Crowded classes lead to ‘hallway education’ Parents fed up with makeshift classrooms at some schools Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
By: Maggie Macintosh Posted: 6:18 PM CDT Monday, Sep. 9, 2024

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This article was published 09/09/2024 (672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Makeshift classrooms — including a library set up in a corridor, which one mother likened to “hallway education” — have Manitoba families fed up about the pace of new school planning to address enrolment pressures.

Elementary students in West St. Paul and Winnipeg’s Island Lakes suburb are among those who started the school year in an unconventional classroom.

“I was floored by what I saw … we have hallway medicine, and now we have hallway education,” said Corrie Hucul-Dudley, a mother of two at West St. Paul School.

There are currently upwards of 600 students attending the kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school. That’s roughly 150 more attendees than there were five years ago.

In order to accommodate growing registration, the library was separated into two multiage classrooms over the summer break. A librarian desk and bookshelves were moved outside the first-floor room and set up along an adjacent hallway area.

The changes immediately caught the attention of mother Kelly Bishop, a health and safety director, when she attended a Grade 3 orientation session last week.

Bishop said she has since contacted the provincial fire commissioner over concerns the set up does not meet code requirements.

“It’s like taking a pie and splitting it into more pieces,” she said, noting the number of washrooms and play structures, among other infrastructure, remains unchanged. “Your child gets less of everything.”

In 2019, as she began to worry about new developments and the number of young families searching for daycare spots on her street, Bishop said she reached out to her local trustee to inquire about a second school to service the fast-growing area north of the Perimeter Highway.

The project remains in limbo, which she said is especially frustrating given West St. Paul was ranked the 10th fastest growing municipality in Canada in 2022.

Census data show the population grew nearly 25 per cent between 2016 and 2021.

Tony Kreml, superintendent of the Seven Oaks School Division, said all of the building’s classrooms have a designated fire route and the hallway in question is not one of them.

“I was floored by what I saw … we have hallway medicine, and now we have hallway education.”–Corrie Hucul-Dudley

It was chosen because it has “a bit of an open area,” Kreml said, adding he wants the same thing as parents — a new build — but teachers are making do by using non-traditional spaces so class sizes remain reasonable.

Kreml noted the province made a 2019 commitment to open a dual-track elementary school in West St. Paul with capacity for 700 students and division officials continue to liaise with the province to get authorization for the project.

Seven Oaks’ board recently updated catchment areas to alleviate pressure by rerouting students from Rossmere and North Main to other buildings, he added.

Government and division officials are scheduled to visit the elementary school for a walk-through Tuesday.

The Tories have repeatedly accused the NDP government of pulling support for nine new schools the previous government planned to build through a controversial public-private partnership model.

Education Minister Nello Altomare pointed a finger at his predecessors on Monday, saying the NDP government has inherited “extraordinary circumstances” as a result of Progressive Conservative cuts to public schools.

Altomare said satellite libraries are less than ideal, but the books themselves and relationships between teachers and students are the most important thing.

“Schools have to be creative in this environment and they’re doing that because they know how important it is to get books in hands,” he said.

Multiple parents of children studying in the former library told the Free Press noise has already proven challenging in the largely open space that was halved with furniture no taller than three feet in height.

“I don’t want it to deter her love of learning and her want of learning,” said Alana Woods, adding her Grade 3 daughter’s teacher asked kids to arrive with headphones to help them concentrate.

Jeff Cieszecki, president of the local teacher’s union, said he was aware of the enrolment pressures but had yet to hear from members about the recent adjustments.

It’s not unprecedented for schools to convert libraries into classroom spaces while awaiting new builds, Cieszecki said.

Island Lakes Community School has transformed a gymnasium, community room, and a chunk of the elementary library into homerooms to accommodate ballooning enrolment.

Phys-ed classes are taking place outdoors, weather permitting, and the music program is currently mobile.

Administrators in the Louis Riel School Division are hopeful that the arrival of four portables, two of which have been secured and are expected to be functional by mid-October, will free up space.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca