Surrey city council has declared the school infrastructure shortage in the district a “crisis” and is planning to hold a meeting with the province and the school district to address over-crowding in schools, an issue that has persisted for decades.
Coun. Harry Bains’ notice of motion issued Monday, May 15 – seconded by Mike Bose and carried — called for the city of Surrey to meet with the school district and representatives from B.C.’s education and housing ministries to discuss solutions and “remediate this crisis situation immediately.”
READ MORE: Surrey council adds support to ‘crisis situation’ at city’s schools
“The state of school infrastructure in Surrey has reached a crisis level,” said Brenda Locke, mayor of Surrey.
“The pressure to create more housing cannot be done in isolation. Core infrastructure such as schools must be built in lock-step with new housing. It’s shocking to hear that by September 2024, we may have nearly 400 portables across our city.”
School trustees from district No. 36 have been sounding the alarm about under-funding in the building of new schools since last month, urging the Ministry of Education to increase their capital budget and move students out of portables and into school buildings.
READ MORE: Government ‘can’t continue to ignore the needs of the Surrey school district’, says school board
“We need to be working much closer with the province and school district to make sure that we can get our students out of portables once and for all,” Coun. Linda Annis said.
Fallon Vickers, a parent of two children at Edgewood Elementary in South Surrey, is just one of many who have grown frustrated with the handling of over-crowded schools throughout the district.
“They’re building these schools for current need not future need, which is a little bit backwards in my opinion,” Vickers told Peace Arch News last week.
“Our schools are being under-funded, essentially, from the ground up.”
Throughout the school district, there are 360 portables, with 300 currently in use as classrooms, and the district is in the process of purchasing about 30 more for September. Edgewood currently has seven portables, but will have a total of 15 next school year.
A new South Surrey elementary school (Ta’talu) is under construction, but Vickers questions whether that will be enough to handle the growing population.
Fleetwood is another area of the city that has seen increasing development, largely of multiple-family housing units in towers near the new SkyTrain line to Langley.
Ashley Mackenzie, a French teacher at North Surrey Secondary says the new “huge” apartment complex under construction on Fraser Highway (Fleetwood Village) is a concern, given that her school and others in the area are already over-capacity.
“I don’t know whether it’s the catchment for my school or the catchment for Fleetwood Park (Secondary) but I know that we’re both currently over-crowded and there’s going to be hundreds more students coming, so I don’t know where they’re going to go,” Mackenzie said.
This is the teacher’s fourth year at the high school, the first three of which were spent teaching in a portable.
“The isolation out in the portable is quite extensive” for Mackenzie and her students, she told PAN.
The same learning resources are available to students in portables, but the barriers to actually accessing them sometimes makes it not worth it, Mackenzie said of her experience.
“Schools no longer have computer labs that are bookable. They’re so crowded that classes are taught in the computer labs every block, so what is currently available are laptop carts,” which can’t be rolled out to the portables, she said. When they’re needed, students have to go inside the building and carry them out in their arms. But during rain or snow, that is not feasible.
Extreme weather hits portable classrooms especially hard, she adds.
“I’ve had to contact parents when their children were suffering from heat in my room… They struggle and they definitely don’t do their best,” Mackenzie said, adding that during summer months, temperatures inside the portable would get to 34 C. A lack of air conditioning and fans, which have not been allowed since the pandemic started, make a portable “a tin can,” she said.
Doors to the portables cannot be left open, she explained, because many times, individuals in the area will walk into the structure, creating a safety concern.
When schools have lock-outs — a response to a threat outside the school — everyone is to remain in their classroom and washroom access is monitored by staff. But students in the portables don’t have a washroom to use, if needed.
“Sometimes, those can go on for hours,” the teacher added.
The budget the school district receives is being stretched, trustees have said repeatedly. At the recent May 10 board meeting, the board approved its budget for next school year at $1 billion — the highest ever for the district.
Funding for school programs, staff salaries, school supplies and more, including the purchasing of portables comes out of the district’s operating budget. With more portable purchases coming, less money is available to fund other resources.
Accessibility of portables is another issue. Most do not have ramps up to the door, which creates a barrier for people who use wheelchairs, but Mackenzie adds that most of the ones with ramps are not completely accessible and it is typically a two-person job to get the person inside the structure.
“There are some courses that are only taught once a year and if they’re being taught in those portables, then students (who use wheelchairs) won’t have the opportunity to take them,” she said.
Mackenzie said that although there are some benefits to teaching in portables, she wishes conditions inside them would be improved, to include running water, washrooms and a photocopier among other things, but she knows doing so might come at the cost of other important resources.
“I don’t know that I want a water cooler in my room at the expense of an after-school art program.”
Every area of Surrey has been noted by the school board as needing more and bigger schools.
In the district’s 2024-25 five-year capital plan, they are seeking $3.17 billion from the ministry, which would allow for the construction of 22 new schools, expansion of 10 existing ones, replacement of three schools and an additional 14 site acquisitions.
Among the recent additions is Grandview Heights Secondary, which opened in September 2021. A second high school in the area is also needed, according to the district, with existing high schools in the area operating at 37 per cent over-capacity.
Trustee Terry Allen presented a motion — passed unanimously — to conduct a study on the feasibility of stacking portables, including the cost, with the findings to be presented at the September meeting.
“This need for capital here is pressing to the point where we’re forced to look at this — to be honest — ludicrous possible solution, which I can’t see saving money in the building itself but it could save land and right now we need land,” said Trustee Bob Holmes. “As crazy as it sounds, we have to look at everything.”
- with files from Tom Zytaruk
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