Cre ating space Districts choose modular/portables to help accommodate reinstated class sizes and compositions By Shayna Wiwierski
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One section of a modular being lifted by crane to be swung into place.
Supreme Court decision means that a collective agreement from 2002 will be restored.
In November 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada made a decision that the Government of B.C. was required to reinstate the class size limits, class composition provisions and staffing ratios that were unconstitutionally removed in 2002. Effective for the 2017/18 school year, the limits for primary classes are 20 students for kindergarten and 22 students for Grades 1 to 3. Class compositions for intermediate and secondary classes vary from district to district. Composition is generally in reference to the number of special needs students in the class, as well as the number of teacher assistants, counsellors, and librarians per student in a school. “Composition plays a huge role as there are students that require more attention than others,” says Tristan Schaufler, director of facilities, transportation, and capital projects for the Langley School District #35. “When you look at the composition of classrooms, you can have students that function on a common level, and based on that, they would be considered one body, whereas if the student requires more support, they may count as two students. So, what happens is you may have a class that doesn’t have the same number of students, but the amount of the workload would be equivalent with a classroom that has a different composition.” As a result of the reinstated class size limits, districts are finding that they need more classroom support to meet the demand. Schaufler says that each district does an assessment so that they can realize that in certain cases they can absorb the classroom size and composition, and in other times, they can’t. As a result, they end up looking at creating more classroom space. A lot has happened since 2002, and other dynamics playing in is the slow decline of students in more urban areas because of the cost of living, meaning that districts would have had to consolidate schools. “You would have schools with less than 200 students in it 18
Ops Talk • Fall 2017
The delivery of one section being backed into the site to make ready for the crane.
