Tooele School Superintendent Jim Buckley foresees 6 a.m. classes, double sessions and curtailed sports programs in the wake of Tuesday's defeat of a proposed school bond.
"It makes me angry," Buckley said Wednesday, a day after voters rejected selling $45 million in bonds to build a high school and middle school in the rapidly growing district. "It's frustrating because the kids are going to be hurt by it."Buckley plans to rework and reduce the bond proposal and try again next November.
Tooele High's 30-year-old building, designed for 1,200 students, now houses 1,608.
"The halls are really too narrow; it makes for some short tempers," said Principal Judy Butterfield.
The crowded school grew by 150 students in the past year, causing a shortage of desks and textbooks that left many pupils sitting on the floor in some classes. Class size routinely tops 35 or more, But-ter-field said.
"The kids have been good. They kind of laugh about it," she said. "But they miss out on a lot of individualized attention."
By 1999, "I don't believe we will have any other option but to go to double sessions," Buckley said.
That means running two schools in one building, Buckley said, one from 6 a.m. to noon and the other from 1 to 7 p.m. That would mean athletic teams or other activities could not use school facilities for practices or competitions until evening.
About 50 students ride the bus to Tooele High each day from Vernon, an hour's drive away, But-ter-field said. "Double sessions (would) put them on the road really early or really late," she said.
Approval of the bonds eventually would have raised Tooele tax bills by $210 a year on a $100,000 home. The money would have built a second high school for Tooele and Stansbury Park for $25 million, plus a middle school in Tooele, a gymnasium at Tooele Junior High and more classrooms at Grantsville High.
A related proposal to levy a voted leeway tax and use the money to operate schools and build a reserve fund would have increased taxes another $55 a year on a $100,000 home. That measure also was rejected Tuesday.
The Utah Taxpayers Association said in a letter to its members that the bond would have raised $5,608 per student, making Tooele the most heavily indebted school district in Utah. "The size was pretty outrageous," said Wes Quinton, the association's research analyst.
The business-backed association also questioned why Tooele officials took so long to recognize that growth was coming.
"I kept hearing, `Why doesn't the district have any vision to address the growth?' So we really did put together a five-year plan to meet our needs," said Buckley, who took office in July. "Then all I (heard) was, `It's too much. Do we really need all these things?' "