Who’s “we?” That’s the message members of the Park City School Board who will serve next year and candidates have for board President Andrew Caplan.
It’s the reason for a citizen petition asking the rest of the board not to go along with his declaration during a KPCW radio interview June 20 that the board planned to renew Superintendent Jill Gildea’s contract this year, as soon as August, while a current majority still holds office. The district has until Feb. 1, 2025, to inform her if her next contract will not automatically continue for two more years that July 1.
Is the “we” the three incumbents who each have quit their campaigns for reelection but plan to finish their terms through the rest of 2024? Board Vice President Wendy Crossland and board member Anne Peters have not spoken publicly about their positions on the question.
It is most certainly not board members Nick Hill or Merideth Reed, who along with three of the four challengers for the three open seats have stated plainly their belief the next board should make that decision.
But a majority of members who won’t be on the five-person board in 2025 could push through the renewal of the two-year contract approved for Gildea last summer.
On June 30, Josh Mann and Karl Persson started a Change.org petition asking the current board not to do that. The petition argues that the next board should decide and outlines concerns with Gildea’s performance. As of noon Friday, 322 people had signed the petition.
Hill said renewing the contract now is unnecessary.
“I don’t share the board president’s view that it would be impossible for the new board to handle this in the new year,” Hill said. “Regardless of the outcome of the race that is still to be decided, I’m certain the incoming board will be smart, capable and well prepared for the nature of the job they are walking into.”
Reed was even more direct.
“Our community has made it very clear that they want new leadership and direction in this district,” she said. “We have candidates for the board who are intelligent, thoughtful and very concerned about the future of the district.”
“I believe it is incumbent on us as a board, in conjunction with the district office, to ensure when these transitions happen that newly elected board members have the information they need in order to hit the ground running in January,” Hill added.
The candidates running for board positions, at least the three of the four of them who responded to questions, said that if elected they will be capable of doing their jobs, including deciding on the superintendent when they take office at the beginning of the new year.
“I’m running to represent District 2 and the entire school district community. That community is speaking loudly against the rushed approach proposed on KPCW,” said candidate Eileen Gallagher. “I just don’t see a need to rush this decision.”
The best course of action would be to allow the incoming board to make the decision based on Gildea’s performance and board deliberation, she said.
Susan Goldberg, running to represent District 1, was excited to see how much the community cares about the issue in the form of a growing number of online signatures.
“I agree with them,” she said. “Decisions shouldn’t be made until the new board chair and the new board members come together and are able to have reasonable conversations about this.”
She doesn’t believe the choice should be left to Caplan and incumbents who won’t be around next year.
District 3 candidate Danny Glasser said he didn’t fully understand the reasoning behind the rush, though he has an idea about it.
“I expect that the current board knows that the superintendent’s future with the district is not widely agreed upon amongst the community as a whole,” he said. “This is especially true if the school board as a whole is not unanimous about the decision.”
None of the candidates indicated how they would vote on the contract if they were elected. Gallagher declined to comment on that, and Glasser and Goldberg said they would consider their votes.
Glasser’s competitor, Kathleen Britton, did not respond to questions by deadline Friday.
The petition doesn’t pull punches when outlining why waiting for a new board, one with a president who didn’t publicly announce how a vote would go before it’s taken, should be considering renewal of the contract for the superintendent who began with the district in 2018.
In recent years, the federal government has investigated student-to-student harassment within Park City schools and decided the district didn’t do enough, the state has audited the district’s schools and found the district didn’t do enough for groups of kids who qualify for assistance, and the district violated a covenant with the Environmental Protection Agency by piling toxic dirt outside a middle school.
The district also has scored academically among the top few in Utah and among the top 5% in the country each year.
The petition noted enrollment has declined by nearly 20% in her tenure and she’s the highest paid school district superintendent in the state at $412,201 in 2023, according to transparent.utah.gov, along with the district providing her a home and vehicle for as long as she’s superintendent.
On KPCW’s “Local News Hour,” Caplan raved about her and Business Administrator Randy Upton’s performances.
“As a board, we think that Jill and Randy are both doing a great job, and fully intend on renewing their contracts, and hope that they stay as long as they’re willing to be stewards of education in this community,” he said.
The current contract, which was last renewed and signed in June 2023, expires June 30, 2025, and automatically renews for two more years unless the board notifies her by Feb. 1, 2025, that it will not renew the contract.
Caplan said he doesn’t believe new board members who would start in their positions in January would be able to adequately evaluate Gildea’s performance before the Feb. 1 deadline when they could vote to end her contract.
He and Crossland ended their campaigns for reelection within a few days of each other in early May, and Peters quit her race last week.