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SD62 looking to add new schools as Westshore faces BC's fastest-growing enrolment

With recently added schools already full, Sooke School District plans to build 3 more elementaries and North Langford Secondary & Middle

SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ school is a year away, but its 480 spots are already spoken for. Mockup: Thinkspace architects

“If you build it, they will come": the famous line comes from the movie Field of Dreams, in which Kevin Costner’s Iowa farmer hears a mysterious, whispering voice instructing him to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield so that ghosts of major league players will appear and play there.

Well, the people have already come to the Westshore—and now the Sooke School District (SD62) is looking to build the schools it needs to accommodate the influx.

In a press release on Oct. 8, SD62 announced it has “exceeded its projected growth for the 2024-25 school year.” The release speaks to how the district plans to work with the Ministry of Education and across its constituent municipalities to build more schools and supporting infrastructure to accommodate the growing number of students in the Westshore.  

Its initial projections estimated K-12 standard Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Enrolment would land at 13,065 students. But actual K-12 enrolment is now 13,298—that’s 233 more students than expected, and an overall increase of 548 over last year. (The grand total of students is actually 14,315 when Continuing Ed and Online Learning are included.)

Since last year, school enrolment in those municipalities (Sooke, Port Renfrew, Metchosin, Highlands, Langford and Colwood) collectively increased by 4.3%.

High schools are especially overcrowded

That growth rate was even higher at the secondary level, at 7%, and is causing particular concern because Belmont and Royal Bay Secondary Schools are operating over capacity. Belmont was overflowing by a full third (133% capacity), as of spring 2024. As a result, the district is looking to gain support for approval to build the proposed North Langford Secondary School. 

Belmont secondary continues to be over capacity. Image: Jarvis Engineering

A 12-acre (4.9 ha) piece of land has already been bought near Costco, where the proposed 2,000-seat secondary school has been approved in principle, precisely to relieve pressure on “existing facilities and to address the secondary school space pressures in the Westshore,” as per its release. The City of Langford intends to contribute money for an all-weather field and lighting, and possibly a large event theatre.

The district and province also announced two months ago that land for a future middle school had been bought across from the secondary site.

Not the only fast-growing district

The district still needs to have its business case for the new secondary school approved by the province, and then construction would take another 2-4 years after that. The school was already announced by the current provincial government, but the exact specs are yet to come and SD62’s case may be competing for provincial resources with other quick-growth regions.

At the beginning of the school year Surrey declared itself the fastest-growing school district in BC, with an increase of more than 2,000 students over the previous year. On its website, SD62 says it is “one of the fastest-growing school districts in BC.” Kristen McGillivray, SD62 communications manager, told The Westshore that the local district's current claim to be the fastest-growing was “confirmed internally with staff at the Ministry of Education.”

Surrey may have added the most individual students, but that massive district was already the largest in BC with 83,401 students this spring—putting its percentage increase below SD62's.

Growth is straining existing schools

In the Westshore, the pressure of an increased student population isn’t limited to schools at the secondary level. The district is also exploring creative interim solutions with the ministry to expand capacity without adding more portables to its existing elementary schools.

Those solutions will have to address the fact that PEXSISEN Elementary, which opened in Langford in 2022, is already full. Nearby Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School, also opened in 2022, has nearly reached capacity and the 480 spots at SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ Elementary School (slated to open in September 2025 on Latoria Road at Klahanie Drive) are already accounted for.

Centre Mountain Lellum Middle looked like this just 3 years ago. It's already almost full. File photo: Zoe Ducklow / The Westshore

David Cameron had its capacity issues relieved just this week, as Ruth King last month, with nearly 400 new seats in 16 prefabricated classrooms.

District Superintendent Paul Block recently told CTV that SD62 may add another 20 of the prefabricated classrooms to Royal Bay, at the nearby future home of an elementary school. He also said SD62 was “trying to learn from our past" by making the upcoming high school 2,000 capacity rather than 1,400 like the existing ones.

New elementary schools planned

The good news is that land for building three new regional elementary schools has been secured as part of the school district’s capital planning. These would include the aforementioned South Colwood elementary in Royal Bay, one on Flint Avenue in north Langford, and one in the area of Sooke’s Sunriver Estates. Port Renfrew Elementary is also being completely physically replaced for seismic reasons; the province announced $12M for that project in March.

A digital tour of prefabricated additions to Ruth King Elementary, which added approx. 190 more seats.

The district is optimistic about the potential approval of North Langford Secondary School after a government is formed following the Oct. 19 election. However, current growth rate trends will mean the district will have to continue to plan for increasing student enrolment in coming years. 

In Tuesday’s release, Block said “We are committed to ensuring that every student in the Sooke School District has access to a high quality education in a safe and supportive learning environment.” He concluded the update by saying SD62 will “continue to advocate for the resources and infrastructure needed to meet the demands of our growing community.” 

With files from Cam Welch