It’s back to school on Aug. 21 for area students

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

It’s that time of year again for back to school. The schools in the county will resume on Aug. 21. The Emery County School District board held their final meeting prior to the beginning of school on Aug. 15. Supt. Kirk Sitterud reported on some of the changes for the 2012-13 school year. Garth Johnson will be the new principal at Huntington Elementary with the retirement of Tom Baltzer. Steven Gordon will be the vice principal at Emery High with Doug Mecham leaving the high school to become the new principal at San Rafael Junior High. The district has hired new teachers including: Laura Jeffs and Brandee Sessions at Ferron Elementary; Heather Jacobson at Cleveland Elementary; Dayna Terry, Leslie Rees, Kate Turner at Emery High, Deana Jennings at Canyon View Junior High, Sarah Gibbs at San Rafael and Canyon View Junior Highs, Danalee McDermott at Canyon View Junior High; and Jennifer Parkins who will be doing speech and hearing work with the elementary schools.
Sitterud said there were 11 retirements at the end of last school year. New teacher training was held at the district office on Aug. 15. Green River High School has added some programs. They will have a Sterling Scholar program. These programs are being added to increase the educational opportunities for the Green River students. There will be Honors 11 English, Algebra II and advanced math classes which Stan Parsons will come back and teach two periods a day. There is a French class that’s been added.
There will be interactive video classes which will include college courses. Tech classes and TIC concurrent enrollment classes. CTE classes will be offered that feature college professors teaching the class and the students can receive free college credit. These programs will be implemented this school year and into the following school year.
Dean Nelson will return to Emery High to teach one period of French.
The construction class will build another student built home. The house built in 2012 has been sold and the house built in 2011 is still on the market. There has been a change of directors at the Applied Technology Center and Sitterud doesn’t know how that will affect the auto programs at Emery High.
“It’s good to be going back to school. We are excited for a new year and ready to go back. We are excited about our new teachers and they will be an asset to the district. It’s good to get fresh enthusiasm and ideas from these new teachers,” said Sitterud.
Two names for three hour aides at Huntington Elementary were approved: Claron Durrant and Heather Atwood.
The school board approved some policy revisions. One revision involved the transporting of home and private school students on school buses to participate in extracurricular activities. Also content was added to allow for transportation of chaperones’ children, or children of coaches and advisors. The revisions were made to be in line with state school board rules.
Another revision makes provisions for special needs students who enroll part-time in public school. The school district is responsible to provide services for these students to the extent that they provide services for the special needs students who are enrolled full time at the schools.
The board approved all the policy revisions. They approved the broadcast agreement with Emery High and Emery Telcom for the broadcast of high school sports. The board approved a change to the dates the leeway payments are made. They will be only made once at the end of the month. This will eliminate the need for two checks being issued in a one month period.
The annual asbestos reports area available at each school if the public would like to look at them. Asbestos in the schools is abated as necessary when carpet is replaced or remodeling projects done. The maintenance department puts a lot of work into dealing with asbestos.
Sitterud said the projected enrollments for the new school year have been up and down. Last week it was up 45 students and as of Aug. 15, it’s up any where from 62-94 students district wide. With the projected growth there may be a need to hire another teacher. There are 58 kindergarten students at Huntington Elementary, 30 second grade students at Castle Dale and 32 third grade students so a teacher may need to be added there. In Cleveland there are 30 kindergarten students. After school starts and the actual numbers are available then decisions will be made about staffing.
Business administrator Jared Black went over the new system of reporting for expenditures and revenues with the board members. Black said the new system will streamline work and reports can be very extensive or consolidated whichever the board would like to see. A copy of all expenses and expenditures will be printed out for each board member before each meeting. The business office is working on getting history on the new system as well.