The Saanich School District (SD63) might be feeling the pinch of increased enrollment, but there are no plans for additional portable classrooms, at least not this year.
Dave Eberwein, superintendent and CEO of Saanich Schools, says more students is a positive challenge for the district.
“It’s great news that people are coming into the Saanich School District and hearing about the wonderful programs we’re offering,” he said. “It’s a nice healthy trend we’re seeing now, this growth is very positive news for our school district for sure.”
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The last few years have seen a steady growth in enrollment, said Eberwein, and while this year’s numbers can’t be confirmed quite yet, the current counts are higher than what was anticipated last year – particularly in the southern region of the district.
The growth has been accommodated with the creative redesign of existing spaces – for example computer labs turned into classrooms.
“That’s only sustainable for so long, you can only do that until you run out of those spaces to change,” Eberwein said. “And so that’s why we’re looking down the road, if this trend was to continue, we may certainly in the short-term require some portables and in the long-term apply to the provincial government for funding for school expansions.”
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But Eberwein emphasized that for now, the district has enough space, and would in no scenario be crowding students into too-full classrooms.
“There are class size limits in place regardless of the overall population of students in the district,” he said. “The school district is obligated to make sure that there are an adequate number of teachers and spaces for them to work in.”
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