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She argues that overflowing schools with class sizes in the 30 to 40 student range should be rewarded with smaller classes, rather than face closure.

“There’s a perception, and it is a correct perception, that all of our schools are bursting at the seams,” she adds. “Any kind of discussion suggesting closures will definitely ruffle feathers.”

Over the past month, the CBE held open houses and engagement sessions at five schools around Calgary asking for public input about what to do with “additional learning spaces” expected to be freed up after the opening of nearly two dozen new schools over the next two years.

According to the CBE website, a series of “system pressures” have been identified in light of the new school openings, including the “finite number of students” in the system and the fact that some will “have to move from other CBE schools in order to increase the number of students at another school.”

It goes on to say that “if following public input and feedback a recommendation is made to consider school closure, then the chief superintendent decides whether or not to recommend a regulatory school closure process to the Board of Trustees.”

Carrie Edwards, director of planning and transportation, admitted that while the CBE will do everything possible to keep schools open, they cannot rule out closures.

“It’s always something we have to consider — we want to be as transparent as possible.

“But this process is really about how do we keep schools open. We have never faced an opportunity like this before where we have this amount of learning space available to us.”