Surrey, we have a problem.
Surrey is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, and it is one struggling to keep up with the infastructure requirments of its citizens. Our problems stem from the development pushed through by City Council and the inability of the Province of BC to adequately house our students in schools.
Did you know?
Why are we advocating? (what's the real problem with portables, you ask?)
Portables are meant to be temporary structures and as such their installation, maintenance and operation comes out of the School Districts OPERATING budget. Not the capital budget like school building. Operations budgets include other budget categories including teacher salary/benefits, Education Assistant salary/benefits, classroom supplies, technology, music programs and much, much more.
Portables cost $40,000 a year to maintain which is equivalent to an education assistant's salary - in case you were wondering why support for students with learning challenges are scarce.
As such, our goals as a collective group at this time are:
Surrey is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada, and it is one struggling to keep up with the infastructure requirments of its citizens. Our problems stem from the development pushed through by City Council and the inability of the Province of BC to adequately house our students in schools.
Did you know?
- there are currently 7000 students learning in portables across Surrey?
- there are over 300 portables on Surrey school properties
- the district has 1000 new students each year?
- many of the families moving to Surrey are young families
Why are we advocating? (what's the real problem with portables, you ask?)
Portables are meant to be temporary structures and as such their installation, maintenance and operation comes out of the School Districts OPERATING budget. Not the capital budget like school building. Operations budgets include other budget categories including teacher salary/benefits, Education Assistant salary/benefits, classroom supplies, technology, music programs and much, much more.
Portables cost $40,000 a year to maintain which is equivalent to an education assistant's salary - in case you were wondering why support for students with learning challenges are scarce.
- Surrey School District's spends ~$4Million on portables each year (that's a lot of teachers, assistants and resources our children lose access to)
- Increasing a schools population through portables reduces everyones time in the shared spaces of library time, music rooms, computer labs, and in high schools overfills sports teams, band or other school clubs.
- Portables take away needed playground space (elementary) or parking space (highschool)
- Some schools have to rotate the days in which children can use the playground equipment
- equipment fundraised by families.
As such, our goals as a collective group at this time are:
- Capital funding to meet the needs of our area, and that of the District on the whole
- Policy change with the City regarding developing before schools are in place
- Policy change with the Province regarding their consideration for funding for schools (i.e. not waiting until kids are at the doorsteps of schools)
- Policy change between the City and Province regarding development and funding (i.e. they must start to communicate and work with each other)
- Funding for portables that is separate from the operational budgets
- Policy within the District to stop Choice programs from being pawns when there are capacity issues (i.e. changing their Policy 9200 that states "programs of choice will be offered only in space surplus to the needs of the neighbourhood school program or in space leased for a specific program need")
- Increase the school site acquisition charges for developers
Formally known as southnewtoncommunity.com, this website was created by a community of parents and is moderated by Cindy Dalglish, a parent, education advocate, and citizen of Surrey.
All of the data provided is from the District and the City via websites, emails, phone converstion or face to face meetings. There are added notes from a perspective of a group of people that have been working hard on the issues. Please provide feedback through the contact us page or on our Facebook page should you seek clarification or have concerns.
All of the data provided is from the District and the City via websites, emails, phone converstion or face to face meetings. There are added notes from a perspective of a group of people that have been working hard on the issues. Please provide feedback through the contact us page or on our Facebook page should you seek clarification or have concerns.