The Dixon site has been demolished and a construction bid is planned to be sent out in December with groundbreaking starting early next year, the district said in a board meeting last week. 

As previously reported, some residents were upset with the district’s plans to build a new elementary school when preliminary talks about closing elementary schools were held this year. Community members are holding a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Rock Canyon Park to discuss opposition to building the new school, citing irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars, among other concerns. 

Following the publication of an initial story on the issue, the Daily Herald spoke with a district official, who addressed why the district intends to construct a new building. 

The district is projecting the new elementary school to cost $38 million. PCSD communications director Caleb Price said a small portion of a $70 million bond issued by the district’s Municipal Building Authority in 2025 to pay for the final construction phase at Timpview High School also went to start the process for a new school on the district site.

However, the district will pay for the majority of the project without bonding. 

The district is launching a process to work with a real estate broker to identify any district-owned properties that could be sold and use those funds for the new school, according to Price. He said PCSD will also pull from its building reserve fund, and funding from the capital fund balance may also be used.  

“The issue with the topic of boundaries was brought up earlier this year and led to a lot of conversation in the community,” Price said. “This is more of a discussion about what to use the Dixon site for in a way that would benefit the most students for the longest period of time.” 

Price said after Shoreline Middle School opened and replaced Dixon Middle School in 2024, the district worked with the community to determine the best use of the site. They landed on moving Timpanogos Elementary to the facility, and repurposing the existing Timpanogos building for other district needs. 

The 18-year-old Timpanogos Elementary building is too small, both for its school enrollment and the needs for an elementary school according to Price. The school’s enrollment was 633 students in the 2024-25 school year, the second-highest in the district. Price added that the location on 500 West is not ideal. 

“Multiple times, school staff have caught kids right before they get to the road as they’re running,” he said. “There’s a bus stop right there that sometimes brings unwanted activity closer to the school than is ideal.”

The district believes a new school on the Dixon site, on 750 W. and 200 North, will solve those issues, while opening up the Timpanogos building to consolidate other district programs that are currently spread across the city. 

Lift Academy, a life skills program for young adults with special needs, is leased  in an East Bay office, and a CAPS program is being leased in the NuSkin building. Both could be moved to the Timpanogos building, along with other STEM programs or CTE departments, Price said. 

“I know one of the things that gets brought up a lot in the community is the district office,” he said. “At one point, that was on the list of possibilities. That’s not something actively being discussed. The board is talking about (using) the Timpanogos building for those other programs that are housed across Provo and multiple different spots.”

Since the Dixon site conversation started, the district also examined redesigning boundaries and potential school consolidations due to declining enrollment, though those plans were paused as the board steers its focus to examining the dual language immersion programs. Price said the Dixon site conversation and the boundary discussion are two separate issues, and that boundary adjustments are not guaranteed to fix enrollment numbers because parents have school choice. 

Timpanogos Elementary is in a “unique” part of the city that has a lot of students nearby and also has a DLI program that brings students in from outside its boundaries, Price said. 

“The DLI program and then the Timpanogos Elementary Dixon site process are kind of the focus right now, and seeing if there’s other things we can do to address some of the enrollment issues that we’re seeing,” Price said.