The New Westminster school district is warning that three of its eight elementary schools may end up assigning spaces by lottery this fall.
Families wanting to enrol students in École Qayqayt, Lord Kelvin or Queen Elizabeth elementary schools could find themselves facing a lottery for space if demand continues over the next couple of weeks.
The regular registration period for School District 40 ends Jan. 27.
After that date, the district will be assessing the number of new registrations for schools compared to the space available — and, for three already overcrowded elementary schools, that could pose a particular challenge.
“Our district is facing significant capacity issues, due to growing enrolment and limited space,” the district warns on its registration website. “While we continue to work to place every new student we can into their catchment or preferred school, we will not always be able to do so.”
The district says it’s “closely monitoring” the situation at three schools in fast-growing neighbourhoods: Qayqayt, in the downtown core; Lord Kelvin, in the Moody Park/Brow of the Hill neighbourhood; and Queen Elizabeth, in Queensborough.
All families living within the catchments at those schools should still register their children for kindergarten at their local school — but with the warning that their registration is considered an “application” for space. A randomized lottery will be used to determine placement based on all the applications received by the Jan. 27 deadline.
Any student that doesn’t make the lottery cut will be added to a waitlist for the catchment school and offered a spot at the closest available school.
Got questions about school registration? We've rounded up everything you need to know about registering for school in School District 40.
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