2 plans emerge in schools battle

Granite Board of Education members met for more than seven hours Monday to evaluate community feedback and sort through the myriad strong opinions from board members on what schools, if any, should be closed.

The often-heated discussion was aimed at taking some of the weight off tonight's regularly scheduled meeting, during which members will narrow options and have a first vote on which recommendations the district will go with.

"It's difficult, but we are ironing everything out and we're not mincing words," said board president Patricia Sandstrom. "We just needed to get everything out on the table so we have a clear picture of what is going on."

By the end of Monday night's talks, two plans emerged — either close three schools or save them all. But it's still up in the air as to how the board will vote, or if the board will adopt any of the recommendations.

The options committee, a group of parents and educators, has been working for months on ways to improve district efficiency through closing schools and realigning boundaries.

Recently, a district study found Granite schools have room for 8,700 students — space that costs taxpayers some $3 million a year to maintain — and the committee has been exploring ideas on how the district should proceed.

After hearing public input on a number of different options, the committee formulated a plan using what it felt was the most efficient of all the options.

Its recommendation is to close Granite High, Wasatch Junior High and Hill View Elementary, then adjust the boundaries of Mill Creek and Twin Peaks elementary schools (where Hill View's students would attend), and adjust the boundaries of Morningside and Driggs elementary schools to even out enrollment.

The committee also recommended adjusting the boundaries of Arcadia, Bennion and Westbrook elementaries to feed neighborhood junior highs and keep the same 7-9 and 10-12 grade configurations in the junior highs and high schools.

But board member Carole Cannon presented another proposal on behalf of some parents who call themselves the Friends for Education Coalition.

Spearheaded by Olympus- and Skyline-area parents, the group wants to keep all schools open, rebuild Granite and Granger highs and Wasatch Junior High and build as many as three new elementary schools on the west side of the district where there is rapid growth.