Frank column mug
A rally last weekend once again highlighted the need for more school space in Surrey.
This issue has become even more critical this school year, as a settlement between the provincial government and the BC Teachers’ Federation following a lengthy court battle means class sizes are significantly smaller.
Many schools were already short of space; now there is significantly less.
Saturday’s rally was held at Earl Marriott Secondary and was organized by the Surrey Schools Coalition.
Karen Tan, president of the Surrey District Parents Advisory Council, said $217 million was promised for schools in January by the former BC Liberal government, but only one project has actually been funded so far – 10 months later.
“Write a cheque,” rally attendees demanded of the provincial government, which has total control of capital funding.
In my own neighbourhood of Clayton, the district recently held an open house for neighbours of a new elementary proposed for 74th Avenue. Those attending were told that, while the district demolished homes that stood on the site last spring, it has yet to receive funds to start building.
This means the construction process is nowhere close to beginning.
When asked when construction was likely to start, officials said it would likely be a year or more, and the new elementary school wouldn’t be open until 2020 at the earliest. That would mean that, more than four years after the need was recognized by the province, a school still wouldn’t be on the site. This is despite significant overcrowding at all Clayton-area schools.
The same situation holds true in Grandview Heights and the Panorama Ridge-Sullivan areas, and several other pockets in Surrey.
Those attending the open house also heard that the new NDP government has yet to release funds for Surrey schools because of the transition of power. Given that Education Minister Rob Fleming has visited Clayton to see the overcrowding for himself, and that he recently repeated an NDP pledge to rid Surrey of portables, that seems almost unbelievable.
The rally on Saturday was told that delays in school construction go back at least 30 years. Given that overcrowding at EMS prompted longtime trustee Laurae McNally to first run for school board in the early 1980s, it’s been even longer. In fact, there have been overcrowding problems going back to the 1950s, at a time when many Surrey schools were on shifts to handle the large numbers of students in much larger classes than today.
Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Marvin Hunt – who was part of the BC Liberal government that announced the funding in January and is also a former school trustee and councillor – said the problem of overcrowding goes back to the Social Credit era – and he’s right. Successive Social Credit, NDP and BC Liberal governments have all been unable to make significant progress in helping Surrey schools keep pace with rapid growth.
Despite political promises and pledges of change from a new government, nothing has really changed. Surrey students and teachers continue to learn and teach in hundreds of portable classrooms, while provincial politicians dither.
Frank Bucholtz writes Fridays for the Surrey Now-Leader.
