The Salt Lake Metropolis Faculty District on Tuesday took the primary steps in exploring the potential closure of seven elementary faculties. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information
Like different college districts all through Utah have achieved, the Salt Lake Metropolis Faculty District on Tuesday took the primary steps in exploring the potential closure of seven elementary faculties.
Throughout Tuesday's board assembly, the district's choices committee offered an inventory of seven faculties that it beneficial to be studied for doable closure.
The seven faculties listed had been Emerson Elementary, Hawthorne Elementary, M. Lynn Bennion Elementary, Mary W. Jackson Elementary, Newman Elementary, Riley Elementary and Wasatch Elementary.
Brian Conley, who led the choices committee, mentioned the district has seen a declining elementary pupil inhabitants — which prompted the district to begin the inhabitants and boundary examine final July.
"Within the fall of 2014, the district had ... 13,431 Okay-6 college students," Conley mentioned. "That quantity fell to 9,610 this previous college yr."
This decline marks a virtually 29% drop within the pupil inhabitants.
All 27 elementary faculties within the district had been included within the inhabitants and boundary examine, with the aforementioned seven offered to the board for additional consideration, although no motion was taken Tuesday night to formally start a examine of closing these faculties.
"It does not imply that these faculties are all going to shut," Salt Lake Metropolis Faculty District spokeswoman Yandary Chatwin advised KSL NewsRadio. "It does not imply something definitive till the board takes a vote in December or January."
In keeping with a timeline of the inhabitants and boundary examine, the board might decide which, if any, of the seven beneficial faculties to maneuver into a proper examine course of in August.
Whereas aiming for a closing resolution in December or January, this timeline would make sure the district's compliance with Utah code, which requires that oldsters of scholars enrolled in any affected college should be notified 120 days earlier than that faculty is closed or its boundaries are modified.
Moreover, it will give the district time to gather and weigh enter from group members.
"This schedule and what is going on on over the subsequent six to eight months ... was designed to make sure that our households have ample discover of any closing choices," Conley mentioned. "It will guarantee they will find out about their college packages, transportation and providers earlier than the top of the varsity — this coming college yr — after which they've the time and data wanted to organize for the next yr."
District Superintendent Elizabeth Grant acknowledged that whereas college closures are all the time powerful, the district took a "data-driven" method to assessing what faculties might doubtlessly be studied for closure.
"It was constructed on making an attempt to investigate the info on 27 elementary faculties, so pulling all the things we might get about these faculties after which having a look at that in a holistic approach throughout the district," Grant mentioned.
Board member Ashley Anderson took subject with the suggestions, saying she was disillusioned to see Wasatch Elementary on the checklist and its inclusion raised questions for her.
"One factor that does give me pause wanting on the checklist is seeing that the district's most prosperous areas are untouched," Anderson mentioned.
With a board resolution on any closing college closures or boundary adjustments coming in late 2023 or early 2024, there may be nonetheless ample time for public enter, which will be submitted nearly right here.