The Province 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's Auditor General.
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development released its first multi-year school capital planning process in 2019 when student numbers were stable. It outlines the process for replacement schools and major renovations but doesn't incorporate new growth schools because none were anticipated at the time.
In the past 10 years, there has been a 13% increase in province-wide enrolment and a 24% jump within Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) alone. Halifax-area schools have increased from 48,000 students in 2015-16 to 59,500 students in 2024-25.
As an interim solution to HRCE's enrolment challenges, the department has spent $162 million on modulars and portables in the last four years to accommodate up to 6,000 students.
The school capital planning process must be updated to ensure school projects go where they're needed most, says Auditor General Kim Adair.
"With more than $1 billion in new growth and replacement schools announced in the past year, it's important the Department support its recommendations for new growth school requests with a clear evidenced-based process."
We were unable to follow how the Department arrived at the decision to announce four new growth schools in June 2023. We also noted that when it selected the new school communities over a year later, it didn't follow HRCE's order of preference or always consider the timing of upcoming housing developments.
"Decisions 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," says the Auditor General.
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.
Submitted projects are reviewed and assigned a final overall score of low, medium or high, but they aren't ranked in order of priority. This weakness was highlighted in 2022-23 when 11 projects all scored "medium" but only two were recommended to go ahead with no evidence for their prioritization.
"There was no evidence or explanation from the Department for why these two were recommended over the other nine," says Adair.
The audit includes six recommendations, including an update to the school capital planning process for a 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.
The Department has agreed to all the recommendations and has a plan in place to start implementing them this year.
Report materials:
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