Some Park City High School classes have reached 34 students, even as the district enrolls fewer kids than expected.

Park City School District counted 3,956 students in kindergarten through 12th grade as of Sept. 15, Superintendent Lyndsay Huntsman told the Park City Board of Education on Wednesday, Sept. 16. That figure is 38 below the district's projection. Including preschool, total enrollment stands at 4,173.

The gap between elementary and secondary classrooms tells the sharper story. Across the district's four elementary schools, average class size ranges from 16 to 19 students.

Secondary schools are a different picture. At Ecker Hill Middle School, the average is 22.31 students per class, with some classes reaching 30. At the high school, some core science and social studies sections have 30 to 34 students, TownLift reported.

Park City High School's overall average of 17.22 students per class includes smaller electives and specialized courses, which pulls the number down.

"The bubble's still in our secondary schools," Huntsman told the board.

That bubble complicates a policy the district adopted to fight years of declining enrollment. The board opened elementary schools to out-of-district students in 2025, then voted in November 2025 to expand the program to secondary grades for the 2026-27 school year. At the time, district data estimated room for 250 students at Ecker Hill and 225 at the high school.

A year later, 254 out-of-district students attend Park City schools, up 34 from last year. Last year's total was itself 71 higher than the year before. Administrators said the district adopted open enrollment to stabilize numbers without adding staff, but accepting more secondary students could require additional teachers.

The district has lost students steadily. According to the Park Record, enrollment dropped by 129 students in 2024-25, 104 in 2023-24, 242 in 2022-23 and 104 in 2021-22. The pipeline keeps narrowing: the district counted 222 kindergartners on Sept. 15, 16 fewer than projected, while the current senior class has 389 students.

Huntsman said in August that the district reserved staffing capacity to divide larger classes if enrollment warrants it.

The board expects to revisit open enrollment in November, when it will decide which schools and grade levels accept out-of-district students for the 2027-28 school year. Administrators plan to present data on classroom space and available teaching stations.