From Deseret News archives:
Grandview: stay or go?
Its future will impact nearby Westridge school
"We're going to lose a lot of kids, so I would have to get rid of a lot of teachers," Westridge Principal Gaye Gibbs said at a meeting Thursday. "It's usually (according to teacher union rules) last in, first out."
Gibbs spoke at a meeting of a committee of community members and district officials studying the impacts of closing or keeping Grandview, one of the district's oldest schools, in fall 2008 when an elementary school in the nearby Lakeview neighborhood opens.
The Lakeview school is currently under construction.
The committee, which also has to propose boundary changes to accommodate the Lakeview school's opening, will present its findings at public open houses in August.
The decision about closing the school will be made in the fall.
If Westridge has 660 students, the district would provide 26 full-time teaching positions. Westridge currently has about 40 teachers.
State money follows each child, and Gibbs has taken advantage of her school's high population by funding tutoring, gifted-and-talented and fine-arts programs — which also could face the chopping block if she loses a significant number of students.
Depending on how the boundaries take shape, Westridge could have a higher percentage of poverty and minority students. Decades of studies have shown that such students are at-risk academically.
Under such a scenario, Westridge teachers would have to emphasize language arts and math for good performance on standardized tests over the school's home-grown fine arts programs.
But Westridge will not be the only school affected if Grandview Elementary remains open. Resources to other schools could be diluted.
Keeping Grandview open also will require about $7 million to repair the building.
There are pros to keeping Grandview open — it could keep enrollment in west Provo schools down, keep Carterville neighborhood children in west-side schools as residents have requested, and keep faculty at Grandview from having to transfer to new schools.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com
