Edmonton Public Schools anticipating crowded classrooms this fall despite more provincial funding
Posted May 23, 2025 3:12 pm.
Crowded classrooms will likely carry over into Edmonton’s Public Schools next school year.
The school board has balanced its budget, projecting an extra $ 50 million in operational funding from the province because of a new funding formula. But the board says it’s still not enough to keep pace with enrolment growth.
Edmonton Public is seeing thousands of extra students walk through their doors every year, seeing over 19,000 more students in just the past five years.
In the previous funding formula, about 3,100 students in Edmonton Public Schools were not fully funded.
The new formula provides more money to fill that gap, the Edmonton Public School Board claiming there still isn’t enough funding for about 1,300 students.
Board chair Julie Kusiek said while the change makes for a more predictable budget, it still comes up short on cash.
“Our space crunch is real, and we are seeing some big improvements there in terms of a number of new school construction projects that are underway, and our division asks for a number of modular classrooms every single year, and we typically don’t see that number granted by the province,” said Kusiek.
With 2025 starting off with strikes from educational support staff for bigger paycheques, the school board negotiated larger raises than expected, still able to bring that into the budget and hold a surplus.
