In a Dec. 5 public hearing that lasted almost two hours, parents, students, alumni and community members made their final pleas to the Salt Lake City School District board to avoid closures of their neighborhood elementary schools.
After months of study, the district recommended in November the board close Hawthorne, M. Lynn Bennion, Mary W. Jackson and Riley elementaries. Originally, seven out of the district’s 27 elementaries were on the table.
A common concern heard by the board was how this would affect the well-being of kids.
“Our children have been through enough within the last five years, and I don't think they need to go through more,” said Brandi Yanagui, who told the board she attended Mary W. Jackson and hopes her kids will be able to, as well.
Hawthorne parent Michelle Cloud got emotional as she stood before the board in a “I love Hawthorne” t-shirt with her fourth-grade son by her side.
COVID, Cloud said, has put kids like her child at a developmental, emotional and educational disadvantage. Hawthorne closing, Cloud said, would bring more challenges for young kids to overcome, like getting used to new environments and having to meet new friends.
Many speakers had connections to Hawthorne Elementary, located south of Liberty Park. Yanagui told the board that while she didn’t see many Jackson families at the meeting, she thinks that is because of language barriers. One parent spoke to the board in Spanish and another spoke in Farsi. The district said their comments would be translated for the public record.
“I want to stay with my friends,” one Hawthorne first grader told the board.
Highland High junior Adriana Manzo said the relationships she made when she attended Hawthorne Elementary were important and she still values them. She wants her younger sister to experience that, too.
“It's just very painful to see that all these kids don't get to have a sustainable education, they have to worry about the connections that they're going to keep and whoever is going to be there,” Manzo said.
Some speakers who were there to support Hawthorne pointed to the school’s accomplishments, like being nationally recognized in 2018. A fifth grade student pointed out that Olympic figure skater Nathan Chen is a former student. Others spoke highly of the school’s community or said they decided to live where they do so they could attend Hawthorne.
District data reports that almost 57% of its elementary school students are ethnic and racial minorities. However, three out of the four schools on the chopping block have higher percentages of students of color than the district average. At Riley, more than 86% of students are minorities, followed by 83% of students at Jackson and 75% at Bennion. At Hawthorne, only about 35% of students are ethnic and racial minorities.
If Jackson does close, former Jackson parent Ashley Cleveland worries those students will be forced to integrate into a school that has a higher population of white students and will not be “equipped to handle a new diverse student population.”
Both Jackson and Riley serve families on the west side of Salt Lake City. Multiple activists spoke in support of keeping those schools open, saying they serve more than just the students.
“The closure of the elementary schools will result in the loss of many social services and resources for families, students and community members. These schools have established strong connections with communities they serve,” said Alondra Morales, a University of Utah student who described herself as a west side community organizer.
Pachuco Lautaro, a member of the Rose Park Brown Berets, said if Jackson is closed and students have to attend a school that is farther away, it will make it harder for their families to engage in their child's education.
“Closing down school perpetrates the systemic racism that our youth continue to face in our brown and Black communities,” Lautaro said.
West side and Hawthorne families also had concerns about how transportation needs will be met if their neighborhood school is closed, specifically about students crossing dangerous roads to get to school.
Salt Lake City Council member Victoria Petro, who represents part of the west side and has children at Jackson, told the board the school’s facilities have been neglected. Instead of closing it, she asked them to invest and save it.
“You, the board, can change the trajectory of these historical inequities. You can protect the families that live closest to the building who need us the most,” Petro said.
Many were frustrated with the process the district took to get to the proposed closure list. Some said it should have communicated better and been more transparent. Others questioned the data the district used to make its decision and called for the closure study process to start over. Some said this process has made them lose trust in the district.
There were also broader frustrations with the state’s capital city not being more family friendly and concerns that closing schools would exacerbate the problem. Multiple community members said the school board should work more with local and state leaders to change that.
That message stuck out to board member Kristi Swett, who said “we need to own part of that” and that the board should partner with the city more to change that narrative. Swett also said the district and board need to take responsibility for mistakes made in this process.
After the public hearing ended, Superintendent Elizabeth Grant said she wanted to reassure the community that she heard them and took notes about their concerns. But she added that the youth population in Salt Lake City is declining, especially on the west side.
“This is the reality in which we need to consider matching our number of schools with the number of students that we have in the district,” Grant said.
The board decided to put this issue on its action agenda for the next meeting on Jan. 9. This means it will vote on whether to close each of the four schools after the 2023-2024 school year.
