A handful of Salt Lake City School District students pleaded to school board members in December to keep their elementary schools open. The main reason? To stay with their friends.
“Not all my friends would go to the school I would attend,” said Hawthorne fifth grader Zoe Budnik. “This would be sad and disappointing to a lot of kids at other schools, too.”
Board members ultimately decided to close four elementary schools — Hawthorne, Bennion, Riley and Mary W. Jackson — and divide and assign their current students to different campuses. But they developed a way to potentially keep some friends together: A special open enrollment period for families affected by the closures.
By the time that enrollment period closed on Feb. 19, the district had received 343 unique applications, according to district spokesperson Yándary Chatwin. Some parents applied to multiple schools using one application; some parents applied to one campus, data obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune indicated.
But parents whose children currently attend out-of-district schools, like preschools and private schools, also applied. And some parents submitted multiple applications for one student, Chatwin confirmed, making it hard to understand a true tally of individual requests based on initial data.
‘A sense of control’
Hawthorne parent Rosemary Winters said she opted to submit multiple applications to different schools for her third grader during the district’s special enrollment period — in order to “tailor the message” to each school. She did that on top of already applying during the district’s standard open enrollment period.
She said the district told parents that if their school was closing and they wanted their application to be prioritized, they should reapply during the special enrollment period if they already submitted an application during the standard period.
Winter said many parents she knows submitted applications to multiple schools, so they have options to keep their children together. As of last week, her son had been accepted into a few schools, including Dilworth, Ensign, Highland Park and Indian Hills, but he was rejected from Emerson.
“I think this open enrollment process is giving us a sense of control and choice that we didn’t have during this boundary process,” she said, adding that Uintah and Dilworth are her family’s top choices since her son has friends there already.
But fellow Hawthorne parent Starr Smith feels like there’s still a chance she might not have much of a choice for her two sons.
Smith also applied to multiple schools, but both of her kids were denied at Emerson. In addition, Dilworth only accepted her older son, an incoming fourth grader, but declined her younger son.
Emerson, one of her family’s top choices, had already accepted her older son’s best friend, along with becoming an automatically designated school for another friend.
“I’m worried that he’s going to be the only one that didn’t get in there, and they’re going to go there,” she said. “So it’s just a mess.”
Other district parents preemptively moved their kids to different schools before a decision to close schools was made.
Former Riley parent Kalo Hokafonu told The Tribune in August that after seeing the district was studying its elementary schools for potential closure and boundary changes, she felt her daughter’s school might be picked — and it was.
So, she enrolled her daughter at Ensign this year.
“My mom has always said that the west-side schools, they’re either failing, so the kids move, or they decide to close it,” she said. “And it’s always in our area.”
District works on student, staff transition
Families from closing schools who applied for open enrollment shouldn’t be “denied in theory,” Chatwin said, or at least denied from all their choices if they applied to multiple schools.
She explained that some parents who may have received an application denial “may get a follow up” from the district as it continues to figure out teacher reassignments, which will be completed by March 15.
“Things might be a little flexible, they might end up looking differently,” she said, adding that there’s an extra review process for this last cycle of open enrollment applications because of that. “There’ll be a place for those families in our district.”
In the meantime, the district has hosted open houses for students impacted by the closures, where families can meet their new teachers, administrators, and fellow students, as well as tour newly assigned schools.
Superintendent Elizabeth Grant said at a recent meeting that the district has already completed its administrative staff school placements as teacher reassignments continue.
She added the district is trying to connect with organizations that provide students and families with after-school programs, community programs and resources to figure out ways “we can provide alternatives through our school system, or to help them provide alternatives in the communities.”
“We’re looking at this every week to make sure that we’re staying on top of the details, and particularly trying to help with the communication in schools,” Grant said.
For Winters and other district parents, they’re eager to have all the information they need to make a decision about next school year.
“It’s been such a long process, and I’m ready to be settled,” she said, adding that they hope to be at a school “where we have some of our old friends and we get to make new friends, and hopefully find new things that we love about whatever new school they end up at.”
Parents and students should receive final notifications about their applications by March 15, Chatwin said. Those whose applications were denied will have an opportunity to appeal their decision. Families will also have the opportunity to participate in a late enrollment period beginning April 1.
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