Surrey council declares school infrastructure a “crisis”
City council and Surrey School Board point urgency to build more infrastructure instead of relying on short term solution of portables.
SURREY: The city of Surrey Council has voted to declare the state of school infrastructure a crisis due to population growth in Surrey outpacing the available spaces in school.
The city and the board also feel that Provincial government’s strategy to add portables to manage population growth in schools is not only temporary but expensive and adversely impacting other school activities.
During the Regular Council Meeting Monday, Council directed staff to organize a meeting between the City, Surrey School District, the Minister of Housing and Minister of Education and Child Care to “remediate this crisis situation immediately.”
“The state of school infrastructure in Surrey has reached a crisis level,” said Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke.
Surrey School District saw more than 2,200 new students enroll this past September, bringing the student population to over 78,0000. Based on population estimates, enrolment is projected to continue increasing at a rapid pace in almost every community. This is concerning as many of Surrey’s schools are already operating far over capacity as population growth continues to outpace available space, according to the City.
“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,” said Mayor Locke.
The city states that to manage growth, the district is utilizing portables however this temporary strategy comes with challenges, including finding outdoor space for the structures, as well as the significant budget pressure they present as the district must pay for the cost of purchasing and moving portables from its operating budget. The district is currently utilizing 361 portables (300 for enrolling classes) and will be moving over 56 this summer to accommodate growth in various areas throughout the city for a cost of over $7.2 million. The district will also be purchasing 30 additional portables for the next school year.
According to Mayor Locke, the money used for portables “could utilize in other ways that can help support the students in Surrey to thrive. Last summer, the district submitted its annual capital submission to the Ministry of Education and Child Care outlining additional projects that are a priority to address capacity needs.”
Surrey Board Of Education has also sent a letter on April 5 to BC’s education minister, pointing that the investments into capital projects for the Surrey School District have fallen significantly behind and how portables are impacting other activities in Surrey schools.
“However, this temporary strategy comes with its own set of challenges, including finding outdoor space for the structures, as well as the significant budget pressure they present as the district must pay for the cost of purchasing and moving portables from our operating budget.”
The letter stated that moving these portables is creating a further strain on our already stretched operating budget, with a cost of approximately $4.8 million dollars. “We’re finding ways to ensure our students continue to have safe and engaging learning environments, but the bottom line is that more and more students in our district will be learning in portables, and communal school spaces such as gyms and libraries will be shared by a greater number of students, affecting the time allotted to each class. And as more portables are added to already limited outdoor spaces, elementary play areas are being affected and our staff and secondary students are having to park on residential streets, which comes with its own challenges.”
This spring, the district received approval on two additions, creating 700 new seats but this is far less than what is needed. Last week, the School District approved its the 2024/25 capital plan submission to the Province. This will be submitted to the Ministry of Education and Childcare in the coming weeks.
Gary Tymoschuk, Vice-Chair of the Surrey Board of Education said that portables are a short-term solution. “We need new schools and additions to existing sites to accommodate this rapid growth, and we look forward to working with the province and the city to address this growth.”
BC’s education minister and MLA from Surrey Rachna Singh while responding to this move by council said in various media outlets said that education is on NDP government’s priority list. “Since 2017, we have been building schools. We have more than 20,000 seats created. For Surrey also, we are on par to create 10,000 seats and 400 new classrooms,” she said.
BC United Surrey South MLA Elenore Sturko said, “Despite the NDP promising in the 2017 and 2020 elections to eliminate portables in Surrey, they’ve broken that commitment and now, the situation has become so dire that the school district is having to consider double-decker portables.”
