Tooele County voters will get to decide this fall if they want to pay higher taxes to alleviate overcrowded and aged schools.
The Tooele County School Board voted unanimously to place a $49 million bond for school capital projects on the November ballot.
“It is important that we do what is right for kids,” said Maresa Manzione, Tooele County School Board president. “We need a school in Stansbury and this is good time to do that. With debt dropping off, we can finance a new building with little to no tax increase.”
The bond will also allow the district to address several other capital needs throughout the district, Manzione said.
Although the tax rate will stay the same, the annual property tax bill for the average $170,000 residence is expected to go up by $18.19. The property tax on the same value of business property will go up $33.07 per year, according to Lark Reynolds, Tooele County School District business administrator.
If passed the new bonds will fund a new elementary school in the Benson Gristmill area of Stansbury Park on property the district already owns, the replacement of East and Harris Elementary schools with one new building, increased capacity for Tooele Junior High School, the purchase of property for a new junior high in the Stansbury Park area and a new high school in the Overlake area.
The bond will also include miscellaneous capital improvements for Tooele High School, Grantsville High School and Grantsville Junior High.
The elementary schools in Stansbury Park have been overcrowded since 2007 when enrollment at Rose Springs Elementary reached 782 in a building designed for 650.
A boundary adjustment between Rose Springs and Stansbury Park elementary schools balanced enrollment for a while and alleviated overcrowding.
However, Stansbury Park continued to grow.
Rose Springs and Stansbury Park Elementary schools had a combined enrollment of 1,665 students in the fall of 2014. That’s 240 more students than the ideal capacity for the schools, and more students are expected in the fall of 2015.
In an effort to accommodate growth in Stansbury Park, the school board adopted a boundary change for 2015 that will send students from the Benson Gristmill and the Delagada areas of Stansbury Park to Copper Canyon Elementary in Tooele City.
Parents of students to be bused out of Stansbury Park were not happy with the district’s plan.
At a public hearing they expressed concerns about the extra time their children will be on a bus, and the separation of their children from the community where they live.
“This is dividing a great community,” Brenda Spearman, a parent who lives in the Benson Gristmill area told school board members during the public hearing.
The combining of Harris and East Elementary schools would result in a cost saving to the district in lower administrative and utility costs while providing students with a new state-of-the-art building, according to Rogers.
Harris was built in 1953 with additions in 1962, 1978, 1991 and 1997. It had an enrollment of 380 students in Sept. 2014.
East Elementary was built in 1967 and had an addition in 1997. Its enrollment was 447 in September 2014.
If the bond is approved, the district and its project architect will evaluate the two sites to see which one would be most suitable for the new school.
Students will be moved into one of the two schools while the new school is being built. After the new school is opened, the other property will be put up for sale, Rogers said.
The bond will be included with the fall ballot for municipalities and service districts. Areas without a fall election, including unincorporated parts of the county, will have a special election at the same time as the 2015 municipal elections for the bond issue.
If voters approve the bond in November, the goal is to have the new schools ready for occupancy by August 2017, according to Rogers.
The last general obligation bond election for new schools in Tooele County was in June 2006. It was for $58 million and built Stansbury High School and Settlement Canyon Elementary. Voters approved the bond by 72 percent.