Best Schools in Centerville, Utah: A Parent's Guide

If you are looking at homes in Centerville, Utah, schools are probably somewhere near the top of your list — and possibly at the top of it. I hear the same question from almost every family I work with here: which school will my kids actually go to if we buy this house?

It is a fair question, and the answer is more specific than most websites will tell you. Centerville is small enough that four elementary schools sit within a few minutes of each other, which means two houses on opposite sides of the same street can feed different schools. So this guide does two things. First, it lists every public and charter school that serves Centerville families, with real addresses and links to each school's own website. Second, it answers the questions parents actually ask me — about boundaries, about switching schools, and about what schools do and do not do to a home's value.

I'm Julie Burningham, a Realtor with Equity Real Estate. I live in Davis County, four of my kids have gone through Davis School District, and before real estate I taught elementary music. So I have sat on both sides of the parent–teacher table. Everything below is verified against the district and the schools' own sites, not scraped from a ratings app.

How school grades are organized in Centerville

Centerville is served by Davis School District, the second-largest district in Utah. Davis uses a three-tier structure that surprises families moving in from out of state:

That means 9th graders here are still in junior high, and high school is only three years. If you are coming from a state with middle schools that run 6–8, plan for that difference — it changes which building your rising 7th grader walks into.

Public schools in Centerville, Utah

Every school below is part of Davis School District. Click any school name to go to that school's own website, where you will find bell schedules, calendars, and the office phone number.

A few things worth knowing that the table cannot show you.

Two of these schools carry a full name that gets shortened. J.A. Taylor Elementary on Pages Lane is often listed simply as "Taylor," and Jennie P. Stewart Elementary on North Main is often listed simply as "Stewart" — including on their own web addresses and on most real estate sites. They are the same schools. If you are searching district paperwork or an old listing and only find "Taylor" or "Stewart," you are in the right place.

Centerville Junior High on South Main Street is the only junior high inside Centerville, and it is a big one — right around 970 students across grades 7 through 9.

Viewmont High School is where most Centerville students finish, and it sits just over the line in Bountiful, about a five to ten minute drive from most of Centerville depending on where you are. It is a Davis District school, so this is not a case of leaving your district — it is simply where the boundary sends you. Viewmont enrolls roughly 1,570 students.

Centerville does not have its own high school. For some families that is a non-issue. For others — especially families with a kid who wants to walk or bike to school — it matters, and it is worth driving the route before you write an offer.

Centerville has a Chinese dual immersion pathway that runs all the way to graduation

This is the single most distinctive thing about schools in Centerville, and I have never once seen it mentioned in a real estate listing.

Jennie P. Stewart Elementary is a Chinese dual language immersion school — and unlike a lot of language programs, this one does not stop at sixth grade. Davis School District runs secondary immersion, and the Chinese pathway continues straight up through the Centerville schools:

A child can begin Chinese in elementary school at Stewart and keep going all the way through high school without ever leaving the Centerville feeder pattern. Very few places in Utah — or anywhere — offer that continuity in a single small town.

If this matters to your family, it changes the house search, because it points you at one specific elementary boundary. Two things to ask the school directly, and to ask early: how and when students enter the immersion strand, and whether there are seats in the grade your child is entering. Immersion programs typically start in the early grades and have limited capacity, so this is not a decision to leave until August.

Charter schools near Centerville

Here is a straight answer that a lot of sites dance around: there is no charter school located inside Centerville city limits. Centerville families who want a charter option commute to a neighboring city. These are the closest ones, and all of them are tuition-free public charters open to students across the area by application and lottery.

Spectrum Academy is worth calling out specifically because it is built for a particular student: it serves students with autism and other neurodiversities, with small classes and a social-skills curriculum woven into the day. If you have a child on an IEP or a 504 and you are moving to the area, that is a school to look at early, because it is not a school you decide on in August.

The practical thing to remember about charters: a charter school does not come with the house. Your address gets you a guaranteed seat at your boundary school. A charter seat comes from a lottery, and popular grades fill up. So if a charter is your plan A, apply first and shop for the house with plan B in mind.

A parent's guide to Centerville schools

How do school boundaries actually work here?

Davis School District draws an attendance boundary around each school. If your home address falls inside that boundary, your child has a guaranteed seat at that school. You do not apply, you do not enter a lottery, and you do not pay — you enroll.

The catch in Centerville is that the four elementary boundaries are physically small. Centerville is only about six square miles of populated bench and flatland, and it holds four elementary schools. So the line between Jennie P. Stewart and Reading, or between Centerville Elementary and J.A. Taylor, can run down the middle of a block. Two homes you are comparing on the same afternoon can easily feed two different elementary schools.

Junior high and high school boundaries are larger and change less often, but they are still boundaries, and they still get redrawn when growth demands it.

How do I check which schools a specific address feeds?

Check it at the source. There are three reliable ways:

1. Use the district's own school locator. Davis School District's planning department maintains "Find My School" address lookup tools and boundary maps. Start at the Davis School District Planning page and use the elementary, junior high, and high school lookups there. Enter the full street address, not just the neighborhood.
2. Call the district's planning office at 801-402-5261. A human will tell you exactly which schools an address feeds, and will tell you if that address is inside an area currently under a boundary study. This call takes about four minutes and it is free.
3. Call the school itself. The front office at Centerville Elementary, Reading, Jennie P. Stewart, or J.A. Taylor can confirm whether an address is in their boundary.

Do this before your due diligence period ends, not after you close. I have seen families discover the school situation in July, and July is a terrible month to be surprised.

One more piece of the same advice: ask whether the address is affected by an active boundary study. Davis District periodically studies and redraws boundaries as neighborhoods grow and schools fill. A house that feeds a particular school today may not feed it in three years. That is not a reason to panic — it is a reason to ask.

What if I want a school other than the one my address feeds?

Utah has open enrollment, and in Davis School District the process is called a boundary permit. You are allowed to request a seat at any school in the district, and at many schools you will get it — but it depends on whether that school has room.

Here is how the process runs, based on the district's published process for the 2026–27 school year:

How to apply: current district families use the myDSD parent portal — log in, choose Tools, then Apply for Open Enrollment Permit. Families moving in from outside the district call Student & Family Resources at 801-402-5159. For kindergarten, you request the permit directly at the school.

Two honest caveats. First, dates and details shift from year to year, so confirm the current window on the district's boundary permits page before you rely on any of this. Second, a boundary permit is not a guarantee and it usually does not come with bus service. If you get a permit to a school across town, you are the transportation. Plan for that in your morning.

Do schools really affect home values in Centerville?

Yes — but not in the simple way people expect, and I want to be careful here rather than quote a percentage I cannot stand behind.

What I see on the ground in Davis County is this. School boundaries affect demand, and demand affects days on market and negotiating room more visibly than it affects the list price. A well-regarded elementary boundary means more showings in the first weekend, more competing offers in the spring, and less seller flexibility. A home a block outside that boundary may sit a little longer and may leave you more room to negotiate. Same house, same finishes, different buyer pool.

There is a second effect that matters more over the long run: boundary stability. A home in an established, built-out part of Centerville is unlikely to have its elementary boundary redrawn. A home in an area that is still adding rooftops is more exposed to a future boundary study. Neither is good or bad — but if you are buying specifically for a school, buying into a stable boundary is worth more than buying into a highly-rated one that is about to be redrawn.

And the honest third point: most buyers in Centerville do not have school-age children. Empty nesters, young couples, and people who just want a ten-minute commute to Salt Lake are competing for the same houses. So schools are one input into Centerville home values, not the whole story.

Which Centerville elementary school is the best one?

I get asked this constantly, and I am not going to name one, because the question does not have an honest answer.

All four Centerville elementaries — Centerville, Reading, Jennie P. Stewart, and J.A. Taylor — teach the same Davis School District curriculum and are staffed by teachers licensed to the same state standards. The test-score gaps between them are mostly a reflection of the neighborhoods around them, not of the teaching inside them. I taught elementary music, and I can tell you that the difference between a great year and a hard year for a kid is usually a specific teacher, a specific class, and a specific friend group — none of which shows up in a rating out of ten.

What actually varies between these four schools, and what is worth investigating:

• Size and class sizes. Ask the office for current enrollment and average class size in your child's grade.
• Programs. Ask about music, art, before- and after-school options, and what happens for a kid who is ahead in math.
• Special education and support services. If your child has an IEP or a 504, ask what services are delivered in-building versus what is delivered by a traveling specialist.
• The walk. Ask whether your address is inside the walk zone or the bus zone. This shapes your daily life more than any rating.
• Culture. Go stand in the front office at 8:15 on a school day. You will learn more in ten minutes than in an hour of reading reviews.

What should I ask when I tour a school?

Five questions that get you real answers:

1. How many students are in the grade my child is entering, and how many teachers?
2. Is my address in the walk zone or the bus zone, and what time does the bus come?
3. Is this school currently open or closed to boundary permits?
4. What is the plan if enrollment keeps growing — portables, boundary change, or something else?
5. What do you wish new families knew before they enrolled?

That last one is my favorite. Front-office staff will tell you the truth if you ask them kindly.

When does my child start kindergarten?

Davis School District enrolls kindergarten through each individual school. Contact the school your address feeds directly — Centerville, Reading, Jennie P. Stewart, or J.A. Taylor — and ask about enrollment dates and what documentation to bring. If you want a kindergarten seat at a school outside your boundary, that request also goes directly to the school rather than through the online portal.

Matching the right school to the right house

Here is what I actually do for families, and why I wrote all this down.

When you tell me which schools matter to you, I do not send you every house in Centerville. I verify the boundary on each address with the district first, and I tell you which of the homes you liked feed which school — including the ones that are one block on the wrong side of the line. If you are set on a school, I will show you what is available inside that boundary and be honest with you about whether that inventory fits your budget. Sometimes it does not, and the better move is a boundary permit and a house you can actually afford. I would rather tell you that in March than let you find out in July.

I know these schools from the inside. Four of my own children have gone through Davis School District. I taught elementary music before I sold real estate, so I know what a good building feels like and what questions get past the front-desk script. And I live here, so I am still going to be around after you close.

If you are moving to Centerville and schools are driving the decision, send me the two or three schools you care about and I will build your search around them.

Once you know which school you want, the next question is which part of Centerville you can buy in. My Centerville city guide covers the east bench versus the valley floor, current prices, and what is actually for sale right now. For the fuller picture of daily life here — commute, parks and trails, neighborhoods, and what things cost — read my honest guide to living in Centerville. And if you are still choosing who to work with, here is how I would pick a Centerville agent.

Julie Burningham, Equity Real Estate