Space crunch in Calgary schools plays out in tears and tough choices
Thousands of kids bumped from neighbourhood schools, others could be forced to move
Surging enrolment in Calgary's public system has filled classroom space so quickly, roughly 3,000 students have been turned away from their neighbourhood schools in the last three years.
They're forced to bus sometimes 10 kilometres away to overflow schools, but even that is becoming a challenge, according to Calgary Board of Education officials. Overall, the school system is at 95 per cent capacity, and there aren't many extra spaces left.
It means anxiety and tough choices all around.
In Meadowlark Park, a neighbourhood near the CF Chinook Centre, Cristina Schiontek was devastated to learn about the CBE's most recent solution to overflow issues.
Her seven-year-old daughter Juliana suffers from severe anxiety. She's in Grade 2 and it took her six months to open up and speak with classmates when she first moved to Elboya School.
Now CBE officials say she's one of 25 kids slated to move to Chinook Park School instead next year as they shuffle school boundaries and move some kids farther south.
Schiontek feels it's unfair. She specifically bought a house within the Elboya boundaries so her kids could have the consistency of a K-9 school.
"She's not just a number," said Schiontek. "These 25 students — they are not just numbers. They are families. They are siblings. They have their own situations. But they are not just numbers."
These situations are happening across the city.
In the northeast community of Skyview Ranch, Melannie Pineda spent years watching a new elementary school being built. She couldn't wait to let her two sons simply walk to and from school every day.
But when Prairie Sky School opened last year, it was already so full that her kids were subjected to a lottery to get in. Even though they can see the school from their living room window, they didn't make the cut.
It meant her six- and eight-year-old would have to take a bus to an overflow school 10 kilometres away.
"It's just horrible and ridiculous," said Pineda. "My son is very little. He can't even climb up the car on his own, much less a school bus. So I was like, 'That's not going to happen.'"
She chose to give up on the CBE and enrol her kids in a nearby Catholic school instead. But she counts herself lucky. She knows many parents don't have that option because they don't have a tie to the Catholic faith or don't have a Catholic school nearby.
The CBE says it's trying to minimize impacts on students, but each year they have to welcome more new students than they ever have in the past.
Record enrolment, difficult decisions
Dany Breton, CBE's superintendent of facilities and environment services, says school space has been an issue for decades — but it's never been this bad.
The school board usually welcomes 6,000 new students over a course of three years. But since 2021, it's welcomed over 17,000 students. That's what pushed Calgary schools to the 95 per cent utilization rate.
The last time this happened, in 2016, CBE had 12 overflow schools, but 24 new schools were underway. The new schools fixed the problem.
This time, 34 schools are at capacity and only two new schools have been approved by the province for construction.
One is a middle school currently under construction, and the other is an elementary school that will take a few years to open, said Breton. Both are in Evanston, at the northern edge of the city. The CBE was also approved earlier this year for 47 new modular classrooms.
"The situation today is much more challenging than it's ever been for the CBE, and most importantly, for the students that we serve," said Breton.
"If we had a method to predict where people settle, wow, things would be very different. If Alberta had an idea of the numbers that we would be seeing coming into the province, the situation would have allowed us for a little bit more pre-planning for the wave."
Breton said most of the growth is happening in the far suburbs in the northeast and southeast.
But there's also pressure within neighbourhoods that are seeing increased density — in north-central and south-central neighbourhoods. And they're seeing growing pressure in downtown because that's where newcomer families are settling.
That's part of what created the issue for Elboya. In the shuffle, Inglewood junior high students are being redesignated from Rideau Park School to Elboya because Rideau Park is also overflowing.
Officials are hoping to move the kindergarten to Grade 4 students from Elboya to nearby Windsor Park School, which would be taken back from a homeschooling program. But not all of the students will fit. That's why 25 students, including Juliana, would be sent to Chinook Park. It's farther from the core and still has space.
The plan is contingent on the board of trustees, who will be asked to vote in December.
Using the overflow system isn't ideal, nor is it a long-term solution, Breton said. But it's one of two tools the CBE can use that aren't contingent on government funding.
The CBE is turning to boundary changes as a last resort, he said.
"We don't do boundary changes unless there's a need; unless we start seeing that there's a school that is having an issue."
Change funding formula, trustees say
But it's not just growth. The CBE board of trustees says government funding policies are also playing a role.
The board says the provincial budget penalizes schools with less than an 85 per cent utilization rate — for example, many older schools in neighbourhoods that have not yet seen greater density.
But these schools are valued in the neighbourhoods and many have specialized programs for vulnerable students, said Susan Vukadinovic, a trustee whose ward includes Elboya, in an email to parents.
The board sent a letter to then education minister Adriana LaGrange last March, asking her to reconsider. The board said it was losing $4 million a year in funding because of this.
In her email, Vukadinovic said the funding calculation has been distorting the need for new schools for decades.
"In my opinion, it is the No. 1 reason why school construction has not kept up with school space needs across Alberta over the past three decades, especially in newer communities," she wrote.
When CBC News asked Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides for his response, he sent a statement saying the province uses this funding calculation to ensure funding is consistent and predictable. He said the CBE received $17.4 million more in funding this year than it did last year, and suggested it should use its capital reserves to maintain infrastructure.
'We just want the best for our kids'
CBC News spoke with several parents whose kids have been affected by the squeeze in the school system. All of them expressed a sense of betrayal over the chaos it is creating.
Natasha Penner in Skyview Ranch didn't want to risk her kids being split up from their siblings, so she didn't bother entering them into Prairie Sky's lottery. Instead, they bus 30 minutes to their designated French immersion program at Mayland Heights School.
In the same community, one foster mom told CBC she has an empty bedroom in her house for another child, but there wouldn't be space at Prairie Sky for them.
And in Meadowlark Park, Crystal Hoeppener said capacity issues meant nearly a year of uncertainty. Her son was eventually sent to Chinook Park, but it was a scramble to get before-and-after school care without knowing where he would end up.
Meanwhile, the CBE is pursuing the option of closing under-capacity programs in at least one case.
On Dec. 17, the board of trustees will vote whether to close the specialized all boys program for neurodiverse learners and reopen Sir James Lougheed as a regular elementary school in the southwest community of Rutland Park. Parents previously told CBC News the program has given a supportive space to learn for many children who struggle in regular classrooms.
Back at Elboya School, Schiontek said she recognizes the CBE is in a difficult situation. But it makes her feel powerless.
This is the second iteration of CBE's plans for south-central students. The first plan would have moved students south of 50th Avenue, disrupting many more student cohorts. Officials changed the plan after parents protested and they reviewed updated attendance data.
Schiontek is hopeful reduced immigration targets will cool the pressure on the system, but she wishes her kids weren't caught up in it all. Once Juliana moves schools, she'll be separated from her big brother, Rafael.
"It's hard because we just want the best for our kids and we want to be able to plan their lives … but we can't make plans because we never know if they will change again."
She said she would've liked more time to prepare for the change. Or for Juliana's entire cohort to move with her, instead of splitting her up from her friends.
The CBE can't keep just shuffling kids around, she said. Ultimately, there's only one solution.
"They need to build more schools."
Growth Spurt, Calgary
Calgary is growing again and quickly. But this population boom is different. CBC Calgary is looking at the impacts all week. Watch for our coverage and what you've missed at cbc.ca/yycgrowth.
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Series produced by Elise Stolte, with files from Jo Horwood