Significant changes are coming to where kids are going to end up going to school on the Kamloops North Shore and in Brocklehurst.

The SD73 board has voted to make catchment changes – not for the next school year – but in 2024.

This will include turning Brock Middle into a Grade 8-12 high school. It used to be a high school until 2010, when it was turned into a middle school as part of a previous restructuring in SD73.

NorKam Secondary will also soak up more students, adding grade 8 and 9 students into its fold, as the SD73 Board does away with the middle school concept.

Board Chair Heather Grieve says this comes as they prepare to re-open Parkcrest Elementary in the Spring 2024.

“We’ve got, right now, Parkcrest campus is at George Hilliard,” Grieve told Radio NL the day after their vote. “The students will move from their location at George Hilliard into Parkcrest.”

As that happens, George Hilliard will then be left vacant, as the School District prepares to open it as a K to 7 school in Fall of 2024.

At the same time, six other K to 6 elementary schools – AE Perry, Arthur Hatton, Bert Edwards, Kay Bingham, Parkcrest, and Rayleigh – are going to be expanded to accept Grade 7 students into their mix as well.

“We really wanted a chance to have an opportunity, because there are lots of things are being impacted,” noted Grieve when asked why the changes were delayed until 2024 instead of the forthcoming school year.

Parkcrest Elementary burned down in 2019, forcing students there to set up at George Hilliard.

SD73 says Grade 10, 11, and 12 students from Sun Peaks will continue to be bussed in to NorKam. Younger students will continue to attend the K to 9 Sun Peaks School, with the school district noting that Sun Peaks students in Grade 8 and 9 who want to attend Brocklehurst or NorKam will have to adhere to the transfer request process.

Grieve also says all families who are impacted by the catchment changes and grade reconfigurations will be notified by email in January 2024.

You can view the new catchment map that will take effect in the Fall of 2024 here.

– With files from Jeff Andreas & Victor Kaisar