A charter high school for performing arts in American Fork, Utah, has decided to close.
The Provo Daily Herald reports that the Pioneer High School for the Performing Arts had not met the enrollment and financial goals needed to keep operating.
“Pioneer’s home wasn’t in a building, it was in our hearts and it was with all of you here and those who could not be with us here today,” says Alma Lake, the acting chair of the school’s governing board.
The school would have needed at least 169 students enrolled and an additional $250,000 to operate for the coming school year.
Since the school opened in 2012. its enrollment has dropped from more than 250 students to 120 as the school split from an agreement with an online education provider, and an agreement for a new building fell through.
The school was placed under a warning status in 2013 by the Utah State Charter School Board and was placed on school turnaround in 2015.
Dallyn Bayles, the school’s executive director, said the school had about 140 students for the 2016-17 school year and recruited an additional 70 students for the 2017-18 school year.
Bayles urged the board to decide quickly whether the school should close so students and employees could a new school. Classes would have started Aug. 20.
