Local elementary schools to revert to traditional schedules

A final decision was laid down at the Granite Board of Education's Dec. 6 meeting regarding the much-discussed issue of year-round school schedules.

All of Granite's 14 year-round schools will finish the current school year as they are, and revert to a traditional summers-off schedule in the fall. Brought on by a unanimous vote from the board, this change will affect several schools in Kearns, including Bacchus, Beehive and South Kearns Elementaries.

Using year-round schedules in certain areas served the district and taxpayers well in the past.

"It's just no longer necessary," District Communications and Marketing Director Ben Horsley said. "It seems prudent that we can now move those schools off year-round schedules."

Granite originally converted 18 of its schools to year-round in the late 1980s to accommodate high population growth in certain areas that had caused overcrowding in the schools. The move to year-round prevented the district from having to build eight to 10 new facilities, and ultimately saved $130-180 million, Horsley said. However, the populations in those areas have completely stabilized since then--a few are not quite there but well on their way to stabilizing within the next few years--and the schools' student bodies are thinning out again.

Now that space is no longer a problem, the district will actually be able to save more funds by closing down those 14 schools during the summer to help cut utility costs--a additional $1-1.5 million per year, Horsley said.

The proposal to return to traditional schedules was formally submitted to the board by district administration during the October study session. Since then, the district has gathered public opinions on the matter through open meetings and online surveys.

Overall, reactions to the change have been positive, Horsley said. An overwhelming 90 percent of parents supported it from the start. In fact, year-round schools have been losing families to traditional-schedule schools in the district for years, primarily because planning a family trip is challenging when secondary students are out for the summer and elementary students are not.

"It's just not family-friendly in that respect," he said.

Employees of the schools had some concerns about how the change would play out, particularly those who had only experienced year-round throughout their careers, but they were open to the idea, and many were definitely in favor, Horsley said. All 14 principals supported it.

"There are pros and cons to anything you do," Beehive Principal Pauline Longberg said.

Moving to a traditional schedule will be more conducive to teachers' collaboration within grade levels, since all of them will be in school at the same time, she said. She also agreed that families are happy that their own scheduling will be made easier.

However, the school's Track Back program will be missed, with its additional learning opportunities during off-track times, as will the extra space in the lunch room and playgrounds they have now with fewer children in there at a time, she said.

"They'll have to learn to get along a little bit better," she said.