Parents, superintendent talk overcrowding at Moncton High

It's a sign of the times at some schools in the Greater Moncton area.

Rows and rows of portables with more to come.

Anglophone East School District superintendent Randy MacLEAN said they're maxed out at a lot of their schools.

"We've had to convert extra learning spaces into classroom spaces just to ensure we have kids in classrooms," said MacLEAN.

Anglophone East School District Superintendent Randy MacLEAN is pictured. (Source: Derek Haggett/CTV News Atlantic)

During Tuesday's budget, the province announced $18.6 million would be spent addressing challenges resulting from enrolment growth across New Brunswick.

"We are, in Anglophone East, of the x-thousands of new students in the province, we've had the majority of them. So we will benefit from the new monies," said MacLEAN.

Anglophone East School District

• 21/22: 16,766 students
• 22/23: 18,349 students
• 23/24: 19,550 students
• 24/25: 20,062 projected students

The district keeps growing and growing.

During the 2021/22 school year there were 16,766 students.

The projected enrolment for the 2024/25 school year is more than 20,000 students.

Nowhere is the growth of the district more apparent than at Moncton High School.

Built 10 years ago for roughly 1,200 students, it currently has approximately 1,600.

There's 12 classroom portables, one bathroom portable and four more to come in the near future.

Parent School Support Committee [PSSC] chair Matt Sammut said the overcrowding causes a number of issues.

"Teachers can't be effective in their role when their running classes in rooms that aren't even classrooms. We're losing space, there's dangers in the halls of overcrowding of kids all coming at the same point," said Sammut. "There's a lot of challenges of resources and keeping teachers as well."

New schools are being built in the district including K-12 facilities in Shediac and Dieppe that should help the issue at Moncton High, but those are likely four-to-five years away.

PSSC member Evan Hambrook wants a short-term plan.

"There's a vacant school in downtown Moncton. The old Moncton High School itself. Maybe there's a potential to try and utilize that space while these other schools are being built," said Hambrook.

Part of the issue is the migration of families and their children from other parts of Canada and other countries.

Moncton is one of the fastest growing cities in the country with thousands of newcomers coming to the region in the past few years.

"At this growth rate, how many portables are we going to have here at Moncton High before these new schools come online?" said Hambrook.

Sammut said the school is 33 per cent over what the capacity is supposed to be.

"That's massive overcrowding and it's on a weekly basis," said Sammut. "It's a good problem. It means our province is growing. It's a go-to place for the migration of other provinces and international people coming, but we have to grow infrastructure with it."

MacLEAN knows it is a difficult situation, but said teachers and staff at all the schools in the district are doing the best they can.

"Is it optimal when you are teaching out of cafeterias, when you are teaching out of science labs? No it's not, but I can tell you the staff at Moncton High has gone above and beyond," said MacLEAN.

New schools

The superintendent also gave an update on some of the new schools being built in the district.

The design for the 1,000 student K-12 school in Shediac has been approved and will be going out for request for proposal [RFP] soon and will have some unique features.

"We've built in a peace and friendship space as part of the build. Places specifically ventilated for smudging right off the cafeteria," said MacLEAN. "Moving forward, that will be part of some of our builds."

The K-12 school in Dieppe is in the design phase and MacLEAN said hopefully in the fall it will go for RFP for architectural design.

Salisbury will be getting a new elementary school and will go through the design process in the fall.

A middle school on the campus of Bernice MacNaughton High School in Moncton is scheduled to open in September.

The school will get a name sometime in the next few months.

For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.