The Park City School Board appointed the wrong person to the school board

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.