New school boundaries?

PROVO — The boundaries for a new Provo elementary school are likely to run along the interstate and the Provo River.

Students who live west of I-15 and north of the Provo River — up to Utah Lake or the Orem city boundary line — would attend the still-under-construction school at Geneva Road and 1390 North.

The Provo School District, which is considering such a scenario, is discussing boundary issues for the district's elementary schools, which will have to change in fall 2008 when the Lakeview neighborhood school will be ready to open.

The district expects that about 350 students who now go to Westridge Elementary and about 300 now at Amelia Earhart Elementary will attend the new school.

"Westridge and Amelia Earhart will be underpopulated," said school board member Sandy Packard. "We'll have to adjust boundaries to compensate for that."

Last month, the school district staff presented to the Board of Education a boundary map that presumed Grandview Elementary would close.

Students at Grandview, which has been considered for closure for several years because of low enrollment, would transfer to Westridge Elementary.

However, that proposal could crowd Westridge, Packard said.

Westridge's capacity is about 650 students and the staff proposal could possibly shoot enrollment over 800.

But other factors could affect the enrollment at Westridge, such as Freedom Academy charter school, which has property in the neighborhood, and may attract neighborhood students once construction on its building is complete.

A subdivision may also be developed within the proposed Westridge boundaries, bringing more children to Westridge

Packard proposes the transfer of all Grandview students to Westridge, except the 111 students who live in the Carterville neighborhood of Provo, east of State Street.

The Carterville students could attend northeast schools, such as Canyon Crest, Edgemont or Rock Canyon elementaries, which have room to absorb them.

That proposal may be an uphill battle for Packard, however, because the area is considered low income. Fifty-seven percent of students from Carterville qualify under income guidelines to receive free or reduced-price lunch.

"The northeast schools have been at pretty low poverty levels, and that (new student group) would affect them some," Packard said. "But it's not until you have 40-50 percent" of the student body living in poverty, according to research, that academic achievement of the entire school declines.

Elsewhere in the city, about 200 students who attend Sunset View Elementary attend classes in portable classrooms, and the school district is considering transferring them to Amelia Earhart Elementary once the Lakeview elementary school opens.

The issue will be discussed at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting. The Board is also going to ask focus groups composed of neighborhood leaders to consider the issue.

Parent Christian Faulconer hopes the district will open discussion up to a larger group.

"I think it's a really complicated issue," he said. "I think the board needs to get community input in it."

The board will not make boundary changes, said Daryl Alder, president of the school board, until after public open houses and hearings.

---

E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com