Protesters rallied in Surrey, B.C. Sunday, calling on the province's new premier Christy Clark to fund eight new schools to ease the burden on the city's crowded classrooms.
The Surrey school district is one of the few in the province with increasing enrollment; roughly 800 people move to the city every month, and about 4,000 new students have entered the system since 2005.
But government critics say funding has failed to keep up. Dozens braved the rain Sunday in jackets and sheltered by umbrellas, chanting "Eight new schools" and challenging Clark to live up to her "family first" platform.
"This must happen now," Denise Moffatt of the Surrey Teachers' Association told the crowd. "Not tomorrow, not next week, not in a month, not in a year. We need new schools now."
The rally follows massive walk outs at Lord Tweedsmuir and Earl Marriot high schools, where students picketed a decision to extend the school timetable to accommodate the growing student population.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says she's spoken with Clark, and is optimistic that cash could be coming as early as this spring.
"I'm really encouraged," Watts said. "But again, we've been waiting since 2005 for capital funding which has not materialized."
New Democrat leadership candidate Adrian Dix was less hopeful for results from Clark and her new cabinet, which will be introduced Monday.
"When they closed schools when Christy Clark was minister of education, and when they didn't meet the population demands for areas such as Surrey, we're paying for that now," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's St. John Alexander
