The Sooke School District is now rated as the fastest-growing in the province after exceeding its projected enrolment for this school year.
Kindergarten to Grade 12 enrolment is estimated at 13,298 students for 2024-25 — 233 students more than expected and a 4.3 per cent increase overall from last school year.
Growth was even higher at the secondary level, with a seven per cent rise.
Middle-school numbers are up 5.2 per cent and elementary numbers are up 2.1 per cent.
That rate of growth exceeds that of Surrey School District, which has called itself the fastest-growing in the province, with a student population exceeding 85,000 this school year. Surrey says it has 2,000 new students this year.
Sooke’s enrolment figures don’t include alternative high school Westshore Secondary, continuing-education and online-learning programs, which bring the total to 14,315.
The district said both Belmont Secondary and Royal Bay Secondary have more students than they were built for. A 12-acre piece of land for another secondary school has been purchased near Costco.
The sharp rise in enrolment at the secondary level underlines the urgent need for an additional secondary school in the district, said superintendent Paul Block.
Block said with both Belmont and Royal Bay Secondary exceeding their capacity, it’s “crucial” that the proposed 2,000-seat North Langford Secondary School be approved to relieve space pressures on existing facilities.
He said the district is working with the Ministry of Education on the business case for the new secondary school, and is “actively exploring creative interim solutions” with the ministry to expand capacity without adding more portables.
That could include building prefabricated classrooms on a site near Royal Bay that will eventually be home to an elementary school, Block said.
Block said the student population in the district has grown by 40 per cent over the past 15 years, reflecting the growth of municipalities like Langford and Colwood, as well as a regional growth strategy emphasizing development on the West Shore.
“So it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the growth’s out here.”
Also in the district, work continues on SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ (pronounced schee-ay-nuh ska-leetk-luth) Elementary School on Latoria Road at Klahanie Drive and is due for completion in 2025, but the school is expected to be at or near its 480-student capacity from the outset.
PEXSISEN Elementary in Langford, which opened in 2022, is already full and neighbouring Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School, also opened in 2022, is nearing capacity.
The district’s capital plan includes an elementary school on Flint Avenue in north Langford, an elementary school in the Royal Bay area of Colwood, and an elementary school in the area of Sooke’s Sunriver Estates. Land for all three projects has already been secured.
