Lack of classrooms anger SW Edmonton parents

Parents in southwest Edmonton say they will continue tofight toexpand their school.

Esther Starkman School in Terwillegar is only two years old and already crowded beyond capacity.

Two atttached modular classrooms have been added to the K-9 school to expand capacity from 850 students to 900, butenrolment next year is expected to hit 1,000.

However the province has denied the school's request for six more portable classrooms for the coming school year.

That had parents expressing frustration at a public meeting Wednesday night.

"As soon as you talk about schools and kids, emotions rise," said parent Suzanne Reynolds. "I get a consensus here from the parents that they're angry they're upset and they don't understand."

"We need to realize its not the school, its not the principal, it's the government," she said. "We need the funding."

Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk has said thatattaching portables to schoolsis not thebestsolution to overcrowding.

"One of the issues we have in this province is we have schools where we dont have kids, and kids where we dont have schools," he said earlier this month."That's one of the things I want to address in the next few years."

The school's parent council will hold a public meeting with the school board next month.