Davis' schools chock-full

FARMINGTON — Davis County School District is considering a double whammy — boundary changes and a year-round schedule — for students in six of its elementary schools.

Chalk it up to growth.

"It's not a surprise," said Craig Poll, director of elementary schools. "We anticipated growth."

Elsewhere, Jordan and Granite districts are tweaking boundaries and even thinking of closing schools. Those districts face the issue of shifting populations, where more children are moving to parts of the district while fewer are entering schools in other parts.

The Tooele valley, once ripe with wide-open spaces, has had to build new schools in recent years to keep up with people moving into new homes. More new schools are planned, only now, says Tooele district superintendent Larry Shumway, it's because of what's going on inside those homes.

It's the same in Davis County.

"A lot of our growth is home-grown," said Chase Rogers, the district's director of planning.

But the Davis County Board of Education also learned this week that in-migration is another big factor, as nearly 3,000 new homes are in the works for the Layton/Syracuse/Clearfield area. District leaders use that information to make the safe assumption that parents and their children now living outside school boundaries are coming.

One new elementary school is on the way for fall 2004, but it won't be enough.

The six schools that are now beyond capacity are Antelope, Bluff Ridge, Cook, Heritage, Layton and Syracuse.

Bluff Ridge, for instance, has a capacity of 922 students, and that's just for a year-round schedule, which it has been on since it opened. But the current population is already at 1,300.

The district has a Band-Aid on the problem with 32 portable, mobile classrooms in use. That solves a space problem but fosters others, like overcrowded computer labs, packed playgrounds and safety issues.

In addition to the new elementary school, the district is looking at land to buy for three more schools in the future. In the meantime, boundary changes and a new schedule are afoot.

The silver lining here is that patrons have been kept in the loop from the very beginning. Borrowing from a similar approach being taken these days by the Utah Department of Transportation, the district is trying to stave off feelings of discontent.

"We're getting some of the concerns early on," Rogers said.

Boundary study committee chair Kathie Bone said people are "bonded" to their schools and that it's hard to move them.