PROVO — The options for the future of Grandview Elementary now include converting the building into a kindergarten center for the Provo School District.

The Provo Board of Education discussed a kindergarten center at Grandview — which faces closure next spring — on Tuesday afternoon during 90 minutes of contentious discussion prior to a committee meeting by a group of about 10 parents representing west Provo.

The center for Provo's 1,100 kindergartners would also provide services for preschool providers. The state is distributing $30 million over the next four years for extended kindergarten programs — which can be offered in the summer or for a regular school day — for low-income students.

"I'm interested in exploring it," Provo Superintendent Randy Merrill said. "It's a brand new concept right now."

As one of the Provo District's oldest buildings, built in 1949, Grandview has been on the chopping block for years. The district is building another elementary just a few miles away, in west Provo's Lakeview neighborhood, which will open in the fall of 2008 with a capacity of about 800 students.

In February 2006, the school board passed a motion stating Grandview would close if there was not a population boom in the Lakeview neighborhood to justify keeping both west-side schools open. Board member Sandy Packard proposed the resolution but now questions whether the motion was legal under Utah's open-meeting laws.

In the meantime, the district organized the Grandview committee, which met for the first time Tuesday to consider the school's future. Committee members learned Tuesday about the costs to operate schools, enrollment and school boundaries.

The committee, however, does not have much direction because the school board could not decide on a committee leader or even determine the committee's scope of discussion. The committee later selected its own chairman, Christian Faulconer.

Packard offered to chair the committee. Most school board members did not want her to serve as chairwoman because she represents the Grandview neighborhood.

"And what is my agenda that everybody is afraid of?" Packard asked during the discussion with board members.

"I know exactly what you'd do: You'd move (130 student in the neighborhood of) Carterville to Edgemont (Elementary, from Westridge Elementary,) and I think you'd still close Grandview or else it would be highly inconsistent with what you've argued for two years," board member Richard Sheffield said. "And I think you have your mind set on that and that's what I think. Am I wrong?"

"I have my mind set on it because I have my mind set on that we shouldn't overpopulate schools," Packard said.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com