Salt Lake Academy High School and Athlos Academy of Utah, two athletics-focused charter schools in Herriman, have teamed up to provide a seamless K-12 athletic and academic experience.

Last year, SLA had 61 feeder schools and no room to expand for a middle school program. Meanwhile, AAU had been crippled by financial and staffing struggles, declining middle school enrollment and no high school feeder system.

“All the way around, we looked at it as a win-win, of really being able to get the most maximum benefit,” former AAU Executive Director Brian Dawes said.

Effective July 1, 2025, SLA acquired AAU under authorization of the State Charter Board. The transition was facilitated by Salt Lake Academy Executive Director Sam Gibbs, who has been an administrator at both schools.

“I had a vision of both sides—of the two school communities—and what it would take to successfully merge them,” Gibbs said. “The community deserved a successful, powerful school choice option.”

The original SLA, now called the Herriman campus, will house grades 9-12. The AAU campus, now called the West Herriman campus, will house grades K-8. Both campuses have a fully licensed staff. The West Herriman campus will get upgrades to the building, sports field and tech equipment. But one thing that won’t be changed is the mascot—both schools were already using a griffin.

SLA remains a free public charter school, providing an elite level sports academy experience without the $50,000- $80,000 annual tuition.

“Any kid from any walk of life that has a passion and wants to succeed academically and athletically can come here,” Gibbs said.

Soccer will remain the school’s anchor sport with access to REAL Salt Lake’s training grounds. Opportunities to work with professional athletes will expand for all SLA students, with daily soccer training for high school and middle school students and optional after-school training for elementary students. Basketball and volleyball programs will continue to compete at a high level and eventually partner with local clubs, as well.

While a sports focus is what attracts students, SLA also boasts a rigorous academic curriculum, with many graduates attending elite universities.

“We aren't just a sports school,” Gibbs said. “We pride ourselves on high academics, but some of the best practices of academics are very difficult to implement with so many different feeder schools, and so the hope is to establish an aligned academic curriculum from K to 12, that we can move kids further academically.”

Student and parent response to the acquisition has been mixed, but overall positive, Gibbs said.

Amy Rowe, an AAU parent, was initially concerned about staffing changes, class sizes and schedules. She said most of her questions were addressed at a community meeting, one of several held to keep stakeholders updated.

“I believe that this is the best thing to do for me and my family at this time,” Rowe said. “I know there’s a lot of parents out there that are not going to give it a chance and I believe that they should give it a chance.”

Families with athletic students are excited about the change.

“Our plan was just to go through Athlos and then to get [our son] into a sports high school—he’s just an avid little soccer player—so it’s exciting about the merger because it's done for us,” AAU parent Anna Andre said.

However, the change wasn’t a good fit for all AAU families. 

Erika Cruz, who was already frustrated with the high staff turnover and limited class options, was already considering pulling her child from AAU.

“I said I'm going to give it one year to see if it's really going to work for me or not, and then the merger came and that was my verification that I'm done—especially where it's sports-oriented and my daughter is more into performing arts,” Cruz said.

AAU has struggled with student retention past sixth grade. Enrollment dropped from 10 students two years ago to five this past year.

AAU’s PTO President Linsey Bair’s children all attended AAU for elementary school and then transferred to public middle schools, including her youngest, who just completed sixth grade.

“Our plan was for her to go to the public middle school because she really likes art, and they can offer more variety of classes and so she's really looking forward to doing that,” Bair said. “If her situation had been such that she does really well with smaller classes, and if she was really into the athletics, we probably might have kept her [at SLA].” λ