CBE kindergarten crunch could mean long bus trips
As Calgary parents begin to register kids for this fall’s kindergarten classes, the Calgary Board of Education says some students in neighbourhoods with recently opened schools are facing bus rides to other communities.
This week, kindergarten registration opened for the 2019-20 school year, and while officials are forecasting enrolment for first-time students to be lower than the public board’s peak over the previous five years, several elementary schools that opened in the past few years are already at or near capacity.
New K-4 schools in Auburn Bay and Evanston, which opened in September 2016, have already had to begin enrolment lotteries for incoming kindergarten students as there aren’t enough spaces to meet demand in the burgeoning communities.
Schools in three other suburban communities — New Brighton, Copperfield and Saddle Ridge — have also been added to the board’s student accommodation plan, with all nearing their limits.
Meanwhile, planned schools in Skyview Ranch and Nolan Hill are already on the watch list and could be at capacity before the paint even dries.
Carrie Edwards, the CBE’s director of property, planning and transportation, said families are flocking to Calgary’s suburban enclaves, which has created critical mass for some of the district’s newest schools.
“The city is building out larger communities and more densely populated communities,” she said.
“Lots of our newer communities are attracting growing families.
At the elementary level, we’ve identified schools that are at or near capacity.”
Given the crunch that already exists, along with a projected 8,600 new students set to enter kindergarten this fall, that could mean some of those new students will begin their academic careers boarding buses, even though CBE has opened 28 new schools since 2015-16, the majority of those elementary and middle schools.
Some students who live in Auburn Bay and Evanston are being bused to Andrew Sibbald School in Lake Bonavista and Cambrian Heights School, respectively.
Both overflow schools are more than 15 kilometres from the newly opened facilities.
Edwards said some relief for underserved areas is on the way, with three new elementary schools scheduled to be open by 2020 in the communities of Cranston, Coventry Hills/Country Hills and Evergreen.
“Any time you open more schools, it creates more space in the system,” she said.
“We have to look at what the data is telling us and we have to project it over time.”
Alberta Education Minister David Eggen said his NDP government has opened scores of new schools throughout Alberta during its tenure and has no plans of slowing down should it prevail in a looming spring election.
“We have built an unprecedented amount of schools in Calgary over the last four years,” said Eggen, in Calgary on Monday to meet with students at Sir John A. Macdonald junior high. “We’ve now completed 169 schools across the province, and we’re going to build more.”
Eggen said the province will continue to invest in education, and that means ensuring the necessary facilities are in place for the areas that have the highest need.
“It’s a good problem to have. It shows young families are moving to Calgary and starting families,” he said.
“There’s an obvious need for more schools to be built. If you build it, they will come.”
The CBE has identified as many as 40 schools in the system that are operating at more than 100 per cent capacity. System-wide, the district’s utilization rate is 85 per cent, and that number isn’t expected to change significantly over the next few years.