Sooke district urges funding for new high school after once again leading B.C. in growth

Royal Bay Secondary School is at capacity, as the Sooke School District continues leading B.C. in growth.

It was all hands of deck at David Cameron Elementary School on Tuesday as staff prepared for students to move into eight new prefabricated classrooms at the end of the week.

"We're hoping that that will alleviate the pressure and we'll have families going into their catchment schools,” said Ruchi McArthur, principal at David Cameron Elementary School.

Over at Ruth King Elementary School, students moved into their newly constructed prefabricated classrooms at the end of September. There are 16 new classrooms in total between the two schools and they couldn’t have come any sooner.

"We are the fastest growing district in the province this year,” said Paul Block, superintendent of the Sooke School District.

That growth was unexpected and caught the Sooke School District off guard.

There are now 14,000 students in the district. This year saw a 4.3 per cent growth rate. The secondary level grew by seven per cent, or 280 new students, this year. That growth is expected every year moving forward.

"That really bolsters our business plan for the new North Langford Secondary School,” said Block. “We need that now."

The reason: Both Belmont Secondary School and Royal Bay Secondary School are bursting at the seams.

The Sooke School District says whichever political party is governing the province after this coming election, that new secondary school needs to be funded.

The new school would be built for a capacity of 2,000 students to stay ahead of the expected population growth.

"I think we're trying to learn from our past,” said Block. “We built Belmont and Royal Bay at 1,400 capacity, we know that if we do that again we're going to end up with portables out front like we do at Royal Bay."

In the short term the school district has come up with a creative way to take some of the pressure off of the two secondary schools in the West Shore and has pitched the idea to the Ministry of Education.

That plan is to build 20 prefabricated classrooms on land it owns at the Royal Bay Development, land that will one day be home to the new South Colwood Elementary School.

"We’d use that as an overflow for Royal Bay Secondary School since it's just across the street and then as a swing space as we move elementary in there in the future years,” said Block.

That all depends on funding from the Province. Funding the Sooke School District says it desperately needs in order to keep up with West Shore’s population growth.