Park City schools lose 87 students as enrollment decline continues

Park City School District reported preliminary enrollment of 4,177 students for the 2026-27 school year, down 87 from the beginning of last year. The district will take its official enrollment count Oct. 1. Photo: TownLift

Preliminary enrollment stands at 4,177, including 234 kindergartners and 390 seniors, as the district monitors larger secondary classes.

PARK CITY, Utah — Park City School District began the school year with 87 fewer students than it had at the same point last year, continuing an enrollment decline that has already affected staffing and budget decisions.

The district enrolled 4,177 students from preschool through 12th grade on the first day of the 2026-27 school year, down from 4,264 at the beginning of 2025-26, according to figures Superintendent Lyndsay Huntsman presented to the Park City Board of Education on Tuesday.

The numbers are preliminary. Huntsman said enrollment can fluctuate during the opening weeks of school as families arrive or finalize their plans. The district will take its official enrollment count on Oct. 1.

The difference between the district’s youngest and oldest K-12 classes illustrates the uneven distribution of students across grade levels. Huntsman said Park City has 234 kindergartners this year, compared with 390 seniors.

“That bubble still exists in our secondary schools,” Huntsman told the board.

Each secondary grade currently has more than 300 students, she said. The district has seen larger class sizes in some core secondary courses and is monitoring whether it needs additional sections.

Huntsman said the district reserved staffing capacity to respond to enrollment changes it could not predict before the school year began. That would allow the district to divide larger classes if enrollment warrants it.

Park City High School is the district’s largest school, with 1,538 students. Ecker Hill Middle School has 944 students.

At the elementary level, McPolin has 394 students, Jeremy Ranch has 382, Parley’s Park has 358, and Trailside has 348. The district also has 213 preschool students enrolled across its four elementary campuses.

District officials did not identify a specific cause for the latest decline during Tuesday’s meeting.

Declining enrollment has already shaped recent district financial decisions. TownLift reported in May 2025 that the district planned to eliminate or repurpose 32 full-time-equivalent positions, saving approximately $4.7 million, as it prepared for lower enrollment in 2025-26.

When the Board of Education adopted its $248 million budget for fiscal year 2025-26, the district projected enrollment would fall 2.67%. Officials said staffing reductions associated with declining enrollment helped the district balance the budget without increasing local tax rates controlled by the board.

Despite the overall decline, the district continues to manage uneven enrollment across grade levels. Larger classes moving through the secondary schools mean the decline’s effects are not distributed evenly throughout the district.

Huntsman said administrators will continue monitoring class sizes and consider adding sections where needed. The Oct. 1 count will provide a more stable picture of how many students the district will serve during the 2026-27 school year.