Report: Daily bus delays at West High largely caused by district's shared governance

SALT LAKE CITY — Every day during the 2024 school year, about 165 West High School students exited the school with the closing bell, made their way to the school bus pick-up zone — and then waited 30 minutes for the bus to arrive and take them home.

A mere inconvenience? Not when you do the math. Over the course of the academic year, those daily half-hour school bus delays exacted 69 total hours of wait time, according to a report shared Tuesday with the Legislative Audit Subcommittee.

Staffers from the Office of the Legislative Auditor General concluded in their report that the Salt Lake City School District's shared governance policy was a key factor in the West High bus delays.

"Based on conversations with district staff and administrators as well as data reviewed, shared governance and confusion about shared governance have contributed to decisions that negatively impacted students in several key areas," the audit report noted. "These include transportation to and from school, as well as the number of instructional hours at West High School."

Additionally, students at two Salt Lake City School District middle schools consistently had trouble getting home on time on early release days.

At West High, the school district scheduled three buses to arrive 30 minutes after school ended, which is 23 minutes later than other afternoon buses at West High, the audit report noted.

This delay was caused by a conflict with afternoon buses taking students home from Bryant Middle School.

The Bryant principal reported that the school was allowed to pick an 8:45 a.m. start time instead of 8 a.m., which created a conflict with West High in the afternoon, according to the report.

"While bus driver shortages may have contributed to the situation, the district told us they would have had enough drivers to get West High students home on time if Bryant had chosen the earlier time," auditors said.

What is shared governance?

Shared governance is the district's long-observed process for participatory decision-making.

"Although it is the exclusive right of the Board of Education to determine the goals and direction of the district, in 1974, the Salt Lake Board of Education agreed to delegate the right to local sites to make some decisions through the use of the shared governance process," according to the district website.

"Shared governance is based on the philosophy that education is a responsibility of all employees and the community, and that when people work together to make decisions, many advantages accrue," it states.

The district's website notes that shared governance is "deeply embedded" in the district's culture — allowing district personnel and, at the school level, members of the community to make decisions which affect the welfare of students and education."

Who's governing the district's school schedules?

"The district's school scheduling process appears to be guided by shared governance, the culture of shared governance, and a past motion made by the SLCSD board," according to the audit report.

In 2021, a district school board motion laid out the start-and-end times for high schools, prohibited early release Fridays in high schools, and gave elementary and middle schools flexibility in choosing their start times and early release days according to shared governance, the audit report noted.

However, the board's motion did not lay out approval responsibilities among parties.

Similarly, the written agreement states that the "regular school day shall be scheduled in each school" but does not define what "regular school day" means.

"Combined, the board motion and written agreement do not provide clear guidance on the school scheduling process," according to the audit. "This creates an opportunity for school improvement councils and the teachers' association to exert decision-making authority on the process.

Salt Lake district administrators attempted to improve busing by standardizing the school scheduling process with criteria and guidelines. However, according to the audit report, the efforts "were reportedly met with complaints from the public, grievances filed by teachers and school faculties related to school schedules and threats from the teachers' association."

'More needs to be done'

Such a response, according to the audit, "illustrate difficulties in overcoming the entrenched culture of shared governance."

The audit report added that other aspects of shared governance in the district "such as restrictions on a principal's ability to impact school performance" are also problematic.

A prior audit of the district in 2022 raised concerns about how elements of shared governance limited the ability of principals "to affect positive changes in their schools." Since then, the district has taken positive steps through negotiations with the teachers' association.

"But more needs to be done," the 2024 report concluded.

The audit report delivered at Tuesday's meeting shared the example of one secondary school principal who attempted to reduce the number of class periods at their school from seven to six to increase time in core subjects from 47 minute per class to 58 minutes.

The students at the school underperformed on tests relative to another school in the district that had similarly reduced the number of class periods. The principal brought the plan to the faculty for approval. The majority of the faculty rejected it. According to the principal, every core subject teacher voted in favor of the change, but electives teachers voted against it.

The principal could have appealed to the superintendent to override the decision of the faculty but did not do so because they did not want to create friction within their faculty.

"We believe collaboration in a school is a sound principle in decision-making," the report noted. "However, some decisions should be made by principals who are responsible for developing their teachers and providing instructional leadership."

The authors of the audit report were clear on their recommendations of the future of shared governance in the Salt Lake City district: "The district's governance structure should be reevaluated and modified so that the school district and principals are not restricted in their ability to make decisions that meet the needs of students."

Read the entire story at Deseret.com.

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