Family legacy of education will live on at new elementary school

By Jet Burnham | [email protected]

Herriman’s seventh elementary school is being built at 6930 West 12900 South on land sold by the Dansie family, one of the area’s earliest settlers.

Herriman City Council member Sherrie Ohrn noted at the groundbreaking, held May 13, that the old Dansie family home still stands just to the south of the lot, which Ohrn hopes gives students a sense of history and appreciation for early Herriman settlers.

“If you will look around, you just see fields right now,” she told those in attendance. “One day these will be full of houses and children, streets and dogs and whatever else comes with development. So I think it's always very important to remember where we came from and to remember the heritage that is founded on this property.” 

The Dansies were the first to build a home outside of the fort in Herriman. Jordan School Board member Darrell Robinson said in his remarks that there are pioneers among us still that are shaping the community, and he hopes students will have many great experiences attending the new school.

The Dansies are known for their generosity and their love of education said Robinson. They are a family of educators who hope their legacy will live on at the school built on their land.

“I knew the land was so precious and that it is important to our family that we share what we have,” said Joyce Dansie Taylor, who was a teacher at Hillcrest High School and Mt. Jordan Middle School. Her daughter RuthAnn Taylor teaches at Foothills Elementary in Riverton.

Joyce’s brother Richard Dansie and his wife, Dixie, manage the family’s land and sold the picturesque site to the school district. Dixie was a teacher in the Jordan District for 30 years and is confident students will get a quality education at the new school.

“I hope that by going to school on this beautiful piece of ground, with mountains on both sides, with the quality and excellent teachers that the Jordan School District gives them, that they get the education that helps them become productive citizens in their lifetime, that the legacy is passed on,” Dixie said.

Bonnie Dansie Park, who was an elementary school teacher in Davis County, said her family loves teaching because they love kids. She hopes the students at the new school will enjoy their teachers.

“I hope they'll be blessed by a teacher who loves them and encourages them, believes in them, pushes them along, makes them work a little harder than they think they can,” Bonnie said.

Ronna Hoffman, who was Jordan District’s Outstanding Principal of the Year in 2019, will be principal at the school, which will open for the 2022–23 school year. The new school will impact the boundaries of Bastian, Silver Crest, Herriman and Butterfield Canyon elementary schools.

Jordan District Superintendent Anthony Godfrey said the new elementary school is being built to keep ahead of the population growth, which is happening at a rapid pace in the Herriman area. 

“These groundbreakings are great evidence of the deep connection that there is between schools, the school district, the community around us and the state at large,” Godfrey said, acknowledging the support of elected officials, representatives of Herriman, Jordan District and the state school board of education who attended the groundbreaking ceremony.