‘Chronic underfunding’: Surrey schools struggle to keep up with explosive growth

When Surrey parents listen to the numbers regarding the city’s explosive population growth, you could excuse them for wanting to roll up into the fetus position and hide.

Student enrollment is in the area of 83,000. A 2024 Surrey School District report detailed it had grown by an average of 2,598 students over the previous two years – triple the average over the previous decade. 

And the student population is only going to grow faster in the years to come. The B.C. government has set a well-publicized housing target for Surrey, detailing a five-year plan of more than 27,000 net new units.

The provincial government has made some minor headway in keeping up with the growth. On Tuesday, a ceremony marked the opening of more than 700 spaces in new classrooms at Woodland Park, Walnut Road and Theresa Clark elementaries, with construction started on more than 2,300 new seats at seven other Surrey schools.

That, however, still leaves more than 400 portables in Surrey, and a school district forced to alter the schedules at multiple schools to ease overcrowding.

Surrey parent and education advocate Cindy Dalglish looks at the school population numbers and asks, “where are all those kids going to go?”

Dalglish’s daughter is a student at Salish Secondary, which is one of eight Surrey schools that have staggered schedules that shoehorn in a fifth block of classes into the daily schedule.

The schedule changes were instituted to fit more students into overcrowded schools. The school district is also exploring the idea of year-round schools as a way to increase capacity. (See more on this later in this story.)

Salish teachers have worked hard to “buffer the impacts on students,” said Dalglish, but the situation was tough on their family last year. Dalglish said her family is “privileged” because they have two parents who work from home and two vehicles that help with a constantly changing schedule that includes an early start time and two late starting times.

“I always think about the families who don’t have that privilege,” Dalglish said. “Single parents. Those without vehicles. It’s confusing. Every single day I have to ask my child if it’s an early start or a late start?”

But Dalglish adds that the extended schedules are “just a drop in the bucket of the issues” facing Surrey schools.

Dalglish blames a lack of proper spending to meet the school population needs, plus poor communication between different levels of government, including the school district, cities, and the province.

“They’re not talking enough with one another in coming up with agreements on how to move forward together,” Dalglish said. “They’re not working together to manage a finite budget so it works for everyone. That collaboration isn’t there – otherwise, our students wouldn’t be suffering.”

Andy Yan is the director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. He studies growth and its impact on communities, such as the pressure on the public education system. A major issue is how the B.C. Ministry of Education calculates its formula for approving new school construction or the expansion of an existing school.

“You have to show up with the kids first before building a school occurs,” Yan said. “I think that’s been a big challenge for how a place like Surrey is growing. It’s also the type of housing being built south of the Fraser where they’ of the size where they have lots of children. … You need the support of higher levels of government.”

That means years of portable classrooms as a school district makes its case for getting construction approval. Many parents and school officials have demanded the province listen to cities when they estimate the number of children moving into neighbourhoods when housing construction is approved.

One example is a Newton townhouse proposal listed in a June City of Surrey report. The project will see 90 townhouses built and bringing 50 children to the area. The report even lists the specific schools that will see additional students. School advocates say the province should listen to those targets and plan ahead, instead of waiting until area schools are already wildly overcrowded before taking action.

CHANGES TO THE SCHOOL SCHEDULE

In June, Surrey School District trustees heard a report on year-round schooling from assistant superintendents Neder Dhillon and Lynda Reeve. Such a model has a potential to significantly boost school capacity in a district struggling with space.
 
Reeve and Dhillon explored several alternatives to the traditional two-semester school year at both elementary and secondary schools. The report explored two scheduling models: a single-track calendar that would see all students and staff in a school or on vacation at the same time, and a multi-track calendar that would split the student and staff population into several cohorts, with at least one being on vacation at any given time.

While the single-track model would provide no benefit to school capacity, the multi-track model could allow a school to accommodate up to 30% more students, the report said.

The school district says that capacity pressures mean all avenues must be explored.

“We’re not looking at this because the public is asking for it,” said trustee Bob Holmes. “We’re not doing it because we think there are clear educational benefits, it’s really all about space and it’s incumbent on us to look at all solutions.”

Dalglish has seen that the school district is studying year-round schooling as a way to ease overcrowding, but is skeptical because of its impact on parents, staff, child care and more.

“I’m not opposed to it, but I don’t see how they get it done in my lifetime,” Dalglish said.

A major issue is the union contracts that set in stone the days worked in a school year. Year-round schooling would require school staff to radically change schedules that have been in place for decades.

“On what Earth, on what planet would the unions agree to that,” Dalglish asked.

BC Conservative and Surrey North MLA Mandeep Dhaliwal blames “chronic underfunding” by the province for problems in local schools.

“Parents are right to be concerned: When learning centres, band programs, and classroom supports disappear, it’s out kids’ future that suffer,” Dhaliwal said. “Students’ health and well-being are at stake, and this government must finally put education first.”

For its part, the B.C. government says that since 2017, it’s spent $6 billion, including $1 billion in Surrey, to fund new schools and additions. For Surrey, that’s meant more than 16,000 new spaces.

B.C. Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma said that the previous BC Liberal government did not build a single school in the previous four years.

“Schools are critical to families with children in Surrey, and we’re committed to delivering modern, safe learning spaces for this fast-growing community,” said Ma. “As Surrey grapples with the challenges of extraordinarily rapid increases in student enrolment, we are doing our part with record investments into new and expanded facilities. With new classrooms opening this fall and even more starting construction, we’re making real progress to give students the spaces they deserve, and there’s more to do.”

In fall 2025, more than 700 new student seats are opening at new classrooms in:

• Woodland Park Elementary – 400 new seats 
• Walnut Road Elementary – 100 new seats
• Theresa Clarke Elementary – 225 new seats

Over the summer, construction started on more than 2,300 new seats for the following school projects:

• Kwantlen Park Secondary – 500 new seats
• Martha Currie Elementary – 150 new seats
• Old Yale Road Elementary – 425 new seats
• Latimer Road Elementary – 150 new seats
• William Watson Elementary – 300 new seats
• George Greenaway Elementary – 350 new seats
• Guildford Park Secondary – 450 seats

Since 2024, the B.C. government has announced additions at Fleetwood Park, Kwantlen Park and Tamanawis Secondary schools, the opening of Ta’talu Elementary and new permanent spaces at Walnut Road, South Meridian and Semiahmoo Trail Elementary schools.