New homes far outnumber new classrooms in Fraser Valley

SURREY (NEWS1130) - New homes keep popping up in the Fraser Valley at a near-record pace.  But where will the children living in these homes go to school?  A lack of classrooms in Surrey means many of the new students will be in portables.

Surrey School Board chair Laurae McNally admits they won't have enough regular classrooms to accommodate the nearly 1,300 new students expected this September--especially in rapidly growing areas like Clayton Heights.  "It certainly presents us with problems with respect to portables, particularly in that the government has not kept up with building new schools and new school additions here."

McNally points out that 20 per cent of B.C.'s babies are born in Surrey, yet the provincial government hasn't given them money for new schools for the last five years.  She says even if new schools were approved today, it would take three years to build them.