Ogden board approves boundary changes affecting Hillcrest, East Ridge and Heritage schools

The Ogden City School District Board of Education voted to approve proposed attendance-boundary changes that affect Hillcrest Elementary, East Ridge and Heritage Elementary after staff told the board the revisions will not add significant busing costs. Board member Bridal made the motion, which was seconded by Vice President Anderson, and the board approved it by voice vote.

District staff said the changes largely restore Hillcrest to earlier boundaries and that areas added to Hillcrest are walkable and will not require a new bus route. “Hillcrest, basically, if you revert back to the previous Hillcrest boundaries, they had 1 bus that served the Hillcrest area. That does not change,” a district staff member said during the meeting.

The staff presentation said most of the areas moved into Hillcrest are within a walkable 1.5-mile radius used by the district for elementary school eligibility. Where streets or topography create irregular distances, the district’s contractor, First Student, refines stops and eligibility on route-based maps. For junior high and secondary schools, staff confirmed the district uses a 2-mile eligibility radius.

Staff also said one small portion of the East Ridge boundary — a corner between Seventh and Twelfth Street — would qualify for busing under the distance standard and therefore would be added to a bus route. The district said it will continue to run an existing Dual Language Immersion (DLI) route that was created when the DLI program moved from the TL Smith boundary; that DLI bus has capacity to pick up the additional students affected by this change.

The district said it will notify families of the new boundaries and of transportation eligibility and will reopen the boundary-exception window to allow families who fall outside a new boundary to request placement. Staff described the typical Utah boundary-exception window as running from Dec. 1 through February, and said kindergarten roundup information will be publicized in April.

The board briefly discussed whether the motion should formally include the closure of a road referenced by staff; the presenters said that closure had already been handled in a separate public hearing and did not need to be included in the motion. Board member Brunel moved to amend the motion to explicitly include Hillcrest, East Ridge and Heritage; that amendment was seconded and the board approved the amended motion by voice vote.

District staff named Julie Nelson as the expected principal for the school configuration that will include Bonneville and Hillcrest, saying Nelson has led the two schools through prior transitions and is expected to remain in the role.

The board instructed staff to communicate changes to families, publish revised maps and re-open the boundary-exception process after the board’s approval. No roll-call vote or vote tally by member was recorded in the meeting transcript; the approval was taken by voice vote.

District staff said they will provide PDF maps that show the 1.5-mile walkable radius for elementary schools and the 2-mile radius for secondary schools; staff named district planner Jared Bond as the source of those maps and said First Student refines routes based on street-level, route-based criteria.

The new boundaries as approved will take effect as posted by district staff and families will receive outreach and information about transportation eligibility, kindergarten roundup dates and the boundary-exception window.