Hamilton’s public school board will seek the Ministry of Education’s permission to use its own money for a portapak addition at Eastdale Elementary School as part of efforts to deal with ballooning enrolment.
Hamilton’s public school board will seek the Ministry of Education’s permission to use its own money for a portapak addition at Eastdale Elementary School as part of efforts to deal with ballooning enrolment.
Hamilton’s public school board will seek the Ministry of Education’s permission to use its own money for an addition of connected portables at Stoney Creek’s Eastdale Elementary School as part of a short-term strategy to deal with ballooning enrolment.
Senior facilities manager David Anderson said the board needs an exemption from rules on the use of proceeds from property sales to buy the portapak, which would replace an undetermined number of the 12 portable classrooms at the Lincoln Road school.
The proceeds usually must be used for school renewal. If the ministry gives the OK, the goal is to have the portapak in place for this September if one is available, Anderson told trustees at their Feb. 20 finance and facilities meeting.
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“Getting portables is at times challenging, so getting a portapak could be even more challenging,” he said, adding the board will also require a city building permit.
The portapak — a cluster of portable classrooms linked by a corridor that can be connected to a school — is among five immediate measures Anderson outlined for Eastdale, whose enrolment exceeds a 565-student building capacity by nearly 300.
Others include converting the change rooms into washrooms, a summer project budgeted at $150,000; striking an agreement with the city to let students use adjacent Eastdale Park; and capping Grade 1 French immersion enrolment at 1.5 classes.
Anderson said the board also hopes to find a use for a second-floor space that sits empty because it’s too small for its intended use as an open-area classroom.
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“We can certainly use it in some capacity outside of dust bunnies,” he said, suggesting a resource room as a possibility.
Anderson said staff will also make a recommendation this spring on whether to initiate a boundary review that could take effect in September 2025.
In the longer term, the board plans to buy a property on Jones Road designated for a new school to accommodate students from new homes in the Fruitland-Winona area that could also relieve overcrowding at Eastdale, he said.
Trustee Todd White, who represents the area, said the pandemic likely delayed the board’s response to enrolment pressures at Eastdale, opened in January 2020, but he’s pleased they are being taken “very seriously.”
Though no decision has been made, he said he expects the requested portapak to be “in the ballpark” of eight classrooms, which could free up paved playground because it will take up less space than the removed portables.
White said he hopes the board will also be able to expand the playground to address concerns students can’t use the school’s field during recess.
“The field is just mud, mud, mud, so they’re forced to stay on the blacktop. Well, now the blacktop is all portables, so you’ve got 852 kids on a small, paved area with very little green space and access,” he said.
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