cbe looks to unprecedented strategies to deal with full schools, record growth
space crunch at calgary board of education due to provincial underfunding, advocates say
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the exterior of crescent heights high school is shown in northwest calgary on thursday, june 27, 2024. the cbe will have to deal with a significant space crunch, according to a recent report.
jim wells/postmedia
facing record enrolment growth and overflowing classrooms, public schools are looking at unprecedented measures to accommodate students in the coming years. in a recent student accommodation report before calgary board of education trustees, officials outlined a list of unique strategies to deal with schools that are overcapacity, including staggered schedules, leasing office space and building “mini schools” in suburban areas as families wait for government funding for full construction.
in the past school year, overall utilization rates at the cbe have reached 93 per cent, with particular challenges in the higher grades. for grades k to 4, utilization rates are now at 86 per cent; in grades 5 to 9, they’ve reached 93 per cent; and for grades 10 to 12 they are well overcapacity at 103 per cent.
next year, only two high schools — crescent heights and william aberhart — will be able to accept new students. all other high schools are listed as “limited capacity” (able to take some overflow students from other areas) or completely “closed” and unable to take any new students apart from those already enrolled.
more than 150 of the cbe’s 250 schools are at capacity, the report adds, and overflow schools have gone from only eight in 2019-20 to as many as 32 this past year, forcing students to attend outside their communities.
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officials say space challenges will worsen in the next decade, with expectations that a majority of schools will exceed 85 per cent utilization and many others surpassing 100 per cent.
after welcoming more than 7,000 new kids in 2023-24 — bringing total enrolment to a record 138,244 — cbe is projecting a total of 146,294 students in 2024-25 — an additional 8,050 children.
and in 2025-26, the cbe is projecting 153,193 total students — an additional 6,899 kids — reaching another all-time high.
the exterior of william aberhart high school is shown in northwest calgary on thursday, june 27, 2024.
jim wells/postmedia
cbe faces record-breaking enrollment
overall, in the next two years the cbe is expecting to add another 14,800 students, higher than the 13,000 received in the previous two record-setting years.
the new report states that even if enrolment levels off somewhat in the next 10 years, the system will still need as much as 40,000 new student spaces to accommodate growth, with up to 11,400 new spaces needed immediately.
trustee susan vukadinovic argued the cbe’s dire circumstance is largely due to significant underfunding by the province and slowing capital investment in new school projects.
“the provincial government is approving new schools at a slower pace than we have seen in decades,” vukadinovic said.
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“this is why we have 32 schools in overflow today, this is why our school hallways are so crowded and this is why so many thousands of kids have to travel over 10 kilometres to their closest designated school.”
as a result, the report says, growing class sizes could lead to limited programming, decreased space availability affecting special-needs kids, and increasing overflow schools with students travelling longer to get to school.
in the coming year, several elementary schools are expected to reconfigure their grade structures, adding grade 5 to as far as grade 9 within their buildings, to take in students from overflowing middle schools.
in the next few years, officials are also looking to build temporary “mini schools” made up of several modular classrooms or portable units to accommodate students in the early grades while they wait for full construction of a complete school.
“a mini school such as this would have capacity for 250 to 300 students . . . and within a year you can have it up and running and keep several hundred students closer to home,” said dany breton, cbe superintendent of facilities.
“and then after two years, you could see the permanent core added to it and then that school fleshing itself out to its full community capacity.”
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but looking further into the future, over the next decade, the report also considers unprecedented measures for higher grades, including staggered schedules and added learning blocks at some high schools.
it means some students in grades 10 to 12 could start their school days much earlier in the morning, while other cohorts could end in the late afternoon.
“seeing students learning in shifts and extending learning blocks for high school students, i find all of those solutions quite compelling,” said trustee marilyn dennis.
“when we consider our growth and space challenges, and the limited capital investments we’re seeing for new schools, have we arrived at a point where we have to have these conversations?”
the calgary board of education headquarters along 8th street and 12th avenue s.w. on january 25, 2022.
brendan miller/postmedia file
report called wake-up call to address lack of space
breton said that while the cbe hopes to be years away from staggered schedules, most high schools are at capacity and future student accommodation is dependant on government funding.
at the same time, the cbe is looking to lease space for high school students in adjacent recreation centres such as the ymca in seton. it may also consider using vacant downtown office space to accommodate student growth in the city’s core.
trustee nancy close said the report is a clarion call to address the system’s urgent need for more space, and she hopes the province will read it and take note.
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in the ucp’s budget 2024 announced this spring, the cbe was granted full construction funding for only one new school, a new k-4 school in evanston, among 12 other full construction approvals across alberta.
three other much-needed schools only received design funding — a high school in cornerstone, a k-4 elementary school in redstone and a modernization at annie gale, a grades 6 to 9 school in whitehorn — meaning there is no certainty as to when they will begin construction.
as a result, cbe officials have nearly quadrupled the number of high-priority projects in its three-year capital plan presented in march, going from six projects listed last year to 21 this year.
still, alberta education insists it is stepping up with funding, including investments of more than $1.2 billion to address enrolment growth provincewide, and another $1.5 billion to support the specialized learning needs of students.
“we are seeing a record number of families move to the province because they want to be part of the alberta advantage. last year alone, our population grew by 200,000, representing the largest annual increase in decades,” said education minister demetrios nicolaides.
“calgary saw high population growth, and its population is now over 1.6 million people. we’re stepping up and investing more in education to help accommodate this historic growth.”
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nicolaides added schools will be built in the province’s fastest-growing communities, including 18 new schools that are “on their way” for the calgary area, adding up to 16,000 new spaces.
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