Louis Riel division has resources to address overcrowding: minister

Manitoba’s education minister says a Winnipeg school division must find its own solutions to its overcrowding problem.

“We do know the pressures that are there and we know parents are really concerned,” Education Minister Nello Altomare said about Island Lakes Community School, where enrolment has ballooned by more than 300 students in five years.

Louis Riel School Division administrators had hoped the new NDP government would make good on a promise by the Tories to provide two modular classrooms to the kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school.

Altomare, however, said that might not be possible.

“The previous government promised a lot and they didn’t budget for it, so we’re left holding the bag,” he said Thursday.

“We’ve asked school divisions to do space audit reviews. We know there are spaces in other areas of Louis Riel and we know that the trustees will do their best to ensure that kids get the proper school experience that they deserve.”

The number of students at the Island Lakes school has jumped from 415 in 2019 to 712 as of this week.

To combat overcrowding, the school converted a community room into two classrooms last year and is looking at doing the same to its library.

The move, which has drawn criticism from some parents, would reduce the size of the library by roughly two-thirds.

Altomare said aid for the division is already incoming in the form of a new French immersion school that’s under construction in Sage Creek. The K-8 facility is expected to open in 2025.

“We look forward to that taking some of the pressure off of Island Lakes,” Altomare said, adding he trusts the division is capable of making the necessary adjustments in the meantime.

Altomare pointed to other divisions that have resorted to shuffling students between facilities to relieve overcrowding.

“Every once in a while, you do get these bubbles in enrolment and we expect, because we have locally elected school boards, that they can react quickly to those,” Altomare said.

“Other school divisions do that all of the time, and I can’t see why Louis Riel wouldn’t do the same.”

The minister noted the division has one of the highest operating budgets in the city, at $247 million, behind only River East Transcona ($251 million) and the Winnipeg School Division ($480 million).

Earlier this year, the NDP reinstated the ability of Manitoba school boards to raise education taxes. The tax hikes implemented by Louise Riel were the highest in the city, at 7.5 per cent, Altomare added.

The funds were to be used, in part, to introduce universal full-day kindergarten programs throughout the division.

The budget also allocated $14 million to complete maintenance projects and upgrades to aging buildings.

Island Lakes school will likely need some of that funding. The property’s city-issued occupancy permit says the school is limited to 600 people due to its number of washrooms.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca