Voters will fill four out of seven seats on the Tooele County School Board in this fall’s general election.
The School Board District 1 incumbent, retired teacher Kathy Taylor, has no opponent as she seeks a second term. Incumbent board members Julia Holt (District 2), Scott Bryan (District 3) and Maresa Manzione (District 4) each have an opponent in the general election.
Their opponents are, respectively, Katie Redmond, Chad Ellis and Matthew Rowley.
The Tooele Transcript Bulletin presented six questions to all of the candidates in the school board races. Each candidate was allowed a maximum of 150 words per answer. The answers for District 2 and 3 candidates appear below in alphabetical order. Answers for the District 4 race will appear in next Tuesday’s edition.
School Board District 2 covers southeast and south central Tooele City. District 3 covers northeast Tooele City and Pine Canyon.
School Board District 2
1. Who are you?
Julia Holt: My husband and I have lived in Tooele for 27 years and have enjoyed raising our seven children here. All my children graduated from Tooele High and from college as well. The training from my math education degree has helped me immensely as I have served on the school board for the past 16 years. I’ve also gained invaluable experience by developing relationships with teachers and principals, participating in professional development workshops, and attending conferences locally and nationally. I’ve worked on the PTA, community councils, and volunteered in many classrooms. I also serve on the USU advisory board, and am a member of the Tooele Civic League. I love being involved with education as I feel it is one of the most important things we can provide for our children.
Katie Redmond: I am running for the Tooele County Board of Education in District 2. I have been a resident of Tooele for over 20 years. My husband, Doug, and I have been married since 1994. We have four children and our oldest graduated from Tooele High School this year. I have spent the past five and one half years as a member of the board of trustees for Excelsior Academy. As head of the finance committee, I have helped to ensure that funds are used appropriately and judiciously. I feel that it is important to be fiscally conservative with the tax funds of the school. Prior to Excelsior Academy, I had been involved with the PTA organization at East Elementary School. I am active in my church and have also served the community for four years as a volunteer Cubmaster for the Boy Scouts of America.
2. What would you like to accomplish as a board member over the next four years?
Holt: Over the next four years as a board member my first priority would be student achievement. Since I’ve been on the board, I’ve been instrumental in implementing strategies. These include hiring instructional coaches in all of the elementary schools, implementing collaboration time for teachers, focusing on data-driven instruction, and scheduling for remediation time. Teacher compensation goes hand in hand with student achievement because we need to be able to attract and retain extraordinary teachers. Keeping our budget aligned with our goals is essential. Also, technology needs to be upgraded and be ubiquitous in the classroom, available for both teachers and students, to provide the setting for optimal learning.
Redmond: If elected to the Tooele County School Board, I would like to assist and serve in any area where I can help. I have experience on finance, special education and academic school board committees. I am running for this position because I want to serve the community and help in the education of children. I do not have a problem with the Tooele County School Board or a personal agenda, rather I want to do what I can to help Tooele County Schools excel.
3. What is your current assessment of Tooele County School District’s academic performance? How did you arrive at your assessment? As a board member how can you help increase academic performance?
Holt: Assessing academic performance is a never-ending work in progress. We are always trying to analyze and evaluate data to improve and implement new strategies. Every school is now graded by the state, which is one form of assessing our performance. Several of our schools received better grades this year than last year. The important issue is to use the data that testing provides to improve instruction. My focus is to continue in the upward trajectory in student learning and academic achievement.
Redmond: I have been actively involved with Excelsior Academy’s academic performance where this year the school achieved an A letter grade from the state. I have also attended Tooele County School Board meetings where the academic performance of the school district was reviewed and discussed. The Tooele County School District’s academic performance wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. I understand the letter grades were changed last minute from the state and therefore made it more difficult to receive a higher letter grade. Although the school district has had improvements that were not necessarily reflected in the letter grades, I feel that we, as a county, can do better. With the proper materials and collaborations and concentrated effort of parents, teachers and students, we can all work to improve academic performance district wide.
4. The school district purchased property in Overlake for a future high school and in Stansbury Park for a future junior high school. Should the school district continue in this direction? Do you have any recommendations to tweak or update the facilities plan?
Holt: After reviewing years of data in several areas, from birth rate to population growth models, Tooele District’s 2014-2024 Facilities/Capital Management plan was created. It is an effective plan and will be evaluated and adjusted if a need arises (e.g. county demographics change drastically). Buying land now is a great decision and good investment. When we built Stansbury High, having the land already in our possession made it possible to allocate more resources to the building. As a board, we are being proactive rather than reactive to growth and budgeting.
Redmond: I understand that the properties in Overlake and Stansbury Park were purchased because of the anticipated growth in these communities. As our county continues to grow, we need these and perhaps other properties for accommodating and educating the increase of additional students. It is important to look at the short term and long term growth of the county. I feel that we need to frequently reassess the growth and needs of the county and as needed to update the plan regularly.
5. Should the school board continue to keep the tax rate flat even when the certified rate drops?
Holt: I would continue to support keeping the property tax at the current rate. The state of Utah spends the least amount of money per student on education out of all 50 states. Tooele is one of the lowest counties in the state on per-pupil spending. Until Tooele is able to build up a better tax base, we need to keep the tax rate constant. We have made cuts in the budget and we can’t afford to cut more programs without negatively impacting student learning. By keeping the property tax constant, we avoid drastic variances where one big year must be used to make up for small declines in the previous years, as with the certified tax rate.
Redmond: School districts rely heavily on taxes to fund the school system. I was recently at the Tooele School District’s Board meeting when several county residents voiced their concerns about the large increase in assessed property tax this year. With the increase of property values comes the increase in the property tax dollars property owners pay. With the school board keeping the tax rate constant, taxes on properties remain unchanged if properties are assessed at the same value as the previous year. For some county residents, their property value assessment increased significantly therefore increasing the dollar amount owed for taxes. If the school board would have used the declined certified tax rate, Tooele County residents would have paid fewer taxes. I would recommend that a review of the budget take place in order to determine if the constant rate or certified tax rate is the best for not only the school district but the residents as well.
6. If you found an old bottle out in the West Desert and when you opened it the great and powerful school genie popped out and offered to grant you one wish for Tooele County schools, what would your wish be and why?
Holt: If I could make any wish, I would wish for each student in the district to learn to his or her fullest potential. This should be our ultimate goal as a district.
Katie Redmond: My wish would be that we retain and hire quality teachers provided with ample resources and supplies. I believe that success in the classroom is vital to the continued academic success for the students and important to families. Quality teachers that are provided with ample resources and supplies can reach their highest potential in teaching our children and having success in the classroom.
School Board District 2
1. Who are you?
Scott Bryan: For the past eight years I’ve had the privilege of serving on the school board. I’m an alumnus of Tooele High School. My wife and I have four children. Prior to settling in Tooele 19 years ago, we lived in Idaho, Washington and California. Our children have attended schools in each of these states. This experience has allowed me to compare the traditions and values of growing up in Tooele with ideas from other areas. I’ve been able to apply this broad school experience to my current role on the school board. My education in Tooele Schools provided a great foundation as I attended Brigham Young University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in business administration. I’m a manager for Intermountain Healthcare. I’m active in the community with service in church, scouting, youth baseball, and on the high school community council.
Chad Ellis: I’m an IT manager at Jacobs Engineering with over 20 years of experience. I’m in charge of inventory and reporting of 50,000 computers. I manage a team of packagers who automate all the software for the company. I centrally manage around 500 offices that are the same size of each school in Tooele. Some offices are over 3,000 employees. So managing 26 schools is a drop in the bucket. My work allows me to live anywhere in the world and I chose to live in Tooele, Utah. I cannot think of a better place to live. I love it here, which is why I’m the local Scoutmaster, elected member of the Middle Canyon Elementary School Community Council, and a member of Tooele City Communities that Care for substance abuse and mental health. My wife is an excellent schoolteacher. I have dyslexia and my children do too, plus Asperger’s syndrome. I understand students who struggle.
2. What would you like to accomplish as a board member over the next four years?
Bryan: Great things are happening in Tooele Schools! This is an exciting time to be part of the schools in our community. We have students who are learning and achieving, we have teachers who are innovative and collaborating, we have a superintendent who is passionate and engaging, and we have a community that is supportive and involved. The momentum in the district is building. As a board member, I will continue to support the great things that are happening day in and day out in our district. To be successful, our district must be well rounded. Our emphasis cannot be on a single topic, issue, or pet project. The board has adopted very specific goals for excellence in five areas: student achievement, school climate, communications, business operations, and human resources. I will help lead the district in each of these areas, supporting administration where appropriate and painting a vision where needed.
Ellis: My focus is to attract and retain the best teachers. We are losing good teachers at an alarming rate and finding or retaining quality replacements is too difficult today. Teachers are not treated like professionals in Tooele. They are heavily micromanaged by the district. In my profession, where I also centrally manage offices like the district manages schools, I’ve learned micromanaging teachers is causing them to leave. Trusting teachers means the district is to listen to them, provide them with the best tools and resources when needed. Then get out of their way and let them teach our children as they know best, trusting them with minimal district involvement. Today, teachers spend more time giving district-wide tests than instructing students. Also, no one on the school board has expertise when it comes to information technology. We need quality Wi-Fi internet in every classroom where any computer device can be supported.
3. What is your current assessment of Tooele County School District’s academic performance? How did you arrive at your assessment? As a board member how can you help increase academic performance?
Bryan: As demonstrated by the most recent school grades released this fall, the performance in our schools has improved over the prior year. Using the 2015 grading scale, our 2016 grades were: two A’s, 17 B’s, two C’s and no D’s or F’s. However, this is still not good enough, we can do better. As a board we have made our top focus “excellence in student achievement.” We have adopted two strategies to help achieve that goal: 1. We will achieve 90 percent proficiency on third-grade end of year reading, and 2. We will practice data driven instruction, curriculum with fidelity, multi-tiered systems of support, observer tab, and blended learning/classroom technology at all levels to increase school grades. As a board our laser focus in setting specific goals can produce results. As an example, the state recently reported that the uniform growth in our elementary schools last year was 77 percent compared to the state goal of 48 percent.
Ellis: According to TooeleSchools.org, 71 percent of Tooele district overall grade is a B. Math and language arts are improving very well between 2013 through 2015, even above or almost above state scores. Sadly, reading proficiency is on a downward spiral, showing no growth and below state levels. They just implemented a new reading program this year, so I anticipate this will improve. However, dyslexia represents 20 percent of our students and the bottom lowest scores. As one who struggles with dyslexia, plus having children with Asperger’s syndrome or other disabilities, my focus will be on students that struggle. I’ll drive for better programs that focus on the bottom scoring students plus more disability training for teachers. Computer time is rare, teachers are not allowed to provide computers for students and most students don’t have Wi-Fi in every classroom. I know how to fix this for a fraction of the district’s current cost.
4. The school district purchased property in Overlake for a future high school and in Stansbury Park for a future junior high school. Should the school district continue in this direction? Do you have any recommendations to tweak or update the facilities plan?
Bryan: The adage “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” is absolutely true when it comes to schools. I’m proud of my role in helping the district develop our 10-year master plan. This road map for the future helps us be purposeful in our decisions and be prudent with taxpayers’ dollars. We must continue to update this plan, adjusting as needed, updating trends and being watchful of our current situations. This is a living document, which is providing a road map into the future. Purchasing the property for the future high school and junior high school was a great move and is consistent with our master plan. We were able to secure the property today at a much lower cost than it will be in a few years. In addition, we were able to find property exactly where needed. In a few years large sections of land will be more difficult to find.
Ellis: Yes, I think the school district should continue in this direction. The report shows a new trend where more people are moving into Tooele that have older kids. Babies being born is now equal to people moving in with older kids. The growth is such we are reaching the maximum load on junior and high schools. Planning in advance like this, where buying property when it’s low instead of waiting to buy land and build at the same time, is thrifty minded. Land and home prices are definitely on the rise. Plus, if the actual growth rate changes where we don’t need the land, then we can sell the land at a much higher price, thus minimizing our tax burden a little.
5. Should the school board continue to keep the tax rate flat even when the certified rate drops?
Bryan: Taxes are a difficult reality. We all wish we did not have to pay them; however, the reality is that we must have them to fund our schools. Keeping a constant tax rate has allowed the district to gain tax revenue from the new growth. This is how we are able to help pay for the new students brought into our district through the new growth. As part of the 10-year master plan, we identified the strategy of holding a constant tax rate. Our students, teachers and community all benefit from this strategy as we use tax revenue from the new growth to help generate additional funds for our schools. I will continue to advocate for additional state funds to help our local schools. Property tax equalization proposed by the state has the potential of greatly helping Tooele schools and reducing our tax burden.
Ellis: The growth, in most of our schools, is considered constant, which is why the previous school board adopted a plan to match our growth to the same amount we bring in through taxes. If the school board decided to change that plan and follow the certified tax rate, then “yes,” we could give some tax break for a short time. But that gap in funds, or a slinky affect, would force the school board to make more expensive decisions later as we try and keep up with growth. This slinky affect would overall cost the taxpayers more money in future time. In the spirit of being thrifty and being a good steward of these funds, maintaining a constant income equal to the growth in schools is the best choice.
6. If you found an old bottle out in the West Desert and when you opened it the great and powerful school genie popped out and offered to grant you one wish for Tooele County schools, what would your wish be and why?
Bryan: I would wish for an unlimited revenue source for our schools that would allow us to eliminate local property tax and to do marvelous things at no expense to our community. This endless source of revenue would allow our teachers to receive appropriate compensation for the time and effort they put in, recognizing them for the great work they do. This genie would let us update and modernize all of our school buildings, which today, while adequate, could be improved. Without worrying about tax impacts, we could place appropriate computer resources in the hands of our teachers, allowing 1:1 devices for every student, an idea our current funds cannot cover. New textbooks would be purchased and class sizes would shrink as we would now have unlimited funds. One final thing: With unlimited funds, we would have the finest sports programs and facilities found in the country.
Ellis: Answer: Personal attention to every student need!