The Park City School District is dying because they are blind

It’s becoming clearer that the best days of the Park City School District (PCSD) are behind it.

Our success has been built on teachers’ backs, reputation, and the thought that money can buy success. Today, teachers are leaving, we’ve fallen to the 14th best PUBLIC high school in Utah (that’s not good), and tax increases are going to slow the funding of any future donations and tax increases.

Then we have the School District’s inability to get a building permit for their work at Jeremy Ranch. This is compounded by an arrogance where Summit County seems to be going out of their way to help the school district, but PCSD won’t even respond to the offers for help to get the building opened on time and in a safe manner. All the school district says is we will be open on August 17th.

Yet, if your kid goes to Jeremy Ranch, I would encourage you to drive by and look at what needs to be solved in the next 12 days. Are there safe fire exits for children in classrooms that have outside entries adjacent to the torn up parking lot area? Are exits handicap-enabled for those who have special needs? Are fire hydrants available to the fire department? Why is the playground still fenced off from children? When the playground is torn down, where will it be rebuilt? Where are the teachers going to park? Where are the buses going to drop off? Where are parents going to park? How will pickupwork? Most importantly, will the school district even talk about it?

That’s all short-term. And we, as parents, will feel it. Yet it is not the real issue.

The issue is the long-term effects of the way the school district is acting now. They don’t talk about anything of substance. They are in a constant state of confusion about how to act. Whether it’s masks, child rape, or building permits, they don’t seem to know what to do. Yet, they always think they are right; common sense argues with that. They are arrogant; most of us wonder why.

Yet, pride comes before the fall. Our children and teachers are going to pay for that.

Here is what is going to happen. If the school district doesn’t work with Summit County to resolve ALL issues in the next few days, Jeremy Ranch won’t open on time. If that happens, it will be the school district’s fault.

Then, the uproar over property taxes increases is only going to get bigger. My property tax increased by $1,500 this year. That’s really money. I’m further enraged at the Park City School District because they had previous bonds that were paid off, but they decided to continue to charge taxes for them this year because they can. As of next year, the public will be able to vote on any tax increases above the basic levy. Money is going to be harder to come by.

We are entering a period where the public is fed up with tax increases. If you are a teacher, any new agreement with the district for raises is going to be dependent on a tax increase. That won’t be easy and many teachers will want to leave. That said, I’ve never heard from a teacher who left the Park City School District in the last five years and regretted it.

PCSD’s last bastion of funding comes from the Park City Ed Foundation. Will that funding decrease due to the economy’s headwind and inflation? Likely.

This should be the time that the Park City School District is getting in front of issues. However, they are fighting a two-front war. They won’t talk to the major news source in town because KPCW does what NEWS is supposed to do, they report it, and Park City School District doesn’t like that.

Second, they are fighting Summit County over building. Trust me; PCSD is bringing a knife to a gunfight. Summit County Planning fights Vail in the morning and Alterra at lunch. That is further shown by Summit County’s maturity in offering to help the school district. Yet, that offer appears to have been ignored.

And that brings us back to the real problem. Almost everything we witness from the school district office is done wrong. These are the people who are supposed to educate our children.

The best days of the Park City School District are behind us.

What we are facing now is likely to be ugly.

It reminds me of a T.S. Eliot poem :

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper

The Park City School District is heading down hard, and I don’t think they even see it. They are blind.

I hope we find an equilibrium for our teachers and kids.