Staggered start times for additional Surrey schools a real possibility

It’s been a rough year for trustees at the Surrey School District, which has had to cut programs and staff due to budget constraints.

But the full repercussions won’t be known until September.

That’s because the school district doesn’t know how many more students it will need to accommodate until enrolment numbers are in.

School district chair Gary Tymoschuk says that while it’s estimated that around half of many students — around 1,000 — as in past years will enter the system, this is still the number of kids that would fill an entire high school. Tymoschuk is attributing the predicted drop to a decrease in immigration.

For the second year in a row, the district won’t be able to rely on additional portables. It already uses 330 portables as extensions to schools.

“We’ll probably need them, but we’re not buying them. We just can’t. The provincial government doesn’t provide money to school districts to pay for portables. We simply cannot afford them so we won’t be adding any at all,” says Tymoschuk.

That’s forcing the district to get creative, even though it was already forced to cut $16 million worth of programs and staff for this coming year.

Last September, it introduced staggered start times for Salish Secondary, Grandview Heights Secondary, Fleetwood Park Secondary, Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary, Kwantlen Park Secondary, and Tamanawis Secondary.

Tymoschuk expects that list to grow.

“The day after Labour Day, or in the month of September, we’ll make a decision on other schools. At this point in time, best guess, number crunching tells us that we’ll probably [have] two, two or three secondary schools onto the extended day schedule.”

Parents were understandably jittery about the introduction of the extended day approach, which is about accommodating as many students as possible but spreading their attendance out across a longer period of time to avoid overcrowded halls and classrooms.

Tymoschuk says they didn’t get many complaints.

“I think leading up to a change like that there will always be some rumblings. Nobody likes change to their routines. There was a little bit of apprehension heading into the school year last year. We haven’t heard any negativity and in fact it has worked well, and we haven’t heard any feedback from parents or students.”

While the province hasn’t increased funding, it is providing prefabricated additions. Unlike portables, they are multi-storey and have washrooms, air conditioning, and heat.

The latest prefabricated building was officially opened at Walnut Road Elementary earlier in June, adding 300 seats to the school. It’s anticipated four other elementary schools will have their additions ready for September.

Tymoschuk says these add-ons put a very small dent in the demand.

“We have a huge list of requirements of what we need in our school district. It’s bigger than last year of course. We are talking about 27 new schools. And add-ons or additions to 21 existing schools.”

And he’s bracing for more difficult days ahead.

“I’ve been on the board for 11 years, and by far this has been the worst budget cycle. We’re bracing for even worse. There’s no indication to suggest that more money will be coming from the province.”