Granite District does away with year round school

The Granite School Board made the decision in December to eliminate year round schedules at the remaining 14 schools in the district. As of Aug. 27, all schools in Granite District will be on a traditional school schedule.

Granite Communication Director Ben Horsley said the district was motivated to make the change for financial reasons and to make things easier for families with children attending different schools.

“It’s less expensive for us to run our district when all the schools are on the same schedule,” he said. “It’s also much easier for parents who have younger children in elementary school to be on the same schedule as their older siblings in junior high or high school.”

Granite started utilizing the year round school schedule back in the late 1980s to save money. Horsley said although it does cost the district an additional $100,000 per school each year to operate on a year round schedule, it is still cheaper than spending $9 million to$15 million to build a new school.

At the time the district made the change, Horsley said it was estimated eight to10 new schools would have needed to be built to accommodate the number of students.

The expansive growth Granite experienced 20 years ago has since stabilized in most areas. Some areas continue to grow, and Horsley said the district will manage this by adjusting boundaries to accommodate students.

Granite officials estimate by utilizing the year round schedule, the district has saved around $150 million to-$180 million over the last 20 years.

“We recently found that 10 of the 14 schools currently on year round schedules have extra space and no longer needed that type of schedule,” Horsley said. “Over the years, we have added and taken schools off when the space requirements have changed.”

Hillsdale, Hillside, Orchard, Stansbury and Valleycrest Elementary Schools will be impacted by this change for the 2012/2013 school year in West Valley. Horsley said approximately 14,000 students will be affected by the switch.

Reaction to the change has been positive from school administrators, teachers and parents, Horsley said. Changes to transportation and parking at schools will be adjusted for the new schedule, although Horsley said the district isn’t anticipating any problems.

“Our district loses a lot of kids to other traditional and charter schools because parents don’t want their children on a year round schedule,” he said. “The district decided it doesn’t make sense to spend an additional $1.5 million each year on year round. We would rather put this money back into the classroom.”