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Show giS DOGGdOFlGS 8HH By GARt R. BLODGETT Davis School District's proposal to change its boundaries boun-daries between Bountiful and Viewmont high schools has met with bitter opposition among students and parents within the new boundary. MORE THAN 200 parents crowded into Bountiful Junior High's auditorium to hear the proposed realignment realign-ment as presented by Assistant Superintendent Gayle Stevenson. Throughout the halls junior high school students picketed against the boundary change. The parents heard the proposal but didn't agree with it. They wanted no part of a boundary change that would transfer 67 students now attending Bountiful Junior High ; I to Viewmont High instead of them going to Bountiful High as is the present policy. "I DON'T want to go to Viewmont. I have always dreamed of attending Bountiful High just like my brothers and sisters," said one tearful student. "For years I have dreamed of the day I could be a Bountiful High student. But now that dream is shattered because the school district wants to change the boundary." boun-dary." THE PARENTS seemed most upset about the proposed change because they said, "It doesn't make any sense, ft doesn't make any sense to uproot these families just to provide a more equal balance in the schools' enroll-. ments. If they need more students at Viewmont, let them bus them in from the outlying areas instead of taking j them from the heart of Bountiful City - within a few blocks of Bountiful High." This was echoed by several other parents who told Mr. . Stevenson and three members of the Board of Education attending the meeting that many of the students being transferred to Viewmont actually live within a few blocks of Bountiful High but with the boundary change will have j to walk or be car-pooled up to two miles to attend View- I mont. "THIS IS ridiculous, absolutely insane," screamed one j irate parent. Her remarks were met with a standing applause. But Superintendent Stevenson who spent six months preparing the draft of the proposed boundary change insists the change is necessary and is "not as insane as these people think." "WE (school district) need, this change to allow more students to attend Viewmont so that the school will not drop excessively low in attendance in the next few years." He noted that Viewmont presently has an enrollment of 1,617, nearly 200 more than Bountiful, but that the school's graduation this spring will drop the enrollment for next year to about 1,360. Bountiful 's projected enrollment for next year is 1,375. ALSO, SAID Mr. Stevenson, Woods Cross will become a senior-year school next year and Viewmont will lose a vast number of students who previously would be transferred trans-ferred from Woods Cross to Viewmont as seniors. "If we don't make the boundary changes now, and begin picking up sophomore students from the junior high schools, the enrollment at Viewmont would drop to below 1,200 students within just a few years," said Mr. Stevenson. HE EXPLAINED that with an enrollment that low, it would not only mean a waste of classroom space at the school (Viewmont) but it would also reduce the school's educational program because of insufficient enrollment of some classes and would drop the school's competitive athletic program from Class 4-A to Class 3-A. "We are not making these boundary changes just to be making changes. We're not that stupid," said Mr. Stevenson. "We have reviewed at least a half dozen other proposals, but this one seems to fit the need best with as little uprooting of families as possible." THE PROPOSED boundary change will move the boundaries for students attending Viewmont High from 400 North to 300 South and from 200 West to 800 East. If approved by the Board of Education at its Jan. 3 meeting, the boundary change would become effective with the ninth grade students next school year. j ALSO, THE junior high boundary line between 1 Millcreek and South Davis is proposed to be moved from 1500 South to 2200 South and from 400 East to 200 West. J Students within this proposed boundary would attend Millcreek all three years rather than to attend South Davis for seventh and eighth grades and then Millcreek for the ninth grade. SOUTH DAVIS presently does not have a ninth grade class but would again have a ninth grade when Woods Cross becomes a senior-class high school next year. Ninth graders presently attending Woods Cross will in the future be ninth graders at South Davis, it was explained. Boundary changes for Woods Cross with its tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades will not change. |