KITCHENER — Parents say southwest Kitchener needs the new high school that the public school board has scratched from its funding priorities.

Like other families, they bought suburban homes and sent their children to school, only to see hallways jam to capacity at Huron Heights Secondary School on Strasburg Road.

Calina Latis is among those who are frustrated. "I'm not sure why the city would approve permits for the new neighbourhoods without thinking about the elementary school and high school for those kids," she said.

Suburban families have "lots of kids and without new schools built, they are overpopulating the existing ones," Latis said.

"It's disappointing," said Ana Topale-Rose.

"I have a hard time understanding why the city has approved permits for building new residential areas, without taking into consideration that they're overpopulating the high schools or elementary schools in that area, and not planning ahead."

"It's definitely something that is a concern," Melissa Bieth said. "As the city grows, the population grows, there's definitely a need for it. The schools are overcrowded, the school classrooms are overcrowded."

Parents spoke Wednesday at an open house into how the Waterloo Region District School Board proposes to distribute more suburban students among three high schools.

That's after the board revealed it is no longer asking the provincial government to fund a new suburban high school at a cost of $32 million.

School planners say this is because the move to bigger class sizes will free up space, the Ministry of Education has set new criteria for school expansions, and the ministry has three times said no to building another Kitchener high school.

The board will instead request expansion funding for up to seven elementary schools, while asking to upgrade high schools in Waterloo and New Hamburg.

"I do think there is a need for a high school in Kitchener," school board chair Jayne Herring said. "We certainly have tried."

Education trustee Kathleen Woodcock believes an expansion request focused on elementary schools may be better received by a ministry that funds only a portion of the requests it receives.

"For now, for this purpose, I'm OK with delaying the high school concept," she said.

With no new high school on the horizon, the board intends to juggle suburban students among three existing schools including one that's downtown.

Parents Karen and Chris Everett agree another high school is needed as southwest Kitchener grows.

The couple expected their daughter to attend Huron Heights in three years but have learned she may be sent downtown to Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute instead.

"I know Huron is very crowded. I know there are challenges there because of that. There's a benefit to not being in a crowded situation," Karen said. "It's not really ideal to be going to downtown Kitchener to a high school. It's quite a distance."

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The uncertainty that parents face follows a checkered history of high school planning.

The public board currently has 19,544 students in 16 public high schools. That's 1,224 fewer students than in 2010, but students are not evenly spread around and trustees declined to close a high school as enrolment fell.

"Until we get our enrolment and capacity at all our high schools levelled out ... then we can legitimately ask for permission to build a new high school," Woodcock said.

School planners say Kitchener may actually need up to two more high schools. Yet the board has twice failed to secure a site for even one of them in years of planning.

A site purchased for a new high school was later abandoned after urban planners put it outside a countryside line they drew to limit suburban growth. A second potential site owned by the City of Kitchener was ruled out in talks between the city and school board.

When the board opened Huron Heights in 2006, it provided almost 20 per cent less floor space per student than nearby public high schools. That's after trustees chose to maintain all three high schools in central Kitchener.

A dozen years later, students push through packed hallways and portable classrooms have mushroomed.

jouthit@therecord.com

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- As classes swell, board scraps $32M bid for new Kitchener high school