OCR Text |
Show ... PEA. Itou Sanctions Against Park City School District ' The House of Delegates of the Utah Education Association, Associa-tion, a legislative body comprised com-prised of over three hundred t members, adopted a resolution resolu-tion Saturday in Salt Lake imposing sanctions on the Park City School District "for irrational and arbitrary nonrenewal" non-renewal" of contracts for Winters Middle School .teachers .teach-ers Dianne Vance, Carolyn Southerlin and Karen Rossan-der. actions and that he was unclear about-what-the sanctions sanc-tions meant. "At this point," Dr. Good-worth Good-worth said, ";;,. I haven't been contacted yet. Until I know more, it's hard to speculate what impact it'll have on the district." The Superintendent did say that if the UEA is attempting to discourage only teachers from Utah from applying for local jobs, it would probably neweel because they were never given specific reasons, plus both teachers added they had received positive evaluations evalua-tions from Dr. Falls only a few weeks prior to his recommendation recommend-ation to the School Board. Karen Rossander's contract was not renewed because her position as Counselor at the middle school was eliminated. Dr. Goodworth said follow-" ing the February 1 2 meeting that, according to Utah law. local school boards are not required to give reasons for not renewing contracts for probationary teachers (all teachers are considered on probation during their first three years of work in a school district). Teachers Vance and Southerlin would have been eligible for tenure within the next year. The School Board's actions drew concern from other school districts throughout Utah with the primary issue being the vulnerability of non-tenured non-tenured or probationary teachers. teach-ers. Spokesman for the UEA said that Vance and Southerlin should have at least been given due process of law and ' specific reasons why their contracts were not renewed. Mr. Hale told The Record this week the UEA is still exploring the possibility of taking legal action against the Park City School Board. The UEA. according to Public Relations Director Steve Hale, intends. to recommend recom-mend against prospective teachers applying for jobs in the Park City School District. Mr. Hale added the UEA will contact other state education associations and teacher training train-ing institutions in an effort to dissuade job-seeking teachers ftoni applying here. Saturday's resolution further furth-er recommends that "these sanctions stay in effect until the impasse between the Park City School District and these three teachers is resolved." The Public Relations Director Direc-tor said this is the first time in over ten vears that the UEA has issued sanctions on a school district. Superintendent Richard Goodworth told The Record Tuesdav he had not been officially notified of the UEA's N nave minimal aneci. ne auucu he sent out notice two weeks ago of an opening for principal at Marsac Elementary School, and to date he has received 32 applicants, four of whom are from Utah. The Utah Education Assn. has taken a strong stand denouncing the Park City School Board for not renewing contracts for teachers Vance, Southerlin and Rossander. The Board's actions took place during an emotionally-charged meeting held February 12th when the five-member body voted unanimously not to renew the teachers' contracts. Dr. Otis Falls, principal of the elementary and middle schools, made the initial recommendation to the School Board. Carolyn Southerlin and Dianne Vance said they did not understand why their contracts weren't being re-' re-' ' |