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Show - 4 . ; ; ;; ' . - . . . . i , - -x ' r . ...... - " !... , - .... J - ' I I j v Carl Jensen talks to Dav e Chaplin, Ann Prince and other Council members about "integrated strategy." School Community Council Gels It is believed information from the survey will provide the council with the "meat" of their efforts to improve schools. Results are expected to be made public about April .20. Gaye Wright, Pat Van Wagoner Wag-oner and Dave Chaplin (the group's co-chairmen) agreed to sit on a task force to choose this year's recipient of a $2,000 scholarship ($500 annually) offered of-fered by the Park City Ski corporation to a Park High student interested in attending. a four-year college or university. Basic criteria were established by Resort head Ray Johnson, and the task force will field applicants. In closing business, the school community council reviewed their purpose, relevant concerns and methods of dealing with problems referred to them by parents. Jensen stressed, "Your . only power and legitimacy is through the group. You must function effectively as a group and not go off on individual crusades. If you try to work as individuals, you will devastate the group." At a monthly meeting of the Park City School Community Council, Wednesday, the citizen cit-izen group's relationship to the Park City Board of Education was formalized and final decisions de-cisions regarding a community survey on local schools were made. Carl Jensen is the group's liaison with the State Board and is a community education specialist who has been working in Park City on community involvement in educational decision-making since fall. He talked with members about how the Community Com-munity Council can supplement the work of the school board. "Any kind of citizen council in no way supplants the legal and constitutional con-stitutional role of the Board of Education," Jensen asserted, adding that such council can be used instead to provide "timely, reliable, and needed information for reliable decision-making." Jensen, who has held two training sessions for the council members on problem solving, said the group should develop a systematic approach to giving input which is not based on "emotion, pressure or rumor," but rather validated and well-studied well-studied information. He recommended that integrated in-tegrated strategy must be developed de-veloped among the School Board, school staffs and various area community groups. To the question. ques-tion. "Why all these councils," Jensen responded. "There's work enough for all of us, and the more people involved, the better it seems to work." The community council intends to hire a process facilitator an individual with skills and training in promoting effective communication commun-ication among all groups. Ann Prince, Council secretary, reported report-ed on an interviewing trip to BYU she and three others undertook to find such a person. BYU has a one-year internship in community education which requires work in a community. Nine applicants for a Park City job were interviewed and four were ranked. By mid-April, Ms. Prince said a process facilitator should be selected and will begin working next fall. School board representative to the council Ron Hannay said the board is willfng to consider pay once the person's availability is certain. However, Ms. Prince said "It will be a bargain for Park City" since the process facilitator will be working primarily for the experience. School superintendent Richard Goodworth reported on the cover letter accompanying a citizen school survey mailed Friday to 40 per cent of those listed in the Park City phone book. Jensen noted that the State Board Evaluation team currently investigating the local school system asked him to "carry our congratulations back to the council for a job nobly done." The experts felt questions, ques-tions, largely composed by the council, were well-formulated. The state team added a few questions and requested demographic demo-graphic data from respondents. The survey was mailed to a randomly selected group, and the council believes it is important that a high percentage respond by March 27. Jensen said it is crucial to the survey validity that the 55 questions be answered only by those who receive copies. |