Granite School District faces 3 more potential elementary school closures

Nov 14, 2024, 3:00 PM | Updated: Nov 18, 2024, 12:20 pm

FILE: A Granite School District bus is pictured outside of the Capitol in Salt Lake City, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

BY ALEXANDREA BONILLA

Associate Producer

SALT LAKE CITY — The Granite School District is looking at more elementary school closures.

Douglas T. Orchard, Redwood and Valley Crest are all under consideration to close. This would bring the total number to nine elementary schools in the past 5 years.

Granite School District spokesperson Andrea Stringham said multiple factors resulted in the closures.

“Current and future enrollment is definitely one of the prominent factors.”

Facility conditions, transportation, safe walking routes, and student academic success also play a part.

Stringham said the closures would allow the district to not only consolidate their student population but also its resources.

“There are a lot of specialty programs that Redwood Elementary has, Orchard has, and those we would be able to continue at these other schools which would benefit more children,” said Stringham.

The school closures would also allow for more funding for the other schools in the district.

“That’s more funding for more paraeducators in those schools, for more support programs. There’s also more effective parent participation.”

One of the schools, Valley Crest, is looking at reopening as a Spanish dual language immersion school.

The final decision on the closures will be made in December.

We want to hear from you.

Have a story idea or tip? Send it to the KSL NewsRadio team here.

K-12 Education

Third grade teacher Nereida Lopez talks to one of her students before The Great Utah ShakeOut earth...

Tammy Kikuchi

Third graders in Utah are falling behind on their reading skills

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s third grade students are falling behind on their reading skills. But the Utah Legislature has set a goal to reach a higher standard. The state legislature set a mandate in 2022 to raise the reading proficiency up to 70%. Third grade teachers have until 2027 to improve the reading proficiency […]

3 days ago