More than one month into the school year, staff, students and families in Saskatchewan are getting a sense of what this year’s influx of new students looks like.
With it comes renewed questions about whether school divisions can keep up.
As Saskatchewan’s population continues to grow, more and more kids are entering schools.
The impact is largely being felt in Regina and Saskatoon.
“We’ve enrolled almost 2500 students in the last two years which is a lot,” Diane Boyko, the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division chair said.
“That would almost make for between six and seven extra schools and we really haven’t had a school built since 2017.”
In 2024 compared to 2023, Saskatoon Public Schools had an increase of 810 students with Saskatoon Catholic having 920 more students. Regina Public Schools saw an increase of 873, while Regina Catholic Schools saw almost 700 new students.
The increased student numbers are putting pressure on both staff and the buildings they work in. It means trying to come up with different solutions.
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“It might be that we’re changing some of the spaces in a school, or we might request portables or relocatable from the ministry of education to help support really high population schools,” Charlene Scrimshaw, the Saskatoon Public Schools deputy director of education said.
But those portables can be hard to come by.
“We asked for 36 portables last year and we received 28,” Boyko said. “This year we’re asking for another 28. And there’s only so many places you can put those portables on our school sites. There’s only so many non-classrooms you can convert into classrooms.”
Last month, Global News outlined how Jack Mackenzie School in Regina has been forced to convert the teachers’ lounge, library and dance studio into classrooms.
School divisions say portables are a temporary fix, but they lack important infrastructure and pose their own set of challenges such as students having to go outside and walk to the other end of the school to make it to class on time.
“We appreciate having those portables given to us,” Boyko said. “But that doesn’t give us extra bathrooms for those extra students. It doesn’t give us extra hallways that you need. It doesn’t always give you those extra breakout spaces you need.”
Both of Saskatoon’s school divisions say they’re actively lobbying all levels of government for more space and more schools.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
