Burnaby looks at staggered school schedules as it grapples with overcrowding

Another B.C. school district is considering extending its school days as it grapples with overcrowding.

The Burnaby School District says it has seen significant increases in enrolment and is looking at adding an extra block of classes each day at five of its eight secondary schools next fall.

The longer school day would see start and end times adjusted, and leave students with staggered schedules.

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In a statement, Burnaby School District superintendent Karim Hachlaf said administrators are “mindful”  of how the changes could affect students and families.

“We’re looking to keep change to a minimum,” he said.

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Parents are expressing concern about the changes, saying they add confusion to an already stressful situation.

“It’s coming at a time when we are already stressed out about overpopulation in the schools and the building of portables, and generally the school district is really stressed, and this message to say we are going to try to add a new block and stagger entries so some kids start later and some kids end later is adding on to this already existing stress,” said parent Morten Rand-Hendriksen who sits on the Burnaby district parent advisory council.

“We have a lot of portables.”

Rand-Hendriksen said the public school system has been chronically underfunded for decades, a problem he said spans multiple different governments.

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The increasing use of portables comes at the expense of students, with the district forced to use its operating budget to fund them instead of on critical learning resources.

In extending the school day, Burnaby would be following the example of Surrey, which implemented staggered schedules this school year.

Hachlaf called the change a workaround necessary to address growing enrollment and limited capacity.

“This is a funding priority problem. our provincial governments going back decades have not properly funded things like education and healthcare for a variety of reasons, that was a choice made many times over, and we are now paying for that,” Rand-Hendriksen said.

“Every single step that comes from here on in will continue to impact students in a negative way.”

The district said it has not made any final decisions about the proposal, and that it is also working on creating more space for its growing student population.