By Irinna Schwenke
ijs@email.byu.edu
Tremendous growth in the Alpine, Utah County area has prompted the opening of three new elementary schools for the 2000-2001 school year.
Snow Springs, West Field and Mount Mahogany Elementary schools will serve as relief schools to Cedar Ridge, Manila, Valley View and Central Elementary.
All three schools opened at or near capacity level. Snow Springs opened with 862 students, just two under their 864 capacity. With numbers so high, the schools have no room for growth in upcoming years.
Assistant superintendent of elementary schools in Alpine School District, Gary Seastrand, said the 2,500 students enrolled this year is substantially larger than last years population.
The rise of housing developments in the Lehi and Alpine areas partly explains the large number of elementary age students in the area.
Other schools around Utah Valley are now expanding as fast as those in Alpine and Lehi.
In Provo, Principal Ray Morgan of Canyon Crest Elementary said the school's population has been stable for the past three to four years.
'Our population has been at about 575 for a couple of years now. ... We can't seem to move from that number,' Morgan said.
Principal Morgan said although the citywide population of Provo has been increasing, the elementary school age population has been decreasing.
The new schools in the Alpine area are products of a 1998 bond granting the Alpine School District $60 million.
The residents agreed, through a vote on the bond, to a tax increase of $7 on a $100,000 home.
Overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and high supply costs in all school levels make education funding costly.
The construction of the new schools has already used up the 1998 bond money and no additional funding is expected in the near future.