Copyright Salt Lake Tribune
In the frenzy of name tags and new faces on their first day of kindergarten at Eastwood Elementary four years ago, two little girls found each other and became inseparable. Now in third grade, 8-year-olds Ellie Ballantyne and Scarlett Mangone beg their parents for sleepovers, enjoy regular playdates and walk to class together. Their friendship is one of many formed at Eastwood, parents say. Nestled in the Millcreek foothills, its current boundary is one of the largest in the Granite School District, stretching from the mouth of Millcreek Canyon up into Emigration Canyon. But a proposal to close the beloved school has sparked mistrust and skepticism among parents, who question if there’s a hidden agenda behind the recommendation. “It makes no sense for Eastwood to be the one that’s getting closed,” said Jenifer Tomchak, whose son attends Eastwood. “So, it makes you wonder, what is it that they’re actually looking at?” Eastwood is one of two elementary schools that Granite is studying for potential closure next year. The other, Morningside Elementary, wouldn’t shut down completely but instead host a solely K-5 French dual language immersion program. District officials have cited Eastwood’s declining enrollment and low “utilization” (how full a school building is) to explain why the school is at risk of shuttering. Superintendent Ben Horsley reiterated that those factors alone are fueling the proposal. “It’s not [families’] fault that the birth rate overall has declined and that families don’t have four to five kids anymore,” Horsley said. “It’s not their fault that we don’t have enough young families that can afford homes in that area. … But it also puts the district in a sticky situation.” According to realtor.com, the median home listing price in Millcreek is $625,000. It’s more than double that in Emigration Canyon, at $1.7 million. Still, students and parents argue the numbers aren’t adding up. They compiled their own “community study” in response to the population study the district cited when it recommended closing Eastwood. And they launched a campaign to save it, called “SOS Eastwood” — complete with a website and petition that’s amassed more than 1,600 signatures. Whether or not the school actually closes is up to the district’s board of education, which is planning a December vote. If it happens, there is no legal pathway for parents to reverse the decision, so long as the district follows Utah law. A call for recusal Feeling shut out of a process they don’t fully trust, Eastwood parents said they began looking for answers on their own. “The only way that this decision makes logical sense is if there are ulterior motives at play that they’re not disclosing to us, because we have very strong arguments,” said Eastwood parent Sarah Harman. Their search led to Granite School Board Member Julie Jackson and her family’s property management company, Beckstrand & Associates. Jackson represents schools in “Precinct 1” within “Area 5” of the district, which includes both Eastwood and Morningside. Eastwood’s prime location and Jackson’s family business drew questions from parents about a potential conflict of interest. “I’m concerned about the disposition of the land for purposes not oriented towards teaching children,” said Christopher Jennings, whose two children attend Eastwood. “I think that would be inappropriate.” Jennings added that he believes the district is looking at closing the school “in the name of real estate.” “That piece of property is clearly valuable,” Jennings said. The group raised the issue in an email to Board President Nicole McDermott on Sept. 17, requesting that Jackson recuse herself from the final vote. The email was sent by Eastwood parent Nastasya Mangone on behalf of several others. “For the sake of fairness, transparency, and community trust, I respectfully request that Board Member Jackson recuse herself from any votes, discussions, or decisions,” Mangone wrote. “Her relationship with and board seat on a real estate development company and lack of public disclosure indicates that she has an actual conflict of interest.” McDermott responded three days later saying that she found “no evidence” of a conflict of interest that would require Jackson to recuse herself under Utah law. “Recusal is typically warranted only when a board member stands to gain personally from a decision,” McDermott said. “There is no evidence that Board Member Jackson or her family would gain any personal advantage by participating in this process.” District officials agreed with McDermott’s conclusion in a separate statement to The Tribune. “These allegations were reviewed by legal counsel and there is no evidence to suggest that any wrongdoing has occurred or conflict of interest exists,” officials said. “A conflict of interest could only exist if the property was for sale and a board member belonged or directed an organization that was looking to purchase that property. Neither of those conditions exist.” District officials added they are “not interested” in selling the property, “Our Board of Education has no intention of selling the property and we have not sold previously closed school properties as that limits our ability to rebuild and remodel other locations,” the statement said. “We have and continue to work with local municipalities to preserve the open space and future use for the district.” An alternative study Granite’s population study took seven months and focused on the district’s 10 easternmost elementary schools, looking at declining enrollment and changing demographics. All sit within “Area 5” of the district’s current boundaries — neighborhoods roughly beyond 1300 East. The study was led by the district’s Population Analysis Committee (PAC), which conducts annual school-boundary reviews. PAC based its closure recommendations, in part, on a student population forecast prepared by MGT, a Florida-based consulting firm. It projects that Granite School District’s K–5 enrollment will decline 2.6% next school year and 13.7% over the next five years, largely due to falling birth rates. Eastwood alone is projected to experience 24.1% decline in enrollment in the next five years, according to the report. Officials have also pointed to the school’s low utilization. Ideally, schools operate at 80%–90% capacity, leaving room for potential enrollment growth and program expansion. Eastwood, however, sits at just 54% utilization, with roughly 270 students enrolled out of a possible 500. Parents have pushed back, arguing in their self-conducted community study that the district’s enrollment projections “have not been transparent.” They also note that the district may be overlooking key strengths of the school, such as its status as a Gold STEM school, one of few in the state. The Gold STEM designation, awarded by the Utah STEM Action Center, recognizes schools with strong STEM programs and robust teacher support. Created by lawmakers in 2013, the center aims to expand K–12 STEM opportunities across the state, according to its website. If Eastwood shutters, its students would be reboundaried to Oakridge Elementary, which is about two miles south. The two schools perform at similar academic levels, though performance varies year to year, with Oakridge slightly outperforming Eastwood across all subjects in the 2023–24 school year, according to proficiency data on the Utah State Board of Education’s website. Instead of closing Eastwood, parents made their own recommendations in their community study. They include merging Oakridge and Morningside, using Eastwood’s Gold STEM designation to create a magnet program hosted at the school and stopping to “re-evaluate” the situation. “A very straightforward alternative is to vote ‘no’ to any closure decision for at least a year and reconvene a truly representative committee (with Board and community oversight) to gather accurate data and consider all options,” the community study states. District officials maintain they have openly provided data and remained transparent throughout the entire process. Parents rebuff that assertion, pointing to a 2017 Granite School District bond some now consider a “bait and switch.” That$238 million bond aimed to rebuild and update several aging schools as part of a 40-year strategic plan, district officials said, including major projects like the reconstruction of Cyprus and Skyline high schools. But other renovations and rebuilds pointed to in the plan need to come from the district’s ongoing capital funds. That includes Eastwood, which was slated for a rebuild starting next year. Now, some parents feel misled. “They got us to vote for it by saying that Eastwood would be rebuilt,” Tomchak said. District officials said Eastwood will remain on the rebuild list for now, and should it close, “only a future board can make any adjustment to this list of projects.” “The district has the most lengthy and transparent process and policy in the state and will continue to go above and beyond what is required by law in terms of community engagement,” officials said in a statement. “We have and will continue to hold meetings with individual groups and larger school communities to understand concerns and address questions related to the current proposal.” ‘They will lose us forever’ For Ellie and Scarlett, closing Eastwood would mean they would spend less time together. “If Eastwood shuts down, me and my friend will be separated,“ Scarlett said, wrapping her arms around Ellie and pulling her in for a hug. “Me and Ellie won’t be able to walk [to] the same place, or even be able to say ‘goodbye’ to each other at the end of the day.” That’s because their parents are still weighing whether the two will end up attending the same school. “I feel really sad,” Ellie added, returning her friend’s squeeze. Some parents, for instance, are looking at campuses outside of the Granite School District. “My daughter will go to Indian Hills,” said Tomchak. That elementary school is in the Salt Lake City School District. “I hate that, because I would love for my daughter to go to the same school that my sons went to. … We will stay in Salt Lake District, and they will lose us forever.”
