First time posting on here...thank you in advance for your responses. I didn't grow up LDS but married an ex-mormon (left years ago) and moved to Utah from the east coast recently (she already lived here). It has been quite an experience to say the least...I don't think I was prepared for how intense the LDS influence is here (I knew it would be bad, but not to THIS level). For context, we live in Provo (ground zero, I know).

Here is my question: We both have good jobs here but know that we can't/won't raise a family in Utah County (for obvious reasons). Where could we move in the Greater SLC area that meets the following criteria:

1. Above average to great schools
2. < 50% of public school students are LDS

We know that Park City is largely non-Mormon but we need to stay in the valley. So in short, where is the best place around SLC to live and send kids to school while minimizing the influence of the church? Having not grown up here, we just don't know the area well enough. Holladay and Bountiful look nice, but also highly LDS? Thanks again!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2018 07:09PM by newmo.

No amount of money could convince me to live in Utah. I have never lived there. I would say Park city. that's where most of the normal people live

You talking about schools or school districts? There are no school districts anywhere near you work, that's not predominately LDS. Especially in Utah County or South Salt Lake County. We moved here when our kid was 2. After checking out these districts and talking to others that got transferred here, we decided to put our kid in private school. Both my wife and I had good jobs with Fortune 200 companies. My kid had been in private schools since Pre-K. Best decision we ever made. Sure, it's expensive (about 2 nice car payments/month).My kid goes to a Catholic high school now. We aren't Catholic, and 50% of the kids aren't either. In fact, 15% of their enrollment is LDS kids, mostly LDS families that also moved here from other states that think Utah mormonism is nuts and local schools lack a lot. The school is great, 96% of their kids go to college. Class sizes are small 14-18 kids/class compared to 30-40/class at the surrounding high schools. Like I said, best move we ever made.

As long as you’re there for your kids, they can handle any of life’s abuses. The psychological literature backs that up. Do they need to be protected from poorly socialized mini Mormon tyrants? No, they need the support to do that job themselves. Utah is Utah. Utah Mormons are weird because of certain concepts they can’t process. Like personal boundaries. Alien concept. It’s interesting to see how they deal with it. Interesting how I deal with it, like putting masking tape on the floor and calling it a wall. Sorry, best I can do. That what Mormonism does to your brain. Mental deformities are a curiosity, not a hazard. But anyway, life is about finding the good not avoiding the bad. And the good can be found anywhere.

I transferred to UT from another state. As much as I met great neighbors, great co-workers, and did great things at work, my kids were little when we moved here. As a result, raising little non mormon kids in UT is one of my greatest regrets, and will apologize to my kids, when they get older.

They paid a high price for me being transferred here...

Interesting, could you explain why? We were thinking that, at the very least, it wouldn't matter as much when they were young because kids were kind of oblivious to that sort of stuff, and that we could always move as they got older if we felt it was a problem.

Just wait until your little kids are excludedfrom parties for your neighborhood kids, that they play with. Or the one's that won't come to your kid's birthday party. Or that their neighborhood friends aren't allowed to come over to your heathen home. Their parents will tell their mormon kids that your family aren't worthy. Their kids will tell your kids. They start excluding and dividing at a young age. It sucks, but it's reality.

Usually around the time they start seminary which marks the dividing line between who is in and who is out.

I grew up in Salt Lake City as a non-Mormon. It was a very ostracizing experience. My friends in jr. high were all Mormon and, when we started high school in tenth grade, their idea of a fun time was to spend their lunch hanging out at the seminary building next door. I went with them a couple times but then quit accompanying them. I don't think they ever even noticed.

I gradually made some new friends - most were Mormon but all were "rejects" for one reason or another: short and fat, tall and scrawny, wore dentures, or just generally weird. It was them or "the stoners."

A couple of examples:
My kids were not allowed to play w/the neighbor kids...and when I say neighbor, I mean the NEXT DOOR neighbor. On a saturday, one of my kids went to a class-mates house close by, to see if he could play, you know, like in the olden-days. The kid's mom said..."he already has a friend over playing" and closed the door on my kid. Since when, in the real world, would a parent do that to other kids wanting to play w/your kid???

My other son was called out specifically in class...by the TEACHER because the teacher mentioned that many kids in the class at the time are or would be turning 12 and that is a big deal for mormon boys...but not you "jonny" because you're not mormon. I found out about this at the end of the school year, not when it happened, otherwise, me and the teacher would have had a nice discussion.

My youngest son was lectured by a Mormon friend of his, about my him drinking ice-tea...in my house. That kid was corrected by me swiftly...

My kids learned how to avoid the mormon cliques at school, so as a result, they both become introverts to not rock the boat. Being introverted is ok, as I am sometimes, but being forced or pushed into that, isn't fair to my kids.

Maybe being raised there is what f**ked me up, but I think it was the older (8-15yr) Mormon little bastards.

Thanks for all of the responses. A couple of additional things: While we get what has been said about private schools, we are both atheist and have no desire to send our kids to Catholic school, even if it is better than public schools. We also probably couldn't afford it (we do well, but not THAT well).

I guess we were looking for the diamond-in-the-rough district that, while having a decent number of Mormons, feels the most normal relative to other districts. I figured that at least if non-Mormons formed the majority of students, that would be the case.

Look at homes on the Avenues. A little pricey, but the least Mormon of Salt Lakes neighborhoods. Probably Sugarhouse would be second. Even tho you’re atheist, drop by the Unitarian Church on 600 S.1300 E. There are some nice folks there who don’t have strong opinions about What you should or shouldn’t believe.

Also, maybe look at neighborhoods around the U of U. Look into Roland Hall private school to see if you can afford it.

Don’t be scared off by these comments from people who have never lived here and don’t know what they’re talking about.

Agreed. It isnt that bad in Granite and SLSD. There are lots of students who are not Mormon and it is increasingly diversified with the inclusion of minority groups and refugees. There are many good schools and programs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2018 02:16PM by bona dea.

Maybe Park City is the most non-Mormon community in Utah. It's also one of, if not the most expensive places to live there.

Robert Redford has called it home for the past 40+ years. When he bought land there he paid $500 for two acres in 1961 (in the Park City area before it was a resort.) Now those are million dollar properties.

Finding a good school that's not mostly mormon is going to be tough? Lets look at an article from https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/utah

#1 Karl G Maeser Preparatory Academy
#2 Davis High
#3 Academy for Math Engineering and Science (Ames)
#4 Corner Canyon High School
#5 Brighton High
#6 Viewmont High
#7 InTech Collegiate High School
#8 Timpview High
#9 Bountiful High
#10 Northern Utah Academy for Math Engineering and Science

My suggestion is open up to the LDS kids if you have to be here in Utah.
1,2,5,6,8,9 are all heavily mormon little diversity schools. They should have a culture of staying on task, listening to the teacher, and less "out of control" classrooms (that's what's actually important right?)

3,4,7,10 I'm not sure about? But are also very likely very mormon. My advice is to open up to the possiblity of your kids moving up in Utah society, I know that's a horrible thing to say around here but, If you want your kids to compete in college the give these places a chance. And also remember that networking starts in high school. Remember that the most aggressive successful kids tend to make acquaintances with each other early on and these are future marriage arrangements/business arrangements/employment arrangements. If your in Utah Don't put your kids at a disadvantage, Don't condemn them to associate with only atheists, there aren't very many especially children. they need your support not a leash around their neck if they are going to rise up and make a place in this State.

"3,4,7,10 I'm not sure about? But are also very likely very mormon. My advice is to open up to the possiblity of your kids moving up in Utah society,"

Very good advice, though knowing what I know now, I would not relocate to UT w/small kids, if I had the choice. I can speak for one of those schools and it is mormony.

As an adult, without having to raise kids in UT, UT though quirky, weird, etc, can be very fun, and I have had a lot of fun here and met some great people here. That is all well and good, but I still regret raising my small children here and if I could go back in time, I would not have made the same decision to move here w/my small kids.

Mkst of the schools in Salt Lake and Granite Districts have lot of minority kids. Most of them are not Mormon and there shouldnt be a problem of your kids being the only non members. There are lots of Hispanic,Polynesian and Muslim kids .You can look up individual schools to see their test scores and offerings. The high schools are all good IMO. Be more selective of middle dchools and elementary schools. I taught for years in Granite and since retirement, have subbed in all the secondary schools in both districts.Salt Lake proper is only about 40% Mormon and there is plenty of religious diversity .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2018 09:13PM by bona dea.

My experience working as a teaching assistant in Granite District was not positive at all. For every excellent teacher ther are at least three who are average and at least three who are lazy and uneducated .It amazes me how some of these folks ever got hired or kept thier jobs.The administrators were even worse.Granite Hell .

I had some bad administrators, but most of the teachers were good. However, the issue we are discussing is how Mormon the schools are. I retired in 2003 and Mormons were a majority in many schools although thre were plenty of other views represented. Today, as a substitute, there are more and more minorities which brings a lot more diversity. If yoy are afraid of minorities and immigrants, you might not like it, but there are certainly less Mormons and, at least in high schools, the kids are generally good. Junior highs have more problems due to the age and immaturity of the kids and the fact that the worst ones are too young to drop out.

"For every excellent teacher ther are at least three who are average and at least three who are lazy and uneducated"

BINGO... "Lazy" is a strong word, and I am sure many who you or I, think fall into that category, work hard, many teachers here are un/under-educated. UT does not spend a lot of money on schools at the student level.

lazy is what they were . Many teachers in Special Education have the teaching assistant do all the teaching. . Do all the work . Lazy does not even start to describe some of these so called "teacher". They somehow cannot be fired or be made to actually teach . Teaching is a verb. Can't be a verb while sitting on your fat ass reading People magazine . The contempt I have for teachers, oops ,morons like this in intense. I wouldn't hire them to work at McDonalds. Why? you actually have to work while employed at McDonalds. has not a thing to do with Utah spending little on education . Has everything to do with the near impossibility of getting rid of these arseholes.

Start a job search for a transfer/job change OUT of Utah. That would be my suggestion, as a nevermo, but having read, lurked and posted on this board for several years, if I were in your position, it is what I would do.

Thanks for all of the great feedback! I think what I'm hearing is:

1) Unless they go to private school or Park City, my kids will not have a positive childhood experience in Utah.
2) Utah does not invest in public school education.
3) If our choices are between sending my kids to public school in the valley or leaving Utah, we should leave Utah.

I get the whole "children need to learn to live with adversity..." thing, but there is good adversity and bad adversity. Good adversity: Growing up in NYC and learning to survive on the streets. Bad adversity: Having your neighbor tell you that your kid can't play with their kids because they don't believe in Kolob. I'll happily take good adversity over that.

On the flip side, part of me wants to stay just to not be a quitter, and try to be part of the movement that flips this state upside down and turns the Mormons into the minority. But my kids come first. We'll probably stay until they are 5 or 6, then head out to somewhere that intellect, free thought and diversity are valued.

Obviously you are discounting my posts and I am one of the few posters who is currently working in two Salt Lake districts.Granite and Salt Lake Districts are diverse.I dont know that much about other districts



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2018 03:12PM by bona dea.

that I have some nonmormon friends who moved back to Utah when their son started high school. He became suicidal. This was in North Ogden. They ended up putting him in the Catholic school.

If I had lived in SLC, I would have put my kids in Catholic school. I thought that even when I was still attending church. What I found extremely ridiculous, but sounds like mormons, the mormons who had their kids in the Catholic schools didn't like that they taught, guess what?? Catholicism.

I went to school from fifth grade to graduation in cedar city as a non mormon and had mormon friend's thruout those year's and it was just fine no one really even mentioned the church much, I did get accidentally put in seminary the start of senior year and they made me the class vice president for not showing up I heard