'We need some action now': Manitoba school dealing with overcrowding issues

The library inside West St. Paul School doesn’t have any books in it anymore. Instead, two classes of students and their teachers have moved in because there isn’t room for them anywhere else.

A group of concerned WSP School parents have sent an email to their elected officials detailing the overcrowding problem and the issues it has created.

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Kelly Bishop wrote the letter and she said she was angry and disappointed when she walked into the school and saw the library in the hallway.

"Just add more kids, add more kids, and eventually you get to the point that there's nothing left for them," she told CTV News Tuesday.

She wrote in the letter that the school’s student population has been consistently growing every year and it has reached a breaking point.

“Two years ago, parents were told that two additional portables were going to be added to support the increased capacity at WSP School,” she wrote. “These were supposed to be installed in 2022. The electrical upgrade costing $2 million was required before the portables could be installed and that funding has not been provided, thus far.”

Bishop wants the school that was promised to the area in 2019 built.

"We don't need a study. We don't need an audit. We need some action now. We need a funding commitment, and we need a school built," said Bishop.

The school's library is now home to two classes that are grades 3 and 4 multi-age.

The hallway where the books are is where kids come to check out books, and then they return to their classroom space to read.

Library books have been moved into the hall at West St. Paul School due to space issues. The library is seen on Sept. 10, 2024. (Michelle Gerwing/CTV News Winnipeg)

West St. Paul was listed as one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada in 2022 by Statistics Canada. It ranked number 10 on a list of 25 municipalities with at least 5,000 people with the highest rate of population growth between 2016 and 2021. During that period, West St. Paul’s rate of growth was 24.5 percent.

The school is in the Seven Oaks School Division. Superintendent Tony Kreml described the hallway where the library is as more of an open area.

"Given that everything else was taken up, the library was the last place where we could acquire classroom space," he said.

Kreml said this creativity was needed to keep classes at a manageable size, which is around 20-25 students per class.

He added in previous years, catchment lines were changed to help manage the student body size at West St. Paul School.

Kreml is meeting with the education minister on Thursday where he plans to impress upon the department that a new school is needed soon in this community.

"We're running out of room going forward," he said.

"I think we all want the same thing and that's a quality education, for students at West Saint Paul."

Education Minister Nello Altomare told CTV News he hopes to finalize what the needs are at Thursday's meeting.

"Understand where the pressures are and get to work on finding solutions for this issue. This is something we are elected to do, and we're going to make sure we get it done," he said.

He added the province is doing a space audit in every school division.

Grant Jackson, PC critic for education, criticized the NDP, saying they're not building schools quickly enough to deal with population growth.

"They cancelled nine desperately needed schools on their first day in government, and are now stacking students in hallways," he said in a statement. "The minister seems to forget he's been in office for a year and it was his government's decision to stop construction of these nine additional schools."

In 2019, the then-PC government made a promise to build a school with a capacity for 700 kids in West St Paul.

In July 2023,  they announced a Public-Private Partnership (P3) procurement model to deliver more schools in order to address population growth and residential expansion.    

A spokesperson for the PC Caucus told CTV in a written statement that 'the previous PC government had committed to a plan to build 23 schools by 2027, with 14 completed and underway as of last October.'

They also wrote that the government issued a tender for the remaining nine last July which included the West St. Paul School. Capital funding for building those schools was expected to be in Budget 2024. 

The NDP’s first budget in April 2024 set aside funds for two new K-8 schools, Ecole Mino Pimatisiwin School in Seven Oaks School Divisions, in northwest Winnipeg, and Ecole Sage Creek Bonavista in Louis Riel School Division, in southeast Winnipeg- to be built by government funding alone.

Altomare answered the PC criticism by saying his government is focused on planning.  

“What we're going to be doing is actually putting money behind buildings and taking the actual construction cost and all the necessary pieces to Treasury Board so that we can get this done,” he said,” The previous government never did that. They never adequately planned. They just said they were going to do it. But of course, without a plan, you can't get anything done,” said Altomare.