Surrey’s school trustees have submitted their new five-year capital plan – requesting 58 per cent more money for next year than the previous one – for what trustees say the district needs most: more schools.
The annual five-year capital plan, for 2025-26, consists of requests for 20 new schools, 19 additions for existing schools, two school replacements, 21 site acquisitions and one seismic upgrade for the Surrey school district. The plan, seeking $5.03 billion from the education ministry, was approved unanimously by the board at the May 8 meeting.
However, in a B.C. government announcement from March, the ministry states they are investing $3.75 billion for capital projects over the next three years in the province as a whole.
“We need extended days, we need to move programs and we need billions of dollars in funding. I think it’s at the point where we can’t even comprehend numbers anymore: 3.17 billion, 5 billion, it’s really incomprehensible to us,” Trustee Bob Holmes said at the meeting.
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This year’s capital plan sought $3.17 billion from the ministry, in comparison, marking a 58 per cent increase for next year’s ask.
From the current plan’s top 10 priority list for capital projects, four projects are preliminarily being moved forward, with an addition at Grandview Heights Secondary and a new Darts Hill elementary school both in the planning phase. The site for a new Grandview-area high school has been supported along with a site for a new Anniedale/Tynehead elementary school.
The new schools themselves for those locations remain unsupported, the district’s report states.
“There was a day when there was concern that if we sort of solved the province’s problem for them by putting extended days into place, they don’t need to give us capital anymore. We’re well beyond that, we’re now at a point where we need both and more,” Holmes stressed.
All regions of the district’s schools are expected to be “significantly” over-capacity soon, especially schools in the city centre area and South Surrey and White Rock, stated Dave Riley, capital projects director.
Therefore, the 20 new school sites the district says are needed are in all areas of the district.
“We’ve been accused over the last few months that we don’t do enough planning and I just want to make sure for those that are out there who think we don’t, I think they should delve into the reports that are available and they’ll have a clear understanding that we do a great deal of planning and do it to the best of our ability with the information that we have,” Trustee Gary Tymoschuk said.
With next year’s annual budget resulting in program and service cuts in the district, Trustee Terry Allen said “we do not have one more penny to put into portables at all.”
“With portables as part of the equation, (if) this provincial government thinks this is going to offset our need for new classroom space, then they are very, very wrong.”
