Increase marks 11th year of growth, although rate not as sharp as last year

Tooele County schools added 488 new students when they opened this fall, marking an 11th straight year of enrollment growth. But the rate of growth slowed considerably compared to last year, when the district was the fastest growing in the state.

Districtwide enrollment increased 3.9 percent compared to last year, but that rate is down from a 6.1 percent increase from 2005 to 2006 and a 6.8 percent increase from 2004 to 2005.

However, Tooele County School District Superintendent Mike Johnsen calls the slowing growth rate an anomaly, not the start of a trend.

“There are still a lot of preschool age kids out there getting ready to turn school age,” said Johnsen.

School enrollment figures statewide are not finalized until November, so it is too early to compare our growth to other districts, added Johnsen.

In planning for this school year, the district’s enrollment projections missed the mark by less than half of a percent. That helped district officials avoid a last-minute scramble to find enough teachers. Over the summer, 30 new teachers were hired, and after school opened the district hired an additional half-time kindergarten teacher, and transferred one teacher from a school with lower-than-anticipated enrollment to fill a position at a school that had higher-than-anticipated growth, according to Johnsen.

Rose Springs Elementary was the fastest growing school in the district with enrollment up 13 percent. The school, which is near booming Stansbury Park residential neighborhoods, added 91 new students. At the other end of the spectrum, Northlake Elementary enrollment went down by 6.2 percent, or 43 students.

A careful look at actual enrollment figures also reveals the need for the new Stansbury Park High School. Tooele High School, already overflowing into portable classrooms, grew by 4 percent and Grantsville High School grew by 5.8 percent — both outpacing the rate of growth in the district overall. Looking forward to 2008, THS and GHS will graduate 576 high school seniors this year, while the incoming eighth-grade class has 877 students.

Accommodating growth at the high schools has not been easy. Johnsen said the district reassigned portables from Tooele Junior High to THS when the new junior high opened in 2006. The district also brought in new portables and arranged to use classrooms at the nearby LDS institute building.

“Everybody — staff, parents and students — have been very positive,” said Johnsen of efforts to house all the high school students. “It has been a little uncomfortable, but not impossible.”

The district currently has several building projects underway. New classrooms at Middle Canyon, Overlake and Willow elementary schools are on schedule to be completed by Dec. 1, and an addition to the commons area at Tooele High School should be completed by January 2008. Settlement Canyon Elementary will open in fall 2008 and Stansbury High School should debut in fall 2009.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com