After poring over stacks of notes from public meetings, the Salt Lake City Board of Education came to a few realizations: People don't want to change schools, and public trust is dwindling.
"They don't trust us that we'll make a decision that's good for the whole district," board member Cliff Higbee said in a recent board meeting. "They think we'll make a decision based on personal bias."Higbee and other board members said they thought they gave the public a voice in proposing boundary changes for the district's elementary and middle schools. But board members are finding out that shuffling parents' children between schools can be a no-win proposition when it comes to winning public support.
"I don't know that we've necessarily done anything wrong. I think we possibly could have given the information perhaps in a different way or we could have tried to anticipate the community reaction and prepared people for that a little bit better," board Chairwoman Kathy Black said.
"But we tried to be as honest about the process as we possibly could and hoped that the community would come along with us as we were trying to make that decision. And some have."
Changing school boundaries is like dropping a bomb on a community, said Craig Stark, assistant superintendent of Jordan School District's northwest area. And he acknowledges that Salt Lake's task is especially explosive because it would involve all 28 elementaries and five middle schools.
And while no district can avoid the controversy and angst that comes with redrawing school boundaries, those who have been through it before have found a way to pacify public outcry: involve the public early -- and often.
"As a school board, we have not had to deal with closing a school. That is a little different than changing boundaries," Davis Board of Education President Barbara Smith said, referring to the Salt Lake district proposal.
"(But) we would have put together a citizens committee, brought in all population figures from that area and let the citizens help us come up with cost-effective ways of dealing with what we had to do."
Smith's board drummed up a citizens committee last year before undergoing what she calls the largest boundary change in state history.
Yes, there were tears and teeth gnashing along the way, and not everyone was happy in the end. But parents apparently felt they were heard: Just two showed up on the day the board voted to redraw boundaries for 28 schools.
Salt Lake, however, has some parents up in arms. Those at Beacon Heights Elementary -- who believe their school is threatened for closure -- have formed a political action committee to force change in the schools and school board, established a Web site (www.utahparent.com) dedicated to the "well-kept secret" of school choice and even enlisted new Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's political clout to help keep open the school, whose programs and high test scores are popular with parents.
"If a school has to close, we can deal with it if it's being done fairly," said Beacon Heights PTA President Julie Teerlink, noting parents voted for a $136 million bond that contained money to rebuild the school.
The school board wants to change boundaries to balance years of west-side enrollment booms and east-side declines, which have no end in sight. The district now has to see if it has the millions of dollars to keep up all the current schools plus two more planned for the west side. It has not ruled out a closure.
Beacon Heights Elementary parents feel as if their school has been put on the chopping block, though no one's exactly said so. That's because scenarios pitched in five public hearings show the school serving a small area where about 130 students live, about one-fourth of what's needed to fill it.
But in reality, Beacon Heights enrolls 520 students, half of whom come from outside its boundaries, and has a waiting list to get in.
Black says the school may be full, but the district must use numbers based on who lives in the actual boundaries to make decisions on whether schools should remain open. That's because transfers can be unpredictable, dictated primarily by changes in a school's faculty or programs.
Board members have asked for that data and other numbers before taking their next step. But parents are complaining that the district should have had that data in the beginning.
Uintah Elementary parent Susan Webster says parents should have been closely involved with the process, not just asked to give input after scenarios were drawn up.
Black defends the district's attempts at early public involvement by saying the Salt Lake City School District has parents on a district facilities committee that has been looking at the situation for years.
Many parents apparently don't know that. And some said they never received notice of the public hearings that the board said it mailed to every student's home. As a result, mistrust spread and opposition solidified.
Davis officials also faced disagreement among parents, but they didn't have to contend with the outspoken mistrust that has blindsided Salt Lake school officials.
Davis officials credit early and widespread parent involvement for their comparatively smooth boundary transition. They forwarded a few boundary scenarios to school community councils and a citizens committee for input before public hearings. So really, though the idea was guided by the district, proposal shaping came from the grass roots, Smith said.
The citizens committee sorted through 500 responses and ideas on the boundaries and explained proposals in open houses. In the end, the school board gave the least amount of input, Smith said.
The Jordan Board of Education also delegated part of the boundary-change process to parents and school community groups.
Still, angry Jordan parents chimed in, and not everyone is happy with the changes, though some say they're willing to go along for the common good. Some still cross their fingers that the solution lasts more than five years in growing areas of the district.
Jordan also wants to look at the process to help strike a balance between board and community involvement. For instance, simply dumping a daunting task on neighbors might not be all good.
"These boundary changes can be very divisive for the community," Stark said.
"I think it's important to get the community involved. I guess we're now wrestling with how much of the decision should be the board of education's and how much should be the community's responsibility."
You can reach Jennifer Toomer-Cook by e-mail at jtcook@desnews.com