New school already adding portables
One of Saskatoon’s newest schools is already short on classrooms. Specialty classrooms at Willowgrove School are already being used as general learning spaces, and two portable classrooms are expected to arrive in the coming months.
“It sure didn’t take long for us to fill up our school, that’s for sure,” said Amber Fusco, vice-chair of the Willowgrove School Community Council.
With two young children attending the school, Fusco said her experience at Willowgrove has been nothing but positive, but the fact the school filled so fast was a little surprising.
“We’ve just been in the school for a little over a year, and already we are at capacity, and if we get portables, beyond ... so it did happen quite fast,” she said. “But we also knew that there were a lot of young families in our area and the other northeast schools, like I said, were bursting as well.”
The two portables at Willowgrove are among the seven being added to public schools in Saskatoon, including four at Centennial Collegiate and one at Henry Kelsey School.
Public school board chair Ray Morrison said portables were always part of the larger plan for Willowgrove, and more will likely be added in the coming years. “That was not a surprise,” he said. “What did catch me off guard, and was a bit shocking, was the speed at which it happened, just because of the rapid growth and the fact that we had to sacrifice a couple of the multi-purpose rooms much sooner than we thought.”
He said the school division feels the ability to add and remove portable classrooms is better than having classrooms sit empty when the population of a neighbourhood ages and the demand for classroom space declines.
“Having a lot of vacant space around ... is not a good use of taxpayer dollars,” he said.
Sheldon Ramstead, executive director of infrastructure for the Ministry of Education, said the government is constantly assessing student enrolment growth, but Willowgrove did fill faster than expected.
“We expect the schools to fill up, we want them to fill up and they’re designed in such a way that as they do fill, we can add relocatables,” he said. “We didn’t know the growth was coming that quickly, but relocatables allow you to react.”
Ramstead noted the opening of nine joint-use schools across the province in September 2017, including eight at four sites in Saskatoon’s Stonebridge, Rosewood, Evergreen and Hampton Village neighbourhoods, will help alleviate some overcrowding in the division.
The school division has awarded a tender for the construction of the new portables, but the board still needs to approve the tenders for site work and installation, which is expected to occur in May.