School District No. 6 has released its preliminary enrolment numbers for the Kimberley Zone. Final numbers will be submitted to the Ministry of Education on September 30, but the preliminary numbers are a pretty good indication of population of Kimberley schools for this year.
The numbers are as follows:
This is a head count, not a full-time equivalent count.
Lindsay Park Elementary (K-3) has 164 students enrolled. Marysville Elementary (k-3) has 186; McKim Middle School (4-7), 369 and Selkirk Secondary (8-12), 415. The Kimberley Alternate School has 22 students.
Last year, in a Long Term Facility Plan, long-term enrolment projections were prepared. In that report, it was stated that the operating capacity for Kimberley’s elementary schools is 726. With 719 students enrolled as of these preliminary numbers, the schools are almost at operating capacity. Lindsay Park is over capacity. Last year’s draft report had projected an enrolment of 686 students for the elementary schools.
However, long term projections anticipate that both Lindsay Park and Marysville enrolments will gradually decline over 10 years, while McKim remains relatively flat and Selkirk will slow increase as the larger elementary cohort move into secondary school.
Selkirk’s operating capacity is 525, and with 419 students enrolled, well below capacity. The enrolment projection for Selkirk for this year was 414 students.