There's no question the Jordan School District needs two new high schools in the next five years. The question, and not one easily answered, is where to put the first school.
Parents from Riverton and South Jordan have suggested a site at 12400 South 2700 West. The district looked at four other sites but most seriously at one, 5300 W. New Bingham Highway.At a board meeting Tuesday night, Gene Ball, executive assistant to the superintendent, presented five property options and then different boundary options using the Riverton site, the site on the New Bingham Highway and the two westside existing schools.
Among the conclusions they reached was that South Jordan is going to be divided no matter where the school is placed. If it's placed in Riverton, the boundary will cut the city in half east to west. If it's placed on the New Bingham Highway (5300 W.) site, then South Jordan will be divided north to south.
Ball said the number of high school students in the South Jordan-Riverton area will increase faster than the West Jordan area, because of new housing development and the current building market. However, if building slows down, the number of students in high school will grow faster in West Jordan because there now are more younger students in that system.
The goals the district has set include solving the most immediate housing problems, providing long-range stability, minimizing busing, avoiding building close to existing schools and assuring reasonable access to the site.
At the board meeting two weeks ago, parents from Riverton and South Jordan raised some items of safety concern about the site on the New Bingham Highway. Among them were a nearby power line, a natural gas pipeline underground and the transport of chemicals in and out of Kennecott along the highway.
They reiterated their concerns Tuesday night, after one board member commented that he didn't find the site hazardous.
"I got the impression (after the last meeting) that if you went out on that site your hair would stand up on end," Rodney Dahl said when Ball outlined the concerns during the presentation. Dahl said the power lines were a half-mile away from the site, and a friend who lived in the area said he'd never seen hazardous-materials trucks traveling that road.
But parents took issue with those conclusions.
"We're trying to do what's best for the children," one woman said. "I'm appalled that you're not looking at that more seriously (the power line)."
South Jordan resident Brett Wall said he'd talked to Mervin Jones at Kennecott and had been told that trucks carrying sodium hydrosulfate is transported on Tuesdays and other chemicals are hauled in and out on Wednesday.
West Jordan resident Dina McCleve told the Deseret News on Wednesday morning that parents in West Jordan made calls to Kennecott and the company is denying that chemicals are hauled along the New Bingham Highway.
Wall also blasted the news media for quoting a woman who said she'd moved from West Jordan to escape a growing gang problem. That comment prompted some West Jordan residents to address the board Tuesday night.
Ken McGuire, West Jordan city public safety director, told the board the city has no more or less of a gang problem than any other city in the valley.
Board president Linda Neff said she'd had a total of three positive calls or letters from residents since she'd been a member of the board. But that changed last week, when she said she received a number of calls from West Jordan.
"I would really like to thank the ladies and gentlemen of the West Jordan area," she said. "Sometimes words are the best pay."
One South Jordan parent said she wasn't against a site in West Jordan, just the one on the New Bingham Highway. The West Jordan residents who showed up last night said they'd support the board no matter where the school goes.
"For those of us who live in the Bermuda Triangle . . . these concerns seem ridiculous," said Barbara Davies. Another parent said she wanted the board to know that they were all alive and well and none of them were glowing in the dark.
The meeting, which lasted until the early hours of the morning, is the last opportunity for public input at a meeting. The board will approve a site at a special meeting next Tuesday at 7 p.m. They also will be choosing a middle school site.