Damage also was not bad in Jordan School District in southern Salt Lake County. It assessed all its schools in 1990 to predict how they would do in an earthquake, according to Herb Jensen, the district facilities manager. It then began a program to replace or retrofit schools, usually when other remodeling projects were also done.

By 2006, work was completed at all but six of Jordan district's 100 buildings. Even at the ones that still lacked upgrades, Jensen said they were generally designed "to hold together long enough to allow evacuation after an earthquake."

The large Granite School District in the central portion of Salt Lake County did not do as much to prepare.

Of its 89 schools, about 35 had received "some earthquake enhancements over the years during a major remodeling, such as when a new roof was installed, to help tie the roof to the walls" to help survive ground shaking, Randy Ripplinger, spokesman for the district, said in 2006. A state study in 2006 said only 15 schools were considered up to current seismic code.

With so few schools considered truly safe seismically, a state study in 2006 said Granite would have needed $253 million to seismically upgrade its schools then.

With such problems, sixth-grade students at Granite's Hillsdale Elementary in West Valley City proceeded to make a surprising discovery in 2005 as they did exercises with Geographic Information Systems software and maps.

They found that their school sits on top of a fault.

It is part of the Granger fault. Geologists had predicted correctly in 2006 that a big quake on the Wasatch fault would make the smaller Granger fault also shake "in sympathy," and that it would leave a 3-foot scarp, or ledge, along much of its length. Sitting on that fault did not exactly help Hillsdale when the 2008 quake hit.

According to a state survey in 2006 among selected school districts, Alpine School District in Utah County had about two-thirds of its schools meet or "somewhat meet" seismic safety codes then.

Provo School District in 2006 sought a $35 million bond to improve and build some new schools, which voters debated and would eventually pass (but much of the construction did not come before the 2008 quake). Also, Davis School District (where 37 schools needed attention to seismic code) held a $230 million bond election in June 2006, which voters approved.

A group called SAFE — Save All From Earthquakes — had tried lobbying legislators back in 2006 to spend more to seismically upgrade schools but said it found little support.

In a letter to legislators then, SAFE said, "We could lose a generation of children if we stay in denial about the seismic vulnerability of Utah school buildings." It added, "We do not know how long we have, so we need to act now before it is too late."