School District 36 Surrey

School District 36 Surrey operates schools in Surrey, White Rock, and Barnston Island, British Columbia. It is the largest school district in British Columbia with 80,208 students and 195+ languages represented during the 2022-23 school year. District 36 includes 103 elementary schools, 21 secondary schools, 5 learning centres, and 3 adult education centres. While the district was established in 1906 its first school opened in 1882. The district is Surrey’s largest employer with 12,540 employees including 6,716 teachers.

Administration
The Surrey School District's administration hub is the District Education Centre and was officially opened on September 11, 2011.

Budget
For the first time in history, the Surrey Board of Education passed an annual budget totalling more than a billion dollars for the 2023-24 school year consisting of $602 million for teacher costs and $451 million for all other costs. The largest sources of funds are $945 million in provincial government grants, $17 million in tuition, $9 million in investment income, $4 million in rental and lease income, and $3 million in federal grants.

In the news
The Surrey School District was reported in the national news numerous times during the 1990s and 2000s, most notably for its stand on social issues.

Overcrowding
Surrey had 361 portable classrooms in use by the end of the 2022-23 school year. This number had increased by 20% over the 15 years prior.

Book banning
The District School Board was the focus of major media attention from 1997 to 2002 over its stand on not allowing books about families with same-sex parents to be included as optional learning resources. These books were requested by James Chamberlain, a kindergarten teacher, to reflect on the realities of today's families and to teach his pupils about diversity and tolerance.

A legal battle to overturn the decision to ban the three books went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, where the school board's decision was overturned. The judgment, Chamberlain v. Surrey School District No. 36, cited the need for families headed by same-sex couples to be respected. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin dismissed the Board's concerns that children would be confused or misled by classroom information about same-sex parents. She pointed out that the children of same-sex parents are rubbing shoulders with children from more traditional families, and wrote: "Tolerance is always age-appropriate, children cannot learn unless they are exposed to views that differ from those they are taught at home." The legal fees ended up costing Surrey taxpayers over $1,200,000.

Drama production
In 2005, the Surrey School District made national news for cancelling production of The Laramie Project, a play that deals with the murder of a gay university student, in Elgin Park Secondary. Advocates for the play noted that it is designed to teach tolerance toward LGBT people. The school district's administration said that the play contains sex, violence and foul language and is not appropriate as family entertainment. The decision met with outrage from LGBT advocacy organization Egale Canada. A school in neighbouring Vancouver, Lord Byng Secondary School, subsequently chose to stage the play.

Climate change
In May 2007, the Surrey School Board made national news when it voted to instruct teachers not to show Al Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, until trustees were able to review the film. On the issue of climate change, Board Trustee and social activist Heather Stilwell stated: "I am not sure. I mean I see evidence. I think there is climate change, there's no question about that. Whether what Al Gore says about it is the truth, I have questions."

Bible study
In early November 2009, a Cloverdale father, Paul Jubenvill, requested an extra-curricular, non-instructional, voluntarily-attended Bible club be established during lunch-hour at his sons' school, Colebrook Elementary. The school would not permit the club on their property, and the Surrey School District supported the school's position. The father argued that this ban violated the provincial BC Human Rights Code by disallowing a normally available service on the grounds of discrimination against religion. The school district was concerned that permitting the club may have given the appearance of the school endorsing a particular religious ideology. Jubenvill argued that there is a difference between endorsing a faith versus "accommodating" spiritual needs.

A complaint was filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal; however, Jubenvill withdrew the complaint because he felt that the resulting media attention and the reaction it generated did not accurately represent his intentions and he preferred to address the matter with the school district out of the public eye.

Some secondary schools in the School District have, or have had, overtly Christian clubs (for example, LA Matheson has a prayer club titled "PUSH",   Semiahmoo Secondary had a Crossroad Christian club in 2008 and earlier years, and Fraser Heights Secondary had a Bible Club in 2007 ).

Roof collapse
At Colebrook Elementary in July 2010, a 75-foot portion of a roof over an exterior walkway collapsed, with no injuries reported. In 2011 the school district initiated legal action against the contractor and architect involved in the design and construction of the roof, which had been built in 1987.

Anti-discrimination code
In November 2013 the School Board adopted an anti-discrimination code to provide protection for students and staff against homophobic and other forms of bullying. Approximately one third of all school districts in the province have policies against homophobic bullying.