Board approves 2026-27 five-year capital plan requesting $5.7B for student space needs

According to 10-year enrolment projections, Surrey Schools is expected to have up to 96,000 students in 2034, as shown in the 2026-27 five-year capital plan presentation at the Surrey Board of Education's May public board meeting. The board approved the capital plan's funding request seeking $5.7 billion from the Ministry of Education and Child Care for 76 major capital projects.

The district’s ongoing need for new student spaces continues to increase its need for capital funding as the Surrey Board of Education has approved the 2025-26 five-year capital plan, seeking $5.7 billion from the Ministry of Education and Child Care for 76 major capital projects to address sustained, rapid growth in Surrey and White Rock schools.

In a presentation at the May 14 public board meeting, Capital Project Office Executive Director Dave Riley outlined the plan, which asks the Ministry to financially support 27 new schools, 21 additions, 25 site acquisitions, two school replacements and one seismic upgrade, as well as 10 building envelope projects. The staggering 10-figure request is a $670 million increase from last year’s capital plan, which sought $5.03 billion for capital projects.

“Over the last year, we saw an increase of 1,500 students, bringing our total to 79,000 students in regular schools,” said Riley. “On top of that, we do have a number of students in alternate programs, learning centres, etc., bringing the total to upwards of 84,000.

“This year, we are expecting another increase, and we do expect that increase to continue year over year out for the foreseeable future.”

Riley said the increase in students is largely, but not exclusively, driven by aggressive growth plans along the Surrey/Langley SkyTrain corridor, expected to bring high-density developments. He also noted that immigration and other factors are contributing to the district’s student population growth, which is projected to reach nearly 96,000 in 2034.

In all six of the district’s zones, secondary schools are significantly over capacity and at risk of severe overcrowding – even with additions to Clayton Heights, Fleetwood Park, Grandview Heights, École Kwantlen Park, Guildford Park and Tamanawis secondary schools already supported or approved by the Ministry. The capital plan requests a new secondary in each zone, as well as three to five elementary schools in most zones, including two urban format elementary schools in City Centre.

“We are proposing a switch from the standard elementary school on seven acres of land to something more in line with an urban format where that school might occupy a much smaller footprint of one or two acres and may even be integrated into a mixed-use multi residential development in some format,” said Riley. “This is driven almost exclusively by the lack of available land in these high-density areas, and the need to support the students that will be living in these high-density formats going into the future.”

Trustee Laurie Larsen emphasized the need for new schools sooner than later – especially along the SkyTrain expansion where Fleetwood and Clayton are anticipated to become among the busiest transit hubs – to avoid putting current schools further over capacity to the point of closing their doors to new in-catchment students.

“We have 14 new schools or sites that we need along Fraser Highway to be built, and have to be built today,” she said. “A lot of parents would look at a school a block away or across the street, they move in and go to register in September and find out the school they have to go to is three and a half, four or five miles away.”

Trustee Garry Thind noted the district’s funding request has ballooned over the years alongside exponential student population growth, but the funding Surrey Schools has received has not kept pace.

“A couple years back, it was about at $1 billion and now it’s gone up to $5.7 billion,” he said. “In the last seven to eight years, we have received close to $850 million in terms of capital investments. We are not getting enough, what they’re giving us is not even catching up to our growth.”

Thind thanked the Surrey Teachers Association, CUPE 728 and Surrey DPAC for their advocacy, adding the board continues to meet with all levels of government to lobby for funding.

“We are doing our part, meeting with local MLAs, ministers and even local MPs and trying to convince them to fund these schools federally as well because this is going out of the control of the provincial government,” said Thind. “I know a lot needs to be done and the only way it can be done is if the current government makes education a priority, and right now I don’t see that.

Trustee Bob Holmes highlighted that out of 32 site acquisition requests since 2013, 20 are still on the capital plan. He also noted a six-year gap between 2018 and 2024, in which no new schools were supported in the district. The district currently has three projects that are supported but are pending Ministry funding approval: Redwood Park Elementary and additions to Clayton Heights Secondary and Grandview Heights Secondary.

Holmes also said the board was initially surprised that the funding amount requested in the plan wasn’t higher than $5.7 billion. He explained that adjustments to inflationary rates downwards and differences in cost for urban schools reduced the amount of money needed, but not the number of student seats.

“We actually added $918 million this year in new capital asks,” said Holmes. “What we were funded for last year, $88.5 million. To let that sink in, we have a $5.7 billion need for capital in the next five years, we added $918 million, we received less than $89 million. We’re going backwards in a big way.

“This is a problem that is continuing to grow and we cannot continue like this.”