Provo school board mulls new boundaries in event Grandview Elementary closes

PROVO — If the 100 students who live in the Upper Carterville neighborhood attend school next year at Edgemont Elementary, the school may need two more portable classrooms to accommodate them.

The number of Edgemont Elementary's low-income students would increase from 31 percent to 36 percent, according to numbers crunched by the Provo School District.

The numbers were discussed Tuesday at a Provo District Board of Education meeting. The school board mulled possible boundary changes if the district decided to close Grandview Elementary.

On Oct. 9, the school board will vote whether to close Grandview Elementary.

In the fall the Provo district will open an elementary school in the nearby Lakeview neighborhood, and district staff has argued that keeping 14 elementary schools open is expensive.

If Grandview Elementary closes, most of its students will likely attend Westridge Elementary. But Westridge Elementary will be packed, and the school board has been considering shifting 100 Westridge students who live in the Upper Carterville neighborhood in northern Provo, near the Macey's Food and Drug at 1400 North, to an east-side school.

The school board is studying four options for Upper Carterville students: moving them to Edgemont; moving them to Rock Canyon Elementary after moving a group of children who live in Brigham Young University's Wymount housing to Wasatch Elementary; splitting the Upper Carterville neighborhood between Rock Canyon and Edgemont; and moving all the students to Farrer Elementary.

"I wouldn't call any of (the four) proposals at this point," school board president Darryl Alder said. "They're analysis."

A benefit of sending the Upper Carterville students to Edgemont is that they would join Lower Carterville students who have been attending Edgemont for two years.

Edgemont Principal Dennis Pratt said that the school has room for 50 more students with existing teaching positions.

Edgemont has two portables and would have to add two more for the Upper Carterville students.

And if Upper Carterville students want to continue attending Westridge, they could request to — although they may have to provide their own transportation to the school.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com