Dozens more school portables being put in place in Surrey

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – Now that school is out, the Surrey school district goes into overdrive, anticipating hundreds of students entering the system in September.

“We expect over one thousand more students, which is equivalent to a secondary school, or a couple of medium-sized elementary schools,” says the school district’s Doug Strachan.

The situation is nothing new for the district. Strachan points out the student body has been growing for the last 30 years and has had its largest increases in the last couple of years.

The growth means that for yet another year dozens of additional portables will be hauled to various schools over the next two months. The district will be deploying 39 portables, some of which the district already owns. That brings the total number of portables being used in the district to 370.

Strachan says there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“The good news is there are several school construction projects and additions under way right now. They’ll be coming on-stream not this September but in 2020 and 2021.”

The school board will be hiring 78 more teachers, 107 educational assistants, 19 support staff, seven professional staff and five school administrators for 2019-2020.

“The recruiting has been going non-stop. We’ve had kiosks and meetings set up at universities across the country,” says Strachan, who feels fairly confident all positions will be filled by September.

Meantime, for the first time in years, Langley’s school district won’t need additional portables.

That’s because R.E. Mountain secondary will be moving to a new building, while the existing building will remain as a middle school. And the new portion of Langley secondary will be open for students this fall.