Press enter to see results or esc to cancel.

Kimball Junction is Not Sandy in the Mountains! We Swear.

We saw a new storefront, Pure Barre, opening up in the Village at Kimball and wondered what it was. Google told us it was a gym and listed a Draper location. That got us wondering how much of the new development at the Kimball Village in the past couple of years represented stores you could find in Draper or Sandy.

We found:

AT&T Store – Draper
Zuppas – Draper
5 Guys – Sandy
Jimmy Johns – Draper
Simply Mac – Sandy
Pure Barre – Draper
Free Birds – Sandy
Del Taco – Draper
Mountain America – Draper

Barking Cat – Park City Only
Spectrum Salon – Park City Only
Park City Bread and Bagel – Park City Only

Only nine out of twelve! All you people that said Park City was becoming Sandy in the Mountains need to take that back. We’re only 75% Sandy in the Mountains.

Happy Friday.

Your Solar Panels Are Facing the Wrong Direction If Your Concern Is the Environment

Park City and Summit County are solar-crazy. There was a big push last year for residents to join together to buy solar panels. This year some government buildings are getting the upgrades. The problem? Those solar panels are facing the wrong direction to optimally provide power when it’s needed.

Last year we linked to an article on how some people believe solar panels should face west in order to increase the actual amount of energy produced. Local installer Alpenglow disagreed with that assessment.

Yet, yesterday’s New York Times is reporting on another reason you may not want to point your panels south.

The panels are pointed that way because under the rules that govern the electric grid, panel owners are paid by the amount of energy they make. But they are not making the most energy at the hours when it is most needed.

So, the choice is either optimize your income or optimize your environmental effectiveness. Do most people invest in solar for the money? Probably not.

The whole article is a good read:

New York Times: How Grid Efficiency Went South

A Letter of Thanks from the Summit County Council

October 9, 2014

Summit County Council would like to thank the community for participating in our Snyderville Basin Long Range Transportation Plan public open house held on September 30th at the Richins Building in Park City. We estimate a total of 130 residents joined with Summit County, Park City and Wasatch County policymakers to provide valuable input on our future transportation needs. We would also like to thank Canyons Resort and the Resort Village Management Association for their involvement in this process.

At the meeting, we received well over 100 comments and interactive board suggestions from the public that will be used in developing the recommendations for the final draft Long Range Transportation Plan, which is scheduled to be complete in the upcoming month.

It is our goal to adopt a comprehensive and proactive transportation strategy for the Snyderville Basin by the end of the year. Your continued interest, participation, and input are vital to us. We urge you to stay involved in this important community issue. We pledge to keep you informed on the progress of the plan, as well as future opportunities to attend public meetings where this plan will be discussed. Please check our website www.summitcounty.org for future meeting information and thank you again for your robust participation as we collectively plan the future transportation needs of the Snyderville Basin.

Sincerely,
Summit County Council

60 North Main
Coalville, Utah 84017

Does the Park City School Board Violate Open Meeting Laws?

In 1977, the State of Utah passed the Open Meetings Act (OMA). Its purpose is to ensure that “the state, its agencies, and its political subdivisions take their actions openly and conduct their deliberations openly.” By most measures, the School Board is one of the most open political groups in our community. Every meeting is recorded on video, is generally available within a few days of a meeting, and is placed on their website. Yet, one aspect of their meetings seems clouded in secrecy.

If you attend a Summit County Council meeting or a City Council meeting there will often be a Public Comment period. At the Park Rag we call it Open Mic. It’s a great chance for the public to share opinions and ask questions. In those meetings with the county or city, the public receives an immediate response from various members of the Council. For instance, I once asked the City Council whether they had already agreed to allow a gondola from Deer Valley to Main Street. Deer Valley’s President Bob Wheaton had appeared to imply that there was already an agreement during a previous speech. Various City Council members, the City Manager, and Mayor took turns explaining how the media often gets things wrong. However, what I did receive was immediate feedback and feedback from individuals. I knew exactly where City Manager Diane Foster stood, for example.

Contrast that with what seems typical of the School Board. When the public asks questions during Public Comment, there is not an immediate response. A response is later posted to the School District’s website. What’s wrong with that? First, from a citizen’s perspective, we elect individuals to the Board. If the response is a generic reply from the board, how do we judge what each elected official is thinking? Second, from the Open Meetings Act (OMA) perspective, deliberations are not taking place in public. This is where there may be implications for our School Board.

The OMA does say, “Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to restrict a member of a public body from transmitting an electronic message to other members of the public body at a time when the public body is not convening.” Yet, the OMA defines a meeting as a “convening of a public body or a specified body, with a quorum present, including a workshop or an executive session, whether in person or by means of electronic communications, for the purpose of discussing, receiving comments from the public about, or acting upon a matter over which the public body or specific body has jurisdiction or advisory power.” So, if School Board member Charles Cunningham emails School Board President Moe Hickey, that’s not a problem.

However, what if President Hickey emails the School Board members and says, “what do you think our response to the public comment on the PC CAPS building last Tuesday should be?” Emails go back and forth between a majority of board members discussing the matter and a discussion ensues via email. One of the Board members then types up a summary of the discussion and has it posted to the website. In effect, a meeting has taken place with a quorum of the School Board, items have been discussed, and decisions on policy may have been made. The OMA requires decisions to be made in public. Since there was no meeting and no opportunity for the public to participate in the email discussion, it could violate the Open Meetings Act.

This of course, may not be how the process is happening. Perhaps there is another open meeting where these topics are discussed. If so, we can’t seem to find it in any meeting notes. Likewise perhaps one member of the board has been selected to speak on every matter, without input from other board members. We would be both surprised and disappointed if that was the case.

So, if emails are being used to discuss and decide on a response to public comment, is it illegal? Someone would likely need to bring this to court to find out. The OMA does say that emails can be sent between members but never qualifies whether a discussion with a majority of public body members via email violates the act. Common sense would say that an “email meeting” is still a meeting and subject to the OMA, otherwise this loophole could be used all the time for private, group conversations to skirt the law. Either way, it seems to violate the spirit of the law.

Our hope is that the School Board will decide to respond immediately during meetings to public comment. This not only serves the public interest better, but it takes away a legal question that could arise in the future. The School Board has done an admirable job of using technology to enable anyone to “virtually” attend a meeting. Let’s hope they don’t continue to tarnish this success by keeping this part of the meeting in the dark.

Should further detail be provided about school class sizes?

We received a submission from a citizen:

The school board should be required to report on class size and student/teacher ratios for both dual-language and traditional classes. As it currently stands, class sizes in dual language classrooms are capped at 25 students and therefore traditional classroom sizes can have many more students in the class. There is also inequality between class sizes between the different elementary schools. For example, the currently 4th grade classroom size at PPES [Parkley’s Park] is 25 students in each of the two dual language classrooms and 31 students in each of the two traditional classrooms. There needs to be an equitable district-wide policy regarding on class room size.

We agree that having detailed information is important in order to make good decisions. Therefore we support the effort to obtain class sizes and ratios related to dual immersion. We would recommend that this citizen contact the School Superintendent, Ember Conley, at . If you don’t get the run-around she’ll likely forward the info to someone who will get you those numbers. If not, you may consider issuing a GRAMA request using the form below. A GRAMA request enables you to obtain information from government bodies.

State of Utah GRAMA Request Form

You would mail it to Dr Ember Conley at:

Park City School District
2700 Kearns Blvd, Park City, UT 84060

Hopefully the District will be open and get you the information without it becoming a bureaucratic nightmare. If not, the GRAMA request gives you the tool to get the information desired.

Please keep us up to date on your progress. We are sure there are many people throughout our community who want answers to questions and this will be a good learning exercise for us all. Let us know what you find out, how cooperative people are being, and we will post it here.

-Park Rag

During yesterday’s school board discussion regarding dual immersion, it was stated that Europe’s standard is that students learn two foreign languages. Is that true?

“The standard now for Europe is that kids know 3 languages, 2 plus their own.”

-Update on the status of dual immersion 10/7/2014 Park City School Board Meeting

Dual immersion seems to be a hot topic with many people concerned about it for different reasons. Some are worried because their kids can’t get in. Some are worried because class sizes may be bigger in non-dual immersion classes. Some are worried about whether the best teachers are teaching dual immersion. It’s most definitely a topic we’ll dig into more as we can.

Yet, we were struck by a comment during yesterday’s school board where it was said that the standard in Europe was for kids to learn 2 additional languages besides their own. This was said in the context that our kids must learn additional languages or they will be left behind. That may or may not be true but we are most interested in understanding whether that statement is generally accurate.

First, we must understand that most european countries teach English as the first secondary language. So, if you are from Lithuania, you learn English and Lithuanian. Second, while the statement does seem to reflect policy, the truth on the ground varies. See the document below (click for a better view):

 

foreginlang20062011

So, yes in the czech Republic 100% do learn 3 languages, in the UK 5% learn 3 languages. In France 92% learn 3 languages. In Italy 24% learn 3 languages. So, it really varies.

This isn’t written to diminish the benefit of multiple languages. However to imply that most european students learn 3 languages at a usable level does not appear valid.

Current Class Sizes and Enrollment Growth of Our Elementary Schools

The School Board has published updated stats about elementary school class sizes and enrollment numbers as Park City Schools. Some take-aways include:

  • All of our elementary schools average 23 students per class, with the exception of McPolin at 21
  • District-wide 4th grade had the largest student/teacher ratio at 25
  • The lowest was 17 students per teacher in 3rd grade at McPolin
  • The highest was 27 students per teacher in 3rd grade at Jeremy Ranch and 4th grade at Parley’s Park
  • Overall, 158 student have been added to our elementary schools since last October

Here is the full document…

Update: We had a comment from a thoughtful reader who noted we didn’t have maximum class sizes listed. We have fixed that. Thanks for keeping us honest!

Summit County Property Tax Adjustments Equal $47,000 in Reduce Revenue So Far in 2014

This morning Summit County Council member Dave Ure was visiting with KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher about his candidacy for reelection. Ms Thatcher asked Mr Ure about previous County budget problems and whether those problems were no longer a concern. Mr Ure replied that he hoped so because reporting was so much better. That made us wonder how property tax revenues were looking for 2014.

Property tax revenues are based on the assessed value of a home, where the homes, is and whether it is a primary residence. Each year valuations of properties can change and home owners can protest their current assessed value. These changes are provided to the County Council in a Board of Equalization Adjustment document. The Council has to approve the adjustments to values.

It wasn’t uncommon during the Great Recession for adjustments to taxable amounts on all properties in Summit County to total $300 million during a year. This could mean lost property tax revenues of $300,000 – $400,000 per year. This impacts all levels of government. So far in 2014, adjusted tax amounts total $58 million, which equates to an estimated $48,000 reduction in property taxes.

While $48,000 is real money, the good news is this likely doesn’t impact the ability of the County to provide services like it did in some past years.

Interlocal agreement between Summit County and Park City shows forethought

During Wednesday’s Summit County Council meeting, the Council will likely approve an agreement between Summit County and Park City to work together to help manage Vail. County Manager Bob Jasper mentioned that items like a lift between PCMR and Canyons would be covered under this, as well as sales tax issues. According to the agreement, it also covers land use decisions, open space, transportation, traffic mitigation, transit, and economic development.

It will be interesting to watch and see when big issues come up, that may impact parties differently, how well this works. But for now, it at least shows that our local governments understand the significance of Vail being in town. As people keep telling me, Vail are the Smartest Guys in the Room. Let’s hope we bring our rocket scientists as well.