Jordan District may close schools

The state's largest school district knows how to save $150 million: Close 15 schools, use more portable classrooms and redraw 50 school boundaries.

Dollar wise? Yes. Doable? No way, Jordan District Superintendent Barry Newbold said Tuesday.

But the community might pick better ways to balance shrinking student enrollments in the north and east with growth in the south and west.

That could mean closing a few elementary and middle schools, redrawing boundaries, propping enrollments with special programs or doing nothing — and ultimately, paying more taxes.

The school district, beginning tonight at Bingham High, wants to hear from the public in four open houses. Residents also can get more information and weigh in online at www.jordandistrict.org.

"Some parents will be very sad; they don't want schools to close," said Shauna Richards, PTA Region VI director, South Jordan resident and member of the district's Facility Planning Committee. "But there are also parents asking schools to be combined . . . so they have more kids to run different programs."

The state's largest school district of 74,000 students expects to grow by 15,000 by the end of the decade.

At the same time, enrollment is declining in the north and east, according to initial studies by the private Wikstrom Economic and Planning Consultants.

In February 2003, Jordan District voters approved a $281 million bond to build 22 schools in growing areas.

Now comes the hard part: Finding more efficient building use in areas where there just aren't as many students as there used to be.

A 55-member committee of parents, residents without schoolchildren, district workers, teachers and others examined the issue for seven months. Assisted by Wikstrom under a separate $50,000 contract, the committee wants the public to weigh in on five options.

"We're trying to . . . make suggestions to the district to operate more efficiently. Unfortunately, that comes at a cost," said Andrea Orton, committee member and community council chairwoman at Cottonwood Heights Elementary, which is in a declining enrollment area. "Of course, schools are going to have to close or be consolidated in order for the district to operate efficiently."

Proposals for the declining enrollment area's elementary and middle schools are: