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Student enrolment for 2019/20 exceeds School District #83 projections

Increase attributed to more people moving into the North Okanagan-Shuswap
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North Okanagan-Shuswap School District 83 has exceeded enrolment projections for the 2019/20 school year despite a large grad class leaving the system.

Enrolment and school capacity was one of the issues discussed at a school board meeting held on Tuesday, Oct. 15. At the end of September, the district’s unofficial enrolment was 6,433 full-time students – an increase of 48 from this year’s projections and 82 full-time students over the previous school year.

Superintendent of schools Peter Jory noted the biggest surprise was at Sorrento Elementary which had an increase of 26 students.

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Most of the increase could be seen at elementary schools, indicating to Jory that more people are moving to the area. High school projections remain accurate with a loss of 20 students that has been attributed mainly to a large graduation year.

“We anticipate that we’ll be steady in high school, and then growing slightly over the next five to 10 years,” said Jory.

The district is looking into grade structure changes to use the district’s facilities more effectively.

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Part of the long range facilities plan that was presented at the meeting showed a number of grade structure proposals. In a series of graphs, the proposals showed current enrolment, where enrolment might be in one decade how changes to grade structure would affect capacity.

No grade structure changes have been announced for the district.


@CameronJHT
Cameron.thomson@saobserver.net

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