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Show Page Six - The Pyramid - October 27, 1999 IRS offers attend Superintendent, principal advocate Utah Task Force Conference ; CIT- Y- SALT LAKE Superin- tendent Dennis Mower and Principal Courtney Syme, North School, were Sanpete High among the 300 educators to recently attend the Utah Legislature Task Force Conference on learning standards and accountat Cottonwood ability High School. General examples of successful programs in other states were reviewed. Notably those from Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina. These states have been developing standards through a coalition of educators, businessmen. parents and other community leaders for the past 10 years. Dr. John Bennion, University of Utah Policy Center in the Graduate School of Education, emphasized that all students who come through the system need to be functioning at an acceptable level. ' He stated that the future is d absolutely bleak for people and now, in the next few months, is the time for all to join together, legislators, educators, business people, and the community, to craft a good plan for the state. Children will be the beneficiaries. under-educate- Heritage council coordinates efforts MT. PLEASAN- T- Develop- ment that maintains the regions heritage, a new volunteer center, ; holiday plans and the need for the county to work with the Innkeepers Association were all discussed by the Sanpete County Heritage Council during its Oct. 19 meeting. Holiday plans Another item on the councils agenda related to the upcoming holiday season. The council is interested in having communities work together to come up with a uniform theme for the season along Sanpete Countys section of the Heritage Highway corridor. Miscellaneous In other news, Sally East, Development heritage councils liaison to the Council members discussed Innkeepers Countys plans for the preservation of open Sanpete Association, discussed advertising spaces and the importance of and marketing themes and materiworking with developers to show als that are being studied for the how clustering and wise land use 2000. year has economic advantages. She also presented a proposed The council has recently outline for the promotion budget the for a Legaprepared proposal for the upcoming year. She noted cy Mountain Development Prothat Innkeepers have the main ject. It shows how an areas in coordination advanresponsibility economic is an heritage Joe Blain, the countys with creshowed The proposal tage. ative ways the private and public economic development director, sectors can work together to in deciding how promotional achieve economic development dollars are spent. East said the heritage council goals. needs to work with the InnkeepVolunteer The council also discussed the ers Association so that tourism Sanpete County and marketing efforts, as well as Heritage Council Volunteer Cen- business development, preservater. Heritage Council Chairwom- tion, and interpretation promote a an June Crane, who recently unified theme. attended a volunteer center coors .5 r.( dinators .meeting, in Park . City, ) t U; The oldest existing educational said centers throughout the state are gearing up to find ways that institution is the University of families can work together to Karueein, founded in 859 AD in make a difference in their com- Fez, Morocco. munities. The best things and best peoThe role of volunteer centers throughout the state is to establish ple rise out of their separateness; goals and objectives that will Im against a homogenized socienable volunteers from various ety because I want the cream to rise. organizations to coordinate Robert Frost ; ; newly-organiz- DENVER-- - Every year millions of United States citizens come in contact with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In most cases, returns are filed and processed and individuals go merrily along without ever hearing a word for the dreaded tax man. However, there are cases when taxpayers, find themselves in a tailspin of correspondence, telephone calls and frustration. Taxpayers now have an advocate at the IRS, stated Shirley Cooper-Aguila- r, taxpayer advocate for Utah. The Office of the Taxpayer Advocate administers the IRS Problem Resolution Program and is responsible for representing the within taxpayers the service. Through annual reports to Congress, the taxpayer advocate identifies the most significant problems taxpayers are experiencing and what the IRS is doing to correct them. July 22, 1998, the President signed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights III (TBORIII), that gives taxpayers new procedural protection when dealing with the IRS. The new law expands the circumstances under which the taxpayer advocate may consider assistance issuing a taxpayer order to provide relief to a taxa significant payer suffering hardship. If one has unsuccessfully tried to resolve problems through normal channels or if more information on TBORIII is needed, call the National Taxpayer Advoat cates Helpline, toll-fre- The job of the task force is to learn from other states efforts, find the best practices, and implement a plan for Utah. Establishing learning standards and accountability measures is crucial for the future economic wellbeing of the state. As Dr. Bennion explained, its not about pointing fingers and finding someone to blame, but getting everyone committed to becoming part of the solution. Already 48 states have testing programs in place and 36 have annual public reporting. Governor Leavitt, who gave the keynote address at the conference, thinks its time to raise the stakes for school performance. He feels that the people of Utah are behind him in offering more support for public education, in exchange for greater accountability of results. The legislature is willing to look at reallocation of existing funds or generation of new funds to improve education, but they are also demanding improved results. point-of-vie- The task force has already settled on what needs to be done. Establish clear expectations of what students need to learn, then develop standard methods for judging real consequences for performance and consistent ways to share and report information in a useful way. The task force welcomes family and community involvement and suggests that interested citizens contact them by at www.le.state.ut.us. Then go to the list of committees and click on the Utah Task Force for Standards and Public Accountability. North Sanpete Superintendent Mower feels good about the progress North Sanpete School District has already made towards achieving these goals. Committees of parents and teachers have been meeting for several years to establish clear educational goals at each grade level. The Learning Council, a coalition teachers and administrators, under the leadership of Assistant Superintendent Karen Kowalski, meet monthly to establish measurements and re- porting procedures. N ' w e, Wasatch Academy National Honor Society recently inducted 10 new members, including Melissa and Amanda Gilbert, two sisters from Mt. Pleasant. Members must provide service in the community and maintain a 3.2 grade point average among other requirements. Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant. -Edgar Allan Poe One machine can do the work . of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one man. extraordinary Elbert Hubbard A tourist is a fellow who drives thousands of miles so he can be photographed standing in front of his car. Emile Ganest The wettest place on earth is Tutenendo, Colombia, with an annual mean rainfall of 463.5 inches. UHE URiWA'NtTtE DHL DIAGNOSTIC INSTITUTE NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE is looking for: Sales Personnel Correspondence may be addressed to Taxpayer Advocate, Internal Revenue Service, 600 17th Street, Mail Stop 1005DEN, Denver, CO 80202-24- Automotive Trainers National Equipment Sales Manager 0. A future in Automotive Diagnosis is waiting for you! 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