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1 | NETWORK | SCHOOL(S) | PATRON COMMENT | PAC RESPONSE Click hyperlink to the right to see answers to Frequently Asked Questions | PACFAQ's | Additional Data | ||||||||||||||||||
2 | Crestview, Olympus Jr | 6.10.2022 To whom it may concern, I believe that disrupting students and communities by changing boundaries would be really hard on students, staff, faculty and parents. Despite the challenges redrawing boundaries would cause, I would be able to get on board with the change IF I thought it would ultimately achieve the goal of having three strong high school populations. Ultimately, I believe that because of open enrollment, changing boundaries will NOT draw enough students to help Cottonwood high, in particular, and so I do not support the change in boundaries. I believe innovating in programs and activities will accomplish the goal more effectively, efficiently, and without community disruption. I think this is such an opportunity to offer unique programming to our students, in particular students who may have particular needs not being fulfilled in traditional high school settings. I think offering more accelerated classes, partnering with trade schools, STEM tracks, arts classes, language immersion programs, special needs classes- any and all of those could attract students from across the valley. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of our students, schools and communities. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. | |||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Olympus | 6/3/2022 Members of the Population Analysis Committee, Thank you for the time that you have spent on the Skyline, Olympus, Cottonwood High boundary study and for engaging with our community on this matter. We have appreciated the many, many hours that have been spent at community meetings and behind the scenes sharing data and combing through what I imagine has been hundreds of emails. Your transparency and willingness to engage and listen to feedback has been extremely appreciated. Thank you! I am writing to express my concerns about continuing with the high school boundary study. As background, I have six children ages 5-15 who attend Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Junior and Skyline high school (my son special permits for the IB program). I am the chair of the community councils at both Cottonwood Elementary and Olympus Junior. I became involved in this issue back in March when Ben and Steve came to our community council meetings and I became concerned about the impact of changing boundaries in my area--that it wouldn't solve the problem at Cottonwood High and that it would cause harm at my elementary and junior high. As the process has continued, those initial concerns have only been reinforced by the data that the Population Analysis Committee has collected and made public. I think it made sense for the PAC and school board members to initiate this study, but I think that there is enough data and information gathered in the months since to recommend uncoupling the two studies: discontinue the high school study, while focusing instead on the 700 E/Van Winkle Corridor one. My reasons can be summarized in three points: 1.Cottonwood High has an enrollment problem, not a boundary problem. 2.Initiating a high school boundary change now is premature and could cause problems with enrollment down the road. 3.Allowing the boundary study to continue past June could cause harm within the community.1.Cottonwood High doesn't have a boundary issue, so the answer is not a boundary change. a.Cottonwood High has an equitable share of the zoned population: The boundary study is looking into whether redistributing the populations among these three schools is the right solution: Cottonwood High has 1565 enrolled students, Olympus has 2047, and Skyline has 2131. If you add the populations of these schools together, there are 5,743 students. If you split that evenly, that would give each school about 1,900 students. However, there aren’t 5,700 kids who live within the boundaries of these high schools. There are just 4,788 (955 special permit in). If you evenly distributed those kids among three high schools, there would be roughly 1,600 students at each school–just below where Cottonwood High is right now. Cottonwood High already has (just above) a fair share of the zoned population. (Source: Student Mobility Data) Compare Cottonwood High’s numbers with Skyline’s: Cottonwood High has 435 more zoned students (36% more). Skyline is the high school with a boundary problem, but it has the highest enrollment of the three schools. If the district truly wanted to be equitable about population, it should rezone some of Olympus’ students for Skyline, not Cottonwood High. b. Cottonwood High has a retention problem, not a boundary problem. Nearly one in three students--30 percent--leave Cottonwood High for other schools in the district, and that doesn’t include the students that are enrolled in charter schools, private schools, and schools outside of the district. (Source: Student Mobility Data) Cottonwood High currently loses 201 students to Olympus and 176 to Skyline. If it retained just the students it loses to those two schools alone, it would not have an enrollment problem. (Sources: Olympus Mobility, Skyline Mobility) Retention rates are much worse along the borders between Cottonwood High and Olympus High. A 2017 Granite District boundary study found that of 67 students who lived within Cottonwood High network boundaries that border Cottonwood Elementary boundaries, just 7 students (10%) attended Cottonwood High network schools. Of 16 high school students in that area, only one (6%) went to Cottonwood High. (Source: PAC 2017 Boundary Study Proposals, attached) It doesn’t make sense to continue to zone more students to Cottonwood High–especially from areas that are likely to special permit right back out. If you have a leaky water pipe, you don’t add more water. You invest in a fix. Olympus and Skyline better retain their populations. Skyline does a dramatically better job attracting students from other networks. It only has 1,238 zoned students, but it retains 91% of them and attracts more than 1,000 more. (Source: Student Mobility Data)2. Initiating a boundary change now is premature. It may not be necessary for Cottonwood High and it could set up Olympus--the second-least enrolled high school in the district--for a population problem down the road. a. The district needs time to see the efficacy of the elementary school study before proceeding with a high school one. The purpose of the 700 E/Van Winkle corridor study of elementaries in Cottonwood High boundaries is to consolidate low-population elementary schools to strengthen them. Too-small elementary schools are less attractive to families because there is often not as much community involvement or support and they are not able to fund and run as many supplemental programs. (Source: Open House Presentation) Cottonwood High’s two lowest-enrolled feeder schools, Twin Peaks and Spring Lane, lose 50% and 53% of their zoned student bodies, respectively. This does not include additional loss to charter schools, private schools, out-of-district transfers and home school. (Source: Student Mobility Data) If Cottonwood High’s feeder schools can better retain their populations, it would shore up enrollment at the high school and potentially solve the high school’s population problem without additional intervention. As Steve Hogan told the school board in February 2021, boundary studies have intended and unintended consequences and can take 2-3 years before the true impact of a recommendation is understood. The board discussed this at that meeting with regards to the idea of expanding the study to include all high school boundaries. It was ultimately determined that there are ripple effects with layering boundary studies and board members preferred to see where the dust settled on one study before moving onto the next. Likewise, the district should give time to see the effects of Cottonwood High’s elementary school study instead of concurrently running a high school one. (Source: February Board Meeting) b. The district needs time to see population gains from non-boundary solutions at Cottonwood High before proceeding with boundary changes. District officials are currently looking at investment in non-boundary solutions at Cottonwood High, which will happen independent of a boundary change. I am grateful to be part of a joint effort between a small group of Olympus High and Cottonwood High parents to work with Cottonwood High's new principal, Michael Douglas, on brainstorming and implementing new programs at Cottonwood High. There are some exciting ideas being explored. District officials are pursuing adding a new program that will draw new students, like an Associate's degree program. They are also exploring the idea of becoming a charter-holder for AMES, which enrolls nearly 500 students and could potentially be grown to accommodate another 250 more. These solutions have the potential of solving Cottonwood High's enrollment problem without additional boundary changes. It also has the potential of attracting neighboring students, which will reduce the student population at Olympus. Preemptively adding a boundary change ahead of this investment at Cottonwood High is unnecessary and potentially harmful to the Olympus network. If Cottonwood High attracted students from Granger or Taylorsville with a new program and better marketing, it would relieve overcrowding in those schools. If it attracted students from the bordering Murray, Salt Lake or Canyons districts, it would bring in new money from out-of-district students. Splitting 4,800 students among three high schools with a boundary change is the only solution that hurts Granite schools instead of helping them. c. Enrollment numbers will fluctuate when the new Skyline campus opens, so it is premature to attempt to redistribute the population now. When Granger High was rebuilt, it was built for 2,700 students, but it currently has a population of more than 3,400 students. District leaders have acknowledged that there is a new school effect that draws students from neighboring schools. Skyline is already an attractive school; it is the top-rated high school in the district and top 10 in the state. (source: US News and World Report rankings) It has high test scores, an IB program, competitive sports and arts programs, and it's located just four minutes from Olympus High.Thirteen percent of Olympus' zoned population already chooses Skyline High--despite the fact that Skyline's building is in poor condition and Olympus' is relatively new. (Source: Student Mobility Data) Skyline will draw even more Olympus students once the new campus opens. Steve Hogan told the board in February 2021 that he recommended waiting to study Granger’s overpopulation problem until Cyprus was rebuilt because enrollment numbers will fluctuate when the new Cyprus campus opens. Skyline is already the highest-enrolled school of the three east-side schools and will only grow larger with a new campus that is being built to accommodate 2,400 students. Any study that looks at rezoning students from Olympus to Cottonwood High, should also consider rezoning kids from Skyline to Olympus. But that is premature because, similar to Cyprus, we don't know how the populations among these three schools will settle until after the new campus opens. (Source: February board meeting) d. Cottonwood High's zoned population is growing at twice the rate of Olympus'. The district commissioned a demographics report to help inform their population studies in this area. Because Davis Demographics’ study is three years old, we can compare their projections of high school populations to actual numbers to see how it played out. Davis predicted that the zoned population for Cottonwood High 9-12 would not grow from 2019-2021, but it would grow 5.7% for Olympus High. Turns out, they were overly optimistic for Olympus High and not optimistic enough for Cottonwood High. Cottonwood High's zoned population grew 5.9% and Olympus' just 2.5%. The Davis Demographics study that the Population Analysis Committee is working with is not only outdated (it predated the 2020 census and could not foresee demographic shifts that came with the pandemic), it was inaccurate in predicting trends that would inform this high school study. If any conclusion can be made from the Davis Demographics study, it argues against a boundary change that favors Cottonwood High because the zoned population of Cottonwood High is outpacing Olympus High’s growth. (Source: Davis Demographics Population Forecast report , Source: Student Mobility Data) | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. For those that are not answered in the FAQ's, please feel free to contact the Planning and Boundaries Department, 385-646-4123. | |||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Olympus Network | Olympus High, Olympus Jr. High, Crestview Elem | 5.20.2022 As a parent of 4 children that are in the Olympus network I am deeply concerned for my children and their education and wellbeing if there were to be proposed changes to the boundaries. The threat of the boundary change is harming the mental health of our children. The constant worry and questions about losing friends and being split from them is a real concern. I understand that Cottonwood High School is losing students, however, redistributing students to maintain a level 2000 students across each high school is a temporary fix. The Cottonwood network is growing faster in youth and the elementary generation that will feed to Cottonwood much larger than those that feed to Olympus and Skyline. Changing the boundaries now would be something that has to be undone once those that are ready for High School age into school and just doesn't make sense. Plus, what kind of education and service are we giving the students with a school of 2000 kids when 1600 is plenty. It appears that if anything, Skyline could use some kids from Olympus to make each school around 1600 students. The data is just not there to support proceeding with the study. The group that has been commissioned doesn't take into effect the kids that go to private schools, charter schools or home school. Those potentially could be a student any year that they don't decide to attend those options. The Olympus and Skyline network are such strong ties that changing them would be harmful to Cottonwood and their brand. Those kids that grow up thinking that they'll go to a school only to be told that "politics" has changed that for them is a problem. There are way too many kids that are in the Cottonwood boundaries that go to the Olympus network of schools and those kids should not be able to attend the Olympus schools. Rather than a boundary change, an enforcement of the current boundaries would be a more appropriate solution for the problem. Please take this into consideration as you are thinking of making any changes to any boundaries. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. For those that are not answered in the FAQ's, please feel free to contact the Planning and Boundaries Department, 385-646-4123. | ||||||||||||||||||||
5 | Olympus Network | Olympus HS, Olympus Jr | 05.27.22 The boundary should stay as they are with no changes. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
6 | Olympus Network | Olympus High, Olympus Jr, Cottonwood Elem | 5.20.2022 My perspective is not someone who grew up in the Olympus network or specifically sought out this area for the Olympus network schools. We live right on the border of Cottonwood and Driggs boundaries (Wren Rd) and chose to permit in to cottonwood because the majority of cottonwood goes to Olympus Jr and the majority of Olympus Jr goes to Olympus high. We wanted continuity for our kids and their friends after a big move for them during their school years that was really challenging. The proposed boundary changes (especially for kids in the jr high and high schools involved) would wrest kids from networks of friendships that are really important in these years. Even if most continued to opt back into the Olympus network (which is likely!), some would submit to the changes and it would have the effect of causing the problems without achieving the desired outcome (a stronger and better attended cottonwood high). Our kids (and many others) have walked from the junior high, and even the high school when they couldn’t drive, which would not be sustainable attending bonneville and cottonwood high. Again, I’d like to emphasize that my perspective has nothing to do with any allegiance to Olympus, the idea of Olympus being a better school, or not wanting to go to bonneville or cottonwood for any reason other than I believe it is best for the children to have continuity in their associations, and to continue to have the “neighborhood school” experience. I really think that the answer to this issue is to strengthen cottonwood (and help the families in its area see the strengths it already has!! If Cottonwood was our neighborhood school we would go there for sure!). It is not the answer to change the boundaries in the manner suggested in the study. | Thank you for your feedback. Please visit our FAQ's, especially #15. | ||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Olympus Network | Olympus HS, Olympus Jr | 5.19 and again on 5.20.22 We will be absolutely devastated if we have to move schools. It will be very traumatic for my JR HS child not to mention that I’m an ONLY parent that’s works full time and I rely on my son being able to walk home from school safely. He would NOT be able to do that in another school. My late husband and I bought this house knowing our kids would go to Olympus and to say we aren’t jazzed about moving is an absolute understatement. There is so much emotion as I write this it’s hard to describe. We do not take these boundary changes lightly and to force us to move is egregious. | Thank you for your feedback. We empathize with your concerns and challenges. For a little additional information, please see FAQ #5, 6. | ||||||||||||||||||||
8 | Cottonwood network | Bonneville Jr, Cottonwood HS | 5.20.22 I don’t have a great solution, but I do feel very strongly that we need to strengthen the Cottonwood network and Bonneville. Unfortunately we have lost many students and that is in large part to the fact that Skyline and Olympus are shiny new schools. As much as I would hate to lose Twin Peaks, that closer seems inevitable. In addition to the boundary study, I feel that more resources need to go to Cottonwood and Bonneville. I know that Bonneville is slated to be rebuilt in the future, but in the meantime the auditorium chairs very badly need to be replaced, most of the auditorium lights don’t work, and the sound system is faulty or the staff need additional training on how to work it. That certainly doesn’t help draw people. The staff is excellent and they have so much to offer, but that is being overshadowed by the building’s age and condition. | Thank you for your feedback. We are currently working on some upgrades to the auditorium at Cottonwood High. Please also see FAQ #15. | ||||||||||||||||||||
9 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus HS | 5.19.22 Please consider creating a new district. We live closer to Olympus HS than Cottonwood HS and can let our kids walk to Olympus without having to cross through dangerous areas, without sidewalks and crossing many lanes of traffic. My taxes are going to newer better school facilities that I want my kids to continue to enjoy. We moved to this neighborhood 2 years ago specifically for the schools. Please don’t redraw the lines to send kids to a poor performing school. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
10 | Cottonwood network | oakwood Elementary | 5.19.22 I applaud Cottonwood’s recent efforts in marketing. I’ve seen 5-star reviews on school review websites, I’ve received fliers advertising recent accolades… On paper Cottonwood has a lot to recommend it. I’ve heard rumors from Cottonwood students that they believe the school is going to be shut down, and while I know those rumors to be false, other parents don’t. The numbers and the scores online don’t do much to disabuse these rumors either. I don’t know what the solution is for Cottonwoods lowering student body and (arguably unfairly) subpar reputation. I’ve sat in on many meetings and seen discussions ranging from rezoning elementary schools to redistributing certain students’ populations. Each has legitimate draw backs. All I can say is that the time has come for the district to make concrete, intentional changes for the future of cottonwood high school. We’ve seen band aids in moving grades around which seem to have temporarily solved single solutions, but a few short years later we have empty classrooms and struggling school populations again. We have three traditionally styled high schools fighting over the population of 2 and unless the district wants to start looking for potential buyers for the cottonwood campus, potential cottonwood families need to see serious, promising investments in the high school. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
11 | Olympus Network | Olympus HS, Olympus Jr | 5.19.22 (2 times) I have been to several meetings and listened to all recourses and I don’t believe a boundary change will solve the problem of bringing more community to cottonwood high school. My suggestion would be to look at making Cottonwood high school the school that all of the kids who have gone outside of their home school to do an Immersion language feed into. They are already a demographic that does not mind traveling for the education they want and if you offer all the languages that spring lane, mornings side and Bonneville offer, those families would know that cottonwood high would be their next step. | Please see FAQ #15. | ||||||||||||||||||||
12 | Olympus Network | 5.19.22 I’m writing this email in vote against the rezoning of high schools at this time. We are from the Olympus network and feel that not enough has been studied to make an educated decision on how to change the boundaries. And in the end this would cause more harm than good for both cottonwood and Olympus. Data shows that changing the boundaries will cause major problems for Olympus and Oly Junior. For example- if you take students from Olympus junior, then funding is changed and Olympus junior loses teachers. Olympus High school is already the second least populated school in the district and so making changes to Olympus could cause issues that don’t exist. Less students=less funding=less programs and teachers. Thus, possibly strengthening one school but harming another. I also worry that continuing with this study is causing more harm than good in our community. I find that it’s dividing our community which at this time- we know is not something our students need. I understand that it’s in the districts best interest to make three strong schools, but I don’t think that enough has been studied. Particularly surround the idea that each community feels deeply about their community school. The district would cause unintentional harm to all three schools if changes are made without more data. Please consider discontinuing the boundary change and consider other ways to make cottonwood high great! Thank you for your consideration. | While this is not a vote, we are very appreciative of the feedback that is used to inform the PAC and Board. | |||||||||||||||||||||
13 | Olympus Network | Driggs, Olympus Jr, Olympus High | 5.19.22 I saw the new proposed boundary change where shaving students from boarder elementary schools was proposed. I have 3 children at Driggs that this would affect. We live right by Olympus Junior High, and it just doesn’t make sense that my children who would one day be able to walk one block to Junior high would be sent to the cottonwood network schools. The neighborhood that Olympus Junior high is in needs to be kept in the Olympus network. Have you considered making Highland Drive the boundary if you are going to “shave” students from their current elementary schools? Me and my children and so many of our neighbors love Howard R Driggs and really don’t want to be cut out of our school. Driggs has such a tight sense of community that we love and we don’t want to lose that. My kids are stressed they are going to lose friendships they cherish and this whole boundary study has my family very worried. Olympus High is our school and I feel strongly this boundary study needs to be dropped. Thank you. | No GSD proposals have been formulated yet. What you probably saw was suggested by a community group that speculates on potential proposals. GSD anticipates having official proposals in early fall. | ||||||||||||||||||||
14 | Olympus Network | Mill creek Elementary | 5.19.22 I just became aware of the two population studies, and I'm concerned about the future of Millcreek Elementary. I would for the committee involved in these studies to take into consideration these two aspects: 1) location and culture diversity--One of the reason, I chose Millcreek Elementary to be my kids school is its location and the ease of walking from and to school. Our home is located just a few blocks to the north of the school and my kids can safely walk to and from. I have also seen the flow of kids that walk from the neighborhood located to the west and northwest of the school. If my kids would potentially be relocated to William Pen Elementary, I would not be comfortable letting them walk since it would be a longer distance and because they would have to navigate between 1300 East, 39000 S, and Highland Drive. There are no neighbor streets that connect 1100 East and Highland Drive. I believe Millcreek Elementary has a good mix of kids that make up a great cultural diversity. My kids are part Latino and part White and I want them to have a learning place where then can be expose to kids of different cultures. When we first look at schools, we realized that Millcreek Elementary offered and valued that aspect. I also believe that this cultural diversity is product of its location. Speaking to other parents, specially parents whose English is a second language. They often mention that the location Millcreek Elementary is very convenient specially for those parents that live further west but work on the east side. I don't think the cultural diversity that is observed in Millcreek Elementary can be observed on schools located further east. 2) ESL parents’ feedback--I just recently assisted to a meeting at Millcreek Elementary where the population studies were mentioned and explained. They conversation was fully in English, and I was able to understand and ask questions. I have the opportunity of being bilingual (Spanish-English) but I was wondering if there were any meetings where this information was provided in Spanish or any other languages? Also, I'm lucky enough to have access to technology and able to put together my thoughts on this comment venue but how many ESL parents can do the same? Are you considering other methods other than meetings and a website to gather the opinions of parents that English as a second language? Finally, thank you for considering my comments and don't hesitate to contact me for further information. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Some information was provided in Spanish. Future outreach will include a more stringent effort to reach as many patrons as possible. You may also want to refer to FAQ #17, 14, and 15. | ||||||||||||||||||||
15 | 5.19.22 Hi, Please stop the boundary issue! This isn’t a boundary problem and the change is premature. I believe that realigning and re-zoning these elementary schools will have a greater impact than you realize. These are our neighborhood schools, and we love our schools for very specific reasons. Please think about investing in cottonwood high school instead of taking and impacting Olympus and skyline networks. Thanks for taking the time to have meetings at all the schools and taking parents’ concerns into consideration. | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ #5, 6, 15. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
16 | Olympus Network | Olympus High, Evergreen Jr, Rosecrest | 5.18.22 I do not want my children to attend Cottonwood High School. I would be fine with them moving to Skyline, but not Cottonwood. | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ #5, 6. | ||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | 5.18.22 Please do not change the current alignment. My kids go to Cottonwood elementary so they can go to Olympus. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
18 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane, Cottonwood High | 5.16.22 Hi there, I have previously emailed my opinions on the elementary boundary study but now I would like to share my opinion about the Cottonwood/Olympus/Skyline study. I am so happy this study is being conducted and I look forward to hearing the preliminary results soon. My two kids are currently in elementary school at Spring Lane. We are so excited to go to Cottonwood starting in 5 years. But I am very concerned about where the numbers will be by then! As I understand it, we are in "ok" shape with around 1600 right now but expect to drop to around 1400 with the loss of the remaining Taylorsville students. We expect to lose even more to the completion of the new Skyline building. As far as I know, there are no reasons to expect a sudden jump in enrollment to counteract these decreases. I'm grateful that the district has stated its ultimate goal is to ensure the students in the district receive an equitable education. I do not confuse this to mean that they need to have the exact same number of students or the exact same class offerings, but that the quality of education and access to opportunity needs to be equitable. It is not equitable for a school to knowingly be allowed to drop below a threshold where, for example, they cannot staff full-time elective teachers, or field full sports teams, while other schools nearby are not suffering the same problems. Cottonwood's impending population crisis is multi-pronged. There are the known decreases due to Taylorsville. There are expected decreases due to Skyline's building. And then there are the ongoing decreases due to retention. Ever since open enrollment began, Cottonwood has faced an uphill battle for a myriad of reasons. First, it is not under the wing of any city. Each of the cities at play in Cottonwood's enrollment area have their own beloved high school where city events are often held and city centers are bedazzled with high school swag. Most critically, Murray has Murray (not to mention its own district), but then Holladay has Olympus, and while South Salt Lake doesn't have its own high school it certainly doesn't make sense to hold city events for South Salt Lake at Cottonwood. My point is that the other schools are getting a whole lot of free advertising and goodwill and are located in prime commercial areas for acting as bustling community centers while Cottonwood is generally forgotten. There's not much we can do about this, but we can consider it as a factor we think about equity and studying a solution. And of course, there are the new buildings. The next and probably most significant reason Cottonwood struggles with retention under open enrollment is the imbalanced demographics, mostly due to the merge with Granite High. I call the demographics "imbalanced" because even though the total enrollment is not extremely low yet, the experience at Cottonwood is already becoming inequitable because of the population makeup. We love the diversity and rich cultural experience that students get at Cottonwood, but it needs to be balanced and shared with Olympus and Skyline, which will benefit everyone. Our sports teams aren't full. There are not enough engaged parents for volunteering and advocating. This is inequity when Olympus and Skyline are both within a reasonable driving distance and don't have these problems. Many families are not permitting out to get something in particular at Skyline or Olympus, they are permitting to get away from Cottonwood. This has been going on for years now and increases every year. Now entire neighborhoods are doing it and why would you choose to go to a school that your entire neighborhood permits out of? It is not too late to correct this mistake! Yes, many families will continue to permit out, but if rezoned, some families will come to Cottonwood, and we need each and every one of them. And if the demographics at the three schools are balanced, retention will improve over time. This improvement will happen slowly so any overcorrection can be rectified before it creates a new problem. My oldest child is approaching junior high age and which school everyone will attend is one of the hottest conversation topics there is between parents we know. And this is all with people who live within walking distance to Bonneville Junior High! It is utterly exhausting to spend so much time dispelling rumors and attempting to explain the reasons for low test scores at Cottonwood. But just like many emotional issues, fear and anxiety usually wins out. The fear and anxiety caused because they've seen so many opt out of Bonneville and Cottonwood before them. If they aren't planning to go to Cottonwood, then they will go to junior high at one of the feeders for their selected high school. I even have friends who sold their house and moved a few miles away because they were so worried about Cottonwood, and they didn't want to have to permit and drive to school. What may have begun with a few families has turned into a bad reputation and mass exodus. It is a strong personal value of mine to attend my neighborhood school which is why I have done the harder thing, which is to fully educate myself. I have sought out parents of current Cottonwood families and I have heard stories of great teachers, exciting programs, and a wonderful, inclusive culture. And of not enough involved parents and suffering sports programs. But what concerns me more is the expected enrollment dip and I am 5 years away from being there. The parents I talk to had kids at my elementary (Spring Lane) at a time when Spring Lane had hundreds more students than it does now. So what does this imply about Cottonwood by the time I get there? Bonneville is advancing 215 students to Cottonwood next year. There are only 180 in their current 6th grade class. I am begging you to carefully study this and take action now, not to put it off. My kids have already had the "small school" experience at Spring Lane, and I'm really hoping they will get a better experience at Cottonwood in that regard. This is the only shot they will get...our family is making the choice not to permit to Olympus or Skyline because we have been promised equity. I do not want this choice to be a sacrifice for my kids! I do not expect the elementary consolidation study to end this month. But the two studies are very inter-connected. A well thought through solution to the elementary study could intentionally result in even more future students lost to Cottonwood. But we can offset those losses through the high school study. We do not have the time to see how the elementary study goes first and then study the high school. They need to be studied together. I understand that there is no slam dunk solution. The entire district is shrinking, and it is a closed group of students to shuffle around. But Olympus and Skyline each have a buffer of a few hundred kids before they reach the threshold of lower quality experience. Cottonwood is there now, even at 1600 because of the imbalance. All I am asking is that this continue to be studied and a good-faith attempt made to help Cottonwood now. We need to rebalance, and we need to bring new students in to compensate. I don't know if the solution involves Cottonwood Elementary, or a complete shakeup of the east side boundaries, or something else, or a combination of boundaries and programming. But let's study it carefully, and now. There will always be more people permitting to Olympus and Skyline than the other way around because of the disadvantages I mention above, but some of these issues are within our control and some of them can be aided with boundary changes. Maybe Cottonwood needs a larger boundary area than the other schools due to the expected ratio of families expected to permit out? Equal boundaries does not necessarily translate to equitable boundaries. Let's work together and take the time to really think outside of the box for a good solution for all three schools. Finally, the families of Cottonwood love their school and all of the students there. There are many of us that are working so hard to do our part and show everyone how wonderful Cottonwood is and advocating for the entire community. We are constantly meeting and implementing ideas designed to improve retention. All while spending time volunteering in classrooms and after school and for the PTAs. And we have paying jobs too! We are exhausted. We need help! Both from the district and from more families like us at our school. It is no surprise that the boundary committee and board members will be receiving many more responses from Olympus than Cottonwood just like there were many more families at their open house. This is not a reflection of how much we care, but simply one illustration of the problem! We need to know that the district and school board will make the right decision, to constantly work towards equitable schools even if that is the harder thing to do. Right now, the right decision is to continue studying and brainstorming a solution. | Thank you so much for your well-thought out and reasoned response. | ||||||||||||||||||||
19 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane, Cottonwood HS | 5.9.22 Granite School District Board Members, I am a parent of five children in the Cottonwood High School network. I am very pleased the District is conducting the Van Winkle/700 East elementary school population study as well as the high school boundary portion of the study. I understand populations fluctuate and downward fluctuations can create redundancy at the Elementary level. It is also nice to know that the Granite District is committed to maintaining three robust East side High Schools. It is my hope the study will continue and that decisive action will be taken on both fronts. Four of my five children have received or are currently receiving an amazing education at Cottonwood High. I have a 4th grader on the way up still. My kids have taken advantage of the high caliber academic offerings, the Academy of Finance, the Chinese dual immersion program and have been part of several different sports teams and held student government positions. We also like that Cottonwood is a little more ethnically diverse and that it does not have a lot of overbearing, entitled parents that you sometimes get at the other east side schools. That said, the Cottonwood High community has been kicked around far too long and in my opinion has not received all the support from the District it should have for the past 15 years. A lot of people like to say that Cottonwood “needs to be fixed.” What it needs is simply more strong families, and a fair shot to enhance the fantastic achievement opportunities that already exist at the school. As was brought up at the recent town hall meetings, the geographic boundary for Cottonwood creates a rather disproportionate socioeconomic challenge at the school. In addition, the fact that kids living as far north as 2100 South attend Cottonwood High seems illogical. I believe this disparity was created when Granite High School closed. I’ve been told the District caved (as they far too often do) to Skyline and Olympus, who were very vocal about not wanting to bring on lower performing kids. Cottonwood readily accepted them. I think it is also fair to say that more recently Cottonwood High has lost several strong families from the Taylorsville “boot” as that boundary changed and those families understandably decided to stay closer to home. The District should be well aware of the challenges these types of changes have created at Cottonwood High. Many in the community think it would be wise to split some of the socioeconomic disparity amongst Olympus and Skyline as well. It’s my belief that doing so would actually improve all three schools and most importantly - create greater academic, extracurricular, social and real world achievement opportunities for all students. Another significant issue that affects Cottonwood is that the test scores cause it to have a school rating of 2. I believe Olympus is a 7 and Skyline is an 8. To the uninformed, it seems Cottonwood’s academic achievement is significantly inferior to that of the other East side high schools. Any time a new family moves to town, they simply look on Zillow and see the school scores and automatically discount Cottonwood. Those that choose to do a little homework know that Cottonwood has all the same high-level AP and honors offerings as other schools, and kids excelling in those courses. The other part of the story is of course that Cottonwood has a significantly higher population of students learning English as a second language. That obviously skews test scores lower. Rather than step up and do something about that and possibly portray the scores in a more realistic fashion, the District has far too often hid behind the excuse of “we have no control over that,” or “that’s a state legislature issue.” I’m tired of hearing those excuses. I was always disappointed in Superintendent Bate’s lack of leadership when it came to this topic. I am asking the District to make the necessary changes to remedy some of the issues that challenge Cottonwood High and in so doing, ensure that the District achieves their goal of maintaining three strong East side high schools. I am quite confident that if the proper decisions were made, many strong families that currently permit away from Cottonwood would start to come back in the next 2-4 years. Cottonwood High would also likely glean some of the new families that move in from out-of-state. I am also asking you to not bend to the vocal, self-absorbed minority that is many of the parents in the Cottonwood Elementary portion of the Olympus High network. I attended the town hall at Olympus High and it was absolutely embarrassing what many of those people had to say and the way they acted. If shifting a portion of the Granite Park Jr. students to Skyline and/or Olympus High is the best fit, then do it. If shifting Wilson Elementary entirely to Evergreen Jr. High is the right thing, then do it. If Cottonwood Elementary needs to feed into Bonneville Jr. and Cottonwood High, then move it. If all of Olympus Jr. High needs to start feeding into Cottonwood High to have a more east/west boundary – then do it. If the district deems it’s best to take over the charter for AMES and incorporate it into a Cottonwood High Academy– then do it. But please, please stop acting like you want Cottonwood to remain strong, but then turn the other way as strong families continue to permit away from the school and you allow a false narrative to continue to be perpetuated. I don’t mean to personally attack any of the Board, but to me it is very obvious what’s been going on for the past 15 years. I don’t have the time or energy to attend town hall after town hall, or send an email every month, or start an Instagram campaign. The Board was elected to analyze challenges and make hard decisions, not me. As I said in the beginning, I applaud the Board for taking on the study. Now is the chance to make good on the findings of the study and the community feedback you have already received - and bring about some real change. As a postscript, I do want to thank the Board for having Terri Roylance lead Cottonwood High for the past 5 or 6 years. She has been amazing. I also wanted to pass along my observations regarding Spring Lane elementary as my 5 kids attended there. Some of them attended before Chinese dual immersion and some were part of the program. I understand Spring Lane is one of the elementary schools being considered for closure. I believe the population decline at the school was a two-pronged problem: 1) The Chinese dual immersion program was a big attraction but also became the school’s own worst enemy. 2) The combination of a lack of administrative leadership and a terribly unfriendly head secretary did not maintain a strong English program and appropriate meshing between the Chinese and English classes. It is a widely held belief that the Spring Lane administration let far too many good English teachers leave when the Chinese program got started in the 2009-2012 time frame. Word started to get around that all the high achieving kids were in the Chinese program and that the English classes were comprised primarily of lower quality teachers and lower performing students whose parents weren’t involved as much. True or not at the time, that perception formed a narrative that played itself out. Within five or six years of the Chinese program being in place, it became a commonly held belief that the “haves” were in the Chinese program and the “have nots” were in the English-only classes. Word got around and new families to the neighborhood with kids too old to start in the Chinese program in the 1st grade opted to go to another school altogether. This of course only added to the problem. Additionally, into the mid 2010’s, the administration was also not aggressive at hiring/recruiting enough quality Chinese teachers. They also failed to maintain enough Chinese language students in each grade level in the early grades that would help stave off the inevitable attrition in the program each year. And in so doing, they allowed the dual immersion program to be weakened as well. Already faced with a perception problem in the English-only portion of the school, now you stopped attracting as many strong families into the Chinese program as well. And basically, the school began to unravel. And here we are today in 2022 with Spring Lane on the chopping block. If Spring Lane does close and the Chinese dual immersion program is rolled into Oakwood Elementary, the District needs to give some assurances that the leadership will be strong and that they will work with the state to make sure the Chinese program is properly funded, staffed and administrated. But just as importantly, we need to attract and/or keep rock-star principals, teachers and support staff to ensure the English portion of the school is not weakened. Or better yet – keep Spring Lane open, but convert it to an all-Chinese dual immersion school. Double down on the language immersion focus and you might end up attracting all sorts of new students and the highest quality teachers. As those kids move on to Bonneville Jr. and then Cottonwood High School, it could be yet another high-quality program that attracts families to the Cottonwood High community.Thanks for your consideration. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. For those that are not answered in the FAQ's, please feel free to contact the Planning and Boundaries Department, 385-646-4123. | ||||||||||||||||||||
20 | Cottonwood Network | Cottonwood | 5.9.22 School Board, As things heat up with the boundary study I wanted to send my appreciation for your hard work and interest in making all three schools run at their highest level. I can see challenges with each proposal. As you study each plan I hope your personal interests and conflicts will be put aside. From my limited view, I feel each school would benefit with a more equal spread of ethnic diversity. I feel confidant as you continue your thorough work, the right thing will happen. Good luck and THANK YOU. It's desperately needed. | Thank you for your positive vibes and thoughtful feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
21 | Cottonwood | Spring Lane, Bonneville Jr | 5.16.22 I have previously emailed my opinions on the elementary boundary study but now I would like to share my opinion about the Cottonwood/Olympus/Skyline study. I am so happy this study is being conducted and I look forward to hearing the preliminary results soon. My two kids are currently in elementary school at Spring Lane. We are so excited to go to Cottonwood starting in 5 years. But I am very concerned about where the numbers will be by then! As I understand it, we are in "ok" shape with around 1600 right now but expect to drop to around 1400 with the loss of the remaining Taylorsville students. We expect to lose even more to the completion of the new Skyline building. As far as I know, there are no reasons to expect a sudden jump in enrollment to counteract these decreases. I'm grateful that the district has stated its ultimate goal is to ensure the students in the district receive an equitable education. I do not confuse this to mean that they need to have the exact same number of students or the exact same class offerings, but that the quality of education and access to opportunity needs to be equitable. It is not equitable for a school to knowingly be allowed to drop below a threshold where, for example, they cannot staff full-time elective teachers, or field full sports teams, while other schools nearby are not suffering the same problems. Cottonwood's impending population crisis is multi-pronged. There are the known decreases due to Taylorsville. There are expected decreases due to Skyline's building. And then there are the ongoing decreases due to retention. Ever since open enrollment began, Cottonwood has faced an uphill battle for a myriad of reasons. First, it is not under the wing of any city. Each of the cities at play in Cottonwood's enrollment area have their own beloved high school where city events are often held and city centers are bedazzled with high school swag. Most critically, Murray has Murray (not to mention its own district), but then Holladay has Olympus, and while South Salt Lake doesn't have its own high school it certainly doesn't make sense to hold city events for South Salt Lake at Cottonwood. My point is that the other schools are getting a whole lot of free advertising and goodwill and are located in prime commercial areas for acting as bustling community centers while Cottonwood is generally forgotten. There's not much we can do about this, but we can consider it as a factor we think about equity and studying a solution. And of course, there are the new buildings. The next and probably most significant reason Cottonwood struggles with retention under open enrollment is the imbalanced demographics, mostly due to the merge with Granite High. I call the demographics "imbalanced" because even though the total enrollment is not extremely low yet, the experience at Cottonwood is already becoming inequitable because of the population makeup. We love the diversity and rich cultural experience that students get at Cottonwood, but it needs to be balanced and shared with Olympus and Skyline, which will benefit everyone. Our sports teams aren't full. There are not enough engaged parents for volunteering and advocating. This is inequity when Olympus and Skyline are both within a reasonable driving distance and don't have these problems. Many families are not permitting out to get something in particular at Skyline or Olympus, they are permitting to get away from Cottonwood. This has been going on for years now and increases every year. Now entire neighborhoods are doing it and why would you choose to go to a school that your entire neighborhood permits out of? It is not too late to correct this mistake! Yes, many families will continue to permit out, but if rezoned, some families will come to Cottonwood and we need each and every one of them. And if the demographics at the three schools are balanced, retention will improve over time. This improvement will happen slowly so any overcorrection can be rectified before it creates a new problem. My oldest child is approaching junior high age and which school everyone will attend is one of the hottest conversation topics there is between parents we know. And this is all with people who live within walking distance to Bonneville Junior High! It is utterly exhausting to spend so much time dispelling rumours and attempting to explain the reasons for low test scores at Cottonwood. But just like many emotional issues, fear and anxiety usually wins out. The fear and anxiety caused because they've seen so many opt out of Bonneville and Cottonwood before them. If they aren't planning to go to Cottonwood, then they will go to junior high at one of the feeders for their selected high school. I even have friends who sold their house and moved a few miles away because they were so worried about Cottonwood and they didn't want to have to permit and drive to school. What may have begun with a few families has turned into a bad reputation and mass exodus. It is a strong personal value of mine to attend my neighborhood school which is why I have done the harder thing, which is to fully educate myself. I have sought out parents of current Cottonwood families and I have heard stories of great teachers, exciting programs, and a wonderful, inclusive culture. And of not enough involved parents and suffering sports programs. But what concerns me more is the expected enrollment dip and I am 5 years away from being there. The parents I talk to had kids at my elementary (Spring Lane) at a time when Spring Lane had hundreds more students than it does now. So what does this imply about Cottonwood by the time I get there? Bonneville is advancing 215 students to Cottonwood next year. There are only 180 in their current 6th grade class. I am begging you to carefully study this and take action now, not to put it off. My kids have already had the "small school" experience at Spring Lane, and I'm really hoping they will get a better experience at Cottonwood in that regard. This is the only shot they will get...our family is making the choice not to permit to Olympus or Skyline because we have been promised equity. I do not want this choice to be a sacrifice for my kids! I do not expect the elementary consolidation study to end this month. But the two studies are very inter-connected. A well thought through solution to the elementary study could intentionally result in even more future students lost to Cottonwood. But we can offset those losses through the high school study. We do not have the time to see how the elementary study goes first and then study the high school. They need to be studied together. I understand that there is no slam dunk solution. The entire district is shrinking and it is a closed group of students to shuffle around. But Olympus and Skyline each have a buffer of a few hundred kids before they reach the threshold of lower quality experience. Cottonwood is there now, even at 1600 because of the imbalance. All I am asking is that this continue to be studied and a good-faith attempt made to help Cottonwood now. We need to rebalance and we need to bring new students in to compensate. I don't know if the solution involves Cottonwood Elementary, or a complete shakeup of the east side boundaries, or something else, or a combination of boundaries and programming. But let's study it carefully, and now. There will always be more people permitting to Olympus and Skyline than the other way around because of the disadvantages I mention above, but some of these issues are within our control and some of them can be aided with boundary changes. Maybe Cottonwood needs a larger boundary area than the other schools due to the expected ratio of families expected to permit out? Equal boundaries does not necessarily translate to equitable boundaries. Let's work together and take the time to really think outside of the box for a good solution for all three schools. Finally, the families of Cottonwood love their school and all of the students there. There are many of us that are working so hard to do our part and show everyone how wonderful Cottonwood is and advocating for the entire community. We are constantly meeting and implementing ideas designed to improve retention. All while spending time volunteering in classrooms and after school and for the PTAs. And we have paying jobs too! We are exhausted. We need help! Both from the district and from more families like us at our school. It is no surprise that the boundary committee and board members will be receiving many more responses from Olympus than Cottonwood just like there were many more families at their open house. This is not a reflection of how much we care, but simply one illustration of the problem! We need to know that the district and school board will make the right decision, to constantly work towards equitable schools even if that is the harder thing to do. Right now the right decision is to continue studying and brainstorming a solution. | Please refer to information included on website. Individual will be responsed to directly. | ||||||||||||||||||||
22 | not submitted | not submitted | I am totally opposed to the idea that taking the population from Cottonwood Elementary to Bonneville and then to Cottonwood would be a benefit to Cottonwood High school and could definitely create problems at Cottonwood Elementary and Oly Jr. Here are some cons to this idea. 1. We are an open enrollment state. Changing the boundaries will not result in the desired effect of increasing the population of Cottonwood High. People will just special permit back to Olympus, Skyline, or choose to send their kids to a charter school. 2. The problem with Cottonwood is not one of enough students within their boundary. They have enough students, they do not have the incentives to keep students who live within their boundary, and draw in students who live outside the boundary to attend there. This is a branding problem. There have been many ideas proposed that would improve their brand and organically increase population without changing the boundary. 3. We are living in an area whose population is aging. Housing prices have increased beyond what young families can afford. The work done by Davis analytics is 2 years old, so it does not reflect the current state of our area. By changing the boundary, with the hope that the student population at Cottonwood High would increase, there is the real possibility that Olympus Jr and Cottonwood Elementary (2 excellent schools) would suffer. Programs would have to be cut. Teachers would be hard to find and retain as they are only offered part time positions. Not only would the boundary change not solve the problems at Cottonwood High, it would cause problems at Oly Jr and Cottonwood Elementary 4. The students who are currently at Olympus Jr high school have been through very disruptive and challenging times. A global pandemic, the change to Proficiency based grading, the realignment of 6th to Jr high and 9th to high school. Adding a boundary change to all of these very unsettling challenges these kids have faced will cause more mental health issues on top of the depression and anxiety that are a result of the three very stressful challenges they have gone through. Please discontinue the boundary study and look at ways to improve Cottonwood to make it a more attractive option to families in our area. | Thank you for your feedback. Please visit FAQ's, especially #5, 6, 20. | ||||||||||||||||||||
23 | Cottonwood Network | Oakwood Elementary Bonneville Jr | Hello Clarke, I hope you are doing well. I have a few questions for you and hoped that you could answer those questions or else point me in the right direction. I am interested in looking at some data related to Spring Lane. How many students are in the Chinese Immersion program there? Is it possible to see that information listed by grade? How many of the students in the program are within Spring Lane boundaries and how many opt into the program? I also have some general questions about the language program at Spring Lane. Is there a limit to the number of students accepted into the program at Spring Lane each year? What is the criteria upon which students are accepted into the program? Also if a student has an older sibling in the Chinese Immersion program, are they automatically accepted into the program as well? The other questions I have are around Cottonwood High and the Academy of Finance. Do Cottonwood High students have priority enrollment for the Academy? Does Cottonwood High receive money from other schools when students from another network opt into the Academy of Finance? Do the students coming from Olympus or Skyline to attend Academy classes factor into the headcount at Cottonwood High somehow? (For example, is an Olympus student attending an Academy class considered as a percentage of a full time student and factored into our overall headcount at Cottonwood?) Thanks, in advance, for me taking some of your time. If it is easier for you to talk over the phone, that works well for me. Also please refer me to someone else to get some of these answers, if needed. | For DLI answer see additional data https://www.graniteschools.org/planning/population-analysis-studies/2022-population-analysis-studies/ Individual will be responded to directly. | ||||||||||||||||||||
24 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane Elementary | Hey! For what it's worth, I wanted to voice my opinion that I hope there is no modification or cancelling of looking into any study, right now. Last night at the Cottonwood Elementary, when that gentlemen suggested you cancel study #2 I felt uncomfortable. I think there is still a lot to be gained. I know that you recognize that and I know you know more about the breadth of these issues than a handful of parents who want to find some sense of security or relief. Please, don't vote to cancel study #2. Thanks for your support in showing up to these meetings! 4/29/2022 | We appreciate your willingness and desire to see the process through to completion. | ||||||||||||||||||||
25 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane Elementary | Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to my point of view on this topic. For background, I am a parent at Spring Lane, in the DLI and very active in the classroom and PTA. Per our discussion, here are my thoughts regarding why I do not think that simply combining Spring Lane Elementary and Twin Peaks Elementary is a good solution. It seems like a consensus in the community that the Chinese DLI program is an asset to Cottonwood HS. So, if a thriving Chinese DLI is going to be a priority, it needs to be at a school that is strong independent of the DLI and attractive when compared to other DLI schools. Most of the Chinese DLI families are coming in on special permit and will drive to wherever they need to go. As it is now, Spring Lane is dependent on the Chinese DLI and both populations are suffering as a result. I can provide more detail on this point if you would like. But the result is that in the DLI, we are losing several families a year to Ridgecrest in Canyons District. No families ever come to Spring Lane from Ridgecrest. Enrollment in the DLI is less and less every year. It won't help to combine with Twin Peaks because then there will still only be 2 non-DLI classes per grade, and it will immediately continue to dwindle from there. There is no mixing between DLI and non-DLI classes so just like any other school, a strong DLI school needs at least 3 non-DLI classrooms per grade. The reason a combined Twin Peaks/Spring Lane will continue to dwindle is because at both Twin Peaks and in the non-DLI group at Spring Lane, there is very little parent involvement. At Twin Peaks the PTA board is two people, and at Spring Lane it is 4 people (all DLI, all but me on special permit). You can see in the numbers that a significant portion of Twin Peaks and Spring Lane families already special permit to Oakwood and Woodstock (and Olympus/Skyline network schools as well). These are generally the more affluent and more involved families. I haven't seen the numbers but I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of special permits to Spring Lane are in the DLI. So the DLI classes have some parent involvement, and the non-DLI classes have next to none. Its the same situation as Cottonwood High School is experiencing. As soon as a few families decide to leave, be it for a new building or some other reason, it becomes a bad reputation and a mass exodus follows. But on the elementary level, your other more attractive option is only 1 mile away (Woodstock and Oakwood are both newer buildings...Twin Peaks and Spring Lane are old). This is why it won't help with retention/attraction just to combine Twin Peaks and Spring Lane. As harsh as it sounds, when it comes to elementaries in this area, these two are just kind of at the bottom of the totem pole that was created when special permitting became an option. If there is capacity at Woodstock and Oakwood I really feel that the remaining students at Twin Peaks and Spring Lane deserve to be redistributed among peers at strong schools rather than combined together so they can benefit from the new building and strong PTAs that their more affluent neighbors have already opted to do. It may make sense to redistribute some students to non-Cottonwood network elementaries that I know nothing about. I'm hoping this would be part of the boundary study. My thinking was just to keep as many of them in the CHS network as possible so as to not decrease Cottonwood's future numbers further. So it boils down to 2 things. The Chinese DLI needs to be moved to stay strong, and the combined school is too small with or without the Chinese DLI. I have suggested moving the DLI to Oakwood, or I've even had the idea of moving it to Cottonwood Elementary and having the DLI continue to CHS but having the general population continue to Olympus. Both schools have great reputations that could breathe new life into the Chinese DLI, and are in a great geographic location to try and lure families from Canyons District. I just think we should explore every idea to make the right decision for the current elementary students and support the future enrollment of Cottonwood. I would love to continue this discussion with anyone interested. 5/3/2022 | See additional Data on this page https://www.graniteschools.org/planning/population-analysis-studies/2022-population-analysis-studies/ | ||||||||||||||||||||
26 | Cottonwood Network / Olympus Network | I hope whoever reads this is having a great day! I come to this discussion as an individual that grew up right next to Cottonwood High School and have an extensive family and friends network in the Cottonwood area in addition to my wife’s family that has been in Holladay and has generations that have gone through the Olympus High network. The biggest difference I have witnessed and from many of my friends and family that have gone through the Cottonwood High network have seen a dramatic shift once Granite High was folded into Cottonwood High. Parents and students I personally know have described the demographic shift and how it’s not sustainable for one school to bear the responsibility that a South Salt Lake demographic brings to Cottonwood High. Diversity has always been a major part of what makes Cottonwood High great. My inner circle to this day is diverse with some of my best friends that have different backgrounds than I had. Some of my close friends to this day came from the Taylorsville boot and from around Walker Lane and surrounding neighborhoods. I loved that we could all be so close and live in different neighborhoods. Knowing so many close family and friends currently in the Olympus network agree that Olympus could take on some of the old Granite High neighborhoods and shift some of the Holladay neighborhoods to Cottonwood High so Cottonwood High isn’t bearing so much of the more challenging neighborhoods. It would serve Olympus well like it has Cottonwood High. I have many more thoughts on the matter but would love to see Cottonwood High strong again like when I attended. We were strong in sports, social gatherings and in the classroom. Please ensure that actions are made to make Cottonwood High just as strong as Olympus and Skyline. Thank you. 5/4/2022 | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. For those that are not answered in the FAQ's, please feel free to contact the Planning and Boundaries Department, 385-646-4123. | |||||||||||||||||||||
27 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane Elementary | Hello! My name is xxx. My kids attend Spring Lane Elementary. I am not in your precinct but I wanted to write because I know you will vote on what happens with the Population Analysis study. You have the power and influence of not only families in your precinct but, over the whole district, as closing schools or boundary changes is a ripple effect that impacts a lot of people. Thank you for your consideration of all the issues, for wanting to look over data, and thank you for reading this email. As an introduction, I am a certified teacher although not actively teaching and I have a masters degree in Education. I have always been passionate and curious about education reformation and hearing about boundary changes and a declining student body at Cottonwood Highschool piqued my interest. I have attended most of the meetings I really appreciate the efforts of Ben Horsley and Steve Hogan. I've been impressed with their breadth of knowledge, and I feel they have conducted themselves very well amidst all the questions and especially the passionate replies to all of this. I am writing because I know that you will vote on what happens with the Population Analysis Study. You have the power of influence over, As a school district you are in the business of helping children grow up to be productive citizens! As you look over data and consider people's lived experiences you will vote for what you think will be the most beneficial. I think with this study that is going on, Granite is in a good position to look at the benefits of integration, both racially and social economics as well. Generally, when I hear people talk about integration they talk about how it will really help the poor, English language learners, students of color, etc. One specific source states in 2017 on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) a test given to fourth-graders in math, low income students attending schools that are more affluent scored roughly two years of learning ahead of low-income students in high-poverty schools. A quick google search of "benefits of school integration" will unload a lot of data on this very issue. However, racially diverse groups and low SES students are not the only ones that benefit from this. Students in high SES and white homogenous communities also benefit from integration. I have typed up an excerpt from Heather McGhee's book "The Sum of US". Its Chapter 7, which is about education and segregation, and this paragraph is from page 181."Compared to students at predominantly white schools, white students who attend diverse K-12 schools achieve better learning outcomes and even higher test scores, particularly in areas such as math and science. Why? Of course white students in racially diverse schools develop more cultural competency-- the ability to collaborate and feel at ease with people form different racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds-- than students who attend segregated schools. But their minds are also improved when it comes to critical thinking and problem solving. EXPOSURE to multiple viewpoints leads to more flexible and creative thinking and greater ability to solve problems." The chapter continues and talks about how corporate America spends eight billion dollars a year on diversity trainings. In the long run research also reveals that k-12 schools can produce "BETTER CITIZENS-- white students who feel a greater sense of civic engagement, who are more likely to consider friends and colleagues from different races as part of "us" rather than them", who will be more at ease in the multicolor future of America." McGhee is arguing that we save money, as a society and we are creating kinder and smarter individuals by exposing students to situations that are very different than their homogenous communities. On a personal note, I went into teaching for this reason, to build global citizens of the world who were critical thinkers! As I've been participating in these open houses and reflecting on texts I have read and my own curiosity on the philosophy of education I see an opportunity for Granite School District to help the east side of I-15. I am not from this area. I did not go to high school here. My kids are in the Cottonwood High network. A lot of my neighbors special permit to Olympus. My best friends are in the Olympus Network and we have raised our kids together. Going to Olympus High School feels really appealing to me, since I know a lot of people in my community who go there, however because of these open house meetings, and additional reading, both trying to understand the data as well as trying to understand the community, I absolutely want my kids to be in an environment like Cottonwood High School. At both the Cottonwood HS and Olympus HS open houses there were many parents. I was at both meetings. You have parents who have organized themselves with social media accounts and lawn signs. You have parents having a small PTA meeting during the day and inviting a school board member to tell them more about the PAC. Cottonwood Elementary school even hosted a question and answer with Ben Horsley and Steve Hogan because they felt their questions were not addressed at the Olympus High meeting the week before. Sure, Ben Horsley and Steve Hogan are amazing enough to go wherever and they wouldn't hesitate to do it again. The point I want to make with this is, when there was an open house at Granite Park Jr only NINE showed up to that open house, NINE. I've shared this with many and every time I tell people that only nine people were at the meeting, my voice cracks as I think about the discrepancy of the two groups, the Granite Park Junior Community vs the Olympus & Cottonwood High families. Granite Park Jr is a more culturally diverse school, high numbers of students from immigrants, English language learners, refugees, and low SES. They don't have a PTA president. I really hope that there are still plans to reach out to this community so they can voice their opinions about their thoughts and feelings in regards to this study. It feels unfair that decisions could impact them and it would be easy to simply just tell them, "you had your chance, sorry." The meeting was held at 7pm on a Wednesday night. Based on the demographics I wonder what positions parents are in that they can’t make it to a meeting on Wednesday night at 7. Considering this scenario I see that there is a lot we can do for this community at Granite Park Jr and also more affluent areas in the district as well. I hope that as the board reviews data and information that they keep an eye out for ways that we can better integrate our schools in order to bridge the achievement gap and take steps towards building global citizens and critical thinkers! Horace Mann, the father of public education, said: "Public education is both the cornerstone of our community and democracy." Horace Mann believed that public education needed to be good enough to build our communities and as a result of that, build our democracy. Thank you for reading my email. Cheers! 4/29/2022 | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. For those that are not answered in the FAQ's, please feel free to contact the Planning and Boundaries Department, 385-646-4123. | ||||||||||||||||||||
28 | Olympus Network | not submitted | Julie, I just want you to know I think you are amazing for taking this on and for trying to be so transparent via your Instagram page. I had a follow-up question regarding the Cottonwood Elementary discussions. Is it a possibility to open a program at Cottonwood Elementary that would feed into Bonneville/CHS while leaving the general population at the elementary to continue to Olympus? I'm just trying to think of ways we could use the elementary's reputation and geographic location to help Cottonwood HS while still leaving the elementary alone as much as possible and came up with this idea as a middle ground. Do they have capacity there to house additional students? 5.2.2022 | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
29 | Olympus Network | not submitted | Can we move the magnet program or French Immersion from Morningside elementary. Honestly the reason I don’t send my kids to Morningside (my boundary school) is because they have TWO programs, and if your kids isn’t in them, they seem to be forgotten/feel left out. Kids aren’t dumb, they know if they are or aren’t in a “special” program. I honestly think Morningside would benefit by giving one of those programs up to one of those van winkle schools. Just a thought 5.2.2022 | Please see FAQs especially #10 | ||||||||||||||||||||
30 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr, and Olympus High | I have 3 kids at Cottonwood Elementary school and 1 more in waiting. I have lived in the area since 1992. I feel like I have a pretty good feel of the area and school systems. You guys have all the numbers, I think everyone on this board knows the boundary changes proposed will not in any way help solve the problems you are looking to solve. All my kids will go to Olympus, even if they have to special permit in. If they can't get into Olympus, I will send them to Skyline. If they can't get permitted into Skyline I will send them to Brighton. You get my drift. Everyone feels the same way. Meeting after meeting the same thing is said. So I have two questions 1.What would be the financial benefit for the District and Schools if this boundary change is made? 2.If 25% of Cottonwood High students are going to school elsewhere. Why does the district think changing the boundaries would fix that? What has the district done to help Cottonwood retain those students? Bonus Question Should I trust the Board? I ask that because nobody trusts what is being said. Also, everybody thinks Ben Horsley is dishonest and has a personal vendetta against the students and parents of Olympus High School. I don't know if his kids lost to Olympus in a sporting game, or if he did at some point. I hope he can let it go. I hope he can attend the remaining meeting with an unbiased perspective. Looking at all the data and actually listening to our community. -- Thanks, XXX 4.29.2022 | No boundary proposals have been developed at this time.Please see FAQ's especially #15 and an individual response will be given concerning your other comments. | ||||||||||||||||||||
31 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr, and Olympus High | To whom it may concern, We moved to Holladay almost 12 years ago, and neither my husband or myself grew up in this area. We knew a few people that lived here and were drawn to the community feel that we have felt since moving here. Having to send my kids to Bonneville Jr High and then Cottonwood High School would undo the community feel that our neighborhood has created. My son has been playing Olympus baseball since he was 4 years old and we have integrated ourself into the Olympus community. Pulling kids from our schools is not the answer. I for one know that if this were to happen I would send my kids to Carden or a different elementary and high school. Forcing kids to a different school to not only disrupts them physically but also emotionally. I hope you will reconsider and realize the effect this will have on our community. Thanks, XXX 4.29.2022 | No boundary proposals have been developed at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
32 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr, and Olympus High | I hope this email finds the appropriate audience to be considered with the upcoming boundary decision. I am a member of the Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Junior High and Olympus Highschool community. I currently serve on the Olympus High School community council and have served as the PTA president and on the community council at the junior high. I try to be active and thoughtful about changes in our school. I appreciate the open dialogue that has been presented for this possible change as I think that is an important step in getting people to support any change that may be made. I would like the board to consider a few things for the upcoming boundary change decision that are, for me, important points to consider. 1. Utah is an open enrollment state. That alone changes the ways a school district can rebalance population discrepancies in any given area unless the community itself wants that boundary change. If a person does not see their boundary school as beneficial to their student, they will permit to another school. Based on psychology studies detailed in the book Motivational Interviewing, Miller and Rollnick explain how the feeling of autonomy and choice is fundamental to change. Now they are talking about individual change, but reference studies around larger population changes that are not efficient when it is seen as a forced change that is not conducive to the community's values. Given these two points it seems to me that the idea of a boundary change fights against established facts. 2. Skyline high school (permits) at this point houses a large population of permit students. I believe the number is close to 40%. Despite an aging facility, they have managed to bolster their population through permits. Most people I know who choose to permit there go for "better academics." The IB program at Skyline has established a sense of focus for the school from which they could build a strong identity, That gives families looking for a change a way to evaluate them in comparison to their boundary school. Not only does the IB program provide opportunity, it gives the perception of a focus on academics. A change of programs and offerings at CHS would make Cottonwood a "new" option. The options cannot be the same that OHS and SHS have because that is not a draw. I have talked with many Cottonwood parents who protest they have just as many AP offerings as Olympus. And they do! My son actually attends the Academy of Finance program at Cottonwood and has had a great experience. They do have great classes at Cottonwood. That is not the point. The hope is to make the school seen as a good CHOICE for families based on an additional draw. 3. I do not pretend to know Cottonwood's history with how they got the large refugee population. Based on the meetings I have attended it seems to be a sensitive point. It seems to create both unique challenges and unique advantages. As a mother with 2 high school students and one junior high student who are multiracial, I value the diversity that is offered at Cottonwood. Diversity is something that Olympus, quite frankly, is in need of. That alone, however, does not give enough reason for me to change schools from a place that is where my neighboring community is in academics, sports and friendships. 4. Lastly I have no quantifiable evidence for this last statement but I am sure you do. The student population you are asking to shift to new schools has been ravaged. I use that word intentionally. It has been a fight to keep a stable and supported education path in the wake of PBL/PBG changes, 9th/6th grade changes, COVID time learning and teacher shortages. To ask a school change of students anywhere in the 4th grade through HS is callous, It doesn't consider the well-being of a student. Please let me know if I can clarify my concerns or if there is anything I can do to better help at this time. Thanks, xxx 4.29.2022 | See FAQ #15 and #17 | ||||||||||||||||||||
33 | not submitted | not submitted | This doesn’t help our community- it only hurts it! Please!!!! | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
34 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr, and Olympus High | Hello. My name is xxx. My children have all attended Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr. High and Olympus High School. I have one more daughter that is headed to Olympus High next year. She is looking forward to being at the school that her siblings attended, her father and his siblings attended, and her grandfather attended. Her grandfather was the first graduating class from Olympus. My oldest daughter was the first graduating class from the rebuilt Olympus. Her grandfather attended Cottonwood Elementary. Her aunt taught at Cottonwood Elementary. We have deep connections to these schools and to the community that they serve. That is the reason for the email. I appreciate that you are having open houses and meetings at the schools. I can imagine that you are not greeted with open arms and some of the comments I have heard at the meetings have not been all that nice. I understand that boundaries have to be switched periodically and students have to shift to new schools. However, I don't see the sense in changing the boundaries and pushing kids to go to Cottonwood High School. I have nothing against Cottonwood high. I am for improving Cottonwood High. I don't think changing boundaries is the answer. If you make the students attend Cottonwood high that attend Cottonwood Elementary, what happens to Olympus Jr. High. There will only be two Olympus Jr. feeder schools. Cottonwood will have 5. The student numbers will fall and Olympus Jr. will be left with cutting programs, teachers, sports teams, difficulty retaining students and attracting new students. Your idea of wanting to solve a problem and not create another is great but you can see that what you're proposing is creating a huge problem. Cottonwood high may be better but you will have damaged Olympus Jr. and also Olympus High. This is not the answer. I am not a numbers gal. In fact, one of the reasons that I married my husband is because he has a math minor and he could help our kids with their math homework. But even a girl like me can see and do this math. The numbers don't add up. Changing boundaries is not a fix, it is like removing the knife from a wound and bandaging it up just to stab yourself again with the same knife. Instead of Cottonwood having a low enrollment issue it becomes Olympus. What do you do then? Close a brand new school? What do you do when most students that are in Cottonwood Elementaries boundaries special permit to Olympus Jr. and Olympus High? Does that solve the problem for Cottonwood High? No it doesn't. The real issue here is to do what the district can do to help attract more students to Cottonwood High. Offer more programs and more classes, add GTI classes there, have AMES academy let more students in, offer more concurrent enrollment classes. Have SLCC classes there. Do anything that can help draw students there. That is the way to strengthen Cottonwood high. Just throwing students at it when they can still special permit out doesn't fix the problem. In essence if you change the boundaries, you will split Holladay down the middle. You will fracture a community that has deep roots planted in Olympus dirt. You will not be solving the problem, the problem will just be at a different school. If I had to guess, most students will special permit back to Olympus Jr. and Olympus High. That is my plan for my daughter. It isn't that we don't like Cottonwood High, it is that she will have attended Olympus for one year already and I don't want to make her attend another high school. She has friends, classes and programs that she will have participated in and she will want to continue that. She has looked forward to attending Olympus High since she was a small child. Please look at your numbers again and then consider what you are doing to students and families. Your proposal lacks a good solution and will hurt our community. You will gut Olympus Jr. and Olympus High. So many students will have to drive by Olympus Jr. on their way to Bonneville and Cottonwood. None of what you have proposed makes any sense. | No boundary proposals have been developed at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
35 | Olympus Network | Olympus High | Dear Ms. Jackson, I was unable to attend any of the 3 informational community open houses held earlier this month regarding the adjustment of the OHS/CHS school boundaries that ultimately would impact our family. My daughter is set to start 9th grade at Olympus High School this fall. As I am understanding the proposed boundary change, we would potentially be adjusted to fall within Cottonwood High School boundaries the following school year. I would like to express our opposition to this change for multiple reasons because of the impact it will have on my daughter and our family. Cottonwood is much further away from where we reside, and it leaves my daughter no option to walk to school or ride her bike until she is old enough to drive. We have geared her class choices based on what is offered at OHS. We were planning on participation in OHS's music program. My daughter is an athlete and has plans to compete on OHS’s Girls Lacrosse team. Cottonwood High School does not have a girls Lacrosse Team. As a parent I understand the need for change but the students in my daughter's class year have just had to make the adjustment to not attending 9th grade at Olympus Junior High. They are only getting 2 years at the junior high level and those 2 years have been a mentally and emotionally trying event in their lives. As if enduring COVID for 2 years isn't enough now there is another potentially major impact in their lives by changing school boundaries. If Utah is an open enrollment state and a patron can choose to go to any public school, I do not understand how this is going to fix the diminishing enrollment of Cottonwood High School, short term, when patrons are going to choose to go elsewhere, like us, to move forward with the plan that we had laid out for our daughter at OHS. If this plan to adjust boundaries is adopted, then I feel that GSD should GUARANTEE those students that are entering OHS as freshman, first choice at a permit to continue to go to OHS for their full 4 years if they so choose. Thank you for considering my comment/opinion, Best regards, | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
36 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr, and Olympus High | Good morning, Board Member Jackson. I'm a constituent in your precinct with three school-age children--one at Olympus High, one at Olympus Jr., and one at Cottonwood Elementary--and I proudly voted for you in 2020. I'm extremely concerned about the proposed boundary changes, as they would affect our youngest two children, should the proposal be approved. Our current Olympus High student will be a senior in 22/23, so he would not be affected. We live < two miles from Olympus High, so he usually walks home from school, weather permitting. This would not be practically possible for his younger sisters, should they be shuffled off to Cottonwood High, which is twice as far away. The Olympus Jr. to Bonneville distance disparity is even starker, for Olympus Jr. is only 1 mile away and Bonneville is 3 times as far, yet we're being told our children would have to go to Bonneville Jr. and Cottonwood High. Many times throughout the years my wife and I have discussed moving from our neighborhood, where we've a modest house, to somewhere in the south or west valley, where we could upgrade to a larger house on a larger lot, but we've always decided against it for two reasons: 1) This is the neighborhood where my wife grew up; and 2) Cottonwood Elementary/Olympus Jr./Olympus High. We live a couple hundred yards from where my wife grew up. She and her five older siblings attended Cottonwood Elementary/Olympus Jr./Olympus High. Our oldest, who is now down at SUU, attended the same 3 schools. There are currently 201 students attending Olympus High who live in the present Cottonwood High zone. If the district is concerned about load-balancing, why not start with requiring students to attend their own schools? Assuming the current rate would continue, subtracting 201 from Olympus High and adding them to Cottonwood High would pretty much take care of the issue with no need for boundary changes. Why would this even be considered prior to the Skyline High renovation completion? Once completed, that will undoubtedly attract more students, a large portion of which would have likely attended Olympus High. Why not incentivize students to attend Cottonwood High with specialized programs moved from or not available at Olympus High? That would be far less disruptive, as fewer families would be affected, and those affected would be choosing to go to Cottonwood High because the benefits of a given program would outweigh the inconvenience. This proposal, as currently constituted, would have a significant negative impact on my family and many others in our neighborhood. We're counting on you to not only vote the right way but to also convince the requisite number of your fellow board members to do the same. Sincerely, XXX | No boundary proposals have been developed at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
37 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr and Olympus High | First off, I have to express my appreciation for your friendliness in elementary school. My name is XXX. You may not remember me, but I remember you because you were one of the few to always greet me with a smile. I was often teased for being Asian and painfully shy. You were a year ahead of me in school, but your acts of kindness have stuck with me through all these years. Small acts have big impacts… Anyway, I am very disappointed in hearing about the proposed boundary changes that would affect where my children attend school. I have four children aging in range from 5-20, each of whom either attended or are currently enrolled in Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Junior High, and Olympus High School. My biggest complaint against the boundary change is the difference in distance from my home to these new schools. My children all walk home from school (weather permitting) because I have almost always had one in three different schools due to their ages. Carpools have not been options for some of my children. I didn’t have to look into the bus system because I live within walking distance of all three schools in whose boundaries we currently live. A change of schools would also completely eliminate the potential for their involvement in extracurricular activities because I will be starting a daytime job in the near future. I’m sure I’m not the only parent and constituent who cannot provide their children with their own car in High School or who might be limited in their ability to get kids to after school activities. In fact, my neighbor is a single mother and widow who also relies on one of her sons being able to walk home from Olympus Junior High. Please share this concern with other members of the board who may not recognize that everyone from the Cottonwood Elementary boundaries are not affluent. We will be far more detrimentally affected than the School Board might imagine. I feel like the School Board and Administrators have made this proposal with limited consideration to the affects it will have on parents and students. I have yet to hear a logical explanation for the immediate necessity of this proposed change. Why not make alterations that would be less intrusive for our children, such as moving the Business Program from Olympus to Cottonwood High? What existing problems will this solve? If this is to address the future enrollment numbers, why not wait and assess population growth after the Cottonwood Mall development is complete, as well as the completion of Skyline High School? I encourage you to vote against this change of school boundaries and to do everything in your power to influence other members of the Board of Education to oppose these changes or at least postpone them. A decision such as this seems hasty to the public and I believe we all need to review the more permanent demographic shifts that will occur once the Cottonwood Mall development is complete. | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ's. | ||||||||||||||||||||
38 | Cottonwood Netwook | Spring Lane Elementary, Driggs, Mill Creek | Hello, I have been following your coverage of the boundary study so far on Instagram, and have been meaning to share my thoughts with you for a while. I have a couple connections to this area. I am a parent of a next-year kindergartener in the Spring Lane boundary, and I have taught at Driggs for 9 years. I have collaborated with teachers from Spring Lane, I know their literacy coach and my neighbor was a para there a couple years ago. So, in addition to comments from my neighbors I have gained insight from other sources. I have also been able to see data from Spring Lane when we look at Driggs data at faculty meetings when we compare ours to other nearby schools. Sorry for the lengthy preamble, but I want you to know that I am not just repeating neighborhood gossip. When we moved to Holladay from Sugarhouse, I already knew that Spring Lane was not an option for our family. I student taught at Mill Creek, so I saw firsthand how adopting a dual-immersion program at a small school can create a dumpster fire. For example, when I was at Mill Creek the non-dual-immersion 2nd grade class had 35+ students while the dual classes had 18-20. Also, there is no way to split the mainstream kids up from year to year. At Driggs we generally have 3 ways to split kids and it is still difficult sometimes to separate extreme behaviors and students that don't do well together. Those poor teachers at Spring Lane get every move in, most behavior issues, most SPED kids, and those kids are together year after year. I am sure you are aware of this given how many schools have similar issues. I have discussed this with the teachers at Spring Lane as well and affected families in my neighborhood and it is extreme. I think dual- immersion could/should be offered for families that feel strongly about it, but it should be at magnet schools where gen ed students are not sacrificed. Especially given the fact that dual-immersion d My child is currently at a private montessori school for pre-school and will remain there for kindergarten (they have full day.) I know that we have options when it comes to where to send him for first grade, and I plan to special permit him along with many of my neighbors to another school when the time comes, but it would be so much better for us to have a viable option in our own boundary. In fact, I would say we are entitled to a viable option. I don't expect my child to go to the highest performing school. In fact, I am looking forward to him experiencing more diversity than we have at Driggs. With all of that said, this boundary shifting provides that perfect opportunity to either get rid of or move the dual-immersion program. Or at the very least, combine schools so that there is more than 1 mainstream class on each grade level. In addition to my concerns about Spring Lane, I would also like to briefly share my feelings about the Cottonwood Elementary parent meeting. As you mentioned yourself there was less parent involvement at the Cottonwood High and Granite Park meetings. Those parents are generally spread more thinly and less informed/ involved. This doesn't mean they care less. It means they have more of an uphill battle in their everyday lives. I would say in many cases they probably assume that their voices won't count as much as the east side parents anyway. The Cottonwood Elementary parents are used to being heard, and "winning" in their everyday life. They have the privilege of having the best of the best and feel that it is their right to continue in that vein. I feel that giving them a special meeting, that only they are invited to, looks like they are getting exactly what everyone expects them to get. I appreciate your transparency and that you aren't trying to hide the meeting. But I still think you are giving the parents with the loudest voices (economically, and socially) an additional megaphone. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate your feedback and will continue to follow along. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
39 | Olympus Network | Olympus High School | Hello Julie: Thank you for your response. It is my opinion that the best way to help struggling schools, like Mill Creek elementary, is to get the parents involved in their child's education. I am not totally sure though how to do this. My daughter taught at a school in the Canyons District several years ago that tried to engage parents more. I am not sure of its success because she moved to the Alpine District after she got married. Parents and families are the foundation for children. What goes on in the home usually determines what goes on at school. How families view education usually carries over to their children. There are outliers that succeed no matter their climate but that is rare. In my opinion, there are several factors that increase learning success: a solid reading base, involvement in the arts, regular exposure to the out of doors, hands on learning through field trips to museums and other places of interest and healthy life style practices, such as diet, exercise, meditation, sleep etc. Also, teaching parents about digital awareness and to not use technology as a babysitter would be very helpful. Technology is a great tool but it is also a detriment. Talking to one of my children's English teachers at Oly Jr. a couple of years ago, she told me she can see the negative change in her Honors English students, even some of the GT kids, as technology has flooded our society. They are not engaging or working as hard as the used to. All of my years in helping in classrooms, especially grades K-3, I wanted to help the students struggling with reading. I knew if I could have 15-20 minutes each day with them that I could get them on grade level or above by the end of the year. When a child can read they succeed in all other academic areas, even math. Reading is the basis of all academics and expands the mind in every aspect of life. I am not sure if the district could begin a program at some of the schools, targeting the parents and their students. Many parents don't know how to do these things that I mentioned. It would be a family class. Empowering families to empower the future. It seems we do workshops, classes etc. and the parents that need them don't come. I wonder if an incentive program of required activities or classes of the above topics with the reward being gift cards to fun family places of learning or a physical activity, like bowling or skating etc. Kind of like a big corporations wellness challenge. You get money if you do the required health goals etc. There are a ton of ideas that could possibly work with a committee of people thinking about them. Reading clubs, healthy living groups, hiking groups, cooking classes, art lessons, the list is long. They could all be umbrellaed under the same idea of empowering the family to empower the future for the students and their parents. Parents might even think it is fun. I am sure you could get some tutors at Oly high to help with the students. We get them for the after-school academic tutoring program and the Mill Creek Arts. Mill Creek Arts could maybe be lengthened. We currently only do it for 5-6 weeks. Maybe get parents to tutor and help. When children are allowed to "unstring their bows" with the arts, recess and outdoor activities, and get away from the school to actually learn away from a desk, this can have a powerful influence for their mental health. Subsequently, they will do better in their academic work. I have worried about the after school academic classes for these students that are falling behind. I am not sure if it actually gets the desired results. It seems that these students would benefit more by playing outside, doing art lessons, music lessons or kicking around a soccer ball. They need a break from the regular classroom. All kids need this, the struggling ones, the gifted ones and everyone in between. I feel passionate about all of this as you can tell. I loved working with the Mill Creek Arts program. Amber Clayton, Mill Creek's principal was a delight to work with. She really cares about her students and the arts. She is one of the best I have worked with. She has a tough job at Mill Creek. The students do have promise. I would figure out a way to involve their parents more. Thank you Julie for taking the time to respond. This is an emotional time for me as my life in public education is coming to a close. I will have one more year on the Oly SCC and may help the Utah PTA a little with their legislative stuff but I have a new chapter of my life beginning. I am excited for that but also have great memories of being a part of the education process. It has gone by in the blink of an eye! | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
40 | Olympus Network | Olympus High School | Dear Superintendent Nye and Granite School District Board Members: I am writing this letter to share with you some of my thoughts regarding Study 2: Skyline, Olympus, Cottonwood High Network Study. I have had students in the GSD for 32 years. My youngest child will be graduating this year from Olympus High. I have had children at Holladay Elementary, Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr. High and Olympus High. I have served for these many years as a volunteer in the classroom, PTA and on many school community councils. I currently work with the Olympus High PTA, the Olympus Network PTA and serve on the Olympus High Community Council. I have heard the presentation by Steve Hogan and Ben Horsley at the Olympus High Community Council meeting. Julie Jackson and Clarke Nelson were at this presentation. I have also looked at the information on the GSD website regarding the Population Analysis Study. My main concern is that this process is moving too quickly to make an educated and thoughtful decision. Making concrete decisions by June and the voting by the board this coming November does not give enough time to explore this situation adequately. I was heavily involved in the reconfiguration of the Olympus Network. This took time and much thought to make the right decisions for the right time. By making this quick of a decision, it appears that the GSD board already has their plan formulated as to what they want to do. Our community is currently very concerned over some of the ideas shared by board members at our SCC meeting. Cottonwood Elementary should not be realigned to the Cottonwood Network. Mill Creek Elementary should also remain in the Olympus Network. We have a great relationship with these two schools. Olympus provides volunteer student tutors for Mill Creek Elementary’s after-school academic programs. We also sponsor the Mill Creek Arts Program that runs during the winter months. I discovered a discrepancy on the boundary maps for Cottonwood Elementary and Oakwood Elementary. There is one set that has the boundary map of Cottonwood Elementary to include the new Cottonwood Mall future development and then this area moves to Bonneville Junior High and Cottonwood High. These future students should attend Oakwood Elementary to increase their enrollment. This is how it should have been done in the beginning when the Cottonwood High Network took this development. There is another map that lists this area in the Oakwood boundary. Which map is accurate? This discrepancy needs to be rectified. This is the link to the map on the GSD website. http://www2.graniteschools.org/Maps/Cottonwood_El.pdf One solution that was mentioned in our SCC meeting is to build Cottonwood High programs that will entice students to come to their school. This is a more positive approach to increasing enrollment. Perhaps a school focused on STEM could provide the needed momentum. With AMES already at Cottonwood High maybe a joint effort by both schools could increase student numbers. The offering of an Engineering program or other Computer Tech programs could be a benefit to Cottonwood High School. Since some of the AMES students attend Cottonwood classes maybe an increased push to facilitate a better symbiotic relationship between the two schools is needed. An increased number of concurrent enrollment classes could be opened at Cottonwood High. A committee of SCC members/parents, teachers and administrators could be formed to seriously study this situation and come up with other ideas. Solutions are possible if handled correctly. The GSD board is moving too quickly. Please make an effort to slow down this process. This decision does not need to happen this year to begin in 2023-24. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. For those that are not answered in the FAQ's, please feel free to contact the Planning and Boundaries Department, 385-646-4123. | ||||||||||||||||||||
41 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | Dear Julie, I’m xxxxxx, I live in the Olympus High School boundaries. I attended the boundaries meeting on Monday night. I have served as Cottonwood Elementary PTA President, Olympus High School PTA President, Olympus Jr. High School PTA Board, Crestview View Elementary PTA Board, Granite Education Foundation, served on the Calendaring Committee for Granite District, and taught at Cottonwood Elementary. I was disappointed with the presentation on Monday night. I felt that Mr. Horsley was just checking off his “to do” boxes. He stated that “we have had three community meetings and answered all “questions”. He agreed to stay in the meeting as long as needed. These are great lines for the news, but not for parents or kids. Many questions were not answered. I do not know the young girl who stood up, but she said something very important that our youth are feeling. She said can’t we just have some “normal” for a while. I believe this process is too rushed and not well thought out. Olympus High School is a good school because of the strong families that feed in from our Cottonwood Elementary. You will find them leading in our community and our schools. Weren’t you elected because of your friends and neighbors that live around you? Are you fighting for the residents in the boundary of Olympus High School? How about other options for Cottonwood High School other than boundary changes. Maybe The Olympus High School and Skyline High School should look at other options, like Charter schools or a Holladay/Millcreek school district. | No boundary changes have been proposed at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
42 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | To whom it may concern, I am a parent that resides in the Cottonwood Elementary boundaries. We have loved raising our kids here. During the community meeting at Olympus High, Ben Horsely continually spoke about how important community is in schooling. This is true, we live steps from the elementary school, 1.4 miles from the junior high and exactly 2 miles from the high school. All three schools are walkable on quiet side streets. We drive down Holladay Blvd past the Olympus several times a day. My daughter played a soccer game at Bonneville Jr the other day. It is over 3.5 miles from our home, across two busy streets. I haven't driven past Cottonwood High in years. Those are not community schools and never would feel that way. Ben Horsely repeatedly said that there would be no problem for everyone to permit back to Olympus. If this is truly the case, what is the point of changing the boundaries? Literally every neighbor that I have spoken to has said that if they can't permit back in, they will leave the district and go to Brighton. The only solution is to make Cottonwood High a place that draws people in. I have a neighbor that sends her kids there for Chinese immersion. Forcing people will not work. Luring them will. Add programs, certificates etc. that aren't available at other schools. I'm also confused as to why Granger's 3500 students aren't a bigger issue? Ben Horsely said that the ideal school population was up to 2600. Maybe take the extra 900 students and shift them South and East. I think overcrowding in a classroom has much more problematic implications and puts way more stress on staff. I also think that it is incredibly tone deaf of the District to even talk about this issue at this time. These students have been through so much in the past two years, it's ridiculous to throw this on top. If the District truly cares about the mental health of the students, as it repeatedly claims to, ripping kids out of schools they have planned to attend their whole lives, away from friends will add unnecessary stress and heartache. As a former student of Highland High, that graduated after the closure of South High, I witnessed firsthand the downward trajectory the districts three schools have been on. It pitted neighbor against neighbor and brought many changes that have been damaging to the community as a whole. People are fleeing Salt Lake district, that will happen here. People are already looking at options. I hope that boundary changes will be off the table and that programs to improve Cottonwood will move forward. I think many people would be happy to volunteer at Cottonwood, as long as their children are left alone. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. | ||||||||||||||||||||
43 | Olympus Network | not submitted | Ben I spoke tonight regarding the boundary study done in the walker lane area in 2017. You mentioned that you didn’t know the year that the boundary changed from Cottonwood Elementary to Oakwood. It was in 2007. And since then around 98% of the population is this specific area that attends Public school have continued to attend the Olympus network. I think you need to use the information that you already have in making your decisions instead of relying on speculation of the future. What this turns into is an open enrollment nightmare. I know this personally because December 1st is my daughters birthday, and we have spent countless birthday morning open enrolling instead of with her. We had concrete data and the board disregarded it because they assumed we were racist because our kids wanted to go to school with their neighborhood friends. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
44 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr | Thank you for putting together this website to offer information regarding the data and possible options. Having strong schools that draw in students is obviously the goal in order to achieve excellence for many years to come. As you know, it takes years to implement and develop programs for schools that will draw in students and keep the ones within their boundary from going elsewhere. As I have reviewed the data and read over the FAQ's, it seems very clear that it is a waste of district money to implement boundary studies in order to grow three strong High Schools (Cottonwood, Skyline and Olympus). It is clear that these boundary studies are very helpful and needed when looking into closing/consolidating schools (as with some of the Elementary schools). However, when you are not considering closing a High School, pouring money into a boundary study appears to be wasteful....purely because of the special permitting law. Solely in regards to the High Schools Cottonwood, Skyline and Olympus, the special permitting will always win over any boundary changes. It seems more advantageous to pour money into Program Studies for these schools (and feeder schools) in order to truly grow these schools into strong and full academic centers. As stated in your FAQ document regarding : How is the state’s open enrollment law and its special permit applications that begin in November/December being considered?, you state, "..., with open enrollment laws and plenty of capacity in our schools in this region, parents will already have plenty of ability to exercise school choice." So it seems like you acknowledge that parents will continue to send their children to the school they want to....so why focus on boundaries when this isn't a boundary issue? This is a retention and program issue. The data is clear regarding the fact that this is a program and retention issue. Just looking at three data points alone, the facts are laid out: The number of students within the boundary; the number of students special permitting in and the number of students special permitting out. Skyline has built programs, over years, that are clearly bringing students (and money!!!!) into that school and the district. Study that!! Study that and how bringing PROGRAMS into schools can and will dramatically change the outcome. I believe that you want strong schools. I believe you want to bring in students from other districts and you want to minimize how many leave our district as well as the boundary their home is in. So study what matters: Building programs and retention. In a special permit state, this boundary study does nothing. You are looking at changing the boundaries in an area along the Wasatch Front where people will wait years and years to buy a house into this area. Whether it is because of the programs offered at Skyline or that they want a third generation of their family to go to Olympus....you have families who will go where the programs are and also where they feel their academic legacy should be. I am not part of the legacy group, so I cannot relate to it...but it is a strong factor. I am part of the "program group" and I will follow the programs. So many people will. Build the programs, retain the students and not only your east side schools will thrive, but they all will! It's not about the boundary when you have a special permit state. It is all about the programs. Focus on programs! Get that committee up and running. Find what programs the community needs to bring in students from Murray, Canyons and Salt Lake. Build that. Yes, it will take years. But I personally feel that, although you state that it will take 6-10 years to see the school population shift happen with a boundary change, it will absolutely not happen with these three high schools. If you make a boundary change, you will not see growth and continued success at Cottonwood. In 6-10 years you will still have families special permitting to Olympus, Skyline and Brighton (yes, Brighton is the go-to choice above Cottonwood presently) and you will have accomplished nothing. Please, focus on programs. If you are solely looking that the 3 east side schools, help one of them develop programs that will draw students there from all over Granite District and from neighboring districts. For example, Cottonwood is strong and it deserves programs to highlight that and to maximize it. Perhaps Cottonwood could become the dual language program hub...an additional IB school...imagine the possibilities of offering an International approach to a High School! I worked with the international population for years with the Health Department and it is booming. International business is booming. Consider developing a school in that area to capitalize on bringing in the best and the brightest from Granite, Murray, Canyons and Salt Lake districts! It can happen! Invest in our community long term. Change the focus...and see the long term growth and success you state you are claiming to attain. Thank you. | See FAQ #15 | ||||||||||||||||||||
45 | Cottonwood Netwook | Spring Lane | Emailed Julie Jackson and Clarke Nelson and then forwarded to boundaries from Clarke: Hello! Thanks for your work and availability. I do hesitate to send you two an email because I know with the boundary study you are getting a lot of emails! Thank you for reading my email. I’m going to try to make this concise as this is an issue I am concerned about. First I want to say, I went to both the Cottonwood and Olympus meeting. I wanted to go to the Granite Park one but couldn't. Speaking with Julie it sounds like something more might happen to inform that community and I'm hoping I can attend that one. I want to make sure that everyone gets to voice their position. Below are suggestions I shared with the Population Analysis Committee. Since you will be voting on this issue I also wanted to share my feedback with you two, as I know you have the influence to impact change. There are three things I want to suggest. My apologies that these may sound repetitive as I have spoken to you both separately on one or two of these issues. My Suggestions: 1. Close down Spring Lane and combine it with Oakwood and move the Chinese program to Oakwood with that change. It would give more students and make the program stronger overall with more students, parent volunteers, and overall funding because of the increase of student body. I think it would also attract more students to the DLI program. Lindsey Godsey and I have been talking to other parents about this idea and so far it seems well received. 2. My next suggestion is about marketing. I think there could be a benefit if more was done then just a postcard or maybe a flyer but why not give each school some kind of label highlighting their programs or student population? Granite could invest in marketing videos that parents could share on their social media platform talking about how awesome their neighborhood school is. An example could be: - "Skyline has an incredible IB program, in a world with constant change in the career market IB students are critical thinkers and global citizens and agents of change." - "Cottonwood has a very diverse group of students and this has been proven to increase test scores in math and science and increase problem solving capabilities." -Olympus- I don't know anything about Olympus-- sorry 😬. (I'm not from here and I taught at a IB school.) I think highlighting what makes a high school great would really help. Yes you are marketing against yourselves but what if you just did it in the boundaries of those areas and really focused on talking up those high schools? 3. FINALLY-- This point I have sources for at the bottom. I'm passionate about education reformation and have been for years. (I'm a teacher!) I think integration of Low SES and Racial diverse students would benefit all students. ALL of them. A quick Google search can show that this is, some argue, the ONE thing that works the best for the health of all the schools and especially the students. Students in higher diverse schools are better problem solvers, score higher in math as well as science. We can potentially close achievement gaps by doing this too. Below are sources of these claims. (I'm really into education reformation.) -"How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms can Benefit All Students" by Wells, Fox, Cordova-Cobi -"Refusing to Leave Desegregation Behind: From Graduates of Racially Diverse Schools to the Supreme Court" by Wells, Duran and White -"The Sum of Us" by Heather McGhee (Chapter 7- Living Apart) -Podcast: Nice White Parents put on by NYT. In closing, I want to say I think both Ben Horsley and Steven Hogan really have good insight. I really appreciated their breadth of knowledge as it shows that they know what they are talking about. I both love and hate them for it, ha ha.I'm just really impressed with how they showed up. Thanks for reading my lengthy email. I'm interested in change and if you have suggestions of where I can put my efforts please don't hesitate to let me know. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
46 | Cottonwood Netwook | Spring Lane | I have appreciated the information you share and I am really impressed with the way the meetings have been handled. There are three things I want to suggest. 1. Close down Spring Lane and combine it with Oakwood and move the Chinese program to Oakwood with that change. It would give more students and make the program stronger overall with more students, parent volunteers, and overall funding because of the increase of student body. I think it would also attract more students to the DLI program. 2. Also, I think integration of Low SES and Racial diverse students would benefit everyone in this area. A quick Google search can show that this is the one thing that works the best of the health of all the schools and especially the students. Students in higher diverse schools are better problem solvers, score higher in math as well as science. We can potentially close achievement gaps by doing this. -"How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms can Benefit All Students" by Wells, Fox, Cordova-Cobi "Refusing to Leave Desegregation Behind: From Graduates of Racially Diverse Schools to the Supreme Court" by Wells, Duran and White 3. The district could do more to promote schools. It's not just a postcard, or could be a flyer but why not give each school some kind of label highlighting their programs or student population? Granite could invest in marketing videos that parents could share on their social media platforms. You could say something like, "Skyline has an incredible IB program encouraging worldwide global citizens and critical thinkers" You could say, "Cottonwood has a very diverse group of students and this has been proven to increase test scores in math and science and increase problem solving capabilities.". (I don't know anything about Olympus, actually.) I think highlighting what makes a high school great would really help. Yes you are marketing against yourselves but what if you just did it in the boundaries of those areas and really focused on talking up those high schools? I also want to add that I think that Both Ben Horsley and Steven Hogan really have good insight. I went to 2 of the three meetings they had in my area and I really appreciated their breadth of knowledge and to show that they know what they are talking about. Thank you for your efforts as well as the emotional labor you also have to put through with these meetings. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
47 | not submitted | not submitted | Dear Granite School Board - Instead of changing boundaries, focus on bringing a better product to Cottonwood. If there is a better product, you won't need to shift boundaries - it will attract people. Shifting boundaries is an attempt at a short-term solution that will likely not do anything in the short-term. As much was admitted last evening at the Olympus townhall. You likely have a shrinking population in the Cottonwood / Olympus / Skyline areas with each school being under capacity. As such, focusing on boundaries doesn't seem to have a long-term vision. Why are so many special-permitting out of Cottonwood? It is either poor marketing or the education product. Create a better product and attract more students. Look at West High School and what they have accomplished in a difficult socio-economic location. Look at what Skyline High School has done. Create an associates program at Cottonwood or IB etc. Create a more expansive Chinese immersion program that could benefit those that weren't able to start in the first grade (I missed the opportunity to have my children start in the program as first graders - but would love to see something that can start later - but go much deeper than typical Chinese I or Chinese II in a normal high school program). Regards | See FAQ #15 | ||||||||||||||||||||
48 | not submitted | not submitted | Thank you to the two Granite representatives for hosting the meeting last night. Everyone is busy and I genuinely appreciate them making time during the evening hours. I'm wondering if there's a more productive format for future meetings that would be more conducive to thoughtful, honest information sharing. While the questions from the audience covered a wide range of topics, the responses were ofter the same rehearsed lines that didn't actually answer the questions. So instead of actually gathering input from the residence, it felt like the opposite...a surface level sales pitch for "how much the district cares about what resident say." Perhaps next time the representatives can think about the difficult questions and formulate honest answers before the meetings. If help is needed to identify those questions, I'd be more than happy to volunteer. Or maybe there should be multiple, smaller meetings in a comfortable environment where the representatives don't get flustered and rely on prepared responses. Please let me know the format of the next meeting and if you're open to these suggestions? Thank you, xxxxxx | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
49 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr, Olympus High | I attended tonight’s public comment meeting at Olympus High (April 18th). The process for questions disenfranchised participants because it was clear that questions were being selectively vetted by the facilitators. Subsequent opportunities for input need to be structured to ensure all voices are heard and recorded. Even though the school district’s process purports that no decisions have been formalized, it was apparent that the moderators were biased towards boundary realignment as the top priority solution. The pretext for their responses regarding “prosperity and success of our students” discounted the input from attendees. Davis Demographics data was not presented that identified attrition as a problem within the Olympus High network. District-wide data skews the real issues. Olympus has a strong and vital community striving to deal with our own challenges and needs. Setting emotion aside, it is clear that creating rifts in the Olympus High network to solve underlying matriculation problems at Cottonwood High is not a justified course of action. The PAC should invest additional time and study into other solutions for making Cottonwood High a more vibrant and attractive option for the hundreds of students who currently permit out of the network, or for creating a locus of specialized programs to bring more participation. Don’t undermine the Olympus Network by making it even smaller geographically than it already is. Murray City School district is uniquely positioned to be part of a wholistic solution due to their geographic infringement and adjacency to the relatively huge Cottonwood High boundaries. They should be involved in this process and could be part of a successful solution. Thank you | See FAQ #'s 16 & 17 Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
50 | Skyline Network | Eastwood Elementary | How can you claim that decisions have not been made when you state that you are closing elementary schools? | No proposals have been developed. | ||||||||||||||||||||
51 | Cottonwood Network | not submitted | Thank you for coming to Cottonwood High School to discuss the Boundary Study. I spoke to a few of you on April 11, 2022 about some of the issues I feel are facing Cottonwood High. As I didn’t get to all of you, I will send this out in email form. -Cottonwood is such a great school with a fantastic student body, but many in our larger community hold very negative viewpoints regarding the school. -Around 15% percent of Cottonwood’s population is refugee. Roughly 40-50% of the population is underserved and roughly that same amount of kids take the school bus to and from school (not necessarily school bus=underserved). -If the roughly 40% of refugee/underserved population of our student body wanted to play sports (many have the talent and passion to do so), join robotics, theater, debate, etc., it is cost prohibitive, they may not be able to read English and are unaware of it, transportation is a major issue and many other obstacles get in the way for these kids to participate in after school activities. -Last fall, I talked to several parents with about 8 good ideas to help this population to be able to boost Cottonwood sports and include this fantastic group of kids to flourish with participation. -HOWEVER, it is overwhelming, highly cost prohibitive for ONE school to have 40% of its student body made up of refugees/underserved to accomplish these 8 ideas, fundraise with such a HUGE school boundary with so much SES diversity, plus businesses so far away they don’t even know who Cottonwood High school is, and is discouraging for a small group of parents who are already doing so much. A boundary relingment that helps Cottonwood retain ⅓ of it’s school’s population made up of refugee’s/underserved helps our community help them to grow and be a part of the school’s community. It helps Cottonwood become a neighborhood school once again and local businesses know and want to contribute to Cottonwood. Thank you for doing this study and I hope you can make decisions that should have been made in 2009 that benefit all three high schools and their feeder schools in this study. Sincerely, ——— | Please see FAQs. Especially # 5, 6, & 17 | ||||||||||||||||||||
52 | Olympus Network | Crestview, Olympus JR, Olympus SR | Finally: I also know Cottonwood Elementary boundary parents are concerned about their current 7th graders at Olympus Jr. moving to Bonneville for their final year. I was at Judge Memorial when Juan Diego opened. To prevent a giant mass exodus, Juan Diego only opened up to Freshman and Sophomores the first year it was opened. I would suggest keeping the 7th graders at Olympus Jr. at the school for their final year and transition the current 5th and 6th grader. I hope you find this feedback useful. Please let me know if you have any questions. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
53 | Olympus Network | Crestview, Olympus JR, Olympus SR | I have two students in the district (one at Crestview and one at Olympus Jr.). I also work for a private kindergarten that feeds students into Eastwood, Morningside, and Oakridge. I am also ending my term on the School Community Council at Crestview. I heard the perspective of the Cottonwood parents. We are missing a community and need help bringing scores up for these schools. My first thought is: how to grow Spring Lane and Twin Peaks? Could we add more full-day kindergartens? I know many parents on this side of the valley that have dual working parents and need more options. For example, I placed on of my children in a private kindergarten because as a working parent at the time I could not manage a half-day kindergarten. Second: I know students in the mainstream at Morningside struggle because of the combination of French immersion along with gifted and talented. The mainstream students fall into the same category, like Spring Lane, of only having one teacher and being with the same students (they may not get along with). Is there a way to move the French immersion to Spring Lane and Bonneville? Third: Crestview has seen a drop in enrollment as well, so we are taking steps to become a STEAM accredited school to feed into the Olympus network and help with open enrollment and entice parents that do open enrollment to other schools. The Skyline network has Eastwood. Could a stream of schools be STEAM accredited, like Twin Peaks to Bonneville to Cottonwood? Fourth: I know Cottonwood Elementary parents are concerned about the potential of children moving to the Cottonwood High network. These parents are concerned about children's scores and that of the school. They need information and marketing brought to them to understand it is the scores of their children that will increase the scores of the school. They also need to be assured their children will be moving to lower class sizes for some time that will help their children's academic achievement. Finally: I also know Cottonwood Elementary boundary parents are concerned about their current 7th graders at Olympus Jr. moving to Bonneville for their final year. I was at Judge Memorial when Juan Diego opened. To prevent a giant mass exodus, Juan Diego only opened up to Freshman and Sophomores the first year it was opened. I would suggest keeping the 7th graders at Olympus Jr. at the school for their final year and transition the current 5th and 6th grader. I hope you find this feedback useful. Please let me know if you have any questions. | Thank you for your feedback. No boundary proposals have been developed at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
54 | Cottonwood Network | Woodstock Elementary, Bonneville Jr and Cottonwood High | I attended the meeting at Cottonwood and appreciate your patience with this situation that is clearly heated for many. I am not heated, but I definitely have an opinion. I wanted to share what I am seeing from where I am at. I have taught in Granite District in the past and now am only a parent and active volunteer, but I find myself wearing my "teacher hat" often when I consider things like this issue. My daughter has been in the ALC program and began at Morningside, then switched to Woodstock when that option became available. I was thrilled because I prefered attending our local schools instead of going to schools further away. I never felt the sense of community when I was at Morningside that I have been able to feel at Oakwood, Woodstock and Bonneville. These schools are wonderful but many people in the community have false negative perceptions. When the Woodstock ALC program opened many of her classmates' families were desperate to stay in the Morningside program and not move to Woodstock. I had a neighbor tell me she still had to drive her child to Morningside because that was a more difficult program to get in to and it fed in to Skyline which is a better school. People believe what they want to believe. I can tell you that I have had a wonderful experience and have cheered on these local schools and been able to influence several families to decide to stay in Woodstock and Bonneville, based on my recommendation. The opening of the ALC program at Woodstock has been very helpful as a draw to the Bonneville/Cottonwood network. But there is a huge problem when it feels like kids going to Bonneville don't get exposed to the same number of opportunities, purely because we have fewer students enrolled. I understand that higher numbers leads to being able to have more teachers and the ability to fill up a wider variety of classes. My daughter loves to dance. She dances at a studio where all of the other girls get to be on a dance team at school and take dance classes at school. All of the other Granite District jr highs have dance except Bonneville. Missing out on opportunities like these are huge draws for parents and kids. I don't care in the least that Bonneville and Cottonwood are older buildings. THAT DOESN"T MATTER AT ALL. What matters are opportunities. The experiences and memories kids are able to make in school are what matter. So instead of paying millions and millions of dollars to build new schools, let's spend money to hire more teachers. Give Bonneville a dance teacher. Give Bonneville and Cottonwood strong programs. I realize we would have to change the rules, get a special grant/permit... whatever. Let's do what is right for these kids. Programs are a HUGE deal. If we can draw kids to Bonneville they will most likely end up in Cottonwood as well. The ALC program being there is a big draw but those teachers at Bonneville need better training to be able to have a robust ALC program. Spend money on teachers and programs. Jen Johnson is awesome. She has been great in trying to get dance going, but it's really hard when she doesn't have the number of kids that the other schools do. She is working under the current set of rules that work against schools with low numbers. I love the diversity of Bonneville and Cottonwood. I would love to see more done to unite kids and families. I am very aware that there is a huge population in these schools that doesn't show up to meetings. They don't show up and email you to boss you around on their agenda. Those kids need these opportunities even more. My daughter gets to take dance after school at a private dance studio. She is lucky. Let's give programs to these kids that this is their only opportunity. Opportunities between schools should be equal, not determined by numbers, because running it that way just feeds in to spiraling the problem. A school with more programs gets more students wanting to go there, which in turn means that they get more programs. PROGRAMS. SPORTS. HIGHLY TRAINED TEACHERS. OPPORTUNITIES. Those are what draws people on the East bench to want to attend a school. Based on what I am seeing this is the only way to level out the numbers between Jr highs and High schools. Because as long as there is open enrollment, moving a boundary will do nothing. It seems silly to think anything will change just by redrawing an imaginary line. People will continue to special permit where they want. So, let's level the playing field between schools. These kids deserve to be given the best we have to offer at any Granite school they attend. | Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Many of your questions are answered in the FAQ's. | ||||||||||||||||||||
55 | Cottonwood Network | not submitted | Hello! My name is Summer Wang. I was PTA President for Spring Lane for the 2020-21 school year and currently serve as Vice President this year. I have 2 children in the Chinese dual immersion program and will have a kindergartner starting next year. The Chinese immersion program is very important to our family because my husband moved with his family from Taiwan and they all primarily speak in Mandarin with each other. Preserving the family culture and traditions is a priority for us. I feel it would be very helpful for teachers and parent volunteers if we were able to combine schools but still keep the Chinese program at one of the schools close to Bonneville Jr High School. If we lost the Chinese immersion program, we would leave the district and try to go to Ridgecrest (which we have already lost many families to this school for various reasons). My hope would be that more parents would be available to help with all the programs that the PTA provides and also help more teachers in the classroom if we were able to combine schools and keep the Chinese Immersion Program. Thank you and good luck! Summer Wang | Thank you for your feedback. No boundary proposals have been submitted at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
56 | Cottonwood Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | not submitted | No response necessary | ||||||||||||||||||||
57 | Cottonwood Network | Oakwood Elementary Woodstock Elementary Bonneville Jr. High Cottonwood High School | not submitted | No response necessary | ||||||||||||||||||||
58 | Cottonwood Network | all | not submitted | No response required | ||||||||||||||||||||
59 | Cottonwood Network | Bonneville Jr. High Cottonwood High School | Please send 1/3 of the refugee South SL population to Oly and 1/3 to Skyline. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
60 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane Elementary Bonneville Jr. High Cottonwood High School | Special program in entire great salt lake city area | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
61 | Cottonwood Network | Twin Peaks Elementary | not submitted | No response necessary | ||||||||||||||||||||
62 | Cottonwood Network | Oakwood Elementary Bonneville Jr. High | not submitted | No response necessary | ||||||||||||||||||||
63 | Skyline Network | Churchill Jr. High Skyline High School | not submitted | No response necessary | ||||||||||||||||||||
64 | Cottonwood Network | Oakwood Elementary Bonneville Jr. High Cottonwood High School | The family social gathering phenomenon of high schools | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
65 | not submitted | not submitted | What are you going to do to make Bonneville and its feeder elementaries desirable? | Please see FAQ, especially #15. | ||||||||||||||||||||
66 | Cottonwood Network | Bonneville Jr. High Cottonwood High School | Have we considered moving the IB program to Cottonwood to bring more kids to Cottonwood? | Please see FAQ, especially #8. | ||||||||||||||||||||
67 | Cottonwood Network | Oakwood Elementary Bonneville Jr. High | saying that the funding for school programs comes with the students. I know that with more students there is more funding. Right now Cottonwood High and Bonneville Junior are great schools, but they don’t have great scores and don’t have great reputations. There needs to be some serious marketing on both of these schools. A concerted effort needs to be made to improve, promote, and attract students. They won’t just come on their own. Is this something parents need to do? Or it is a school wide task? It should be a priority for the board. | Please see FAQ, especially #15. | ||||||||||||||||||||
68 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane Elementary | I think that closing Spring Lane and having them go to Oakwood and brining the DLI program there could make the program stronger and Oakwood stronger too. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
69 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | Retention rates and innovative ways to increase them. This could start at the elementary level, by providing families with students at the Cottonwood High feeder schools with a yearly stipend of a couple hundred bucks for tutoring or other student enrichment. Students could get an iPad after attending those feeder elementary schools for a certain amount of time. Etc. | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
70 | Cottonwood Network | Spring Lane Elementary Bonneville Jr. High | I understand the reasoning behind consolidating schools and am not opposed to this process, generally speaking. I am not a die-hard fan of any particular school, mascot, traditions, etc. The only thing that matters is how well the students are doing—and it makes sense that students do better in schools large enough to have the funding to support the students adequately. That said, we are just barely coming out of an extraordinary two years of disruption, disease, and death. Students who are now in 2nd, 3rd, & 4th grade have had a very rough start to their schooling. The 4th graders will be able to graduate elementary from their home schools and will be prepared for change as they move on from elementary. The younger kids may not graduate from the schools they know, love, and associate with normalcy during hard times—times harder than any adult making decisions for them had ever experienced prior to this global threat. And now we have the threat of WW3 hanging over our heads—adults may try to shield children from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but my 3rd grade daughter has a friend in her class whose grandparents and other family live in Europe and he has been vocally upset about the war in class. There will never be a perfect time to disrupt the lives of children by consolidating schools, but to consolidate schools and take away the security of students who desperately need stability right now seems like a bad idea if it is at all possible to delay a year or two. Even in non-pandemic times, school consolidations are disruptive to learning for all students—particularly those who have lost their home schools. We have already seen dramatic reductions in literacy performance in elementary students who lost effective instruction from 2020-2021. This year has been hard, too. I don’t know where the balance lies; too-small schools are also not able to be effectively supportive of student populations—but I know our school is an incredibly supportive and nurturing place. This is so important for student right now. My daughter has been suicidal over the last year and the support she gets from the school counselor and aids have been central to her being able to find her center again. My daughter has a home that helps her work through her feelings, gets her counseling, and supports her in both academic and personal growth. She lives in a two-parent, single-job, English-speaking, and educated family—she never worried about whether there will be food for dinner or which relative will have a place for her to sleep that night. Not all kids have this—and she is still very off-kilter from the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine. What about the children who have less (or no) support? I worry terribly about the effect consolidating schools after next year will have on already critically-stressed children. If it is possible to delay the enactment of the study results a year or two, I strongly urge that to be done. If there can be no delay, I hope GSD will invest serious money (i.e. PEOPLE with mental health expertise) into working with the students as the transition/s happen. There is a lot of focus out on teacher salaries (which should be higher) but what schools need is the funding to provide the ancillary services necessary for student (and teacher) success. School nurses, psychologists, social workers, and other important staff should already have full time jobs at individual schools but they often split their week between 2, 3, or many more schools a week. If schools are consolidated after the 2022-23 school year, I am very concerned that students will have a very hard time—and I want the district to be preparing for this, either by delaying the consolidation or by making sure the students are adequately supported all year long. https://ftp.iza.org/dp10195.pdf | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
71 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus Jr. High | not submitted | No response necessary | ||||||||||||||||||||
72 | Olympus Network | Evergreen Jr. High Olympus High School | When would the proposed boundaries go into affect? | Please see FAQ, especially #4. | ||||||||||||||||||||
73 | not submitted | not submitted | People are furious about the suggestion to rezone students who are currently attending Olympus. If you change it, you will invoke the ire of an extremely motivated collective of neighbors. DO NOT ALTER THE BOUNDARIES OF OLYMPUS HIGH STUDENTS. THIS IS NOT THE WILL OF THE POPULACE | No boundary proposals have been submitted at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
74 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus High School | Please analyze how this would affect Olympus Junior High | Please see FAQ, especially #2. | ||||||||||||||||||||
75 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | I want to keep my kids in Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr and Olympus high. We bought our house to send our kids to these schools. We will NOT send our kids to Bonneville or Cottonwood High | Thank you for your feedback. | ||||||||||||||||||||
76 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr. High | Many kids will be affected by this and loose close friends. The present 7th grade is also the grade that everything new and been tested on such as PBL learning, 6th grade to junior high, and now the idea of changing school boundaries. | No boundary proposals have been submitted at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
77 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | The impact moving Cottonwood Elementary School into Cottonwood Network. It would eliminate Cottonwood Elementary as well as Olympus Junior. Why? All to save Cottonwood High School. Invest in Cottonwood HS to draw more students. Re-zoning kids have proven to NOT be effective in an open enrollment state. | No boundary proposals have been submitted at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
78 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | The difficulty of students having to switch schools in the middle of their 4 years. Once the student has already started high school they should be able to stay until they graduation. To disrupt their activities, classes, sports teams | No boundary proposals have been submitted at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
79 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr. High | This is not going to help students. So many students like me have been looking forward to going to Olympus and have made good friends. Several sports and centered around the high school you will attend and you go to the middle school with kids who will be at your high school and you make friends with them. I am in 7th grade at Olympus jr high and made really good friends that I would be separated from if we had to go to different schools. Not only is my age group the kids who would have to go through this change, but we also had to go through Covid, the change of bringing 6th grade to jr high, and wearing masks at school. Do you really think anyone is going to be happy when you take them from their friends and familiar schools and put them in a whole new high school with a very different environment, that really isn’t even close to our houses? Because it will not make anyone happy, so if this is about what is best for the community, this solution is definitely not what you’re looking for. | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ's | ||||||||||||||||||||
80 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | not submitted | No response required | ||||||||||||||||||||
81 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus High School | not submitted | No response required | ||||||||||||||||||||
82 | Olympus Network | Olympus High School | Class sizes and class offerings | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ's | ||||||||||||||||||||
83 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | Funding per student at each school, analysis on the reasons students might be using enrollment and not attend boundary school, what are the projected populations that the high schools need to accommodate. | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ's | ||||||||||||||||||||
84 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | Will you share data on the number of students in each school district who are requesting variance out of their high school district? | See "Additional Data Section" on website https://www.graniteschools.org/planning/population-analysis-studies/2022-population-analysis-studies/ | ||||||||||||||||||||
85 | Olympus Network | Crestview Elementary Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | not submitted | No response necessary | ||||||||||||||||||||
86 | Olympus Network | Driggs Elementary Morningside Elementary Olympus Jr. High | Regarding high-need populations, please consider the benefit of tiny classrooms for those specific populations. It seems this provides an opportunity to create a learning environment better suited to their needs. This includes English-language learners, autism, and others. Students could receive better attention to specific needs that allow them to better integrate in their local classrooms. | See FAQs - small school concerns | ||||||||||||||||||||
87 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | why not make study why parents in cottonwood boundaries aren’t sending their kids to that school and solve the problem internally.please do not change the boundaries. we sought out our neighborhood b/c of the schools and paid dearly to live close to them! | See FAQs - #15 | ||||||||||||||||||||
88 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr. High | I think that this boundary change is stupid. You are taking kids that are really looking forward to going to Olympus high school. They have already built great friend groups and if this boundary change happens then they might lose some friends and won’t be happy. Olympus high school is close to a lot of kids but if you take us and put us at cottonwood it will be a longer drive in the morning and that might affect the tardiness of the kids. What is this doing for us? NOTHING!!! That is why this boundary change should not happen and is really stupid and pointless. | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ's | ||||||||||||||||||||
89 | Skyline Network | Morningside Elementary Churchill Jr. High Skyline High School | Which elementary schools are you looking at closing? I think projected growth for 5 years minimum should be considered. Also, what will you do with the property of any schools that you do close and would it require a rebuild of the school? | No boundary proposals have been submitted at this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||
90 | not submitted | not submitted | Have you considered moving kids from Granger High to Cottonwood High in order to help both schools' numbers? | See FAQ 18 | ||||||||||||||||||||
91 | not submitted | not submitted | Recognize that demographics do increase as older homes turn over and families move in. I saw the exact type of discussion 20 years ago in Cupertino California and schools were closed then sold. When population increased with housing turnover, there was no option to reopen schools. | See FAQ 13 | ||||||||||||||||||||
92 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | I attended the Olympus meeting on Monday night and honestly was quite embarrassed by my community and how they reacted during the meeting without being open minded to how parents from the Cottonwood High community might feel. My parents went to Olympus, I went to Olympus, and my children attend Olympus. I am not a parent that feels like that tradition needs to remain from generation to generation. In fact, I believe there isn’t enough diversity at Olympus and that is exactly what many of these families in Holladay are afraid of. They like living in a rich, safe, white community and Cottonwood High would no longer provide that for them. I’m less concerned about my high school students moving to a new school and feel it could be a refreshing opportunity for them but I understand the concerns of parents of Elementary aged students moving on to a Ute high they could no longer walk home to or hang out in a community on a Friday after school with friends. That is a valid concern. Walking home would no longer be an option. Another idea to help bring students to Cottonwood high without having to shift element Aries is find out why the current elementaries that feed into Cottonwood high are failing and 2. Evaluate seriously the possibility of moving GTI and establishing an associates degree program at Cottonwood High. This would incentivize many students to shift to Cottonwood and be safer to travel to vs the district offices on state street. | See FAQ 15 | ||||||||||||||||||||
93 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary | Please give some thought on how to improve the quality of spring lane elementary school. I have lived here for 20 years and for that duration, spring lane has always been the weak link of feeding into cottonwood high school. The area is very similar to cottonwood elementary but for years families have been transferring out of spring lane. I feel if you can improve spring lane you could boost the numbers of kids that will feed and stay at cottonwood high school. Thanks | See FAQ 15 | ||||||||||||||||||||
94 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus High School | Rebuild Spring Lane Elementary! Make it a nice new school like the new title ones schools are and it will be a big draw for families to stay and feed into Cottonwood High School. Spring Lane has always been a mess and yet it is in a very affluent neighborhood, but no one sends their kids there. Find out why. | Thank you for your feedback | ||||||||||||||||||||
95 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | That enrollment won’t improve at Cottonwood High if you take those students away from Olympus or Skyline. The parents of students at Olympus and Skyline won’t allow their children to attend Cottonwood (lower test scores, worse sports programs, etc). So the net effect of changing boundaries will NOT increase the student population at Cottonwood. Parents will transfer their children elsewhere. | See FAQ 5 & 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||
96 | Cottonwood Network | Cottonwood Elementary Cottonwood High School | I would like the committee to acknowledge what a condescending, sexist, asshole Ben Horsely is. Fire him and more people would stop permitting out of granite district | Noted | ||||||||||||||||||||
97 | Olympus Network | Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | Consider the kids who will be moving into cottonwood mall development | See FAQ #19 | ||||||||||||||||||||
98 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus High School | School performance, academics, teachers. Administrators | See FAQ #15 | ||||||||||||||||||||
99 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | I would like some consideration to be given to vastly improving Spring Lane Elementary school. For years that has been avoided and if you make it to the quality of perhaps a title one school it would be a big draw and later feed into cottonwood high | Thank you for your feedback. Please see FAQ's | ||||||||||||||||||||
100 | Olympus Network | Cottonwood Elementary Olympus Jr. High Olympus High School | The problem seems to be with the feeder schools into Cottonwood High School not the boundaries. Each high school seems to be at the right number of students so I think money and attention needs to be put to the elementary schools like Spring Lane. Update that school and make it a place that those families will want to send their kids to. | See FAQ #15 |