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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Salt Lake City Board of Education voted Tuesday to end its experiment with year-round elementary schools.
- Bennion Elementary School
- Franklin Elementary School
- Meadowlark Elementary School
- Parkview Elementary School
- Rose Park Elementary School
- Whittier Elementary School
Six schools -- Bennion, Franklin, Meadowlark, Parkview, Rose Park and Whittier -- will move from a year-round calendar to a traditional calendar starting this August.
School district officials said the move would save about $130,000 through reduced costs for transportation and other expenses.
The district decided about 20 years ago to let schools choose whether they wanted to be year-round in an effort to bolster academic performance, unlike other districts that have made the move to reduce overcrowding. But officials say test results have not improved.
"Those on the traditional nine-month calendar are actually scoring a little bit higher than those in the year-round schools," said district spokesman Jason Olsen.
"It's hard to say we're putting students first if we continue something that isn't proving to be successful for students," said school board member Amanda Thorderson.
But board member Rosemary Emery argued that the test scores are not significantly different. She questioned why the board was making the decision instead of deferring to schools as it had in the past, when 80 percent of parents at year-round schools said in a survey they did not want to change.
"We should have some school choice," she said.
The year-round calendar starts three weeks before the traditional calendar and spreads several short breaks throughout the year.
Discussion of the move's financial impact came after a sobering review of the opening days of a legislative session that district officials said promises to squeeze their budget ever tighter.
"I'm having a hard time seeing where we get the money from without making serious slashes to everything," Thorderson said.
Board vice president Heather Bennett said that although she agonized over the decision, the test results data showed that students in year-round schools stopped making progress in fourth through sixth grade. Instead of helping them, the year-round calendar "seems to handicap them slightly," she said.
Still, board member Alama Uluave said parents at the two year-round schools in his west-side precinct fear their routine would be disrupted, with potential negative impacts for students.
"That schedule met their needs," he said.
The change was approved by a 5-2 vote, with Emery and Uluave opposing it.
E-mail: pkoepp@desnews.com
