Rocky View Schools (RVS) is hoping the government will approve a request for 17 new portables and two relocated portables to help address projected utilization rates of more than 100 per cent for the 2015/16 school year.
At the Oct. 6 board of trustees meeting the board unanimously approved the superintendent to submit a request to the government of Alberta, which includes four new portables for Cochrane’s Mitford School and two new portables for Langdon School.
The move comes after RVS unveiled the division’s Sept. 30, 2014 enrolment summary, which indicated the division had an additional 1,116 students this year, bringing the total number of students to 20,593.
“Mitford School along with the Christian Academy is now the biggest school in Cochrane,” said board chair Colleen Munro.
“This shows we’ve really caught up with the bigger municipalities like Airdrie and Chestermere.”
Mitford currently has a utilization rate of 104 per cent and the projected utilization rate for the 2015/16 year rises to 116 per cent.
Langdon School is currently at 90 per cent utilization, but that number is projected to climb to about 106 per cent in 2015/16, according to RVS.
The four new portables RVS is requesting for Mitford are units with attached corridors so the division would not have to build a link to the school.
A concern for trustees was the unanswered questions surrounding how the units will be paid for.
In March 2014, the government announced a new cost-sharing program, which required school boards to pay $50,000 per unit for delivery and setup costs and 100 per cent of costs for any links required to connect the units to other units or the main school building for the 2014/15 school year.
“It was very expensive for us for the (units) installed this summer and the ones still being installed, to the tune of $2 million,” said associate superintendent of business and operations Darrell Couture.
Couture added no announcement has yet been made on cost-sharing for the 2015/16 school year, but the eight modular units approved Oct. 8 from the emergent capital request RVS sent to the government would not require cost-sharing from the division.
“That bodes well that there might not be any cost-sharing for the 2015/16 year,” Couture said, adding the funding requirement from divisions is “inherently unfair.”
Trustee Helen Clease said the division also has to consider finishing costs for units such as furnishings.
Director of facility planning John Wheatley said the government does give schools boards $12,000 per unit for furnishing, but added this only covers about 50 per cent of the finishing costs.
For the 2014/15 school year, RVS requested 19 new portables and nine relocated units, but received approval for only eight new units and nine relocated units.
It was unknown as of press time when the government will address the request.
