CBE facing $3.4B backlog as 124 schools exceed their lifespan
One-quarter of Calgary's public schools have surpassed their 50-year design life with no major modernization, board report shows.
The day's top stories, food & events — every morning at 7. Unsubscribe anytime.
The Calgary Board of Education is dealing with a massive infrastructure crisis: 124 schools have exceeded their 50-year design life without receiving a major modernization, according to a report presented June 23.
Many older school buildings no longer meet today's standards. For example, 60 percent of CBE schools are not fully accessible for persons with disabilities, and aged Career and Technology Studies laboratories can't keep pace with rapidly evolving technology. The cost to make every school fully accessible is unknown.
With 26 more schools expected to surpass 50 years old over the next decade, the board should be receiving an average of 2.6 modernizations or replacements just to keep pace, the report states. Industry best practice suggests annual investment of one to two percent of a facility portfolio's replacement value. With CBE schools valued at $7.4 billion, that means $74 million to $148 million per year.
Over the last 10 years, the CBE has received an average of $37.3 million annually in maintenance and renewal grants and $16.6 million in major capital projects — roughly $53.9 million total. Recent funding cuts have reduced that further.
Trustee Nancy Close noted the backlog dates back decades. "They chose to bus versus build, and so we were behind when I was previously a school board trustee, in having the facilities that we needed in the 90s and the early 2000s," she said during the meeting.