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North Summit perseveres through challenges

With just more than 1,000 students filling the classrooms of its three schools — fewer than many individual schools in Utah — the North Summit School District faces a distinctive set of financial difficulties.

Despite those challenges, Superintendent Jerre Holmes says the district continues to succeed in its primary mission of providing a quality education for its students.

"We have very good teachers and administrators who work hard to provide a quality education for our students, and the school board and I do all we can to support them," he said.

Holmes said that while the district’s maintenance and operations budget — which goes toward teacher salaries and the daily costs of running a district — became less stable in recent years, as the Great Recession took its toll. The district’s total budget is around $12.5 million, nearly $8 million of which goes to maintenance and operations, according to numbers provided by the district.

The tight budget forced cuts during the height of the recession. One such sacrifice was not replacing teachers who retired or resigned, which often resulted in increased class sizes.

"That became very tricky," said Holmes, who became superintendent in 2011 after 10 years as North Summit High School’s principal. "So maybe instead of offering three sections of a certain class, we could only offer two."

As the economy has slowly rebounded, so has the district. But Holmes said that despite being on stable footing once again, the district will continue to be cautious about spending.

Because even now, while the district has replaced much of the "muscle" it cut during the recession, money is still tight.

According to numbers provided by the district, North Summit spends $9,010 per student each year. While that total amount is roughly $100 less than the Park City School District — which Holmes admits is widely regarded as one of the wealthiest in the state — says it spends on its students, Holmes said comparisons such as that are easy to misunderstand.

He said it often costs smaller districts much more money per pupil to build infrastructure — meaning more of that per-pupil spending goes towards things such as school buildings rather than enhancing the learning experience, such as offering a wider range of courses — than it would in a larger district. That’s a large reason the state doles out money to small schools it deems "necessarily existent," funds which are in addition to money every public school in the state receives based on its enrollment.

Numbers provided by the North Summit School District show that it receives roughly $5,000 per student from the state. For comparison, the Park City School District, whose enrollment is nearly five times that of North Summit, says the state gives it fewer than $3,000 per student.

"Whether you have eight in your English class or 30, the electricity is the same," Holmes said. "The power to heat it, the teacher to be in that classroom is the same. That’s why it’s disproportionate."

Holmes said that while the district isn’t able to spend as much money as larger districts to enhance the learning experience of its students, its ability to educate those who come through its halls is not in doubt. One reason is that the small student base that causes many of the district’s financial challenges also can work in its favor.

For one, teachers and administrators can focus more on individual students, as opposed to their counterparts in districts with higher enrollment.

"It’s easier to fall through the cracks (in a larger district)," said Holmes, noting that the average class sizes in North Summit is about 20. "In our district, no one falls through the cracks. Does it mean we have a 100-percent graduation rate? No. But it’s pretty high."

Holmes also is a firm believer that participating in extracurricular activities is an important part of a well-rounded education, which is why those programs were not touched when other cuts were made during the recession. And though the district is unable to provide as wide of a range of activities as larger districts do, students don’t have to limit themselves to just one activity.

"In the big schools, if you really want to excel, you almost have to isolate yourself to one area," he said. "But we’ve got football players in the musical. It’s a good mix and there are plenty of opportunities for students."

Many of the programs have experienced success in recent years. For instance, the Farmers Association of America organization’s parliamentary procedure team won the state competition last year and finished fourth at nationals.

"We’re talking about this small school in Utah, and here we are, top four in the nation," Holmes said. "You’re competing against 50 other state champions. It was amazing."

Additionally, the district gets creative to offer students the rigor that larger districts provide in the form of Advanced Placement classes. The North Summit School District only has two AP classes, but offers concurrent enrollment courses, which allow students to earn college credits while in high school. North Summit teachers who teach those classes, such as Math 1050, are approved by a local university to do so, and students can then transfer whatever credits they’ve earned to the college they attend after high school.

Holmes said that all those factors make him proud of the education the district provides.

"All five of my children graduated from North Summit, and each one of them has been prepared to pursue post-high school studies," he said. "I am proud of that fact and satisfied with the education they received here."

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“I have so much faith in what this program provides to kids, not only academically, but what I have seen firsthand is the means by which this activity provides kids who are neurodivergent with a safe space in which they are celebrated,” Williams said. “That’s really important to me, and so important to me that I’m not going to leave the program anytime soon.”



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