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Show r .- mmjummm,, ,.... mi, jgj iJU.: .. . - .V..mi. .uj.i mjiiiui ... .'V . - j K II.. v - t - , . . :-' - - Long time Panguitch High School Principal led Chidester (inset) was transferred by Supt Phil Blais on Monday to- serve in a new district-wide post Members of the school board, (L-R) Dell LeFevre, Panguitch High School Principal Assigned To District-Wide Post PANGUITCH After two weeks of confusion, uncertainty and anticipation among students, teachers, teach-ers, and parents in Panguitch, Garfield Gar-field County School District Superintendent Super-intendent Phil Blais, at midday on Monday, informed 10-year Pan-. Pan-. puitch High School (PHS) Principal Princi-pal led Cliideslcr ihal he w;is being laterally transferred to a newly designated des-ignated district position. The school and community at large had been in a slate of suspense fdr over two weeks, with rumors running rampant about potential firings and resignations after a brief student walkout and an earlier fiery school board meeting at the high school where teachers and administrators adminis-trators had vented their frustrations to the school board. The audience was expecting some kind of decision from the school board which met in its most recent meeting last Thursday night in Panguitch. Following a spirited period of public input, the board went into an hout-long executive session on personnel, then returned to the general session to call for adjournment without announcing a decision, to the obvious surprise and disappointment of those in the audience, many of whom had expressed ex-pressed their opinions during the public session. On Monday, Blais handed Chidester a letter detailing his new position as Curriculum Coordinator K-12, Adult Education, and Transportation. Trans-portation. His office will be centrally cen-trally located within the district in a modular unit at Bryce Valley Elementary Ele-mentary School in Tropic. Chidester Chide-ster had also been serving as principal princi-pal at Panguitch Middle School. ' Chidester was directed in the memo from Blais to remove his personal effects and belongings from PHS by that same Monday evening and report the following morning by 8 a.m. to the Bryce Valley school. District Policy The memo from Blais stated that the action taken was pursuant to section 533.42 of the Garfield School District Policy and was deemed to be in the best interest of the school district. Chidester's transfer caught both faculty and students at PHS as well as the community by surprise, especially es-pecially in light of the decision by the Garfield County School District Board last Thursday evening to take no action following an hour-long executive session. That was made clearer when Supt. Blais, taking full responsibility responsibil-ity for the action as independent from the board, cited school district policy which states that "transfers may be made at the request of the employee or upon the initiative of the Superintendent or other administrative admin-istrative officer for reasons which, in the judgment of the Superintendent, Superinten-dent, shall serve the best interest of is Earl Roe, President Marc McLemore, Supt Phil Blais, Irish Thompson, Randi Miller, and Business Manager DXynn PolL deliberated on Sept 16 about personnel matters but announced no action. the employee andor the schools." During the interim period, while the district searches for a replacement replace-ment principal at Panguitch Middle and High School, Myron Cottam, former Escalante Elementary School Principal, will serve as acting act-ing principal. Board Support Following the action taken by Superintendent Blais, the Garfield County News received numerous calls from citizens accusing the school board of lying or failing to honor its word. Four of the five school board members were contacted con-tacted by the Garfield County News all except Dell LeFevre of Boulder who was on a cattle roundup round-up and could not be reached by deadline. dead-line. Board President Marc McLemore, McLe-more, Escalante explained Monday evening that "there was no action taken by the board. And I will tell you that the action taken today is not a board action nor is it a result of any discussion by or with the board." McLemore repeated the district policy which was cited by Blais as a basis for Blais' action and said further, "I support the Superinten dent as the CEO of the district and support his judgment and ability to administer district policies." In stark contrast to the support, of Blais by the majority of the board, Earl Roe, board member from Panguitch said adamently that "the action of Superintendent Blais was made without my knowledge" and that "any action even being contemplated by Blais should have been discussed in the time set aside at the board meeting for executive session with regard to personnel actions." Roe further emphatically stated "I do not support the action taken by Blais and if there is any legal way possible to stop it, I intend to do so." Board member Randi Miller, Panguitch, stated on Tuesday, "The last few weeks in our school district have been very difficult, to say the least, for all involved and for our community. . Situations are not easily resolved. I believe that Superintendent Su-perintendent Blais has the best in-' terest of the students at heart and I support his actions." Bryce Valley board member (See SCHOOLS on page 3-A) SCHOOLS From Front Page Trish Thompson, Cannonville, said, "When the Board of Education contracted Mr. Blais as superintendent superinten-dent of our school district, he was entrusted with the responsibility to administer personnel matters utilizing utiliz-ing his professional expertise." Mr. Chidester was contacted twice in person on Tuesday but declined to speak with the News regarding this most recent action. Executive Session Following some of the general proceedings at the monthly school district meeting last Thursday evening, even-ing, over an hour of emotional comments were again received regarding re-garding the earlier walkout at PHS and the subsequent fallout in the community over the issue. Approximately 50 persons had turned out for the board meeting in Panguitch that night. Many had anticipated reprimands, even possible possi-ble firings of teachers, the principal or even the superintendent. Others were certain they had verbally made their point to the board in the earlier ear-lier "special meeting" and expected no disciplinary action to faculty or administrators and anticipated that Julie Chidester would be returned to her position as administrator over the Panguitch Middle School. However, after nearly an hour of executive session, with the board's legal counsel present, board president presi-dent McLemore spoke as they returned re-turned to the auditorium and received re-ceived a motion to reconvene in general session. He then immediately immedi-ately called for a motion to adjoum and receiving it, promptly adjourned and began to pack up. Immediately jaws dropped, faces showed astonishment, and comments, com-ments, jeers and questioning began to come forth from those remaining in the audience. It was explained (See SCHOOLS on page 6-A) SCHOOLS From Page 3-A) that because no personnel actions had taken place during executive session no decisions were announced an-nounced and no discussion was held upon returning to open meeting. School Board Meeting Earlier in the evening the general school board meeting proceeded like many previous months. However, Board President Marc McLemore, anticipating persons were present to again address the walkout issue spoke just briefly. "We very much appreciate you being here. Not as big of crowd as the other night. I will not lie and say that makes me sad. However, I do appreciate the interest on the part of people and what goes on at the school board. Frankly speaking, if ' we're going to be criticized for ' decisions that we make, and that occasionally happens, then please come to the meetings and be aware of the input upon which we base those decisions. That's all I'll ask. I won't go so far as to say we'll '.' always make good decisions but I i; will tell you that our chances of 2 making good decisions are better the informed that we are." v McLemore proceeded on with ! the agenda and the CALL TO THE PUBLIC portion of that agenda. ', He explained "the board often covers topics . about issues 1; concerning the school district. This ': time is set aside to provide the (See SCHOOLS on page 7-A) ; SCHOOLS From Front Page 5-A opportunity for any person who wishes to do so, to address the board of education or raise any question about this agenda, school district matters or governing policy. And if you wish to be recognized by the board of education but prefer to wait until the agenda item comes up, would you tell me as I recognize you. As a point of information, by Utah statute, we are unable to respond to public comment at this meeting, unless those comments are specifically about an item on the published agenda. Having read that. Does anybody wish to address the board? r Panguitch resident Trudi Owens led off the discussion saying "as I sat through the meeting last week the things that I heard both in the parents meeting and at the board meeting caught my attention. I'm not usually one who sucks up everything I'm told. So I went and tried to check the information that we'd been told. And that's what I'd like to share with you tonight." Trudi then passed out a packet of information to each board member and the press stating "the facts that I would like to share with you tonight are not meant to demean or belittle Panguitch High School. It is my alma mater and I am proud to be a graduate of this high school. We have many good programs in our school but there is always room for improvement. My purpose in providing this information is to help parents and board members see a broader picture than what I feel has been presented the last two weeks. The first issue I would like to discuss is the Student Education Occupational Plan (SEOP) program that the Garfield County School District has in place. And I am by no means an expert on this but I have done some research and talked with many different schools and this is what I have found. That each student at Panguitch High is to have an SEOP file. Students and parents should be meeting twice a year so that the student is on track to graduate. Now many of you in this room and that were at the meeting the other night, have seen your child's SEOP file. . I have talked to 29 parents who have students at Panguitch High School or Middle School and out of that 29 only two remember seeing an SEOP form for their student and that was several years ago at the Middle School. I contacted six schools in our area to find out how their SEOP are handled. ..Basically all the schools I contacted are running their SEOP programs the same. ..I talked with both Bryce Valley and Escalanle High Schools. ..Both schools told me that twice a year, each and every year, students and parents meet with an advisor andor counselor to make sure the student is completing the necessary classes required for graduation. If a parent does not attend the required SEOP conference, the counselor or advisor must make arrangements with that parent to go over the SEOP even it requires a personal visit to the parent's home. It appears to me if the rest of the district is following this policy carefully, then there would be no possible way that the seniors at Panguitch High School could be told. ..that they would not graduate. I know the electronic schedule is a moot issue but I found this interesting today. I was talking with Dixie High School who told i me that they had been following j our problems with our j computerized scheduling. Because they also implemented computerized scheduling for the first time this year. And the counselor told me that they had experienced there many -of the same problems that we experienced at our high school and they are still using the program and they are reworking out the bugs. ...I thought that was interesting. I have also been told by parents and students that some students were told that if the new schedule was used, the students would have to go back and take the extra math and science credits, that were put in place a few years ago. This years (See SCHOOLS on page 7-A) SCHOOUS From From Pauc d-A graduating seniors. 1 was told, "we're yramlliilliL-rciJ inlo the new graduation requirements. The new credits for this years graduating seniors were waived. How many parents have checked their children';! credits since the chaos of the infamous Friday? It appears to me that much of the confusion and misinformation could be cleared up hv simplv checking the child's SHOP. It was interesting for me to see the SHOP form which you guys have a copy of. It requires a parent and student signature on the file. Yet 1 have a child who is now a freshman in high school and I haven't seen an SEOP for her at all since she left elementary school. I'm familiar with the SEOP program that the elementary school. ..at the elementary it worked well. It was interesting as' I talked with many teachers, the teachers said that they admit the SEOP program is very time consuming and it requires at lot of effort but they also did not realize that it was optional. The other issue I would like to address is regarding the Stanford Achievement Tests (SAT's) scores. I am not a firm believer that SAT scores are the only tool to measure the success of schools. But in the letter to the editor from Earl Roe, he states that test scores are used universally and are about the only way we have to assess progress at the present time. As I read through Earl's letter, I found some of the information interesting. Over the past two weeks I have spent a considerable amount of time gathering up SAT scores from around the state. I was unable to find any SAT that had 14 subject areas as Mr. Roe referred to. What I did find was very contrary to what many of the parents were told in the parents meeting two weeks ago. The following information was gathered from the state office of education, they are not numbers that I made up. ..On the first page you will notice that Panguitch High School SAT scores for 1998 are not the highest in the district as were told in the parents meeting but they are the lowest. Bryce Valley's composite SAT is 61, followed by Escalante High School at 52 and Panguitch High School at 49. The national average is 50. On page six you will find that I compiled scores from nine high schools in Utah with similar economic conditions. Panguitch High School finished seventh followed only by Tintic and East Carbon High. Milford High School had the highest SAT score at 62. They also had the highest percentage of students who receive free school lunch. An economic factor which is often an excuse for low test scores. But it is also interesting to note that West Desert had 100 percent of their students receiving free school lunch and their composite SAT score was 58. On page seven I collected test scores for five schools which tested and average of 54 students. Panguitch High School tested 56. And of those high schools, Panguitch High School had the lowest SAT scores. I was also able to compare the scores from all threee high schools in the district over the eight years.. .It was alarming for me to see that Panguitch High Schools SAT scores had dropped three points over the lasl eight years: while I'sealante High School increased their composite scores by 32 points and, Bryce Valley High School had increased their scores by 20 points. Both of theni surpassed Panguitch High School. 1 do not want to dwell on a negative issue. We have many good programs at Panguitch High School. But 1 wanted parents and board members to see that while other schools in our district were improving drastically. Panguitch High School was loosing ground. ..one of the reasons that the school board was trying to make some changes in our school.... 1 must also wonder why every time the board tries to make any kind of a change in the district, the only place where there seems to be a problem is at fHS. As many of you will remember, it was only live months ago that many angry residents of this community met at the school board meeting in Escalante to voice their concerns over changes that the district had to make. Many of us realized after that meeting, that we did not have all the facts before we went to battle. Parents, I encourage you, not to believe everything you are told, don't believe everything I told you. But research the facts and become informed regarding your students education. It is time that we stop burying our heads in the sand and take a good look at the real issues. Counselor Scott Hunt stepped to the microphone and expressed his concern and appreciation for the students and faculties of each of the area high schools stating that "he thinks Garfield County School District has got three great schools." And he thinks "it's unfortunate we've got caught up in that side of the district versus this side.". ..He expressed that he "just wished we could allow teachers to teach, administrators to administrate, etc. He felt "Panguitch was taking a lot of shots on the chin for whatever reason and he just didn't think it was necessary." He went on to defend the SEOP efforts at PHS very effectively, adding that "he wants to have a great counseling program at PHS and that that SEOP program is a very important part of that" and "we're on line with SEOP." Debbie Pollock, a teacher of twenty years experience, seventeen of that at Panguitch High School appeared visibly drained by the events of the. past several weeks. She stated that "this was the first time in her life she had felt devalued as a person and as an educator.. .and that horrible things had been said about our staff." Pollock addressed Trudi Owens directly also defending the SEOP program in place at PHS, saying that Owens was sadly mistaken and she wanted her to know the truth. She said "we have SEOP in October. It's on your calendar, it's been on your calendar for three years. Referring to Owens statistics on the SAT scores Pollock, called them a "bunch of crap" and said "you can make statistics look any way you want to." She further stated that to have the SAT's be valid statistically you have to sample 126 students. Pollock said "the kids know they the SAT's are of no value, except to print in the newspaper." Pollock clarified that the tests Mr. Roe referred to in his letter to the editor are called End of Level Tests. And those measure what is learned during the school year. She pointed out that the SAT tests were "created by the Legislature to say education is not working in Utah or it is." ...She staled she felt like Scott Hunt, that she was tired of her black eyes. "I'm tired of haling to come to this place and I'm tired of fighting because there's no reason for it." She said she appreciated her position here at this school and loves these kids, or she wouldn't do this. ..because it's getting harder every day." . Frank Houston spoke very briefly and to the point about gossip when he said "if I'm not a very good teacher, would you please come and tell me what your complaint is. Tell me, don't tell the coffee shop down town. If you think something is wrong with our superintendent tell him, if you think something is wrong with our principal, tell him. Take it to the source, don't take it down town." Janice Hatch, also an educator at Panguitch High School began by asking several in the audience if they could even remember their SAT scores'? She proceeded to point out that there was no correlation between the scores on the SAT's or ACT's and succes in life. She also stated there was "no correlation between those tests, graduation from college, or success in the market," and provided examples of success in her own family and among her students. Sheri Miller, a parent and strong supporter of the teachers at Panguitch High School began her address to the board with an apology for acting out at the last board meeting. She went further to praise and thank the teachers at PHS for their support and interest in her children. Miller also informed the group of her knowledge knowl-edge of the SEOP program as she had served on that committee the previous year. She said that she was "really concerned about the students and really concerned about the morale of our teachers." Panguitch resident Jennifer Breniner, who has several children attending school, expressed her appreciation to the teachers for the time they lake with her children. She went on to say, however, that what worries her is when her children come home and argue with her because there is so much influence from their teachers ... and it seems to be a lot of limes, contradictory to what we're trying to teach at home. "When my kids have questions, I would appreciate it if the teachers would say, 'Have you talked to your parents?' And I try to do that with the youth I work with." she said. She stated she would like to have more input into the things her kids are doing, referring to scholarship schol-arship opportunities and things of that nature. Speakers each expressed gratitude grati-tude for the opportunity to put forth their opinions. |