Nova Scotia Education Minister Becky Druhan has revealed the planned locations of four new schools in the Halifax area, but with construction projected to take several years, some parents are skeptical whether the schools will address the current overcrowding issues.
In an announcement Tuesday, Druhan said the new schools will be built in Timberlea, Middle Sackville, Port Wallace and Bedford. As well, a site on Radcliffe Drive has been selected for the Clayton Park-Fairview Junior High School that was promised in 2018.
For Erica Sun and her family, overcrowding in the classrooms has been a major issue. In fact, it motivated them to move from Middle Sackville to the community of Kingswood this past April.
“A good school used to constitute great activities, great teachers, great programs, great support. That’s not the case anymore. For me personally, a great school now is basically low enrollment,” said Sun, adding she was worried about supervision.
“The school’s doing what they can, but they can’t watch every kid when you have that many kids.”
While she stresses the teachers were “amazing” and “some of the best teachers that I’ve ever seen,” she says it was evident they were overstretched.
“If I had a conversation with the teachers, they were very honest to say, ‘Well, we’ll do what we can. But you know, we’ve got 27 kids in the class,’” she said.
“The constant statement you get is: ‘We don’t have the capacity. We don’t have the capacity to manage the parking lot. We don’t have the capacity to monitor kids as closely.’ And that’s kind of a reoccurring theme, which again, is not their fault. It’s just the fact the school has to follow.”
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‘Five to six years’
The newly announced schools are in addition to three Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) and two Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial (CSAP) schools that are already moving toward or under construction in Halifax Regional Municipality.
Once construction is complete, the Timberlea school will have students in pre-primary to Grade 8, as well as a child-care centre. The schools in Middle Sackville, in Port Wallace’s Lake Charles area, and in Bedford will have elementary and junior high students.
The province says the nine schools in total should have space for 8,000 students.
As for costs, $50 million has been allocated to buy land for the schools. So far, $16.7 million has been paid for land in Timberlea and over $2.2 million in Clayton Park-Fairview.
The province is still negotiating land deals for the other three new schools.
When asked how long it would take for the new schools to open, the Department of Public Works said timelines aren’t clear yet — and will depend on those land deals.
“So until we have that secured, we’re not able to move to the next stage,” said the department’s executive director, Tonya McLellan.
“So once that’s there, you know, I think five to six years is a reasonable horizon.”
During Tuesday’s announcement, Education Min. Druhan also admitted that more modular units may still be needed to keep up with growth.
“The students and teachers and staff who work within modulars and learn within modulars are thrilled with them,” Druhan said.
“They are beautiful learning spaces. They are built to meet the learning needs of students.”
All this has opposition parties wondering — along with parents — whether it’s enough to solve the current problem.
“I think about my youngest, who’s in Grade 6. These schools probably aren’t going to be built while he’s still in school,” said Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender.
“So for families in these communities that are growing really quickly, it’s going to take a long time and we need a lot more.”
It’s an assertion Sun agrees with.
“It still won’t affect the children now,” she said. “So for the next five years, everybody has to accept the fact that their children are crammed into a classroom with 30 kids.”
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