Boundary Battle of 2007 - Recap

The www.betterboundaries.org website was taken down several years ago, so here is a recap for everyone new to SunCrest.

In 2007, when the legislature was in the process of formulating the provisions for the Jordan School District split, the statute grouped the entities in each district by municipality, or cities. Therefore, the boundary lines for Canyons School District, per the boundaries of Draper City, should have crossed the county border and gone all the way down, ironically, to within a few hundred yards of Ridgeline Elementary School in Alpine School District.

Problem #1: The north side of the mountain is too steep for buses.

Problem #2: When the first residents moved to SunCrest, before the south side road was built, the closest elementary on the north side, Oak Hollow, was overcrowded. So, the boundary schools for SunCrest kiddos in Jordan District at the time, were Sunrise Elementary, Mt. Jordan Middle School and Jordan High School, all in Sandy.

Problem #1 + Problem #2 = Parents had to drive their kids down to the police substation to catch a bus to drive a very long way to get to school.

Ridgeline Elementary opened in 2007 and accepted UT County SunCrest kids no problem. But, kids from SL County SunCrest were on annually reviewable transfer permits, which meant the district had the ability to not accept the students if the school became overcrowded. Same with Timberline MS and Lone Peak HS. Students were being flipped to either side of the mountain annually, especially the high school students, based on the number of students attending their school that year. There was little to no stability.

The public would be voting on the split in November 2007, the legislature would be firming things up during the session in spring of 2008, and until then, we had no idea what would be happening to our kids and where they would be going to school. Quite a few people put their houses on the market as a result.

April 2007
Received flyers informing us of the change
Organized and formed BetterBoundaries.org
Researched and asked lots of questions

May 2007
Met with Draper city (whose hands were tied)
Met with Alpine and Jordan District officials (whose hands were also tied)
Rallied the community

Met with Sen. Carlene Walker, who thought we had a viable issue


June 2007
Met with Rep. John Dougall (on his 16th anniversary - and it got pretty rowdy up here that night!) and Rep. Greg Hughes who thought a special session of the legislature might fix the issue but were doubtful that would happen

July 2007
Testified to the joint education committee on interim day at the legislature about the unintended consequences of the split affecting thousands of family (build-out for SunCrest at that point was 3500 homes)

August 2007
Miraculously, there was a special session of the legislature!
An amendment was proposed to the boundary/split legislation stopping the boundary at the county line, making the families in Utah County SunCrest, Alpine District constituents.

In 2008, Rep. Hughes took care of the Salt Lake SunCrest residents by amending an open enrollment provision to indicate that if bus service in the boundary district was not available, but was available from a non-boundary district, those students were to be counted in the district that could provide transportation.

So, essentially, as a result of the entire community pitching in, SL residents can now choose either district, and UT County is in Alpine School District instead of Canyons District.

Here are some fun news articles from the archives, if you really want to know more.

SL Tribune June 1, 2007

Des News June 27, 2007

And after feeling like Draper City was not very willing to hear our concerns, Paul Tonks ran for City Council in 2007. He made it through the field of 13 in the primary election, but obviously did not win. However, he was able to gain some influence and forge relationships with the city, which now serves SunCrest well. The mayor and city council respect him and consider his input on SunCrest matters...which was the whole point of running for the council seat in the first place.

Des News March 29, 2008