The Kamloops-Thompson School District is planning to reopen Ralph Bell Elementary school in Sept. 2022 because of increasing enrolment levels in the city of Kamloops.

It is also proposing four catchment boundary changes affecting Aberdeen and Pacific Way elementaries, Sa-Hali and South Kam Secondary Schools, Dallas and RL Clemitson elementaries, as well as Juniper Ridge and Marion Schilling elementaries.

“Many of our facilities in Kamloops are experiencing significant space pressures. The Board appreciates the comprehensive recommendations prepared by staff and look forward to the public consultation process to gather community input on these potential changes,” Board Chair Rhonda Kershaw said, in a statement.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Kershaw says this all comes because many Kamloops schools will be at or very close to capacity within the next decade.

“Probably one of our worst in Sa-Hali Secondary where if we don’t make any changes, we’re looking at 180 per cent capacity. Same with Dallas Elementary 188 per cent capacity,” she said. “We definitely need new facilities. We also are going to have to look at perhaps making some changes in what areas of town feed into which school.”

“In our Kamloops area, our capacity utilization heading out to 2030, ten years from now is not good and our schools will be absolutely bursting at the seams, many of them on the South Shore but honestly even on the North Shore.”

Kershaw says people can have their say on the school district’s plans during a two month long consultation process that gets underway this week.

“We’ve aligned it to the official community plan for the City of Kamloops because that’s really where we’re seeing the bulk of our growth,” she added. “Rural numbers are a little bit skewed. Some of our rural schools are quite full but many of them are not. Within the city of Kamloops, we’re full. We are jam packed.”

While public consultation on the proposed catchment changes was not required, Superintendent Terry Sullivan says it was important to go to the public given the significance of the changes. At this moment, Ralph Bell is home to several daycares, though it not clear what this means for their operations.

“When we looked at this year’s Long-Range Facilities’ Plan we could see that we need to take action now in light of the future enrolment pressures that schools were facing,” Sullivan said.

The Board will make a final decision on these proposed changes following the consultation process.

For the full details of the consultation process, including boundary maps go here.