in Schools
Should We Take a Pound of Flesh from the School Board?
You may have heard that last November, the $56 million Park City School District bond failed. Six months on, it is probably fair to say that it failed due to a lack of specifics, a lack of trust, and perhaps an overreach. It was a big failure. People in Park City are willing to spend big money on schools… and the fact that they weren’t willing with this proposal says something.
With that in mind, this week school board member Phil Kaplan announced he was running again for the school board. Fair enough. He took over for Moe Hickey when Mr had to resign from the board and was only on the board for about 5 months when the bond vote failed and only about 2 when the school board decided to go forward with the bond.
I would have been inclined to say, “Sure, let’s give him a full term to see what he can do.” Also, from what I’ve seen in a number of meetings, he seems like a very reasonable and thoughtful person. From community reports, he is also the school board member that has reached out the most to those who opposed the bond to understand their positions.
Then I read a reader-comment in the Park Record about Mr Kaplan running for the school board (I know, that’s a dangerous thing). The comment said, “The Park City Board should have new faces only. The failed bond was a disgrace, and now out of spite, the Board is trying to sweep pulling teachers aids out of classrooms under the rug without allowing the parents to know. Hopefully, only new faces will be on the board and not this guy.”
HMMM. The anonymous commenter makes a somewhat valid point. Sometimes the only way to deliver a message that things aren’t right is to unilaterally make a point. In this case, the point is two-fold. First, the school board voting to put the bond on the ballot was not right. Second, the whole process that led up to and created the bond was not right either. One could argue, if we don’t make an example of the school board members running for reelection, then how can we expect the next version of the school board to be better. It’s a somewhat valid point.
Yet, in the case of Mr Kaplan, I keep coming back to the fact that his background is probably what we want on the school board. He is entrepreneurial. He is logical. He has been successful outside of the educational world. When he speaks, he makes sense.
So, is it right to make a unilateral decision to “throw the bums out!”?
Probably not.
I completely understand the desire to send a message, but our community is best served by making logical decisions. Discounting a member based purely on the fact that they are on the school board now, isn’t a logical way to look at it. Their actions on the school board should, of course, impact your vote to some extent, but probably not at the 100% level.
I believe we should take into account that the current board members voted to put the bond on the ballot, even with its obvious flaws. Yet, that should not be the sole measure of whether a current member should be elected for another term. We should judge them on their performance and look at how they voted on other issues.
What makes it hard to judge a current member’s performance, based on issues, is that the school board always seems to vote in unison and somewhat speaks in unison. That makes it tough for the public to differentiate positions. If every vote a school board member casts is identical to every other member, our main means of judging them is by what they say. The only way a citizen knows what members individually say is by watching hours and hours of video of school board members every couple of weeks. That isn’t likely to happen.
That then leads us back to judging our school board based on the successes and failures of the board as a whole. If all citizens see is a board that acts as a collective, what choice do they have but to judge the school board members as a collective. The collective view is that the board pushed through a horrible bond. That would indicate that we should judge each member NOT ON who they are or what they say but by the simple fact that they were on the school board.
So, we have come full circle.
We don’t want to judge school board members solely by the failure of the bond, but we have no other option because they are not often acting as individuals but acting as a group. So, when Mr Kaplan says HE WANTS TO DO ALL THESE THINGS… the question we need to ask is … is he speaking for himself or speaking for the collective? Good question.
Where does that leave the voter?
… In a quagmire.
Do you believe that the individual matters with regard to the school board?
I suppose that is the fundamental question. Your answer to that question likely determines whether you believe we should either clean house or vote for the best person in the next school board election.
in Development
Complaints About Hyatt on 224 Are Growing
Over the past month we have been hearing more complaints about the new Hyatt on 224. Those complaints seem to be mostly about light pollution but also a little about noise.
I remember the Summit County Council meeting where this hotel was first proposed. The land was zoned for office space and a restaurant. The developer was told that they needed to make sure its what the public wanted and that it made economic sense for the county.
From reports at the time, representatives of those wanting to build the hotel held a meeting with Sunpeak residents. Out of that meeting at least some Sunpeak residents were then in favor of the proposal, which let the developer state that Sunpeak residents were in favor of it (when they hadn’t been before).
Yet, that whole discussion is somewhat moot. That hotel isn’t going to be unbuilt. Also, unfortunately, there is not a dark sky ordinance in the Snyderville Basin. This was brought up during the latest discussions surrounding the General Plan. A dark sky ordinance was met with a somewhat lukewarm response. It just wasn’t a big enough issue for anyone attending meetings or providing feedback.
While I’d guess it’s not impossible to find a way to get a dark sky ordinance in the Basin, it would likely take a person or group who wants to take that on as their mission. Even then, it probably wouldn’t impact the Hyatt, because they have invested money in their current infrastructure based on current rules during development. I could be wrong on that but I wouldn’t guess the County Council would require every business in the Basin to change their lighting.
So, that leaves the people that live around the Hyatt with a whole lot of light and not a whole lot of answers. I wish I had a better answer.
Going forward, I will say that Roger Armstrong was the only County Council member to vote against allowing the land to become a hotel. His seat is up for re-election this year and it is assumed he will run again. So, while it may be a small consolation, you could throw your support behind the only person on the council who shared your view.
in Election
Tracking People Running For Election… and Their Promises
With the deadline for submitting names for the November election just under a month away, we thought it may be a good idea to keep track of who was running for what, what their goals are, and election promises they make.
Thankfully Phil Kaplan just happened to assist our efforts by announcing he was running for School Board. We’ve put up a page for Mr Kaplan, along with information we’ve garnered from the Park Record article on the topic. We’ll add to Mr Kaplan’s dossier as information presents itself and we will add other persons as we hear of their announcements.
If you’re a candidate and would like to send us information, we’ll be happy to record it for posterity.
It should be an interesting election cycle.
in Dogs
C’mon Park Record, We NEED You to Be Better
The Park Record does a good job of reporting what goes on around Park City. Having met many of Park Record reporters over the years, they are genuine and good people. I am also fondly aware of the fact that there isn’t always a lot to report here in Eden and understand that it must be stressful to compose a couple of editions each week with limited material. So, I get it.
That said, in today’s Park Record, Jay Hamburger wrote what is at best incomplete information and at worst a click-bait article on dogs in Park City. In the physical paper it was titled, “Dog Complaints Received.” In the online version is was titled “‘Aggressive’ dog reported in Park City, another canine ‘not friendly’.”
Basically the article was a summary of Park City police logs. It pretty much said two dogs were running free around SR 248 and Round Valley Drive (and that is close to Round Valley which is an off leash dog park now). It then said another dog MAY have run across a cross country ski track. It cited that another dog was running free near SR 224 and Meadows drive. The article concluded with the fact that a boxer (the dog type… not the Mike Tyson type) held a family hostage in their home by not letting them out the front door.
I understand that off leash dogs are a big issue in Park City; however there are no details here. Yet, the article supposes that there are. There are only reports about random dogs running off leash near a place that matters and then a couple of random events.
Perhaps Mr Hamburger talked to the family that was held hostage by the dog but decided to not report their comments. Perhaps the family is selling the movie rights and declined comment. More likely the story ended with the police report.
Frankly, we need better than this from the Park Record. The Park Record is important.
While I understand that everyone sometimes needs filler, you don’t provide FILLER that effectively takes a viewpoint AND surrounds a hot button issue.
Are off leash dogs an issue in Park City? Yes, in certain circumstances.
Yes, some dogs escape yards and wreak havoc, but that’s not what Park City’s current conversation about “dogs on leash” is about. Our conversations are generally about trails. Dogs wandering about on roads and holding families hostage, are the random events you wish wouldn’t happen (I guess, in the case of latter). Our community’s concern about dogs off leash is generally about owners not properly handling their dogs on trails and places like the Library.
Unfortunately, this article just seems to report negatively about dogs because they were free fodder in a police report.
What’s my view on dogs? It’s simple… There are no bad dogs…. just bad people.
What would I live from the Park Record? Well, first I’d like to know more about that family held hostage by a dog. Now that has the potential to be a good story.
in Schools
School Board Members’ Comments on Reading Aides in Park City
There has been much discussion on taking Reading Aides out of Park City School District classrooms. There have been some emails from School Board Members floating around social media. Just in case you care and haven’t seen those, I wanted to make sure everyone had access to better understand the issue:
Here a citizen provides part of an email exchange with school board member Julie Eihausen. According to the citizen, Ms. Eihausen emailed:
1: Our current reading/ESL programs are not working. While we understand and appreciate that aides have become a part of the educational family for students and parents, we cannot continue to invest funding in programs that have been shown to be failing our students.
2: All day Kindergarten was moving forward for the 2016-17 school year with or without any changes to the reading program. These two decisions are not related. Programs are assessed and funds are reallocated on a regular basis. PCSD did not determine how much money was needed to fund all dayK and then go and look for a program to cut, reallocations are a part of our annual budget process.
3: All day Kindergarten has been proven in study after study after study to assist in closing the achievement gap, engaging students by providing them with the opportunity to succeed and creating a much better attitude towards school. When children aren’t always “behind”, they enjoy and excel much more in school. Investment in early childhood education saves thousands if not millions of dollars in intervention costs.
4: While some aide positions are no longer viable, several others are new. The new opportunities provide full-time employment that includes benefits. This is a desire we heard loud and clear from our Classified Employees Association and we are proud to be able to offer stable, desirable employment to more employees.
Thank you for your input and we look forward to all working together as a community to improve education in Park City. Again, we encourage anyone who has questions to please get the facts and not rely on neighborhood postings/blogs/Facebook.
As always, I am willing to sit down and meet with anyone who would like to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
Julie Eihausen
The citizen also received a response from school board member Tania Knauer. The response from Ms. Knauer was:
I think the Reading scores show we need to change something. We’ve been doing the same thing for way too long. Not that there aren’t amazing reading teachers and specialist in the district, there are.
I don’t think anything is cast in stone and it will be evolving as we implement it, some things will work and some will need tweaking. The best part about all of this is the discussion and attention it’s getting. It had been plugging along for a very long time virtually unnoticed.
We don’t have all the answers and we probably won’t until we get started. Like DI, there is a great deal that we didn’t know until we got farther into the implementation. It’s really about keeping a pulse on it and making sure we are adjusting course as needed.
I personally believe Ms Knauer and Ms Eihausen make good points. I applaud their willingness to push change. As anyone who has been in corporate america knows… change is hard. Willingness to force change shows gumption.
in Vail
More On the Park City Survey (not the PARK CITY SURVEY) … but the Park City® Survey
As you probably know, I think Park City Sucks… or rather the name Park City sucks (for Vail to use for their resort). A while back I wrote about a survey I received after my wife skied at Park City. I noted that a survey of “how my day was at Park City” just added to the confusion over the name “PARK CITY”
Yesterday, I received the survey again and decided to actually delve into it a bit more. Here are the first three questions from the survey:
- How likely are you to recommend Park City to a friend, colleague, or family member?
- How likely are you to return to Park City next season?
- Please rate your satisfaction with the following at Park City:
- Ease of parking
- Bus Transportation
- Ease of navigating through the village
You’d never know whether the survey was talking about the resort or the city. To be fair, the next questions do say “resort” in them. Nevertheless, it is another example of things only becoming more confusing when a ski resort and city, that are completely unaffiliated, are named the same thing.
On a positive note, perhaps Park City, the ski resort, and Park City, the city, can join forces on the next iteration of Park City’s National Citizen Survey. It appears they are looking for a lot of the same information.
Snyderville Basin Planning Commission Needs You
Sorry I didn’t notice this sooner but the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission has two vacancies for the next term. Interviews are this Wednesday. While there are no guarantees, I bet you can still get on the interview list. Currently there are 3 people interviewing for 2 positions.
The Planning Commission is responsible for probably 80% of what you love or hate about Summit County. Especially given the growth we’ve seen, the Planning Commission in the coming years will serve an important role in ensuring that development across the Basin happens how, and where, we want it to. If you are interested in building, planning, guiding the development of the Snyderville Basin, this position is for you.
If the thought of interviewing for the positions scares you, it shouldn’t. Each member of the County Council will ask you about a question about why you want the job, what would make you a good candidate, given that you have done XXXX, how is that a good fit for this position, etc. They are nice people.
If you are interested in applying (which I hope you are), please immediately email the Assistant County Manager, Anita Lewis. She will likely let you know if they can fit you in.
Good luck. We are all depending on you.
Know What You’re Doing Before Using Those Supermarket Reward Cards
This post isn’t specifically about Park City, but it applies to us. Many of us use our rewards cards, at places like Smith’s. Other times we key in our phone numbers at places like Fresh Market or Petco to get a discount. Yet what happens to that information behind the scenes?
I had always assumed that the companies probably used that data internally to provide coupons or send mailers. Looks like I was a little naive.
This weekend I was reading an article about Ted Cruz, who is running for President. If you follow politics, you probably know he won the Iowa Republican Caucus. Yet, the tools he used to win were surprising to me. According to the Associated Press, “The scope of Cruz’s system is formidable. Cambridge’s (the company supplying information to the campaign) database combines government and commercial data sets such as voter rolls and lists of people who liked certain Facebook posts, along with consumer data from grocery chains and other clients that can provide a voter’s preferred brand of toothpaste or whether he clips coupons.”
What this is saying is that your detailed shopping history appears to be available for sale. Want a list of all people in Summit County that buy organic meat, you can probably get it. Want to know who both “liked” Mountain Trails on Facebook and also buys dog food? No problem. The possibilities are really only limited by someone’s ability to slice data and target voters.
Let’s say in the 2016 Summit County Council race, a Republican candidate decides to challenge Roger Armstrong. Since Mr Armstrong was the County Council member who started the county down the path of greater leash law enforcement (and holding public hearings, and forming a dog task force, etc.), the challenger decided to hit him hard on dogs. The challenger realizes it is hard to unseat an incumbent, especially a Democrat, in Summit County. So, she has to go after hot button issues. How does she do it? She buys a list of people and addresses who have voted in the last 8 years, who are not affiliated with a party, who buy pet supplies, and support Mountain Trails on Facebook. She then creates a targeted campaign directed at those voters. She then repeats it on other areas of perceived weakness for Roger Armstrong. What does that cost her? Ted Cruz spent $3 million for nationwide information. Could our hypothetical candidate get the lists required for just Summit County for $20K? Probably.
Now, in Mr Armstrong’s case, I hope that doesn’t happen. While I don’t agree with him on every stance, I think he has done a good job over the past three years. However, that won’t stop a competitor from using our own personal information for their agenda. I know $20K sounds like a lot, but I think around $100,000 was spent in the last Park City mayoral election between the two candidates.
Likewise, a similar strategy could be used for school board elections. Why blanket Park City with mailers and email when you can target the perfect people with the perfect information. Find people who have voted recently and don’t have kids. Target them with specific messages that suit the cause.
By us freely giving up our personal information, without realizing the consequences, it may be used against us.
Now, you may say I don’t care if Kroger in Cincinnati (Smith’s) knows that I buy kale three times a week. I don’t care that all my likes on Facebook are correlated with other information to create a perfect digital representation of me. I am saving 20 cents a gallon gas. Fair enough.
I just hope that on your life insurance policy you didn’t declare you were a non smoker, when sometime in 2013 you bought a Swisher Sweet cigar at your local grocer. There’s nothing like DATA to ruin that perfectly good life insurance policy that your wife is depending on.
Note: I don’t know that Smith’s, Fresh Market, PETCO, etc. sell purchasing data. They may not. But it seems a lot of people must be doing that.
in Park City
What Good Survey Results Look Like
During the School District’s Bond effort they did a “survey” of residents in order to understand what they’d be willing to pay for a bond. I think the answer was about $60 million. From reports it seemed like many survey calls were to cell phones of prominent people… which runs counter to the randomized nature you’d want in a study.
Then came the outcome of the failed bond and the school district. The school board decided they needed to do a study to understand why people didn’t think what the school board thought they would think. They reached out to people by phone and that led them to incorporating some of those people into focus groups. The results of those focus groups will likely be disseminated in March.
The problem is that it’s not transparent. We don’t know what was asked of the citizens by phone. We don’t know how the focus groups were chosen. We don’t know how many people were included. We don’t know how the focus groups were operated. We don’t know what questions were asked of the focus groups. We don’t know what answers were provided.
Yet, I’d guess the “answers” provided by the focus groups will be presented as perfect information.
So, how should it be done? I’m sure there are many different answers. In the past, I have heralded Summit County’s Citizen survey (produced by a professor of a university) for its methodology to determine the “state” of Summit County. It was a random, professionally done study that incorporated over 2000 people in our community.
However, I would present Park City’s National Citizen Survey as the gold standard in the area from what I’ve seen`. Park City has been participating in the survey since 2011. The survey is centered on the livability of Park City. What is fabulous about the survey is that the appendices tell us exactly what questions were asked, how many people participated, and what their answers were.
For a data nut like me, it is perfect. You’ll be able to see stats like 65% of the surveyed population thinks they will be living here in five years. You’ll find out weird statistics like more than 30% of people surveyed spend over $2500 a month on HOA dues! It is interesting info. It tells you that the numbered of Parkites surveyed was 300 (about 4.5%). All in all, there were about 50 questions asked.
While you may disagree with the outcomes of the survey, its methods seem strong. I would like to see such detail around the specific questions asked, the responses revealed, and the numbers participating in every survey our city, council, or school district performs going forward. It’s truly the best way of using the information presented to help impact your opinion in an accurate way. Otherwise, you may hear on the radio, “Our focus group said that people want to build a million square foot field house on Kearns.” However the question asked, that led to that sound bite, might have been, “Do you want to cancel all athletics or build a million square foot field house on Kearns?” Without knowing the questions, answers, and participation… the data is basically useless.
Let’s hope that all of our political bodies start releasing survey information in the same way that Park City did with the National Citizen Survey.
For those who care, it portrays a much more accurate picture.
If you’d like to delve into the details of the National Citizen Survey, the best place to look is The Technical Appendices. It makes for some interesting reading.
Shower Thought: Medical Marijuana Coming to Utah? Sure.
Everywhere you look on traditional media you see coverage about Utah legalizing medical marijuana. When my friends no longer have to go to Evanston to buy a keg of beer, I’ll believe it.
For now, I wonder what the powers that be are trying to distract us from? Is it making public land available for obtaining oil and gas? Is it building a train up Little Cottonwood Canyon and connecting it to Park City. Is it something I never considered?
Probably the latter.
Are you agitated after waiting 45 minutes to park at PCMR? Better ask your doctor whether medical marijuana is right for you..
He’ll likely say no, due to state law… but that oil pipeline right through your backyard looks really good.
Parkrag
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