Students have been split between Cottonwood, Olympus and Granger, and would have to opt to stay at the new Granite High. They have until Feb. 6 to do so — a delay that keeps development of academies, largely contingent on interest, on hold.

But other high schools show academies can work.

• East High has three: health professions, business and, next school year, a sciences academy. Each offers several classes in the field, internships and job shadows with local businesses.

The health professions academy teams with the University of Utah and offers classes in medical anatomy, biotechnology and related fields for which students receive college credit. Internships range from radiology to nursing to research.

Science students already have a bio-tech lab at East; next school year, they will have classes in university labs, side-by-side with professionals.

"The neat thing about it is you're not getting somebody else's template and saying 'this is going to be what we have to follow' — you are together creating this," East principal Robyn Roberts said.

Still, many East students enjoy a traditional high school experience outside the academies.

• But at Ogden High, all students, after their freshman year, have to select one of four academies — applied science and technology; business and computers; arts and humanities; or health science and human services — as a college student might choose a major. Academy disciplines include auto collision and repair, liberal arts, journalism, business management, education and prelaw.

The school is in the fifth year of "small learning communities," through which it partners with sister school Ben Lomond High, Weber State University and local businesses, some of which recruit students for jobs, principal Ed Jenson said. Ninth-graders have their own "families," where they're kept together in hopes of building relationships between teachers and students to set a firm foundation of academic success.

But while East's academies are aimed at cultivating student talents and college and workforce preparation, Ogden's efforts go beyond that.

Think full system overhaul.

At the diverse, low-income school where 20 percent of students are transient, Jenson said, "we discovered (a) we're not very good; (b) we're not getting any better; and (c) they're not sending us any better students."