Park City School Board: Why I voted for Meredith Reed and would vote for Nick Hill if I could

When looking at politics, people seem to focus on national issues. However, I firmly believe local politics are both more important on a day-to-day basis and something we can all impact. With that in mind, I turn my attention to the Park City Board of Education. In Jeremy Ranch, I have the choice between incumbent Mandy Pomeroy and Meredith Reed. If you live in the Parley’s Park area, you get to choose between incumbent Erin Grady and Nick Hill.

My vote in Jeremy is for Meredith Reed, and if I lived around Parley’s Park, I would vote for Nick Hill. Why?

Let’s start with the contest between Erin Grady and Nick Hill. First, I have to say that I have met both Erin and Nick on multiple occasions. I personally like them both. Erin is friendly, and she has been in Park City for a long time. If you had a conversation with her over dinner, you’d enjoy it. Likewise, Nick is of a British background and is down to earth. He is practical and organized. If this were a high-school student council election, it would be a toss-up.

Yet, it’s not a popularity contest. It’s more nuanced than that, and those nuances shift my opinion toward Nick Hill. That opinion is based on the actions of PCSD while Erin has been part of the board and the actions of Nick Hill.

While I like Erin, it is undeniable that the school district has faced its darkest time in recent memory. There have been a number of problems:

• Teachers with children in their own schools faced enrollment challenges and teachers left.
• Mask mandates were not followed at Parley’s Park.
• Child abuse occurred without proper reporting.
• PCSD couldn’t be troubled with getting the right building permits (that many of us know are required), and that will likely cost us time and money.
• PCSD had the chance to lower our taxes but Erin (and every other board member) voted to keep our taxes higher than they needed to be.
• After all of that, they gave the Superintendent a raise and extended her contract.
• Overarching all of that, I don’t feel like I am a part of the entire discussion over decisions being made. I feel like decisions by the school board are made somewhere else and then presented to the public. The problem is that I, as a citizen, don’t understand how the decisions are made. If that’s true, it’s also not legal.

So, while I like Erin, I don’t believe the school board is on the right path. Therefore, I wouldn’t encourage voting for Erin Grady and keeping us on that same, flawed path. Instead, I would vote for Nick Hill.

So, you can’t just run away from someone. You should run toward someone. So, why Nick Hill? Nick rose to prominence when he pointed out that Parley’s Park wasn’t following mask orders during the original Covid time frame. Since that time, he has emerged as someone who has experience managing complex projects. He seems to be someone who thinks critically and isn’t afraid of standing up for what he believes. I also have hope that his background as a project manager will serve the board well — perhaps in areas such as building permits.

If Erin hadn’t been part of a board with so many failures, then perhaps I would think differently. However, that’s not the case. Therefore, I would vote for Nick Hill, given his willingness to speak out, back that up by taking action and running for the school board, and his experience managing complex projects.

Now let’s shift to Meredith Reed versus Mandy Pomeroy in the Jeremy Ranch school board election. This is a race I am familiar with since I lost to Mandy and Meredith in the Primary Election. I’d like to give you the politically correct answer and tell you why both are good choices, but I just don’t think that’s true.

Meredith is THE clear choice from my perspective. If you don’t believe me, I would ask you to listen to Mandy’s KPCW interview from October 19th. It’s a train wreck. Mandy is asked what her major accomplishments on the board were. Mandy says she has made big changes and tough decisions. Then Mandy is asked for specifics. She stumbles and then says “Big choices were made in the budget and areas where we saw great needs and really valuing the input of the community and the people who come and speak at our meetings and listen and teachers and all of the needs I think we have put a lot of the money in the right places.” Having both listened to the interviews and also the PCSD meetings, I am not sure she has made any big changes or tough decisions. If she has, they appear to be behind closed doors and not something I have heard in public.

Then KPCW host Michelle Deininger asks about restoring trust and that Mandy has said, “KPCW hasn’t been honest in their coverage of the district.” It appears that Mandy has fallen into the PCSD is being persecuted by the news tripe. She then recommends that the school district start a podcast. My fundamental problem with this entire concept pushed by Mandy is that good news asks hard questions. Mandy seems to be advocating for propaganda. It’s not public-friendly.

Ms. Deininger then points out a text from Mandy’s campaign (pushing Mandy’s candidacy to the public) that looks like it is officially from the Park City School District. That is not OK.

Then the topic of Mandy being non-partisan came up. Mandy has allegedly made a campaign issue out of the fact that Meredith is being supported by Democrats. Ms. Deininger said, “The parade was an awkward thing to cover as a news entity because when I reached out to you to ask “this is not a partisan race, why is your campaign in the Republican Party float, you [Mandy] said that your campaign didn’t know they were with the Republicans it was probably a mixup. Then I called the Republican Party and they said that is not true; we planned this with Mandy. So you did represent your involvement in the float.”

Mandy says, she did not misrepresent anything. She says she had walkers In the parade that were both Republicans and Democrats.

We further go down the rabbit hole where Ms. Deininger says, “So the Vice-chair of the Republican Party was not honest with me when she told me that she planned that with you?” Mandy responded, “She planned the float. She planned the parade.” One must ask, if Mandy was not involved at all, how does she know the Vice-chair planned the float and parade?

Then it gets even worse. Ms. Deininger says Mandy has made an issue out of Meredith being a Democrat and then asks about Mandy’s party affiliation. Mandy says that she has been unaffiliated as long as she can remember and especially since she moved here. Ms. Deininger then cites information that she has received which shows that is not true. Ms. Deininger says this is about “telling the truth versus not telling the truth.” Ms. Deininger asks if Mandy will share her registration from earlier this year. Mandy says, “This is becoming something that doesn’t need to be what it is.” Ms. Deininger concludes with the comment, “I think that lots of people are less concerned with party affiliation than with trusting someone they vote for. I will share with voters that you were registered Republican as early as 2018 and as recently as this year. I believe you made a change, very recently, and now you are unaffiliated. And have seen that in writing.”

Mandy responded that KPCW is making this something more than it needs to be. Ms. Deininger responded that campaigning as an unaffiliated voter for six months, while actually being a Republican, is dishonest. Mandy responded that her registration has nothing to do with her abilities to perform her duties on the school board. Ms. Deininger responded, “but what about honesty versus hiding?

Mandy’s responses on this issue highlight much of what is wrong with the current school board. It is about messaging versus helping our kids. It is about being truthful. If we can’t trust what a board member says, how do we look at the board as a whole? In this case, there seems to be a complete inability, to tell the truth coming from Mandy’s campaign.

So, that is the interview that tells me that I won’t want someone who appears to play fast and loose with the truth in charge of my kid’s education.

Then we get into the concept of Mandy using pictures of Meredith’s children in campaign flyers. The issue here is that Mandy put a picture of Meredith and her children on a flyer, insinuating that the closest Meredith ever gets to her kids’ school is the bus stop. Meredith had included the picture in some of her campaign material, and then Mandy repurposed it.

When questioned by KPCW about the Cease and Desist letter Meredith filed against Mandy for using her kids images, Mandy said, “I will bring that up with Meredith.” I don’t know whether this is actually illegal or not. However, I do worry that if I opposed a decision Mandy made, would she use any pictures of my children that happen to be on social media against me? Maybe that’s fair but the general rule is that you leave kids and their pictures out of things.

Is there ever one thing that disqualified a candidate from office? Probably not. However, the pattern I’ve witnessed would make me vote against Mandy every time. Then I couple that with Meredith’s military background, her willingness to ask tough questions, her backbone to stand up in the face of challenges and that’s where my vote will go.

When Meredith and I were running against each other, we didn’t agree 100% on all issues. However, her honesty and judgment seem to far outpace her opponent, and therefore, I will be voting for Meredith Reed.