40 Calgary public schools are over 100% capacity

The Calgary Board of Education's latest enrolment report shows that nearly 20 per cent of their schools are at or over capacity.

Numbers show that of 226 CBE schools, 40 are more than 100 per cent full, while 14 of those are at 110 per cent capacity or higher the highest being Crossing Park School at126per cent capacity.

Wards 6 and 7 trustee Lisa Davis said although Education Minister David Eggen changed the rules,not every square inch (including closets and meeting rooms) iscounted as instructional space, butspaces like libraries, music rooms and resource rooms do count.

Davis said the issue of over-capacity schools speaks to the CBE's ongoing need for new schools on an annual basis.

"Because the reality is that as a system we are still growing, our enrolment is growing overall, and what we know is that school buildings havea limit in terms of what they can comfortably establish," she said.

Davis said that asa system, the CBEwants to be around 85 per cent occupancy.

"Because that does allow us to use library spaces and resource room spaces, and music room spaces for theirintended usage," she said. "And when we are up over 100 per cent capacity it means that principals are forced to look at those rooms to see if they need to be used as regular instruction space."

The trustee said the current government has opened 28 new schools in the last few years, with more slated for next year, and she tips her hat to them for that.

"We're very appreciative of what this government has done in terms of committing to funding the schools that were announced when theybecame government, but also now over the last two years having continued to announce new schools," she said.

But, Davissaid the game of catch up continues.

"Many of the schools that are over 100 per cent capacity are our high schools," she said.

Davis pointedto therecently opened Nelson Mandela High School which is already over 100 per cent full. She saida long sought after high school in Calgary's Northern Hills communities which was recently approved for design funding by the provinceis set to be full (if funding is approved)when it finally opens, too.

"It's just really critical that these schools get get funded when needed," she said. "We know what happens year after year as the population increases if we don't have the school spaces."

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In an emailed statement to CBCNews,MinisterEggen said the NDP government has made it a priority to build new schools and modernize older ones "after years of neglect and cuts."

"In fact, we funded 244 new and modernized schools, the largest infrastructure build in Alberta's history,"he said. "We work closely with school boards to identify their priority projects and build our capital list based off of theirs."

One solution Davis said trustees are looking at to help with capacity issuesis called "high school accommodation."

Davis said they'll be evaluating what programming is offered at schools as well as what the boundaries for schools are and looking at ways they can balance populations potentially by moving programs to underutilized schools.

Barbara Silva, education advocate with Support Our Students (SOS), said she frequently hears from parents about the impactover-capacity schools are having on students.

"Most people have a sense that their schools are overcrowded," she said. "You know a lot of schools are using lunchrooms asclassrooms and kids eat in hallways oron gym floors and of course those schools are harder to maintain, clean,so we know that these things are happening."

Silva said although SOS doesn't support programs of choice, as they believe those programs aren't accessible to all children,it's time the CBE look at finding alternative spaces for kids to learn in, including portables.

But, that's a short-term solution. And, the numbers show that most schools at more than100 per cent capacity already have portables or modular classrooms in fact, a handful of them have 10 or more.

Silva said she'd like the board to break down the data and see why some schools are so over capacity. She wonders if it has to do with migration patterns.

"What are the programs that are are being accessed more and which programs are being accessed less?" she said.

"I know that in the northeast there aren't any Spanish bilingual programs,so does that mean that thethree Spanish bilingual programs inthe northwest are drawing a disproportionate amount of students?"

Silva said she hopes in looking more closely at school populations, where kids are coming from, the board can adjust where programs are being offered and draw more kids back to their underutilized community schools.

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