The Edmonton Public School Board is again calling for more schools to be built as class sizes continue to grow.
Between 2010 and 2022, enrolment in Edmonton Public Schools grew by more than 25,000 students — a utilization rate increase of about 12 per cent, according to the EPSB’s ten-year plan last year.
The EPSB believes if enrolment and capital funding stay constant at its current utilization rate, there will be 34,000 more students than spaces in the system in 10 years.
The school board said on Wednesday even if they use every space available, they will still be short 6,200 student spaces.
Board chair Trisha Estabrooks said Edmonton Public is living in the reality of what it means not to be adequately funded.
“When we shift to thinking in 10-years, when we look at our enrolment growth we are looking at 140,000 kids that we are welcoming in to our division in 2032,” Estabrooks said.
“Obviously we expect our enrolment to continue to increase.”
While enrolment growth is occurring in all areas of the city, the division said it is greater in suburban neighbourhoods in southwest, southeast and west Edmonton — and has been for some time now as affordable, family friendly neighbourhoods have grown rapidly in those areas.
In 2020, Edmonton Public entered three schools into a lottery system. This meant kids who neighbour these schools may not be able to attend their designated facility and have to travel much further away.
For example, new students in the attendance area for Lillian Osborne High School in the southwest Terwillegar area have, in some cases, actually ended up attending Strathcona High School, the designated overflow school close to Whyte Avenue. That’s after the school closed its doors to Grade 10 students living outside the boundary in 2016 due to enrolment pressures.
Now, there are seven schools included in the lottery, including two new ones in south Edmonton:
- Shauna May Seneca (new)
- Jan Reimer (new)
- Lilian Osborne High School
- David Thomas King
- Dr. Lila Fahlman
- Dr. Margaret Ann Armour
- Svend Hansen
EPSB said the lottery process only impacts new resident students from the attendance area at these schools.
Students who are currently enrolled in one of the schools can still attend. Each grade will be limited to a certain number of spaces in planned classes, to ensure enrolment does not exceed the available space.
“It’s not ideal, we are continuing to have to put kids on busses to attend schools outside their community schools.”
Eden Miller is one of those students. She said she moved from Drayton Valley last year, five minutes away from Lillian Osborne.
“It was too full so they sent me to Scona … I take the bus, so it takes an hour,” Miller said.
“It’s pretty annoying.”
Education minister Adriana LaGrange said the province added 32 per cent to the transportation dollars to help make ride times go down.
LaGrange said the latest budget has funding for five new schools for Edmonton Public.
“They have to be planned, they have to be designed and then they will be built,” she said.
Edmonton Public Schools said the province has committed funding to building a new K-9 school in Edgemont, in the city’s far west end.
There is also design funding for a 7-12 school in the Glenridding neighbourhood in the deep southwest. Two schools are being added to the province’s school planning program project list. One is being added to the pre-planning program project list.
Estabrooks said she appreciates the commitment but it’s still not enough to address the growing need.
“We are out of space — not just running out of space — we are out of space, in particular high school space.”