Population Unequal In Current School Board Apportionment

Currently there are 5 School Board  representatives in Rich County.  Garden City has one representative and Randolph has two.  It is being proposed that the districts be redrawn to have 453 people in each district, which would reflect the 2010 Census and meet Utah Code requirements.

Commission To Begin School Board Reapportionment Process

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  March 6, 2014.  Reapportionment of the Rich School District was discussed.  In the previous week on February 25 an open meeting was called and held by a citizen’s group, headed by Bryce Huefner, in Garden City to preliminarily discuss the fact that Garden City’s population had grown and that there needed to be a reapportionment of school board members based on population. That meeting had sbeen attended by the county commissioners.

Chris Coray, resident of Rich County, summarized at the county commission meeting, the need for the county to come into compliance with the Utah State Code and complete a reapportionment that is required by state law at least once every 10 years.  No one in the current government could remember when this last occurred but it was certainly not in this century. 

The Utah code requires that Rich County schools have a 5 member school board, with each district substantially equal in population.  The 2010 U.S. Census identifies the population of Rich County as 2,264 (2012 Census estimate is 2267).  Using this data for the 5 member board  required by the Utah Code in this county, arithmetic produces an ideal size of a single district as 453 persons (to the nearest whole person).  Courts have allowed a 10% variance but the current districting does not come close to meeting the 10% test, and in fact there is currently at least as much as an 82% population variance from the ideal in one district (824 census vs. 453 ideal), and one district has a U.S. Census population 238% the size of another (824 vs. 346).

The commissioners indicated that they understand the current situation and accepted the need for a reapportionment to take place.  Commissioner Cox said that the current plan is to appoint a committee to begin the process of data gathering for reapportionment and that he expected that this would be under way in the next 30 days.  For the record, the exact Utah State statute requiring this reapportionment is Title 20A-14-201, which reads in part,

“The county and municipal legislative bodies shall divide the school district so that the local school board districts are substantially equal in population and are as contiguous and compact as practicable, and that this must occur “At least once every 10 years”.

Two School Calendars Proposed & Need Comment

For next year, the school board is considering two different calendars.  One that starts on the same date as this year and gets out before Memorial Day, and one that starts a week later and goes one week after Memorial Day, with graduation on May 29. The first calendar has a Thursday off for Fall Break while the second calendar does not.    Go to the webpage http://www.richschool.org/pages/Rich_School_District to see the proposed changes and make a comment.

March

March
Photo by Lauriann Wakefield

Senior Rebels Honored By Parents

Mountain Man Rendevous

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah. March 6, 2014.  Les Johnson and Joel Marler, organizers of The Mountain Man Rendezvous, told County Commissioners that the first rendezvous turned out well.  It paid for itself on the first year and sponsorships are increasing.  People came to participate from all over the United States and there were 24 traders with booths or tents.  They had shoots and competitions.

Next year the Rendezvous will be held August 20-24.  They are asking for a permit and fee waiver again this year.  There will be a $3 entry fee unless one comes in mountain man attire.  Last year the Bear Lake High School manned the ticket booths and came in historic attire.

The Rendezvous is held in Round Valley where the rendezvous were held historically.  There is a Facebook page and a website to increase participation and attendance.

Next year they need to get Laketown EMT and Fire Department to help, last year they were unable to have a presence for a $500 donation to the department.  Commissioner Norm Mecham suggested that they ask the Rodeo Club who might like the donation.

Commissioner Bill Cox asked that they notify the health department and other agencies  early enough to meet their permit requirements. State sales tax must be paid by vendors.  “Even if you don’t pay the county fees all paper work must be done,” said Cox.

The education of history of this valley is the main purpose of the rendezvous.   Research has been done on the period and they try to recreate it.  “ For example,” said Johnson, “ dream catchers are from the 1930’s so they don’t allow them in the rendezvous.  They try to avoid modern materials or “made in China” items.  They had story tellers and historians talk.  Women in the Fur Trade will be the feature this upcoming year's rendezvous.

Bear River Health Department Report

RANDOLPH, Utah.  March 6, 2014.  Jill Parker, Bear River Health Department Public Relations, gave the  Health Department’s Annual Report.

The promotion of health is a community responsibility and the BRHD has been helping this area since 1950.  This year there were 14,500 vital records issued in the Districts, 158 car seats checked for free, 479 food handlers certificates issued, and 11,000 people were immunized.  There are good partnerships with the schools.  Logan, Utah has bad air quality, so air quality education in Cache and Box Elder is being done.  Suicide rates are high in Box Elder so they are working on suicide prevention in that county.  On Thursdays there is a health counselor in Garden City for substance abuse help. The health department has begun keeping records electronically this year which will help with providing better service

"More people in Rich County need to know about the services available and how to use them", Parker said.  Commissioner Bill Cox said that the judges needed to know of the substance abuse help as that is a problem in Rich County.  

February Sheriff's Report

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah. February 2014.  There were 72 incidents that occurred during the month of February.  The most frequent incidents are as follows:  There were 8 citizen assists, 8 civil processes, and 8 traffic hazards.  There were 7 agency assists.  There were 6 suspicious people, and 5 juvenile problems, and 5 traffic accidents with damage.

There were 27 incidents in Garden City as follows:  5 agency assists, 4 citizen assists, 4 civil processes, and 4 traffic hazards.  There were 2 alarms and 2 suspicious persons/circumstances.  There were one each of following:  abandoned vehicle, animal problem, citizen dispute, medical emergency, theft, and transportation of person/property.

Randolph had 19 incidents.  There were 2 each of the following:  agency assists, citizen assists, thefts, traffic hazards, and suspicious person/circumstances.  There was one each of the following:  abandoned vehicle, animal problem, burglary, civil process, criminal history, juvenile problem, traffic accident with damage, traffic accident with injuries, and a welfare check.

There were 15 incidents in Laketown.   There were 3 juvenile problems, 2 alarms, and 2 traffic hazards.  There was 1 each of the following:  an animal problem, citizen assist, citizen dispute, traffic accident with damage, suspicious person/circumstance, traffic violation, trespassing, and unsecure premises.

There were 9 incidents in Woodruff.  There were 3 civil processes, 3 traffic accidents with damage, an animal problem, a citizen assist, and a juvenile problem.

There was a suspicious person/circumstance at an undefined location and an automobile theft out of county.

There were 13 traffic citations.  There were 7 violations and citations in Garden City.  There was 1 citation and violation in Laketown.  There were 4 citations and violations in Randolph and 1 citation and violation in Woodruff.  Twelve of the citations were for speeding and one was no proof of insurance.  Three warnings and violations were given in Woodruff.  There were also 3 speeding warnings given.

The Muddled Male

Opportunities Lost

By Bob Stevens, The Muddled Male

         Recently I had to go into the mysterious inner-workings of my email accounts and make changes to their settings because my internet provider decided to change over from using their own servers to using ones owned and maintained by Google.  To help each customer in his or her attempt to make the change, the internet provider was kind enough to email a set of detailed instructions to the holder of each account in their system.  Well, I have five different devices where I receive emails and the instructions worked fine for only three of the five.  The last two forced me to call tech’ rep’s and admit that I was an old man who realized that part of the technical world had just passed me by.  Such an admission wouldn’t have caused me any embarrassment except that one of the tech’ rep’s was a nice young girl who sounded young enough to be my granddaughter.  What was worse, she said, “Mr. Stevens, would you like me to just operate your computer remotely and make the changes for you while you watch?”

            I tell you this complicated story as a way of explaining what happened next.  After making the necessary changes (while I watched helplessly) this helpful young lady sent an email from my computer to hers to check the outgoing email function, and then sent an email from her system to mine to check the incoming email function.  Finally she asked me to scan through all my email account folders and make certain that everything appeared to be functioning properly.  That is when I first noticed a problem.  Where once there had been no emails in my email account because I had cleaned them out.  Now there were three hundred and fifty eight because the internet provider’s system had saved all of the old emails that I had deleted and then dumped them back onto my computer once we finished making changes to my account settings.

            “No problem,” said the young lady who is smarter than me, “Just delete them all again.”  Well an anally-retentive engineer doesn’t just delete records blindly, so I started going through them and deleting them one by one, and that was when I found two emails written by different ladies currently living in Malaysia.  One had married a prince who had died and left her a lot of money she needed to deposit in some American’s bank account or she would lose it.  The other had married a rich man who died of cancer, left her millions of dollars, and now she is dying of cancer and wanted to send lots of money to someone who would make certain that the money was used in a Christian-like fashion.  All she needed from me was my social security and bank account numbers and she would deposit twenty-five million dollars in my bank account for me to use as I saw fit.  I was preparing my information to be transmitted when Ann, my wife, became aware of my activities and said in a rather abrupt voice, “ARE YOU CRAZY?”  She said it so loudly and in such an angry tone that now everyone knows that Ann is also smarter than me.

            But just think what good I could do with twenty-five million dollars.  I might even consider giving some to you if you promise to use it for a good cause.  Just send me your social security and bank account numbers and I’ll see what I can do.

School Board Meeting

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

 

RANDOLPH, Utah.  February 26, 2014.  A request was made by parents to allow them to home school one of their children.  Permission was given. 

Judy Jackson, school lunch program, noted that federal regulations require a federal audit of the lunch program next year.  Adults who participate in the school lunch program will need to pay more for their lunch in order to meet the federal requirements.  Currently adults pay $2.65.  This needs to be raised to $3.00.  Breakfast currently is $1.55 and will need to go up to $1.85.  This needs to be put in place beginning April 1 of this year. 

It was noted that Judy Jackson has submitted her letter of resignation.  The Board members noted that Jackson has done a magnificent job over the years that she has been in charge of the school lunch program.  She has adapted to all of the changes and requirements that have been imposed over the years, has loved the students and interacted with them in a friendly and interested manner, and is a fantastic cook.  She will finish out her current contract.  She is also willing to help the new individual who will fill this position with the summer preparations that are needed.  She also noted that she would be happy to work with the new cook for the first couple of weeks in the fall if her help was desired.

Superintendent Dale Lamborn presented a working copy of the calendar for the 2014-2015 school year.  School will start August 18 and the school year will end prior to Memorial Day.  They will be able to pick up a day or two at Christmas time which would allow the schools to be off over UEA if the teachers would like that.  USU and some of the other universities don’t start until the 15^th of August.  Some like the public system to start at the same time as the Universities, but this would put the end of the school year into June.   Parent and teacher conferences are always held in the middle of the trimesters.  However, the middle of the second trimester is so soon after Christmas break that teachers have very little information to share at that time.  It was asked that the parent/teacher conferences for that trimester be moved a week or two later to allow students and teachers to get back into a routine prior to these conferences.   

The proposed calendars will be submitted to the public for input.  Approval of the calendar will be done at the next School Board Meeting. 

Miss Cornia presented information about the ACT testing that is the current test used by the District.  This is the only test that gives national comparisons and gives a tremendous amount of feedback to the school, teachers, and students.  It helps to get the students college and career ready.  This test is also mandated by the state for all 8^th grade and sophomore students.  It was administered last fall to those two grades. 

The test covers four areas—English, math, science, and reading.  The information that has been sent back to the school has been wonderful.  It  helps teachers see where additional information needs to be included in their teaching and also suggests career areas of strength for individual students.  Individual scores are also given to students so they can see where they scored and where they can improve in the future.  There is also a website available to teachers called Shmoop that gives suggestions for presentation and adding additional information into their teaching.  The ACT test is scheduled to be given on March 4. 

Scott Ferguson was given the Athletic Director of the Year Award.  This was given as a result of all of the service he has given to the Utah High School Athletic Association during the past several years.  He was congratulated by the School Board Members. 

Superintendent Lamborn reported to the Board of several bills that are currently being worked on by the Legislature dealing with school issues.  It appears that concurrent enrollment will be supported.  There are not many changes there.  Currently, however, the bill is stuck in the rules committee. 

The interim president of Snow College wants to get started in determining the number and kind of classes that should be made available for concurrent enrollment for high school students.  A meeting has been set up with him next week to work on this in case everything goes through. 

Currently there is $23 million to be spent in the STEM  (Science, Technology, and Mathematics) program.  These funds will be taken from education money and will probably pass as well. 

The speaker of the house has presented a bill that would make electronic devices available to all high school students in the state.  However, many school boards and superintendents are against this bill.  It is a fact that the device is only about 25 percent of the costs involved in getting a program going with the one device for each student program.  The special software upgrades that are required to get all of the devices to work, the software needed for the different classes, the extra testing and grading software, the training on the software for teachers as well as maintenance and extra technology support needs to also be funded to make this program viable. 

There are three positions up for election this coming fall.  If anyone is interested in running for these openings, they need to pay a $50 filing fee and register between March 14 and March 20. 

The next school board meeting will be held March 19.  It will begin at 4 p.m. instead of the usual 6 p.m. because that is the opening night of the school play.

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

RANDOLPH, Utah.  February 26, 2014.  Superintendent Dale Lamborn reported that a company, Waterford Institute, had obtained federal funds for educational research.   They have been funding their programs in high density areas, but would like to work in some rural areas.  They would like to introduce technology to preschool age children.  The program is called the Upstart Program. 

Their goal would be to get 70 percent of preschool children working on electronic devices.  They have the funds to hire a liaison to coordinate among Waterford Company, the preschool age students, parents, and the school district in which they live.  They would provide the device and the needed internet connection.   They would then follow these children for the next three to five years gathering data about the progress these students make in school up to the third grade. 

The program is not meant to replace preschool.  It is to supplement any of the already existing programs that are available to preschool children.  They need commitments from parents to make sure that these students spend at least 15 minutes each week on the device that they are given.  It is a year around program—not just during the school year.   

The District doesn’t have responsibility for the program, but feel it would be a good thing to allow these younger individuals an opportunity to become more familiar with technology.  It was recommended that the school district go along with this program.  A motion was made and passed to allow this program to move forward.   

The position for the liaison needs to be filled within the next week or two so that they can get the needed training and preparation to get the program underway.  The Board encouraged Lamborn to advertise the position and move forward with this program.