Granite District has an unusual problem at Bacchus Elementary. Too few students.
That's in a school that is on a year-round schedule because it had too many students.Several problems erupted at Bacchus, 5975 S. 5975 West, when fall enrollment figures at the school came in 55 below projections. The district responded by suggesting the school drop a teacher, combine classes and increase some class sizes.
That made parents unhappy.
Thursday, about 30 parents called the district offices to complain, said Dave Adamson, who directs the district's year-round program.
Parents are concerned that losing a teacher in the middle of one of their year-round periods will disrupt students in mid-term and that the loss will mean combining second- and third-graders in a split class as well as increasing some class sizes.
The school has been in session since July.
"Ten of the children would remain on track, but 14 others would have to go on other tracks," said Susan Mecham, Bacchus PTA president. "We feel it is a poor way to handle it. We've worked hard to try to avoid this kind of problem."
Mecham said she was surprised at the degree of anger parents felt as they responded to the proposals to change the school staffing in mid-stream. "We feel they give year-round schools too little consideration. They need to do things differently if they want to keep parents happy."
Adamson said the problem is strictly financial. With 55 students fewer than anticipated, it would cost the district approximately $77,000 to maintain the current staffing at Bacchus, he said.
The projections were based on student numbers as of late January, he said, "and they looked pretty firm. Bacchus had grown steadily all year." The unexpected decline, he said, may be related to families with school-age children moving from the neighborhood to be replaced by families with preschool children.
The Bacchus principal has been asked to make a plan for dealing with the decrease in students, Mecham said.
If necessary, district officials will meet with parents to discuss the problems, Adamson said. He said no final decision has been reached.
He said problems in year-round schools have almost always centered on finding additional teachers and aides to handle larger-than-expected numbers. The Bacchus decline is the first of its kind with which the district has dealt.