More than 40,000 students return to school today in the Capital Regional District after one last long weekend to end their summer holidays.
The Greater Victoria School District is by far the largest in the region with a count of about 20,000 students in the 2023-24 academic year, followed by the Sooke School District at 13,700, the Saanich School District at 7,400 and the Gulf Islands School District at 1,500.
The highest growth continues to be in the Sooke district, where the number of students could reach 14,000 during the current school year and 16,000 by 2030.
The largest contingent of students arriving in the district of late is from families that are newcomers to Canada, superintendent Paul Block said, with about 150 newcomer families expected to send their children to classes in September.
The district will do its best to make them feel welcome “as they get used to their new surroundings,” Block said.
One change coming up is the return of fees for students to ride school buses, something that hasn’t been seen in the district since 2016.
The Sooke School Board decided to reinstate the fees at $300 per rider for the year to help deal with a $2.8-million budget shortfall.
As has been the case in recent years, the district had capital projects on the go during the summer, Block said.
That includes continuing work on SĆIȺNEW̱ SṮEȽIṮḴEȽ Elementary School, due for completion in 2025, as well on modular additions at Ruth King and David Cameron elementaries.
The modular approach is being used around the province to speed up construction time for select projects.
Block said the work at Ruth King and David Cameron has allowed the district to relocate five portable classrooms to other schools with space pressures.
More construction is in the district’s plans, he said. “We are well into establishing the business case for the new secondary school in north Langford.”
The business case should be ready for submission to the province in November.
In the Saanich School District, growth has been coming at more of an even pace, said superintendent Dave Eberwein.
“Up until 2017, we were seeing population decline, but since that time we have been slowly growing every year.”
He said the 2023-34 budget didn’t bring any cuts or new fees to be dealt with in 2024-25, but it required the use of surplus funds to be balanced — something that is not sustainable in the long term.
Eberwein noted that the district is now on the third year of its five-year strategic plan and is having good results.
“We are seeing improvement in some of the areas that we’ve been focusing on, like literacy and Indigenous learners’ success.”
Given its limited growth, the district has no major capital projects happening, Eberwein said.
In the fast-growing Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District, a six-classroom expansion at Wellington Secondary School is in the works using the same sort of modular design as at Ruth King and David Cameron.
The project is expected to be complete in winter 2026.
“These new classrooms directly support our district goal of increasing the number of students who feel welcome, safe and have a sense of belonging in their school, in an environmentally sustainable way,” said school board chair Greg Keller.
Efforts to get rid of portables and make seismic improvements in the district have been going on since 2017, said Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson.
There have been 395 new student seats added since then at such schools as Dover Bay Secondary and École Hammond Bay Elementary, as well as seismic upgrades at Cilaire and Pleasant Valley elementary schools.
Police departments around the Island have been preparing for the start of the school year by putting out advisories about speed zones at schools coming back into effect.
There is a particular need for caution in the area of Keating Elementary School as work on the nearby Patricia Bay Highway continues.
Detours due to the ongoing overpass project on the highway are expected to contribute to high traffic volumes near the school, prompting the Ministry of Transportation to warn motorists to expect congestion along Central Saanich Road and Saanich Cross Road when school is back in session Tuesday.
Morning and afternoon periods for dropping off and picking up students could be especially busy in the area.
Signage will be posted and traffic-management staff will be on hand, the ministry said.
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