The Park City School District says it has taken steps to strengthen its policies, procedures and training related to resolving allegations of harassment and discrimination. The changes are part of a joint agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after an investigation found over 180 harassment incident reports in the district. The office enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex and disability.
The OCR found incident records and reports varied by school administrator. The district has now rolled out a new standardized system across all schools for reporting harassment and discrimination. Superintendent Jill Gildea said during this month's board meeting the new portal is accessible online in English and Spanish.
“They go right into an enterprise system,” she said. “So no longer is it a movable Google form, it's now a lot more easy to use that report.”
Administrators were trained on the new process in April and the OCR will now review the new system.
Training materials for all school employees are under internal review and comprehensive training is scheduled for August.
To address Title IX policy violations, the district has trained a Title IX coordinator, a position required to manage reports of sex-based discrimination.
Gildea said the district has also partnered with the Western Educational Equity Assistance Center to help promote equitable education in schools.
“This group provides at no charge training material, resources, supports and communications, all kinds of different robust resources for us to access as a community so that, you know, we're not doing it just in a vacuum,” she said. “We're using best practices from around the country.”
The federal agency also required the district to review and remedy harassment incidents from the 2022-2023 school year. Gildea said the district expects to complete that process by May 30.
