City council in Surrey, B.C., has declared the state of school infrastructure in the municipality has reached a “crisis” level and is calling on the province to immediately step up with more timely and flexible funding for construction of new facilities in an effort to keep up with dramatically increasing enrolment.
Councillors, city staff and members of the Surrey School District and board met recently with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon and Education and Child Care Minister Rachna Singh to discuss the situation. A written submission on the matter has also been made in advance of the upcoming provincial budget.
The authorities warn a significant increase in student enrolment in the district in recent years is straining resources and classroom infrastructure.
During the meeting with government ministers, city and school board representatives provided statistics to show how quickly enrolment has increased and outlined why it is critical for the government to take action.
“The City of Surrey and the Surrey School District representatives implored the province for more timely and flexible funding, particularly as it relates to the acquisition of school sites, given the significant increase in new students enrolling in the district in recent years,” a city planning and development department spokesperson stated in an emailed response to a series of questions from the Journal of Commerce.
“Surrey has been lagging behind in terms of school construction and acquisition and the district would benefit from being able to acquire land earlier once identified and with more flexibility.”
Currently, the school district must apply for funding for land acquisition and construction projects through annual budgets which results in long periods of time between site identification and funding approval.
The spokesperson says the City of Surrey places a priority on school construction projects and works closely with the school district to identify needs and sites.
“We need the province to provide funding in a timely manner as infrastructure is not keeping up with Surrey’s rapid growth. Core infrastructure must be built in lockstep with new housing.”
The Surrey School District operates schools in Surrey, White Rock and Barnston Island. It is the largest school district in B.C.
Donna Jones, Surrey’s general manager of investment and intergovernmental relations, and Kam Grewal, the city’s general manager of finance, indicated in a report that public school enrolment in the district is expected to grow to 91,000 by 2030 – up from the present 78,000. More than 2,200 new students enrolled this past September.
Between 2002 and 2022, Surrey saw a 24 per cent increase in student enrolment but while student numbers grew exponentially, investment in school infrastructure didn’t keep pace, “resulting in an ever‐increasing classroom space deficiency and a chronic reliance on hundreds of portable classrooms to bridge the gap,” the city said in a submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services.
Surrey is growing at an average of 10,000 new residents per year, generating an average of 1,200 new
students being added to the school district. To meet the classroom space needs of the new students arriving each year alone would require two new elementary schools to be constructed every year. However, even that would not address the growing deficiency of classroom space built up over the years.
“To begin to reduce chronic reliance on portables, more funding and predictable funding, is required to allow the Surrey School District to purchase school sites early, at the time of neighbourhood concept-plan approval,” the submission states. “In addition, increased and timely construction funding is required for new schools and additions to deliver school capacity aligned with development.”
The city brief concludes the Government of B.C. must commit to increasing funding and make funds more predictable for school infrastructure.
“The current situation is not acceptable. School infrastructure must be built as quickly as possible to catch up with current needs and, moving forward, schools must be built in lockstep with new housing to avoid an even more dire situation in the future.”
The district is currently using 361 portables and will be moving more than 56 this summer to accommodate growth in various areas throughout the city at a cost of more than $7.2 million. The district will also be purchasing 30 additional portables for the next school year.
The school district recently approved its 2024/25 five-year capital plan submission to the province. The report estimates the number of portables across the district could balloon to 638 in 2032 if the district does not receive any new provincial funding.
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