Rising enrolment continues to fuel the Central Okanagan Public Schools’ need for more portables.
The planning and facilities committee has learned the school district must shift two portables to new locations and purchase three portables to meet forecasted enrolment demands for the 2023-24 school year.
The price tag will be about $1.29 million, money that must be taken from the school district’s operating budget which pays for school education programs.
Since 2018, the school district has added 33 portables to school sites, the cost being $7.67 million to purchase or move portables to accommodate enrolment growth.
With the new portable additions, the overall portable inventory for September 2023 will be 125 across the district.
Future forecasts suggest four additional portables will be required for the 2024-25 school year.
There is some hope on the horizon as two capital projects scheduled for completion by 2027 are expected to ease the portable demand – the expansion of Ecole Dr. Knox Middle School in Kelowna and the new George Pringle Secondary School in West Kelowna.
“After completion of these projects, it is forecasted that the District will start having a surplus of portables,” stated a staff report submitted by Rob Drew, directions of operations for Central Okanagan Public Schools.
A reliance on portables due to spiking enrolment with no support from the ministry of education has been a sore point for the school board in recent years.
“The money for these portables comes out of our operating budget. So that is taking away money that could be made available for more teachers, for more programs, for more learning assistants,” said the former board of education chair Moyra Baxter in April 2022 as trustees confronted this issue at that time.
Two prime examples of portable dependence in the face of rising enrolment have been at Mount Boucherie Secondary, now with more than 20 portables on site, and Rutland Middle School, where portables provide classroom space for 40 per cent of the students.
For the fall, portables will be transferred from Ecole Dorothea Walker and Anne McClymont elementary schools to Ecole Bellevue Creek and Watson Road elementary schools respectively.
New portables will be purchased for Chief Tomat Elementary, Shannon Lake Elementary and Mount Boucherie Secondary.
READ MORE: Portables a drain on Central Okanagan School District budget