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Show San Juan education goes high technology by Sandra Skousen Before Patti Husted could teach her French class of 55 students this fall, engineers had to airlift a small building to remote Moss Back Peak in South San Juan County. The houses technical equipment for a microwave repeater station part of a new building project mak- techno-teachin- g ing its debut in San Juan County School District this A microwave dish and repeater station were transported by helicopter and installed atop Moss Back peak (see arrow) as part of the school districts new g program. Jeff Bailey photo techno-teachin- Th Sam Juaim Record HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER Vol 69 No 30 FOR SAN JUAN COUNTY, UTAH 25 cents September 21987 Senator Hatch meets with Southeastern Utah officials Water, - wilderness , designations, problems on Indian lands, and obligations were discussed at a meeting last week of southeastern Utah officials and Senator Orrin Hatch. Moab Mayor Tom Stocks and Adrien Taylor of the Times Independent asked Hatch for assistance in clarifying directives related to the Atlas uranium mill in Moab. One directive orders the closing of the mill and clean up of the Hill-Burto- n tailings. Another directive grants the mill one year to continue operation. Taylor asked who would be responsible for clean-u- p costs, stating that 75 percent of the tailings are from federal projects. San Juan County Commissioners Ken Bailey and Mark Maryboy requested that Hatch assist in solving the county obldilemma on a igation related to the sale of the county nursing home. They also asked for assistance in developing better rural roads and rural health service. John Fellmeth, San Juan Hospital administrator, said urban hospitals receive 17 percent more per patient in Hill-Burto- Representatives of the White Mesa Ute Tribe asked Hatch to support the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Bill. The bill, if passed, will provide the tribe with a share of Colorado River Water. Grand County Commissioner Jimmy Walker said he is concerned with what he perceives to be unrealistic and restrictive controls over roads, mining and other uses on Forest Service land. He asked Hatch to see if anything can be done to force the state to return all mineral lease monies to the areas that produce the funds, rather than having the state retain 49 percent of the money. Other comments related to a Bureau of Land Management proposal to charge $1,000 for translator site locations, the value of enterprise zones, and the future of the nuclear repository and the Hatch said that while he initially opposed a repository, he will have to think it through again if it is tied to the supercollider and the $100 million payment to the state that takes the repository. super-collide- r. Hatch said the task force, which is selected by him from elected officials, is his most effective way of communicating with the people. He said no problem is too small for his staff to address. Adrien Taylor presented Hatch with a Blue Ribbon Winner jar of picante sauce she made. n dents at Whitehorse High School in Montezuma Creek, Monument Valley High School in Monument Valley, San Juan High School in Blanding, and Monticello High School in the northern part of the county. San Juan, Utahs largest county, boasts some of the most remote and least developed country in the United States. The buildings for Moss Back Peak were constructed in Blanding, then disassembled and reconstructed on the mountain top. Including barrels of concrete, tools, forms, building accessories, and the six pieces of the building itself, transporting the building took about 25 helicopter trips. Because the area is too isolated to be served by local power companies, solar energy powers the repeaters on Moss Back. The school district is not the first group to turn to mountain-tocommunication to overcome vast distances and rugged terrain of this area. Windy p Abajo Peak, at 11,000 feet, towers over Monticello and already serves several radio and microwave users. The Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, community television services, and several private users have communications facilities scattered around the county. Although the situation in San Juan County is unique, calling for creative solutions to the problems of terrain and remoteness, distance learning, as this education is d fixture of called, is a education. Teachers in the Australian outback contact their students via ham radio and video teaching is almost as federal reimbursements than rural hospitals receive. Hatch said he might have to introduce a special bill to secure relief for long-distanc- e time-teste- He n obligations. said he is studying ways to Hill-Burto- equalize rural and urban hospital operations. year. Microwave dishes located atop McCracken Mesa, Abajo Peak, Moss Back Peak, and at the Media Center in Blanding will beam the lessons direct from Husted and six other area high school teachers to stu- as television itself. The new San Juan distance- - old the buildings and equipment at Moss Back peak. Jeff Bailey photo learning project is an effort to overcome not only the miles between the four high schools, but also the opportunity gap created by the small size of the schools. San Juan High School, the largest of the four high schools in the district, enrolls about 400 students in ninth through twelfth grade. The other three schools hover nearer 200. Low enrollment means a small faculty, and a limited number of class offerings in each school. The remoteness of the area also contributes to a high turnover rate for faculty members, especially those in the southern end of the county where the nearest grocery story may be an hour or more away. District staff members recruit energetically and the district furnishes housing at the two most remote schools at attrac- tively reduced rates. Still, teachers stay only for two or three years and then move on, disrupting programs, and the teacher student breaking bond that often smooths learn- ing difficulties. In effect, the new technoteaching project adds faculty members and course offerings. For example, a calculus teacher, formerly available only at San Juan High, can now teach students in the other three schools as well. All schools this fall will offer both French and Spanish through the new system. Only one foreign language has been available in most schools in the past. Other courses offered are college English, advanced placement history, algebra, and accounting. Each course, was chosen to give students more options or to enable a teacher to reach more students during one period of instruction. A total of 213 students are signed up for techno-teachin- g classes this fall. Seven teachers, each teaching one period a day, represents one teacher equivalent. As Kent Tibbitts, business administrator, puts it, a remarkably efficient use of time. The project is even more remarkable when one considers that it also equalizes the the opportunities among schools and brings them nearer parity with larger schools. (To be continued in future edition). MARKETS Wheat Beans $3.25 $14.00 |