Public schools facing historic enrolment — but only one new school

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Projecting more historic growth and nearly 15,000 new students in the next two years, the Calgary Board of Education has been promised only one new school in this year’s provincial budget.

Last week’s Budget 2024 outlined full construction funding for 12 school projects across Alberta, but only one was granted to the CBE, the province’s fastest-growing district.

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A new K-4 school in the northwest community of Evanston will receive full construction funding. But three other badly needed projects will only receive design funding — a high school in Cornerstone, a K-4 elementary school in Redstone and a modernization at Annie Gale School, a grades 6-9 school in Whitehorn — meaning there is no certainty as to when they can begin construction.

CBE officials debated the system’s three-year capital plan Tuesday, which has been forced to almost quadruple the amount of projects needed in Year 1 — going from six projects listed last year to 21 this year.

“As a reflection of the exceptional times we are in, we have quadrupled the total number of schools requested, from six to 21 new schools, speaking to a second consecutive year of historic enrolment,” said Dany Breton, CBE superintendent of facilities.

Record growth has seen system-wide utilization rates go from 87 per cent to 92 per cent this school year, Breton added.

If no further schools are approved, those projections would go over 100 per cent by 2025, and close to 110 per cent over the next six years.

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After welcoming more than 7,000 new kids in 2023-24, bringing total enrolment to 138,244, CBE is projecting a total of 146,294 students in 2024-25, meaning an additional 8,050 kids, which would be an all-time high.

And in 2025-26, the CBE is projecting 153,193 total students, or an additional 6,899.

Overall, in the next two years the CBE is expecting to add another 14,800 students, higher than the 13,000 received in the previous two record-setting years.

Chronic underfunding a longstanding problem: ATA

Budget 2024 invested $9.3 billion in K-12 schools, including $1.2 billion to address growth and hire 3,100 school-based staff over the next three years.

But critics have said both the operating and capital side of Alberta Education’s commitments fall much too short to address the exceptional growth, bringing families from across Canada and around the globe.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association has launched a provincewide advertising campaign highlighting the UCP’s underfunding, and pointing to recent Statistics Canada data that show Alberta has the lowest per-capita student funding in the country.

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The ATA is using television, radio, billboard, print and online advertisements to help raise public awareness of the state of funding for schools, and the effects low funding has had on learning conditions.

“Despite having the richest economy in the country, Alberta has the poorest public education system. There is no excuse for this. Alberta students deserve better,” said ATA president Jason Schilling.

As a result of 15 years of chronic underfunding, Schilling said student enrolment growth has outpaced teacher population increases by more than two to one, and that the difference between growth rates is equivalent to having at least 6,000 fewer teachers than if teacher staffing levels had kept up.

“Imagine if we cut 6,000 teachers from the school system in one day. Programs would be slashed, thousands of classes would be combined and supports for students would disappear,” Schilling said.

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“That is what has happened in our schools — not overnight, but gradually and consistently over 15 years.”

Current school environments unideal, say NDP

NDP education critic Amanda Chapman said that as more schools are forced to turn libraries, cloak rooms, gymnasiums and stages into makeshift classrooms, public education is increasingly lacking.

“I would like someone in the government to imagine being the teacher who has to teach a class on the stage of a gymnasium, while another class is having gym in the same space.

“These kinds of environments are not anywhere near to being ideal, for teachers or students.”

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said the province is moving ahead with 18 school projects in the “Calgary area,” including six that have received full construction funding.

In addition to the CBE school in Evanston, those projects include a high school in the community of Rangeview for the Calgary Catholic School District, a new francophone school in Calgary, as well as schools for Airdrie, Cochrane and Chestermere in the Rocky View Schools district.

“Our government is working as quickly as possible to build new schools in our growing communities, and Budget 2024 demonstrates this,” he said.

“Budget 2024 will provide 35,000 new and modernized student spaces across the province, with 16,000 specifically in Calgary.”

eferguson@postmedia.com

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