للقرائة في اللغة العربيه اضغط هنا

November 20, 2023

Dear parents and caregivers,

I would like to extend an invitation for your participation in an online survey aimed at gathering your input on strategies that the district is considering in response to enrollment growth. A link to the survey is below.

As you are no doubt aware, our district is growing very rapidly. Over the past decade we have seen consistent annual growth of approximately 800 new students, a remarkable trend in itself. However, the past two years have presented us with unique challenges as new student enrolment has surged by an extraordinary 200%, surpassing available provincial funding for new schools and additions in our district.

This September alone, we welcomed more than 2,400 new students, bringing our total enrolment to just over 82,000.

To address both the current surge in student numbers and the projected growth for the coming years, we are updating our district's long-range facilities plan (LRFP). This plan serves as a roadmap for the next decade, aligning our school facilities with educational goals and evolving community demographics. This plan will also be shared with the Ministry of Education and Child Care and is intended to guide provincial capital investment decisions.

Parent, guardian, student and staff engagement is a critical part of this plan's update. We value your insights and invite you to participate in this online survey that is designed to gather your input on strategies the district is considering to manage enrolment growth while ensuring the quality of our students' educational experience. Potential strategies being considered include tri-semester schooling, school "shifts”, busing students to out-of-catchment schools, and hybrid online learning models.

While some of these strategies may be new to the district, they also present an opportunity to integrate innovative learning environments that may more effectively prepare our students for their future careers and align with the evolving workplace landscape.

At this stage, it's important to emphasize that these strategies are still in the consideration phase. While our preference is to construct new schools and additions in densely populated areas, we also recognize the importance of exploring alternative strategies to manage rapid enrolment growth. Please be assured that we will continue to collaborate with our provincial partners to identify long-term, sustainable solutions. However, given our rapid growth, it’s imperative that our district identify additional strategies to effectively accommodate the extensive enrolment growth we are experiencing.

This survey will require 15 minutes of your time, and your responses will remain completely confidential.

To access the survey, please click here. The survey closes at 11:59 p.m. on November 29. If you experience any technical issues with the survey, please email comm-office@surreyschools.ca.

Sincerely,Mark PearmainSuperintendent | CEO, Surrey School District

Translations available in: العربية, 中文, ਪੰਜਾਬੀ, Español, Tagalog.English PDF