Sharing schools, staggered starts: How the CBE could navigate capacity issues

With the Calgary Board of Education warning for months about the impact of surging student enrolment, officials are taking a deeper look at what moves it can make without additional funding to build more schools.   

CBE high schools are at 103 per cent utilization. Only two high schools are in open enrolment; all others are either "limited" or "closed." North Trail High School, which just opened its doors last year, is already overcapacity and closed for transfers.

Grades K-4 are running at 86 per cent, while grades 5-9 are at 93 per cent. Of its 251 schools, the CBE says 150 are above 85 per cent utilization — which is the benchmark the province uses to determine if a facility is full. 

The situation has educators seeking creative solutions.

For example, to provide enough space for students at Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School, the CBE is renting space from a nearby YWCA. 

"Given the expected student population increases that are projected and a lack of another site-ready high school in the southeast of Calgary, it is likely that we will continue to need to rent space from the YWCA for this long-term," said Jennifer Turner, superintendent of school improvement for Areas 5, 6 and 7. 

The issue was top of mind at a recent board meeting.

Chief superintendent Joanne Pitman interjected between questions from trustees, who were asking about capacity issues at specific schools in their wards. 

"This is going to be a recurring theme for today's meeting where we are really looking at it in the context of prioritization to achieve the greatest impact, to make sure we have maximal space available where we have the greatest pressures," Pitman explained on June 25. 

"That's something that administration is certainly exploring in great detail with those constrained funds that we'll no doubt talk further about today."

Considering its "critical shortage" of space in schools and limited funding to build new ones, in its recent 10-year student accommodation strategy, the CBE outlined a few options to relieve enrolment pressure in the years to come. 

Creating 'mini schools' from portable classrooms 

Dany Breton, superintendent of facilities and environmental services, says the creation of "mini schools" would be focused at the elementary level. 

That's where the CBE organizes a grouping of several modular classrooms in an area where families are waiting for a school to be built, with some units being used to host administration and washrooms. 

"If we had our druthers here, it is that immediately when such a school is approved, the permanent core building is approved," said Breton. 

"And what this allows is that within a year you can have the starter or mini school up and running, and you're already keeping several hundred students closer to home." 

Breton says the province would need to sign off on the creation of any mini schools. 

Other measures, like grade configuration changes — adjusting the grades that attend certain schools to balance the number of students — are already being made for the year ahead. 

Overcrowded high schools could require more inconvenient strategies. 

Addressing capacity in senior grades 

Using online learning to support student needs, the CBE is looking at putting multiple student cohorts or schools into one facility. Groups would alternate between online and in-person learning, to balance the number of people inside the building at any given time. 

Also being considered is a staggered schedule; adding an extra class period to spread students out through the day. Some students would learn in the first four blocks, some in the last four, and some in a split. 

Breton says the CBE hopes to postpone for as long as possible, and there is still capacity to avoid using these strategies. 

But that buffer is shrinking, with at least 1,250 more students expected in the senior grades next year. 

"How rapidly we'll be having to start considering this for one or more high school will be dependent upon what we see in the coming years, highly dependent upon, again, modular classroom approvals that allow us to expand an existing school without having to change necessarily how programming is offered," said Breton. 

"Or, of course, the approval of a new high school."  

Last year, the CBE asked the province for funding to add 68 modular classrooms to schools facing capacity pressures. 

The province granted 12. 

In the most recent provincial budget, Calgary's public school board was given funding to build one new facility, a middle school in Evanston. 

Over the past two years, the CBE welcomed the largest increase in the last four decades, about 13,000 new students. 

Officials expect about another 15,000 in the next two years. 

"It is absolutely through the roof. It is unprecedented," said Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.

In an interview with CBC News on Friday, Nicolaides said he believes some of the options the CBE has identified could help alleviate enrolment pressure. 

"Some students prefer online learning or hybrid models, and I think there might be a natural kind of evolution to that as we do more and more things virtually," said the minister. 

"I'm always keen on helping our school boards and encouraging them to look at creative options. But again, we do see that there are significant space issues, and we are working on looking at how best we can address that. And as I mentioned, we may have some more to say towards the end of the month."