The number of portables in School District 62 will continue rising this summer.
The district is one of the fastest growing in the province, and is currently operating at 104 per cent capacity. The district currently has 46 portables with plans to add an additional five this summer.
Royal Bay Secondary opened in 2015 and was operating at capacity the first day of classes. Now there are 10 portables on site, since the school is at 122 per cent capacity, according to a report by Matrix Planning Associates.
Board chair Ravi Parmar said they need more portables in the district until new schools can be built.
“This summer we’re adding five more portables to our schools, and I expect we’ll continue adding portables as long as there’s no schools being built. The ministry [of education] agrees that portables are temporary solutions,” Parmar said. “They cost a lot, $250-300,000 per portable we’re hoping that they will be temporary solutions to the capacity challenges that we’re facing in Sooke, Colwood, and Langford, and the entire district.”
Belmont Secondary School, which also opened in 2015, will get two portables, Wishart Elementary, David Cameron Elementary, and Journey Middle school will each get one portable over the summer.
Parmar said they are hoping to have two new schools built in the next four years, with plans for a total of five.
“It takes about seven years to build a new school, we’re hoping to cut it in half and we’re hoping that the government gives us the funds to build a new middle school and elementary school at the same time,” Parmar said. “Government has given us $200,000 to complete project definition reports for those schools. Those will be complete by the end of the summer.”
Parmar said they are currently planning on building an additional 4,000 places in the district but that need could grow.
“The middle school and the elementary school is priority number one right now, as well as purchasing land for a secondary school,” Parmar said. “Over the next 10 years we hope to add 4,000 new spaces so we can be a school district that is just at about 100 per cent capacity. But like I said, we’re projecting 4,000 over the next 10 years. It could change in two years, it could be even more.”
According to the report by Matrix Planning Associates, there has been an average of 942 housing units built in the districts area for the past 10 years.
Parmar said due to several schools operating over capacity, many schools are unable to accept out of district or out of catchment students.
“It is becoming an issue across the district. It’s not only out of district students, but out of catchment students,” Parmar said. “Something we’re looking at is a catchment review. Once we add more schools we know we’re going to have to reconfigure those catchments once those new schools are built and ready to go. But we are facing capacity issues at schools.”