Ogden school leaders mull boundary changes, Hillcrest Elementary’s future
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- The exterior of Hillcrest Elementary in Ogden, photographed Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. School district officials are mulling the future of some of Ogden’s older facilities, including Hillcrest, Bonneville and James Madison elementary schools.
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- The exterior of Bonneville Elementary in Ogden, photographed Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. School district officials are mulling the future of some of Ogden’s older facilities, including Hillcrest, Bonneville and James Madison elementary schools.
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- The exterior of James Madison Elementary in Ogden, photographed Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. School district officials are mulling the future of some of Ogden’s older facilities, including Hillcrest, Bonneville and James Madison elementary schools.
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- The exterior of Hillcrest Elementary in Ogden, photographed Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. School district officials are mulling the future of some of Ogden’s older facilities, including Hillcrest, Bonneville and James Madison elementary schools.
OGDEN — Ogden school officials are weighing the possibility of taking another look at the district’s school boundaries with an eye to redrawing them for the 2023-2024 school year, repeating a process completed last spring.
The possibility of closing schools is also on the table as the number of kids in the district shrinks, while officials also broached the notion of rebuilding Hillcrest Elementary in northern Ogden, continuing a trend of dramatic change in the school system. Taylor Canyon Elementary closed after the 2021-2022 school year and Gramercy Elementary closed after the 2018-2019 school year while three rebuilt schools have opened their doors — East Ridge Elementary in 2021 and Liberty and Polk elementary schools last month.
Zane Woostenhulme, the business administrator for the district, recommends that district leaders hire Davis Demographics to handle demographic and/or boundary studies over the next three years to help school officials as they chart the district’s future. Officials discussed the issue at Thursday’s Ogden school board meeting but took no formal action.
“We’re making the assumption that everything’s on the table,” Woostenhulme said, alluding to possible action within the next six months on whether to rebuild Hillcrest and boundary changes approved last year that largely affected schools in more central portions of Ogden. “It’s possible that we’d be looking at a number of schools, not just the few that were involved in the city center stuff.”
Jer Bates, the district spokesperson, said the talk of taking another look at school boundaries stems from the closure of Taylor Canyon and reopening of Polk and Liberty, which replaces T.O. Smith Elementary. “We wanted to allow a ‘settling’ period to give families time to adjust to those changes before considering additional possible changes,” Bates said.
The changes approved last spring and put into effect for the 2022-2023 school year shifted the boundaries for New Bridge, Polk, Wasatch, Shadow Valley and Liberty elementary schools.
An announcement last week to parents on the possibility of boundary changes states that “the possibility of closing some aging elementary schools” is also up for discussion. That’s presumably in reaction to findings from a prior Davis Demographic study that enrollment in Ogden schools will dip by nearly 16% over the next 10 years due to declining birth rates.
“Only older elementary school buildings that have not undergone significant renovations would be considered for potential renovation, consolidation or replacement in the near future,” Bates said in a subsequent message to the Standard-Examiner. The three elementary schools he singled out for such attention — potentially — are Bonneville, built in 1965; Hillcrest, built in 1958; and James Madison, built in 1941 with an addition built in 1992.
At the same time, though, officials at Thursday’s meeting also alluded to the possibility of revamping or rebuilding Hillcrest. “I think we landed, if we’re going to do another school, we’re going to replace Hillcrest and we’ll do it onsite,” Woolstenhulme said. “We’ll close the school while we build it and we’ll just build it where it is.”
Bates emphasized that no decisions have been made on whether to close or revamp any schools, but also noted that Bonneville, Hillcrest and James Madison are the only Ogden elementary schools that haven’t been replaced or upgraded in recent years. “Options could include potential renovation, replacement, consolidation or a combination of these measures. We may be seeking community input regarding these locations during the current school year to inform decisions regarding any potential decisions,” Bates said.
As the district morphs, meanwhile, school officials also discussed the possibility of selling some of the district-owned properties, now moribund, that once housed bustling schools. The focus of discussion was on what to do with land that housed Grandview and Lynn schools, now demolished, as well as the Taylor Canyon property on Ogden’s East Bench.
A private developer has expressed interest in acquiring all three properties, Woostenhulme said, while the City of Ogden has indicated interest in the ex-Lynn Elementary property at 605 Grant Ave., just east of the city-owned 4th Street Ball Park.
The school district also owns vacant property at the southeast corner of 925 East and 1050 North, once home to Edison Elementary, now demolished, and in the 500 block of Jackson Avenue. Both parcels are in northern Ogden.