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Show Thursday, December 25, 2008 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Page 9 An education parable: Survival of the fittest 7 1 & J iiL MARIO RUIZDaily Herald Lu Hilmo of Lehi voices her concerns to Mountainville Academy board member Jack Garzella at a meeting at the Alpine charter school Monday morning. Mountainville administrators dismissed all three sixth grade teachers after classes Dec. 12 without prior notice to parents. Alpine charter won't reinstate fired teachers Janice Peterson NORTH COUNTY STAFF Despite having raised $40,000 in just two days, Mountainville Academy parents par-ents were told Thursday night that three sixth-grade teachers fired a week ago will not be returning to the school. "We decided that we are moving forward with our original plan," said Mac Sims, chairman of the Mountainville Academy board of trustees. Sims said parents brought a variety of interesting possibilities possibili-ties to look at Thursday, but there were no solid plans that would fix all of the school's problems. Mountainville Academy is a charter school in Alpine. The teachers Danielle Beck, Tricia Remington and Denise Mott were let go Friday afternoon because of budget concerns and enrollment enroll-ment problems in the charter school's middle-school program. pro-gram. Teachers in the middle school have not been teaching teach-ing an entire day and are in danger of losing their accreditation accredi-tation if the sixth-graders are not moved over to the middle school to fill vacant class times. The charter school also overspent last year's budget by $300,000 and is on track to overspend this year by $250,000. Jeff Dyer, a parent who first suggested a fundraiser for the school, said parents are frustrated by the turn of events. They managed to raise $40,000 and came up with a plan to run a preschool to cover the rest of the cost. The preschool, he said, would have raised between $50,000 and 1 REPLACEMENT VINDOVS & DOORS 0 o wrr oHtak 1 " ' r I 'l 'fife ' V ' fcafflffeBStiS I UTAH TOLL FREE 888-20-7135 I ST. GEORGE LOCATION 1435-705-0435 Loans up to $7,500 - (Security Required) . Call or Come In Today! r x oucnsione -A - "J" t ill -t j - in i v , It $65,000. The board, however, decided bringing the teachers back would cause more problems prob-lems and costs. Even if the board agreed to use the money to pay the teachers, the plan may not work now. Dyer said one teacher has even said she would be reluctant to return to the school because of the situation. "The school has violated the trust of these teachers," he said. Sims said that although coming up with the money would allow the school to rehire re-hire the teachers temporarily, board members did not want to put the school in limbo for the rest of the year. In speaking with teachers and staff at the school, Sims said going back on the plan actually made some feel like their jobs were more unstable than removing the sixth-grade teachers. With the restructuring restructur-ing of the middle school, the entire school is actually much more stable. "There's no intention to do any more changes until the summertime, if we do have changes in the summertime," he said. Cynthia Burraston, a mother moth-er with a sixth-grader and a first-grader at the school, said it seemed board members had made up their minds before the meeting with parents even began. Although proposals for fundraisers had been made Monday, she said it seemed the board had no intention of bringing the teachers back, regardless re-gardless of how much money was raised. Sims said board members had certainly thought about the ramifications of their UMIILU IIMtz UNLY TRIPLE COAT LOW-E FOR MAXIMUM ENERGY EFFICIENCY! TILT IN WASH Qualifies For Energy Rebates Windows & Doors.inc. 801-223-7052 Free Estimates rockymountainwincfows.com Need Some Extra. HOLIDAY CASH? Bruised Credit & Bankruptcy OK i mmP J U i U.L decision about the teachers throughout the week. They consulted with people on the state level, but their decision was not predetermined. "Obviously, a decision is not a decision until we've had a vote," he said. Some parents throughout the week threatened to remove re-move their children from the school if the teachers were not reinstated. Sims said he was not sure Friday how many parents went through with " their plan, though it may be more clear when the next semester se-mester starts. "I'm guessing that we'll have a better idea at the beginning begin-ning of January," he said. Burraston said she will not have her children in the school any longer. Her sixth-grade son will be taken out immediately, imme-diately, while the first-grader will remain at the charter school until the end of the year to avoid the instability her son was forced into. "I actually pulled my child out today," she said. "I registered reg-istered him in Westfield Elementary El-ementary this morning." Burraston said her son is excited to make the change, along with a few of his friends who will be moving to West-field West-field as well. When he was withdrawn from Mountainville Mountain-ville at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Burraston Bur-raston said her son was the fourth child to be removed. "I just don't want him to be a guinea pig for the second half of this fiasco," she said. ilcoxL ' Jason S. General Business Law Commercial Law Real Estate Law Foreclosure Law Wills & Estates Contract Law Construction Law Trial and Appellate Civil Litigation Trust Experience . 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While we have enjoyed prosperity during the last few decades, there are countries that produce products better, cheaper and faster than the U.S. Who hasn't picked up a phone and heard a different Indian or Filipino dialect on a customer service hotline? Many jobs and manufacturing Lindon company guitty of Grace Leong NORTH COUNTY STAFF A Lindon company that lost more than half of its 100-plus work force in an immigration raid in February has pleaded guilty to federal charges of knowingly hiring 67 illegal workers at its manufacturing plant over the past five years. Universal Industrial Sales Inc., which makes highway guard rails and sign structures, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of misdemeanor misde-meanor information in a plea agreement reached Thursday with the U.S. Attorney's Office. Of-fice. In February, the company had entered not -guilty pleas to 10 criminal counts of harboring illegal immigrants for "commercial "com-mercial advantage," after 57 of its workers were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the raid. Many of those workers have since been deported to their country of origin in Latin America. On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Magis-trate Judge Paul M. Warner sentenced the company to three years of probation and a $200,000 fine. According to the plea agreement, Universal failed to take proper steps to determine the eligibility of its workers despite receiving "employer correction requests" or "mismatched "mis-matched letter" notices from the Social Security Administration Adminis-tration that the company had been given "bad" social security secu-rity numbers by some of its workers. aw pllc Wilcox the borne of your dreams. Bruce Henriksen, PIM V li 1- - "s-"',, . 1? ; plants have been outsourced to the world. Everyone has products prod-ucts "made in China." While corporate mergers and acquisitions take place at a fast pace and jobs are outsourced to other countries in cost-cutting measures, employers em-ployers are always looking to hire high-skilled workers with strong academic backgrounds. They love workers who can innovate in-novate and create the answers to our toughest problems. One of the keys is education. Education pays. A high school graduate in the U.S. can hope to earn approximately $27,000 a year; in Utah it's worse around $22,000. Two-year associate as-sociate degrees or certificates increase pay approximately $12,000 more. Bachelor's degrees de-grees ratchet up again with the average bachelor's degree in business starting at $39,448. Engineers start at $54,256 na An investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office found the company had, since 2002, received notices that 178 employees provided Social Security numbers in their 1-9 employment verification forms that didn't match the administration's records. When the company received these notices, it would contact the employee and notify him or her of the problem. Many of them would theft get new fake Social Security cards in the same name and present pres-ent the "new" card to the company. According to the plea agreement, Universal would allow these workers to continue working without verifying the Social Security information. Since the raid, the company has taken more aggressive steps to verify the accuracy of the identification information informa-tion submitted by new job applicants, ap-plicants, said James D. Gilson, Universale attorney. Universal currently has 160 workers, Gilson said. All of the new workers hired after the raid are legal, he said. As part of Thursday's plea agreement, the remaining counts against Universal were dismissed. But the company is required, re-quired, as part of its probation, proba-tion, to enroll in E-Verify, a free online link to federal databases to help employers determine the employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security Secu-rity numbers. The company is also re BEST BODYSHOP PRACTICES FOR LESS! OREM 574 N State St Orem, 840S7 (801)224-9911 HOURS Monday thru Friday $AM-S:0OPM Saturday c for in tppomtmnt PROVO 355 f. 900 S. Provo, 84606 (801)377-2827 HOURS Monday thru Friday 7:30 AM -5:30 PM Saturday 9:00-12:00 Sunday - Closed Credit Cards Accepted Want the lowdown on iiOllvLLu rnmmm Rick Albrocht Injur Agcy Inc Rick Albrecht, Agont American Fork, UT 84003 Bus: 801-756-3500 tionally. Post graduate degrees in medicine, law and dentistry start in the six figures ranges. Education pays 1 to 4 million more over a lifetime of one's working career. It might be a good time to re-tool and re-think what you are doing. Recessionary times are perfect times to educate yourself. Locally, we have the MATC, a new Provo College campus and BYU and UVU are right down the street. Plus there are opportunities for online courses and adult education classes. Survival of the fittest, yes, the American worker can survive this global economy, Education is the key. Opportunities always follow the educated, engaged learner. I Debby Lauret is the director of the American Fork Chamber of Commerce. She may be reached at 756-5110. hiring illegals quired to establish an in-house training program on how to manage the completion of 1-9 forms anddetect forged documents. The company also must hire a third-party external exter-nal auditing firm to monitor the implementation of ICE's best hiring practices, including conducting an annual audit of its 1-9 forms. Universal is also required to establish a protocol for responding to "mismatched letter" notices, and a tip line for whistleblowers to report illegal hiring activity. Last month, Alejandro "Alex" Urrutia-Garcia of Provo, Universale human resources manager, was sentenced sen-tenced to 36 months of probation proba-tion for helping undocumented workers get jobs at the company. com-pany. He pleaded guilty in April to two counts of encouraging or inducing illegal immigrants to reside in the United States unlawfully. According to court records, he gave one worker information informa-tion on places where he could get fraudulent documents. Another An-other worker presented identification iden-tification that did not match, and Urrutia-Garcia told him to come back the next day with matching documents. Of the 57 men arrested, 30 workers were charged with third-degree felonies of forgery forg-ery and identity fraud in 4th District Court in February. 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