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Show A-16 The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, February 9-12, 2019 District called rare snow day Official: Classes canceled due to road conditions CAROLYN WEBBER ALDER The Park Record The Park City School District canceled classes on Wednesday due to a severe snowstorm. The district notified parents Wednesday morning, citing the snowfall and the potential for icy road conditions. The storm began hammering the area Tuesday, and weather forecasts called for more snow throughout the day Wednesday. Todd Hauber, business administrator for the district, said road conditions were made more unsafe due to warmer temperatures before the storm, which caused ice to form on the roads. Then, several inches of snow fell on Tuesday night. A winter storm warning was in effect until 6 p.m. Wednesday. The continuous snowfall was another reason the district ultimately decided to call a snow day, Hauber said. Buses would have had difficulty driving in the snow after school, he said. Snow was expected to continue throughout Wednesday and into Thursday. School was back in session on Thursday morning. “It was just a myriad of factors that started to come together, and then they stacked up to a point where it’s like, ‘It’s not going to be a good day to try to drive buses through and for parents to drop off their children,’” he said. The district last declared a snow day in Park City in January of 2017. School officials at that time said it was the first time they’d canceled classes for snow in more than a decade. The decision in 2017 was made after officials determined snow plows would be unable to clear neighborhood streets for buses. Hauber said district leaders began talking with the district’s snow plow drivers and city and county officials early Wednesday morning about the road conditions. By 5:30 a.m., the district made the decision to close schools and notify parents. Hauber said the district currently does not have a policy in place that would allow for a delay to the school day rather than a complete cancellation. But, he said, the district will likely look into amending policies to allow for delays. The current plan is for students to make up the missed day on June 6, a day after what was scheduled to be the last day of school. Utah law requires that students have 180 days of instructional time, and Hauber said the school accounts for possible school closures while making the calendar. In 2017, though, the district received a waiver from the Utah State Board of Education allowing it to not make up the missed day. Schools in the North Summit and South Summit school districts remained open Wednesday. Cedar High ditches mascot School’s teams will no longer be called‘Redmen’ BRADY MCCOMBS Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — Sports teams will no longer be known as the “Redmen” at a southern Utah high school, becoming the latest to get rid of a Native American name deemed offensive despite opposition from some residents and a national American Indian group. The Iron County School Board voted 3-2 Tuesday night to approve a recommendation from a committee that concluded Cedar High School should stop using the term that critics consider a racial slur. School board President Stephen Allen said Wednesday that deciding to change a name used since the 1940s was difficult but correct. Native American students who account for 6 percent of the high school’s population reported being bullied over the name and feeling shame and embarrassment, Allen said. “We know that much of the world would consider the term `Redmen’ a racial slur and derogatory, even though local citizens do not intend it that way,” Allen said. The nickname came under scrutiny in 2016 when a video showed a drill team wearing black braided wigs for a Native American-themed dance at the high school in Cedar City, a community of about 30,000 people about 250 miles south of Salt Lake City. The nearby Paiute Indian Tribe was glad the committee studied the issue but didn’t ask for a name change, Allen said. One of the five bands that make up the tribe, the Kanosh Band, advocated for the change. The national group Native American Guardians Association traveled to Utah to push for keeping the name, which it considers STATE OF THE CITY PARK CITY, UTAH Join Mayor Andy and City Council for a community gathering to celebrate the City's accomplishments in 2018, and to take a look at what's ahead. Tuesday, February 12, 2019 | 6:00-8:00 p.m. | Santy Auditorium For more information, please call 435.615.5000 or visit www.parkcity.org Se ofrecerá interpretación en español durante el evento a way to preserve Native American history, co-founder Eunice Davidson said. Other national groups call the names racist and urge changes. School board member Dale Brinkerhoff spoke against the move, suggesting that outside groups were trying to tell locals they should be offended, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. “If you don’t like our peaches, get the hell out of our tree,” Brinkerhoff said, drawing cheers. Nearly two-thirds of some 2,000 Indian references in sports have been eliminated in the last three decades, according to research by the National Congress of American Indians, which considers the names derogatory. But nearly 1,000 remain, including several professional sports teams with huge fan bases. The Utah school board’s decision is a huge victory, said Amanda Blackhorse, a longtime activist against the use of Native images for mascots and logos. “Anytime that you use a racebased mascot for living people, it makes it a racial slur,” Blackhorse said. “It dehumanizes Native people and promotes stereotypes and allows our identity to be laughed at and mocked.” Davidson of the North Dakota-based Native American Guardians Association said her ancestors called themselves “Redmen” and “Redskins” and that it was never derogatory. Her group formed in 2014 to advocate for keeping such names. She noted that the Utes are known because of the University of Utah and the Seminoles because of Florida State University. “We are the first peoples of this nation. We don’t want people to forget who we are,” Davidson, a member of the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota. “There’s too much at stake to lose from my people if they get rid of all these names and images.” Blackhorse called the group misguided and said it doesn’t have much support among Native Americans. Davidson said they have 5,000 Native American members and 50,000 total supporters. Allen said he agreed with much of what Davidson said but still thought a name change was best. A committee will be formed to choose a new team name for next school year. “I think that there is a way to honor, remember and educate our students and community about our Native American heritage without having anything that is considered disrespectful,” Allen said. 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