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Show DOS T y y . uranmmTwimr- i jijjhibiihhi Park Record Thursday, March 27, 1 986 Page A5 ivenii me d ithBd consi: get ac: I0UTE 'eflet tot ese.T- Letters from A3 n taught by their coaches, Mr. FlemingandMr.PaulKlismith, Mr Fleming and Mr. Klismith are secondary certified eighth-grade lachers. They saw a need for a Usixth grade team, they believ-Vey believ-Vey could work successfully with Hds of any age and they proved their . mmitment with a championship. People make a difference. Two weeks ago, I watched an .mazing performance by the seventheighth grade band, the high school band and the jazz band, tnder the leadership of Mr. Bill Huhnke, the jazz band has become an exceptional musical group. Mr. Huhnke believes kids of all ages can learn, work and have fun together the jazz band has fifth and sixth grade friends and colleagues. He jazz band with fifth- through I2th-graders works because people make the difference. Yes, it may be a difficult transition transi-tion for fourth-graders to move to the middle school. Yes, we at Treasure Mountain Middle School always try to do the right thing and make the best decision, although we don't always succeed. Yes, we do believe the fourth-graders can have great success at Treasure Mountain Middle School. And, yes, we do believe that fourth- through eighth-graders eighth-graders can learn together with the support of teachers and parents because people make the difference. Brian Schiller principal treasure Mountain Middle School Separate? Not really ii Editor: I would like an investigation done by one of your staff to the true nature of the "atmosphere" at the middle school according to the most recent flyer. From the start I wish it to be town that this flyer is not the. first, to go out claiming support from all concerned parents. This flyer claims it represents all even that most parents feel the same as the author but who is the author? The flyer went out without any signature. The flyer is written on Park City School District paper giving giv-ing the impression that the school board members backed it. I want the readers of this flyer as well as the unknown author to know that this is not true! A quote from the flyer, "But it is important to remember that the same quality program will be continued con-tinued by the Parley's Park Elementary Elemen-tary staff members, who will be moving to the middle school with the Iwrth graders. Their dedication and Professionalism along with welcome ""going parent and community input in-put will help to create a warm and taring educational setting. Every are will be taken to give lots of Wive attention and support to ensure en-sure that the fourth-graders can be successful in the elementary atmosphere at-mosphere which exists in the Wthsixth grade wing." Unfortunately, there are some Problems. Unlike Parley's Park Elementary, parent input or par-Wpation par-Wpation has and is not welcome at Treasure Mountain Middle School. ' am a concerned parent and uld like to check on my children. teachers smile and go on with jr teaching as if I'm not there. At liRlS I am not allowed to do the same. I must first make an appointment appoint-ment in a Public School? My middle school student has informed in-formed me over the years of differences dif-ferences that do or do not exist. Such as a fifthsixth elementary atmosphere; at-mosphere; They have no recesses and after P.E. they are not allowed to take showers because they can't be segregated from the seventh-eighth seventh-eighth graders. During P.E. in the gym they are separated from the seventheighth graders by a line down the middle of the room. What happened to the playground equipment equip-ment promised for our fifthsixth graders to keep elementary atmosphere? at-mosphere? The landscaping is looking look-ing nice but the equipment is still missing. And the library it is practically kept locked. At lunch time to accommodate accom-modate all the students and to keep them separated, my eighth-grader must eat lunch at 10 : 35 a .m. ! To have a working elementary atmosphere at-mosphere (which I know does not exist) ex-ist) several things need to be done: 1) Keep the fourth- and fifth-graders fifth-graders at PPES. 2) Separate buses 3) Separate entrances 4) Recesses 5) Separate and reasonable lunch hours 6) Separate playing fields 7) Separate administrations (a head teacher or another principal) , With the current proposal, this is not possible. There are several others out that make better sense. I wish the parents and the school board members would work together and come to a workable compromise. It can be done. Sincerely, Deanne James Elementary atmosphere Editor: It is not the intent of this letter to belittle or degrade the TMMS administration, ad-ministration, staff or involved parents. We only would like to draw attention atten-tion to those obvious differences which we have noticed since we have ,. sent our son to Indian Hills Elementary Elemen-tary School. After one year in the fifth grade at TMMS, our son was experiencing extreme ex-treme difficulty in coping with the general school atmosphere. Although by all indications his scholastic achievement seemed OK, he was experiencing a loss of interest, in-terest, difficulty in completing projects, pro-jects, emotional problems and lack of confidence. He stated that many of the older kids were mean and it was by his own request that we enrolled him in a Salt Lake school. We even tried late in the summer to change his mind but he kept saying say-ing how he did not want to go back to "that school." He did not know anyone in the new school and I thought this was really strange that he was so uncomfortable that he would risk a totally new school to avoid going back to TMMS. On the first day of school we noticed notic-ed the principal out on the steps hugging hug-ging all the kids, it was like a grand reunion. And he still does it every day We noticed the teachers and the adminstrators were very receptive to parents. We noticed immediately that the atmosphere was very classical. Teachers were very respected by students. The administrators seemed to be more on the side of the parents and school board than always trying to defend the school and the teachers against parents. We could see a strong emphasis on the basic three Rs instead of emphasis on activities, projects, field trips and other more progressive courses to help kids "cope with the real world." After only one week of school it was related to us that our son had a reading disability that we were not even aware of. We figured if he consistently con-sistently received As and Bs in reading that it was OK. After almost one year of intensive remedial reading with a special teacher at the school, we are pleased to report that our son is now reading on level and enjoys school. He has made many new friends and developed confidence. con-fidence. Most of all, we feel that immediately im-mediately we need to address this issue of overcrowding. Our son is in a class of 23 students which doesn't seem crowded to us. Here in Park City several proposals have been written to solve the problem. The one voted on is not the answer. We need to work together, to compromise com-promise without putting the fourth-graders fourth-graders in the middle school. A K-5 or K-6 is to us the best solution. There has to be a reason why it works throughout the country. There have been NO studies done in our district pro or con on fourth-grade in a middle school. Granted, people can be found to back either side, but just from a simple knowledge of the maturity of a 9-year-old and a 14-year-old, you don't mix the two in the same school. We personally feel that all of the proposals need to be looked at again. The minds of our children are this country's most valuable resource. Let's work for them. Sincerely, Charles M. James Thanks a bunch! Editor: The Park City Recreation Department Depart-ment would like to express our thanks to the entire staff of the Park Record. We really appreciate the help you give our department and programs throughout the year. Our success is so dependent upon getting the information to the public and without the Park Record, we could not do this. ...... We'd also like to include a special thanks to Kurt Kidman, Park Record sports writer, for the nice article ar-ticle and excellent coverage of our upcoming spring programs. Thanks again to you all. Park City Recreation Department Steve Haugen Pam Bradford Mike Osher imXTTtn Make tracks in the fresh powder . . . and still be at work by 8: Choose your own affordable half-acre homesite When you pick a new half-acre lot in Spring Creek at Kimball Junction, you will be able to test your crosscountry cross-country skiing ability in one of Utah's most picturesque areas and be just 25 miles from the heart of Salt Lake City. Utah's finest homesite development offers you and your family the conveniences of Salt Lake with the advantages of mountain living, including the Park City School District, the highest quality school system in Utah. Only 10 minutes from Deer Valley, Park City and ParkWest Ski Areas. See Spring Creek for yourself and pick your homesite along the tanks of the sparkling East Canyon Creek that traverses the property. Take 1-80 to Kimball Junction (Park City Exit), turn left and follow the signs to the sales information office. Consider the Advantages Great winter and summer recreation area with crosscountry cross-country skiing, fishing, and hiking out your back door. All utilities are underground, streets are paved and snowplowing provided by Summit County. At Spring Creek there is a private well-fed water supply and we are connected to the public sewer system. Spring Creek is a prime solar energy location. ,f1 I A tip 1 4 -'TO I .;b 4 v; V ( i i i rem REAL ESTATE I Spring Creek I I AT KIMBALL JUNCTION I Deer Valley Mall P.O. Box 1616 Park City, UT 84060 801-649-4400 Susie Petrone and Greg Gorman Marketing Directors The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. However, we ask that those letters adhere to the following guidelines: They should be submitted to the Park Record offices at 1670 Bonanza Dr. or received in the mail (P.O. Box 3688) no later than 5 p.m. Monday. They must be signed and include the name, address and telephone number of the author, to allow verification of authorship. They must not contain libelous material. No letter will be published under an assumed name. We reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long for the space available or if they contain statements we consider con-sider unnecessarily offensive or obscene. p . m1 Qifit&i, S. GLcuuL Ben 60S Main Street Park Hotel 649 S 63 7 -v COLDUJ3LL |