3rd school urged for Eagle Mountain

PLEASANT GROVE — Eagle Mountain, one of the fastest growing cities in one of Utah's fastest growing school districts, is poised to get another school.

It will be the Alpine School District's third elementary school in Eagle Mountain. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2008.

"Where the priority is right now is west Ranches (a subdivision in Eagle Mountain)," Superintendent Vern Henshaw said Tuesday night at a meeting with the Board of Education at Pleasant Grove's Manila Elementary.

Henshaw and business administrator Rob Smith showed the school board a Google Earth map and discussed housing subdivisions that are under construction or in the planning process in Eagle Mountain.

The proposed school would alleviate population pressures at Pony Express Elementary in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs Elementary.

Pony Express opened about five years ago and now has 1,109 students on an extended-day schedule after several boundary changes, said Assistant Superintendent Gary Seastrand.

Harvest Elementary opened in Saratoga Springs in the fall with 950 students — 50 students shy of reaching capacity.

Next year, Pony Express Elementary's enrollment will balloon to 1,250, which means students will occupy portable classrooms while the proposed school is under construction.

Harvest Elementary's enrollment may also increase to 1,250 in the next several years, Seastrand said.

At the southern end of town is 3-year-old Eagle Valley Elementary. But it cannot absorb the students from Pony Express and Harvest elementary schools because it is at capacity.

"We have a plan to add on to that school," Seastrand said, adding that construction will begin in the spring.

Alpine District administrators have to buy property if they want construction to begin in the spring, which is necessary if the school is to open in the fall of 2008.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com