B.C. announces 1,000 new spaces in expansions at two Surrey high schools

The B.C. government announced plans to expand two Surrey, B.C., high schools Monday, amid mounting pressure over the city’s over-crowded classrooms.

Education Minister Rachna Singh said Tamanawis Secondary will get a new addition with 23 classrooms, making room for 575 students.

Guildford Park Secondary will get an expansion with 18 classrooms and room for 450 students.

5:52 Teachers weigh in on rising number of portables in Surrey schools

Singh said the announcement adds to the $640 million her government had funded for new and expanded schools in the district, and sought to blame the situation on the previous BC Liberal government.

“It will take time to make up for years of underfunding by the previous government, but we have invested more in Surrey schools in six years than the previous government did in 16 years,” she said.

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“We are working with the Surrey School District on even more projects that are in planning now that will result in more student spaces to help keep up with growing enrollment.”

Surrey is British Columbia’s most populous school district, with more than 78,000 students enrolled and growing fast with issues around crowding and portables stretching as far back as the early 1990s.

Officials with the district have estimated it is adding up to 2,000 new students per year, and last month warned they were facing an infrastructure “crisis.”

1:48 Surrey school overcrowding warning troubles parents and politicians

The district has also warned that it could be forced to stack portables on top of one another, with the number of portables servicing Surrey schools set to top 400 by next September.

The NDP has faced significant heat over the portable issue after promising, while in opposition, to eliminate portables in the district only to see their numbers climb year after year. When the NDP won power in 2017, there were 250 portables in the city.

Since 2017, the Ministry of Education said it has completed 16 new schools and expansions in Surrey kids, compared to zero new schools and one expansion completed between 2014 to 2017 by its predecessor.

As of December last year, seven new school builds or capacity additions were approved for Surrey on the B.C. government’s website, including the Snokomish and Ta’talu elementary schools.

— with files from Elizabeth McSheffrey