On Tuesday, the Park City School Board discussed grade realignment. They ultimately determined that they will not go forward with grade realignment next year — but it will eventually happen.

It was a fascinating discussion with board members, the Superintendent, and school principals. It is quiet long but very informative. The relevant discussion starts at 17:13.

On a recent article, one of our favorite commenters made the point that he felt the Park City School District school board is desperate because the next school bond will likely fail, just like the last one. One of the reason’s he stated was due to the number of uninformed voters.

The previous bond post-mortem also concluded that there were many uninformed voters and this impacted the outcome of the vote. There has been an effort this year to educate the voters, and that will likely intensify if the school board moves toward a bond vote.

The problem is that education will only go so far. If passing the bond is the goal, we’re not sure education is the key. What’s probably more important is how the voters feel about the organization offering the bond.

To help prove our point, let’s discuss the 2004, 2010 and 2014 open space bonds (2014’s was part of a recreation bond). There is over $30 million in those three bonds dedicated to open space and trails. Our question is: what has been purchased with that money and what areas are they focusing on with the remainder of the money?

Uh…Uh… Uh… Run-A-Muck??? Actually, we have no clue.

We had to go look it up.

We’d guess at least 75% of the community doesn’t know how the majority of the money is being (was) spent. However, those bonds always easily pass. We’d guess another open space and trails bond would pass with flying colors.

Why? First, people here love open space and trails. Second, they trust groups like Utah Open Lands, Summit Land Conservancy, and Basin Rec.

Perhaps the school district doesn’t have an education problem. Perhaps they have a likability problem coupled with trust issues.

The problem with correcting those is that it takes a constant and consistent effort to change your image. Do 6 months of good things and then screw up once, you’re back to square one. People are looking for reasons to criticize. People are going to demand near-perfection. Every slip-up is magnified.

Unfortunately, our gut tells us the Park City School District is pretty close to square one.

We’re not sure where they start or how they go about it, but being a little more popular may not be a bad thing.

We received a tip from a community member about PCSD School Calendars being discussed at Tuesday’s Board meeting (2/7/2017). If you haven’t seen them, you may want to take a look. School starts and ends a bit earlier, it appears.

If you have concerns, you can let your school board member know.

Click on the image for a bigger view:

Note: Thanks to the reader who sent this in

Last week we received an anonymous tip that the Park City School District was considering realigning grades this Fall — about a year or two earlier than expected. School Board President Phil Kaplan confirmed that all options were on the table. KPCW later reported that the district did meet with personnel to discuss the issue. So, it’s no longer a rumor.

We now know that the Park City Board of Education will discuss the fast-track option of realigning grades, tomorrow (Tuesday).

That’s all we know for sure… but what fun is the Park Rag without speculation. It also provides readers a chance to chime in on the craziness. So, let’s go.

Why would the school district realign grades (In just 7 months)?

Let’s begin with a quote from one of our favorite movies, Then Hunt for Red October starting Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery. Russian Captain Sean Connery (Ramias) has just stolen a Russia Sub and Alec Baldwin (Jack Ryan) thinks he wants to defect:

Admiral Painter: “What’s his plan?”

Jack Ryan: “His plan?”

Admiral Painter: “Russians don’t take a dump, son, without a plan. And senior captains don’t start something this dangerous without having thought the matter through.”

Whether you like what our school district does, or not, you have to admit that they are big. They teach thousands. They employee hundreds. They generally do a good job… But they don’t do anything without a plan (except maybe for that snow day 😉 ). It’s unlikely the school lunch program could be changed by next Fall — let alone realigning grades. Think of the logistics of it all. Buses. Textbooks. Toilets, Desks. Lunches. Teachers. Admin.

The notion of making this change in such a short period is crazy. The school board may still do it, but it doesn’t seem rational (given what is public knowledge).

So, why would the school district have held a meeting with school personnel to tell them about this possibility? Here are some possibilities:

Guess 1: A school board member liked the idea and wants to talk about it.

Perhaps a school board member or administrator just wants to make sure all bases are covered and wanted to talk about realigning grades next year. However, the administration as a whole was worried about just discussing the issue during a meeting. So, they decided to inform other school administrators early to “avoid a blowback.”

We could see this as a possibility; however, it seems like the negative perception leveled on both the school board and district for even contemplating a rushed decision would outweigh the benefits of warning personnel it was coming. We would think that a school board member just would have asked the question… “what if we did this next year?” to get the ball rolling. The district’s actions seem more formal in nature than just having a conversation, but we shall see.

Guess 2: District elementary school population is up sharply and it has forced realignment.

Perhaps estimated school population is up dramatically in elementary schools, and rather than add trailers to elementary schools (and their expense), the district has decided to over-populate high school by 22% more than its enrollment threshold.

We’ve heard this as partial justification for considering the rush-realignment. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. Yes, trailers may need to be added to elementary schools if population spikes… but hopefully we can rent them. We’ve heard numbers like $200K per trailer. You can build a house for $200K (especially when the land is free). Either way, a few trailers seem a better option than impacting all high school students, high school teachers, 5th-8th grade teachers, administrators, etc.

Guess 3: The old cock-thumb

Long time readers, know our affinity for HBO’s show VEEP and their cock-thumb strategy:

“A cock-thumb is when someone makes a radical suggestion in order to prompt the other person to make a more reasonable suggestion, which is actually what the first person wanted. In Veep’s case, the President’s office plans to propose ‘a radical cut to the military, cutting off the cock,’ hoping that ‘the Joint Chiefs in turn propose their own more reasonable cut, cutting off the thumb.'”

If this theory held, the school district would be proposing realigning the grades, so that they could do something crazy, but less crazy, in the future. What’s less crazy? There are just too many ideas to speculate on this one.

Guess 4: Trying to impact teacher negotiations

This is out there, and may be unlikely, but you never know. Teacher contract negotiations are coming up soon. Is this a shot across the bow? “Park City teachers, we’ll hold off on realigning the grades that would make teaching miserable, but you have to help us out too.” Strange things happen in politics.

Guess 5: Manipulation of the public/teachers into voting for a bond

This theory would say that the Park City School Board wants to ensure that School Bond V2.0 passes. To do that, they will make life so miserable for teachers and students, that everyone will vote for the upcoming bond to ease the pain.

This seems almost too far fetched to be true. Why would a school district punish students and teachers in order to get to what it wants? Also, the bond hasn’t been formally voted on by the board. Unfortunately for the district, manipulation seems to be the most commonly held idea by many members of the public. Whether the district goes ahead or doesn’t, in some ways the damage is done. The idea of cramming 9th grade into the high school has been floated and floated for some reason. Many members of the public feel it was malicious and that taints not only realignment but the high school expansion and any bond that may be voted on.

Guess 6: It is a tale. Full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.

Why would the idea be floated? Because certain members of the school board are grumpy. They voted on realignment a long time ago and it hasn’t happened. This has been “hampered” by the public process, the bond failure, and a lack of clear direction. So, to combat this, they are going to find a way to get it done. One way to get it started is to force the issue…. or at least pretend like it.

Don’t forget, the school board were the ones that said they may raise a capital levy, if the bond fails. That turned out to be all bluster (so far).

This seems like the same M.O. and it would likely be met with the same disdain as the threats made during the bond.

So, which guess in the Park Rag going with? We think it’s the bluster (Guess 6). We believe that some school board members are tired of the process and are intent on pushing what they think is best, in the hopes that somehow it kick starts the realignment.

Regardless of whether we are right on that, we also think this has already backfired on them.

At best, trying to realign the grades that quickly seems foolish. At worst, it seems manipulative. On Tuesday there is a meeting where this will apparently be discussed. Hopefully the board members will be able to provide further clarification on their intentions.

After all, it may just be nothing. However, if it turns out to be nothing… nothing wasn’t executed very well.

Have other thoughts? Think we are crazy? Let us know in the comments.

Last night, the Park City School District held a public meeting to outline options for expanding the high school. VCBO, the school district’s favorite architect led the discussion. Also providing input were members of the redesign committee and PCSD Superintendent Dr Ember Conley.

We’ve enjoyed this round of “shake up the district,” because we haven’t been paying too much attention to it (versus 2015’s bond where we attended countless meetings). So, this was an opportunity to hear, for the first time, the ideas being generated.

For those who haven’t been following the high school redesign closely, here is the TLDR version of why they are doing it:

• Come hell or high water the 9th grade will be in the high school (It was decided two years ago by the school board)
• The current high school isn’t big enough for the 9th graders
• The school’s gym is embarrassing
• The arts don’t have enough space for the current student population interested in the arts
• Locker rooms for Dozier are horrible
• CTE (Career Technical Education … also now encompassing PC CAPS) needs more space

There are a myriad of other concerns but those are most of the big ones.

So, in the wake of the bond failure, a committee was formed to look at Park City High School Expansion (not to be confused with grade realignment… in many ways grade realignment causes the high school to “require” expansion). That committee was made up of teachers, administrators, and some public. They came up with 4 options for how it could work, but then came top with two more. So, there are 6 total ideas about how the high school could be expanded.

We learned last night that the committee (school district) can’t provide costs estimates for any of six options because there are too many options. So, they will narrow the options two options, and then employee an outside firm (Hughes) to estimate costs for those two options.

What are the six options? We’ll try to summarize them as best we can (the Option #’s are the district’s… the names are ours):

Option 1: The Great Expansion

• Expand school to south for 9th graders
• Expand to west for CTE
• Expand arts where the gyms were
• Add a new athletic facility

Option 2: Up and Out

• Similar to Option 1
• CTE building is on its own
• Add a second floor to the west wing for classrooms

Option 3: Move that Behemoth 40 feet

• Move Dozier 40 feet to the west
• Athletics facility is adjacent to Dozier
• CTE in its own building on the east side of campus

Option 4: The David Blaine

• Move Dozier somewhere… but no one is sure where
• Add classrooms to the west wing
• Add an athletic facility where Dozier was
• CTE area added to the west of existing school

Option 3A: Thinner

• CTE is brought back into school
• Design is more compact

Option 4A: Small Package / Big Delivery. Or Not.

• Option 4 but further minimize the impact on students during construction but doing something with the west wing (wasn’t really presented at all during the discussion… we’ve reached out to see if the district can provide more info).

Before and after the presentation, the attendees were invited to provide feedback on each of the options. Here is that feedback (click on an image for a larger view):

We did take notes during the meeting. If you’d like to view them, they are here.

Finally, if you have about an hour and care enough about the topic, we also have a video of the meeting. There are some interesting questions from attendees throughout the meeting.

Most people in the community thought grade realignment was something that would happen in the next few years. The High School would be 9-12, there would be a 7/8 school and a 5/6 school, and our elementary schools would house our Pre-K through 4th graders.

It appears that change may happen as soon as this fall.

We received an anonymous email this evening from a Park City teacher stating:

Although it is not public yet, the school district is considering doing the grade realignment next year (Fall of 2017). This would move 5th/6th to Treasure Mountain, 7th/8th to Ecker, and push the 9th graders to PCHS. This would force teachers to use every inch of the school to teach classes; science labs would be used for actual classes. The lecture hall would become a classroom. It sounds like all teachers would be displaced and would be teaching all around the building.

This was sprung on the admin from the high school yesterday (they had no idea, they were under the impression it would AT LEAST 2018 before the alignment.) Various district employees, including teachers and admin, believe the board is encouraging this approach to force the hand of the community to pass a bond. It would be total mayhem for teachers and students and would make differentiating lessons and organizing a classroom difficult for most teachers. Supposedly they are going to discuss it publicly at the board meeting in two weeks, and will make a decision two weeks later.

Just to let you all know. Teachers are furious because this decision is manipulative. I’d like to stress that admin at the schools said no decision had officially been made, but it appears that they were as blind-sided as the faculty was. I am a teacher in the district and I am beyond frustrated. There has been no discussion of this until today, and it appears there will be little time to challenge it if they make the decision soon as they are expected to do. To be clear, I am in favor or realignment, but not in this way. This is asking for total chaos to push the bond through that will follow this fall to expand the high school. If you contact school board members and school admin, they will know about it. If board members claim they do not know yet, it is because either a) they are lying or b) the decision was concocted beyond the scope of the entire board.

We received the email while at the school district’s meeting regarding expanding the high school. That provided us with the opportunity to confirm the rumor. We asked Park City School Board President Phil Kaplan and he responded that “all options are on the table.” School Board member Petra Butler, also in attendance, confirmed that the board is looking at all alternatives.

We also visited with Park City School District Community Relations Specialist Molly Miller. Ms Miller said the district and board were being thorough and considering every option. She recommended that the public contact their school board member to relay any concerns. She also said the board would be discussing this in work session on February 7 at 9 AM and also likely on their February 27th meeting (she noted that was a Monday, instead of the typical Tuesday meeting). The public is welcome to attend or can view the meeting online (after the fact) by going to the district’s Board Docs website, click on meetings, choose the meeting, click on View Agenda, then scroll down on the left hand side of the screen to Videos (it’s easier than it sounds).

It sure seems like grade realignment is in play for August. However, we are skeptical that the board would follow through on that. We’ll tell you why we believe that, and what we think it means, in the next few days.

We were watching the Park City School District Board meeting online (good job PCSD on allowing people watch via video), and noticed a comment by new School Board member Petra Butler.

Ms Butler said, as the chairperson tried to move on from public comment, “I’ve heard from the community on the time limit on public comment and I wondered if we could do something about not imposing a time limit on what people want to say.”

At beginning of each public comment session, the school board reads a statement that says that comments should not be made about specific people and they should be limited to 3 minutes. Having watched many board meetings, sometimes the board enforces the 3 minute rule when the topic is controversial and otherwise will ignore it when it is a “friendly” topic.

When challenged by other board members on today’s public comment, Ms Butler said that the previous group had spoken for almost 10 minutes and rules said the limit was 3 minutes.

It appeared she wondered why all rules were not enforced universally.

Then Ms Butler’s concerns were dismissed, into the ether.

Not good.

The Park Rag has had an issue with the way the School Board handles public comment for a while. On our first visit to the School Board, public comment was made.We envisioned something similar to Aristotle-like discourse on the question brought from the public. Instead, nothing was said by the board. The person, who had spent hours crafting their comment, was delivered absolute silence by the board. The citizen just quietly walked away.

He won’t be back.

Yesterday, community member Jim Tedford provided public comment on the grade school realignment process to the school board.  He asked one simple question… “Is there going to be an opportunity for the community to be involved in the [grade school] realignment?”

The answer was “Thank you Jim.”

Really? A citizen took their time to think about an issue. He found out when the next school board meeting was. Then he drove to school board at the prescribed time. Then he had the courage to stand up and say what he thought. Then he asked a reasonable question.

And all the school board would say is “thanks”?

If you ever go to a Summit County Council or Park City Council meeting and ask a question, it will get answered immediately. You may not like what you hear, but there WILL be a response to the question.

If the Park City School District fancies itself as the top district in the country, it begins with the school board. Then there is discussion. It continues with discourse. It ends with decision…based upon both popular and unpopular ideas.

A three year old could say “thank you.” A school board should engage in thought-provoking discussion.

As we’ve watched the school board over the past few years, we’ve often wondered whether they hold themselves to the same standards that our teachers hold our students to.

Some days they impress. Some days they don’t.

Ms Butler’s actions impressed.

We just wish there were more Ms Butlers.