Before the Park City School Board’s split vote last week to renew Superintendent Jill Gildea’s contract for two more years, she emerged as the only finalist for another job in Colorado.

It’s a question whether the board knew this, with potential contractual implications.

Colorado Early Colleges announced Tuesday that its board on Aug. 16 chose Gildea as the only remaining candidate for chief executive officer five days before a Park City board majority of members who dropped their reelection campaigns pushed through the controversial renewal on a 3-2 vote, with the only incumbents who will be on the board next year opposing.

School board President Andrew Caplan did not answer a question about whether the board knew Gildea had applied for other work. A stipulation in her 2023 contract appears to require she notify the board if she decides to seek other employment.

Instead he said Gildea “has been personally attacked by community members including yourself and your media colleagues. I hope that in your career you are never publicly vilified in the way she has been.”

He wrote in what he said was the full board’s comment: “Jill Gildea has served the children and community of Park City with distinction for six years. If she chooses to pursue employment elsewhere, the board wishes her the best of luck and thanks for her exemplary service to our schools.”

He declined to answer when asked if Gildea had told him or other board members about her search for other employment. The contract she signed in 2023 included a clause that says “Superintendent shall promptly notify the board should she elect to apply for other employment.” It’s in section 16 F, a paragraph largely devoted to what would happen if Gildea unilaterally chose to terminate her contract. The document is not readily clear whether the requirement is also true if the agreement ends through mutual agreement.

“I have made my statement,” Caplan said. “We will not be commenting further on personnel matters.”

When she voted to renew Gildea’s contract, board member Anne Peters said she did so with the consideration that the decision could save the district from a difficult search for a new superintendent. The new school board would have until Feb. 5, 2025, to notify Gildea if it did not wish to renew her contract, which would have elapsed that summer.    

Colorado Early Colleges’ website post includes Gildea’s resume, answers to a series of questions, and a cover letter, which is dated June 19. 

It was only a day later that Caplan first drew public pushback that started the months-long community conversation about the contract renewal when he announced that the board intended to renew her contract in August — while the departing majority could — in an interview June 20 on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.”

Other board members said he made the announcement without first consulting them.

Shortly after, community members started a Change.org petition asking the board to hold off on the decision until next year.

Board members Caplan, Peters and Wendy Crossland voted to renew the contract. All three of them began the year intending to run for another term in their positions, and all three of them dropped out of their reelection bids — Caplan and Crossland within a week of each other in May, and Peters in July.

Board members Meredith Reed and Nick Hill — who will remain on the board in 2025 — voted against the renewal, stating they wanted to wait until next year. Before the vote, all but one of the candidates for next year’s board also publicly spoke in hopes the board would leave the decision to them.  

In Gildea’s new contract, which is dated Aug. 24 with her signature, there are portions that allow her to leave the agreement either through retirement, mutual agreement with the district, or if she “believes she can no longer give effective leadership to the district.”

The contract also dictates that she “agrees to give the district not less than 30 days advance written notice of her election to terminate employment.”

Otherwise, she could have to pay the district a $2,000 penalty for early termination.

Gildea has not yet responded to questions about her potential new job or if she informed the board that she was applying for new positions.

Colorado Early Colleges is a network of public charter schools in Colorado.

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While schools across the state and country struggle to get students up to the standards they were meeting before the COVID-19 pandemic, Wasatch County School District and Park City School District have managed to not only make up lost ground but also surpass their 2019 standings.

The Utah State Board of Education released its 2024 student proficiency data based on two standardized tests: the Readiness Improvement Success Empowerment given to third-eighth graders and the Utah Aspire Plus administered to students in grades nine and 10.  

In 2019 — the school year before the COVID-19 pandemic — students’ test scores throughout the state showed that 47% were proficient in English language arts, 45% in mathematics and 46.6% in science. 

In 2021 — the year after the worst of the pandemic and the effects it had on schools and students — had passed, its effects on education were noticeable. The proficiency rates had dropped to 43.3%, 39.2% and 44.1%, respectively.

While Park City School District and Wasatch County School District stayed a cut above average both before and after the pandemic, neither community was immune to the proficiency-dropping effects the vast majority of districts throughout the state and country faced. 

In 2019, Park City’s students tested to be 54.3% proficient in English language arts, 50.5% in math and 54.1% in science. In 2021, those numbers changed — most notably math proficiency — to 54.5%, 46% and 53.3%, respectively.

In neighboring Wasatch County, students’ 2019 test scores scored proficiencies of 51.6% in English language arts, 46.2% in math and 49.8% in science. In 2021, those proficiency rates became 50.4%, 45.7% and 44.4%.

Regardless of the pandemic, both of the largest districts in the Wasatch Back also continue to improve their proficiency numbers.

According to the newest reports, Park City’s tests taken in 2024 show 61.8% of students were proficient in English language arts, 56.2% in math and 65.5% in science.

In Wasatch, test results showed students were 59.3% sufficient in English language arts, 56.7% in math and 55% in science. 

Despite obvious adjustments that the district had to make due to the pandemic, Wasatch County Superintendent Paul Sweat attributed the district’s success in the situation to using technology efficiently, implementing as few changes as possible and keeping kids in school buildings when possible.

Similarly, Park City officials also worked to maintain in-person learning as much as possible.

The post Park City and Wasatch County schools continue upward after pandemic bounce back appeared first on Park Record.

The Park City School Board voted Tuesday to increase taxpayers’ burden to the district by 2.8%, meaning the owner of a $1.1 million home will see an increase of $99.83 annually to the school district.

The intent is to increase funding for “livable wages” for district teachers and other employees, according to the school board.

Even with that reasoning, some members of the community were vocal about their concern over continually seeing their taxes from the district increase. 

The frustration, according to Kathleen Britton — who is running against Danny Glaser for a position on the school board next year — is not with increased pay for district employees, as they’re guaranteed through collective bargaining efforts, but with the district’s methods of paying for those raises.

She directed a series of questions Tuesday to the board.

“I want to know why we have to raise our taxes when every year we’re giving back the state — to the MSP equalization — millions of dollars. Why can’t we look at our budget, be more fiscally responsible, and use the current money that we have?” she asked. “People like me, that have lived here 40 years, are going to be taxed out of this town. So how can you explain why you’re not using the current funds that we have fiscally responsibly and have to raise our taxes again at a very large increase?”

School board President Andrew Caplan said the district can’t do anything about the almost $30 million the state of Utah took from Park City School District last year as part of its equalization efforts.

“That’s outside of our control,” he said. “That’s money that’s collected by us, that’s paid by you, that’s taken by the state and distributed to other districts.” 

Britton, who’s worked in a position with the state Board of Education for a decade before retiring this summer, didn’t buy his explanation.

“We do have control over how much money we send back. That is on a formula by the amount of money from the (weighted pupil unit) and what our taxes brought in. And then it’s based off of that and whatever’s left goes back to the state,” she said. “If we would use our budget correctly, we wouldn’t have to send as much money back.” 

Essentially — because Park City’s district raises a highly disproportional amount of tax revenue per pupil than other public districts in the state — Utah takes a portion of that back to send to districts with less revenue.

Britton argued that if the district would proportion its budget differently rather than raise more funds, the state wouldn’t take as much money because the amount per pupil that the district would raise would be lower.

Britton also asked why the district was deciding to raise taxes even though its enrollment over the past several years has been declining.

“That’s based on permitted building,” Caplan said. “We don’t know for certain, but what we can do is look at permitted building.”

As more affordable housing is built — which he said is a good thing — more families will be able to join the community. He also cautioned that the district can’t be positive about growth and make predictions.

Wendy Miller, another community member concerned about rising taxes, also spoke to the district leaders.

“We are from New York. We left New York because — one of the reasons — the taxes are outrageous,” she said.

Still, despite her woes living in the state, she said the district she lived in required a vote from the community to approve their budget.

“There were times it was turned down, and they would just have to redo their budget,” she said. “Here, and we have been to a number of council meetings and board meetings, I’m sorry to say this, but it doesn’t seem to matter what anybody says or what anybody says they can’t continue to do because the decisions come out the same and the taxes go up.”

She stressed that Park City is not across-the-board an extremely wealthy community.

“This is not sustainable,” she said. 

The post Park City School Board raises taxes appeared first on Park Record.

Buses, cars, bikes and walkers made the trip back to schools in the Park City School District on Tuesday for the first day of the 2024-25 year. Middle schoolers were “clapped in” at Treasure Mountain, kindergartners and preschoolers said anxious goodbyes to their parents at McPolin and high schoolers handed out doughnuts in the parking lot to welcome their peers back to class.

Left: Katrina Kmak bikes her son, John “Jack” Burdick V, to his first day of kindergarten. Kmak’s husband, John Burdick IV biked with them to Jack’s first day of class as well.

Right: Shane Hoffmeyer says a teary goodbye to his dad, Tyler Hoffmeyer, on his first day of preschool at McPolin Elementary. Tyler is the technology instructional coach at Park City High School. “I’m excited to have [Shane] nice and close by,” he said.

The post First day of the future appeared first on Park Record.

The three Park City School Board members who quit their reelection campaigns in spring and summer formed a majority on Tuesday to approve a new two-year agreement with Superintendent Jill Gildea, even though the other two current board members and three out of four candidates for the board have publicly asked them to leave such a decision to them next year.

The contract passed 3-2, with each of the board members whose terms will end this year — Andrew Caplan, Wendy Crossland and Anne Peters — voting in favor.

The newest members, Reed and Nick Hill, voted no.

“I would prefer that was a decision made by the incoming board,” Hill said.

“I would second that,” Reed agreed.

The majority said they saw things differently.

“I would just, having been here for seven years, be really mindful of change and how it’s executed,” Peters said. “My preference would be to allow the three new board members to get up to speed and assess the situation for themselves and then make a better decision.”

Crossland agreed that the new board should take time to assess the district as elected officials before deciding whether to decide on renewing Gildea’s contract.

Though the new agreement is for two years, she said it contains language that allows the board to cancel the contract early.

The new document has not yet been publicly released, but Gildea’s current contract specifies that if the board decides to terminate the agreement before the end of its term, they must give her a full year of compensation and benefits. She’s the highest-paid superintendent in the state.

Crossland also stressed that the process to find a solid superintendent takes a year or two, and she opted to keep the district in a stable place. 

“It’s a decision that we make and I make based on a multitude of factors,” she said. “I’ve heard both sides.”

Caplan criticized critics of the superintendent and other personnel within the district. He said people should refrain from personal attacks no matter how badly they think someone has messed up.

“What I would ask the community,” he said, “is to have some civility and some class, and for someone to get on the radio and say things that are only partially accurate or partially true, and have people demand that’s the right thing to do without sitting here in this seat without volunteering thousands of hours, without taking into account other stakeholders, it’s a bit foolhardy.”

Despite disagreements, he emphasized that he thinks Park City is still a great place to live.

“We all came here for people and a good community, and let’s not change that,” he said. “Let’s not have that be the narrative because it gets clicks on KPCW or The Park Record. Let’s not allow the press to influence how we act towards each other.” 

The vote completed a vow Caplan made in June, after quitting his campaign for reelection the previous month. He declared in an interview on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” that the board intended to renew Gildea’s contract.

Since then, board member Meredith Reed has said he made the statement without consulting with her, or to her knowledge, any other board members.

Ten days after Caplan’s broadcasted comments, community members started a Change.org petition asking the board to leave the decision to next year. As of Tuesday, the district voted on the issue, the online petition had 520 signatures.

Had they left the decision up to the next year’s board, the new members would have had a month to determine whether they wanted to renew or terminate the district’s relationship with Gildea according to the terms of the contract, which may violate a 2011 state law against automatic renewal clauses. 

Kathleen Britton, a candidate for Crossland’s position, and Eileen Gallagher, who is running unopposed for Caplan’s seat, declined to comment after the vote.

Formerly, Britton was the only candidate who hadn’t publicly urged the board to delay the vote.

Her opponent, Danny Glasser, didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts.

“I am disappointed that the board has collectively chosen to take this important decision away from the next board,” he said. 

He explained he didn’t see an urgent need to approve the contract, and thought the lame duck majority’s action was unjustified.

Susan Goldberg, who is running unopposed to replace Peters, saw the decision as an example of the board going against the will of the community.

“I am not surprised,” she said. “Andrew Caplan told us what he was going to do in spite of community objections, board member objections both past and present and, most importantly, performance concerns. It is disappointing to say the least.”

Josh Mann, one of the organizers of the Change.org petition, was also disappointed.

“We didn’t get the outcome we had hoped for, but we love that the community spoke,” he said. “Unfortunately, a majority of the school board ignored public opinion. I guess the board thought they knew better than the community.”

Since being hired in 2018, Gildea has been criticized by the community as the district has faced several issues during her time as superintendent, including illegally storing toxic dirt, beginning construction projects without appropriate permits, 180 cases of student-to-student harassment — some of which the district didn’t adequately resolve to legal standards — and a state audit that showed the district lacked in helping groups of students qualifying for federal assistance.

At the same time, the district has been academically rigorous and last school year was ranked as Utah’s fifth best, according to U.S. News & World Report. It also found a place on the College Board’s honor roll for promoting access to Advanced Placement Courses to traditionally underrepresented and low-income students.

“I am honored to continue serving our community and leading our district through these transformative times,” Gildea said after the vote. “We have achieved remarkable successes and will continue our efforts. … One thing is clear — we all want the best learning experiences and opportunities for our community’s children in schools where there is a deep sense of connection and belonging.”

The post School board’s lame ducks renew superintendent’s contract over protest appeared first on Park Record.

Early Tuesday morning, just as Park City High School students settled into their classes and their younger middle school- or elementary school-aged peers walked to their campuses, a group stood in front of the high school, making the first day of the school year a little sweeter by handing out doughnuts to passersby.

Emma Gorg — one of the sweet treat distributors and a dance instructor at the school — explained that the group was a local chapter of Young Life, a national Christian organization that seeks to connect young people with older mentors.

Gorg said the organization was first found in Texas in the ‘40s and spread to Park City in the ‘90s. While there are not a lot of other chapters throughout Utah, she said Park City operates as a model for what further participation could look like.

“Our goal is to develop deep, meaningful relationships with students,” Gorg said.

She explained that — on top of doing things like handing out doughnuts to kids returning to school — the group visits schools’ cafeterias at lunchtime and hosts different activities throughout the week where young people are invited.

Every Monday, she explained, the group gathers at a volunteer student’s home for Young Life club, an event Gorg described as “an hour of organized chaos” where “kids just get to be kids.” They sing, they play games and they eat dinner together.

“Then, at the end of it, we share a quick message about why we do what we do,” she said. “And why we want to be loving on these students is because we are loved by God.”

Gorg said she first came to know the organization when she was a high school student in Virginia.

“There was a woman, her name was Whitney Johnson,” Gorg remembered. “She literally sat with me at my lunch table. At first, I was like, who is this girl? Like this is kind of weird. And now we are best friends. I’m actually getting married in 18 days, and she’s one of my bridesmaids.”

Gorg said she went from a lost sophomore to someone who found comfort in Christianity and the fellowship Johnson gave her.

“I just want to be able to do the same for other young women in high school,” she said. “I became a different person, almost.”

Ethan Looney, another member of Young Life who was distributing pastries Tuesday morning, described a similar experience when he was in middle school.

He remembered playing fun, goofy games and meeting a leader who was different from all of the other adults in his life.

“Having an older person that’s a little bit ahead of you in life be truthful with you, also there as a support, but also call you out when you’re doing stuff wrong, that resonated with me,” he said. “The biggest thing to me is kids being treated like humans, which I think a lot of the time, especially in middle school, younger kids are disregarded, their ideas are disregarded because of their age. That’s kind of why I do it because I think they have a lot more to say and they have a massive impact on their community, which we’re seeing now.”

Though the group isn’t shy about sharing their belief in Jesus Christ, they also said they’re fine if kids who don’t believe or give credence to their messages continue to show up to their activities and be a part of their community.

James McKenzie, a student at Park City High, said he appreciates having people he knows he can turn to with problems. He knows they’re willing to help.

“Come to club,” he said. 

The post Organization seeks to provide mentorship to Park City School District students appeared first on Park Record.

Park City School District cut the ribbon to two preschool facilities Monday afternoon, one an expansion of Jeremy Ranch Elementary School, and the other at McPolin Elementary School.

When it came time to introduce and open the McPolin center to kids and their families, a large crowd gathered around the center to watch district and community leaders express their excitement for the new part of the building and what it means for the community.

Either through repeating themselves or working with a translator, the speakers said each their piece in English and then Spanish.

“Today marks a truly special occasion,” Superintendent Jill Gildea said. “When I first arrived in the district, we faced a significant challenge. A 2015 bond measure had not been successful, and we knew that, moving forward, we must take the time to listen closely to our community to unite around a vision of enhanced educational facilities.”

She said that in planning for the district’s current expansion projects — which include new wings at Park City High School, Ecker Hill Middle School and additions to each elementary school for preschool and essential services — officials took the time to understand the community’s hopes, concerns and visions for the future.

“Together, we refined the plan for the bond, ensuring it aligned with what our community truly wanted and needed,” she said. “Today we celebrate the culmination of this effort, the passage of the 2021 bond, and the grand opening of the facilities that were prioritized by our community. This center is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together, when we truly listen to one another and when we stay committed to our shared goals.”

Ingrid Whitley, the president and CEO of the Park City Education Foundation that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for the school district, also spoke. She touched on the importance of early education in a child’s development.

“It’s a testament to our school district and the broader community that we no longer view preschool as an innovative offering but an essential part of our youngest learners’ educational journeys,” she said. “It’s one of the highest value investments of public funds we can make as a community. For every dollar invested, researchers say that we see a $4 to $16 return based on tangible benefits to children over their lifetimes.”

She added that she hopes other communities across the state will use the district’s pre-K program as a model for what they can achieve.

After the speeches — and well after several of the preschoolers had reached the ends of their attention spans — families were invited to tour the new add-on, its classrooms and kitchen.

Victoria Kenyon, the mother of a 4-year-old girl, said she’s excited for the opportunity her child has to learn in the new facility.

She and her family have been members of the community for over three years.

“We’re definitely excited to be part of the inaugural class and have a dedicated space,” she said. “For me, one of my big anxieties going into public school is just safety, and so I think having a dedicated space for the younger children is a lot more reassuring.”

Before now, she said her daughter has worked one on one with a nanny, so introducing her to preschool will give her more opportunities to interact with others in her early education.

“Park City isn’t particularly a diverse town, but I think that this preschool and this part of the community has a lot more diversity,” she said. “Our daughter is fluent in Spanish, and so I think her being able to carry that forward in an environment that’s going to promote it rather than try to get everyone to fit into the English-speaking mold, I think that’s really valuable.”

The post Park City School District opens new pre-K additions appeared first on Park Record.

The first day of the new school year was Tuesday, but Ecker Hill Middle School students and their families weren’t exactly sure what they would be walking into beyond hearing that there would be sections of the school still under construction.

While rumors circulated among the community — and even district employees — the Park City School District didn’t give a lot of details about how school would look in the facility until after students began class Tuesday. 

Administrators at the school similarly remained vague on details, citing district policy that communication with the media must go through the district.

Tuesday morning, district spokesperson Heidi Matthews specified that Wing A of the school, a newly constructed portion with 12 classrooms, was incomplete.

“EHMS leadership developed a contingency plan allowing students to be educated in existing sections of the school if Wing A was not ready for opening day,” she said. “Most impacted classes will be held in rooms available during the educator’s preparation periods, with some shorter periods, like advisory, accommodating larger groups.”

She said the district estimates students will be able to occupy Wing A starting next week on Aug. 26. Before then, workers need to finish data wiring, the intercom system, internet and phone access.

With a lack of information shared even as students packed their backpacks and look up their bus schedules the day before school starts, parents — including Park City School Board member Meredith Reed — were frustrated.

Reed, who has a child attending Ecker Hill, said she’s received no information about the delay and ongoing construction through official district channels and has instead had to rely on vague messages from the school’s staff and parent teacher organization.

On Aug. 14, she received an email from the PTO letting her know sixth grade students would not be able to visit their classrooms or lockers during registration. A monitor cycling through photos of the school visible by the building’s visitor check-in showed Monday that many lockers are surrounded by construction materials and projects. 

On Aug. 16, she received another email from Ecker Hill Principal Garret Rose informing parents that the district’s “construction friends are finishing up the appropriate measures” and thanking them for their patience and understanding.

On Aug. 19 at 8:10 p.m., Superintendent Jill Gildea sent an email to the school’s families stating Wing A was incomplete. The email did not say how the school would operate without access to 12 of its classrooms.

“As a board member, I have not received any communication about that,” Reed said. “It seems that they’re not familiar with the ‘bad news does not improve with age,’ guidance on communication.”

Like many in the community, she’s been left to parse the situation through whispers and stories making their way through the grapevine.

One district faculty member, who spoke to The Park Record on condition of anonymity, had heard 12 classrooms would not be ready for students, and that some kids would not be able to access their lockers.

Matthews has since addressed the locker concern, saying every student has a locker.

There have also been concerns about whether the school passed an inspection last week. Summit County and Park City officials have said they aren’t responsible for the school’s projects due to a state code that specifies certificates of occupancy.

“They missed a deadline they’ve known about for years. Why is that?” the faculty member said. “The district does not have students’ and families’ well being at the forefront.”

The Park Record reached out to the state Board of Education with questions about the building’s inspection and certificate of occupancy and had not heard back by Monday evening.

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In June, Park City School District Board President Andrew Caplan went on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” and announced he and the board intended to renew Superintendent Jill Gildea’s next two-year contract in August.

Now, the Aug. 20 meeting at which a vote would take place is less than a week away, though a clear majority of people who will be on the school board next year have declared they want to be the ones to decide.

Caplan and the two other incumbent board members whose terms end in December have withdrawn their candidacies for reelection. Yet Wendy Crossland and Anne Peters could join with the school board president to form a majority and pass the contract renewal anyway. Neither has spoken publicly about their intent.

Board members Meredith Reed and Nicholas Hill, who will be on the board in 2025, have made their positions clear against voting now, however.

Candidates Eileen Gallagher, Danny Glasser and Susan Goldberg have said they want to make this decision next year as well. Candidate Kathleen Britton, running against Glasser for District 3, hasn’t taken a public position.

Ten days after Caplan’s comments, residents Josh Mann and Karl Persson started a petition on Change.org asking the others on the board not to go along with Caplan’s plans to renew.

While no one besides Caplan has publicly supported renewing Gildea’s contract now, there are arguments to support doing so.

Leadership continuity while the school board turns over three of five positions is one.

Another is giving the superintendent enough time for the district to right the wrongs addressed last spring in a federal civil rights investigative report on incidences of student bullying and flaws in how administrators handled those. The district has taken numerous steps since then with the aim of improvement.

And there is a tight time frame after the new board begins in January. According to the terms of Gildea’s contract, the school board must notify her by Feb. 1, 2025, if her next contract will not automatically continue for two more years that July 1.

A possible wrinkle can be found in state law: Utah Code 53G-4-301 says, “A local school board that appoints a superintendent in accordance with this section may not, on or after May 10, 2011, enter into an employment contract that contains an automatic renewal provision with the superintendent.”

The Utah Attorney General’s Office did not respond by press time to requests for comment about the code.

Since Gildea was hired in 2018, the district was tested through the pandemic and has achieved high academic success. Park City High School was ranked as Utah’s fifth best according to U.S. News & World Report, and the College Board put the district on its honor roll for allowing traditionally underrepresented and low-income students access to Advanced Placement courses.

In recent years it also has faced a slew of issues, including illegally stored toxic dirt in violation of a covenant with the Environmental Protection Agency, 180 cases of student-to-student harassment that the district didn’t entirely resolve to legal standards, and a state audit in fall 2023 showing the district lacked in its assistance to students who qualify for federal assistance.

Gildea has been the highest-paid superintendent in the state each year since she was hired, as well.

When she started in 2018, she was guaranteed a base pay of $235,000 a year before any benefits, which included a place to live within the district and a vehicle, clauses that aren’t uncommon for superintendents in ski towns.

In 2019, she signed a contract with the district that increased the compensation to $246,750. In 2020, that rose to $257,854. In 2021: $263,654. 2022: $269,566. And 2023: $275,631.

Her 2018 contract also stipulated that if it hit its expiration date in 2020 without the board having taken any action to renew, the agreement would end. In the 2023 agreement, it’s stated that if the board doesn’t take any intent to renew and doesn’t notify Gildea that they intend to end their agreement, it is automatically renewed.

As Gildea’s pay has grown, enrollment in the district has steadily shrunk. In the 2018-19 school year, there were 4,816 enrolled students. Last year, there were 4,246.

The district had yet to post an agenda Friday afternoon for the Tuesday, Aug. 20, meeting. It will begin at 3 p.m. at the district building with a work session. Public comment is scheduled for 5 p.m.. Comments can also be emailed to communication@pcschools.us by 2 p.m. on the day of the meeting.

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Park City High School graduates’ walks across the stage don’t differ much as they collect their degrees, shake hands, and smile at photographers immortalizing the moment. But that only belies the unique journey each took to the big moment.

Still, from the 2024 class valedictorian to a one-time dropout who a year ago didn’t believe he had a prayer of graduating, several students who reflected on their experiences had one thing in common: They didn’t do it alone.  

Hale Nickell

Hale Nickell, Park City High School’s valedictorian this year, said he’s been far from a straight-A student, and his GPA is not 4.0.

“I’ve gotten a few B’s, and a few B-minuses,” he said.

Maybe not traditionally perfect, but he looked back at his experiences fondly, and he looked toward his future with high expectations and the prospect of becoming a Maverick-esque pilot after he graduates from the Naval Academy, which he will be attending at the end of the month with plans to study aerospace engineering.

Initially from Denver, Nickell said the outdoors have always been a second home to him and he’s always been a “mountain guy,” as his dad raised him that way. He put on his first pair of skis at 3, and hasn’t missed a winter since.

When his family moved to Park City 14 years ago, that didn’t change.

“I love it here. I love biking in Park City,” he said. “I love everything about the outdoors.”

He was drawn to the school’s mountain bike team, on which he learned a lesson that proved as valuable as anything academic.

“A lot of people think that mountain biking is a solo sport, and in a lot of ways it is, but that’s being disingenuous,” Nickell said. “I’ve seen people who mountain bike only by themselves, and who are only focused on themselves mountain biking, and those people never go very far. The real fun in mountain biking is biking with other people, getting better with other people. … You can go it alone, but you’ll never make it as far as you could with a team.”

The same attitude helped him in other areas. 

In robotics club, he came to rely on his buddy Tavian Robertson, an ace programmer. When Nickell has struggled through AP courses, he said he’s leaned on his friend Alexander Kent, who’s shared a similar class schedule through the years.

“He’s been a really huge part of the reason I’ve been successful in high school,” Nickell said. “He is way smarter than I am. I want to make that clear. He has helped me at every step of the way.”

While Nickell worked hard to become the valedictorian in an accomplished graduating class, he’s not the only student who’s given his all. Other students faced social, educational or mental health challenges to find themselves wearing a graduation cap.

Q Atkinson

Q Atkinson felt out of place when he moved to Park City three years ago. While he feels he’s gotten used to it, things were a bit foreign for him when he arrived from Salt Lake City.

“Just a lot of rich kids I had never really been around,” he said. “It’s kind of hard.”

He said his stepmom and stepsister took him under their wing in hopes of setting him up with better opportunities. He likes video games, hanging out, working out and — more recently — training for the U.S. Army, in which he’s enlisted.

He plans to enroll in the University of Utah online while he’s deployed in New York, and he wants to become an Army Ranger and pursue a degree in zoology.

His path to graduation was not a traditional one, and it certainly wasn’t easy.

“I dropped out my ninth-grade year because I didn’t really want to do school anymore,” Atkinson said.

Experiences from his time in Salt Lake had left him with a bitter taste for education.

Abandoning school wasn’t the answer, however.

“It’s not fun. You have nothing to do,” Atkinson said. “All your friends are either in school when you’re dropped out and you’ve got to wait for them to get out of school to hang out, or your parents are upset because you don’t have go to go school anymore.”

His stepmom and Park City High School counselor Dara Smith helped him navigate the Board of Education and enroll in his senior year.

“No one thought I was going to graduate,” Atkinson said. “Then about halfway through my senior year, about third and fourth quarters, is when I really stepped my game up and worked on myself.”

He learned he needed a diploma to join the military, and he didn’t want to stand in his own way. He said he saw the way his life was going — a future of eight-hour-a-day jobs he wouldn’t enjoy and dead ends.

“I didn’t want to end up like that,” he said.

With the help of the Park City Learning Center and other programs, he was able to catch up.

“Ended up getting my shit together,” he said. 

He may have lost his February break to homework, his grades may not be perfect, and he may not have his cap and gown out of reluctance to pay his school fees, but he did it. He said he’s grateful to his friends and family as well as Park City education programs supporting him.

Jessica Loya

From the U.S. Department of Education’s report on peer harassment in the Park City School District to the state Legislature’s bills targeting programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in K-12 schools, Park City High School graduate and Latinos in Action President Jessica Loya has seen a lot of concerning things in her senior year.

Still, she described her overall educational experience in the district as positive.

“It’s definitely not been a straight line. Of course, I’ve had to ask for help when I needed it academically or seek it emotionally from friends or family that supported me,” she said. “I’m really grateful for a lot of different programs and community organizations that were always there for me. … There’s just so many that I can’t name them all.”

She said that when she was younger, she benefited from Park City Education Foundation’s Youth United, previously named the Solomon Fund, and has continued to appreciate the organization’s work as an intern and volunteer.

As a second-generation immigrant, Loya said her involvement in student programs has been helpful by  allowing her and her fellow students spaces where they felt safe.

“It’s places where we’re able to ask questions and learn things like how to advocate for ourselves outside of the classroom as well and kind of just seek that extra guidance that sometimes first-generation students need, whether it’s because their parents don’t understand the school system in the U.S. as much, so it’s really nice to have those adults around or just classmates that are going through the same things.”

Loya also served on the district’s equity committee, though she said they faced struggles due to recent legislation “which made some of the conversations a bit more difficult to have.”

“I think they have a long way ways to go, but they’re building the action plan setting those goals for when things will be accomplished,” she said about the district.

In addressing her concerns with the current state of the programs that have helped her and the threats they and the students they help face, Loya said the district can make it clear to students how they can report situations that make them feel unsafe.

The school district also is working to resolve issues raised in the Office of Civil Rights report in March.

“The reporting system needs to be really clear and concise and consistent around the school district so that as students get older they know what the process is,” she said. “And they also know that there will be follow-through and consequences when things happen.”

While she said the school district has a bigger impact on students’ lives, state legislators can help by removing legal barriers on programs meant to help minority students.

Loya has yet to declare a major, but she’s headed for the University of Utah, where she’s considering pursuing international studies and business.

“I kind of want to do something where I can utilize my strengths in language,” she said.

Jake Diamond

Jake Diamond is a personal testament of what addressing an individual student’s needs can mean.

“I always wasn’t the brightest in school,” Diamond said. “I’d goof around a lot, and I’d have a hard time focusing, and I wouldn’t get along with teachers very well.”

Things didn’t change for him after he progressed through elementary and middle school, and he started his time in Park City High School with the same issues. He said they became worse as he was older and his teachers expected more maturity.

“I feel like I was just acting like I was a younger kid,” Diamond said. “They don’t want to put up with me.”

That’s when he remembered Park City High School Assistant Principal and 504 coordinator Jamie Weekes getting involved. 

“She would pull me out of class a bunch,” Diamond said. “Eventually, she introduced this program called a 504 program.”

Diamond explained that 504 plans are different accommodation levels meant to help students whose physical or mental health constitutes a need for different kinds of help than other students might receive. 

He started getting extra time on his assignments and tests, and his entire school experience changed.

“It gave me more confidence. I didn’t feel like I felt very rushed,” Diamond said. “I wanted to take my time. It felt like I could take my time on these tests now.”

He said teachers who once found him difficult noted the change. The fortitude Diamond showed as a varsity baseball player began to show in the classroom.

Now, not only is he graduating, but he’s going to what he said is one of his “dream colleges.”

“I’m going to (Texas Christian University),” he said. “I honestly never thought I’d get in in a million years.”

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