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Show A-8 The Park Record Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, April 18-21, 2020 School closures remain in place LIVE LUXURY Your best life begins with a home that inspires you. Herbert announces they will not reopen this academic year ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record KELLY ROGERS 435.640.7600 Global Real Estate Advisor Kelly@LuxuryParkCityRealEstate.com www.LuxuryParkCityRealEstate.com ©MMXVIII Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sotheby’s International Realty® is a licensed trademark to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. An Equal Opportunity Company. Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Copyright© Summit Sotheby’s International Realty 2018. The Original Utah Lender Since 1897 OUR LOCAL COMPANY STAFF ARE CURRENTLY WORKING FULL TIME - PROCESSING AND CLOSING LOANS. PRE-APPROVALS, PURCHASE OR REFINANCE - RATES ARE LOW! CONTACT ME ANYTIME - DAY, EVENING OR WEEKENDS. STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY! Schools will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year. Gov. Gary Herbert made the announcement Tuesday afternoon as the COVID-19 pandemic continued its fatal sweep across Utah. “In order for us to continue to slow the spread and to get back on our feet socially and economically, this is not the time to have our schools back open,” Herbert said in a press conference. Schools were initially shut down for two weeks starting March 16, an order that was later extended to May 1. Now, it will last through at least the early summer months. State Superintendent Sydnee Dickson said she was looking for creative solutions to address the achievement gaps expected to come from the loss of virtually half of the school year. Park City Superintendent Jill Gildea said the district was prepared for this eventuality and, while she was disappointed, she expressed confidence in educators and parents to deliver distance learning to students. In a letter sent to parents, Gildea wrote that the pandemic is Continued from A-1 Proposals considered Michael Winer Your Local Park City Home Loan Specialist Cell: 435-200-5642 mwiner@utahmtg.com NMLS #1865813 Utah Mortgage Loan Corp, 488 E 6400 S, SLC UT 84107. Phone 801-561-4700 NMLS ID 149160. (www.nmisconsumeraccess.org) Utah D ivision of R eal Estate Licence #5474991. A Z dept o f Financial institutions lic #BK0943466. WY Division of Banking lic #013. Information subject to change without notice. This is not an offer for extensions of credit or a commitment to lend. Some restrictions may apply. Equal Housing Lender over the course of more than two decades rather than in the next few years, according to Todd Hauber, the district’s business administrator. The first, Option A, calls for an addition to replace the current wings on the southern end COVID-19 (NOVEL CORONAVIRUS) for your tireless work during the COVID-19 Pandemic. TAKE THE RIGHT ACTION COVID-19 TESTING Symptoms of COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) are: Fever, cough, or shortness of breath. No Symptoms Mild Symptoms Moderate Symptoms Severe Symptoms may be available To assess your risk visit intermountainhealthcare.org No Symptoms Mild Symptoms Moderate Symptoms Severe Symptoms No Symptoms Mild Symptoms Moderate Symptoms Severe Symptoms Call the COVID-19 Hotline at 844-442-5224 No Symptoms Mild Symptoms Moderate Symptoms Severe Symptoms For drive-thru screening sites visit intermountainhealthcare.org/COVID19 For severe symptoms, visit an emergency room or dial 9-1-1 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE: a historic moment students may never forget and one that might define their generation. “School is no longer the source of stability and connection that many of our students rely upon,” Gildea said in the letter. “During this time, however, educators play a critical role in supporting the social-emotional well-being of their students. That responsibility carries with it considerable stress and emotional labor for our teachers as it does for our families and community at large. We are aware of how much time, care, energy, and love is being poured into lesson development.” Teachers have continued delivering lessons to their students, using online learning tools mixed with take-home packets for younger students. Many have indicated the change has been challenging and worry about the outcomes for their students both academically and emotionally. Dickson indicated that support would be particularly important for groups at risk of academic failure, including students whose families are impoverished and those who are learning English. Small-group learning or individual tutoring, whether online or in person, could be pursued as early as this summer, Dickson said, though that is dependent on the progress made in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. Dickson said officials are thinking of the pandemic in three phases and that the state is still in the most urgent one. “The first phase … (is) what we’re calling the ‘new now’ rather than the ‘new normal,’” Dickson said. “Nothing’s normal about this situation.” She said officials would focus on five key initiatives, including making sure students are fed and that learning continues, supporting the social and emotional needs of both students and staff and continuing to pay the many employees who work at the school districts throughout the state. The superintendent and the governor expressed concern for the students who have been adversely affected, especially high school seniors who will miss out on traditions like prom and graduation. They also acknowledged the closure would affect the students’ families and school staff, which have to adapt to new distance learning protocols. The governor said he was particularly concerned about making sure seniors are college- and career-ready when they graduate this year. Just what the graduation ceremonies will look like in the time of social distancing remains unknown, though the Park City School District announced its high school graduation would be postponed until later in the summer. The social distancing measures that are seen as key to slowing the spread of the pan- demic are apparently succeeding in flattening the curve of new cases and, while that reduces the load on the area’s health care system by spreading it over time, it increases the time until the peak of cases. Health officials expect a surge in cases of COVID-19 in Utah in a matter of weeks but that target has consistently been pushed into the future. Meanwhile, teachers and administrators have been forced to improvise to provide for the needs of their students since mid-March, a prospect that will now continue through the remainder of the school year. Those needs range from academic instruction to the 10 meals per week districts provide some students to the social and emotional support students receive through interacting with their peers and the school environment. Teachers say they are putting in long hours and adapting to new technologies like video conferencing software to communicate with and educate their students. Many worry, however, about the students who need the most support, like those whose parents are no longer working and those who live in unsafe environments and rely on school to be a safe space. “It’s a lot easier to disappear in an online class than to disappear in the back of a classroom,” Park City High School English teacher Matt Nagle said last month. of the high school, as well as expansions to be built on the northeastern portion of the facility. McPolin Elementary School would be demolished and replaced with athletic fields, with a new elementary school rising up near the current site of Treasure Mountain Junior High. In Option B, McPolin would remain where it is but be expanded to the south. Likewise, the high school’s southern wings would be preserved, with additions to the northeast requiring the drastic step of relocating the Eccles Center. Baseball, softball and soccer fields would be constructed where Treasure Mountain stands. The high school would be replaced entirely in Option C, with a rendering showing a school essentially stretching from Dozier Field to McPolin, which itself would be expanded to the east. Treasure Mountain would be replaced by the athletic fields. The proposals, Hauber said, are aimed at ensuring the campus is functional well into the future. “It’s just trying to keep an eye to the future so we don’t build something today that 10 years from now we have to say, ‘Well, now it’s in the wrong place. It’s in the way of trying to best utilize the campus,” he said. Another consideration that shaped the proposals is the traffic impact on Kearns Boulevard, a topic that has long been central to any discussion about changes to the campus. The road, one of two entry points to Park City, is the site of frequent rush-hour traffic jams, especially in the winter months as resort-bound drivers jostle with students attempting to reach class and others making their daily commutes. “Taking into account the transit and traffic patterns that are happening along Kearns, it was becoming more and more apparent to us that the Kearns Campus as a whole would have to be redesigned and some of the traffic load would probably have to come off of Kearns and into some internal circulation pattern,” Hauber said. “We had to look hard at what the configuration of the campus was.” While many of the most radical changes presented in the proposals would occur on the Kearns campus, the district’s other facilities could also see major changes. At Ecker Hill Middle School, for instance, additions would be required to accommodate eighth-graders being shifted into the school in accordance with a grade realignment plan the board approved in December. Both designs offered for Ecker Hill include a remodel of parts of the existing facility, though they differ regarding the footprint of the expansions. There are also options to expand each of the other three elementary schools, meant to provide more space for the district’s popular pre-kindergarten offerings that have exacerbated overcrowding concerns at the current buildings. The proposals also offer the possibility of facilities for increased services like mental health or day care programs at some of the elementary schools. The designs created by the architecture firm are based on educational priorities the district identified earlier in the master planning process. Taken as a whole, they are expansive. But Hauber said the board has the latitude to mix, match and refine the options as needed to craft a plan it believes the community would support. Any combination the elected officials choose seems likely to come with a significant price tag, though cost details have not yet been attached to any of the proposals. Hauber said the board hoped to have that information by Tuesday’s meeting. “(These) aren’t locked in, so to speak,” he said. “If we get feedback that says, ‘Hey, wait, what about fill in the blank,’ there’s still an opportunity to go back and say, ‘You know, you’re right. That cost was probably too high. … Can we get the cost down so we have an affordable project moving forward, not just pie-in-the-sky type of ideas.’” It remains to be seen whether the district will seek a bond measure to fund the projects. A previous master planning effort in 2014 and 2015 proved controversial within the community, ultimately collapsing when voters rejected a $56 million bond that would have paid for an expansion of PCHS and a new fifth- and sixth-grade school at the Ecker Hill campus, among other improvements. Cognizant of that defeat, the district began the current master planning effort seeking community buy-in, resulting in a methodical timeline that has stretched since the fall of 2018. If the board attempts to place a bond measure on the November ballot, it would face a mid-August deadline to finalize the details. Hauber, however, said the board is aiming to hone in on the primary elements of a plan — or plans — the community can weigh in on as early as next month, allowing the district to shift its focus to the significant outreach efforts that would likely be required to garner broad backing from residents. Should a bond measure be successful this fall, construction on a first phase of projects could begin next spring, Hauber said. “We don’t want to delay this any longer than we already have,” he said. “We would really like to get those ninth-graders into that full high school experience and things like that.” Despite the district’s desire to see the projects come to fruition after more than a half-decade of master planning discussions in some form, another potential roadblock has unexpectedly emerged in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear how the economic turbulence the coronavirus has wrought will affect the master planning effort, but the district’s coffers, like that of other local governments, will not emerge unscathed. Property tax revenues could take a hit in the long-term, while the pot of money the state uses to fund schools via income taxes will also be affected as thousands of Utahns are laid off or furloughed as a result of the virus. Beyond that, Hauber acknowledged that getting voters to support a costly bond measure, a formidable task under any circumstance, would be more challenging than it appeared a few months ago in the wake of the economic uncertainty both nationally and at the local level. In Park City, the tourism-based economy has ground to a standstill as many businesses were ordered to temporarily close, in turn leaving many residents out of work. The proposals can be viewed by going to go.boarddocs.com/ ut/pcsd/Board.nsf/public and navigating to the March 31 meeting. The elected officials are not expected to select any of the proposals Tuesday, though Hauber said they could whittle down the options. Continued from A-1 The struggles on Main Street are continuing at a time of uncertainty as the summer-tourism season approaches. The season traditionally starts around Independence Day, but June numbers can be solid as well. The Tour of Utah bicycling race, a large event for Main Street in August, and the Savor the Summit dining event in June were recently canceled, dealing an early blow to the season. The Park Silly Sunday Market, meanwhile, is current- ly poised to begin as scheduled in June, but organizers have said they will set the actual opening date based on discussions with health officials and City Hall. Business generated from summer tourism trails the ski season by a wide margin, but the numbers in the warm-weather months have consistently climbed over time with attractions like cultural gatherings, concerts and sports events. Support. Resources. Hope. In consideration of statewide recommendations to stay home and social distance, domestic violence in Utah continues to rise. At the Domestic Violence Hotline, our highly trained expert advocates are available 24/7 to talk free and confidentially with anyone who is experiencing domestic violence, seeking resources or information, or questioning unhealthy aspects of their relationship. 1-800-897-5465 | https://www.thehotline.org/help/ Connect with us on social media for more COVID-19 self-care and other related information. Uncertainty continues has not heard of a business that intends to permanently close as a result of the drop in sales. |