The Park City Community Foundation has worked for nearly a year on their social equity project. They’ve gathered data and focused on three key areas that include housing, education and inclusion. On Tuesday afternoon, they’ll present their findings to the Park City School Board of Education.
The presentation will be made to The Park City School District Board of Education by Park City Community Foundation Social Equity Director, Diego Zagarra. He believes the initiative he has worked on the past year will need the support and buy-in from the educational leaders in the community. He says they hope to find alignment because education is a critical part of social equity. Many members of the education community have helped to define where inequities exist.
“The goal of the presentation is to reach more members of the community as well as more leadership bodies. The Park City School District Board of Education is a critical leadership body in our community, and we want to make sure that we are all informed of the process that has been going on across the community. But in reality, it is a community process hence the name the Community Equity Social Equity Strategic Plan. Education is a pillar of equity.”
Zagarra’s goal in making the presentation to the school board is to find the potential for collaboration. The report identifies strategies related early childhood education and care, extended learning opportunities, digital access, transition services for special needs students, and college access. He says ideas of social connectedness are important for kids all the way through their school career.
“Yeah, we’re thinking about things that transpire after school hours. We’re thinking about sports and recreation, after school activities, extra-curricular opportunities, sports teams at the high school and beyond. Everything that compliments a student’s education essentially.”
Zagarra says learning and inclusion are two principles that have been prevalent throughout the planning of the social equity project. He will be joined by Executive Director Katie Wright and Sara McCarthy, Special Projects Manager.
The Park City School District Business Administrator, Todd Hauber will also present the board with the final enrollment counts which were taken October 1. The unaudited report shows district enrollment is slightly down from last year with 4765 students compared with 4,780 students in 2018. More extensive discussion will be held during the school board meeting.
The Park City District Board of Education meets at 4 pm on Tuesday in the District Offices on Kearns Boulevard. The meeting is live streamed on the pcschools.us link under the school board tab.
