Image Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK

The Central Okanagan uses more portable classrooms per student than every other school district within the province but one and parents say it costs kids — and school board budgets — in unexpected ways.

A recent report revealed that between 2022 and 2023, the Central Okanagan School District used 128 portable school rooms, more than any other city except Surrey, which has 354 and Burnaby, which uses 138.

Surrey caters to more than 77,000 students, more than three times the Central Okanagan, Burnaby at the top and School District 23 second when calculated per student.

The Central Okanagan is also using far more portables than its neighbours, with Kamloops-Thompson at 65, Vernon only using 27 in the past year. Okanagan Skaha uses four, Okanagan-Similkameen uses two, while the North Okanagan-Shuswap has seven.

Nicola Baker, President of the Central Okanagan Parent Advisory Council, told iNFOnews.ca students in the Central Okanagan are at a disadvantage compared to districts that don’t have to pay for portables.

“Those (other) districts can use that funding to pay for teachers and school supplies and all of the other things that cost money in the school system outside of the actual building that students are housed in,” Baker said. “So, it feels pretty unfair.”

“I think portables themselves are not the problem. The problem is that when we add portables to a school, we don’t also add other facilities for those students. The number of washrooms remain the same, the gym space remains the same, libraries, music room, sports fields, playgrounds. All of that space is fixed. We may add an additional classroom, but everything else in the school is squeezed.”

Another issue arises with toilet facilities in the portable classrooms, Baker explained. Often, portables don’t come with bathrooms, which means students must make a very cold journey back into the main school building during winter.

This year, the parents council put forward a resolution to the BC Confederation Of Parent Advisory Councils, that asked for the purchase, maintenance and relocation costs of portables to be covered by better grants from the Ministry of Education.

Delta Carmichael, Secretary Treasurer at Central Okanagan School District, told iNFOnews.ca that the district is currently operating at 107% capacity. It is therefore dependent on portables to accommodate its increasing student enrolment.

“We're always advocating to government for new schools,” Carmichael said. “And we have a five-year capital plan. It just takes time for those builds to happen. So, in the meantime, we need to purchase portables in order to house the new kids that are coming into our district.”

Carmichael said the goal of the district is to have traditional “brick and mortar schools”, but portables offer a sufficient remedy for the meantime.

Carmichael said portables are kept as warm as traditional school rooms during the winter with their own heating systems and offer a “safe” and “welcoming” learning environment for the students who use them.
Almost all the schools in the Central Okanagan district rely on some form of portable, all of which have been purchased through the District’s operating grant money.

“That's why we always advocate so strongly for additions or new schools,” Carmichael said. “Because that is actually funded by the ministry's capital fund. So, when we do have to add portables onto our school sites, and we do have to use operating money to pay for them, that's less operating money to put into our schools and into staffing and into the other pieces that we need in order to run the district.”

Carmichael said the municipal government is aware of this issue and also wants to see a reduction in portables.

“We're all trying to get to the same place,” she said. “It's just a matter of getting there.

However the issue doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon as the increasing student population shows little sign of plateauing.

Carmichael said, for the 17 years she has worked at the district, there has always been growth. Over the past two years there has been an increase in immigrant and refugee families joining the district, all of which has led to more students.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Georgina Whitehouse or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2023