in Schools
SAGE Test Results for Each School in Park City
Below is a chart of the most recent SAGE (standardized test) for each school in Park City. SAGE is described as a rigorous test designed to test the proficiency of students in specific subjects. As was the case last year, the high school is doing well, Jeremy Ranch elementary show the most proficiency of any school in our district, and McPolin elementary should probably be torn down and rebuilt because if we’ve learned anything from TMJH it’s that the primary driving force behind any child’s education is the building in which they are taught needs some more work.
in Schools
Park City Schools are Ranked Between the 14th to 18th best School District in the State per 2015 Sage Test Results
The State of Utah has released 2015 Sage Test Results for our schools. The Sage test is a standardized test that attempts to tell whether students are proficient in subjects like Math, Science, and English. When the results came out last year, the school district did a massive campaign to try to walk people off a ledge, due to what may have been perceived as low test scores.
Out of that process came a pledge from our school district that these scores would improve the following year. The district was working with each of its teachers to ensure that students needs were being met.
Well, good news, it’s now the next year and we get to see whether that pledge has been followed through upon. The 2015 SAGE results are in. So, how did Park City schools do?
Park City improved in each of three areas. The percentage of students with english proficiency went from 57.2% in 2014 to 59.1% in 2015. Math proficiency went from 52.4% in 2014 to 55.6% in 2015. Science also improved, going from 55.9% to 60.9% proficiency.
If we compare rankings across the state, we are the 14th best school in English, 18th best in Math, and 14th best in science. So, we aren’t the best district in the state (per these scores) but in English and Science we are right at the edge of the top 10% (14 out of 140 districts). For science we are in the top 13%.
The spreadsheet of results can be found here. I’ll be breaking out individual schools over the next few days.
in Schools
Has the Park City School District Considered the Impact on Hispanic Children of Having 5th-8th at Ecker Hill?
I was having a debate with a friend over whether the additional travel time that will be required for 5th and 8th graders to travel from areas like Prospector to Ecker Hill was discriminatory toward our Hispanic kids, since that population is a minority and Park City’s Hispanic population is higher near the Kearns campus (thus impacting them more than other populations). We ultimately concluded that it may be discriminatory but that doesn’t mean it’s illegal. My friends point was that no matter where you put the school, someone is impacted.
She had another good point though. She said, aren’t Hispanic kids generally faring much worse in our schools? I said, “yes”, and quoted the Superintendent’s stat that only 9% of our Hispanic 11th graders are proficient in English. She said, “what’s the impact of the additional travel time, especially if by bus, of travelling from Prospector to Ecker Hill (vs Prospector to the Kearns Campus)”?
That answer is probably somewhere between 20 to 30 minutes if travelling by car or 45-plus minutes if traveling by bus. Currently 6th and 7th grade students make that journey but under the new plan, that will be 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. So more students are impacted. Then we have to take into account studies that indicate that when adolescents get as little as 30 minutes less sleep each night their performance is impacted. Riding a bus for an hour will thus impact waking times, unless later start times are introduced for 5th to 8th grades.
Census numbers tell us that about 1,800 Hispanic persons live in the area between Old Ranch Road and municipal Park City (1500 of those 1,800 Hispanic persons live within very close proximity to Kearns). In contrast, the population of Hispanic persons in other areas (i.e. Pinebrook, Kimball Junction, Trailside, Jeremy Ranch) total approximately 1100. That means there are about 63% more Hispanic persons near the Kearns campus than are near to the Ecker Hill campus.
So it is likely many kids in our hardest hit educational group, will likely have some additional hardship, because of moving two additional grades to the burbs, that requires more travel time, thus impacting performance.
Now, does that fear come to fruition? Do our Hispanic kids get a worse education because of this? I guess we’ll see. There are so many variables that it would be hard to prove (either way). That said, it sure does seem like a bit of a head-wind.
The one thing I’m surprised about, though, is that this never seemed to come up in School Board discussions over the plan. There was a lot of talk over all day kindergarten to help our Hispanic kids and a little talk over school start times, but the two concepts never seemed to be discussed in concert. Never once did I hear the question asked, “What’s the impact of travel times to our Hispanic kids if we move 5th and 8th grades out to Ecker?” Nor did I hear an answer.
I know the School Board’s Master Planning Committee spent about 9 months discussing school needs, but the more I consider the issue, the more I wonder whether the School Board spent enough time to really understand all of the impacts of the choices they made.
Modern Day Activism
I saw this today on Reddit and had to chuckle…
When I saw that my mind immediately thought of two people: the ‘Smile You are Beautiful’ kid and the ‘Park City Pedestrian Passage’ Woman.
One held up a sign for a few days, his message went “viral”, the school recognized him at an assembly, a local coalition centered a campaign around his message, and he hopes to make his message go viral across the country.
Another toiled for at least five years, going to every meeting possible, toting her easel and drawings around, trying to get any support she could, and it looks like she may finally get a little part of what she was hoping for.
I’m not disparaging either high school student Robbie Borders, who is spreading a message of hope, or Jennifer Terry, who is trying to make her small corner of the world safer for kids and adults alike. Everybody does their own thing, in their own way, and any attempt at getting involved is great.
It’s funny, though. Imagine if former mayor Dana Williams could have just held up a sign back in the 90’s to slow development of Empire Canyon. Or if Rich Wyman could have crafted the perfect message on white poster board to achieve the same results he has on the Mountain Accord. To the outsider, it just seems a lot easier to make a sign, but I suppose it’s probably not.
All I can say is activism ain’t what it used to be.
Is Uber the Real Solution to Park City’s Carmageddon
You may have heard stories about Carmageddon. You may have even experienced it and lived to tell the tale of waiting in traffic for two hours as you tried to make your way home after one of the best snow days in 2014. Since that fateful date, Park City and Summit County leaders have made every attempt possible to make sure our transportation issues are solved and Carmageddon never happens again.
Or have they.
They’ve invested time and money into ideas, for sure. They’ve held meetings. They’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into studies. They are building a transit center in Kimball Junction. Yet, it all focuses on the bus. Perhaps, you are going to ride the bus on your next trip to Vail, but I’m probably not.
I want to get from my house to PCMR as fast as I can, so I can ski. What are my options? Today I can take the bus and get there over an hour later (with no traffic) or to drive and get there in 20 minutes. Yet, when I drive, half the time the parking lot is full and I have to park at Fresh Market. Sound Familiar? Given the options, I (and most people) drive, even with the parking situation.
Enter Uber. Uber has been making inroads in the Park City market during the last year. Their focus has been around providing services during Sundance. Yet, I wonder if there is a bigger fish to fry. In a few select cities, Uber has launched UberPool. This is a carpooling service where riders can share an Uber ride with another person. It is about half the price of a normal Uber ride. That sounds great. I could see why people would use UberPool, but let’s take it a step further.
Imagine if Park City Municipal and Summit County worked with Uber to create UberSki. UberSki would be based on UberPool, using the traditional uber service, with Uber drivers, with four wheel drive vehicles and ski racks, that picked up people across Park City (maximum 4 riders) and transported them from their homes to resort and back.
If I, as a rider, had to spend an extra 10 minutes to pick up other skiers in my area, but was dropped off at the lift, and it cost $5 to $10, I would probably pay it (especially when our resorts start charging for parking). I would bet that I’m not alone.
If local governments worked with Vail and Deer Valley to subsidize this, it could even be more attractive.
The more I look at our transportation issues, I don’t see buses as a viable option unless massive structural changes are made to the way our community lives and operates. A solution like UberSki could take pressure off of some of our most contentious events and help alleviate some of the issues surrounding transportation.
I know that it sounds like another crazy idea from the Park Rag. That said, expanding on an idea that works (Uber) is usually a lot easier than expanding on an idea that doesn’t (buses).
To Solve Transportation Problems, You First Have to Accept Density
I was talking with a Friend of the Park Rag and he said something quite profound: “If you want to solve our transportation problems, you have to have to create density.” What does that mean? It means that if we want to use typical transportation solutions (like buses and rail) to decrease traffic, people must live in locations tightly clustered together. Likewise, the places people go must also be tightly clustered together. Said another way, if most people live close to one of a handful of bus stops and they are also only headed to one of a handful of locations, then Park City buses can have more runs and decrease times to destinations.
When you think of it in those terms, it really focuses you on the issue. Buses and the Subway work in big cities like NYC because there are so many people clustered together in tight places. In the Park City area, you may have a couple of bus stops in Trailside area but because homes are not clustered together, the actual distance between most people’s homes and the bus stop makes using the bus unattractive. Likewise, because there are so many areas to service, the buses don’t come that frequently. Therefore, bus usage is low.
Now imagine that the Boyer Tech Park (that big open space on the west side of 224 near Hugo Coffee) was where all new residential development happened in the basin (impossible I know… but work with me here). You could have buses stop outside the development every 5 minutes. Further imagine that those buses went directly to where the people wanted them to go: a bus to Main Street, a bus to Canyons, a bus to SLC, a bus to Prospector, a bus to Quinn’s Junction. Now you have a solution. You’d wait 5 minutes, go to your destination, and get there nearly as fast as a car. Even my wife would ride the bus. It’s possible because there would be thousands of people living in a small area.
Yet, reality sets in. Most of the Park City population doesn’t live in a place like that. We are spread out. Our homes are not clustered and our destinations are not clustered. What a proper transportation system seems to need is ORDER and what we have is CHAOS. So, how do we achieve order out of chaos? Future development would need to be clustered together. You may have heard of this under another term, receiving areas.
“Receiving Areas” is a term used by planning personnel where development rights can be transferred from one location to another that achieves the holy grail … DENSITY. So, perhaps you are a land owner who owns 100 acres of land throughout the Basin and have the rights to build one home per 40 acres on that land. That would mean you could build 2 homes on that property (not very dense). Instead, Summit County could provide ways for you to trade that land for the right to build more homes in specific receiving areas (more dense). The reason Summit County would want to make that trade is to prevent urban sprawl (i.e. homes on every piece of land in the Basin). If the county can make that trade, all of a sudden they get density and limit the dreaded urban sprawl.
That all sounds great … until it comes into your backyard. If you are a Jeremy Ranch resident, you may not want 400 units of density built at the entrance to Jeremy Ranch. If you live on Old Ranch Road, 200 condos in your neighborhood may be a worse solution to you than 20 homes dotted throughout the Basin (even though those 20 homes would be classified as urban sprawl).
Therein lies the challenge. In order to introduce effective transportation solutions, like buses and rail, we need density. In order to achieve density, current neighborhoods will be impacted with more clusters of development. Adding large complexes of homes and condos to existing neighborhoods may not be viewed favorably. Yet, unless that happens, transportation efforts will likely be ineffective at solving our issues, because no one will use them.
It truly comes down to either accepting density or traffic. The question is, which is the lesser evil?
in Housing
What Career Should Your Kid Pursue if They Want To Live in Park City After School
It seems many parents and their children dream of a day when their child could come back from college (or grad school) and live in Park City. Of course, that may mean working in the valley but that’s a small price to pay (for many) to be able to live the Park City lifestyle.
First, let’s talk about the primary driver of whether someone can live here… the cost of housing. At the bottom end of the scale their is renting. The cheapest rent available (even in affordable housing) is about $1,000 a month. That would be for a one bedroom or studio. Renting something larger and/or closer to town may cost anywhere from $1700 a month and up. If your child will be buying a very small condo, like some of those in prospector, they are in the $130,000 range. If your child is interested in a house, that has been designated as affordable (and could find one), those maybe in the $250,000-$300,000 range. A regular house/condo with a couple of bedrooms likely costs at least $400,000 – $500,000.
Then it’s important to understand what percentage of income should be spent on rent or a mortgage. Apartments.com says your child should spend no more than 1/3 of their take home pay on rent. As for buying, the rule of thumb is not to spend more than 28% of your total income (before taxes) on a mortgage.
So, if we use those sets of numbers. Your child probably needs to make over $42,000, in total, annually to live in an affordable rental (if they can find it). They’d need to make (in total) about $70,000 a year for a regular apartment. Perhaps the smaller Prospector style condos will suit your child. If so, they’d need a job that pays $30,000 a year. An affordable house, if available, would require between $57,000 and $70,000 a year. A regular house would probably require at least $92,000 a year in income.
So, what jobs can afford that? Luckily the Department of Workforce Services provides us with average salaries for inexperienced workers in the the Salt Lake area. If your kid is willing to live in a studio condo in prospector (and they can get a mortgage), a lot of jobs can afford that: morticians (perfect for the funeral home they want to build near Home Depot), social service specialists, and physical therapist assistants all make more than $30,000 a year average in the Salt Lake metro area.
If an affordable rental is where your kid’s sights are (42,000 +) inexperienced postal carriers make that much around Salt Lake City. So do Physics teachers (probably more if you were lucky enough to get a gig here), building inspectors, and financial analysts.
If they can find an “affordable” house they still have a few options for jobs making $60,000 or more. Some of these are software developer, dental hygienist, and construction managers.
If they’d like a regular apartment it’s getting a little tougher (and may need a partner or roommate). Job earning more than $70,000 a year include nurse practitioners, marketing managers, and dentists. Those are the type of careers that usually need an additional degree beyond college or some experience.
If they are shooting big and want to come out of the gate and buy a $400,000 home, they need a job paying $90,000 plus a year (or someone else to chip in on the mortgage). Those job, paying that for inexperienced workers, are few and far between. In fact they better be straight out of med school because the two options are both doctors (general practitioner, and internists).
What does all that mean? If your child’s primary goal has always been to live in Park City, it’s attainable. It just requires thinking about what career they want to pursue (based on salary), and likely compromising on what type of place tey want to live in. They may wish they could live in a house like their parents’ — straight out of school — but that’s pretty unrealistic.
Out of roughly 570 professions listed by Department of Workforce services, roughly 140 professions make more than $42,000 (for inexperienced workers). That’s only 25% of professions where a less-experienced person could afford to live here (even in an affordable rental). So it appears to require tough choices. If a child’s chosen profession is (or leads to) being a hotel clerk, that’s great if they enjoy it. But $17,000 isn’t enough to live here (without roommates). Neither is ski patrol, being a childcare worker, or tour guide.
Note, I have made a number of assumptions on prices of rent/homes/interest rates/etc. If you think my numbers are off a little, feel free to bump my estimates up or down as you see fit. Calculations were made with tax rates of 15%, mortgage rates of 5% and $0 down (yes, you should put at least 10% down on a house if possible). Rental rates are based on numbers I have seen in county/city documents. House prices represent the low end of what is likely possible and what has been described by Realtors on KPCW. Yes, I do know that there are many neighborhoods with million dollar homes, but your kid, your kid’s wife, and your kid’s second wife better be doctors in order to afford one straight out of med school (or be very lucky).
in Economy
Summit County Employment Remains Strong
The Utah Department of Workforce services released July unemployment rates last week. Summit County has the second lowest unemployment rate in Utah, with 3.2% of the population unemployed. That translates into 740 people unemployed (seasonally adjusted).
The only county in Utah doing better is Cache county. The following list shows all counties in Utah. Currently Wayne County has the highest unemployment (with 8.7% of its population unemployed).
Suggested Reading: The Brutal Costs of Raising the World’s 631st-Best Tennis Player
One of the things Park City cherishes is its athletics, whether that is individual sports like giant slalom or team sports like lacrosse. Yet, I often cringe when fellow parents will tell me that that their little Suzie, who plays on the 3rd-string soccer team, is going to pay her way through college using those soccer skills. I never say anything but always think, isn’t there an easier way (and perhaps more likely) way to get a full-ride to the U (whatever “U” your kid wants to attend)?
Today I was reading a story that reminded me of those thoughts and clarified the issue. The story is about Noah Rubin, who has been “playing tennis since he was 1 year old.” His parents have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in pursuit of “his” tennis dreams. He is currently ranked 631 on the men’s ATP tour, has just quit Wake Forest, and will pursue professional tennis.
His dreams may purely be based on love of the game. However, if they are financial at all, it is likely he’ll be in for a rude awakening. His combined winnings after playing tennis for 18 years are $18,000. He is currently ranked 631 in the world. Estimates are that only the top 164 players in the world do better than BREAK EVEN each year. So, if you are the 164th best player, your net income is $0. That’s a tough job.
Perhaps other disciplines like super G, soccer, and curling fare better than tennis? Yet, it still seems you have to be one of the top people in the country world to do these things and be financially successful.
As always, what an individual person and family chooses for themselves is none of my business. Yet, it doesn’t mean that I don’t look upon some choices and wonder. I’m all for athletics in our schools. I think it teaches a number of skills that can provide a well rounded education. In some cases it can lead to college scholarships and perhaps even more. However, when that athletic experience is pushed past its logical end, and hope exceeds rationale, it seems like a lot of wasted time.
Of course, this post is just the opinion of a guy who perhaps could have gotten a full ride to a division III school to play tennis, but in hindsight, is glad he just got business degree instead.
If you’ve got five minutes, and care at all about the topic, you may want to read “The Brutal Costs of Raising the World’s 631st-Best Tennis Player.”
in Schools
Are You or Your Group Against the Park City School District Bond?
I’ve heard that there may be multiple groups forming to oppose the Park City School bond. If you happen to read the Park Rag and are interested in working together, let me know and I’m happy to put the groups in contact with each other.
Also, just to put it on the record, the Park Rag is not pro-bond or anti-bond. There are many good arguments on both sides of the issue. That said, the pro-bond folks have an obvious advantage. So, if I can help even the playing field by connecting people within the community, I’m happy to do that.
So, if you or your group is interested in talking with other people who are questioning the school bond, please email me at and I’ll confidentially pass the information along. If you or your group is interested in supporting the bond, I’ll point you to this Park Record article.
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