PAC recommends merging Eastwood with Oak Ridge; staff detail bus, capacity and program impacts

The Granite School District Population Analysis Committee (PAC) presented a recommendation to the board’s study session to close Eastwood Elementary as a boundaried traditional school and merge its traditional student body into Oak Ridge Elementary while continuing to host programmatic offerings.

Steve Hogan, the district’s director of planning and boundaries, summarized PAC’s rationale: merging the two campuses would preserve program culture and cohorts while increasing the number of full‑time equivalent (FTE) positions available at the combined site and improving flexibility for class assignments. Hogan said PAC’s current recommendation is a single‑school merger — rather than parceling students among multiple campuses — so an entire cohort would move together.

Operational findings and program impacts

Hogan said observational traffic checks at both campuses suggested 80–90% of students at Eastwood and Oak Ridge are dropped off by vehicle; that pattern informed PAC’s view that limited walking‑route impacts could be mitigated by providing transportation. Hogan and district staff reported an informal two‑day observational study showing Eastwood had roughly 230 students and that pick‑up/drop‑off…