OCR Text |
Show A-2 Wed/Thurs/Fri, March 11-13, 2020 The Park Record The Park Record. Serving Summit County since 1880 The Park Record, Park City’s No. 1 source for local news, opinion and advertising, is available for home delivery in Summit, Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. Single copies are also available at 116 locations throughout Park City, Heber City, Summit County and Salt Lake City. SUBSCRIPTION RATES In Summit County (home delivery): $56 per year (includes Sunday editions of The Salt Lake Tribune) Outside Summit County (home delivery available in Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties; all other addresses will be mailed via the U.S. Postal Service): $80 per year To subscribe please call 435–649– 9014 or visit www.parkrecord.com and click the Subscribe link in the Reader Tools section of the toolbar at the bottom of the page. To report a missing paper, please call 801–204–6100. Same-day redelivery is possible if you call during the following hours: * Weekdays: 6:30–8 a.m. * Saturday: 7–8 a.m. * Sunday: 7–10:30 a.m. To request a vacation hold or change of address, please call 435–649–9014 or email: circulation@parkrecord.com District will hold training despite controversy Welcoming Schools material to be used in anti-bullying session ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record The Park City School District is going ahead with the second of two planned anti-bullying teacher training sessions next week, a decision the district had been reviewing after the first training sparked controversy in the Trailside Elementary and broader school communities. The August training, entitled “Embracing Family Diversity,” used materials from a state-sanctioned program called Welcoming Schools and was delivered at the request of teachers who said they were seeing increased incidents of bullying at Trailside Elementary School. The second training, with a focus on bias-based bullying, is now scheduled for March 16, according to Holly Bell, the Utah State Board of Education equity and advocacy specialist who delivered the first training. In the weeks after the August training, emails sent to parents from an anonymous group opposed to Welcoming Schools sparked a community debate about the program that included a moderated community meeting that attempted to find com- munity consensus around bullying training. Most at that October meeting seemed to accept the need for increased bullying-prevention efforts but asked the district to find a less controversial program. Opponents of Welcoming Schools labeled it an LGBTQ indoctrination and sex education program and retained a lawyer who sent a cease-anddesist letter to the district. District and State Board of Education officials called the trainings an anti-bullying campaign that helps teachers handle difficult situations. Welcoming Schools is owned by the Human Rights Campaign, which bills itself as America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve LGBTQ equality. The State Board of Education offers the training at no cost to school districts and touts the trainings as a way for local education agencies to comply with state anti-bullying requirements. Bell has said Welcoming Schools is a particularly good training module that has evidence-based results. “It’s known to decrease reported bullying behaviors and increase scores in reading and math,” she said in November. According to materials provided by Bell, the first training had worksheets that included questions like, “How can two women have children? Don’t you need a dad?” The sample suggested response is, “Children come into families in many different ways. Every family is different.” Bell said these are the types of conversations teachers sometimes ask for help navigating. Bell provided to The Park Record the material she intends to use for the March training, which includes stark statistics about youth suicide broken down by gender and sexual identity and bias-based bullying worksheets labeled with the Welcoming Schools logo. The Welcoming Schools material includes, among other things, definitions of bullying and cyberbullying; strategies for dealing with bullying, including what to do when a teacher encounters a bullying situation in real time; and a breakdown of students who are involved in bullying, from the student being bullied to disengaged onlookers to defenders. Last fall, when responding to the cease-and-desist letter, the district’s legal counsel said in a letter that the district was not committed to the Welcoming Schools program, but that it may continue to use Welcoming Schools material as long as the state offers it at minimum expense. And it said it was prepared to defend itself if sued. “The District is not wedded to the use of any particular ‘branded’ training materials,” the letter states. “Rather, its interest is in providing low-cost, high quality training regarding the elimination of bullying behaviors and the creation of welcoming school climates… .” Melinda Colton, a district spokesperson, said the professional development training for teachers at Trailside Elementary School was to go on as planned. “The District will proceed with state-provided training on Anti-Bullying and Anti-Bias in March; however, I do not believe the training is ‘branded’ with a specific name,” she wrote in an email last month. The district declined to comment further and did not provide information on whether it’s received any response from the opposition group’s lawyers or any additional threats of legal action. The State Board of Education is refining its anti-bullying rules, and the Legislature received testimony during that process from the California-based Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit legal organization that specializes in the defense of religious freedom, according to its website. Its chief counsel, Kevin Snider, cosigned the October cease-and-desist letter sent to the Park City School District demanding it stop the usage of Welcoming Schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group, has designated the Pacific Justice Institute an anti-LGBTQ hate group. Bell said the state’s contract with Welcoming Schools expires in June, and she doubts it will be renewed. Filing window kicks off election season THE NEWSROOM To contact the newsroom, please call 435–649–9014 or email editor@parkrecord.com For display advertising, please call a sales representative at 435–649– 9014 or email val@parkrecord.com To place a classified ad, please call 435–649–9014 or email classads@parkrecord.com For questions about your bill, please call 435–649–9014 or email accounts@parkrecord.com The Park Record online is available at www.parkrecord.com and contains all of the news and feature stories in the latest edition plus breaking news updates. The Record’s website also hosts interactive entertainment, restaurant and lodging listings and multimedia features. Contents of The Park Record are Copyrighted 2015, Wasatch Mountain News Media Co. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the managing editor or publisher. The Park Record (USPS 378-730) (ISSN 0745-9483) is published twice weekly by Wasatch Mountain News Media Co., 1670 Bonanza Drive, Park City, UT 84060. Periodicals postage paid at Salt Lake City, Utah, 84199-9655 and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, UT84060. Entered as second-class matter, May 25, 1977, at the Post Office in Park City, Utah, 84060 under the Act of March 3, 1897. Subscription rates are: $56 within Summit county, $80 outside of Summit County, Utah. Subscriptions are transferable: $5 cancellation fee. Phone: 435–649–9014 Fax: 435–649–4942 Email: circulation@parkrecord.com Published every Wednesday and Saturday Statehouse, county and school board positions will be on the fall ballot ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record While presidential politics have been in full swing for months, just days after Super Tuesday the local election season is ramping up as the filing window for candidates opens on Friday. Candidates who want to run for office must declare so during a roughly one-week period running from Friday, March 13, to Thursday, March 19. They have to go to the Summit County Clerk’s office in Coalville during regular business hours, pay a filing fee and submit paperwork including a declaration of candidacy and a pledge of fair campaign practices. In Summit County, there are seats up for election on the state, county and school board levels. State races This year, in addition to the three Utah House of Representatives seats that are contested every two years, Continued from A-1 Season end impacted without penalty if they are concerned about flying based on the spread of the illness. She said the firm last weekend re- Sen. Allen Christensen’s District 19 seat is up for grabs. The North Ogden Republican has announced he will not seek a fifth term in the seat that covers portions of Morgan, Weber and Summit counties. Democrat Katy Owens and Republican Johnny Ferry have signaled their intention to run for the seat, while Democrat Chris Neville announced he will no longer run and endorsed Owens. Senate terms are four years. The county has three representatives in the House: Democratic Rep. Brian King, District 28; and Republican Reps. Logan Wilde in District 53 and Tim Quinn in District 54. All three seats will be up for election this fall for two-year terms. County races There are six Summit County officials whose seats are up for election in November. All but one of the incumbents have decided to run again, and all are running as Democrats. In addition to three seats on the County Council, the county’s assessor, recorder and treasurer positions will be on the ballot. On the council, it’s seats A, B and C, which are held by Roger Armstrong, Doug Clyde and Kim Carson, respectively. Carson has announced she will not run again, and two members of the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission have announced their intention to run for her seat: Canice Harte and Malena Stevens. Pinebrook resident Jill Fellow announced she would seek a council seat, as well, and is running as a Democrat. She is the chair of the Women’s Caucus for the Utah Democratic Party and said she would announce which seat she is targeting when she files. No Republicans have announced their intention to run, according to the Summit County Republican Party, possibly repeating a 2018 election in which the GOP did not field any candidates for six county positions. Assessor Stephanie Larsen, Recorder Rhonda Francis and Treasurer Corrie Forsling all said they will seek another term. The latter three seats are finishing up six-year terms, though not all of them served the full time. A change was made in 2014 to stagger the elections of county officials so that not all of the elected department head positions — which also include the clerk, sheriff and attorney — would be up for election in the same year. Beginning in 2021, the terms will revert School board races Each of the county’s three school districts will have three board of education seats up for election. School board members are elected to fouryear terms and the areas they represent are geographically bound. School board races are non-partisan. In Park City, Anne Peters represents District 1, which comprises the Old Town, Prospector, Thaynes Canyon and Deer Valley neighborhoods. The District 2 seat is held by Board of Education President Andrew Caplan, and includes Highland Estates, Snyder’s Mill and the northern part of Park Meadows. Wendy Crossland holds the District 3 seat, which comprises Silver Springs, Park West, Quarry Mountain and the southern part of Park Meadows. The open seats in the North Summit School District are held by Susan Richins, Waylon Bond and Heather Staley. In South Summit, Board of Education President Suni Woolstenhulme’s seat is on the ballot, alongside those held by Dan Eckert and Jim Snyder. ceived eight new bookings for March travel and solid numbers are expected for the rest of the ski season, with reservations for April stays increasing recently. The concerns about the spread of the coronavirus are impacting the final weeks of a ski season that could end with mixed numbers. While some weeks appeared busy, there were concerns about other periods of the ski season. Some Main Street businesses, as an example, reported a drop in sales during Sundance in January. The Park City Chamber/Bureau closely monitors lodging numbers, projecting overall occupancy for the ski season will drop slightly from the 2018-2019 season. The projection of a slight drop is based on the timing of the coronavirus concerns so late in the season, Chamber/Bureau President and CEO Bill Malone said. “We probably have 90-plus percent winter business already been consumed, or in the books,” Malone said, explaining there could have been a larger hit to the industry had the illness spread in November and December. Malone, though, said there have been corporate groups canceling trips in March. Some lodging properties have lost bookings of up to 200 room-nights, an industry measure of one person staying in one room for a night. He said there is also concern about corporate bookings for the summer. He also acknowledged reservations for March usually continue into the month. The March reservation numbers were strong as the month approached, but new reservations have been impacted. “We’re not really getting any reservations at this point for March,” Malone said. 4042 Hilltop Court JEREMY RANCH Direct Importer of the World’s Finest Rugs A t t h e H i s t o r i c Vi l l a T h e a t r e 6 B D | 4 BA | 3 , 28 9 SQ . F T. | O F F E R E D AT $9 49,0 0 0 Michael Hutchison REALTOR® hutch@livelocalparkcity.com 435.901.9728 LiveLocalParkCity.com Bonita Hutchison REALTOR® bonita@livelocalparkcity.com 801.386.1426 LiveLocalParkCity.com 4042Hilltop.com Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed accurate. Buyer to verify all information. 3092 So. Highland Dr., Salt Lake City (801)484-6364 888.445.RUGS (7847) Mon.-Sat. 10 am to 6 pm back to four years and the other positions will be up for election in 2022. |