Families and parents are speaking up after learning that Granite School District is contemplating closing down Eastwood Elementary School. Eastwood, located on 3305 S. Wasatch Blvd. in Millcreek, has solidified itself as a community mainstay, serving thousands of students for more than 60 years. Now, its future is in jeopardy.

Incidentally, the District has been having conversations regarding Eastwood’s future since earlier in the year. However, now that school is back in session, and District population studies were conducted over the summer, these conversations are coming to a head and decisions hang in the balance. 

Despite being Utah’s largest and most populous school district, Granite has been suffering from declining enrollment, a trend which has worsened in recent years, particularly post Covid-19 pandemic. They have cited monetary issues as their biggest incentive for recent closures, many of which targeted elementary and middle schools.

In 2022, Granite School District received similar push back from parents. At the time, they were contemplating shutting down Mill Creek, Spring Lane and Twin Peaks elementary schools. The school board eventually voted to shut them down, claiming District funds could be better allocated elsewhere, and the students better served at different institutions. 

This decision led to vocal opposition from various parents who protested the closures for a handful of reasons. At the time, the aforementioned schools served relatively diverse student populations, with Twin Peaks housing a student body that was 43% Latino and Spring Lane serving a student body where 43% of students were POC.

Parents argued these schools were important to the community based on their inherent value to minority populations. At the time, April Flores, then-president of the Mill Creek Elementary PTA, gave an impassioned speech calling for reconsideration. 

“Representation matters,” Flores proclaimed. “It matters in the classrooms. And it matters at the administrative level.” 

Fast forward three years later and parents at Eastwood are presenting arguments that are also anchored in community values and importance. In an email to City Journals, Eastwood parent Alyssa Peterson argued that “Eastwood has been a cornerstone school to the eastside of Millcreek for more than 60 years. It is a Gold STEM school and every year ranks in the top 10 elementary schools in Utah based on student performance.”

Eastwood is one of several schools that are currently being evaluated for potential closures by the District. Through years of conversations and debates regarding closures, the District has consistently claimed that tight resources paired with declining enrollment have made it difficult to justify the operation of various schools. They have continually maintained that these closures, while challenging, are ultimately beneficial for the community, and most importantly, the students.

Andrea Stringham, spokesperson for Granite School District, has also said that the population studies used to help inform the District’s decisions, are often backed by many faculty and families in the areas they focus on. 

“[Members of the community] advocated to have this area studied, because they’re living it every day — of how strained their resources are and how burnt out the teachers are,” Stringham said.

Despite Stringham’s reasoning, many parents and families still see the value in Eastwood, both academically and at a community level. Moreover, many adversaries of the closure argue that Granite needs to uphold its promise, as the 2017 Bond presented by the District promised to rebuild Eastwood. 

“Closing [Eastwood] would break trust with families, disrupt hundreds of students, and erase decades of community investment,” says a Change.org petition urging signers to help stop the closure of Eastwood. As of early September, the petition had 624 verified signatures. 

The decision of whether Eastwood will stay open will be made in December, when the board puts the proposition to a vote. For now, those protesting the closure are urging community members to sign the Change.org petition, in addition to inviting community members to attend discussions, leading up to the vote.

If you are interested in attending these discussions, which will feature District representatives taking comments and questions from parents and community members, you can do so at Olympus High School on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. or at Skyline High School on Sept. 23 at 6 p.m.