'It's not a good situation': Surrey families rally for funding to replace portables

Rahel Staeheli's kids aren't old enough to go to school yet, but she hopes portables won't be a part of the Surrey school system by the time they get there.

Staeheli was one of dozens of parents who rallied at Earl Marriott Secondary School this weekend, fed up with the growing number of makeshift classrooms in the city.

The group gathered to call on the provincial government to fund new schools to replace the portables.

Parents said the temporary spaces need to go because their kids deserve better.

"It's not a good situation," Staeheli said.

"There's no washrooms in most portables. We have a lot of rain in this area — I don't want [the kids] walking from the portables to the school just to go to the washroom."

The city has one of the fastest-growing student populations in the province, with more than 70,000 students enrolled.

There are 325 portables spread between elementary and secondary schools across the district, with 50 added at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.

Those spaces have helped the district accommodate the swelling student body, but advocates say building and maintaining portables is costing the district millions.

"When we are spending so much money on portables, our students are not getting the class resources that they need for [special education] teachers, for music programs, for technology or for gym equipment," said Karen Tan, president of the district's parent advisory council.

"We really need the money to come up front [from the province]."

Two new schools are under construction in Surrey, but the province has said that eliminating the need for portables would take at least four years.

The district is expecting another 1,000 students by the beginning of next fall.

With files from Jon Hernandez