School fire brings questions, inspections

Wasatch Junior High, destroyed by fire last week, could be rebuilt with insurance money, but Granite School District has made no decisions on whether that will happen.

But Wasatch is going to be treated as if it's still standing when a district committee weighs whether to close, consolidate or change boundaries to better balance enrollments in the 69,000-student Granite School District.

That's the word from district, whose representatives have appeared in several TV and radio broadcasts this week regarding the fire-devastated school and its future.

"No one should suffer from, or take advantage of, the fact the school has burned down in . . . (examining) student population issues," district spokesman Randy Ripplinger said Friday.

Wasatch Junior High was gutted July 11 by a fire that was attributed to a main computer server. Damages still are being estimated.

The Granite Board of Education this week voted to send the entire school — its students and their leaders, programs, teachers and even secretaries and custodians — to Churchill Junior High a mile and a half away. Wasatch and Churchill student bodies will coexist in a "school within a school" situation.

The move was largely supported by some 300 community members attending Tuesday's school board meeting and by parents and students at an informational gathering at Skyline High School the next day.

But they also wonder whether the school will be rebuilt or whether it will be disadvantaged during the district's enrollment-balancing and school efficiency study.

Ripplinger assures Wasatch will be treated fairly in the process. He also says the district has not started discussions other than how to transition students and workers by the time school starts in six weeks.

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