Local school districts face growing pains as the student population continues to increase across Utah Valley.

Changes in Provo, Nebo and Alpine school districts include adding more school board members, shifting school boundaries and building additional schools.

Provo and Nebo districts will elect two new school board members next November, changing the number of members from five to seven.

This is a direct response to a law passed in Utah this year, which requires districts with more than 10,000 students to have seven elected members on a district's board of education.

The Alpine School District increased its school board members from five to seven two years ago.

Adding school board members also means redrawing the school district's boundaries. The proposed redistricting for Nebo District already won approval from the county commission in September.

However, splitting Provo into seven equal districts has been much more of a challenge for Provo's school district board of education.

Provo School District board member Carolyn Wright said the biggest challenge has been getting the districts as even as possible. Utah state law requires each district to be "substantially equal in population."

Each district's population must be even by ten percent or less to each other, Wright said.

"The more even in numbers the districts are, the more every one person's vote counts," Wright said. "We have tried to be as fair as possible by gathering input from the community. It's been a reflective and cooperative venture from the beginning."

Under the direction of the Provo City Council, the school board has worked on proposed redistricting maps since the beginning of this year and came up with several plans.

After collecting input from board members and residents, Wright proposed a plan. Provo council member Dave Knecht later modified the plan to resolve concerns involving Provo's central city neighborhoods.

Wright said she thinks Knecht's plan is most popular.

"It pleases more people, so I'm pretty sure it's the one that will pass," she said. "I'm going to support it, too."

The Provo City Council will conduct a public hearing on Dec.16 to discuss and vote on the final redistricting plan.

In Alpine, a school district committee designed proposed boundaries for three new schools, two elementary schools and one junior high. After gathering community opinion, the committee will present the final plans district approval on Jan. 13. The board will then take appropriate action on Jan. 27.

The planned schools include a new elementary school in Saratoga Springs, which will take students from Snow Springs Elementary in Lehi, and another new elementary school in Eagle Mountain, which will take students from Pony Express Elementary School.

Right now, the 1,300 students attending Snow Springs Elementary overflow into four portables located on the school's campus.

"The fact of the matter is we're growing like crazy," said Phil Armstrong, principal of the school. "It's going to keep happening. We're just trying to deal with it."

Armstrong said although the building is full, administrators try to keep the class sizes as small as possible. The average class size is 25 to 30 students. The largest, a sixth grade class, includes 35 students.

Construction on the school in Saratoga Springs should begin the first part of next year.

After the main parts of the building (the gym, cafeteria and bathrooms) are completed, 500 students from Snow Springs Elementary will be moved there, Armstrong said. Portables will house the students until the remainder of the construction is completed.

Last month, Nebo School District announced the plan to build ten new schools by 2010.

Lana Hiskey, public relations director for the school district, said one reason for the growth is the huge amount of property development in the Nebo area.

"This is one area that has enough surrounding land to grow," Hiskey said. "Also, it's just a great living environment."



Copyright Brigham Young University 8 Dec 2003