Parents in Surrey, B.C., are being asked to weigh in on a suite of out-of-the-box solutions as the city’s school district grapples with rampant overcrowding.
Many of the proposals, included in an online survey crafted by the Surrey School District, could dramatically reshape what day-to-day learning looks like in schools.
Ideas include fully online or hybrid classes for secondary students, moving to a trimester system or even extending school days or dividing them into shifts, with some students starting in the early morning and others finishing in the late evening.
The proposals come as the district faces an enrolment crisis.
There are already more than 80,000 students in the Surrey district, and school board chair Laurie Larsen said typical enrolment growth has climbed from about 800 per year before the COVID-19 pandemic to close to 2,500 in recent years.
“There actually are a lot of schools now that cannot take another student and a lot of schools that we cannot put another portable on,” she said.
“Even though we’ve had the recent announcements (on school expansions) it still doesn’t alleviate the issue of overcrowding, the no gym space, the no music space, no extra library space, no extra play space.”
Other ideas proposed in the survey include changing school boundaries or busing students to other neighbourhoods.
It also proposes sourcing pre-fabricated or modular additions to schools that can be built more quickly.
Larsen acknowledged there were trade-offs involved in many of the options, which could free up classrooms at costs elsewhere.
She pointed to the trimester option which would see schools operate year-round, but with students broken into cohorts that each learn nine out of 12 months in either September-to-May, December-to-August, or May-to-December stretches.
“It’s really hard for students to do that with sports and what else,” she acknowledged.
Having students enroll in morning and afternoon shifts comes with its own challenges, she said.
“It really affects daycare, child care, older students looking after younger students, sports activities — all of these things really affect those things students to after school,” she said.
“That’s why the public consultations are taking place in various areas, it’s to give the parents a chance to actually see what this means and get their ideas and their input.”
Surrey Teachers’ Association president Jatinder Bir said the proposals raised immediate “red flags.’
Many of the ideas would have major implications for teachers, including hours and working conditions.
But teachers also worry about how the changes would affect students, she said.
“If we are putting classes at 50 per cent online or full online, who is going to provide the technology for the kids to use? Who is going to maintain it? What about the bandwidth?” she said.
“Food programs. We have athletics. If you extend the day from 7:30 a.m. up until 8 p.m., what does that look like? What are the implications for parents and students? parents are going to figure out how they pick yup, drop off, child care.”
Surrey city councillor Linda Annis said the “bottom line” was that the district needs more schools as soon as possible.
Annis said if creative solutions are being looked at, they should be at the level of the Ministry of Education and related to speeding up construction.
She suggested schools be incorporated into new high rises, and calling on the province to look at public-private partnerships that would ease the need for big upfront capital spends.
“I was shocked, these aren’t tings we should be asking of our students to do,” she said of the proposals.
“In this day and age we shouldn’t be thinking about split shifts and hybrid learning and all of that, we need to provide proper education to all our students, their parents pay taxes here in Surrey.”
Education Minister Rachna Singh said the survey was on opportunity to explore some innovative ideas, but that there were no concrete plans to implement any of them.
Parents Global News spoke to had mixed views of the ideas on the table.
Gurvinder Kailay said she opposed online learning, echoing Annis’ call for schools to be co-located with new developments.
“Start building the high-rise buildings with the schools,” she said. “There should be good classes.”
Hanta Wu said the trimester idea could be worth exploring.
“Right now it is very crowded, classrooms are getting close to 25 students per teacher,” he said.
“It’s hard to have the teacher provide attention to all those kids.”
Surrey is currently home to at least 375 portable classrooms, and the district said the number could climb to 400 next year.
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