CBE looks to address high school capacity issues with 2-year public engagement

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) is asking for input on how it can balance student enrolment across 20 high schools projected to be well over — or well under — capacity in five years.

But some parent advocates say the two-year-long engagement process means no solutions for kids now attending overcapacity high schools.

Sarah Bieber with Kids Come First says, as a former teacher, she has a sense of what it looks like when a school is overcapacity. 

"It often looks like really rigid schedules for the kids. So less autonomy over the options that they might be in or when they might take math class, for example, so that they can also take the physics class that they're trying to get into," she said.

"The administration just can't be flexible when capacity is that high. And, of course, classrooms are also really crowded."

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Bieber says that while communication from CBE administration in regards to high school capacity has been improving since the engagement process was started in September, the issue has been around for years. 

As an example, this year Ernest Manning High School is at 129 per cent operating capacity. In 2018, it was at 118 per cent. And, in 2017, it was at 113 per cent. 

"I know at least one school board trustee was raising this issue going back at least a couple of years," said Bieber.

"And one could do the math, one could look at the populations and see that this problem was coming, and at that time the communication with families really wasn't there."

It's something an education advocacy group, Parents for Education Accountability and Responsibility in Alberta (PEAR), said in a Twitter thread last week.

"We have uncovered 2019 first day enrolment data for some CBE schools. It shows CBE admin has been misleading parents as to the depth of the problems with enrolment at CBE high schools," they wrote.

Population imbalance

Dany Breton, superintendent of facilities at the CBE, says that as the city has evolved over the years and people have made choices to live in different areas, and communities have matured, students have relocated throughout the city. 

Over that same period, Breton says, the CBE has been building and opening new high schools.

"What that does is it creates imbalances within the city in terms of high schools that are oversubscribed and those that are undersubscribed," he said. 

Breton says the 20 high schools being considered during the engagement provide space for about 37,000 students. But, based on projections, there will be about 39,000 high school students reaching those school by 2025.

"And so we have to ensure that high schools are balanced for that peak," he said. 

Through the engagement, Breton says, the board is exploring changing boundaries and other ideas to see students spread out more evenly at schools. 

Immediate solutions needed

Breton says the CBE acknowledges there are schools, such as Ernest Manning and Joane Cardinal-Schubert, that need solutions sooner rather than later.

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"You would see as part of the short-term measures some immediate relief on those schools that are being targeted," he said.

But immediate doesn't mean this school year. 

"We're talking about changes that would have an impact in September of 2020. And and we're really focusing in on those Grade 9s that are transitioning to high school," he said.

"The impact won't be dramatic for the first year on the high school but you will start seeing some of the alleviation of that pressure over the next two years."

By that point, he say, the CBE will have a viable, long-term solution that ensures it has the proper enrolment levels within those high schools.

'They felt like their voices weren't heard'

Breton says it's also important to understand that if one high school is overcapacity, like Ernest Manning, you can't simply move a certain percentage of students to a less full school. And, by the same token, the board can't be changing school boundaries constantly without parent input, he says.

"We believe that involving people in decisions that impact them is important," he said. "And I think we're hearing that very loudly at the sessions we're holding in person."

But Bieber says parents who are participating in the engagement who have participated in previous CBE engagement processes on other issues aren't optimistic.

"They felt like their voices weren't heard," she said. 

As an example, Bieber says, at one elementary school engagement, parents were given options to choose from at a preliminary session.

"And they would give their feedback and then a decision would be made that actually didn't reflect any of the options," she said.