Calgary public schools need more portable classrooms to ease enrolment growth pressures, says the Calgary Board of Education.
The school board is asking the province to deliver 64 modular classrooms to 17 of its most crowded schools for the 2025-26 school year, as the number of schools in overflow status grows around the city.
Opening day enrolment in the district shot up by 5,436 students from last year, according to a new CBE report.
The report attributes the near-record growth to national and international migration.
“Our utilization rate across the entire system is 95 per cent … 85 per cent is considered fully utilized,” said CBE board chair Patricia Bolger.
“Sixty-four modulars would go a long way to allow kids to attend school closer to home.”
Twelve of the 17 schools that need additional portables for next year are already dealing with utilization rates above 100 per cent.
Both Centennial High School and Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School in south Calgary had utilization rates above 120 per cent at the start of the current school year, according to the district.
“Building a school is a three- to four-year process. So we really do need these modulars in place,” said Bolger.
The Alberta government invested in bringing 91 new modular classrooms to Calgary this school year, according to Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.
Simons Valley School, Sir Winston Churchill High School and Ian Bazalgette School in the CBE system are all expected to receive portables by the end of 2024.
Other schools in the district are scheduled to receive portables in early 2025.
Teachers under strain, says union
Teachers have been forced to adapt because of the lack of space, according to the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
“When I talk to my colleagues across the province and specifically in Calgary, they’re telling me they’re seeing class sizes like they’ve never seen before,” said Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association.
“You’re trying to build relationships with them, and try to work with their strengths and their weaknesses.… It’s hard to do when you have 30-some-odd students in the classroom.”
Schilling also said he’s been contacted by teachers who spend time with their classes in hallways, stairways or libraries because of a lack of space.
Last month, the provincial government launched an ambitious plan to relieve the pressure created by the student enrolment boom.
The School Construction Accelerator Program will cost $8.6 billion over three years and will see up to 90 new schools built around Alberta.
The first set of new school projects will be announced in the 2025 budget.
Schilling wants to see more investment in short-term solutions for classroom overcrowding, like portables.
“At the end of the day, it’s decisions by government in terms of where they want to put their dollars,” said Schilling.
“They’ve failed to fund for inflation and growth for many, many years, and, unfortunately, students, parents and teachers are dealing with the ramifications of those decisions.
In a statement, Nicolaides said the province will end up creating 2,800 student spaces through modular classrooms for this school year.
He said 26 temporary classrooms are still on the way, and the province is working as quickly as possible to get them set up.