Kristi Swett was driven to run for the Salt Lake City school board, she said last week, when the district years ago closed Rosslyn Heights — the elementary school for the neighborhood she has now lived in for 38 years.
She described that history and her frustration to a board room packed with parents now arguing to save their children’s schools from the same fate. And she called out Salt Lake City leaders, and their oversight of growth, for contributing to the district once again facing possible school closures.
“I want you to know I’m highly disappointed in the cry for help that we have been echoing for the past decade to the city,” she said, with emotion, “about paying attention to our changing demographics, to affordable rents and housing for our families, safe walking routes.”
Swett paused, shook her head, and continued: “taking a master plan and blowing it up in concrete jungles, where there is no thought of families or green space in those developments.”
As the number of multifamily housing projects, including luxury apartment buildings, have boomed in Salt Lake City, families with school-age children are opting to live in communities outside its boundaries, demographers have said in repeated reports to the district. Enrollment has been dropping for years, and a recent state audit scolded the district for not closing schools sooner.
The city’s Redevelopment Agency has been offering tax breaks for developments in specific project areas, as well as support for housing throughout the city with requirements for a percentage to be affordable. City Council members point out the city has made millions in investments to make living in Utah’s capital more affordable.
The seven schools that the board voted to study for possible closure ring the center of the city, where RDA project areas are focused; precincts the farthest west and east of downtown do not have schools included. The listed schools are Emerson, Hawthorne, Wasatch, Bennion, Mary W. Jackson, Newman and Riley elementary schools.
At Tuesday’s meeting, school board member Ashley Anderson made a similar charge about city priorities. She noted that in a comment to the district, the parent of a preschooler within Emerson Elementary’s boundaries “rightly pointed out that many of the areas on the list are areas being deliberately gentrified by the city.”
Anderson continued: “And indeed, the demographic reports presented to past boards show that gentrification by specifically RDA project areas has been a significant driver of our declining enrollment over time.”
So while the school board must make the decision about which schools to study for closure, Anderson said, “I want to express that our path was paved by this City Council and the RDA as well as the legislative mandate before us.”
Three schools in board member Mohamed Baayd’s precinct are on the list — Riley, Hawthorne and Emerson, in a band stretching horizontally across the city from Glendale to East Liberty Park. Looking at a map shows the seven schools together also create lines, and the district needs to avoid creating a “barrier of inequity,” he said.
“Literally speaking, it’s like putting a burning wall that would separate the city,” he said, “and that we should not allow.”
City Council responds
City Council members responded to the board’s criticism in a group statement, first saying they recognize that closing schools is an “incredibly difficult decision.”
School board members “must be weighing the necessary closure of these schools to help the school district better serve students in the remaining schools, with the heartbreaking reality of the huge blow it will be to the affected families and students,” they said.
All seven council members — Victoria Petro, Alejandro Puy, Chris Wharton, Ana Valdemoros, Darin Mano, Dan Dugan and Sarah Young — supported the statement.
Then they pushed back, saying the City Council has been paying attention to the issues that board members brought up, such as investing in more affordable housing “than any other city in Utah.”
Over the past four fiscal years, the city invested almost $57 million in housing, which has led to a total of 4,055 affordable units, according to a council spokesperson. Other funding priorities included providing free and discounted transit passes to district K-12 students; investing in parks, trails and open spaces in the city to improve green spaces; and efforts to rebuild city streets “including sidewalks, crosswalks, bikeways, placemaking and more.”
“By working together, we can find ways to adjust to economic and social conditions changing in the City, and to pursue solutions that benefit the entire community,” the statement said. “As families are making their decisions, we want to continue being supportive of providing a bright future for our students.”
Petro, the council’s vice chair, said it was “disappointing” to hear the comments from board members. She won’t “ever claim that anyone is perfect in the way that they executed,” she said, but she added that the council and city administration are “working diligently to address any issues.”
“It’s always easy after the gentrification happened to say, ‘Oh, this is where gentrification is happening,’” Petro said. “I’m not worried about who’s to blame in the past so much as we’re still in the crisis, and I’m worried about how to get us out of it, and get as many Salt Lakers to safety, prosperity and the communities they want to be in.”
Moving forward
But the lack of affordable housing is an undeniable trend, said real estate agent Luann Lakis. For example, Riley Elementary, which may close, serves the Glendale area — which has seen housing prices rise.
“It used to be that you could always find something you could afford, either rent or purchase,” said Lakis, who has worked in real estate for 33 years. “You can’t even find an affordable home in Poplar Grove, Glendale or West Valley. You can’t buy a single-family home in Salt Lake County for under $400,000 any more, which is quite a change.”
The district has seen a 29% decrease in enrollment since 2014, and beyond city gentrification, factors such as Utah’s declining birth rate are playing a part.
So far, as the school board has moved through the process to consider school closures, there hasn’t been any formal collaboration between the city and the district, Petro said. There have been “informal conversations” regarding how City Council members might be able to help out, she said.
And while there aren’t any concrete plans to work with the district moving forward, she said council members are willing to do that.
“We’re helping when constituents have issues or feel like they don’t know how to handle this, we’re helping them get to the right people to advocate for themselves or their families or neighbors in the ways that are most productive and meaningful,” Petro said.
As for the school board and district, “We’re standing at the ready to tag in if they need us in any way that’s appropriate and reflects the statutory roles that we each have,” she said.
Swett asked for that as the school board was preparing to vote. “It would be nice to see a partnership with the city as we’re starting to move forward,” she said.
She said she hoped to see everyone “work together as community. Because we need to to make our city schools viable. We need that. A city can’t live without viable public schools.”
— Tribune reporter Blake Apgar contributed to this story.
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