Roy, Weber, Fremont high schools to lose students to fill West Field HS
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- This photo from September 2022 shows West Field High School, taking shape in the Taylor area. It’s one of three schools the Weber School District is building in western Weber County to keep pace with growth.
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- This photo from September 2022 shows Mountain View Junior High School, taking shape in West Haven. It’s one of three schools the Weber School District is building in western Weber County to keep pace with growth.
WASHINGTON TERRACE — Roy, Weber and Fremont high schools will ultimately see their boundaries shifted and pared back, resulting in the removal of perhaps 300 to 600 students from each to fill West Field High School, the new school taking shape in western Weber County.
That’s been the plan all along, to ease crowding at the high schools and accommodate Weber School District population growth, notably in the western part of Weber County. Now, though, the process is edging forward.
At its meeting last week, the Weber School Board formally approved launch of a study into new boundaries and creation of teams to help in the process. “Adjustments may affect the elementary, junior high and senior high levels simultaneously,” said Brock Mitchell, director of secondary education for the district.
Indeed, in addition to a new high school in the Taylor area, the district is building new junior high and elementary schools in West Haven, also to keep pace with increasing numbers of students. Thus, boundaries of perhaps 20 schools in all from the elementary level on up may be shifted and impacted by efforts to fit the three new schools into the system — some more than others.
The school redistricting “will be pretty major, probably the biggest one since we built and opened Fremont (High School) 30 years ago,” said Lane Findlay, the Weber School District spokesperson. Redrawing of the high school boundaries will be most significant since they cover larger areas than junior high or elementary schools.
The three new schools, funded by a $279 million bond issue approved by voters in 2021, are to be done in time for the 2024-2025 school year. That’s when they’re to open and when new boundaries — after they’re determined — would go into effect.
Findlay said the new boundaries for Roy, Fremont and Weber high schools would likely be pared back to reduce enrollment at each to around 1,500 to create a pool of around 1,500 students for West Field High School. Fremont High School had an official fall enrollment of 2,158, according to Utah State Board of Education figures, while the numbers were 2,038 for Weber High School and 1,832 for Roy High School.
Areas that now feed into Roy and Fremont high schools would likely be shifted to West Field High School boundaries, Findlay suspects. At the same time, Fremont High School’s boundaries could edge into areas that now feed into Weber High School as part of the shifting.
Bonneville High School in Washington Terrace is further away from West Field High School and neither it nor its feeder schools will likely be impacted by drawing of new boundaries, according to Findlay. Bonneville High School had a fall enrollment of 1,367, according to state numbers.
Teams involving school administrators, teachers, parents, parent-teacher association members and others are to be involved in the boundary redrawing process, according to Findlay. They’ll probably have their first meeting in December, with the process to tentatively end in October 2023 with approval of new boundaries by the school board.
Redrawing of boundaries can be a delicate issue given allegiances some people have to particular schools. High school seniors whose homes are shifted from the boundaries of one high school to another would likely have the option of finishing at their original school, Findlay thinks.
Construction of West Field High School and the new junior high school, called Mountain View Junior High, is well underway. Groundbreaking on the new elementary school is expected in December or January.