Division needs 35 classrooms
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2012 (5222 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Brandon School Division does not have enough classrooms to accommodate a province-wide initiative to limit kindergarten to Grade 3 classes to 20 students, according to the BSD chair.
“There are some very big concerns,” Mark Sefton said. “We would need to find about 35 classrooms.”
Premier Greg Selinger made the commitment to cap early years class sizes at 20 during last year’s provincial election campaign. The goal is to provide children with more one-on-one attention and ultimately a better learning experience in those critical first few years of school.
The province will provide $20 million annually to hire more teachers, as well as $85 million to build more class space.
School divisions are expected to implement the initiative within five years.
With Brandon’s soaring enrolment rate, Sefton said the only way this is possible is if there is a new school built in the division.
“We can’t do it with the space we’ve got, so we’ve been lobbying for some time now with the Public Schools Finance Board to get a new school built,” Sefton said.
Part of the enrolment boom has to do with the number of immigrants recruited by Maple Leaf Foods, which increases the number of English as an Additional Language students every year.
Sefton said while the division is “thrilled” with the growth, it does present some unique challenges in the division.
A provincial spokesperson said the Public Schools Finance Board has received a request for a new school in Brandon for the 2014-15 school year, and will take enrolment growth and the use of existing space into consideration when assessing the request.
The boardwill be meeting with the BSD to discuss the request and encourage the division to develop a division-wide enrolment management plan.
Sefton said he hopes the province will move on the request as soon as possible.
“We’d like to have that new school up and running before there’s a problem,” Sefton said. “What we really want is that process to get sped up a little bit so that we can get to near the top of the queue and have them commit to it, because … from the day that a new school is announced until the day the first student can sit in a desk at that school, that’s not a short process. We can’t sit around and wait for it to happen.”
» jaustin@brandonsun.com