By Julie Slama | [email protected]

This time next year, about 100 Midvale elementary students will be attending a different school.

With the recent study and patron input on boundary changes, the decision to revamp school lines was made by Canyons Board of Education.

The option that was adopted has Midvale Elementary serving students to its north along Jordan River Boulevard to Main Street, then south of the railroad tracks to I-15, then east of the tracks along 7500 South to State Street. Its southern border west of the tracks would be 9000 South and east of the tracks, Wasatch Street.

This would make a clear boundary for Copperview Elementary, with its northern border being Wasatch Street and southern at 9000 South. Students who live from I-15 east to State Street would attend the school.

Midvalley’s students will be those who live to the southeast of Fort Union Boulevard and State Street within the city limits and East Midvale will serve students north of Midvale and Midvalley’s northern boundaries.

The need to change boundaries was decided in anticipation of increased student enrollment in Midvale, and to better distribute students amongst the four elementaries, especially now that Midvale and Midvalley elementaries have been rebuilt into larger school buildings, Canyons Board of Education member Mont Millerberg said.

The Board agreed upon the third option that it examined.

“We met with all four (elementary) schools, and I thought it was really interesting that in all four schools, somebody at each school made the comment that in fairness to all four schools, option three is the best choice,” he said. “They looked at it and figured out what would work best for their individual school, then discounted it for what was the best for all four schools.”

The procedure included four open houses last spring where they presented the information to parents and community members and took feedback both there and online. Some of the meetings were rescheduled when a surge in the Omicron variant of COVID-19 hit.

Canyons Superintendent Rick Robins realizes boundary changes can be difficult.

“Boundaries seem to always be a challenge,” he said. “Usually, some people will be unhappy with whatever the decision is, but I am very grateful to the entire Midvale community for being part of the process. We've had multiple community engagement nights in the sharing of the proposed boundary changes and our community knows that we have lots of great schools and great teachers in every single school who are providing kids with the best education possible.”

Board Vice President Steve Wrigley was pleased with the patrons’ insight given to the Board.

“We’ve come to a good compromise,” he said. “That was the easiest boundary adjustments I've ever heard of; we just met with everybody, and they pretty much said the same thing, that this was best, and they were OK with it. We really go out of the way to work with the parents, and I think that makes a big difference in a lot of the stuff we do.”

Millerberg agreed.

“This was the smoothest boundary change that I could have ever imagined because people looked at what was best for the students, not just for themselves,” Millerberg said. “From the outset, I looked at option three and thought that best balance is what we need to have happen. Option three, took some population away from Copperview, which is one of our most diverse schools, and it moved that group into Midvalley, which is one of our newer, larger schools and could handle more students. It balances students between Midvale and East Midvale and addresses the students at the Road Home Shelter. Between all the schools, there was some give and take. When we made that decision, we're trying to balance population. I just thought it was a great exercise of community involvement and consensus building.”

There will be some impact to both Midvale Middle and Union Middle in Sandy, he said.

“The neighborhoods east of State Street that now goes to Midvalley will feed into Union, which makes more sense because it’s a walking school and Midvale is a busing school,” Millerberg said.

Hillcrest High’s boundaries will remain unchanged, he added.

This is the first Midvale boundary change since Canyons School District’s inception in 2009, he said, and with one of the larger housing developments, Jordan Bluffs, being built west of I-15, Millerberg said the District anticipates an upward estimate of 125-150 students within the next five years.

“It’s so hard to tell. We used to look at demographics that don’t necessarily play out anymore. We’re involving families that may not have even lived here 20 years ago,” he said. “It could have gotten really difficult to tell people they should walk to school past a brand new elementary school to attend an older elementary school that’s further away from them. That wouldn’t have played well, so I’m glad our patrons approached this objectively and what is best for the Midvale community.”