Crowded Montreal West elementary school makes space with modular classrooms

Edinburgh School grows its own way The French-immersion Edinburgh School needed a way to deal with over-enrolment, and discovered modular units were a perfect solution.

montreal — To ease overcrowding, a Montreal West school has expanded, adding modular classrooms.

Administrators of Edinburgh elementary on Tuesday inaugurated the new classrooms--which are in a single-storey building outside the school.

The building includes two classrooms, a resource room and a fitness room.

The additional space has already helped reduce an overcrowding problem in the school, according to science teacher Abdel Al-Hama. Before, he didn't have a permanent classroom. He had to push a cart full of supplies from room to room. Now, he has his own space. His science room is equipped with robotics stations and a 3D printer.

"I can make my experiments I can do robotics at lunch. My students have a good life in school, and everyone wants to come see me," he said.

Edinburgh elementary is one of the EMSB's busiest schools. Each year, parents line up outside for days to register their children.

As many as 400 students attend the school each year even though it is built for 330.

"Sometimes, people had to work in the hallways if there's not enough space in the classroom, and you can get stepped on in the hallways, and that's just not fun," said student Cecilia Samayoa.

The new modular classrooms will ease the overcrowding problem, according to EMSB director-general Ann-Marie Matheson.

"Teaching specialists who teach music, phys ed, art, and so on didn't have a great place to teach, so these four extra classrooms provide them with the opportunity to have the space that they need," she said.

With files from CTV Montreal's Scott Prouse