This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Mayor Jackie Biskupski's claim that a Simpson Avenue homeless resource center will serve women and children pulls at heartstrings but sidesteps dialogue about the best ways to include children experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake City's public schools. The mayor and her staff have taken no transparent steps to learn about the educational needs of children experiencing homelessness or the ways that the Salt Lake City School District currently serves them. Such steps are imperative for any successful shelter site, and any new claim they have already taken place runs counter to the recent public meeting on Jan. 18.
The district has the responsibility of educating all children residing in the city; they know where schools have room and resources. It's nothing other than unacceptable that the superintendent and elected board were left out of the site selection conversation for a family shelter.
The Simpson Avenue site is within the boundaries of Nibley Park K-8 School. City materials and public comments reveal that the mayor's office doesn't even recognize that Nibley is not a traditional elementary model. This is vital misunderstanding shows how little homework has been done, with other factors missed by the mayor's staff including Nibley's current lack of bus service, school boundaries lacking affordable transitional housing, and median incomes restricting the school from Title 1 funding typically used by schools that accommodate students living in the shelter.
Because of the evolving K-8 model, Nibley has a student-teacher ratio problem that results in some lower grade classrooms having as many as 36 students, making it unlikely that the school can adequately serve more students. While Deputy Chief of Staff David Litvack promises that the city will create fixes, this lip service does little to assuage families already doing the hard work of educating and advocating at Nibley.
There has also been no facilitation of dialogue between Nibley and Washington Elementary, which currently serves children bused from the Road Home. Dialogue between faculty and staff would make an enormous difference in securing student safety and comfort as well as enabling the development of strategies to improve academic and social outcomes for children who truly deserve it. Both schools already have a lot in common including the flight of neighborhood children to more affluent public options.
Proponents of the shelter site are quick to claim NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) against any critique but in fact, this concern comes from a dual perspective of the shelter's current backyard and its potential new backyard. Shelter relocations add to already constant movement of families experiencing homelessness and that movement is the largest inhibitor to closing achievement gaps. The mayor's office would be wise to not only engage in this conversation but consider supporting the McKinney-Vento law which ensures students experiencing homelessness also have a right to attend a choice of schools ranging for their school of origin to those in shelter boundaries. This law is not currently enforced due to a lack of resources.
If a Simpson site moves forward without addressing these issues, the greatest harm will befall the women and children who this new shelter is intended to benefit. The school district and Washington Elementary have valuable experience to add to this discussion resulting from their largely successful integration of students residing at the shelter. The mayor should seek their advice.
Aimee Bateman Horman, Ashley Anderson and Victoria Petro-Eschler are Salt Lake City School District parents and School Community Council (SCC) members or chairs.