This year, students at Park City High School are required to read "Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI" by Ryan Smithson. The book is an account of his experience serving in Iraq after high school. Billow said PCHS teacher Kelly Yeates and Melissa Nikolai chose the book to correlate with the English curriculum. She said because Smithson is a younger author, students might feel more comfortable approaching him and asking questions. Treasure Mountain Junior High School students and mature Ecker Hill Middle School students are encouraged to read the book.

When the program first started, Arsht applied for a grant from the PCEF in order to get the program running. Billow said this will be the first year the Foundation will fund the entire program and they hope to continue it in the future.

"It morphed from a great teacher having a great idea then turning it into a program that affected every student at the high school and it was a perfect fit with the site grant idea," Billow said.

Smithson plans to visit Park City in September to meet with high school students and will attend a community event held on Sept. 5, at the Eccles Center. Community members will be welcome to attend.

"We do this in conjunction with the English department at the high school so they can choose what will be interesting to the most students," she said. "Our community invests a lot into education and everyone benefits from having a strong education system and this is a way for us to give back to the community."

According to Billow, the program is also a good way to bring students and community members together.

"Everyone can read this book and then come to the Author-in-Residence talk and then we'll have a question-and-answer forum," she said. "All the students have something to relate to and every kid can read it and then they can talk about it. It's a nice conversation and unites the community."

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"The Board wants to create sustainability over the next five-year horizon. The $4 million is the amount that would be necessary to get to that 5th year and still have the district in compliance with the auditor's recommendation for reserve," Hauber said, adding that from the overall $42.8 million budget, the auditor recommends not dropping below about $7.1 million, in order to cover two months of expenditures if needed.

The board levy for $4 million on a $500,000 primary home would cost $110. The cost is about $22 per $100,000. The cost for a second homeowner and business is $201, which is a little more than $40 per $100,000.

According to Park City School Board member Michael Boyle, this will impact the whole community. Board members discussed a $5 million property tax increase, but decided the tax payer increase would be too much.

"I personally think $5 million is too much, I would rather do $4 million," Boyle said. "The intent is to hold a Truth in Taxation every year to explain what we're doing. We can always lower taxes and we're open to reducing taxes."

In 2005, the average primary homeowner paid the school district about $1,600. In 2011, property taxes paid to the district dropped to $1,200, which Boyle said has to do with the interest paid on bonds. With the $4 million dollar tax increase, the average primary homeowner will pay the school district about $1,400 annually.

Board members tentatively approved a budget of $46 million, but are only planning on budgeting $42.8 million with the rest going into the reserve fund. That money will be budgeted out over the next five years, according to Boyle, who said the school district also set aside $1 million for employee negotiations starting in 2013. There will be no compensation increases for school district employees this year, he said.

Park City School Board member Lisa Kirchenheiter said the property tax increase is a big chunk of change for some people.

"It's easy to say lets to $5 million lets do $4 million. I'm just trying to put that in perspective with my family. It's a load of money and I would feel more comfortable with the $4 million," she said.

In addition to the property tax increase, the school district is also taking recommendations from Education Management Solutions, the company that started auditing the district office about three months ago.

According to Education Management Solutions auditor George Mathes, the objective was to look at staffing requirements to evaluate the positions required to run a district with about 4,400 students.

"It's always good to take a look internally," Mathes said. "We were here for a total of three times starting in April and we interviewed a total of 52 individuals in the district office for about an hour at least. Our findings came down to four recommendations."

EMS recommended that the school district consolidate a few positions, establish new positions, realign departments and realign programs.

"There were areas in this building that we felt were not operating as a team with the interest of the children and for the Park City School District. Some of these positions we've realigned," Mathes said.

According to Park City School District Superintendent Ray Timothy, the school district office will move forward with the recommendations.

"I support the recommendations and it seems to align things in a more logical manner. I think they pointed out some weaknesses that we have as far as streamlining and becoming more efficient," Timothy said. "We are going to move forward and those changes will be reflected throughout the summer."

Another discussion item includes licensed employee negotiations, according to Park City School District Director of Human Recourses Tim McConnell, who said they are making progress. Negotiation teams have agreed to work toward a multi-year approach so they aren't negotiating every year.

"I think we've had some really positive discussion this far," McConnell said. "The multi-year agreement is different. Whether or not it's improved overall I think time will have to tell with that. I think part of the concept behind it is to not always feel like we're negotiating."

The negotiation team representing the school district includes Timothy, McConnell, and Trailside Elementary Principal Kathy Einhorn. Teachers representing the Park City Education Association include PCEA co-president Ed Mulick, former PCEA president Heidi Matthews and Treasure Mountain Junior High School teacher Susan Graves-Henneman.

Negotiation teams are trying to stay within a set of interests that align with both parties' views. McConnell said long-range sustainability, fiscal responsibility, focusing on student learning and maintaining excellence are areas the teams refer back to.

"Even though we are in discussions on salary and insurance and professional development, we try to keep those values at the center in how we make those decisions," he said.

The next school board work session is scheduled August 7. A Truth in Taxation hearing will be scheduled for sometime at the end of August. For more information regarding the budget visit www.pcschools.us .

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"The $4 million is the amount that would be necessary to get to that 5th year and still have the district in compliance with the auditor's recommendation for reserve," Hauber said, adding that from the overall $42.8 million budget, the auditor recommends that reserves not drop below about $7.1 million, in order to cover two months of expenditures if needed.

The annual cost of the increase to taxpayers would amount to about $110 on a typical $500,000 primary home or about $22 per $100,000 of assessed valuation. The tax increase for a business owner would be little more than $40 per $100,000.

According to Park City School Board member Michael Boyle, this will impact the whole community. Board members discussed a $5 million property tax increase, but decided the the additional assessement would be a burden for local taxpayers.

"I personally think $5 million is too much, I would rather do $4 million," Boyle said. "The intent is to hold a Truth in Taxation every year to explain what we're doing. We can always lower (taxes)."

Park City School Board member Lisa Kirchenheiter said the increase will be significant for a lot of people.

"It's easy to say let's o $5 million let's do $4 million. I'm just trying to put that in perspective with my family. It's a load of money and I would feel more comfortable with the $4 million," she said.

The next school board work session is scheduled August 7. For more information regarding the budget visit www.pcschools.us .

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According to Hodson, Park City Community Education and the Park City School District have partnered with the library to encourage students in the Spanish dual-immersion programs, and students who are non-native English speakers to attend the events. She said the library will also be working on getting more books in French for students in the French dual-immersion program.

"We encourage people that are in the dual-immersion programs to come and were also working with St. Mary's Church to do an informational night for Latinos," she said, "You're learning the language and you can come listen to the story or watch a movie and it's good to have that practice and that outlet."

The library will also start a children's program at McPolin Elementary School on June 21 through July 19. The story times are scheduled Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Hodson said one reason she picked the elementary school is because of the Spanish population in the area.

"We'll have the Bookmobile there sometimes and the stories we will be reading are in English, but they have a lot of the Spanish culture," she said. "We want them to be able to hold on to that culture and then adapt to new cultures."

According to Hodson, most of the Latino community isn't familiar with the library, and it's a new idea that they can check out books for free. The library will also be starting an Adult Literacy program, Hodson said, adding that they partnered with the Utah State Library and are working on applying for grants.

She said the program will not only help Latinos earn high school diplomas, but it will also teach students computer skills. The requirement is about 100 hours of course work, so students come in about five hours a week and do computer exercises. Hodson said by the end of the course, students show significant improvement in reading and writing.

The library, school district and Park City Community Education will also offer beginner, intermediate and advance English courses. Hodson said dividing the students into three categories will add to class proficiency.

Although the program focuses on native Spanish-speakers, students can also attend to practice Spanish. One of the program's goals is to help Latinos learn to read and write in their own language, Hodson said, adding that this will make learning English easier.

Hodson is also working on a Family Literacy Program, which will help Latinos set up a bank account, take out a loan, fill out a job application, or make an appointment with their child's school teacher.

"Learning to navigate in the local society is important and helps them feel like contributing citizens in the community. We want to give them a voice and encourage them to participate in the community, which is what they want too," she said.

The programs are open to anyone, but Hodson said most students are between the ages of 20 and 60. All the courses and programs are free. For more information contact Daisy Hodson at (435) 615-3948.

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Britton said last year they served more than 3,300 breakfasts and 4,400 lunches, and the program is off to a strong start this year. The first breakfast, on June 18, fed about 80 kids, and then more than 150 kids for lunch. The meals are served at McPolin Elementary School, Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

A lot of siblings and summer camp participants around the school district attend regularly, Britton said, adding that one thing they have changed over the years is offering more fresh fruit and vegetables.

"Today we had fresh strawberries for the kids at lunch and then we'll have fresh grapefruit tomorrow," she said. On Tuesday, the students were offered a yogurt parfait with fruit and breakfast quesadilla. The kids could also get a fresh fruit cup and milk.

According to Britton, there is a mixed demographic that participates in the program, but more Latinos attend regularly. In order to get the program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, she said they have to offer the meals in an area where at least 50 percent of the population qualifies for free and reduced lunches.

For more information regarding the Summer Food Program contact Kathleen Britton at (435) 615-0224.

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A budget hearing will be held Thursday to finalize the 2012 budget and approve a tentative 2013 budget," Bigelow said. "Most everything is in place. Revenues are going to be down just a little bit and so to balance the budget we will be using a little bit of the reserves from last year. If we don't start generating more revenue we'll have some major decisions in front of us in the next few years."

South Summit's overall budget, including employee salaries and benefits is about $17 million. Classified and licensed employee negotiations are settled, according to Bigelow, who said the school board agreed to fund step and lane increases that appropriately corresponds to a 1.8 percent increase in salary depending on how many years an employee has worked for the district, and if the employee has advanced degrees. In South Summit, a newly hired licensed employee with a bachelor's degree earns about $36,000 for a nine-month contract.

One thing Bigelow said the school district had to absorb this year is an increased cost in Social Security and the Utah State Retirement plan, which is now 27.91 percent. Bigelow said that about 25 percent of employees' salaries go toward retirement.

"That's a huge obligation for the district. The Utah retirement system had a 1.9 percent increase that the district is required to pay all our employees," he said, adding that this will cost the district an additional $150,000.

The cost of health insurance also increased 6.5 percent. The general fund, which the school district uses to compensate its teachers, has a little more than $11 million in expenses for the 2012-2013 school year, Bigelow said, adding that 86 percent of that goes toward employee salary and benefits.

During the school board meeting last week, Board members approved the hiring of Leticia Heredia for the Spanish dual-immersion program that will be implemented in first-grade next year. Bigelow said the goal is to add a grade each year.

The school district will also add a second full-day kindergarten class on a need-basis. Students' pre-test scores indicated that the children would need some extra help to prepare for first grade.

The school district also plans to keep an eye on the Silver Creek Village development near Home Depot, which lies within South Summit School District boundaries. The development will include about 1,290 residential units, including single-family homes, condos, apartments, lofts, and town homes, according to Bigelow, who said they may have to build another school depending on the number of families that move into the area. Construction on Silver Creek Village is scheduled to begin this year and will take several years to complete.

"Eventually I would see that we would have to put a school over in that area, which would be a lot of added expense. We don't have a good feel of when that school will take place, we just have to monitor what those demographics turn out to be," he said.

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The next school board meeting is scheduled June 19. It seems that Board members have realized that a property tax increase is needed to balance the school district's budget. Now the question is, by how much? In the most recent board meeting, members talked about what the budget would look like with a $4 million property tax increase.

Increasing property taxes by a larger number would allow the school district to balance its budget for several years, including the added cost of employee negotiations. A property tax increase is the main discussion item on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

Earlier this year, the Board assigned Park City School District Superintendent Ray Timothy the task of coming up with $5 million in recommended budget cuts. Timothy was able to recommend $4.3 million in cost savings to the district, but advised the Board not to make further cuts to protect the caliber of education in the school district.

Timothy calculated $1.3 million in savings through a revised health insurance plan, but according to Park City School District Business Administrator Todd Hauber, this might not happen. Hauber said they will meet with the school district's insurance provider before Tuesday's meeting to discuss options for a new health insurance policy and potential savings.

Retirement and health cost increases drive up operating costs and therefore lower the savings proposed, he said, adding that the school district is focusing on a multi-year budget, which will project revenues and expenditures over the course of five years.

The school district has created a link on its website for community members to submit questions. There is also a "do-it-yourself" budget available on the website so community members can see what their property taxes might look like depending on the amount of the tax increase. Visit www.pcschools.us for more information.

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"Both exams consisted of 30 multiple-choice problems that involved not only math calculation but reasoning and logic as well. No single question is simply computation but rather, involves careful detailed thought," Hall said in a press release. There are two exams, a senior exam for upper classmen, and a junior exam for younger students.

According to Park City High School junior Zac Mimlitz, he's participated in the competition for three years. He said this exam was the easiest of three, but taking AP calculus this year might have helped.

"I didn't really study too much independently, but I'm pretty ahead in math and so I just went from that," Mimlitz said. "It's really fun and a good way to test yourself. It's not taking a standard math test like you would in class. It's mostly critical thinking and it's a lot harder."

The top scorers at the competition include Park City High School students Andrew Method, Blake Wiehe, Sam Scudder, Nigel Long, Zac Mimlitz and Riley Runburg.

PCHS first place Utah State Math Competition students

Seniors

Anne Fosburg

Audrey Harnagel

Hannah Hall

Laura Kelley

Samantha Kern

Andrew Method

Sam Scudder

Steve Shafsholt

Forest Sheehan

Blake Wiehe

Juniors

Zac Jackson

John Lilquist

Jordan Lindsay

Nigel Long

Zac Mimlitz

Matt Parsons

Jack Runburg

Riley Runburg

Sophomores

Josh Boone

Orville Clarke

Will Griffith

Austin Hastings

Ellie Karr

Zach Laufer

Rea Lee

Will McDonald

Emily VanLuven

Freshmen

Kayla Harden

Max Johansen

Katie Kelley

Sam Kottler

Charlie Martz

Will Radovan

Nate Rosenblum

Adam Snyder

Sara Tabin

8th-graders

Lindsey Adams

Jamie Antinori

Charlie Barth

Jackson Burton

Eugene Kneller

Sam Kuennen

Emma Louden

Parker Shea

Allison Vernon

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Second-grade teachers Jose Ardanaz and Stacey Harris decided to get involved in the challenge earlier this year. Harris said each student received a $50 gift card for Discovery Education merchandise, and the teachers get a video camera and a one-year membership to the National Science Teachers Association.

Harris entered into the premier national environmental sustainability category for students in kindergarten through 12th-grade and the students started getting involved in "Recycling in the Cafeteria," a program the school implemented earlier this year. The students voted to be called "Team Earth Lovers" for the Challenge, and eventually, this turned into a school-wide initiative and more students joined the Junior Green Team.

The Recycling in the Cafeteria program started in order to reduce the amount of waste being thrown away during lunch. The school was able to reduce its lunchtime waste by 300 pounds, according to Parley's Park Green Team Leader Tania McIntyre, who said the program teaches students how to recycle.

McIntyre said Whole Foods donated recycling bins to the school so they could start the project and then Ardanaz and Harris decided to piggy-back off the recycling program for the Siemens Challenge.

"It became clear that this could be a challenge that second graders could do and then teach the older kids as well," Harris said. "We had language learners and special-ed kids. They can all get a hands-on experience and they can all feel good about it. We will carry this on and hopefully it will be a part of our school culture."

A key component to the recycling program and receiving money from the Challenge is the parent volunteers, according to McIntyre who said the program wouldn't have been that successful without the parents and the kids. She said Curb-It Recycling Director Shirin Spangenberg also came to the school and showed students what to separate into each bin and Parley's Park custodians helped organize the bins in the cafeteria.

"This is teaching students recycling but its teaching them life lessons. They are learning at a young age that this is normal and this is going to be a part of their every day life," she said. "We've touched every student, and everyone can recycle and the kids felt like they were finally needed and making a difference. These kids are learning to take responsibility."

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