THE Surrey School District is conducting community consultations exploring issues related to a shortage of school space due to rapid growth in student population.

The purpose of the consultations is to gauge staff and parents/caregivers’ perception and awareness of the issue, along with gathering their insight on several potential mitigation strategies that the district is actively considering to address limited school space.

Surrey Schools welcomed more than 2,400 new students in the last two years – compared with 800 students per year historically – a 200% increase in new student enrolment. This rate of increase is not sustainable as the current number of schools in the district cannot accommodate the rapidly growing student body.

This enrolment growth continues to significantly outpace the district’s only source of funding from the province, placing unprecedented pressure on the district and creating challenges with respect to capacity, available space, and staffing. As a result, the district must consider a number of mitigation strategies aimed at optimizing school space and safeguarding the continued delivery of high-quality education. Potential strategies being considered include tri-semester schooling, school “shifts,” busing students to out-of-catchment schools, and hybrid online learning models.

An online survey link was emailed to parents, caregivers and staff today. Following the online survey, we will also conduct smaller, in-person consultations with parents/caregivers and students.

The results of the consultations will be used to help inform the Surrey School District about how parents, students and staff feel regarding potential strategies that may need to be implemented given the current capacity constraints. Once presented to the board, the results will be made public.

The survey launches on November 20 and closes at 11:59 p.m. on November 29.