The Central Okanagan School District is moving forward on the path to re-instating catchment areas for local schools.
Secretary-Treasurer Larry Paul says it would still allow parents to choose their child's school, but still give priority to those living closest to it.
He says it's not right to turn away people living down the street.
"When we first built Rutland Elementary (in 2003), there was an open field next door, and school filled up immediately because it's open boundary. Shortly after we built the school, a subdivision was put in. And so a lot of families moved into that subdivision - they're literally looking down the street at the school, and we were saying 'sorry, we can't take you, we're full,'" he said.
"Because of the open catchment, all the other kids that wanted to go that school from other parts of Rutland were already there. So that's the situation we're trying to avoid, in that we can now put these catchments in place. And then the kids that do live close to the school can get into the school, as opposed to being shipped off somewhere else."
He says that open system has existed for the better part of 15 years.
Once all the students in a certain catchment are taken care of, extra spaces would be opened up to students coming from out of the area.
In the event there are more applicants than spaces, Paul says the spots would go to whoever applied the earliest.
He says the change would be phased in.
"The current children can stay in the school, and it will come into effect as we begin registering new kids," he said.
"So next September when we register the kindergarten kids, that's when we'll look at that list and say 'we have 60 kindergarten spaces and we have 62 kids that want to get in, which ones are the catchment kids?' 59 are catchment kids, so we can only allow one from the outside to come in."
The idea to reinstate catchments came out of government legislation, that allows for kids to be able to switch schools.
The move was supported at a committee meeting last week.