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Show Utah Press Assoc. 167 E. 300 So. Salt Lake City, Utah wifflesaaws She je iPagaon 25cents Thursday November 17, 1983 Number 46 Volume 94 No more prayers in Nebo District schools a by Michael Olson Following directions from the State Board of Education, Nebo District will not allow regular prayer in schools, but at next months board meeting, Nebo Board Members will consider including a mandatory Pledge of Allegiance ceremony throughout the district. The Board will also adopt a Nebo District Policy to include the State guidelines prohibiting school prayer. The memorandum from C. Leland Bumingham, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was included with the agenda materials last week. Also included .was a letter sent to Superintendent 'Burningham September 14, 1983, Executive by Shirley Pedler, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. The letter from Executive Director Pedler asks the State Superintendent to take action in seeing that school prayer in Utah I am writing to is discontinued. suggest that the State Board of Education undertake to have discontinued the illegal recitation of prayer in the schools within one paraoffending districts, graph of the letter states. The letter from the ACLU states that the organization receives many complaints from parents who object to illegal prayer in public schools. The letter also notes that legal action may be taken if no action on the matter occurs. Superintendent Burninghams memorandum acknowledges the letter from the ACLU and points out that teachers, principals and other school officials represent the state in connection with school activities or functions, and in that capacity they are restricted by recent interpretations of the First Amendment to the Constitution from conducting or allowing prayer. The memorandum lists nine the including implications, following: personnel should not 1. School pray in connection with any school activity, or give students per- mission to pray or provide time (that is, a moment of quiet meditation) for students to pray. 2.- The school prayer ban includes regular school day activities and functions such as assemblies or school plays, whether during or outside the regular school day. 3. As a general rule, schools should not make facilities available to students for religious activities. 4. School personnel should take care to avoid teaching religious beliefs or making references to religious beliefs in a manner that would imply approval or disapproval of such beliefs. It would also be advisable to avoid carrying church practices into the school, such as references to Brother or Sister 5. School officials should not encourage or discourage church-relate- d activities, including released-tim- e religious instruction, unless the activities spill over into the school and disrupt the school, in which case school officials should take reasonable and necessary steps to eliminate the disruption. 6. It is permissible to coordinate scheduling of school activities in such a way that serious conflicts between church and school activity calendars do not arise. 7. Community organizations which are given permission to use a school building for their meetings, may start their meetings with prayer. School personnel who are present in their official capacities should remain strictly neutral and not advocate or conduct the prayers. d 8. The ban against d prayer and does activities religious not extend to patriotic or ceremonial activities such as recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, reading of historical documents such as the Declaration of Inde- school-sponsore- d . school-sponsore- school-sanctione- The Bureau of Reclamation and the Strawberry High Line Canal Company have recently entered into an agreement to improve Strawberry High Line Canals irrigation scheduling by using current computer technology. After the company purchases a computer, the Bureau will provide 0 computer programs on a basis. cost sharing Among other items and services to be provided by the Bureau are: (1) System scheduling for the upper reaches of the Strawberry High Line Canal system (2) Water delivery and .water use accounting Shareholder (3) irrigation schedules formatted for mailing, and (4) Training Strawberry High Line Canal Company personnel in the use of the computer and software. This agreement with the Strawberry High Line Company results in an initial cost savings to the Company of approximately $8,000 with additional cost savings and resulting improved operation every year in the future. In addition, a computer software water report program has also been provided to the Strawberry Water Users Association. 50-5- The members of the Psyson Youth City Council took office Thursday. They are (from left) Annette . Quick action stops fire $ h ! f Members of the Psyson Volunteer Fire Department work to rip open a portion of the roof of a borne at the comer of 700 Sooth and Main Street to extinguish a stubborn fire. The fire broke out Friday above the gas furnace in the home and spread quickly up the chimney space to the upper floor. Quick action by the firemen kept the fire from spreading and destroying the entire house despite heavy winds. No one was Injured 'n the blaze. However, structural damage to the back of the building w.a fairly extensive. Box, Laura Harward, Bruce Allred, Tina Westwood and Todd Killian. payson Youth Council sworn in It v as oath of office time at the beginning of Thursdays Payson City Council Meeting. Payson City Justice of the Peace Max Warier swore in the new Payson City Youth City Council and Mayor. The new youth council consists of mayor and 12th. grade Bruce Allred; representative, 11th trade representative, Todd KiilLu; 10i:i grasic representative:, Tina Westwood; 9th grade represent.,.. .e, Laura Harward; ill oth Annette grade representative, Box. The youth city council meets with the Payson City Council and on youth day serves as the mayor and council for the city. The youth council also holds dances and projects to raise mono- which is donated to civic improvement projects. -- fund-raisin- g - Councilwoman Kay Furniss was sworn in to fill the remaining 26 months of the term formerly held by Grant Wilson. Mrs. Furniss was appointed to fill that vacancy until the general election. According to a new Utah law, all council vacancies must be filled at the first general election after the vacancy occurs. The candidate cl. Ji.n oy the voters fills the vacancy at the council meeting inmediately following the election. That is why Mrs. Furniss was sworn in Thursday. The other three winners in the November S election, Councilmen-elec- t Don Dixon, Steven Hanson, and Russel Williams, attended the council meeting to start getting a teel tor the posts they w ill occupy on the first Monday in January. In other action, the Payson City Council granted a request by Ray Crouch to have the city pay for the electricity needed to pump water from his basement until the city can determine whether the water seeping into his basement is caused by a failure of a city drainage line nearby. The council approved a lease purchase agreement for the new city garbage truck and one for the new phone system for the city office. They also appointed Bart Walker as a member of the Payson Volunteer Fire Department. Education commission gives report The local mini commission on Excellence in Education presented its recommendation Wednesday, proving our present program through constructive action. The ten members of the local mini commission are: Betty Lou November 9, at the Payson High Howard Bean, School. The Christensen, comchairman; Joanne Finch, Sandra mittee has been reviewing A Nation At Risk, Gurney, Larry Kimball, Don the national Lankford, on the status of education. Jerry Matthiesen, Anna report The mini commissions report Money, Verl Sudweeks and Kaye Westwood. noted, We have much of which After an w e can be proud in our educational study of the Nation Risk at the mini much is report, system, but, improvement commission makes the followstill needed and we believe can be made if we move forward ing recommendations for local schools: imof with the idea positively 1. Make 4 years of English a high school requirement without permitting substitution of courses. 2. Make 3 years of science a graduation requirement. 3. Make 3 years of science a graduation requirement. 4. Make at least 3 years of social science a graduation requirement. 5. Make Vi year of computer science a graduation requirement. 6. Make 2 years of foreign lana graduation requirement guages time period, to for in the college-boun- d the student and those cities and rural electric a language program incorporate cooperatives who now have it into the school curriculum starting under contract and who have been in elementary school. costs plus paying the Projects 7. Reevaluate the allocation of interest for almost 20 years. monies between academic and The letters also protest the vocational courses, establishing ai unlawful bid by UP&L to obtain an fairer distribution that would allocation of this low cost power. the importance of the (emphasize If successful, UP&Ls bid could loasics in education. raise electric rates in the cities and 9. Ensure that grades and procooperatives as much as 300 and motions of students reflect acathereby destroy many of the demic achievement accurately. publicly owned power systems 10. Vork to involve more parents ability to compete with Utah in promoting educational attitudes Power & Light. in the home and providing the The majority of the letters were base that a successful written by the senior citizens, supportive educational program requires small businessmen, single parents from the home. in small and the families living 11. Assign more.homework to high towns and rural areas of Utah who school students on the condition about concerned are it be carefully chosen to that utilities. costs for educate and instruct. 12. Restrict participation in extraNOTICE curricular activities to those who maintain a C grade in all courses. Because of the 13. Encourage adoption of a week long spring break with the underThanksgiving Holiday standing that this time would be used for concerts, tours and other next issue activities that typically take students away from school during will published regular instructional days. Severely limit activities in general reduce the time spent in the Wednesday Nov. 23. that business of teaching and instruction. News deadline 14. Establish in the schools a climate that gives respectanoon this Friday at bility and emphasis to academics. ten-memb- er th Payson protest letters Councilwoman Kay Furniss delivered nearly 300 letters to Albert M. Gabiola, area manager of Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) in Salt Lake City Tuesday. The letters, written by Payson residents, protested the application of Utah Power and Light Company for a portion of the Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) power allocation. The letters were written in response to a flyer sent out by Payson officials explaining the importance of Paysons CRSP allocation and the cost to residents of losing a portion of that allocation to UP&L. The flyer asked residents to write a letter and send it to Mr. Gabiola no later than Tuesday, the deadline for the public comment period on the WAPA proposed Power Marketing Plan. The Payson letters are among letters 13,000 approximately presented to WAPA officials Tuesday from electric ratepayers of 28 Utah cities and rural electric cooperatives represented by the Intermountain Consumer Power Association (ICPA). Those individual letters ask Western and the United States Congress to uphold the Federal Laws governing the planned reallocation of power from the Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge Dams of tiie Colorado River Storage Projects. The provides for the return of the power. "N jl Canal company, Reclamation work together on computer ' 0 pendence, or the singing of songs which may include references to a belief in God, so long as it is clear from the context in which the activity takes place that the activity is not intended as part of a religious exercise. 9. Resource people and volunteers who come into the school to or assist make presentations teachers are considered temporary school personnel, and are subject to the same restrictions as teachers, principals, and other district employees. WAPA receives 300 :v i: post-198- 9 ever-increasi' weeks be 15. Increase teachers salaries to be professionally competitive and market sensitive. 16. Consider adoption of an 11 month contract tor teachers to allow for curriculum and professional development. 17. Investigate and study the possibilities of linking salaries, promotion, tenure and retention to performance and fair and appropriate evaluation. , -- Nebo Board accepts '83 audit report by Michael Olson The Nebo School Board accepted a qualified opinion from Leonard Ellis of Ellis and Company, the districts fiscal auditor for the 1982-8school year,- and also agreed to reappoint Ellis and Company as auditors for 1983-8During last weeks Board Meeting, Mr. Ellis indicated the district is in good financial condition, but could not give an unqualified the opinion mainly because district operates on an encumbrance method, which apparently creates problems in accounting for all vouchers. The district is presently working with Ellis and Company in developing policies and procedures to change over to a fixed asset accounting method that will correct that technical problem. Because of that transitional work, the Nebo District staff recommended that the Board appoint Ellis and Company as auditors for 1983-8though District Business Manager Errol J. Smith noted at the meeting he would not be opposed to the appointment of any auditor the Board chose. The Board decided to go along with the staffs request in rehiring Ellis and Associates, with one dissenting vote. Board Member Dr. Dean Bristow said he favored changing auditors on principle. When you get to know the e auditor on a basis, its time to get a new auditor, be said. - 3 4. 4, first-nam- |
