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HALIFAX<\/strong>: Nova Scotia needs to update and improve its school capital planning process to account for the unprecedented growth in student enrolment since the process was created, says Nova Scotia\u2019s Auditor General.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim Adair said the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development released its first multi-year school It outlines the process for replacement schools and major renovations but doesn\u2019t incorporate new growth schools because none were anticipated at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past 10 years, there has been a 13 per cent increase in province-wide enrolment and a 24 per cent jump within Halifax-area schools have increased from 48,000 students in 2015-16 to 59,500 students in 2024-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”31″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”192″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n As an interim solution to HRCE\u2019s enrolment challenges, the department has spent $162 million on modulars and portables in the last four years to accommodate up to 6,000 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The school capital planning process must be updated to ensure school projects go where they\u2019re needed most, says Adair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith more than $1 billion in new growth and replacement schools announced in the past year, it\u2019s important the Department support its recommendations for new growth school requests with a clear evidenced-based process,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We were unable to follow how the Department arrived at the decision to announce four new growth schools in June 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “We also noted that when it selected the new school communities over a year later, it didn\u2019t follow HRCE\u2019s order of preference or always consider the timing of upcoming housing developments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”105″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”71″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDecisions of this magnitude should be supported by evidence that very clearly demonstrates which school capital projects are the highest priority and those should be approved first,\u201d says the Auditor General.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Our audit testing shows submissions from Regional Centres for Education for replacement schools and major renovations were supported by evidence of need, but the scoring process needs improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Submitted projects are reviewed and assigned a final overall score of low, medium or high, but they aren\u2019t ranked in order of priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This weakness was highlighted in 2022-23 when 11 projects all scored \u201cmedium\u201d but only two were recommended to go ahead with no evidence for their prioritization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”92″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere was no evidence or explanation from the Department for why these two were recommended over the other nine,\u201d says Adair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The audit includes six recommendations, including an update to the school capital planning process for a The Department has agreed to all the recommendations and has a plan in place to start implementing [adrotate banner=”188″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”237″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [adrotate banner=”105″] [adrotate banner=”127″] HALIFAX: Nova Scotia needs to update and improve its school capital planning process to account for the unprecedented growth in student enrolment since the process was created, says Nova Scotia\u2019s Auditor General. Kim Adair said the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development released its first multi-year schoolcapital planning process in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[10,2,50,121,5527,5528,7758,16],"class_list":["post-56009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-beaver-bank","tag-fall-river","tag-halifax","tag-hrm","tag-kim-adair","tag-n-s-auditor-general","tag-school-capital-plan","tag-waverley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
capital planning process in 2019 when student numbers were stable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
business case supported by evidence for all new growth schools; and to include clear rationale for
advancing one major renovation or replacement school project over another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
them this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n