'Our schools are facing a dire situation': Surrey declares crisis over state of infrastructure for growing student population

There aren't enough schools and learning spaces in Surrey to meet the growing demands of its student population, prompting city council to declare a crisis over the lack of infrastructure.

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke is calling for the provincial government to immediately invest in building more schools in her city, where the school district saw more than 2,200 new students enroll last fall.

Following the latest additions, the city says its student population has grown beyond 78,000, forcing the district to adopt the “temporary strategy” of utilizing hundreds of portable classrooms.

“It’s shocking to hear that by September 2024, we may have nearly 400 portables across our city,” Locke said in a statement issued Tuesday, one day after council voted to declare the state of school infrastructure a crisis during a regular meeting.

According to the city, Surrey School District is currently utilizing 361 portables.

There’s also a $7.2-million plan to move over 56 portables throughout the city this summer to “accommodate growth in various areas,” the statement explains.

The city says the district is also preparing to purchase 30 new portables for the next school year.

Each portable costs roughly $350,000 to set up, according to the city, and those funds come out of Surrey’s operating budget.

“This temporary strategy comes with challenges, including finding outdoor space for the structures, as well as the significant budget pressure they present,” reads the city’s statement.

In addition, Surrey’s council and school district are concerned by population estimates that project enrolment will continue rapidly increasing in nearly every community.

“We need new schools and additions to existing sites to accommodate this rapid growth, and we look forward to working with the province and the city to address this growth,” Gary Tymoschuk, vice-chair of the Surrey Board of Education, said in Tuesday’s statement.

According to the city, council has directed staff to organize a meeting between Surrey’s municipal government and school district, as well as B.C.’s housing minister and the minister of education and childcare in order to “remediate this crisis situation immediately.”

Education Minister Rachna Singh is already slated to meet with the Surrey school board in both June and September to discuss the city’s infrastructure needs.

Last month, she said the province is committed to building more schools in Surrey.

“Since 2017, we have been building schools. We have more than 20,000 seats created. For Surrey also, we are on par to create 10,000 seats and 400 new classrooms,” she said.

However, 2017 is also the year that former premier John Horgan pledged to get rid of portables in the province.

“We’re not seeing the action that our community so desperately needs,” Locke said on Tuesday. “We know that without rapid investment, our schools are facing a dire situation. We need action and investment in building more schools in Surrey now.”

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Angela Jung