Trustees from more than a dozen Alberta school boards said Monday that parents should expect class sizes to grow, and for their children to get less help from their teachers in the wake of March’s provincial budget – they’re asking the electorate to pressure politicians during the election.

For a number of Edmonton schools, like Sister Annata Brockman, classrooms are already brimming with students and officials have had to get creative to deal with overcrowding.

“I was kind of shocked when I saw fifty kids in the library, I have to admit that,” parent Gillian Plante said.

“I’m more worried about the TAs and with the class sizes obviously the teachers will need more help in the classroom,” Plante said.

School boards say they’re already struggling, and with 12,000 new students expected to enter the school system in the coming year, that’s not expected to change.

“It’s tough, we are going to be spread even further, it’s going to impact all aspects of our work, we are going to have more students and fewer resources to educate them,” Edmonton Public School Board Chair Michael Janz said.

For Edmonton Public Schools, 3,000 new students are expected, while Edmonton Catholic Schools is expecting more than 1,800. There are additional concerns, as many of those students will be learning English as a second language.

“When you add all that together and you say you are not funding, the situation is dire, $18 million dire,” Catholic School Board Chair Debbie Engel said.

On Monday, a total of 19 school boards – representing more than half of students in Alberta - issued a joint statement, asking the provincial government to reconsider their decision to not fund schools to handle the expected increase in student population.

Trustees called the decision ‘devastating’.

“You can’t add the number of new students coming into the system and not hire new teachers that automatically means class sizes will grow even further,” NDP candidate for Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview Deron Bilous said.

Edmonton-Whitemud PC Candidate Stephen Mandel said the province’s parties need to work together, calling the provincial situation ‘challenging times’.

“To use that surplus to get us through this challenge, it’s one way to get through this as a team,” Mandel said.

Education Minister Gordon Dirks spoke in Calgary Monday, maintaining school boards have $500 million in savings, which could offset some issues – he said that solution isn’t unreasonable.

With files from Serena Mah