Before opening in August 2021, 397 students registered for Aspen Elementary. Now, with more housing developments in one of the area’s fastest growing areas, the Daybreak school serves more than 800 — and the school population continues to grow.

After receiving feedback from the community and teachers, Jordan Board of Education members are posed to make a boundary decision that would alleviate Aspen’s large enrollment and would be effective for the next school year.

It’s been a learning process of listening and looking at numbers to make the best decision for the two new board members who will take the oath of office in January.

Representing district 4 is Erin Barrow, who was elected to fill the retiring Marilyn Richards’ seat. Richards has served on the board eight years.

“I was able to sit in the back and observe the parents and teachers who came and were talking to the board about their concerns,” Barrow said. “I was very touched by all the people who went and talked and gave their concerns. I did not realize how many boundary changes there had been in that area; there’s been a lot of changes in a short amount of time. I know some of our schools, Aspen in particular, are going to be overcrowded soon, and that's not OK leaving those students and teachers in a crowded situation where it might make learning harder.”

While the boundary decision was expected Dec. 10, as of press deadline, there was talk it could roll over past that date.

“I’d need more information,” Barrow said if the date is extended. “I’ll talk to board members who have been thinking about this for a while. I want to make sure while I'm a board member, I am visiting the schools in my area, communicating with the administration on their needs and hearing the families to make sure their needs are being met. I want to make sure I’m out there and listening to people, not just making decisions in the castle on the hill, disconnected from everyone. It’s going to be messy, and there's going to be hard decisions that need to be made and that not everyone will be happy with. That's going to be tough, but that's what this job includes.”

Suzanne Wood was appointed by the school board in late November to take Tracy Miller’s seat in district 3 as Miller was elected earlier that month to the Utah state legislature. School board president Miller served nearly eight years.

“If it rolls over to January 14 or later, the feeling I'm getting from the students and parents is they would just like a decision made so they can plan for next year,” she said. “There are a few neighborhoods which have been in three or four different schools for the last few years. I’d be sensitive to change the boundary for them again. I do believe that the administration was providing some more numbers and data to the board to help them make a decision. I've not been privy to that, but I do feel some sensitivity toward (students) crossing busy roads and kids who have had several school boundary changes.”

The two new board members are meeting with school administrators and volunteers. They’re connecting with students and teachers. They’re introducing themselves to the PTA, school community council, city council and others.

They’re learning and understanding guidelines put in place, including the recent cell phone policy limiting students’ phone use, which was rolled out after fall break.

There was division on how and if cell phone use should have limitations. While phones can be a useful tool, the Jordan Board of Education’s decision aimed to keep students from being distracted from learning.

The Board put in place that elementary students can’t use their phones during the school day, while secondary students are limited to lunch and passing periods.

During Barrow’s campaign, she favored a bell-to-bell policy and wants to investigate an education component to teach kids how to use their phone wisely without funding something extra and burdening teachers to teach one more thing on top of their curriculum.

“I have heard some good things about it, and that it is working so far,” she said. “I am happy they put in a new policy, and we probably can add to it, but we should just kind of let it sit and marinate, see how it goes, and then figure out how and if we need to tweak it.”

Wood, too, supports the policy.

“The parents I've talked to are glad for it. It helps kids focus, not be so distracted. I like they didn't go so far to an extreme to ban it entirely at the (secondary) schools; I feel this is reasonable between classes or after the school day that they still have it in their possession. It'll be a win for the teachers, a win for the students,” she said.

The two come from different backgrounds. 

Barrow has been active volunteering and serving on the PTA at Riverside Elementary, where her children attend. She will continue to be a crossing guard, where she gets to know some students.

“As PTA president, I could see more struggles the school was facing. I had been approached about possibly running for the legislature, but that felt too broad, too big for me. Then I found out Marilyn Richards was retiring, and I already knew I was passionate about schools, so I jumped on board. I said, ‘That's something I can get behind.’ Marilyn has been such a strong voice for our area; I wanted to make sure there's someone in there who's doing it for the kids and the teachers and the families and is going to be there listening. I already had a sense of what's going on at the schools, and I knew I had that drive and could jump right,” she said. “I do feel Jordan School District and the board do a good job, but I would like to help change the pace on how slowly they tend to move on things. I think we can move a little bit faster and still be thoughtful and thorough.”

Barrow contacted Richards before being elected and asked questions.

“She's given me a little bit of her wisdom and some advice on what it'll be like,” she said. “I've been able to sit at the table for a few meetings next to her, and she's given me some advice and explained things to me while they're discussing topics, which has been very helpful, just getting my feet a little wet before it becomes official in January.”

Wood recently left her position in health care, ready for a new adventure. She didn’t know it would be the school board.

“I had set a goal when I was younger, that one day I would like to be on the school board,” she recalls having written in a journal when she was on the brink of adulthood. “I thought that was more in the future, because I haven’t been in schools much here as I have a preschooler. But when the seat opened, I just felt compelled to apply. I haven’t been president of the PTA. I haven’t been on the school community council. I don't have that resume. What I do have is a breadth of life experience with a master's degree in social work. I did work at an elementary school in Michigan and years later, I worked at a private school for children, primarily with autism, in the Chicago area. I've always thought that the school is a place where you can really make a difference with kids, because you reach so many kids. I hope my experience will help me understand the parents and the students and even the staff and the district.”

While she doesn’t have an agenda to check off, she said with her background, she plans to look into mental health and special needs students to see if there are improvements needed.

She, also, is being mentored by her predecessor and learning what’s happening in schools on Instagram accounts.

“I need to get there and get their calendars and see what they're doing — even the schools that aren't in district 3,” she said. “If I'm going to be voting on things that will influence them, it's important to get a sense of the entirety of the district so we can make knowledgeable decisions and improvements.” λ