Granite urged to keep kids together

HOLLADAY — Just don't split up our children.

That's what Kim Goddard and Jeanene Pope were saying after Granite School District officials presented a proposal Tuesday to bring balance among seesaw student populations.

The Granite School Board has the unenviable task of redrawing school boundaries by December. The fear now among many patrons is of the unknown.

What is known is that there is lots of growth in some areas of the 300-square-mile district, which educates more than 69,000 children. Right now one challenge is fitting more students on the west side into too few schools.

And in other areas, mainly on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley, student enrollment at some elementary schools is declining. That's partly because students are getting older and moving on while most of the younger kids coming into the system are showing up on the west side.

Goddard and Pope represent parents from a "tight-knit" part of the district's east side who are beginning to see the writing on the wall — more school closures.

Last year, Libbie Edward and Holladay elementary schools closed their doors. Next year it could be Canyon Rim and Mill Creek. And those closures could come with more new schools for a growing west side.

"I think we all want to keep our own schools," Goddard said after hearing the first of many proposals Tuesday night.

"Just don't cut us up," Pope piped in.

Both moms have or will have students at Canyon Rim and Upland Terrace, which is where students from Canyon Rim could go if that school is closed.

District and board officials are being forced to perform delicate surgery on current school boundaries, sometimes moving just a small vein of students in one area to a section of the system that can handle the flow of more kids.

It's all part of the district's annual Student Population Review Procedures. That process includes an Options Committee, made up of parents, teachers, administrators and district officials. It's their job to give the board options for boundary changes and school closures.

By October, the board will be ready to hold open houses to gather public input. The e-mails have already been pouring into Jerry Pulsipher, the district official responsible for redrawing school boundary lines.

"It's only just begun," he said of the process to redraw lines.

Whittier students may soon be going to Orchard.

Boundaries could be changed that would affect 14 schools in another area.

Canyon Rim students could end up at Lincoln or James E. Moss.

Hillsdale could get four or five new classrooms.

Some Roosevelt students could go to Plymouth or Wilson. Or some Plymouth students could go to Calvin S. Smith.

Secondary schools aren't exempt from this study of boundaries either — but changes there might not come for another two years.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com