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Show Let's Try To Clarify Things ' As stated in last week's letter to the editor from Robb Adkins of Henrieville, he and I have not talked about this matter, mat-ter, and I don't know what he has heard on the street. I appreciate appre-ciate his support and concern for the well being of our schools. I also feel that school board member Barton Palmer has the desire for our schools to be the best possible and will be working work-ing hard in our behalf. Let me give a little history of what has been happening that has led up to this time. I have been the Industrial Arts teacher at Bryce Valley High School for 20 years. I feel that we have had a very successful success-ful program. In the mid 1990's with District and State graduation gradua-tion requirements increased in the core subject areas of math, English, social science and science. sci-ence. The requirements have jumped from 18 out of 28 to 21.5 of 28. If a student elects to take four years of LDS Seminary this leaves the possibility possi-bility of taking 2.5 classes as electives. Most vocational classes are electives. Due to this increase in college-bound requirements, the numbers of students taking vocational classes class-es have drastically decreased. Students are required to take 12 year in the technology area and usually this is all they will take. A few students who enjoy or want to pursue a career in a vocation will take early morning LDS seminary and make the extra effort to get into the program. pro-gram. Therefore vocational numbers continue to decrease and have already led to at least one teacher in our district losing his employment. I have been pursuing an Administrative Endorsement in my Continuing Education Program for the past three years. During this time the principal of Bryce Valley High School and Bryce Valley Elementary, Earl (See LETTERS on page 3A) Letters To The Editor From Page 2A Slack, was called into active duty in the military. Janice Hatch, Vicki Ahlstrom and I were asked by the board to fill this vacancy. As a result I was reduced from a full-time teacher to half-time and half-time administrator. When Earl Slack returned, it was evident that the two jobs needed more attention than one individual could give. Therefore the superintendent and the school board felt it best to put Slack full-time in the high school and open a half-time administrator's position in the elementary. Due to the lack of numbers in my vocational classes class-es with the possibility of being cut to a half-time position, I applied for and was hired as the elementary principal. There were several drawbacks with the way the scheduling was set up and due to uncontrollable circumstances cir-cumstances in the elementary, at times I was required to be in that building when I needed to be in the high school. Hopefully these scheduling problems have been addressed for the next school year. It has been voiced by several of our community members that the shop program is not what it used to be. They are right. But unless we can change the graduation requirements and make a vocational voca-tional track for those individuals who do not want to pursue a college col-lege career, nothing will change. I feel we still have a successful program, we have had six Sterling Scholar winners out of the last seven years in the vocational voca-tional area. The proposal by our board member is for the shop program to be a full-time program with Earl Slack going back as the administrator in both buildings. After working in both of these positions I feel it is highly impossible for one individual to fill both jobs and do what is needed and required. Both schools need an administrator who is dedicated to the needs of that school. Whether I continue in my present position or go back to the high school as a full-time teacher will be a decision made by the school board. But I feel very strongly that in order to meet the No Child Left Behind requirements, there needs to be a principal dedicated to Bryce Valley Elementary. We need to work together to find a solution to the problems and concerns, and let our positive posi-tive comments be heard by all in order to make Bryce Valley schools successful and a place where our children can receive a great education. Layne LeFevre Tropic Not A Personal Issue -It 's An Educational Issue It has been brought to my attention by parents, students and educators the need for a full time industrial arts program at Bryce Valley High School. Rob Adkins, before making serious accusations such as you made in your letter to the Garfield County News, please get your facts straight. This is not a personal issue, it is an educational edu-cational issue. I have never attacked Layne LeFevre's ability abili-ty as an educator nor have I attacked his family as you have charged. It is simply not true. I don't apologize for donating my time to the Bryce Valley girls basketball program, however, how-ever, I still feel that athletics is secondary to a good education. It is no secret to our present board of education and superintendent superin-tendent that I would like to see fewer people in administration An Open Letter To The Thieves To the person or persons that stole property from my sawmill in Main Canyon: The stolen property is a 56-inch circle saw, two trim saw blades and two top dogs from the carriage. If you needed these things that bad. You could have called or come by my place. Most sawmill people are more than happy to help a neighbor. That sawmill is not abandoned, aban-doned, I am in the process of rebuilding it. I need the parts to and more teachers hired. In my educational background I have found that student-teacher contact con-tact is the most important part of our educational system. I plan on continuing to work for more educational opportunities for our students at Bryce Valley High School than they have had in past years. I believe we need to work toward wiser use of our educational tax dollars. We all know it is impossible to please everyone, therefore I feel most obligated to those who come forward and make their wishes known. I encourage parents par-ents to come to school board meetings and have input into what happens in our schools. As always, I will be happy to listen to your comments. Barton Palmer, Tropic Bryce Valley Area School Board Member it myself. I had to scrounge and scrape for years to build it. I didn't sneak around and steal parts. I hope you think about how you got your parts, while you are sawing. If anyone reading this has any knowledge about or sees any of these items, please contact the Garfield County Sheriff, or call me at 435-826-4368. Greg Poteet Escalante |