With the longest waiting lists for schools of choice in the Kamloops School District the Board Chair is bracing for another surge in enrollment.

Kathleen Karpuk says to see 97 families on the schools of choice waiting lists it is a sign that schools already facing spacing crunches can expect even more students.

“I fully expect that we are going to have more kids in September. It has been a trend for the last couple of years. We are seeing a lot of families moving into Kamloops. The city has been announcing a lot of new developments. We have a lot of families moving in from the coast and from Alberta. So I fully expect to see our enrollment continue to move upwards.”

Karpuk says it depends on where new families with school age children are moving to within the district as far as how badly it might impact already stuffed schools.

She says that is why getting provincial government announcements on badly needed capital projects is so important.

“That is why we are pushing on not only Valleyview Secondary and having an expansion there but also our needs for Pineview Valley. We need a school up there that area is developing. We need to have an expansion to solve some of the problems in Westmount. Opening up Westsyde Elementary that relieves some of the pressures towards the northern end of Westsyde but it doesn’t relieve the pressures towards the south end of that Westsyde corridor.”

Karpuk says schools in Aberdeen, Sahali, and Valleyview are very full while there is some room in schools in other areas.