A community message to the Park City School Board seems to be getting through, at least partly. The last of three incumbents running for reelection this year quit her campaign last week.
Both incumbents in the 2022 election lost their seats to newcomers Nick Hill and Meredith Reed.
As Reed said, it’s plain the school community seeks change in the district’s leadership. Now that might include the district’s superintendent, Jill Gildea. But as recently as last summer, her latest two-year contract sailed through the school board without objection.
Current board President Andrew Caplan was the president in 2018, when Gildea joined the district after serving as superintendent for a year and a half in Greenwich Public Schools in Connecticut and seven years at the Fremont School District in Illinois. She has been the highest paid school district superintendent in Utah ever since, along with the district providing her a house and a vehicle. That shouldn’t be so surprising. This is the most expensive place to live in the state.
It was surprising when Caplan signaled an intent during a KPCW interview June 20 for the current board to renew her contract this year when it wan’t at all clear next year’s board majority would be in favor of that.
With incumbent Anne Peters quitting her campaign for reelection last week, the majority will is very clear now, crystal. This is a decision for whoever will be on the board in 2025, not the lame ducks.
The district’s assessment scores through the years typically have run higher than average, sometimes nudging into top tier, other years slipping closer to the mean. U.S. World News & Report, known for its rankings, put Park City High at No. 5 this year and No. 4 last year among Utah’s high schools.
No less would be expected among the ski town schools in places like Park City and Aspen, where the demographics tilt toward more wealth than most. Still, Park City does a pretty good job with education, especially in the extracurricular opportunities for kids here.
Unfortunately, a lot better should be expected than the findings of an appalling report this spring from the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on how the district has handled — or not handled — abuse among students in recent years.
My first clue that all may not be quite right with this came in February when the school board president in a few minutes dismissed the plea of a young mother to allow her autistic preschooler to attend a Park City school within walking distance of their home instead of needing to arrange rides a half-hour away without the use of a car.
She found a lot more interest and attention from the Summit County Council, which could do little, when she went there. County Councilor Roger Armstrong in particular put real effort into trying to figure out how to help with what should have been a very simple fix at the school district.
The civil rights report hadn’t landed yet with a thud. But the incident to me at least was very, very telling. One community leader showed real heart and the other couldn’t have been colder or shown less care for an individual in need, in that case a working mom from Jamaica with a beautiful daughter who needs extra help.
I don’t have an ear in this school district like I did in the Vail Valley, with my kids and my wife in the district, and where we lived for nearly 18 years. But that struck a sour note right away, and I’m sorry to say this hasn’t stopped ringing.
Caplan in his radio interview showed real tone deafness singing the praises of a superintendent presiding over a train wreck, between a critical state audit last fall of the school district and then the civil rights report. Questioned later, he doubled down on his remarks. He hadn’t misspoken.
Declaring the current board majority — all incumbents who quit their campaigns — would push through the superintendent’s contract renewal does the superintendent no favors, says nothing good about his colleagues or how the board actually works, and is terrible for the district.
He quit his campaign for reelection. Maybe it’s time to quit entirely. Now, before he does more damage.
Don Rogers is the editor and publisher of The Park Record. He can be reached at drogers@parkrecord.com or (970) 376-0745.