“Happy first day of school!” Principal Bob Edmiston said over the loud speaker on Aug. 24 at McPolin Elementary. Edmiston spent the morning visiting classrooms to welcome the students.
Overall it was a smooth start. The teachers all worked to get this ready to go in advance,” he said.
According to Edmiston the school has the most students since he started four years ago.
Park City School District Superintendent Ray Timothy said there is some concern about class sizes, but it’s hard to tell this early in the year how many students will stay. The state will determine the school district’s funding based on its official enrollment count on Oct. 3.
“It looks like our numbers have actually gone down, especially the elementary school numbers, but we have a large stack of requests for transfers. If we find that we’ve lost numbers, we would make that space available for out-of-district transfers,” Timothy said.
The district hopes the enrollment numbers meet their projections.
According to District Business Administrator Patty Murphy the warm body count for the Park City School District this week was 4,297. The school district’s projected enrollment by Oct. 3 is 4,355.
McPolin had 304 students on the first day of school. The school is projected to reach 361 students by Oct. 3.
Principal Dr. Kathy Einhorn said Trailside reached 454 students on the first day, which is projected to increase by 25 students.
According to Einhorn, the positive energy on the first day makes it all worth it and this year parents did as they were instructed.
“Things have gone so smoothly today. Parents came, dropped off their students and left,” she said.
Jeremy Ranch had 490 students on Wednesday for the first day of school. Numbers are expected to increase to 517 by Oct. 3.
Park City High School had a warm body count of 1,012 students. Enrollment by Oct. 3 is projected to drop by one student.
The high school’s Vice Principal Lyndsay Anderson said the first day of school was smooth.
“The teachers are here three days before kids, so we’re ready for them. It’s exciting to see the students interact with their friends and talk about their summer vacations,” she said.
Anderson said the teachers received laptops this year and will be working in Canvas, a software management program, in anticipation for next year when the students will receive laptops.
“Our plan is to have our teachers immerse into the technology and get comfortable with it this year. We have some teachers who dove in head-first and have full courses on Canvas,” she said.
Additional enrollment numbers for PCSD
South Summit School District
South Summit High School Vice Principal Troy Coil said the high school’s first day was normal.
“The first day is always chaotic with schedule changes and kids trying to find their classes,” he said.
Coil said enrollment numbers are up about 25 students for the high school with 430 students in attendance on the first day.
South Summit High School typically has about 100 students per grade. Coil said there is a large freshmen class this year of about 120 students. Enrollment numbers will be solidified by Oct. 1.
Coil said he’s interested to see how the block scheduling and student-teacher intervention periods will help the students this year.
Intervention is a 15-minute period built into the bell system, which will allow teachers to meet with students needing additional help after every block period.
“We’ll have a good idea next week. I think its going to be good. There are so many ways to help students who struggle,” he said.
South Summit School Superintendent Barry Walker rode the bus with the kids on the first day of school.
“I usually try and do that at the beginning of each year. One of the nicest jobs you can have in the district is to be a morning bus driver before the weather turns bad,” he said.
Walker said the first day of school went well with only a few minor transportation delays due to construction.
“The kids are excited the first week of school and parents are smiling and excited too,” he said.
The school district has enrolled 1,511 students this year, which is about 50 students more than last year at this time. Walker said those numbers will fluctuate the first few weeks, but he expects the district to be up about 20 students for its final enrollment count on Oct. 3.
North Summit School District
Superintendent Jerre Holmes said it was smooth sailing on the first day for North Summit.
Holmes said he checked in with each school’s principal, who reported that things were going well.
Enrollment numbers are about the same as last year. Holmes projection is that the district will break even from last year by its final count on Oct. 3.
Elementary Principal Lori O’Connor said although temperatures were warm, the first day was successful.
“The staff did a great job preparing so the children had a great first day,” she said.
This year the school is encouraging attendance and punctuality.
“Two of our most important policies this year are encouraging students to be at school and be at school on time,” she said.
O’Connor said that although it seemed like the school enrolled more students, a large class moved on the year before so enrollment numbers are about the same.