Education

The South Summit School District is making changes in the executive administrative team. They’re adding the new Executive Director of Support Services position beginning July 1 hoping to achieve a more efficient management operation.

South Summit School District Business Administrator Kip Bigelow has been named to the new role of Executive Director or Support Services. Some of the requirements of the new position are areas with which he is familiar. The IT director is retiring this spring and he says it made sense to reorganize.

The South Summit School district celebrated high school seniors during a scholarship gala event night. Tuesday night. The education foundation raised about $155,000 which will be distributed to graduating seniors who qualify.

The Scholarship Gala has multiple purposes which includes fundraising and awarding various scholarships from Kamas Valley Organizations and the Community Foundation. Over half of the graduating seniors qualified and received $1,000 scholarships. South Summit School District Superintendent, Shad Sorenson says the criteria to apply is simple.

The South Summit School District finalized negotiations and both associations and administration have committed to salary increases this year.

South Summit Superintendent Shad Sorenson says the negotiating team is not ready to release the final numbers on salary increases but they have reached an agreement on teacher contracts for the next two years. The conversation delved into the challenges of offering a competitive package that includes good medical benefits and salaries that compare with other school districts such as Park City where starting salaries are $50,000.

Utah students continue to experience glitches in the RISE state assessment test. It stands for Readiness, Improvement, Success and Empowerment. This is the first year using the new system which replaces the SAGE tests which were in place for the past five years. It’s reported that the servers were down Friday so testing is suspended until they’re up and running.

 Tuesday  is  National Teacher Appreciation Day. It’s part of a week-long celebration of educators and staff. It includes a smorgasbord of treats, meals, processions and pampering. Parent Teacher Organizations, along with students tend to take charge in the week long celebration of teachers and staff. Schools tend to have their own theme and approach to show their appreciation for teachers and staff members.
In South Summit School District, PTO President Andrea Richins says they’re doing an outdoor, camping theme.

Do you want the schools to preserve the winter break in February? How long should it be? What about UEA, now called Fall Recess? One day or two? Should school start before or after Labor Day? The Park City School District is conducting a calendar survey and the chance to give input ends on Wednesday at midnight so if you want to have a voice in future school calendar decisions, go to pcschools.us and take the survey.

Park City School District parents who attended the master planning panel discussion on Tuesday, asked questions that included wanting to know how hard it is on kids to transition from one school to another. They asked what best practices should be used to determine school and class size and what kind of data is available. The panel also fielded questions about traffic impacts on school and grade changes.

The Park City School District master planning committee held a question and answer forum on Tuesday evening to get public feedback on the grade alignment options. Four options were presented in the April 16th school board meeting. 

The board’s next meeting is May 21st and they hope to be closer to a decision on what grades will be in which schools.  The planners say there is community wide support to have ninth grade in the high school and to keep seventh and eighth grades together.

Park City School District’s master planning meeting Tuesday night introduced costs related to the grade alignment options. Those options were presented by consultants to the school board last month. The 19-person steering committee came up with four options showing different school and grade configurations. One prevailing tenet is, everyone agrees, that ninth grade should be in the high school.

A story that KPCW broadcast this morning reporting that Summit and Wasatch County schools were spared from the problems that have plagued the new state-wide testing program – was short lived. KPCW has learned that testing at Treasure Mountain Junior High School today has gone awry. KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher has more.

A Treasure Mountain Middle School parent reported to KPCW that their student – who had been pulled out of regular classes today – had called to ask their parent to pick them up because testing had been called off – and they had nothing to do.

The Park City School District will host a public forum on Tuesday evening to gather more input on the facilities and grade alignment options that were established through the district’s nine-month master planning efforts. They’re hoping to hear community feedback and explain how they developed the four alternatives known as Options A,B,C and D.

 Each year, the Park City Education Foundation celebrates one peer selected educator from each school to win the Excellent Educator Award. The revelry includes, a jazz band, family and friends, a big cake and lots of accolades for the winners.

Is it time for Park City to have two high schools? Should one be a traditional curriculum, the other more career and technical? Should elementary schools include 6th grade? Or should there be neighborhood kindergarten through 8th grade schools. One thing people seem to agree on is that it is time to move 9th grade back to the high school. Tuesday, April 30th is another opportunity to give input on what the future of the Park City School District should look like.

Ecker Hill Middle School has received the Schools to Watch designation under a national program designed to reform middle-grades learning through academics, whole child development and social equity. There are fewer than 500 middle schools nationally that have qualified for the designation. Ecker Hill first received it in 2013 and recently learned they’ve been named again after going through the recertification process.

A couple of Park City High School Seniors and members of the Girls in Tech Club have organized a first ever all-female coding workshop. It’s open to any girl in the state and no experience is needed. The event is Saturday and will run for 12 hours.

Park City High School senior, Claire Oberg says the idea behind the All Girl Hack-a-Thon is to explore career options while collaborating on real world projects.