EAST CLAYTON - Parents say schools in East Clayton are "bursting at the seams" following rapid growth in the neighbourhood.
Tricia Pritchard's son is in Grade 3 at Hazelgrove Elementary, which currently houses more than 1,000 students - nearly double what the school's capacity is set at.
"We're totally bursting at the seams. There isn't an empty space that isn't being used," Pritchard said.
A brand new school, Katzie Elementary, is set to open this spring, which is expected to relieve some of the overcrowding.
Pritchard said she's seen the negative effects of having so many students packed into a school.
"Gym time, library, all of those sort of extra services, it's like a constant juggle, trying to fit everybody into those spaces," she said, adding the school has had to change its multi-purpose room into a room where kids can do physical activities.
Pritchard, a member of the school's PAC, said they've had to spend some $15,000 in outdoor bins to store things like staging equipment and lights.
While the school is lucky enough to have laptops and iPads, there's never enough, she said.
Pritchard went on to say overcrowding effects even trickle down to playtime.
"We have to have alternating age groups for using different playgrounds, and who's allowed on the swings that day.... Kids have to think, 'Is today a day I'm allowed to go on the swings?'" Pritchard said the number of portables on the Hazelgrove site baffles her. At last count, she said the school had 19.
But it's not all bad. Pritchard said the staff and parents at the school work around the overcrowing stresses in creative ways.
"They put hockey in the parking lot... They're always using the different resources that we have," she said. "I think we are lucky to that extent, that everybody has recognized the challenge that we face and everybody has tried to make it better."
With a new elementary school in sight, parents in East Clayton are now concerned about continued growth and where their students will be housed in high school.
Another high school is planned for the area, but Pritchard said one won't be enough to handle the influx of elementary students.
Another PAC member at Hazelgrove, Kathy Johnson, echoed Pritchard's comments.
Johnson has a son in Grade 2 and a daughter in kindergarten. Her son entered kindergarten going to the "annex," located down the road from Hazelgrove, which serves as an overspill facility for those students who simply won't fit at the main site.
Thinking back to when her son was at the annex, which had roughly 150 kids at the time, she said the playground looked as though it was being hit by "a swarm of bees."
"I don't even know how they can play," she said.
Johnson said the teachers have been great, and like Pritchard, feels they've done a lot to work around the issues. She is hopeful the crowding will settle down once Katzie Elementary opens this spring, but she too is looking toward high school capacity issues.
"It's ridiculous how much they let this area build without planning for the kids," she said. "I know they've talked about a new high school in this area, but I don't even know if that will even happen when my son's in Grade 8."
Doug Strachan, Surrey school district spokesperson, said Clayton is an area that's had particularly large growth in a short period of time.
Hazelgrove Elementary, which opened in 2009, currently houses 1,070 students, according to district numbers. With Katzie relief it will be left with some 600 students, leaving it still over its capacity of 530.
Adam's Road Elementary, which also serves the area, opened in 2011 and it sits over capacity as well. Strachan said the school district's number-one request in its five-year capital plan is an addition to that school.
The district has plans for another secondary school for the area, not far from the existing Clayton Heights Secondary. The province has approved funding for the new secondary, but the school district doesn't have the funds yet.
"That is imminent but it'll still be three to five years until that will be occupied," he said.
Also in the district's capital plan is a north Clayton elementary school, which it already has a site for. And it is looking for a site for yet another elementary in the area.
Overall, Strachan said the area has a high number of young primary students, and the school district expects continued growth in the earlier grades.
Strachan said when areas develop rapidly, schools are one of the last things to come.
A case has to be made for a school's need, he explained.
"We work closely with the city and when they either make zoning changes or are dealing with a developer to put residential subdivisions in a new area, we certainly are plugged into that, but understandably, the ministry wants to make sure that they're not building new schools that are going to be underutilized."
Schools in an area have to be at or over capacity before plans for additional facilities are accepted.
NEW REC CENTRE NEEDED TOO But schools aren't the only public infrastructure lacking in the neighbourhood.
Surrey's community planning manager Don Luymes said the community has expressed a strong desire for a local recreation centre.
Luymes said the city has plans for a facility, just west of 188th Street, which would serve East Clayton.
And the city recently approved plans for Hazelgrove Park, hoped to break ground this summer. It will be East Clayton's largest, at 8.6 acres, and will be located at roughly 191st Street and 72nd Avenue.
The planned park will include a regulation-sized soccer field, playground, two tennis courts, a BMX track, parkour court and areas to play basketball and ball hockey. (See the full story on the new park online at thenownewspaper.com.) Mike Bola, president of the Cloverdale Community Association, welcomes the new park, but said it needs to be built now, not five or 10 years down the road.
Bola went on to say there's a push from the community for a local pool and ice rink, adding that an expansion of the Cloverdale Recreation Centre is the preferred option.
"We know it's not going to be built in the next two years because the city is committed to other facilities right now. But we are looking for a commitment within the next five to seven years that the city will do something about that," he stressed.
Clayton is expanding so fast and residents wish the infrastructure had been put in place before the growth, Bola said.
"I think people kind of made the assumption that because all the houses are going in, they're going to make a public facility. And that has not surfaced and that's what people are upset about."
areid@thenownewspaper.com