Until now, the Park City School District has allowed teachers to enroll their children in district schools regardless of where they reside. A change to the policy in January has created ambiguity and concerns for district staff who have school-age children.
In November, the Park City Board of Education voted to close all seven district schools to out-of-district enrollment. Despite this, School Board President Erin Grady said teachers do not have to worry about closures or the policy(10010) changes for the coming school year. Grady told KPCW they'll adjust the vocabulary, acknowledging that many out-of-district teachers enroll their children in the district or school where they are teaching. Grady believes the policy is an added incentive to attract and retain quality teachers.
"It was just some verbiage change into that policy. And we, actually I think, are still looking at this policy, and we're going to go back, and I think even change some of the verbiage to take some of the angst. I think on a one-line that was put in there, but it's not changing anything for our teachers."
On Wednesday, Grady posted on the Park City School District Newsroom webpage that the shift in policy will require a one-page enrollment application. Teachers and staff who live out of the district submit the form to the district office. Grady said the review process will otherwise remain the same as it has been for at least the last dozen years. She said the district anticipates that employees’ enrollment options will remain, regardless of closed school status.
On Tuesday, District Business Administrator Todd Hauber told the school board that student enrollment projections for next school year will be virtually flat. You can find a breakdown of enrollment projections by grade on KPCW.org.
"On the enrollment level, we have done our forecasting and the state forecasting is coming in actually a little lower than ours. But at this point, we're expecting about a .3 or 3/10 % decline in enrollment, which feels basically flat. But within grades, there are some changes."
State code requires districts to publish school enrollment threshold numbers by April 1st for the upcoming school year.
In his monthly update to the school board Tuesday, incoming Park City Education Association Co-President Aaron Webb said many members of the PCEA have concerns about the new policy.
"Many of our members have expressed concerns over the impacts of changes to policy 10010 student enrollment, its implementation, and communication regarding these procedures and timelines. We encourage the board to consider these concerns thoughtfully, and I know that a lot of colleagues will be writing communications at pcschools.us to put these concerns in the public record."
A handful of teachers have reached out to KPCW telling us that the school board and district administration are saying one thing and doing another. A second report will explore the teacher's concerns as well as the district’s response to the changes in out-of-district enrollment policy.
You can find a link to the original policyand a link to the new policyhere.
