Park City schools weigh open enrollment as some secondary classes top 30 students

Districtwide enrollment remains below projections, but administrators say adding more out-of-district students could require additional teachers

PARK CITY, Utah — Park City School District is serving fewer students than projected this fall, but some secondary classes have reached 30 or more students, complicating the district’s use of open enrollment to offset a broader enrollment decline.

The district reported 3,956 students in kindergarten through 12th grade as of Sept. 15, in a presentation delivered to the Park City Board of Education Tuesday afternoon. That is 38 fewer students than the district projected.

Including preschool, total enrollment stands at 4,173 students.

Overall numbers have changed only slightly since the first day of school, when the district reported 4,177 students from preschool through 12th grade. In August, TownLift reported opening-day enrollment was down 87 students from the beginning of the previous school year.

The latest figures show an uneven decline. Elementary class sizes remain relatively small, while some secondary classrooms are considerably larger.

Across the district’s four elementary schools, average class size ranges from 16 to 19 students. Individual classrooms may be smaller or larger, with the smallest class reporting 12 students and the largest reporting 25.

Ecker Hill Middle School averages 22.31 students per class, with some classes reaching 30. At Park City High School, some classes have between 30 and 34 students.

That high school average of 17.22 students includes smaller electives and specialized courses, district officials said. Some core science and social studies classes have 30 or more students.

The enrollment pattern raises a policy question as the district considers how many out-of-district students to accept. Officials said 254 students currently attend PCSD from outside district boundaries, up 34 from last year. Last year’s total was itself 71 students higher than the previous year.

Administrators said open enrollment was intended to stabilize enrollment without requiring the district to add staff. But accepting more secondary students could require additional teachers because larger groups of students are still moving through Ecker Hill and the high school.

“The bubble’s still in our secondary schools,” Superintendent Lyndsay Huntsman told the board.

District officials said they expect to return to the issue in November, when the board considers which schools and grade levels will be open to additional out-of-district students for the following school year. Administrators plan to provide more detail on classroom space, available teaching stations, and the policy choices involved.

PCSD opened its elementary schools to additional out-of-district students in 2025 as it confronted several years of declining enrollment. TownLift reported at the time that the board kept grades six through 12 closed to new applicants while planning to reassess secondary capacity after the district’s grade realignment.

The district subsequently reported adding 195 students through open enrollment during the 2025-26 school year.

Enrollment remains particularly low in the district’s youngest grades. The district reported 222 kindergartners, 16 fewer than projected. By comparison, the current senior class has 389 students.

Administrators said the smaller incoming classes could prolong the district’s enrollment decline even as open enrollment helps fill available space in some elementary schools, keeping the policy tradeoff in focus.