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PCSD teachers and employees, want to voice your opinion on whether the current board should decide on renewing the Superintendent?
On Sunday, Karl Persson and I launched a petition urging the Park City School Board to delay renewing Superintendent Jill Gildea’s contract until the new school board is seated. School Board President Andrew Caplan stated that the current board intends to vote on Dr. Gildea’s contract, which we believe is inappropriate.
We feel the new school board, seated in January 2025, should make the decision on the superintendent, as they will be responsible for that choice. As of now, we have over 100 signatures supporting this effort, which is incredible.
However, we anticipated not receiving signatures from those closest to our schools — our teachers and district employees. The reason? Fear of retaliation. If they were to sign the petition on Change.org, they might face repercussions from the school district.
In any organization, those closest to the situation can provide the most accurate insights. In this case, that would be the teachers and employees of the Park City School District.
This presents a dilemma.
To address this, we have created a button at the bottom of this page for PCSD employees to show their support for allowing the new school board to decide on renewing Superintendent Gildea’s contract. This way, employees can express their opinions without fear.
Please note, Parkrag will not track your identity, IP address, or location when you click this button. We encourage you to use your personal phone, laptop, or iPad to do so.
Historically, when feedback is requested from employees, the Park City School District often responds by trying to limit employees’ freedom of expression. They usually send an email advising employees not to respond, claiming uncertainty about how their responses will be used.
Let’s circumvent that argument. Here’s exactly how your response will be used: When reporting on the petition and votes, we will state that X number of people have signed the petition. We will also note that we have received X number of anonymous votes from individuals who support the petition but cannot provide their names due to fear of retribution.
That’s it.
I don’t know if you’ll trust Parkrag to vocalize your support. I would hope we have earned your trust.
If you’d like to support the petition without providing your name, please click the button below.
Thank you for your consideration.
Parkrag
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Comments
20 Comments
Of course this current board will renew the superintendent. They leave behind a mess they created . Anyone have an idea on how much it cost for that dirt removal ? That was put there knowing it was toxic and only after complaints did they admit this. Tax dollars being spent on a top heavy central office with employees that do not have anything to do with students.. I would like to see each of those jobs and how much it is costing. I have also seen we are hiring for 5 admin positions for each school acting as deans. Why? How does that impact student learning and what programs will be cut to fund these? This is why our taxes are going up.
What? Deans at Elementary schools? We need support staff to help teachers, not more admin positions! She’s probably hiring more layers to insulate herself from litigation? It’s not college. No elementary school, especially the small ones here in Park City, needs a Dean.
Yes- absolutely more layers of insulation for when there is another lawsuit or the Office of Civil Rights says we’re not doing enough. Hire more people to CYA. How about a COMPREHENSIVE plan to address bullying/harassment. Wouldn’t that be the Superintendent’s job to do? Why are the Deans suppose to address this.
Look on the webpage under employment and you will see they are advertising for both elementary and upper level deans. I have no idea what this is about. These are the things that need to be called out
Contact we’ve had with a Dean at the elementary level related to allegations of bullying and racism. So these positions may be in response to the school district’s poor track record in these areas?
I wonder if it’s just an inflated title for the job. That said, it is a $106K salary position. So, it’s not nothing.
Here is the link to the job posting:
It seems like that’s what it is, and is needed. It was someone who really got to know our kid, iep, situation, would check in on them, email us and we could directly contact. Kind of a coordinator and “boots on the ground” vs other staff who are maxed out with obligations for their jobs.
Thank you, Anonymous. Unfortunately, until Gildea and certain Board members are gone, no one will call anyone out. Even though it’s ridiculous that she is obviously insulating herself from accountability by building a network of administrative layers, the Board isn’t doing its job overseeing her. They haven’t called her out for anything. We call her Queen of the Castle because she acts like one and treats us servants with disdain. We can’t talk about it. I hope so many people sign the petition that it can’t be ignored.
Keep in mind that the new board in Jan. has the right to terminate the Superintendent despite a contract renewal, but would have to pay out the rest of her contract AND hire someone new. This would cost taxpayers many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dollars wasted… Keep her contract as is until the new board decides what to do.
The previous superintendent created a culture at the district that grew admin at every level, especially in the District Office. And Gildea has continued it. The current school board should absolutely defer to the new one to decide whether or not the superintendent’s contract should be renewed. I am a 21 year resident of PC, an employee of the district, and my children have spent 40 academic years here. The things I’ve seen! PCSD is so top heavy. There needs to be an audit of every employee with a district job. I’m sure there are more than a few positions that can be eliminated. There needs to be accountability to the taxpayers, parents, teachers, and most importantly, students. Teachers in every grade should have much more in-class support. Let’s start there, instead of growing the District Office and school administrators. Thank you for creating this petition.
I agree with your comment. I too am a District employee. The District is too top heavy with administrators. Administrators have been hired to do the Superintendent’s job. Wasted of taxpayer funds. The tax increase is unnecessarily, they need to prioritize spending and reduce the waste.
The new school board should review all pending contracts. I agree and sign this petition.
It would be an objectively good decision to stay the Superintendent’s contract renewal until new Board members are sworn in, then to conduct a full performance evaluation. I am hopeful that a proper leadership group will fire her for cause and immediately pursue and vet new candidates who possess leadership skills and have an excellent track record. Cautionary note: some candidates will lie in the interview process to land the job. The process requires thorough due diligence outside of interviews. The Board and selection committee should NOT use HYA Assoctiates to manufacture a list of candidates and steer the hiring process. They have proven themselves incapable of proper vetting twice now.
It is also wholly appropriate for the new Board to evaluate the need for all highly paid district office staff and let go of those who have been merely insulating the superintendent and performing duties reserved for the superintendent. Finally, the new Board should reduce the salary and benefit packages commensurate with this very small district. We have all seen the results of overpaying a superintendent and directors. We don’t get what we pay for.
Money and respect should be offered to good teachers who keep this district running. They also need support staff given the significant number of individualized education plans and increasing demands on their time. Teachers need more time to teach, and they need functioning tools and staff in order to focus on teaching. A good superintendent won’t need to be reminded of this.
Very good points- I agree!! Finding a new Super should be more than just an interview. No one seemed to ask the question last time about why she only stayed 9 months at her last district. A thorough vetting and new head hunter company is needed.
The schools are full of great teachers and staff that have excellent student/teacher relationships. This top heavy administration just adds more made up positions that don’t seem to have an impact on student success but do seem to have a detrimental impact on employee moral.
And, about that free house in Jeremy Ranch. Do we really need to provide a highly paid Superintendent a free house? Isn’t that an extra $3000-4000 more a month we are paying her?
And why would we further enrich our highest paid employee when our other employees can’t afford to live here and/or can’t find housing? Let’s take the equity in the Jeremy house and move it to a multi-unit affordable project for PCSD employees!
what does it mean when 4 incumbent school board members have dropped out of the race?
It means they presumably see the writing on the wall and that they’re cruising to a huge and embarrassing defeat if they don’t drop out… but I’m still confident they’ll stake their incompetent criminal super buddy to another 2 years before they go. Perhaps we’ll be pleasantly surprised.
They know poop is coming down the pipe soon and they need to run off
The interview process was flawed in hiring this super. Same as the one before. I don’t like to use the word rigged because of how it’s been misused. In this case, the truth of the matter is that the last two interview processes for superintendents were rigged. Hands were tied. Ulterior motives were entertained. Reasonable interview questions were not allowed.
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