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Hundreds Make Plea of 'Save Our Schools!' to Granite

Posted on: Thursday, 27 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By Jennifer Toomer-Cook Deseret Morning News

Hundreds of students and parents rallied outside Granite School District headquarters Wednesday, waving signs and chanting "Save our schools!" in hopes the Board of Education would hear their plea.

Meanwhile, in a rare move, the Holladay City Council today is expected to OK a letter to the board in support of keeping neighborhood schools.

The rally, which attracted perhaps 200 to 300 people and coincided with the final open house for public input on the matter, was largely organized by students, several community representatives said.

Students from schools including Canyon Rim and Morningside elementaries and Wasatch Junior High, under threat of closing under options before the board, attended the rally. Student leaders from Olympus and Skyline high schools also supported alternatives to school closures.

"We don't want megaschools," said Skyline student president Cameron Hansen, speaking in favor of a community proposal that would adjust boundaries but not close schools to balance enrollments. "If they close our feeder schools, the whole (network) will close."

The Granite board is scheduled to consider public input Nov. 8 and vote Nov. 29.

District officials praised the students for exercising their civic responsibilities and expressing concern for their schools by attending the rally.

"Every bit of input we receive . . . I think has an impact," Superintendent Steve Ronnenkamp said. "This thing is so far from coming to any conclusion."

Board President Patricia Sandstrom made no promises.

"I don't know if it will make a difference," she said of the rally. "I think we'll take it into consideration with everything else."

Last spring, a district utilization study reported Granite schools have 8,700 empty seats, or enough to fill two elementaries, two junior highs and two high schools and costs $3 million a year to maintain, the district reports.

Last month, the board voted to take public input on three options intended to improve efficiency and educational equity in the 69,000- student district. All three options include closing schools.

Some parents in Cottonwood and Granger high communities have agreed a few schools need to close. Others are pressing the school board to save their neighborhood school.

An increasingly vocal community group, the Friends for Education Coalition, favors adjusting boundaries. The group, founded by Olympus- and Skyline-area residents, says east-side neighborhoods are regenerating and that school closures ought to be a last resort. It also questions whether $3 million of a nearly $500 million budget is worth the community disruption, and if it is, where it will go. (Ronnenkamp says it could, for example, underwrite educational programs, reduce class size or improve teacher pay.)

The Holladay City Council is to meet at 6 p.m. today to discuss a resolution that opposes closing any school, "except in those rare instances where the evidence clearly indicates that the school has become nonfunctional and that closure would be in the best interest of those students."

"The possibility of closure of schools, especially high schools and junior high schools, has a dramatic impact on a community," Holladay City Manager Randy Fitts said. "This has been a very, very hot issue up in our area."

Ten thousand copies of the city's letter to the Granite Board of Education will be distributed communitywide to show where the city stands, Fitts said.

The South Salt Lake City Council also is involved in the fight to keep Granite High open. West Valley officials report keeping a watchful eye, and Murray Mayor Dan Snarr has talked with concerned parents in his area.

E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com

Source: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

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