Lomond View Elementary in Pleasant View — focus of a closure study that prompted an outcry of opposition from parents and kids at the school — will stay open, at least for now.
Weber School District officials on Wednesday voted not to close the school, with Superintendent Gina Butters instead proposing a more thorough analysis of the district’s growth and enrollment trends, looking to the future. Still, she thinks the specter of closure remains.
“While enrollment trends, facility age (and) capital needs are significant factors, the broader regional picture is still evolving,” Butters said. “Lomond View, built in 1959, faces mounting infrastructure challenges, escalating maintenance costs and required state safety upgrades, realities that make a future closure increasingly likely.”
Presuming the board is supportive, she proposed hiring an outside consultant to take a more comprehensive look at the district’s varied needs with an eye to crafting a facilities plan that would serve the system for perhaps the next decade. Board members seemed open to the idea but took no formal action at Wednesday’s meeting aside from voting not to close Lomond View. Weber School District covers all of Weber County with the exception of Ogden and serves around 32,000 students.
Lomond View parents, for their part, expressed a measure of relief. Chad Hill, parent of two kids at Lomond View, was on hand. He said afterward that other parents at the meeting were happy with the decision but cognizant that the discussion isn’t over.
“We’re relieved that at least for the time being they’re leaving the school alone,” Hill said. “We know it’s going to be something ongoing to look at.”
Chaulyn Isakson, also involved in the campaign to save Lomond View, was heartened by Wednesday’s action.
“Parents understand that the long-term future of Lomond View isn’t certain, but many of us feel genuinely hopeful. We feel heard, and we trust that future decisions will be grounded in data and in a true understanding of how any changes will impact children,” she said. Moreover, she said, the process served as a lesson to the students involved that standing up for what you believe in can make a difference.
School officials formally launched a study into the future of Lomond View in early September, given the age of the facility and what officials believe to be declining enrollment trends in the Pleasant View and North Ogden area in northern Weber County. The initial idea school officials were mulling called for the closure of Lomond View and the transfer of students to two other nearby schools that are newer and operating below capacity: Orchard Springs, also in Pleasant View and North Ogden.
Parents of kids at Lomond View quickly mobilized to save the school, though, noting the relatively high academic achievement of students and the sense of community among students, teachers and parents. They also challenged the notion that declining enrollment will necessarily continue, warning that closing Lomond View could lead to crowding at other schools tapped to house students from the facility.
The parents crafted a 23-page report outlining their arguments why the school should be kept open and lauded the facility for around four hours at a public hearing on the issue last month. They also reached out to school board members and other elected officials to press the cause and peacefully demonstrated in front of the school.