Portables and renovations help BC schools create new classrooms for September

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The pressure is on at schools across the province to quickly set up additional classrooms, thanks to the court ruling last year, reducing the current number of students per class to 2002 levels.

Nowhere is the quest for more classroom space more acute than in Surrey, the province’s largest and fastest growing school district.

In a normal year, the Surrey School District welcomes one thousand new students. The district is already home to 275 portables.

The school district’s Doug Strachan says the new restrictions on students-per-class is having quite an impact.

“We figure about 168 classrooms are needed for the fall, for that purpose. We are going to need about 50 more portables.”

Other schools, though, will need to reconfigure some existing rooms.

“We’re doing some renovations to some schools. For example, some computer labs are being converted into regular classrooms.”

He says, fortunately, no child care facilities on school district property will need to downsize or vacate to accommodate any new classrooms.

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