Parents and caregivers have made it clear they are not in favour of school schedules changing in an effort to ease overcrowding in Surrey’s public schools, a district survey finds.
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An eyebrow-raising survey was distributed to Surrey’s school community in November last year, with options put forward for consideration. Survey respondents were able to voice their opinions on the various strategies listed, including night-time classes, busing students from one catchment to another, tri-semesters which would involved year-round schooling to be split into three semesters, and others.
The results were reviewed by the district at the regular school board meeting on Wednesday night (April 10).
“We’re in a pretty tough spot, and we have to look at other options to mitigate the situation we’re in,” said trustee Bob Holmes.
Of the 7,600 respondents, 84 per cent were not in favour of the school district making any changes that would “disrupt the schedules” of students, parents and caregivers and teachers, Ritinder Matthew, director of communications, shared with the board from the long-range facilities plan.
Following this trend, the least supported options raised by the district were hybrid online and in-person classes, extended days in secondary schools, tri-semester schooling and having the school day be separated into two shifts.
While a majority of survey respondents were not in favour of the option, the district says hybrid classes will still be reviewed as a potential option for students in Grades 10 to 12. Vice-chair Gary Tymoschuk introduced a motion — passed unanimously — for staff to prepare a report on the feasibility and challenges of hybrid learning.
“Students would have a mixture of both in-person and partially online classes, looking at it from the opportunity in terms of building skills and experience into the current workforce where many are working partially online,” superintendent Mark Pearmain explained, adding it would look different from how online learning was shaped by the pandemic.
The superintendent said hybrid learning is common in parts of Europe and Asia, and if implemented in Surrey, strategies from countries in those regions will be considered.
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Holmes introduced a motion, passed unanimously, to direct staff to make another report, this time on the feasibility of tri-semester schooling.
“We discussed this. I’d say about 10 years ago or more in the district, there were discussions around the option of year-round schooling. There’s a lot of complexities with it, but still I think we cannot leave any stone unturned at this point, we have to at least look into it,” he said.
As for the most supported options, respondents were most in favour of boundary changes for students, building schools at district-owned locations, using prefabricated modular additions and, lastly, relocating programs of choice, Matthew said.
Other recommendations for the district presented by Dave Riley, executive director of capital projects, include considering urban designs for new schools, changing catchment boundaries and asking for “transparency” from the Education Ministry on capital project planning.
“Just as the board produces a five-year capital plan, if the ministry were to also produce a priority list provincewide, it would give parents and the district more notice and ability to make plans and mitigation strategies moving forward,” Riley said.
This recommendation was supported by the board in a motion presented by trustee Terry Allen to ask the ministry to publish their three-year capital plan.
Any changes made in how schools in Surrey operate may not be as short-term as parents/guardians and students would like or expect, Pearmain said, due to enrolment projected to grow by 2,500 students each year, as it has in the last two years.
Tymoschuk also presented a motion, which was passed, to send the long-range facilities plan to the City of Surrey and the City of White Rock.
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“As we all know, particularly the City of Surrey has been somewhat critical at times of the board’s lack of planning with regard to our district, and therefore I want to make sure that both city councils … the mayors and councils of both White Rock and Surrey get a copy of this report,” Tymoschuk said.
Holmes clarified this criticism by saying that there is a “perceived lack of planning” and that district staff are doing all they can.
“I think that any notion that there is a lack of planning is very much incorrect,” he charged.