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PCSD takes next step toward grade realignment

Students in the Park City School District are another step closer to changing schools sooner than anticipated.

Superintendent Ember Conley confirmed in an email that she planned to recommend grade realignment to the Board of Education in its public meeting Tuesday evening. The meeting was held after press time.

Under realignment, elementary schools would move from holding preschool through fifth grade to housing preschool through fourth grade. An upper elementary school would house fifth and sixth grades, with a middle school holding seventh and eighth. Park City High School would contain grades nine through 12. Currently the high school holds grades 10 through 12.

The district in the past has discussed implementing grade realignment in time for the 2016-2017 school year.

The School Board will vote on the issue in a future meeting.

The district and its Master Planning Committee have been considering the change for months. Moe Hickey, a member of the School Board and the Master Planning Committee, said finalizing grade realignment is an important step in the district’s plans to potentially replace the aging Treasure Mountain Junior High.

Once the district’s grade structure is settled, the Master Planning Committee can focus on how best to accommodate that structure with the potential construction of a new building.

"Grade realignment should inform master planning," Hickey said. "Master planning shouldn’t dictate grade realignment. I look at grade realignment as an administrative decision based on the needs of the students.

"Once the Master Planning Committee knows the direction the district wants to go in terms of grade realignment and needs, then we can actually start working on what that means in terms of physical structures. That’s a key step," he added.

The district in recent weeks has held a number of community forums to inform the public about the pros and cons of realignment. It has also sought input from teachers and staff. Hickey said there have been some concerns, but the response has been largely in favor of realignment.

"I’ve heard very minimally from people concerned with the grade realignment," he said. "More often than not, what I’ve heard is very positive."

The Master Planning Committee is still in the process of figuring out what option would be best for a replacement of Treasure Mountain Junior High. It has not come to a decision as to where a new school would be placed, or which grades the school would serve.

Regardless of what the Master Planning Committee decides, the School Board will still need to approve any action. Hickey said the plan is for the Committee to issue a recommendation to the Board in time for it to vote in June about whether to issue a public bond to fund a new building.

"We don’t have to have it by June, but I think we’d like to have it by June," he said. "I think we can meet all those timelines."

Hickey said several public forums and town hall meetings would then be held to help determine the details included in the bond, which would be voted on in a public election in November.

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