As predicted, hundreds of residents filled a public meeting Tuesday to protest a boundary change proposal affecting five area elementary schools.
But many came away from the meeting with a sobering dose of reality - administered by Superintendent Rich Kendell - about Davis School District's growth problems.The crowd of 500 listened to Kendell spell out the woes of educating the county's 56,629 children in facilities that should handle thousands less than that number:
- The district will use 150 portable classrooms next year.
- Fifteen elementary and five junior high schools will likely go to year-round schedules in the next two years. The remaining will follow in years to come.
- The district's debt has burgeoned to $112 million, which means taxpayers dole out $13 million annually to cover principal and interest.
"Every school will be pushed to capacity and beyond to meet our population demands," he said. "People need to realize our lives are going to be impacted by growth."
His remarks came prior to those made by dozens of residents upset about various aspects of a boundary change plan that would ease overcrowding at Columbia Elementary.
The proposal, singled out from among a dozen scenarios, would move about 145 children living in Hess Farms subdivision from Columbia to Knowlton Elementary in Farmington. The plan would also transfer about 100 children living in the Happy Homes and Gailey Park area to Kaysville Elementary. About 70 children now attending Morgan would be transferred to Burton under the proposal. (For general boundary change information, see the accompanying story. More specific information is available from the Davis School District office or elementary school principals.)
About 30 residents spoke at the meeting. Several Hess Farms residents said they didn't want to see the area's children split between two schools. Happy Homes subdivision residents expressed concern about the safety of their children walking four extra blocks to Kays-ville Elementary.
"This change will be only the first of many," Hess Farms resident Kathy Baird said. "(The changes) will have serious, adverse effects on our children's feelings of stability."
Baird called for "more thought towards a permanent solution."
But "more thought" is exactly what a 25-member committee organized by the district has given the issue, according to Stephen Randle, chairman of the Kaysville elementary schools boundary study committee.
Members have met for two months and "looked at every possible scenario," he said. "There isn't one that wouldn't split up subdivisions. There is no way to unload Columbia without it."
Randle said, however, that the committee would consider at least two issues raised during the public hearing. The first about the poorly-maintained sidewalk on 50 West - the road where about 100 children from Happy Homes subdivision would walk to get to Kaysville Elementary if the proposal stands. The second are reports of cars "screeching to a halt and barely missing kids" crossing a walk at Main and Center streets.
Residents said the walk has a crossing guard, but students coming home late from school after the guard has left are in danger.
The committee will meet again Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 5 p.m. at the district office in Farmington, 45 E. State.
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(Additional information)
The proposed moves
After two months of studying a dozen boundary-change scenarios, a district committee has recommended the following:
Happy Homes subdivision and Gailey Park area
- Children now attending Columbia Elementary who live between 100 South on the north and 350 South on the south and between I-15 on the west and 50 West on the east will move to Kaysville Elementary. Hess Farms subdivision
- Children now attending Columbia Elementary who live between 1475 South on the north and Haight Creek on the south and between 500 East on the west and Haight Creek on the east move to Knowlton Elementary.Fruit Heights
- Children now attending Morgan Elementary who live between the area one lot north of Green Road on the north and the intersection of Highway 89 and Mountain Road east to the Davis County line on the south and between U.S. 89 on the west and the mountains on the east move to Burton Elementary.