Parents issue plea to end the use of portables at B.C. schools

With a week to the provincial election, parents and parent advisory councils from across British Columbia are sounding the alarm on chronic education underfunding that for decades has forced school districts to spend money earmarked for students on buying portable classrooms.

In an open letter, the group says the high number of portables is having a "crushing impact" on the education system.

"The provincial government is supposed to pay for the buildings where students learn, while each school district gets about $9,000 per student to deliver education. 

"But new schools aren't being funded fast enough or at all, forcing growing districts to use their per-student funding to purchase portables each year to ensure every student has a place to learn," reads the letter from the B.C. District Parent Advisory Council Coalition.

There were 1,776 portables at B.C. schools in 2023, according to the parents, an increase of 450 portables from 2017.

Each portable costs between $200,000 to $500,000, according to the group. It says, in total, the 450 additional portables since 2017 represent a funding cut to students of $100 million — money that should have been spent on learning, teachers, technology and custodians.

Burnaby School District PAC chair Harinder Parmar said education officials have normalized overcapacity in schools and is calling for a stop to "compartmentalized thinking" by decision makers. 

"Burnaby has about 130 portables now. On a per capita basis, it's almost the same as Surrey," she said. "We are bursting at the seams."

Parmar points to the inability of officials to plan for population growth, including in Burnaby's Brentwood neighbourhood, where an explosion of residential highrise construction has put significant strain on area schools, leading to the addition of even more portables as the quick fix to overcrowding.

"We need to stop the insanity," she said. "We can't keep waiting for this problem to become a massive fire before beginning to address it."

The B.C. NDP Party platform promises to build more than 20,000 new kindergarten to Grade 12 student spaces at 58 sites "in B.C.'s fastest-growing communities, from Richmond to Fernie to Mission."

Laura Kwong, chair of the New Westminster District Parent Advisory Council, said the promise is only meaningful if it means new schools built on a quick timeline. 

"I would hope that 20,000 student spaces in the form of modulars or portables is not the plan there because I think that's unacceptable as a long-term solution for the growth that we're seeing," said Kwong.

In February, the B.C. Conservative Party pledged to end education in portable trailers and allow districts to "increase the number of students in all K-12 classrooms with the strict condition that the school districts must maintain or increase the student-to-teacher ratio in schools." 

"That isn't the answer," said Nicola Baker, president of the Central Okanagan Parent Advisory Council. "I doubt any parent would want more students in the classroom than there are today.

The B.C. Green Party platform promises to modernize funding and infrastructure for public schools, reform facilities management and create pre-approved universal school building designs.

The parent's group is asking the province to:

• Ensure school district budgets are used for student learning, not portables and capital projects.

• Create a separate funding stream to pay for portables that will, at the same time, show the actual cost of portables to the public. 

• Quickly fund and construct new schools in order to remove the need for portables.  

"We really need to look at our public school system holistically and acknowledge that it is the foundation of our society," said Baker. "We should be funding it appropriately to ensure that our students and their futures have the best chance for success."