Jordan District will close a school

It's official: One elementary school will close in Jordan School District's northeast area.

Now it's the community's turn to help decide which school will get the ax.

But rest assured, any money saved from shuttering a school will stay in the northeast area, as residents had requested — possibly to rebuild another school.

That's the upshot of a unanimous vote Tuesday by the Jordan Board of Education, which is attempting to balance booming south- and west-area growth with dwindling enrollments in older east-side neighborhoods — and use public dollars wisely.

"We have hashed over this (issue) and almost battled back and forth occasionally," board vice president Ellen Wallace said. "I think we've really been conservative and done a good job."

The school closure would come next year at the earliest.

The vote also included possible changes in other areas of the 75,000-student district, including rebuilding schools (possibly as part of a future bond election), taking some schools off year-round schedules and possibly changing boundaries of others. For specifics, visit www.jordandistrict.org/facilitiesplanning/index.htm

The district expects to add up to 15,000 students to its rolls over the next decade, mainly in the south and west, while enrollments are projected to continue shrinking in the northeast, according to analyses by Wikstrom Economic and Planning Consultants. The district hired the consulting firm to examine its facility use.

Voters last year approved a $281 million bond to build 22 new schools in growing areas. Months later, the district asked if it should keep open part-empty schools, when closing an elementary could save up to $400,000 in annual operation and maintenance costs, and selling it could glean up to $4 million.

The district assembled a 55-member committee of residents and school workers to weigh whether to do nothing, redraw boundaries, close schools or do a combination of those. Most residents preferred closing a few schools, Wikstrom's data showed.

The school board this summer drafted procedures, including closing schools only where resident enrollment steadily droops or fills less than 70 percent of the building's capacity, or when renovations would cost 85 percent of a new building.

The board had talked about closing two elementaries and rebuilding one in the northeast and considered closing a Midvale-area middle school and an elementary near Jordan High, but pared back the idea two weeks ago.