It's a case of growing pains for the Surrey School District and its overcrowded portable classrooms.
Many students in B.C.'s largest and fastest growing school district will endure another year of classes in uncomfortable portables instead of actual classrooms.
"The frustrating thing is the portables in the summer time are extremely hot," Fraser Heights Secondary School parent Diana Douglas told CTV News. "And in the winter it's freezing and the kids have to walk outside in the rain and the snow."
With all-day kindergarten numbers factored into the equation, Surrey will have grown by 1,200 students this school year. There are 16 portables in Fraser Heights and 232 in all of Surrey -- more than in any other school district. That's too many for Douglas, who is president of the Fraser Heights Parents Advisory Council.
"It's out of hand. It's really ridiculous."
Surrey School District spokesman Doug Strachan doesn't disagree.
"I don't think anybody would argue that," he said. "That's about 500 more students over capacity -- and the capacity is about 1,000."
Fraser Heights PAC has been requesting additional funding to build an addition to the school for years.
"We're shovel-ready and we have a place for it," Douglas said. "There is no reason why we can't have this second wing put onto the school."
Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said the government is working on the problem.
"We're working very hard with the Surrey School District," she said. "The number of portable classrooms has come down substantially over the past decade. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but there still are a number of students in portable classrooms."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro
