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Show The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH Monday, June12, 1995 D3 Most Utah Teachers Have Contracts, But Pay Stalling Others ByJennifer Skordas those twodistricts, contract nego- THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE tiations overall are going well, said Jim Eldridge, director of leg- Morethanhalf of Utah’s teachers have reached salary agreements with their schooldistricts, but two of the largest teacher unionsstill are holding out. Unable to reach a compromise on a raise, teachers from Granite SchoolDistrict havecalled off negotiations until August. Salt Lake City School District teachers will end discussions next week if ad- islative and bargaining services for the Utah Education Association If you look at the last five or six years, it is unusualto see this many districts wrappingit up this early,” Eldridge said. As of Thursday, the last day of school for many districts, 26 of the state's 40 districts had reached a ministrators do not bring more settlement or tentative agreement cashto thetable. Despite apparent problems in onsalary increases. The average salary increaseis 4.22%, although Uintah School District teacherswill see a 7% increase in pay this year to make up for below-average raises in previous years. Teachers in Salt Lake and Granite districts are asking for a raise in the 4% range, mirroring the 3.98% increase the Legislature appropriated for the Weighted Pupil Unit, which is the amount of money allocated to educate each child “We've had good negotiations everyyear,it’s just this year that the moneyisn’t quite there,” said Elaine Tzourtzouklis, president of the Salt Lake Teacher's Associa tion. Without giving precise figures Tzourtzouklis says the district's offer “seemslikeit’s far off. The two sides will meet again the Granite Education Association. tricts aresettling for Granite School District's personnel director says the district does not have much room to postponed until the fall In Granite School District, budge. that there is a $2 million gap in what teachers want and what the district hassaid it is willing to cough up. about million out of the district’s pocket, said Dale Baker. And Granite. faced for the second time with declining enrollment, is cash-strapped. “We're having some troubles.” On Building We're only asking for what was appropriated by the Legislature and what all the other dis- reached, further talks will be Wednesdaybut if no agreement is Centerville Lifts Ban said Steve Sorensen, president of New Homes ByT.J. Quinn Each percentage point ies go up represents THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The Centerville City Council has lifted a moratorium on new homes in the Reading Elementary School area that it had enacted three months ago as a favor to the Davis County SchoolDistrict. District officials had asked the school to enact the unprecedented ban so it could study the impact of continuing growth on the school's overcrowding problems The council's action last week is good news for builders who want to start projects in the school dis trict Forstudents and their families nothing will chans,e. The district had considered changing the school calendar or enrollment boundaries. But after three months of studying growth pro Panel Says Utah Child-Welfare System Still Faces Problems After Lawsuit Settlement By Kimberley Murphy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS When Debbie Smith’s 10-year-old daughter stole more than $2,000 from her family and neighbors, they turned to sheriff's deputies for help. The Magna girl was taken from her mother and placed in Salt Lake County’s shelter for abused and neglected children. Six weeks later, she escaped and was captured and placed in a mental hospital. It took a frantic Smith seven monthsto get her out. “I think [she] was traumatizedbya lot of that. Her problem wastheft and lying to law enforcement, but that was never addressed,” she said. Smith believes the state’s shelter-care system failed miserably to adequately assess her child’s needs. Sheis not alone. Her concern is shared more generally by members of a monitoring panel set up after Utah’s child-welfare system was condemnedin a lawsuit two years ago. Thesuit, filed by the San Francisco-based National Center for Youth Law in 1993, was settled by the state a year ago. But concerns about Utah’s shelter-care system continue. The monitoring panel has identified several persistent problems, including the fact many children’s records are incomplete, said Sherianne Cotterell, a panel member and principal of Lincoln Elementary School. Shelter care is meant to serve as a placeof transition for abused and neglected children while caseworkers review their situation and find a morepermanentsetting, such as foster care. Children are placed either at one of the state’s three dormitory-style centers in Ogden, Provo and Salt Lake County, or at private homes with temporary foster parents, who are paid $10 to $15 a day perchild. Atthe state- and county-funded Salt Lake center, donated bunk beds, cream-colored carpet and framed posters have madeit more like a home. But there's no overlookingthe offices downstairs, or that the check-in area — a child’s first glimpse of the shelter — is actually a converted garage. “On the one hand, I was gladit looked as goodasit did, but then you had this sinking feeling thatif the child stayed here more than twoorthree days, what would happen?” said Roz McGee, director of the nonprofit child-advocacy group, Utah Children. The problems, she said, are more than cosmetic. A report by the three-member monitoring panel, released in April, foundthestate’s shelter-care system out of compliancein twoof three areas assessed. Thestate was not complyingin the third area either, but panel members noted someprogress. Amongthe problems, Cotterell and panel member Gunman Shot After Kidnapping want to ever see it again, seeing the child in the back seat “All I could do was think, ‘Please! Don't hurt the child,” “Then I saw the child. It was shot.” Lowell Mikolash, County Fire Department battalion chief, said When months of breathing room. “It showed that there’s not as manychildren coming into all the newconstruction as you might think,” Kendell said. “There’s a lot of housing going on but that housing is not bringing in enrollment growth anybigger than what we've had in thepast. That was good news for the year-round school at 360 We and 2025 North, especially since sixth-graders already have three classroomsin trailers. The schoo! built for 740 students, actually houses 800 with the additional space. Donna Brown, a child activist who supported Smithin her fight for her daughter andhelpedinstigate the lawsuit on behalf of the more than 1,500 Utah childrenin foster care, believes the entire incident could have been prevented. “This is a story thatif thelittle girl had not been at the shelter stage, I don’t think we would ever have gotten to where we've gotten. There is a real mess at the shelter stage,” Brownsaid. Pat Berckman,associate directorof the Salt Lake County Youth Services Division, was unable to discuss the specifics of Smith’s case because of confidentiality restrictions. But she said the circumstances seemedto indicate the girl had ‘somelongterm mental-health issues.” Shealso said fights betweenchildren at the center “ean certainly happen, but I would say it’s a rare occurrence.” Although Berckmansaid there’s always room for improvementat the center, she pointedto significant strides the state has madesince the suit wassettled. The 1995 Legislature, for instance, has appropriated $180,000 to begin busing children from shelter homesand centers to their schools Thestate also is concentrating on taking children to a physician within five days so their records are complete. And beginning July 1, caseworkerswill be City Recorder Marilyn Holje said the city had intendedto lift the ban as soon as it had completed its study. The repeal went into effect Thursday afternoon Holje said she had received phone calls over the past few months from residents who want ed the ban repealed Builders who already had received permits before the ban werenot affected by the moratorium The school district had not asked thecity to remove the mor atorium, andthe city did not contact the district before the council meeting, But Kendell said: “There's no alarm here. It certainly doesn't catch us by surprise. We didn't anticipate this would go beyond June or July.” given another dayto assess a child’s situation before deciding on wherehe or she should be placed. In addition, the state and county plan to ask the Legislature for an estimated $1 million for a new shelter and receiving center. Berckmansaid the new center would provide additional space neededto assess and interview children lash said After the shootout, detectives asked why Bonilla had kidnapped his wife. Bonilla’s family says they know why. Recently, Raul Bonilla quit his job, according to his father, Hillsboro, Ore., resident Baoudelio Bonilla, 62 Benita Diaz, Raul’s aunt, who lives in Los Angeles, said, “And then he was mean tothechildren and to Lucinda.” Lucinda wastiredof the abuse, according to Diaz, so she fled from her husband. Shehadleft before. dent Richard Kendell, the district is confident it has another 18 girl, she wasplaced in the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute for seven months while Smith foughtin court to get her back. Her daughter eventually was returned home on May16. “They treated her for nothing,” Smith said. was sitting there crying,’ Miko- bloodon his shirt Debby Dowse of West Jordan and her daughter, Melinda Hunting, were traveling east along 5400 South with Hunting’s 4month-old daughter, Kylee, when an emergency vehicle raced past their car. As they approached theintersection, Dowse said an officer jumped from his car and she heard a shot. She said police did notfire the first shot. “I was trying to keep the baby covered,” said Hunting. “I don't jections, said Davis Superinten- company car. But after state officials located the whenhe arrived on the scene, everyone was out of the van. The man wasshotin the head andthe child appeared to have been shot in the chest or arm. “The child was coherent — it @ Continued from D-1 Hunting said. Pamela Atkinson found that mostchildrenin shelter care werenot receiving educationalservices andthat on one day in March “approximately 40 percent of the children in shelter did not have sufficient records.” Thepanelalso noted that even thoughthe shelters are meant to be temporary, 69 percent of 312 childrenin shelter care from October to December 1994 hadstayed longer than 15 days. Smith said her daughter hadstayed at the shelter for a month and a half before she ran away after a groupof oldergirls beat her up. The child, then 9, sought help from the Utah Transit Authority’s main office about a block from thecenter. An employee there agreed to drive her home ina they lived in El Paso, Texas, sheleft him. When theylived in Oregon, sheleft him And during the year whilein Lake, sheleft him andhidat Ss home. But each time he tracked her down. “She's been nervous for a long time. Forfive years ‘This time when she I never want to see him again ; StevenC, Wilson/The Associated Press HOT GIFT IDEA FOR DAD A 5-year-old hoping to find a toy to play with scans the shelves of a cabinet at the Salt Lake County Shelter Care Center. Officials say many of the supplies at the shelter are donated. STERLING : NATURAL GAS GRILL But that made him angry.” @ 50,000 BTU Main Burner © Rear Rotisserie Burner © Energy Efficient Natural Gas Bonilla avoided talking to his father about his marital problems. But he spoke with Diaz. “He said he would get better, Diaz said. “But Lucinda said he neverdid.’ Lucindarecently obtaineda restraining order against her hus- wiih band. But Det. Call said it doesn't appear Bonilla had been served the papers. ‘He didn’t even know it was coming,” Call said Raul Bonilla has never been bookedinto the Salt Lake County jail. Call said come Mondaydetectives will be looking for Bonilla’s SPECIAL i |W ves, charlie, | must like the simoie | criminal history records in other communities. Officials would not identify the officers involved in the shooting but said they will be placed on paid administrative leave until the investigation into the incident is complete. That is a common procedure when officers are in ut 4) ” things in life: ve lived with you forty “years. ‘a — a When you're THE ¢ i... 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