As parents, caregivers, and community members, we are coming together to express deep concern regarding the proposal to close Park Lane Elementary. This decision carries significant and long-lasting implications for our children, our neighborhood, and the integrity of the district’s long-range planning process. We respectfully request that the district pause and reconsider this proposal to ensure that any decision made is fair, transparent, data-driven, and truly in the best interest of students.

Park Lane Is a Thriving School—Not a Candidate for Closure

Park Lane Elementary is not a struggling school; it is a strong, high-performing, and deeply connected community anchor. Our students benefit from a nurturing environment, exceptional educators, and a culture of academic excellence. Park Lane holds the 3rd-highest RISE scores for elementary schools in Canyons School District, behind only SALTA programs. This achievement directly reflects the dedication of its faculty and the engagement of its families.

Closing a thriving school not only disrupts students academically and emotionally, but it also diminishes the quality of education available in this region. The Park Lane community has built something truly special—an environment where children feel supported, grow confidently, and develop a lifelong love of learning. This is not something that can be replicated simply by relocating students elsewhere.

A Pattern of Predetermined Outcomes and Unequal Consideration

Throughout the long-range planning process, families have repeatedly observed a troubling pattern: Park Lane has been positioned as the default closure option in nearly every iteration of the proposals, even when the data does not support such a decision. Whenever Park Lane could not be used to solve another school’s challenges, the plan reverted to closing Park Lane anyway.

This raises fundamental questions about fairness and due process: Has Park Lane ever been seriously considered as a school that could remain open?

Community feedback is meaningful only when all schools under consideration are evaluated equally. That has not been the case. To restore trust, the district must either issue parallel closure notices for both Park Lane and Willow Canyon or pause elementary closures altogether until the more urgent secondary-level under-enrollment issues—at Eastmont and Jordan—are addressed as originally planned.

Concerns About the Sudden Shift to Closing Two Schools
 The initial proposal focused on the potential closure of one school—Park Lane or Granite. The new proposal now unexpectedly recommends closing both, leaving District 3 without a single elementary school south of 9400 S and east of Highland Drive. This would remove all walkable neighborhood schools in a large and growing residential area.

Such a significant shift has not been adequately justified. Eliminating both schools simultaneously is a drastic, community-altering decision that carries long-term consequences for access, equity, and neighborhood vitality.

Data Must Clearly Support Major Decisions—Right Now, It Does Not

Families are struggling to understand why a school with significantly greater enrollment decline has been prioritized to remain open over Park Lane—a more stable, centrally located school with higher academic performance and stronger long-term viability indicators.

If the district’s planning process is data-driven, then the data must be shared transparently, and it must clearly justify the outcomes. At present, the proposed closure of Park Lane conflicts with both quantitative data and community experience.

Impact on Neighborhood Stability and Property Values

Closing Park Lane would leave behind a large, vacant building embedded deep within a residential neighborhood. Vacant school sites are well-documented to depress property values, discourage new families from moving into the area, and create lasting instability. This outcome contradicts the district’s stated goals of building strong school communities and supporting local enrollment.

A decision of this magnitude should strengthen neighborhoods—not harm them.

A Call for Transparency, Equity, and a Reconsideration of the Current Proposal

The Park Lane community is not asking for special treatment—we are asking for a fair, transparent, and unbiased process, one that evaluates all schools equally and prioritizes student outcomes above all else.

To that end, we respectfully urge the district to:

• Reevaluate the current proposal so that both Park Lane and Willow Canyon receive equal consideration as potential closure or consolidation sites.
• Pause elementary closures until the previously stated priorities surrounding secondary schools are addressed.
• Acknowledge and examine the pattern of bias that has disadvantaged Park Lane throughout this process, including consideration of third-party review to ensure impartiality.
• Provide clear, comprehensive data and rationale supporting the significant shift from closing one school to closing two.

Our children deserve decisions rooted in fairness and accuracy—not in predetermined outcomes.

We Ask the Community to Stand With Us

By signing this petition, community members affirm that Park Lane Elementary is a vital, high-performing school worth protecting. Together, we can advocate for a process that honors transparency, values thriving schools, and prioritizes student well-being.

Thank you for listening and for taking these concerns seriously. We look forward to collaborating on a solution that supports students, strengthens neighborhoods, and reflects the values of our district.

Sincerely,

Concerned Parents and Community Members of Park Lane Elementary