Davis boundary plan sparking fears
Parents, students, educators and even the Miss Teen Syracuse Royalty submitted comments to leaders about safety issues, costs and isolation problems they believe the current proposal could bring. The meeting was the first of two boundary open houses to be held this week.
District officials said this is the first time in more than three decades that a high school boundary study in the district will affect every high school in the county.
Chris Williams, district spokesman, said leaders have received more than 1,200 e-mails from community members as well as phone calls concerning the proposed shake-up — and nothing is decided yet.
Williams said that after every open house he has seen in the past something has been tweaked or changed as leaders hear concerns.
Hundreds of parents are unhappy with the proposal, but officials said that to balance enrollment among the schools, some students are going to have to move — no way around it.
By next fall, Davis District will be opening "high school No. 8" in Syracuse.
According to officials, to balance enrollment in all the schools, each of the boundaries must be adjusted including the southern part of the district.
Students who are juniors this year are safe. They will be allowed to finish at whatever school they are in this year, regardless of where lines are drawn. Next year the new high school will operate without a senior class.
Grass-root groups from various communities have mobilized to make their concerns known.
A Syracuse group of some 500 people met earlier this week to discuss concerns about the plan that would isolate a 160-student "peninsula" in a Syracuse neighborhood by sending them to Clearfield High, while students only doors away would be attending the new school.
A group in Farmington is worried about safety involved in sending students on busy roads farther distances to school.
As the proposal is currently drafted, about 300 students would be taken out of Davis High in Kaysville and sent to Viewmont in Bountiful.
Heather Simonsen, spokeswoman for the Farmington group, said parents just don't feel the district is listening to them.
"They are completely ignoring everybody's concerns —they will be sending our kids to school in rush-hour traffic on 89 and I-15," Simonsen said. "They'll be taking teenage kids just learning to drive and throwing them into all that traffic."
Another open house will be held Thursday in Layton High School's gymnasium at 7 p.m. The Davis Board of Education will be making the final vote on Dec. 5. To view the proposed boundaries, visit www.davis.k12.ut.us.
E-mail: terickson@desnews.com
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