Portable classrooms are meant to be a temporary fix to overcrowding at schools.

That’s why they’re portable. They can be moved from one location to another as needed.

They’re never an ideal solution, separated from the school and its facilities (namely the bathroom). But they work as a useful stop-gap measure.

When they’ve been sitting around for a decade or more, though, they are no longer a temporary solution. They’ve become more like a permanent fixture requiring a lot of maintenance to ensure they stand up to the elements and don’t blossom into Petri dishes for mould and other contaminants. Instead of being the stop-gap measure, they become the answer to the problem.

And a poor answer it is.

This is the problem faced by parents and students at St. Matthew, Orléans’ oldest Catholic high school. It currently has 22 portables sitting on the property, servicing a school that is filled beyond capacity.

For a decade now parents have been fighting for more space at the school. Petitions have circulated and even the local trustee is on board, but the school doesn’t qualify for capital funding because enrolment is declining.

According to local trustee Stephen Blais, it’s only dipping by one or two per cent per year. He estimates the school is at about 130 per cent capacity. Assuming the loss remains constant at such a small percentage each year, that means the school will have to live with portables for another 15 to 30 years.

That’s unacceptable.

It’s highly unlikely the portables will remain for that long because they’ll continue to deteriorate – some already complain about the stench from them in the summer months – meaning they will eventually have to be replaced by newer models. In the meantime, there are all the operational costs of keeping the modular classrooms up to specifications. Blais noted it takes a lot to ensure they are properly maintained and meet air quality standards.

The fact that they are not the ideal classroom combined with the operational costs associated with maintaining them does not make these portables a long-term option. Fifteen to 30 years is not a short-term commitment. Add to that the decade that has already past and it becomes evident the school needs an addition built – it probably should have had one years ago.

The problem is that the numbers are declining, even if at a gradual pace, so the school isn’t set to get capital funding. With tight budget constraints already, that leaves the school board with few options. The short-term measure has become the longer-term solution and there appears to be little hope of changing that.

The province needs to stop staring at the trickle of students leaving the facility and look at the bigger picture. Wouldn’t an addition to the school be a useful investment? It’s not just students who could benefit for decades to come, but the community as a whole. There’s an opportunity to use the newer portion of the facility for community events and meetings. Plus maintenance would be a lot easier and, no doubt, parents and students would breathe easier knowing they don’t have to worry as much about how the latest air quality test went.

The province has to be fiscally responsible and it can’t simply fund anything that comes across the desk, however, it should also be smart about applying its benchmarks. An investment in education is rarely wasted and three decades is a long time to go with short-sighted measures.