A contract has been awarded to add prefabricated classrooms to space-crunched schools in Langford and Colwood, with work now underway and expected to be complete by September.
The classrooms will be built at Ruth King Elementary in Langford and David Cameron Elementary in Colwood, both of which have experienced increasing enrolment.
The Sooke School district is receiving $24 million from the province for a total of 380 student spaces — with eight classrooms at each site.
At Ruth King, the student population has spiked more than 60 per cent since 2018 — to 459 students from 285 — forcing the school to move offices into coatrooms and put coat hooks in hallways to accommodate the increased demand.
The prefabricated classrooms were the first to be designated by the Ministry of Education as part of a $156-million province-wide pilot project aimed at producing more school space as soon as possible.
Education Minister Rachna Singh said the prefabricated model will cut construction time in half, as compared with traditional construction.
Construction will be done by Surrey-based EXO Construction and the design is by Vancouver’s StudioHuB.
“As one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada, the City of Langford is pleased to see this much-needed addition to Ruth King Elementary,” said Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson in a statement.
The district now has 12,900 students, up 40 per cent in the last 15 years.
PEXSISEN Elementary School, with 600 seats, and 500-seat Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School were added in 2022 to help deal with rising student numbers. Expansion is continuing with 480-seat SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ Elementary, which is under construction on Latoria Road.
Colwood Mayor Doug Kobahashi said sidewalk upgrades on Hagel Road would be co-ordinated with the expansion at David Cameron Elementary.
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