All three will step into their new roles in late July: Jacqie Spell as principal at Jeremy Ranch Elementary, Caleb Fine at Park City High and Isaiah Folau at Ecker Hill Middle School.
They were among eight new district administrators appointed at a March board of education meeting.
The principals said they first plan to establish trust with the teachers and staff in their buildings. Many in the district already know them, as each has worked in the district for many years. Fine and Folau also attended Park City schools as kids.
Fine said creating relationships based on trust allows teachers to be at their best.
“If they're at their best, they can be at their best for students,” he said.
Based on his own experience, Folau said, Park City has amazing, supportive teachers.
He said one of his favorite school memories comes from his time as an Ecker Hill Middle School student. Folau said he didn’t enjoy math and remembers a specific day when he asked his teacher for help. She tried a few different methods to help him understand the concept.
“[She] wanted to reach me individually amongst the 100 plus students that she had,” Folau said. “That, I think, is the embodiment of what we're trying to do here in Park City Schools: quality people that are sensitive, caring, patient, looking at the individual.”
Fine said he and other administrators want to ensure students have positive memories like Folau. Fine’s favorite part of being at the district was meeting his wife when he started working as a teacher. But a close second, he said, came during a Park City High basketball game.
At the time Fine was a coach and Boston Vandenberg hit a half-court three-point shot to beat Wasatch High School.
“In that moment, everyone that was in that gym still remembers that shot,” he said. “That was my experience because I was the boys' basketball coach, and that's my thing. But there are theater moments, there are all these other extracurricular moments and class moments that we get to be a part of, that people remember forever.”
The administrators also said they plan to continue efforts to foster a more welcoming school environment. That work has been in motion for over a year, following a federal investigation that found over 180 incidents of harassment in the district.
Spell said she plans to help Jeremy Ranch students learn to better manage their emotions, which she has been working on as principal at an elementary school in the Salt Lake City School District.
“If we're feeling dysregulated and then we want to go and say something unkind or hurt somebody physically, it’s because we're not staying regulated within,” she said. “So we've been working a lot on how to help students identify where they're at and utilize the skills that they need to be able to regulate their nervous system.”
That includes teaching students to speak up for themselves if they feel uncomfortable and when to go to a trusted adult.
Fine and Folau plan to continue work to prevent hate speech and antisemitism at Ecker Hill and the high school through student workshops and assemblies.
