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Show Park City schools The Newspaper Thursday, May 20, 1982 Page 9 Feelings enter learning experience Second in a series. by Morgan Queal There's another aspect to education beside academics and athletics. It involves the nebulous area of emotional development, to send the student out into the world feeling good about himself and others. How much can, or should, the public schools do to make sure every student leaves high school in this happy state? "We are confronted constantly con-stantly with this issue," says high school Principal Jack Dozier."Rarely a day goes by that we're not having to deal with the conflict between be-tween the needs of the schools institution and the needs of the individual." There was a time in Park City, perhaps five years ago, when the needs of the institution were primary. Back then, Dozier said, "it seemed that 50 percent of our time was spent on discipline problems. We felt like the wagons were drawn up in a circle." But things have changed at Park City High. The student body is more productive; the learning atmosphere more positive. "Our thinking has changed more and more that the needs of the individual can be considered first without threatening the general learning environment," Dozier said. A former football player, coach and teacher, Dozier holds a doctorate in school administration. He's completing com-pleting his fifth year as principal here. Kent Larsen, with 15 years experience in school counseling, is going into his seventh year as high school counselor. The whole atmosphere of the school has changed, and Larsen agreed that "we are spending more time on individual needs than just trying to maintain control. "The students understand the limitations now they know what's expected. There's less testing of the rules because we have developed devel-oped more consistency. The word is out,". Larsen said, "that there are boundaries. "And besides that, the kids have more of a positive image of themselves. They see themselves as winners." Mind you, they're not all angels, Dozier added. "We have a long way to go. We have a lot to improve in the curriculum, and we're expecting ex-pecting more and more of the students." actual problem, just a manifestationa mani-festationa symptom of the real problem which almost always has started at home. But Dozier and Larsen do a lot of counseling and talking. They let it ride a long time before they give up on the students. If a discipline problem arises, the student will be called in and sometimes told to go home until a parent can come in and join the counseling counsel-ing session. That might be anywhere from 10 minutes to a day later. If, after counseling, the same problem crops up again, the student might be suspended anywhere from three to ten days. But the student can work off his suspension one day's work sweeping halls or on kitchen duty for three days' suspension. suspen-sion. And if the suspension is worked off, missed school work also can be made up. Only two students were on actual suspension this past school year; none was expelled. ex-pelled. Traditionally, 95 percent per-cent of those suspended end up working it off. Most parents are supportive suppor-tive of school discipline procedures; some are not. "It's a pattern of parental behavior," Larsen said, "that if a child is having a problem, the parents come in and are concerned and supportive the first time. The second or third time, it becomes somebody else's fault. They try to shift the blame." But we can't let them bop in and out as they please." But you can't escape the fact, Larsen said, that some children are victimized and have developed some strong anti-social patterns as a result. Last winter a 16-year-old girl was left in Park City on her own when her divorced mother returned to California. "She was on a self-destructive course," Larsen said. "I had nightmares about what she was doing in Park City, at night, uptown, during ski season. "When and if she came to school, she would interact with the other kids. She'd tell them about things they otherwise would know absolutely abso-lutely nothing about." And the problem perpetuates perpetu-ates itself, Larsen said, because the reaction to loneliness and constant rejection re-jection is more anti-social behavior. The matter ended, however, how-ever, when the father was located in California, turned out to be very supportive and took the girl home with him. However, not all serious problems are that easily solved. If a student absolutely absolute-ly cannot stay at Park City High, he has to go somewhere some-where else. And there are other schools mostly in Salt Lake City that are set up for kids who "are not tracking in the regular school. They may be more able to handle the student as : ..W:----i' ;" '4 Dr. Jack Dozier people are outstanding in their willingness to give time, and they have been instrumental in changing the atmosphere and tone of the institution." Teachers are reaching out, on a one-to-one basis, looking for that interpersonal relationship rela-tionship and offsetting estrangement. es-trangement. The board of education, Dozier noted, also has been 'There's less testing of cause we have developed tency, " Larsen said. "The that there are boundaries. " the rules be-more be-more consis-word consis-word is out Reasons for disciplinary action, which can mean warnings, suspension or expulsion, ex-pulsion, run the gammut from excessive tardiness, unexcused absences and classroom disruption to use of drugs and alcohol. By far the biggest disci-; pline problem is in the area of attendance. "This takes up three-fourths of our disciplinary efforts," Dozier said. The new, stricter attendance policy initiated last fall has cut absences 35 percent, but during the third quarter the height of ski season absenteeism still stood at almost 10 percent. There also was a lot of illness he presents himself. They perhaps are less structured; looser in approach," Dozier explained. These are alternate-schools, alternate-schools, and often they work quite well, he said. If an expulsion from Park City does occur, Dozier and Larsen are likely to contact other schools, and have even been known to take the student right to the door themselves. Some students who attend these alternate schools for a while are likely to return to Park City High "and enjoy success." There also is outside counseling available on a "Sometimes we may be too demanding of the students, " Dozier said. "But if we don't expect things of them, who will? If not now, when?1 When problems do arise, decisions must be made. If a student is exhibiting behavior that's disruptive to the educational atmosphere, the needs of the institution tend to override individual needs. "That's sad," Dozier said, "but we are forced to maintain an atmosphere conducive to learning. We have to be able to say we can't accept that kind of behavior." Fortunately, both Larsen and Dozier realize that antisocial behavior is not the that quarter. Park City High has its share of students who are termed liberated. There is no adult in their household. They live alone, or with other single people, and they present unique problems to the school. "They present some rather intense concerns to us in the area of attendance and productivity," Dozier said. "They tend to come to school when they want to, and they're not programmed to handle discipline. We try to explain our institutional needs, but they're likely to say, 'I'm my own person.' referral basis, either through the school psychologist psycholo-gist who serves the three Summit County districts, or Timpanogos Mental Health Center, the regional organization. organi-zation. Bob Pingree, psychiatric social worker with the Summit Sum-mit County Health Department's Depart-ment's Prevention Center, said he has received school referrals but often reaches a dead end because parents refuse to accept the idea of their child receiving professional profes-sional help. But offsetting all this is the fact that "there's a lot of neat people here. All our very supportive and involved. invol-ved. "They want a positive learning environment maintained. main-tained. They want their tax dollars spent on education, not on a custodial setting.We all feel secure in our purpose. y "Sometimes," Dozier continued, con-tinued, "we may be too demanding of the students. But if we don't expect things of them, who will? And if not now, when?" In spite of a few traumas, both Dozier and Larsen agree that the past school year has been a total success. "This has been the best year ever," Larsen said. It's been terrific." Dozier added, "This year has been most pleasant. It becomes more and more delightful to be in this business. We're getting a positive response; we're winning more than we're losing." In the middle school, where sixth through eighth graders are in the throes of emerging adolescence, emotional emo-tional needs take on a different tone. There, staff members are carefully chosen for their sensitivity to children who are going through sometimes overwhelming over-whelming physical and emotional emo-tional changes. Principal Brian Schiller explains the characteristics of the middle schooler: "Professionally, we talk about the changes in his cognitive domain, his affective affec-tive domain and the psychomotor psycho-motor domain." That means, first, that the child is branching out in his thinking process; is learning Planning Commission May 26, 1982 Upcoming Marsac School o 7.00 p.m. OLD BUSINESS I. Approval of minutes of May 12, 1982 meeting. II. Approval of minutes of May 19, 1982 meeting. III. NASTAR HOTEL: Continued discussion on proposed pro-posed condominium hotel at 1300 Lowell Avenue. IV. STAG LODGE : Discussion of a proposed 60 unit lodge and 20 unit cottage planned unit development develop-ment condominium project located in the Silver Lake Community of Deer Valley. V. PINNACLE : Discussion of phase I ( 17 unit ) of an 86 unit proposed condominium development lo cated north of the Deer Valley entrance. NEW BUSINESS VI. EARLY DISCOVERY PRE-SCHOOL: Requested use permit for childrens nursery at 402 Park Avenue. VII. SIGNAGE PLAN FOR DEER VALLEY VIII. MILETIS: Extension of an existing conditional use permit to allow expansion of an existing private club to include outdoor seating. to think and deal in abstractions. abstrac-tions. He's beginning to recognize that the forces that affect his life are constantly changing. Second, he's realizing his first efforts to break away from home influences. He's challenging those who have always told him what to do. But most significant are the physical and emotional changes that affect the child in this three to five year span. The physiological changes of puberty sometimes some-times result in emotional instability temporarily. The child is up one minute and down the next. He sometimes doesn't know how to express his anger, and it's likely to come out at first in a negative way, but as he matures, in a more constructive construc-tive manner. In the middle school, which next year will include the fifth grade, Schiller and his staff are concerned with meeting these needs as well as those involving academics. academ-ics. "We have to look at it wholistically to help the total person mature. You can't isolate any one aspect." To this end, teachers in the middle school are sought for their sensitivity to this age group rather than simply a dedication to teaching one subject. "The teacher has to like the kids. We're interested in people who are child-centered and generally just good teachers, rather than those who are mathemeticians, historians or scientists," Schiller said. He explained that in the latter years of high school, dedication to subject matter is acceptable because the student has learned to deal with himself emotionally. But in the middle school, a good teacher teach-er who is child-centered can teach any subject well. At Carl Winters Middle School, which will be abandoned aban-doned next year for the new $6 million Treasure Mountain Moun-tain Middle School, the staff is unusual not only for its involvement, but its youth. "There's a real advantage to a young staff," Schiller said. "The energy level is high, and they can sustain that level. What a young teacher lacks in experience at first, he will gain in two or three years. In the meantime, mean-time, he remains dedicated and enthusiastic." Schiller, previously a Michigan resident, is just finishing his first year in the Park City school system. Among other things, he initiated a new outdoor education program in the middle school wherein all three grades, over three consecutive weekends, went on a three-day desert experience exper-ience to Arches National Monument. The series of campouts, he said, has enjoyed nothing short of total success. "We're all exhausted," he said, "but we've had a great year." Summit County Planning Commission agenda Notice is hereby given that the Summit County Planning Commission will hold a regular meeting meet-ing on Tuesday, May 25, 1982 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the County Courthouse, Coalville, Utah. The proposed agenda is as follows : 7 : 30 p.m. Van Martin - Hy Saunders - Landmark Plaza Project Continuation of request to amend Project Master Plan 8:00 p.m. Van Martin - J.J. Johnson and Assoc. -Frostwood Project Continuation of consideration con-sideration of EIS and certification of zone change 8:30 p.m. Norbert Brockman - Park Ridge Estates. Request for Conditional Use Permit - temporary mobile home lot 3. 8:40 p.m. Reid Smith -Amoco Production Co. Request Re-quest for Conditional Use Permit - oil GAS WELL, Chalk Creek 9:00 p.m. Jack Roberts - Ed Davis - ParkWest Resort - 7-11 Store. Request for site plan approval. 9: 15 p.m. Clark Mower - Blue Ridge Project. Request for Project Master Plan approval and zone change certification Finest Restaurant Availably iJ I ' I 1 '' , " $ 'ft V , . - j '' '''''''' Don't dig up any surprises. You'd be surprised how many hundreds of miles of telephone cables are buried all over this area. Sometimes they're right where you plan to dig or grade or excavate. To avoid digging up any costly surprises that could disrupt telephone service to you or others, let us know first. Just dial (toll-free) 1 800 662-4111 at least two working days before you dig. We'll come to your site, locate our buried phone cables, and mark them. At no cost to you. So make a phone call before you dig whether it's for major excavation and grading or just digging for a fence post, a garden or some landscaping. It could save time and trouble and money. And keep you from digging up something you didn't jrv bargain for. Q) Mountain Bell If you're calling from within the Salt Lake City area dial 532-5000. |