It is not just the urban areas of the Kamloops Thompson School District there is also some growth in at least one rural school.

School Board Chair Kathleen Karpuk says Vavenby Elementary is set to expand past its current kindegarten to grade four model.

“We went up and had a conversations with those parents,” she said. “They were able to tell us every single child in the community ages five and down who are going to be going to that school.”

“The numbers really told us that we can expand to a second classroom in that school by going to a K to 7.”

Karpuk says the district will do that by adding a grade each school year until Vavenby is a full K to 7 school in 2021.

She says the move makes sense to have two classrooms, with two teachers, to keep the kids in Vavenby and allow teachers to do some shared learning.