Wednesday, April 28, 2021

End Of Year

 With 26 days remaining in the 2020/2021 school year, we are looking forward to ending the year healthy and strong. Thursday, June 3, 2021, the final day of school, will follow a Friday release schedule with bus transportation available.  Lunch will also be available for students. Thursday, June 3, at 5:00 P.M. seniors will graduate from Park City High School at the North Forty, and families will be invited to attend that special recognition ceremony of the Class of 2021. Masks will be required as this is a gathering of greater than 50.

While the statewide mask mandate expired on April 10, 2021, according to HB294, masks are still required for large gatherings of 50 or more guests, and masks are still required in K-12 schools.  The Legislature kept the mask requirement in place for the following reasons:

1. No vaccine is currently authorized for anyone younger than 16.
2. Not every adult in the school setting has been vaccinated.
3. Children can get sick from COVID.
4. Children can get COVID, not feel sick and transmit the illness to people who are not vaccinated yet.

We’re not out of the pandemic yet. And, we know that masks work to prevent the spread of COVID based on our successfully maintaining in person learning for the 20/21 school year. According to Dr. Andy Pavia, Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah Health, “We all want what is the best for our kids. And what is best for our kids ultimately is to have a safe and healthy end of the school year. We’re in the final stretch…and that means keeping doing things that work, and that includes, first and foremost, masking. There are very, very, very few conditions that medically make it inappropriate or dangerous for a child to wear a mask…in most cases the danger of not wearing one outweighs those issues.”

“Masks are a very safe and easy measure that has proven very effective at allowing kids to go to school in person, which is what we all care about.”

Thank you for your support as we work towards a successful conclusion of the 2020/2021 school year.

NEWS RELEASE 

For additional information, contact:  Lorie Pearce, Executive Assistant to BOE/Supt at lpearce@pcschools.us 

April 20, 2021

Board of Education Update – April 2021 

by Erin Grady, BOE President 

It’s been a busy month.  In April, we saw incredible actions and accolades from our students and our staff across academics, arts, athletics, and more. Our student participants in the Sterling Scholar statewide competition earned recognition for their efforts as did our dramatists at the state level. Congratulations to each of our students who pursue their interests and passion at such an extraordinary level. 

At the regular monthly business meeting, the Park City School District Board of Education heard updates and reports from:

PCEA Leadership – Julie Hooker submitted a written statement highlighting communication and collaboration. PCEA mentioned that with 31 days of school, we have AP testing, elementary state testing, and traditions such as 5th grade clap out and high school graduation to look forward to in the coming months. PCEA shared, “We appreciate the commitment to student, teacher and staff safety with the enforcement of Governor Cox’s mask mandate until the end of the school year.” 

Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Amy Hunt – shared information on the 21/22 LandTrust applications and reviewed some examples of the stretch goals our schools have adopted.  BOE Member Peters complimented the streamlined layout of the Landtrust plans. 

Chief Operations Officer, Mike Tanner, spoke about covid trends, safety/security, briefed the school board on two recent events related to mask wearing and vaccinations for COVID. Mr. Tanner also discussed the overall capital budget which addresses our facilities at approximately $4.75M for the year.  Mr. Tanner indicated a review of the requests from our baseball families will want to be considered as part of a long range athletics facilities plan.  Whether the community and BOE elect to review previous plans for indoor facilities or consider a phased approach to field improvements, all will take time, collaboration and dollars. 

Superintendent Gildea thanked our incredible staff for their exemplary work this year and noted, “As we are maneuvering through an unusual time and through unusual circumstances, we appreciate our community’s commitment to educational and academic excellence.” Later in the meeting, Dr. Gildea read a statement about the face covering requirement, and asked that we include this information for the public:

“The Public Health Order that outlines the mask mandate is still in effect through June 15th as outlined by the Governor through the Utah Department of Public Health. While you may have varying thoughts and feelings about the wearing of masks in schools, the mandate is considered rule of law, disallowing school boards and leaders to override the state mask mandate order for schools.” 

Medical exemptions are permitted to the face covering requirement and have been in place all school year. 

The Park City School District Board of Education heard the following reports:

Stiefel financial advisors presented an overview of traditional funding methods for the master plan sharing good news on low-interest rates.

Mr. Hauber, Business Administrator, provided a budget overview along with the financial outlook of the district related to state and local revenues.  The prepared budget does include a tax increase request of $800,000, which was our target. 

Policy updates on existing policies were introduced and discussed with minor to no substantive changes but are brought up for 5 year review.  We received comment from the public on two of the policies with requests to add examples.  As the policy provides the umbrella, administrative guidelines may include examples related to visitor or conduct policies. 

The aircraft policy is related to permissions necessary to pursue funding for drone education which may be applied in CTE or film studies courses. 

The Board adjourned for a brief closed session and then returned to adjourn the meeting. 

With regard to Public Comments, we wish to remind our public of the following:

-Public Comments will not be read verbatim, but will be recorded in the notes of the meeting. For example, “Baseball Field” will be found in notes that indicates 50 individuals wrote in to support funding and/or to support creative alternatives to provide indoor practice space for spring sports.  However, we will not read aloud the same email message 50 times.  We appreciate input from the public.

-Public Comment provides input to topics being discussed or addressed, but it is not a place where a list of questions will be read, reviewed or recorded.  

-Public Comment will not be addressed in the moment but will be assigned to an administrator for follow up.  It is not a series of back and forth dialogue or a list of questions.  Questions for the school district or school board may be directed to: communications@pcschools.us