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Show State May Close Minersville School; Force Consolidation Of Milford-Beaver Highs A few days ago Paul Le-fevor, Le-fevor, superintendent of the Beaver County School District, listing new regulations of the State Board (effective July 1, 1966) which could cause elirn-ination elirn-ination of the Minersville Elementary El-ementary School, and force the county Board of Eduaction to consolidate the two high schools. The letter is published below, be-low, and particular attention is called to paragraphs a and b of section 1, which refer to the number of pupils which must be enrolled in each grade, and to the closing paragraphs, calling a meeting iwith local boards only to discuss the regulations reg-ulations and discouraging individuals in-dividuals from attending that state board meeting. The Beaver County Board of Education encourages school patrons and individuals to express ex-press their views on this matter, mat-ter, either to members of the Board of Education or to Superintendent Su-perintendent Lefevor. The letter follows: To All School District Superintendents: The State Board of Education at its meeting in July reconsidered recon-sidered recommendations con- units may be used to employ teachers, and professional personnel, per-sonnel, aides, books, etc. The express purpose should be to provide an adequate program in those schools, with the understanding un-derstanding that such materials, books, etc., may not be utilized elsewhere Ln the school district. dis-trict. 5. That the State Board of Education adopt as a policy the awarding of distribution units for special programs on a multiple mul-tiple district basis in those areas where the concentration of students is insufficient to justify special programs. Such distribution units are to be allocated on a pro-rata basis among several districts, or to one district with the express understanding of how the units are to be used. 6. That the Stale Board of Education encourage local districts dis-tricts to undertake studies and to develop master plans for their respective . districts, for the purpose of determining the feasibility of consolidation of attendance units to the extent practicable and desirable. After some consideration the State Board of Education decided de-cided to act on these recommendations recom-mendations in the October 28 meeting. The Board further desired that school districts be consulted on this, matter and be asked to appear before the State Board at the October 28 meeting if the passage of the above mentioned recommendations recommenda-tions would adversely affect schools in their district. It is the desire of the State Board to hear local superintendents and local Boards of Education on this matter. It is not their intent to conduct public hearings hear-ings with private citizens of each of the school districts. It is hoped that if citizens have objection to the adoption of these recommendations that ! local Boards of Education will discuss the' matter with them at the local level. cerning consolidation of schools within districts, which recommendations recom-mendations arose from a study which I (Walter D. Talbot, deputy dep-uty supt. for administration) made during the school year. The recommendations were as follows: 1. That the State Board of Education adopt as standards for the operation of schools in Utah the following: a. All elementary schools shall maintain a minimum enrollment en-rollment of 25 students per grade where there are such concentrations of persons, or where reasonable transportation transporta-tion practices make this possible. pos-sible. b. All secondary schools shall maintain a minimum enrollment enroll-ment of 75 students per grade where there are such concentrations concen-trations of persons or where reasonable transportation practices prac-tices make this possible. c. After a period of two years begining July 1,1966, no school iwith less than these minimum enrollments shall receive re-ceive special school approval unless that school shall be determined de-termined to be a "necessarily existent" small school. Such a school shall be determined "necessarily existent" only if the distance to an existing school requires longer than 45 minutes ori the bus one way for elementary students, and longer than one hour and 15 minutes on the bus one way for secondary -students. Exceptions Excep-tions to this rule shall be permitted per-mitted only when it has been demonstrated that the school district officials and the people peo-ple in the district through faithful and persistent effort have been unable to meet this time schedule. Using this exception, ex-ception, approval for one year does not in any way bind the state board to give approval the second year. 2. That the State Board of Education give incentive units for a period of three years to districts which consolidate small schools so that districts do not suffer a loss of special school units for those schools which are consolidated. 3. That the State Board of Education recommend to the Utah State Legislature that Section 53-7-2 (3) U.C.A. be changed to allow the State Board to award distribution units to special schools and schools receiving incentive units described in 2 above on a basis other than one unit for each teacher or teaching principal. The law should allow al-low the money derived from a distribution unit so awarded to be used to purchase the services of teachers, other professional pro-fessional personnel, aides, books materials and instruction equipment; equip-ment; and that Section 53-7-21 (7) be changed to be made applicable only to such schools mentioned in this paragraph to the effect that the ratio designated therein need not apply to these schools. 4. That the State Board of Education, through and with the change In Section 53-7-21 promulgate guidelines for a-warding a-warding distribution units for I "necessarily existent" small schools, which provide that the money derived from these |