The Sooke school district is moving ahead with expansion plans for Royal Bay Secondary sooner than anticipated.
The $38.6-million facility opened just two years ago — in 2015 — but population growth in the district has made expansion a priority. The school has gone from 800 students in its first year to just under 1,000. Four portables were added in 2016 to accommodate that growth.
“The school was always planned for expansion,” said district superintendent Jim Cambridge. “The core of the building was planned for 1,200 students.
“Growth has been exponentially faster than predicted.”
An anticipated increase of 200 students a year in the 10,000-student district has instead jumped to about 500, he said.
Cambridge said it is likely more portables will be brought to Royal Bay in the summer.
Many people weren’t aware that expansion was in the cards and are “shocked” that the need has already come, said Brena Robinson, chairwoman of the Sooke Parent’s Education Advisory Council.
Sooke school board chairman Bob Phillips said residential building in the Royal Bay area has taken off, and a large development along Happy Valley Road is also home to a number of students. Without more school space in the district, there will be “real problems” in a few years, he said.
“We’ve got to do building somewhere.”
The district announced in October that it had begun looking to purchase sites for up to four new schools.
For now, the Ministry of Education has given approval for the district to prepare a “project definition report” for the expansion, Cambridge said. Such a report is “the first step to any kind of construction,” he said.
“It means we have support from the ministry for the project but not approval,” he said. “Part of the project definition report is to identify the general cost of construction in today’s dollars, but also to make the case that there is, in fact, enough kids to support that build.”
A meeting with consultants who will prepare the report will be held next week.
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