Locals say Warman Elementary School, seen here in a Streetview image, is overcrowded. (Google)

A group of residents from the rural Saskatchewan community of Warman say their elementary school is so overcrowded that a paint storage room is also serving as a classroom space for a deaf student.

A delegation, including the town mayor, travelled to Regina Thursday to press the provincial government for a new school.

According to the group, Warman Elementary School has almost 700 students in kindergarten to Grade 5. It was designed for half that number.

The town is also home to a high school with Grades 6 to 12.

The lobby group is asking the province to build a school for middle grades.

"The opposition received a heartbreaking letter from two concerned parents from Warman who have a deaf son in kindergarten," Cam Broten, a New Democratic Party member of the provincial legislature said Thursday in taking up the cause of the group. "Their son has to take his one-on-one lessons with his educational assistant in a paint storage closet because the school is overcrowded."

The mayor of Warman said teachers are doing the best they can, considering the circumstances.

However, Sheryl Spence said the community needs a new building, and soon.

"Warman is in a situation where I honestly don't know how we're going to wait two or three years," she said. "Our province has proudly announced that they want to grow. Well Warman's doing just that. Now they need to support our growth."

Education Minister Ken Krawetz said he has a long list of communities seeking new schools.

He said how many can be built, and how soon, depends on how much money his ministry gets in the provincial budget.

"You know the budget will describe what those are," Krawetz said. "Those are the pressures that education is facing. They're going to be dealt with as best we can."

Krawetz blamed the previous NDP government for part of the problem, claiming they did not spend enough on new schools.

Warman is a town of around 6,000 about 25 kilometres north of Saskatoon.