The B.C. government has signed a deal with an Aldergrove company to build portable classrooms to house extra students entering the school system under the government's new all-day kindergarten program, the government says.

Shelter Industries will get $28.5 million to build 133 modular classrooms at its plants in Aldergrove and the Okanagan, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said in a release Thursday.

The company is contracted to deliver and install the units in 24 different school districts by next September.

The buildings will use B.C. wood and energy-efficient heating and cooling systems that will minimize operating costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said MacDiarmid.

In addition to the 133 modular classrooms for the kindergarten kids, the government is also creating another 122 classrooms through school additions and renovations, the minister said.

The first phase of full-day kindergarten began in September.

When the program is extended to all kindergarten students in September 2011, the number of children in the program could be around 40,000, said MacDiarmid.

via www.cbc.ca