A £12.4million school which was only opened last year is forecast to be at almost double-capacity in just four years.
Hillside Primary in Portlethen, which took in its first pupils in April, currently has 311 pupils enrolled, just short of its 350-capacity.
But newly-published roll figures show it will be over-flowing by the end of this year and needing to provide for 612 pupils by 2022.
Members of the Kincardine and Mearns area committee discussed the figures yesterday and considered a report showing that another 18 schools in Aberdeenshire are also bulging.
The new figures were taken from the pupil counts carried out in September last year.
Councillor Colin Pike was shocked by the figures and said: “It’s only been open a few months, and now we are going to have a major issue, with parents applying for the school being refused. We have a big problem going forward at Hillside.”
Suggesting that the school could be enlarged to allow for the surge, Councillor Ian Mollison agreed and said: “There is room for expansion on the site in the form of another wing which could take up to three more classrooms. The other solution could be re-zoning the school.”
The report, written by director of education and children’s services Maria Walker, states that a large number of younger children live in the catchment area and officers are “currently exploring options to address the capacity pressures”.
Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk, which opened in 2014, is forecast to be 3% over capacity by 2022.
Midmar, Towie, Crathes, Forgue, Gordon Schools, Premnay, Hatton of Fintray, Kemnay Academy, Kinellar, Kintore, Auchenblae, Logie Durno, Old Rayne, Rayne North and Rothienorman schools are all listed as being full. As too were Stuartfield, Burnhaven and Dunnottar.
Chairwoman of the committee, Wendy Agnew also questioned why Dunnottar was still over-capacity after the recent re-zoning of the school “was supposed to have alleviated the problem”.
