Majority of Provoans in survey want Grandview to stay open

PROVO — The majority of people who attended an open house about the proposed closure of Grandview Elementary are against it, according to the results of computer surveys.

Of the 189 people who responded to a computer survey at the end of at an open house Sept. 12 to learn about the impacts of keeping it open or closing it, 61 percent of them do not think Grandview Elementary should close.

Fourteen of the respondents were not residents of Provo. When considering only Provo residents, the number of people opposed to closing the school is 63 percent.

The computer survey is not scientific because the respondents were not a random sampling.

Respondents choose to attend the open house, held at Grandview Elementary, and the majority of them, 125 people, lived in the Grandview Hill neighborhood of Provo.

Most Grandview Hill residents were opposed to closing the school, except for the 26 respondents who lived near Grandview but whose children attended nearby Westridge Elementary.

"I think we expected most of Grandview residents want to keep the school open," said Christian Faulconer, who was chairman of a committee that studied the impacts of closing the school and keeping it open.

Provo School District administrators are considering closing the 1949 school because a 14th elementary is being built in the Lakeview neighborhood, off Geneva Road and 1400 North.

The school district says a case can be made for closing two elementary schools, but for now are just looking at closing Grandview.

Respondents were asked about school boundaries if Grandview were closed. Most wanted students in the upper Carterville neighborhood to attend a school on the east side, instead of attending Westridge.

"People don't want to overcrowd Westridge," Faulconer said.

The survey also shows a divide between faculty and staff at Grandview and Westridge.

Westridge Principal Gaye Gibbs has said services at the school may be cut if Provo keeps all schools open.

Seventeen of 20 Grandview employees want Grandview to remain open; while six of six Westridge employees want the district to close Grandview, according to the survey.

Respondents did not agree with that view, according to comments residents submitted with their surveys.

"The west side is growing, we need the room," wrote one respondent. "Lakeview will already be in the 90 percent capacity (when it opens in fall 2008.) I think that we will regret closing a west-side school."

Other respondents questioned why other older elementary schools such as Edgemont on Provo's east side were also not considered for closure.

"I am not sure why you are going to this big effort when it can plainly be seen that you will do what you want," another respondent wrote, reflecting the views of many respondents that Grandview will inevitably be closed.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com