Washington County School District board members at a working session April 30 authorized staff to proceed with offering a Spanish dual-immersion strand at Diamond Valley Elementary, district staff told the board.

District staff said the program is being opened after updated enrollment and staffing information showed the district can accommodate students from nearby areas without creating new long-term staffing deficits. The board’s authorization was framed as permission to “move forward” and prepare the program, not as a formal adopted policy or roll‑call vote.

Brandon (staff member) reported the district originally worried there would not be enough students and teachers to sustain a new immersion site, but that recent outreach and availability of Spanish teachers from Dixie Sun have changed that assessment. Staff described a plan to offer two immersion strands (two classes per grade, about 25 students each, or roughly 50 students per grade level) at Diamond Valley and to transition Dixie Sun toward a smaller “strand” model over several years so the total program remains one district offering split across sites.

Board members pressed staff on enrollment and logistics. District data cited in the discussion included a November enrollment figure for Dixie Sun of about 431 students and a stated building capacity in the 500s (approximately 550). Staff said Dixie Sun currently has roughly two teachers per grade and that two teachers are available to be reassigned in the near term; the district intends to move teachers incrementally rather than abruptly.

Transportation and precedence were central concerns. Staff and board members said the district will provide elementary transportation on a space‑available basis only; placements will be first‑come, first‑served when capacity is reached. Staff noted that parents whose students live inside other secondary “cone sites” (for example Dixie or Snow Canyon feeder cones) will not receive district transportation to access immersion at secondary levels, and that families choosing to travel from outside designated cone sites must provide their own secondary transportation. Board members discussed an illustrative local estimate for adding a bus run of roughly $38,000, and several members said that running buses long distances to move small numbers of students could be costly and set a precedent the board must consider carefully.

Several trustees raised equity concerns: some neighborhoods (Sunset, Majestic) had previously requested immersion and been turned down, and trustees asked how the district would explain offering immersion at Diamond Valley while others were not selected. District staff replied that the change rests chiefly on Dixie Sun’s decision to reduce its full immersion footprint, freeing teachers and enabling a split-site implementation rather than creating a brand-new program.

Terry (board member), when asked if the board was comfortable giving staff the go-ahead to implement full immersion at Diamond Valley, replied, "Yes," and several other trustees voiced support during the discussion. District staff concluded the meeting with a plan to prepare implementation details for future meetings, including application and enrollment forms, boundary adjustments, and a staffing/phase-in timeline.

Next steps outlined by staff include finalizing an application/enrollment timeline, clarifying the space‑available bus process in written form for parents, drawing proposed boundary adjustments intended to return some neighborhood students to Dixie Sun, and staging teacher transfers over multiple years so classroom staffing remains stable.

Board materials and staff comments made clear this was an authorization to prepare and implement the program, not a final adopted policy changing district transportation rules or long-term boundary assignments.