Is the School District Serious About Gang Prevention / Intervention?

  The latest statistics from the SLCPD tell us that gang membership is on the rise. Those statistics match the concerns that members of the community have expressed to me over the last few months. For the last two decades the school district has used a prevention / intervention program called Colors of Success. This program provides a fulltime case worker in the school that can work directly with a student and their family to … Continue reading

Lawmakers: Is Salt Lake City School District Serving West Side Students? (Tribune)

Lawmakers: Is Salt Lake City School District serving west side students? BY RAY PARKER THESALT LAKETRIBUNE PUBLISHED: AUGUST 27, 2013 09:32PM UPDATED: AUGUST 27, 2013 10:18PM Utah lawmakers on an Education Task Force questioned Tuesday how well the Salt Lake City School District is serving children in west-side schools, encouraging school board member Michael Clara to continue investigating. Clara filed a complaint with the federal Office of Civil Rights in February, asserting there are too many inexperienced … Continue reading

GRAMA REQUEST: Smart Schools Program

On August 2, 2013 the Tribune ran an article titled: Three More Utah Schools Find Cash for Tech Makeover The article states that an elementary school in the Salt Lake City School District was awarded this grant. Link to Tribune Article This came as a surprise to me because I do not recall the School Board approving this nor was it brought up at our last school board meeting. I submitted a GRAMA Request in … Continue reading

Superintendent’s Growing Compensation: $220,244.00

During the Budget process earlier this year I proposed an amendment to the budget that would give our employees a 3% COLA increase in order to match the 3% annual bonus that the Superintendent receives. It was voted down by the Board and the Superintendent somewhat denied that he revived a bonus. This year the School Board gave the Superintendent a 6% increase and gave our Teachers (& all employees) a  1% increase School Board … Continue reading

Utah State Auditor’s Office Denies School District’s GRAMA Request

070913boardAuditor Audio of a portion of the meeting In the July 9, 2013, School Board meeting at Snowbird (annual retreat), the Superintendent distributed a letter that the District received from the Sate Auditor’s Office denying the District’s GRAMA request. Board member Laurel Young then demanded that the superintendent calculate the cost that this and other complaints filed by me are costing the District. I responded that we should also calculate the cost that a 52% … Continue reading