Students march to save Granite High

More than 500 Granite High students, teachers, parents and alumni marched to Granite District offices after school Tuesday to deliver a petition urging leaders to pull their school out of the mix for the potential school closures.

Marchers, escorted by police and bused home afterward, paraded up State Street in South Salt Lake, singing the school song and carrying signs and sporting garb expressing Granite Farmers' pride.

Some were dressed in traditional garb of African nations. One wore a head scarf with her letterman sweater. And at the rally to follow, one girl delivered her message in Spanish — one of 30 languages spoken at the century-old school. Students gave the petition to Superintendent Steve Ronnenkamp, with whom they had made an appointment.

"It brings tears to your eyes," said principal Stephen Hess as he watched a chain of students — one point stretching 2 1/2 blocks —approach district headquarters. "To have a manifestation like this, it's got to have an impact. It's just hard to imagine Granite District without Granite High School."

The district could find the message becomes familiar.

The students' march came on the eve of Granite District's first of three open houses on its options to reconfigure school enrollments by changing boundaries and — the most explosive issue — closing schools.

The first is today. Others are Oct. 25 and 26. All are from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Granite Education Center, 2500 S. State. Surveys for input will be available.

"We want to create schools that provide comprehensive academic programs for our students . . . (and) increase efficient use of our space so that we can divert . . . costs back to instructional programs," said Paul Shepherd, district director of planning and boundaries. "I'm not interested in closing schools if we don't have to. . . . If it were not prudent public policy, we wouldn't even be proposing it, because it's no fun."

The 69,000-student Granite School District has 8,700 empty seats, costing $3 million a year to maintain, the district reported last spring in a building utilization study. The study also reported booming enrollments west of 5600 West and smaller school populations east of State Street. A district survey showed respondents didn't want to maintain status quo.

In that context, an options committee of parents and school workers has proposed three options to improve district efficiency and educational equity by ensuring schools have enough students to support solid programs. All included closing several schools.