With Deer Creek High School set to open in fall 2026, the Wasatch County School District has been talking about how to divide students between Wasatch High School and Deer Creek for about a year.
That discussion came to a close Nov. 5 when the district’s board of education approved new middle and high school boundaries in a 3-2 vote.
The new boundaries garnered positive feedback from students and residents such as J.R. Smith Elementary School parent Jenna Joel, who said the board had really listened to public concerns.
“I know that changing from one high school to two is a hard process, and there's a lot of emotion involved in it, and there's no perfect solution,” she said. “However, I think we owe it to our community and to our students to base this decision off of the research, the data, the survey results that have come back from the community.”
The board is using U.S. Highway 40 as a natural boundary on the south end of the valley. Near the Cove area in northern Wasatch County, the boundary continues east to the Red Ledges private community, then heads north.
Supporters thought it would be safer for students not to cross the highway if they walked or biked to school.
Students who live east of U.S. 40 will attend Timpanogos Middle School and Wasatch High. Students to the west will go to Rocky Mountain Middle School and Deer Creek High.
The new boundaries split Daniels Canyon and J.R. Smith students between the middle schools. One Daniels Canyon resident said she preferred other options that did not split up the area.
Board member Breanne Dedrickson said she voted against the boundaries because, among the other options, they would leave Deer Creek and Wasatch with the widest disparity in students receiving free or reduced school lunch.
Brad Ehlert was the other board member to cast a “nay” vote.
“I would strongly urge the board to consider and look at elementary boundaries as soon as possible, to reflect what we heard from the community, which is to keep the elementary schools together as much as we can,” he said.
While elementary school boundaries remain the same, the board said that could change in the future to allow elementary students to stay together in middle school.
After the vote, board members and Superintendent Garrick Peterson all said they are committed to moving forward as a team and praised each other for their civility.
“This is the best process I've ever gone through in doing one of these,” Peterson said. “Not that it was easy, because I've been in easier ones, like there was a clear split in the high school — splitting the valley, not easy — but as far as the way that people treated each other, expressed their opinions, worked together, the best process I've ever been part of.”
With the new boundaries set, students who want to attend a different school must submit an open enrollment form by Dec. 1.
