PROVO — It's the time of year when parents can officially request to enroll their children in schools outside neighborhood boundaries; but in Provo, not all elementary school boundaries for next year have been set.

Still, the Provo School District staff urges parents with their hearts set on one school to complete school request forms at the district offices, 280 W. 940 North, to help staff determine boundaries and busing. Forms are available Monday through Friday during business hours.

And they hope parents will complete school request forms before Dec. 11 — the date of the next school board meeting, when the board is expected to finish drawing elementary school boundaries.

In Provo, residents in all southwest neighborhoods of town and residents of pockets such as Upper Carterville — an area of north Provo between University Avenue and State Street — do not have boundaries yet.

Melissa Garver, who lives near 400 North and 1300 West, said her neighborhood also does not have an elementary school assigned yet. Next year, her daughter could attend either Amelia Earhart or a new school in the Lakeview neighborhood.

The district's request that she sign up for a school before she knows which school will be assigned to the neighborhood is illogical, she said.

Boundaries were supposed to be decided at the October and November school board meetings, which would have made for a cleaner school request process.

While some boundary decisions were made in October, the school board never made the remaining boundary decisions in November because they spent several hours fielding complaints from people affected by the October decisions.

At the October meeting, the school board voted to close Grandview Elementary at the end of the school year. The board assigned Grandview Elementary students to new schools.

But many of the Grandview students want to follow their teachers and principal to the Lakeview neighborhood school.

In fact, about 65 of the 100 school request forms submitted Monday were by Grandview parents wanting their children to attend the Lakeview school, said Greg Hudnall, Provo's student services director.

Throughout Utah, parents are exercising what public school officials call "choice" by requesting public schools outside of their neighborhoods and even districts.

The enrollment request period began Monday and continues through Feb. 15.

In the 58,000-student Alpine School District, parents can request any schools except the following: Lakeview Junior High, Oak Canyon Junior, Willowcreek Middle, Lone Peak High, Lehi High and Pleasant Grove High.

In the 25,000-student Nebo School District, all schools are open for choice.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com