Calgary parents are concerned about overcrowding in schools

A Calgary school's parent council has launched an online petition out of concern that the institution will not be able to keep up with the unprecedented enrollment growth.

Valley Creek School, located on Hidden Valley Drive, serves students in grades 4-9 and has a total enrollment listed on the CBE website of 755 students (as of September 30).

Shelley Wiart, a parent council member at Valley Creek School, has started an online petition calling on Calgary-Beddington MP Amanda Chapman to lobby Alberta's UCP government for increased education funding, among other requests.

“We are forced to address urgent issues that greatly affect the quality of education for our students,” Wiart said in a petition released on behalf of the parent council.

“Our communities are experiencing unprecedented enrollment growth, significantly expanding class sizes and draining our resources.”

Just this year, Wiart said, the school expanded its boundaries to include the burgeoning Ambleton neighborhood, but the expansion “was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in funding or capital infrastructure.”

“Our schools are vibrant centers with students who speak more than 40 languages. Many of these students come from English as an Additional Language (EAL) without the ability to learn English. However, providing them with the necessary learning resources, such as Educational Assistants (EAs). has failed to cope with complexity, and as a result the school board's ability to provide high-quality educational experiences is weakened.”

The petition also urges Chapman to encourage UCP to upgrade infrastructure, support mental health and spend public funds only on public education, not private and charter schools.

For more information about the petition, you can visit Change.org.

North Trail High School concerns

The petition raises concerns about the nearby new Calgary High School, which is believed to be over capacity.

Northern Trail High School in Calgary is located on Harvest Hills Boulevard, seven kilometers from Valley Creek School.

North Trail opened to 10th and 11th graders in the 2023-24 school year, with 12th graders expected to be accepted in the 2024-25 school year.

However, a letter on the CBE website said North Trail is projected to exceed capacity for the 2024-25 school year and will not be able to accommodate all new students who live within the designated school boundaries.

Instead, the CBE says the overflow will be diverted to Crescent Heights High School, 16 kilometers away.

One parent told CTV News she wasn't too surprised.

“We said from the beginning that this school would be full the day it opened,” Tamara Keller said.

“We've had decades of not building schools at the level we need.”

According to the Calgary Board of Education website, North Trail High School has an enrollment of 1,800 students and serves the communities of Coventry Hills, Country Hills, Country Hills Village, Harvest Hills, Panorama Hills and Hidden Valley.

This is not the only facility that is overcrowded.

More than 30 CBE schools are listed as overcapacity as the board has admitted 13,000 students in the past two years.

That's enough to fill more than 22 schools, but only one was fully funded in the last provincial budget.

There is a lot to look forward to in the end, but the process is long and sometimes the published builds are never finished.

“(North Trail High) was in the capital plan 20 years ago when we bought our house in 2006,” Keller said. “Currently there are two more high schools in the north of the capital plan (Northern Trail). My advice is if you don't want to repeat what happened to us, start campaigning now.”

Provincial response

Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has said more help is coming, but won't do anything beyond the UCP government's latest budget.

“We recognize that there is particular pressure, and we are working as hard as we can to increase funding to the relevant areas,” Nicolaides said.

“We have to keep our expenses in line with our incomes. We don't want to be in a situation where we as a province start spending the deficit to meet our operational needs.”

Nicolaides also noted that the province now spends more money on the file than ever before.

But advocates argue that this is an argument of bad faith and that quality education is more important than any shortage.

“Alberta is the least funded country in Canada, and we're still growing,” said Medeana Moussa, with the support of our students. “Our schools are bursting at the seams, and students are not getting the higher education we value.

“None of (the province's) investment has matched that need.”