Are you comfortable with this symbol in our schools?

Should the lessons from the hatred it represents be taught? Yes so we can all get better. Should we accept when our children create these symbols in our schools? No.

As a member of the Park City community, I am appalled that an individual put hateful speech on a desk at Park City High School. It is horrible. It’s not who we want to be. However, I also understand that children are stupid. I was. You were. We all make mistakes and we learn from our stupidity. Hopefully.

So, I hope that whoever did this realizes that all of us… every race…every religion…every ethnicity… every color … every human… we’re all in this together. We all live and then we all die. How we treat the time in-between is what matters. Crap like what happened at the high school, at its minimum, divides us. At its worst It is hurtful and brings us all down. Either way, it does no good.

Later that day, I watched the Park City School Board meeting where teacher Josh Goldstein arose, during a public comment session, to speak about the anti-semitic language found under a desk in his class. He then spoke about 60 emails he received where people told him about other instances of racism and bigotry people in our community had faced.

It appears it was not one instance of a swastika under a desk …. but many cases.

I then thought back to my childrens’ experience at Jeremy Ranch elementary. They talk about how the N-word was used by their classmates. I’ll go a step further because I think we are at a point where using terms like “N-Word” sugar-coats it and doesn’t bring the significance it should. So, let’s get real. My kids talk about how the word NIGGER is used at Jermery Ranch Elementary School. Yes, in 2022 the term NIGGER is still found in Park City on our playgrounds. I’m glad the ED foundation raises millions but this seems like a bigger issue, at least to me.

Anyhow, back to the Nazi-related story in Park City schools. We had a swastika drawn on a desk and the word NIGGER written as well.

In order to conduct a fair and equitable survey with ample opportunity to explore both positive and negative feedback on a wide variety of PCSD topics that affect employees, we worked closely with an outside firm. To encourage participation, this survey was not issued by or through PCSD’s District Office and all participants remained anonymous. 

Out of 431 PCSD employees emailed (those publicly available through PCSD minus

those emails returned as ‘undeliverable’), we had 79 respondents. This external survey had an 18 percent return rate. This rate is below the desired response rate for an employee satisfaction survey. However, within hours of survey delivery to employees, the PCSD District Office and Principals issued emails to employees discouraging participation, including such language as: ‘I wanted to let you know that you may have received an email to complete a survey from ’, Please ignore the email at this time. I am not sure where the email is coming from or where the data from the survey is going.’, which we believe had significant impact.

Mary Morgan:

Teachers appreciative of last week workday
Dr Hunt is leaving and would like to see an equity director or part of CAO
UEA not part of PC Stakeholders survey creation
Has been divide and we need to work together

Claustina

• Coalition for Safe, supportive schools
• Equity task force has been reunited
• Inspire and support all students
• Ensure safety for everyone in buildings

Last week Mandy Pomeroy was appointed to the Park City School Board to fulfill the remainder of Kara Hendrickson’s term. Three people applied for the appointment: EJ Elliott, Mandy Pomeroy, and Carlos Villar. Meredith Reed and Josh Mann (that would be me, the founder of Park Rag) opted not to apply. Meredith and I have received a number of questions about why we didn’t want to be appointed and questions about whether we are still running for the school board (we are).

I wanted to take a few minutes and explain why we didn’t want to be appointed and why the Park City School Board should not have appointed Mandy Pomeroy.

Upon the resignation and unfortunate passing of Kara Hendrickson, Meredith Reed contacted me and Ms. Pomeroy and proposed that none of us apply for the school board vacancy. Her reasoning was sound. She noted that three of the current four school board members began their tenure by being appointed. She further stated that she didn’t believe an appointment served the democratic process. She felt the voters should decide the outcome without undue influence. She was 100% right and I agreed not to apply.

Mandy Pomeroy disagreed and applied for the position. Furthermore, Ms. Pomeroy wrote an editorial to the Park Record and concluded, “I respectfully disagree with candidates Mann and Reed, and I encourage them to do their homework, or at the very least, a quick Google search.” I would encourage you to read the entire Letter to the Editor. That was the second time Ms. Pomeroy had told Meredith and me to “Google it.”

I just shake my head because the whole response is so condescending. It wreaks of the complaints we often hear about current board members when they address the community. So, perhaps, she would fit right in. That’s a problem.

Yet, that’s not why I say the school board appointed the wrong candidate.

However, I first want to explain why I believe an appointment doesn’t serve the democratic process. Now, more than ever, we need to have big discussions about the future of our schools. Our schools aparently had a “communication” issue when they didn’t follow Summit Couty’s law when enforcing masks. Regardless of how we feel about masks, I would guess most of us feel our school district should follow laws. Then a swastika and a racial slur were found under a desk of a Jewish teacher at the High School. The School Board was quick to note that three of the board members were Jewish; however, teacher Josh Goldberg said, “I’ve got children coming to me talking about rape culture, talking about hatred that they’ve endure and sometimes for years and we need to make a major change.” We have the ongoing investigation of at least two cases of rape at our schools and one case of child abuse that were not reported.

So, we have an issue with our district leadership. Yet, they appointed a candidate that will serve on the board for 8 months. You may say, “yes, but that doesn’t impact the election in June or November.” But it does. In a study of all statewide races in 2020, local-level incumbents won 89% of the time. Nine out of ten times they won. By appointing Ms. Pomeroy, the school board made her an incumbent and by default gave her the endorsement for the position.

Ms Pomeroy’s argument so far is that someone had to be appointed by law. That is true. However, she wasn’t the one that should have been appointed.

Thanks to those who came to Jeremy Ranch Elementary to talk schools this afternoon. I learned a lot, so thank you.

One of the topics that came up was Park City Superintendent Dr. Gildea. Discussions stretched from her $415K total compensation, to decisions she has made, to how she manages, and further. It was a good discussion with points both for her and against her.

We don’t need to get into the details here, as we all know… each of us have strengths and weaknesses. However, one gentleman asked what the role of the superintendent is. It’s an interesting question.My response was that they are the CEO. They manage all the essential parts of the school. He or she doesn’t do the accounting, HR, logistics planning, or any other direct job but they manage, and are responsible for how it ultimately works out.

After discussions like that I like to go home and better understand research around the topic. In this case I found an informative, and a surprising study from the Brookings Institute. They are an apolitical and well respected think tank.

So, according to their studies, how important is a school superintendent? Not very important when it comes to student outcomes. That’s surprising. They are the highest paid employee in most school districts. They are in charge. We give them props for all the successes and we rake them over the coals for each failure.

However, the Brookings institute study concluded five things:

• The typical superintendent has been in the job for three to four years.
• Student achievement does not improve with longevity of superintendent service within their districts.
• Hiring a superintendent is not associated with higher student achievement.
• The percentage of the variance in student achievement (a measure of the differences among individual students in test scores) that is associated with superintendents is smaller than that associated with any and all other major components of the education system.
• Superintendents who have an exceptional impact on student achievement cannot be reliably identified.

What the study indicates is that superintendents don’t quantitatively impact the success of our children. Further more, if you desired a rock-star superintendent that may make a difference, you’re unlikely to identify them in a placement search.

My take away from all of this is that it is likely Dr Gildea will be moving on from the Park City School district soon due to average tenure or failure due to our crises. A competent school board would seriously question renewing the contract of a superintendent who allegedly did not follow the law regarding mask mandates, had swastikas on desks that basically went unanswered, and had unreported cases of child abuse. She is also in that four year range of turnover.

Question for next.

Today we heard that the pretrial conference for Park City School District’s non-reported child abuse cases was delayed two weeks. This was after a previous delay. KPCW says that this delay was because “the Summit County Attorney’s Office and the district’s defense attorney have been negotiating a potential settlement.”

First, we need to state what happened. School district employees allegedly did not report that one case of a teacher inappropriately touching a child and two children were raped.

That is the magnitude of what we are speaking about.

I don’t understand.

The charges are three misdemeanor charges against the school district for employees not reporting child abuse. They carry a $1,000 fine each. So, what ar they going to

I’ve avoided talking about the school district’s lease revenue bonds because it’s a complicated topic. However, given the way the economy appears to be heading, it is probably about time to make sure we all understand the Faustian bargain our school board made.

As most people know, the public passed a $79 million bond to add on to our schools. Then the school board authorized an additional $42 million in lease revenue bonds to facilitate adding on to Ecker Hill and Parley’s Park. You may ask, “what is a Lease Revenue Bond and how is it different from the bond I voted on?” Good question. Basically, a lease revenue bond is a debt incurred by the district that is supposed to be paid for via new revenue.

I had the chance to speak with Todd Hauber, the School District’s Business Administrator, and he said he was given the charge by the school board to find a way to fund building without raising taxes.

What Mr. Hauber and the district did was lock in a rate of about 3% for the lease revenue bonds (a month or two ago). Today, the rate is likely much higher than that. That was savvy. However, we still have to ask the question of how we will service the nrealy $3 million required each year. If we are not going to raise taxes to pay for the $3 million, then how are we going to pay for it?

Some of that debt servicing will be through other bonds being

How often have you heard that Park City Schools are the best in the state? Probably a lot.

Recently the Park City School District sent out an email claiming Park City High School was the second-best high school in Utah, according to Niche.com.

That sounds great. The only problem is that it’s not true. It’s a lie.

According to Niche.com we actually have the 8th best public high school in Utah.

Yet, we are not actually 8th either. If you trust a more reliable source like US News and World Reports we have the 14th best high school in Utah.

Well, I didn’t make it. I’m sorry. I wanted to help change our schools but as that old 70’s song goes, “I gave it my best but I guess my best wasn’t good enough.” I wish it could have been different, but it is what it is.

Thanks to all the people who voted. If you voted in my direction or not, you celebrated what makes our country great. So, thank you. If you voted for me, I know you want change. Hopefully, one of the other candidates will provide that.

Park City Schools have a lot of problems and schools are where the majority of our property tax dollars go. They also shape the future of our children. They are what our kids experience for 12 formative years of their lives. Given that, we frankly need to do better.

That’s all I really want to say.

God speed.