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Brittani Lusk
Another Provo Elementary School crumbled to the dust on Monday.
"It just seems weird. I just figured it was one of the things that will always be there," said Tracy Nyland, 43, of West Jordan, who attended Grandview Elementary School in the 1970s.
Crews began tearing down Grandview Elementary School in northwest Provo on Monday afternoon. The school has been set for demolition for several months -- the fifth school Provo School District has torn down or sold since the mid-1990s.
Many districts, such as Alpine and Nebo to the north and south, are building schools only one step ahead of burgeoning population growth. In Provo, a city district with only a slightly-growing projected enrollment of about 13,000 students, the district is building new schools in response to a changing population and aging facilities.
A combination of population shift and age led to the of demise of Grandview. Provo School District Superintendent Randy Merrill said the situation boiled down to numbers and geography. Students from the Lakeview Neighborhood had been bused to Westridge Elementary a number of blocks from Grandview, students west of the freeway needed a neighborhood school and Grandview was the oldest building the district had.
"It just made sense to build a new school down there where the children were and have Westridge serve the whole Grandview hill," Merrill said.
Even then there is plenty of room for students.
"We just don't need 14 schools. Even with 13 schools we have plenty of capacity," Merrill said.
Portions of Grandview will be saved for district use, including office space and a new gifted and talented program.
The population shift that led Provo School District to close Joaquin Elementary School in 2004 was more dramatic. Phil Lott, Provo's director of transportation and facilities, said 70 percent of students had to be bused to the neighborhood south of Brigham Young University from other areas of the city. What had once been houses full of young families had transformed to a hotbed of student residences and few children.
"We just really ran out of students," Lott said.
Other schools have been closed because they were so old it was cheaper to build an entire new building than keep up with changing code, seismic requirements and building repairs.
Merrill said buildings have a ratio of repair costs to replacement costs. When the ratio gets high enough, the district considers replacing the building.
Part of the problem isn't just age, it is a lack of upkeep -- something Merrill intends to reverse. Previous district budgets had under-allocated funds to building upkeep and repair. The district's upcoming budget includes more than $2 million for capital improvements and $500,000 for seismic upgrades on existing buildings.
The neighborhood around Timpanogos Elementary had a sustainable population, but a decrepit building. The school district tore down Timpanogos Elementary last year and is rebuilding a new facility on the same land on 500 North in Provo.
Lott said the original building, built in 1938, was patterned after Joaquin Elementary, which was built by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Given its history, the building had a few quirks.
"It was an old building. It had some problems that old buildings encounter. It was safe enough for the students, but we were always concerned about some aspects of it," said Timpanogos Principal Diane Bridge.
She said the building's old heating and cooling system could be finicky. Portions of the building would be boiling hot, while others were freezing. There was a lack of parking, and the new building will have more playground space for the children.
• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at
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Say goodbye
Provo schools that have been torn down or sold in the last two decades:
• During the mid-1990s, Franklin Elementary School was torn down and rebuilt on the same land.
• In 2002 the school district closed the century-old Maeser Elementary. The building was sold to the city in 2004.
• Joaquin Elementary School south of Brigham Young University was closed in 2004 due to a shift in population. The school was torn down in 2006.
• In June of 2007, the district tore down the Timpanogos Elementary School building that had been built in 1938. Students from the school attended the Oakridge facility near BYU. A new Timpanogos Elementary School is being built in the same spot and should be completed in the fall. Students are expected to move back in October.
• Grandview Elementary School is being torn down now. The School Board voted to close the school after building Lakeview Elementary School in west Provo. Students from the Lakeview neighborhood had been bused to Westridge Elementary School, which is only blocks from Grandview along the same street. Provo Superintendent Randy Merrill said the school district did not need an extra school, and chose to demolish Grandview because it was older and in more disrepair than Westridge. |
