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Show Wed/Thurs/Fri, May 15-17, 2019 Education The Park Record. Editor: Carolyn Webber Alder education@parkrecord.com 435.649.9014 ex.15718 SURVEY OPEN FOR PCSD MASTER PLAN OPTIONS Park City School District is currently accepting feedback on its master plan options via a survey, according to the district’s website. The survey is available to parents, teachers and community members until Thursday, May 16, at 5 p.m. The survey is in both English and Spanish and is available at pcschools.us. The options and pros and cons of each choice are also available on the district website. THE EPA AWARDS FUNDS TO REPLACE OLD BUSES The Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded Park City School District $80,000 to replace four of its school buses that have been in use since before 2007, according to the district’s social media pages. The district ordered diesel buses that have close to zero emissions. The district has made an effort to reduce its carbon footprint by upgrading its school buses. BIKE TO SCHOOL DAY SET TO TAKE PLACE FRIDAY Bike to School Day is scheduled to take place on Friday, May 17. According to a flyer, the event will start with free breakfast at the corner of the Treasure Mountain Junior High parking lot from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. A bike safety presentation and barbecue will then take place from 1 to 3 p.m. at Jeremy Ranch Elementary School. It will include a bike safety obstacle course. The event is sponsored by Park City School District and Park City Municipal. A-5 The Park Record A-5 STUDENTS GET A TEST RUN OF CAREERS, A-6 www.parkrecord.com WED/THURS/FRI, MAY 15-17, 2019 Teens give Mexican folk dance club a whirl Latino students say group allows them to honor their heritage CAROLYN WEBBER ALDER The Park Record When moving to the United States, Dulce Chavez Rea left behind a lot of people and traditions from her hometown in Michoacán, Mexico. But she realized several months ago that there was one thing she did not have to say goodbye to. Chavez, a senior at Park City High School who grew up doing traditional Mexican dancing, decided to keep dancing and start a Mexican folk dance club at her new high school. The club currently has four members, and it is set to perform during a community event on May 24. The students in the club practice and perform traditional dances from different regions in Mexico. They rehearse two times a week for two hours in the school’s cafeteria. Chavez said she came up with the idea for the club after some students performed a traditional Mexican dance during a Day of the Dead celebration in 2017. She approached Dirk Gootjes, the Latino outreach coordinator for the high school, to see if he could help her get a dance club off the ground. Gootjes and Chavez organized and launched the club in the fall. They had their first performance at the school’s Day of the Dead celebration in November. During the club’s three numbers, Chavez said, the crowd applauded and cheered for the dancers. She said the support motivated her to keep the club growing. Gootjes helped secure grants from the Park City Education Foundation and the high school’s parent-teacher-student organization to pay for the club’s costumes, which are from Mexico. The club also raised money during the Live PC Give PC event. The club was also able to secure an instructor shortly after it started. Lilia Suarez, who immigrated to the Park City area from Mexico 10 years ago, agreed to choreograph and teach the dances. She brought decades of dancing experience to the group. She started taking dance classes in Mexico at the age of 8. By the time she was 18, she was touring the world with The Ballet Folklórico de Mexico. She toured with the group for 10 years and then taught dance and art in Mexico. She was happy for the opportunity to teach students again and share her culture with the town. “We are giving those who are here a little bit of the culture that we have in Mexico,” Suarez said in Spanish. Alejandro Arredondo, a member of the club, is glad to be dancing again. He grew up doing traditional Mexican dancing in school. When he moved from the Mexican state of Baja California to Park City two years ago, he said he was sad there were no dancing groups he could join. “All my life I have been dancing,” he said. “It is a way to express how I feel and my culture.” Please see Dance, A-6 COURTESY OF DIRK GOOTJES From left: Alejandro Arredondo, Dulce Chavez Rea, Rosalía Castro and Marcos Castro are members of Park City High School’s Mexican folk dance club. They are set to perform traditional dances at a performance on May 24. Teachers taught to put up a fight against shooters SSSD staff trained to disarm intruders who could harm students CAROLYN WEBBER ALDER true students, I mean they were real students from South Summit, safe,” she said. “The thought process is as long as he’s fighting with me or I have him engaged in some way, he’s at least not shooting students. That’s my goal.” In response to the mass shootings that have taken place at schools across the country, South Summit School District is training its teachers to fight back. The district hired a tactical training company to teach its staff how to defend themselves and their students if an active shooter enters the campus. The training does Please see Teachers, A-7 MMX I X The Park Record Dallas Gines knew it was a drill, but as she waited in her classroom for a person imitating an intruder with a gun to kick through the door and threaten the lives of her students, it still made adrenaline pump quickly through her veins. “The gunman actually entered my classroom and I had to keep a class of M MX X YOUR KEY TO SKI 5 DAYS ON UTAH’S BEST MOUNTAINS FOR JUST $449 GIVE YOUR SEASON THE FREEDOM IT DESERVES WITH ACCESS TO ALTA AND SNOWBIRD RIGHT HERE IN UTAH, PLUS JACKSON HOLE, ASPEN SNOWMASS AND BIG SK Y WITHIN DRIVING DISTANCE, ALL WITH NO BLACKOUT DATES. 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