This autumn in Salt Lake City, we are enjoying the beauty of vibrant fall colors in urban canopies and the sound of children playing in our neighborhoods. However, parents of elementary school students are burdened by an ominous feeling — and it’s not because of the approaching spooky holiday.
The Salt Lake City School District is evaluating whether to close certain elementary schools in the heart of our city. This process, as analyzed by Tribune reporter Andy Larsen in a recent article, has raised serious concerns among many in our community.
As parents of students at Hawthorne and Emerson Elementary schools, we value the contributions of teachers, parents and community members in building strong communities around our respective schools. Closing either or both schools would greatly disappoint our families and have significant detrimental impacts on our children, their peers and the neighborhoods we call home.
We have been engaged in this difficult community process in an attempt to approach it as objectively as possible, attending numerous school meetings and thoroughly reviewing the available materials provided by the SLCSD. It’s been emotionally challenging, but we are willing to accept school closures if the decision-making process is fair, the need for closure is clear and transparency prevails.
Unfortunately, the current process has been marked by a lack of transparency, haste, disorganization and the absence of publicly-available data to support key assumptions made by the district. While we acknowledge the district’s dedication to elementary students, from the perspective of many parents, the closure process seems more like a superficial exercise designed to justify decisions already made behind closed doors.
First and foremost, the district’s stated need for school closures lacks clarity and supporting data. The district repeatedly focuses on the need to “right size” schools at between 400-550 students per school. When asked by parents how they arrived at this “right size,” the district highlights the purported benefits of having multiple grade level classes at each school without providing any supporting data. They also mention a consultant’s recommendation, yet this study has not been made available to parents. Tribune reporter Andy Larsen found that most studies suggest a “right size” of 300-350 students, enrollment numbers which several of the schools being studied for closure meet or exceed.
Total school enrollment seems to have taken a backseat to an unreasonable emphasis by the district on neighborhood enrollment in the school closure process. Both Emerson and Hawthorne offer special hub programs that attract diverse student communities. With both schools recently having been recognized as National Blue-Ribbon schools, they also have many students that choose to attend from outside neighborhood and even district boundaries. By discounting total enrollment and emphasizing neighborhood enrollment in its process, the district is not fully recognizing the importance of empowering parents to choose the best school and programs for their children. Moreover, long-term demographic trends are not being adequately considered, as the Hawthorne and Emerson neighborhoods are projected to experience less demographic decline in school-age children than, for example, the Ensign and Indian Hills neighborhoods, which are not under evaluation for closure.
School age is one of the metrics being used to evaluate schools for closure, and indeed appears to be a primary factor impacting schools selected for more detailed closure consideration. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the district considers older schools more costly to operate or maintain than others. However, when questioned about building operation and maintenance costs at a recent meeting with Hawthorne parents, the district had no data to share.
Another metric being used to score schools is proximity to busy streets, but the district has not provided any data relating to how this impacts safety or even how many students walk to their neighborhood schools. While Emerson and Hawthorne have proximity to busier streets, casual observers can see that both schools still support large student populations that either bike or walk to school on a daily basis.
Parents have many unanswered questions. How are diversity and equity being weighed in the decision process? Many of the impacted schools are in the heart of our city, yet schools in higher income areas are not being considered for closure despite declining enrollment demographics. Who is on the Boundary Options Committee, what is their expertise and why were they chosen? Why is the age of buildings being weighed so heavily? Why is such an important decision being rushed?
The district’s flawed process has tragically created divisions among our school communities and between neighborhoods. To bring our community together and focus on what is best for our students, the district should refrain from making a hasty decision and proceed only when a truly deliberate and transparent process is in place.
Nick Schou
Nick Schou is a lifelong resident of Salt Lake City and the father of two Hawthorne Elementary Students.
Jack Davis
Jack Davis is the son of a retired public school teacher, a lifelong Utahn and the father of two Emerson Elementary Students.
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