Picto Diary - 23, 24 October 2015 - Fall Stuff

Above: Ali Zeisler, anti school bond advocate, speaks to La Societe Deux Magots (LSDM). Wasatch Bagel, Park City, UT. 23 October 2015.

Hat tip: Kristen

Note: Note taker is fallible. Mistakes are his. Ali Zeisler is welcome to make corrections/clarifications to these notes.

Park City School Board member Nancy Garrison was in attendance.


Background:

Grew up Bay Area, CA.
Parents both educators.
In 70's and 80's Park City schools notoriously excellent. Attracted people.
Moved to Park City 1977. Grade school through 10th grade in Park City schools.
Boarding School, 1988 in California.
Ski Racer
BA, Stanford University.
Worked in high tech, newspaper, Silicon Valley
8 years ago moved back to Park City
Love the outdoors
Kids 4, 6, 8 in Park City schools

Above: Ali Zeisler and fellow anti-school bond advocate, Chuck Klingenstein. LSDM. Wasatch Bagel, Park City, UT. 23 October 2015.


The School Bond Proposal

Park City High School expansion and gym remodel ($27.5 million)
New fifth and sixth grade school at Ecker Hill campus ($24.8 million)
Improvements to McPolin Elementary School, including parking lot move ($1.4 million)
Demolition of Treasure Mountain Junior High ($0.6 million)
Athletic facilities ($12.0 million)

8th grade kids currently attending the to-be-dismantled Treasure Mountain building will go to Ecker Hill to join with seventh graders to form a two grade middle school. 9th grade kids currently attending the to-be-dismantled Treasure Mountain building will go to Park City High School, which will be come a four year facility. Fifth grade kids, currently attending four elementary schools throughout the school district, will join with sixth graders at the new school to be built at Ecker Hill. Elementary schools will have freed up capacity as a result of these changes.

The school board is undertaking the project to address problems facing the district... mainly the need for more capacity in several schools. More than two thirds of the bond amount is related uniquely to capacity issues.

The cost of the total proposal adds up to roughly $66 million. A 20-year bond would pay for $56 million, with the rest coming from the district's capital reserves.

PCSD has zero debt. Its last bond was in 1999. There is $19 million in capital reserves. For a house having a value of $600 thousand, estimated tax increases required to service bond debt would be about $10 per month... $120 per year.


Objections to the Bond Proposal

Proposal is a response to poor planning over many rears. Inadequate public discussion for such an important long range facilities project. Community and parents have been left out of the discussion.

The school board ignored key recommendations from their own committee and the superintendent.

The board has written the bond with little accountability for how the money is to be spent.

The board prioritizes athletic facilities over academic excellence.

Proposal hasn't addressed adequately growth of school population.

Dozier football and track fields were upgraded only two years ago at a cost of $800K. The proposal demolishes the fields at a cost of $8MM, to relocate them 1/3 of a mile away.

Maintenance and operations expenses will increase by 29%. This is $1.5MM each year that won't go to classrooms or teachers.

The plan includes $8MM of classrooms for high school programs that have yet to be defined.

Basin residents will be asked to pay twice for athletic facilities - a school field house and one from Basin Rec at highways US 40 and I-80. Isn't one field house in the school district sufficient?

Parent traffic from up to 900 additional students will be added to Kimball Junction and Kilby frontage road. Event traffic from district K-8 programming will be added to Kearns Blvd at the proposed school field house.

1700 kids at new Ecker Hill campus. Not good for emotional development of the children.


Q and A

LSDM: If the School Bond doesn't pass?

AZ: Here's my suggestion:

1. There is sufficient money in capital fund to make necessary capacity changes for high school. 15 new class rooms and two new science labs.

2. Disperse sixth graders through four elementary schools. Temporary trailers can be used... that (trailers) would have been the case for the school bond proposal transition as well.

3. Take the necessary time to do a plan that takes in inputs of parents and community. We need to do this right.


LSDM: Should the bond fail will the school district push for tax increase to finance their plan?

AZ: Its possible. However, I believe good sense will prevail. Tax increases are not a good or "accepted" way to finance capital expenditures.


LSDM: Would it be more economical to fix Treasure Mountain (TM)?

AZ: Most believe that TM has outlived its usefulness, but the plant still is only at 80% capacity. We should deal with TM in the context of a well thought out plan with appropriate public input.


Thank-you

LSDM thanks Ali Zeisler for her presentation and for her activism in discussing public matters.


La Societe Deux Magots (LSDM) is a non-partisan ROMEO (retired old men eating out) group which meets daily, at 7:00 AM at Wasatch Bagel in Park City, UT. LSDM members are the rightful intellectual heirs of a group of authors (Hemingway, Sartre, Camus, deBouvoir) who met daily at Cafe Deux Magots, in Paris, France in the 1930's.)

www.lsdm-parkcity.com

Above: Stellar's Jay as seen through bedroom window screen. Park City, UT. 24 October 2015.

Above: Inter Wasatch Uinta terrain gets ready for snow. Guardsman's Pass, Utah. 24 October 2015.

Above: Duc. Guardsman's pass. Utah. 24 October 2015.

Above: Duc. Guardsman's Pass. Utah. 24 October 2015.

Above: Dusk moon. Guardsman's Pass. Utah. 24 October 2015.

Above: Novel completed today. 24 October 2015.

Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk believe that the most important challenge for humanity is to hedge bets... to populate another planet... considering the likelihood of earth's becoming inhospitable to carbon based life.

They got the idea from me.

Loved the book... and, hope that it leads to a sense of the possible on a planet where science advances but aspiration dissipates.

I took Drums to his lesson with Jay Lawrence today... 24 October 2015. TIMDT joined. We met Rudy Jr.'s. and Portland's family at CPK for lunch.

Here's my report to Drum's parents about the lesson:

Jay wants Drums to go to this (Jeff Hamilton trio). Says Jeff Hamilton is by far the best jazz drummer in the world. Jay says he has taken a number lessons from Jeff Hamilton. Scroll on for other comments about yesterday's lesson. Students get a ticket discount. I am happy to help here if you want. Might be a good family experience.

JEFF HAMILTON TRIO
Saturday, December 05, 2015
Capitol Theatre

Back by popular demand, the Jeff Hamilton Trio features pianist Tamir Hendelman, bassist Christoph Luty and, of course, drummer Hamilton. His versitility, power, and precision—drum beats that range from whispers to roars—and the trio’s charisma make this band a JazzSLC favorite. Jeff Hamilton's Website

RR Page 13.  Goal:   with three mistakes or less.  Drums made over 20 mistakes.  Its a hard exercise.  Good news is I think Drums is close to a reading breakthrough.  He's on his way to getting it.  Just needs more practice.  Jay assigned three pages to read (including 13 again)  and says he's going to take three random lines from any one of them to test Drums.  Drums can make two mistakes in any three lines to "pass."  Drums seemed to do better on stick control with this exercise.  His problem was that he wants to play loudly... really whack the drums with the stick.  Jay would stop him every time he did this and tell him to play softly.  Jay said, "Drums, if I want, I can play louder than you can... but, I don't.  A drummer needs to be able to play softly as well as loudly."  Jay is raising the bar as he sees Drums progressing.
 
Grooves.  Drums did #16 well... and picked up quickly one of the very old grooves when asked.  Jay wants Drums to be able to do all the grooves he has learned.  18 was re-assigned.  We had been learning it (18) incorrectly.  My fault, according to Drums.  :-).  Another groove was assigned.  Drums asked Jay to play the newly assigned groove for him and Jay demurred, saying that he wanted Drums to be able to figure it out for himself by reading the notes.
 
On the Drummers Workbook page 18,19 rudiments... Drums did one of them at 77 metronome quite well.  Jay praised the smoothness and the stick control.  At 88, Drums had a bit of trouble.  Jay assigned 3 or 4 rudiments from pp 18,19 and wants Drums to get them down smoothly at 88.  Jay reinforced the fact that he knew that many of these exercises seemed boring... but, that one doesn't get to become a good drummer without understanding and applying the fundamentals.  Jay demonstrated himself doing one or two of the rudiments at hyper speed.  I think the demos are good as Drums gets a sense of what is ultimately expected.
 
Jay told me that Drums is going to "add a lot" to the drum world.  Jay said that he was initially wary about taking on a student as young as Drums... it was outside of his comfort zone, he said.  But, he's liking the experience... he's taken on three more student's Drum's age.
 
Dad

 

Addendum:

Above: Drums and friends at Cotillion. 23 October 2015. Image by FeeBee.

Above:  Mynduveroan blowing bubbles.  Image by FeeBee.

Above: Z climbing. 24 October 2015. Image by Rudy Jr.

Squaw Peak, Wasatch Range, in background.