Hildale school will go private
 Phelps elementary, closed after FLDS members pulled children from school, to be sold to investors
 
By Angie Parkinson
The Spectrum
 
HILDALE -- Phelps Elementary may once again be filled with the sound of children's voices. The school building, located on the Utah side of the twin communities of Hildale and Colorado City, has been leased to a group of investors who plan to use the building for a private school.

The halls of the school were emptied after faithful followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- the vast majority of Colorado City and Hildale residents -- answered a call from the pulpit in August 2000.

Warren Jeffs, a counselor in the first presidency of the FLDS church, called for faithful members to withdraw from public schools. After the initial call, enrollment at Phelps fell from 240 the year before to 94 on the first day of the 2000-2001 school year.

The Washington County School Board voted to close the school in April 2001 because of lack of enrollment.

"We would prefer to keep the school open, but we were down to 16 students," said Washington County School District Superintendent Kolene Granger.

The group is going to lease Phelps Elementary with an option to buy at the end of 10 years. The sale price is $1 million.

Granger said the school district will retain one parcel of land in Hildale in case a public school is ever needed there again -- basically if the philosophies of the FLDS church ever change on the subject of public education or if there are ever enough children of other faiths to justify a school.

For now, FLDS children attend private schools or are home schooled.

"We just wanted more input into the education of our children," said Dan Barlow, Colorado City mayor and unofficial spokesman for the FLDS church.

Barlow estimates there are six private schools in the twin communities. Barlow runs one of them -- a school called Morningside that has an enrollment of 280 students in grades one through 10, as well as a GED program. Some students are home schooled, and others attend the new public school on the Colorado City side.

The new school -- known simply as the Colorado City Unified School -- was dedicated last week and services grades kindergarten through 12th grade.

Barlow said the education FLDS children receive in area private schools includes U.S. history as well as the history of the FLDS church. And unlike in public schools, private school days begin with prayer and a religious devotional, he said. There are few extra-curricular activities in the private schools.

"We stick to the basics and to the things they need to know," Barlow said.

At least one taxpayer takes issue with the idea of turning a public school over to a private, presumably FLDS, entity. St. George resident and child victim advocate Bob Curran wonders why the general public was not given a chance to give input into the sale of a building taxpayers helped buy.

"What if I wanted to buy the school?" Curran said.

But Granger said the school has been vacant for more than a year. The offer accepted was the only offer made, and it was based on an appraised value.

Barlow said the school board made the right decision to sell the school to the investors. The building still will be used for the purpose of educating children. Whether it is public or private education should not matter, Barlow said.

"They're in the business of educating children. They're not interested in somebody's philosophies," Barlow said.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published October 2, 2002
 
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