another increase, and we do expect that increase to continue year over year out for the foreseeable future," Riley said.
Clayton Heights, Fleetwood Park, Kwantlen Park, Grandview Heights, Guildford Park and Tamanawis secondary schools are all on track to receiving additions, but overcrowding may still be a factor even then.
Surrey Schools' capital plan asks the Ministry of Education for a new high school in each of those areas and up to five elementary schools in most areas of the district.
“We are proposing a switch from the standard elementary school on seven acres of land to something more in line with an urban format, where that school might occupy a much smaller footprint of one or two acres and may even be integrated into a mixed-use multi residential development in some format,” Riley said.
“This is driven almost exclusively by the lack of available land in these high-density areas, and the need to support the students that will be living in these high-density formats going into the future.”
Receiving ministry support for the new school projects is often slow, the board shared, with trustee Bob Holmes adding that of the 32 site acquisition requests, 20 of them have been on the list since 2013.
“This is a problem that is continuing to grow, and we cannot continue like this," Holmes said.
