Granite Board decides to close . . . no schools

Following weeks of heated discussion, two student protests and hordes of phone calls and e-mails, the Granite Board of Education decided not to close any schools after all.

The board at the stroke of midnight Wednesday morning overturned its decision of less than an hour before to close Hill View Elementary School. That's after it already voted to keep open Granite High, and rebuild fire-ravaged Wasatch Junior High — the other two schools that would have closed under an advisory committee's recommendation.

But weeks, and perhaps even days, before, the board was entertaining the idea of mothballing as many as five schools.

So how did it go from there, to closing none?

Several say it came down to community response, and courage — or lack thereof. And now, the district might have to get creative to balance its budget.

"We're all kind of scratching our heads on where they think the money's going to come from," Taylorsville resident Aimee Newton said.

The 69,000-student district says it has 8,700 empty seats, costing taxpayers $3 million to sustain. Its options committee, made up of community and school workers, ultimately recommended adjusting boundaries and closing schools — at one point, up to eight — to maximize efficiency and educational programs and keep kids together from elementary through high school.

The board approved three options for October public comment.

But the idea of closing schools riled some residents, who fought to keep them open.

Olympus and Skyline residents formed the Friends for Education Coalition. The group reached out to communities districtwide. Its "Sustainable Education Option," which sought to keep all schools open and rebuild Granite and Granger high schools, was cited in community discussions, by student protesters, and some 1,100 people responding to district surveys on the matter.

"The influence of Friends for Education ...that's what did it," board member Carole Cannon said of the board's decision. "The other thing that happened, is, . . . a lot of support (emerged) for neighborhood schools."

Holladay city wrote a letter to the board supporting the idea, as did a reported 11 legislators. South Salt Lake city officials fought for Granite High, even suggesting talks to help rebuild the century-old school.