Tuesday September 3, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated September 11, 2024]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The student population in Sooke School District 62 (SD62) exceeds normal classroom capacity, that much is widely known.
However, despite number-crunching at the school district executive level, the real number of K-12 bodies-in-seats for the 2024-25 school year is still not known as at August 27.
At the August 27 SD62 public board meeting, Deputy Superintendent Monica Braniff (who leads the enrollment tally team) said they’ll still need to wait until the doors open on September 3. Final enrollment numbers are due to the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care by September 30 in order for SD62 to receive per-pupil funding and other supports.
The best guess for enrollment in SD62 schools at this time is 13,065 students. That’s lower than the October 31, 2023 count of 13,767 by at least 700 students.
However, in recent weeks SD62 has said they’re expecting an enrollment surge of 300 to 400 students, bringing the total to 13,065. So something doesn’t add up.
The confusion could be in the way students are counted (some tallies itemize FTEs which includes online and adult students as well as international students). According to Braniff on August 27, some SD62 families have relocated upisland or to Alberta over the summer.
Classroom overload:
Whatever the number is, the work and cost of things like teacher hiring and portable/prefab classroom installations must be dealt with in response. At some schools — like Ruth King Elementary in Langford and David Cameron Elementary in Colwood the student overflow is being accommodated by the installation of pre-fab classrooms (added to the existing school building) instead of with portables.
The pre-fabs aren’t ready yet at Ruth King and David Cameron where students in these first two weeks of September will be somehow accommodated for a ‘positive experience’, said SD62 Superintendent Paul Block during the August 27 board meeting.
SD62 explains that at the start of the school year classes focus on building community, with most students being in their classrooms.
“This reduces the pressure for non-enrolling spaces during the firs few weeks of school,” says SD62 manager of strategic communications, Kristen MacGillivray. Those are spaces like learning support, multi-purpose and learning commons.
“Each school has appropriate learning environments to accommodate students while prefabricated additions are completed,” she says.
Portables at high schools:
Portables are being added at other schools (like at Belmont Secondary School in Langford where two portables were added this summer) where the physical school is over-capacity.
All three high schools in SD62 are currently over-capacity. Belmont Secondary is 350 over capacity, Royal Bay in Colwood is 150 over capacity, and EMCS in Sooke is over-capacity by 50 students.
Taxpayer expectations:
Parents and taxpayers likely presume and expect that numbers are being calculated accurately and reliably. Especially in light of more tax dollars being spent on land and construction of new schools on a steady basis.
The first version of this article was published on page 3 in the August 23, 2024 (updated to August 28/24) biweekly print/PDF edition of Island Social Trends.
===== RELATED:
- SD62 gets land for new middle school in North Langford (August 19, 2024)
- Business plan underway for third SD62 west shore high school (May 21, 2024)
- SD62 says south Langford elementary school construction on track (May 14, 2024)
- Sooke School District budget cutbacks will bite (April 23, 2024)
- NEWS SECTIONS: K-12 EDUCATION | SD62 SCHOOL DISTRICT (Langford, Colwood, Sooke, Metchosin)