Outgoing Sooke School District superintendent Scott Stinson said he is worried about keeping pace with student population growth, especially when it comes to secondary school students.
Speaking at the name announcement for the new south Langford elementary school on Monday (Aug. 14), Stinson said the district continues to see a high growth rate of five to six per cent per year in the number of students attending SD62 schools, equal to around 650 new students next school year.
Belmont Secondary School’s student population has ballooned to 1,600 students while portables are being set up at Royal Bay Secondary School to accommodate its growing student population, which is overflowing the school’s capacity.
There are three high schools within SD62: Belmont, Royal Bay and Edward Milne Community School in Sooke, plus two blended learning campuses in Colwood and Sooke, and the West Shore Centre for Learning and Training, which runs online and continuing education programs.
In total, there’s more than 4,200 students between them, with nearly 1,600 at Royal Bay and nearly 700 enrolled at Edward Milne.
While SD62 is looking to build schools for all grades, there is a particular need for more secondary school spaces, said Stinson.
Back in June, the district forecasted it would need to buy 50 portables by 2027, even though 55 are already in use today. As well as portables, SD62 expects it will have to convert multipurpose rooms usually used for music and art classes into classrooms.
READ MORE: Colwood school space challenge sees music room shuffle
The district green-lit $1.4 million for portables in its five-year capital plan. The average cost to move a portable is $200,000, and buying a new one costs $400,000. Neither are covered by the province’s capital funding. Instead, money must come from the operating budget, which is also used for teacher pay, plus technology and book purchases.
“Without approvals for new schools and additions, we are projecting a deficit of nearly 1,350 seats for the upcoming school year and another 2,500 by 2027,” said Amanda Dowhy, interim chair of the Sooke school board. “Continuing to fund portables as a space-mitigation strategy is not sustainable for any growing district, but for one growing as quickly as ours, it could prove detrimental to the quality of education if our board is forced to choose between spaces for students and educational supports.”
The district is eyeing 11 projects that are in need of more capital funding in order to keep up with growth over the next five years, including new elementary and secondary schools in north Langford, an elementary school in south Colwood, a middle school in either north Langford or south Colwood and an elementary school in Sooke.
Additions are also needed at Ruth King Elementary School, Spencer Middle School, Edward Milne Community School, David Cameron Elementary School, Millstream Elementary School, and Westshore Secondary School, according to the district.
Stinson said the district will hear back from the province in March on whether or not it will receive funding for those projects.
READ MORE: Sooke School District in ‘dire situation’ for space as enrolment skyrockets
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