Meredith Reed said her experience as an Air Force chaplain, a government business management consultant, and real estate broker, brings skills and insight that would benefit the community.
Reed said the current board of education is not adhering to state requirements to hold open meetings, and she said if elected, she would be accountable to constituents.
“I really don't see any accountability from our board members to the public, and I don't see any accountability from our administration. We don’t see any open discussion about what’s going on and how those decisions are reached. I just saw the board candidates being presented and that the board had already made a decision, and there wasn't much discussion about who should be chosen for that role.”
Regarding the Summit County attorney’s investigation into alleged unreported sexual abuse, Reed said she would have questioned whether Superintendent Jill Gildea needed to be held accountable.
“When criminal charges were filed against this school district, which was horrible and gut-wrenching when that came to light as a parent in this district that we have children whose safety is not guaranteed by this district, and the county attorney calls it a systematic and institutional failure and the superintendent does not take any responsibility for that, I would have looked closely at whether we needed to continue her employment.”
She said a recent hate speech incident in which swastikas were found in a high school classroom is not just a Park City School District problem. She said she thinks the broader community has experts that could help develop a more robust Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion role to address DEI issues.
“The response by the district has been insufficient. That's why the task force has been put together to try to figure out what the best way to solve that problem. This is not limited to just Park City schools. I've been having lots of conversations with community leaders with other organizations in our community where people have offered to help make this better, improve this situation, and come up with community solutions for this problem. Those offers have been declined.”
Reed said the school board and district administrators have the responsibility to communicate with the public. She said stakeholders are not just parents, teachers, and kids, but also include everyone who lives and pays taxes in the Park City School District.
She’s lived in Park City with her family since 2009 and like all other candidates running for two open board seats, has children in the school district.
Seat four on the board represents Jeremy Ranch, Kimball Junction, and the Silver Creek neighborhoods. The primary is June 28, at which time the field will be narrowed from three to two candidates before the November election.
