SAVE CHERRY CREEK ELEMENTARY

10 percent of kids at Cherry Creek Elementary are considered homeless according to the Utah State Board of Education (USBE, 2025). That means 1 in 10 Cherry Creek students don’t have a stable living situation to go home to each day.
This is significantly higher than all other Springville public elementary schools.

57 percent of Cherry Creek Elementary school students are considered economically disadvantaged (USBE, 2025). This is also significantly higher than any other public elementary school in Springville.

The hopeful side of this is that Cherry Creek has extremely high teacher retention and amount of experienced teachers (USBE, 2025). That means these kids are going to one of the most stable environments possible when they go to school everyday.

According to research, stable schools offset at home disadvantages, but these students are also the most harmed when these environments are disrupted (Ansari, 2020).

Nebo School District has begun the closure process for Cherry Creek and has minimized any parent’s attempt to discuss academic data along with high teacher experience, and stability data. The fact that Cherry Creek is one of the top performing schools with most experienced faculty in Springville seems to not matter.

Closing Cherry Creek has an extremely harmful impact on the lives of Springville’s most vulnerable young children, ages 4-11.

Cherry Creek Elementary is designated as a Title I School. Title I is a federal program which focuses additional funding on eight of the thirty Nebo Elementary Schools. This funding is based on socio-economic status.

Title I designation allows Cherry Creek Elementary funding to provide several effective programs including:

-Technology in Classroom (chromebooks, iPads, Smart Boards, etc.)
-Preschool (4-year old needs based)
-Family Empowerment Events (family engagement activities, student-led SEPs, literacy week)
-Leader in Me (program used to teach students the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
-Amira (software for targeted phonics instruction)
-Professional Development (additional training for the principal, teachers and paraprofessionals)
-Reading and Math Enrichment (small groups with highly qualified teacher or technician)
-SIPPS, Sound Sensible, and 95% Group Intervention (literacy support in small groups K-5)
-Reflex (math software used to provide additional practice on math facts)
-Skill Building (extra support for behavior intervention)
-Take-Home Library (books on student’s reading level sent home for reading practice)

Cherry Creek Elementary is performing above the state and district average in Language Arts, Math, and Science, and better than most Springville public elementary schools according USBE Data.

What is truly amazing are the school’s scores for academic growth, where Math and Science Growth Scores are significantly above state and district averages and the highest in Springville.

Cherry Creek’s percentage of students reading at grade level is higher than average and amount of students making typical or better progress in reading is significantly above state and district averages!

Cherry Creek’s principal Amy Darrington won an award from the Nebo School District in January 2026: Instructional Leader of the Year: A principal who has improved student achievement through leadership with teachers, staff and community. The academic scores and amazing growth scores are evidence of an extremely caring and hardworking staff. Ms. Darrington and other staff also work hard to memorize every child’s name at the school, so the academic achievement does not overpower the personal and friendly atmosphere of this school that is the heart of our downtown historic Springville community.

According to Utah State Board of Education 2024-2025 school report cards, Cherry Creek Elementary has the HIGHEST teacher retention rate at 63% compared to other public elementary schools in the east area along with the most teachers with over seven or more years of experience.

Research consistently shows that strong teacher retention doesn’t happen by accident. It reflects: effective, supportive leadership, a positive, collaborative staff culture, manageable class sizes and workload, strong student support systems, and real parent and community involvement.

Cherry Creek isn’t just “another school.” Its high retention suggests a healthy, stable environment that families and teachers want to be part of. Research shows this kind of school environment can counteract the long term impacts of instability at home (Ansari, 2020).

That kind of culture takes years, even decades to build, and can be lost overnight.

That’s why the arguments of “on paper it makes sense”, “number wise it makes sense”, and “budget wise it makes sense” are not sufficient. The teacher retention rate shows that it doesn’t make sense for the well-being of Springville’s overall small town and neighborly culture. The school district will be destroying one of the most stable pillars in our community.

Some city and school board officials argue that the goodness of Cherry Creek will be sprinkled throughout Springville when the school closes and the teachers are dispersed through out the district. This argument shows little understanding of the effort and time educational, professional, and community cohesion takes.

And this school sits right in the heart of our historic area, near the Springville Museum of Art, a place many of us value for its walkability, history, and close-knit, family-friendly feel.

As Springville grows rapidly and large developments move in, many residents are asking how we preserve the character of our city. Closing one of our most stable, community-centered schools moves us in the opposite direction.

When we lose a school like Cherry Creek, we’re not just losing a building, we’re weakening the sense of neighborhood connection in the historic core.

If we care about keeping Springville a place where families want to stay, where kids are known and supported, and where neighborhoods still feel like neighborhoods, this decision deserves serious reconsideration

Cherry Creek is one of Springville’s higher performing public elementary schools. Click here to see the Great Schools scores which is the school rating system people use the most when deciding where to move. Everyone in Springville is impacted when a high quality school is closed down because it impacts the type of people that want to live here, especially in our downtown historic community. We want to keep historic downtown Springville a place where families with young children want to come and want to stay.

A relevant question to all Springville residents is: Are our tax dollars being considered in this decision?

Ten million of our tax dollars will pay for the Cherry Creek School building when the city buys it (a building that our previous property tax dollars have already paid for). It is also estimated that 6 million will be needed to renovate the building for city use.

And while east Springville schools’ enrollment has declined, Westside and Meadow Brook Elementary Schools are at 85% and 92% functional capacity. We all know that the west side of Springville is exploding with housing developments.

So what’s going to happen when Westside and Meadow Brook reach capacity? On Nebo’s FAQ page they say they will build a new school on the west side if needed.

That means our taxes are paying for the city to buy the Cherry Creek building again and our taxes will pay for a new elementary school in Springville when Meadow Brook and Westside reach capacity.

The school district adds money to their already extremely hefty savings, while Springville residents’ tax dollars are used inefficiently.

Why aren’t the east schools just absorbing some of the west schools’ students? Meadow Brook’s and Westside’s school boundary edges are literally two blocks from Cherry Creek.

Springville residents shouldn’t have to pay 16+ million tax dollars for the Cherry Creek building and renovation, while the school district continues to save excessively at the expense of our community. We shouldn’t have to pay to buy the Cherry Creek building back and then have to pay for a new school on the west side of Springville.

If your tax money matters to you, and more importantly our wonderful kids, contact Nebo School District about the closure of Cherry Creek!
Phone: (801) 354-7400
question-comment@nebo.edu

We also really need the city’s support to make this happen, so please contact the city council.

We want the school district to pause the closure process of Cherry Creek Elementary until there is evidence that student wellness and academics are being considered in this decision. So far, the only reason being given for Cherry Creek Elementary being chosen for closure (rather than the other three low enrollment schools) is that the building can easily be sold because of its location next to the Museum of Art.

We want to see multiple solutions considered for low enrollment of all east Springville elementary schools. The district has not appeared to have looked into any other solutions and weighed the impact on students and families. It seems the district is moving forward with the first and easiest option to address what they claim is low enrollment. The Provo School District recently paused their closure studies for their elementary schools to consider how they can attract more students and families to their schools to address low enrollment.

Click Here to listen to public comments regarding Cherry Creek at the May 2026 Nebo School Board Meeting.

Click Here to listen to the public comments made by numerous parents at the 2026 April Nebo School Board Meeting (Skip to 1:40).

Click Here to see a news article about a Cherry Creek student Willow Copeland leading a petition that demanded transparency from the Nebo School District.

Click Here to see her father Jim Copeland’s follow up email to the School District with 20 critical questions regarding the school closure.

The more people that contact the school district about this issue, the better. The more people that reach out, the more the district realizes how important this issue is to our entire community. Please contact all members of the school board about your concern about Cherry Creek. Even a simple message makes an impact.

Email Nebo School Board Members:
shannon.acor@nebo.edu
rick.ainge@nebo.edu
kristen.betts@nebo.edu
brian.rowley@nebo.edu
j.taylor@nebo.edu
shauna.warnick@nebo.edu
scott.wilson@nebo.edu

Call Nebo School Board Members:
Phone: (801) 354-7400

Send Nebo School District Letters:
Nebo School District
350 South Main
Spanish Fork, UT 84660


We also really need the city’s support to make this happen, so please contact the Springville City Council and ask them to tell the school district that we want to keep Cherry Creek. Call (801) 489-2700 Email the mayor at mpackard@springvilleutah.gov