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Show Birthrate, Except Utah, Down "middle school" program to deal with its difficulties. Next year, the district's high schools will have students in grades 9-12. The middle schools will offer grades 6-8. That will open some classrooms in the elementary schools, which need them desDeratelv. Other districts that are losing enrollment have closed some of their schools. Human nature dictates that people don't like change. It can be inconvenient. So there has been some com' plaining when school districts make adjustments in the face of population shifts in Utah. So if you happen to be happy hap-py or indifferent about the situation, be assured that others are warpath-angry. Pleasing everybody in these circumstances is far from possible. by Daryl J. McCarty In some parts of the nation the stork is enjoying a lighter workload in the performance of its folklore chore-delivering chore-delivering babies. Nationally, the birthrate is going down. But that's not true for Utah. State statisticians recently announced announ-ced that Utah's birthrate nearly doubled the national rate. Utah is gaining population in another way, too. People are moving here. As an energy-producing state, we can expect more citizens from other states. Growth brings pain, and it has a lot of school officials reaching for the aspirin bottle. bot-tle. Back in 1970, Utah had 304,002 student in the public school system. The census right now is about 314,400. By 1980, Utah's public school population is expected to reach 328,000. Trouble is, the population growth isn't uniform throughout the state. Some school districts, such as Jordan, Jor-dan, experience explosive increase in-crease in enrollment. Others may experience declines. In fast-growing areas, schools are running at capacity. In some, there's a shortage of classrooms. Jordan District adopted the |
