Cam Johnson Asks:
What are your thoughts on the overcrowding of many of the cities school’s? And what can be done to help that problem?
Overcrowding is the result of at least 15 years of severe under funding of the Public School system. Boards of Education were forced to close schools and did so obediently. At the same time there has been great growth in the city as well, without the needed Education Infrastructure taken into account by all levels of government.
The result we see today is more students having to travel further to fewer schools,which is also the main reason for the traffic problems we have at schools.
The current Board of Education is dealing with this situation by buying portables to use as class room. In a report to the Board on the June 25th meeting it was suggested that 32 more portables are needed at a cost of over $5Mil. installed.
This means that the Board is planning to make a temporary solutions (portables) into a permanent one.
Now, a tree farm is not a forest, just as a Portable classrooms are not really schools.
The solution is simple: re-open closed down neighbourhood schools, such as Westsyde Elementary or Ralph Bell in Valleyview . The schools and grounds have been maintained and it would be the most efficient and effective way to deal with the overcrowding.