Bumping heads
Clash looms over traffic at burgeoning charter school
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Above: A long line of cars forms to pick up children at Summit Academy charter school in Draper, where there are no school buses. (Photos by Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune )
A collision is shaping up here in this once laid-back corner of the Salt Lake Valley.
Headed in one direction is the two-year-old Summit Academy, a bustling charter school on the corner of 1300 East and 132000 South that plans to double in size to 1,000 students.
Going in another direction is a group of neighbors who say that twice each school day, two-lane 132000 South is jammed with SUVs for as much as an hour as parents queue up to deliver the Summit Academy's 550 enrollees or pick them up. Neighbors fear the congestion, illegal parking, the idling cars and the ill-will will only get worse as the school expands its campus and adds another 450 students.
"We had a nice, peaceful community out here until that came along," said Jack Hazelgren, a retired feed-store operator who lives a few doors down from the Summit Academy and its proposed expansion site.
"They don't make good neighbors," added Grant Hansen, another resident of more than 30 years. "A public school could not get away with what they have done."
The Summit Academy has designs on a seven-acre pasture that two horses share now with idle irrigation equipment. Directly west of the existing school, the field is where the privately owned and operated charter school plans a new, 50,000-square-foot building to help with its 1,900 student waiting list.
School officials say they received approval for the K-9 expansion from the state Board of Education last winter. They've bought the land and need to raise $8 to $10 million to build the school itself.
"Everything's still in process," said Dave Crandall, president of the Summit Academy board of Trustees. "I don't know what approvals we will need . . . but they would be the same that any school would need."
So far, Draper City isn't saying anything.
"We don't have an application from the school," said city spokeswoman Maridene Hancock. But she noted that the city will require the school to address traffic management.
The neighbors say they have spoken with the Jordan School District, city traffic officials and Greg Hughes, a state representative and member of the Summit Academy's board. They doubt they can do anything to stop the problem from getting worse.
The academy has set up an elaborate transportation system. Its carpools wait on 132000 South about half an hour before school opens and closes.
Some cars wait in the middle of the road. Others line up on the dirt shoulder on the south side of the street. A school official broadcasts the arrival of each carpool in the queue. Students wait in the gymnasium, scramble out to their carpool cars, and the cars exit onto 1300 East.
"We encourage parents to be courteous drivers," said Summit Academy Director Jill Neff. Without state funding for transportation, buses aren't in the plans, she and Crandall said.
"It is what it is," Neff said. "We do what we can, given the situation."
Hazelgren and Hansen say they have run across too many rushing, rude carpool drivers to name. Their efforts to remind the drivers that no parking is allowed where many of them park and to stick to the speed limit have prompted some angry reactions.
"Boy, that language they used was unbelievable," said Hansen, a retired teacher who recalls one time when a woman honking and speeding to Summit "gave me . . . that sign of peace, I guess."
"You mean that international sign of brotherhood," Hazelgren offered.
As the Summit Academy moves forward with plans to open the new campus, it would be no surprise to hear of more clashes.