Granite School District board votes to suspend Area 5 boundary study after lengthy public hearing

The Granite School District Board of Education voted Nov. 18 to suspend the Area 5 Population Analysis Committee (PAC) boundary and school-closure study indefinitely after hours of presentations, superintendent alternatives and public comment. The decision followed an extended hearing in which dozens of parents, teachers, students and community members urged the board to pause the process that placed Eastwood and Morningside elementary schools at risk of closure or merger.

Superintendent Ben Horsley presented the board with three options the district had prepared at trustees’ request: accept the PAC recommendation (which included merging Eastwood with Oak Ridge and closing the traditional program at Morningside), extend the study with an independent consultant through 2026 at an estimated cost the superintendent put between $500,000 and $1,000,000, or suspend the study indefinitely. Horsley told trustees that Area 5 presented unique complications — unusually…