The Park City School District late last week ceased work on two construction projects on Kearns Boulevard, a decision that came nearly one month after a separate stop work order was issued at another academic building by Summit County officials.
Utah State School Board of Education Superintendent Dr. Sydnee Dickson recommended the School District pause construction at Park City High School and McPolin Elementary School until the appropriate paperwork is submitted to the Utah State Board of Education, or USBE, which has control and supervision over public education in the state. The School District agreed.
“We know the profound trust we hold – our community’s children’s education and your taxpayer dollars – and we are committed to working with local, county, and state governments to secure the necessary paperwork and permissions to continue the facilities expansions and upgrades that are so important for our students, families, employees and community to continue to thrive,” Mike Tanner, the School District’s chief operating officer and the person overseeing construction, said in an interview. “We look forward to celebrating with our community as we make the future of learning a reality as the projects are completed in the coming years.”
Normally, the state board issues a project number for work within the School District before construction starts, which happens after the organization receives the necessary documentation. District administrators are also required to obtain documentation through City Hall or the County Courthouse to follow building procedures. The School District must comply with all applicable building codes and obtaining paperwork such as reviews from a county health department and state fire marshal to ensure minimum requirements are met. The financial operations department of the USBE is tasked with helping school districts design, plan, build and maintain facilities.
However, the School District began work at the high school and McPolin Elementary before a project number was issued. A project number cannot be provided until a pre-construction checklist is completed. School District administrators said their previous experiences working with the USBE allowed some construction to start in “good faith” while paperwork is submitted to the state for review. There has been a tolerance and precedent in the past for projects to start without a number assigned, they said.
Tanner said contractors are working across the state in school districts on ongoing projects that seem to be running concurrently with the state paperwork process, but an apparent backlog has started since the pandemic and with personnel shifts in receiving a project number.
The School District commissioned a design-build project, which is often used with municipal or school projects for a faster process and to ensure all local and state requirements are met. Tanner said the Park City School District began collaborating with City Hall, the county and the state in March and anticipated some construction could begin as the paperwork was processed.
“Typically, the state would allow a project to start construction as long as the work did not include structural building elements,” he said. “Due to the challenging completion schedule, starting in March 2022, we collaborated with the construction department at the state before proceeding with non-structural work such as mobilization, demolition, grading, parking lot work, fencing, etc. The plan was to proceed with a limited amount of work, consistent with traditional practice, as the drawings and code reviews were being finalized. We relied on past practices of simultaneously beginning preparation work while seeking permits.”
The issue arose when the state became concerned about local liability for the School District should any mishap occur without a project number on file, Tanner said.
Scott Jones, the USBE deputy superintendent of operations, was unavailable for an interview.
“The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) will have no comment on the Park City School District projects as the situation is still evolving,” Mark Peterson, the USBE public relations director, said in an email to The Park Record. “The state board is working with Park City School District to get a plan in place to get the projects back on track.”
School District administrators voluntarily stopped work on Aug. 19 to ensure all appropriate permissions are received and the district is in compliance moving forward. In the future, Tanner said, the School District may choose to revert to the more traditional design-bid-build process to meet the approval system required by local governments and the state.
“When a community and school district build, it is likely that the project will serve the community’s children for 50-plus years, and the focus is ensuring that all aspects of the project receive all local and state approvals,” Tanner said.
Construction at the high school and McPolin Elementary will resume once the School District receives clearance. Voters last November overwhelmingly approved a $79.2 million school improvement bond, which represents the cost of projects at the high school as well as Jeremy Ranch and McPolin elementary schools.
Pat Putt, the county’s community development director, in a separate incident ordered the School District to stop work at Jeremy Ranch Elementary School in July.
County employees noticed construction happening at the school, checked the Planning and Zoning Department records and found none, Putt said. The School District failed to obtain a master planned development and conditional-use permit, which are required for the expansion. Several other building codes were violated, too.
District administrators have cited differing views as the reason why they did not obtain the necessary permits. Tanner said the projects are additions to existing facilities that have stood for decades without any change in use.
“Do they require a permit from the county? Well, actually they do. That comes right out of state code – there’s no ambiguity in it. That requirement to have that development permit from the county is actually listed on the state’s requirements. That’s located on the state’s pre-construction checklist,” Putt said.
He formally notified the School District that all development must stop. The order was later amended to allow for a sewer line extension. The county and School District were also discussing amending the stop work order to permit construction on the bus turnaround and temporary parking area, Putt said, but the agreement had not been signed by Monday.
The Snyderville Basin Planning Commission on Tuesday was scheduled to consider granting a conditional-use permit. A Planning Department staff report for the meeting recommended the Planning Commission approve the proposed Jeremy Ranch expansion.
“The original stop work order stays in place,” Putt said. “Then, after [Tuesday] night, hopefully, we can get a conditional-use permit approved by the Planning Commission. They will be able to move forward provided they meet any necessary conditions that come out of that hearing.”
He concluded, “They started. We stopped them. And they’ve come in through the application process and we’ll hopefully take care of it [Tuesday] night.”
Clarification: This article was updated to clarify the checklist and construction process.