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Show . i I t i 1 i ; p f Vol. 5 No. 22 Wednesday, May 29, 1985 Parents Involved i In Ladder CHERYL ARCHIBALD Review Staff FARMINGTON Two changes were made in the final version of the Davis County School District career ladder plan approved last week by the Davis School Board. Parents will now be allowed vote on and know the outcome i s ) r 1 t n t i to of teacher evaluations. The former plan eliminated parents from positions on evaluation committees, the committees set up to choose career ladder teachers. Career ladder teachers are those eligible for extra pay. Parents in the Davis PTA were unhappy when they found they would be not be involved in the final process to choose eligible teachers. They felt the boards opinion that parents may divulge information about teachers was unfair. They are speaking about themselves, said Edrice Christensen, Davis PTA president. She referred to the fact that board members are parents of school children. Some PTA members were so unhappy with the board decision they walked out of a school board meeting. The second change in the plan specified that of the six added teacher preparation days, four days will be scheduled before school starts in August. One will be added at the end of the first term and one will be added at the end of the semester. Career ladders is a program set up to give extra pay. to teachers based on merit. Each, school district formulates its own plan for spending the money appropriated by the state legislature for the program. In Davis, teachers apply to become eligible. They are chosen by an evaluation committee. If chosen, to get extra pay, a teacher must become either a mentor teacher, helping other teachers; a cooperating teacher, assisting student teachers; or a secondary department head, doing such things as ordering supplies, conducting meetings, and other duties necessary at the local level. Or they can get paid extra for doing elementary school projects to be evaluated by the evaluation committee, or special projects mainly district projects. Some parents and teachers feel that career ladders is not keeping with the legislative intent of rewarding good teachers for doing a good job of teaching. They cite the added preparation days and required special projects named in the plan as examples of a drifting from the merit pay concept of career ladders. Staff Photos by Rodney Wright COVERED WAGONS wind down Highway 89 in their way to camp in South Weber last week. The wagon train is a special type of correctional enterprise, and responsihelping young men learn bility under primitive conditions. Tending horses and keep the keeping themselves healthy and well-fe- d men busy on the long trek. self-relian- Wagons Teach Self-Relian- ce CovSOUTH WEBER ered wagons and clopping horse hooves are a long way and cassette from recorders. But they beat locked cells and the clanging of prison bars. Thats why young men, ages 10 to 21, traveled with a slow trodding wagon train on Highway 89 toward camp at South Weber Canyon last five-spee- $728,000 . However, the district will $330,000 interest earned on its portion of property taxes, Holt said. Formerly, that amount stayed in the countys hands. That will leave the district owing the county a total of $188,000 in re-cie- ve 1985. A legislative decision gave counties the option of charging taxing districts tax collection costs or raising the mill levy charging property owners the expense. County commissioners agreed to charge taxing entities. However, those entities will be paid the interest earned on the collected taxes. f 4 ds week. Rather than head for prison, the troubled youth headed on down a 2,000-mil- e trail from New Mexico to North Dakota. The trip was an exercise in discipline, a lesson in slowing down and growing up the way men did in the Taxing Cost Will Be Paid By District A recent FARMINGTON Davis County decision makes school districts responsible for the cost of collecting school taxes. That will be an advantage to taxpayers, but the Davis County School District will have to reopen its 198S-8- 6 budget and scrape up almost $200,000. In 1984 the district was charged $210,000 by the county for computer and recording services in collecting taxes, according to LaMar Holt, internal auditor for the county. In 1985 the district will be charged ce Old West. Given the name Vision-Queand supervised by 29 adults costing $89 a day, the program started at a wilder-ness camp in Silver City, N.M., where the youths who chose to hit the trail learn the skills needed to live in st ; Pushing, Pulling Roy to Pare Budget Shortage quested expenditures are $3,908,523 with expected revenue of $3,385,816. transfers in the next proposed federal ANITA KERSEY Review Correspondent A preliminary 1985-8- 6 ROY Roy City budget was tentatively accepted by the City Council on Tuesday night but some paring will have to be done before the final budget gets the councils ap- budget, Kirkwood said. This results in a loss of revenue in the amount of $140,298. When this happens, taxes either have to go up or srvices are cut or the cost of services go up. He added that every city in the country is in the same boat. With an increase of 13.7 percent or $471,131 over last years budget, the 5 figures were based on a tax levy of 10.7 mills and although the levy for the next fiscal year hasnt been set yet, it is expected to be about the same. Kirkwood said the major increases are $80,091 in a 4.5 percent Cost of Living Adjustment for city employees and $123,044 in new personnel and promotions. Capital items such as the Roy Recreation Complex, improvements at the municipal building grounds proval. City Manager Richard Kirkwood said there will have to be some pushing and pulling of funds from the city departments to offset a shortfall of $522,707. A levy increase in property taxes would be one way to take care of the half a million dollar shortage," Kirkwood said, but it is unlikely that would have to be the answer. Since the present administration is trying to balance the federal budget, the local level governments are only going to receive about a fourth of the funds they normally get each year in the form of revenue sharing and other grants and r v re-T- he 84-8- r and equipment such as back hoes and dump trucks represent $227,465. The balance of $92,107 reflects normal operating increases. The fire department has the longest list of budget requests with a total of 36 totaling $84,889. Some of the requests include a secretarial position, Christmas decorations, photo copier, emergency staffing, landscaping and a training room. Other large requests came from the streets department asking for two new dump trucks needed because of the rapid city expansion mainly in the west area of Roy. For the same reason, the shop department requested a new maintenance position. Landscaping was also on the top of the list since the city building has recently been completed. A public hearing on the final budget for fiscal year 1985-8- 6 is set for June at 7 p.m. in the city hall. 1 0 1 I 1 J and drive a wagon train. ; Kids learn as a first step ; how to live alone in a small ; ' tent before going to the wag-o- n train. There, some must wake up at 5:30 a.m. to tend hors- es while others drive the wagon trains and others are scouts who go ahead of the rest to set up camp. Everyone has a job he must perform, but once camp is set up, the youths must attend school in a bus set up as a classroom. -- VisionQuest is run by a d profit organization and takes referrals from courts and probation officers. Kids in the program are repeat offenders. Tucson-base- The program has a success rate, according to John Dertouzos. assistant wagon master. The young men learn cooperation and responsibility, important skills theyll need in return- ing to society, he said. Friends Help Replace Home LAYTON Neighbors of Waldo Miller have formed a committee to build him a new house. Miller and his wife Joyce and their four children have been living in an apartment for a year because their house was completely destroyed by a mudslide in the spring of 1984. Friends have collected $3,400 for the building of the Miller home and for fixing up two severely damaged homes and.' three slightly damaged homes in ther same area, at the north end of Valley View Drive in Layton. The rest of the money will probably come from the LDS Nth Ward, ex- plained chairman of the committee, Robert Larson. ; Any donations can be sent to Flood Victims Trust Fund, Citizens Bank of Layton. Or they can send money to Robert Larson, 1464 Valley View Drive, Layton. i Y t |