Lets Support our PCSD Students

My company works with over 1700 school public districts all over the country and working with the leadership of our K-12 administrators nation-wide, I have become a huge supporter of public education. Over the past 10 years, I have had the opportunity to work directly with the leadership of our local Park City School District. In my experience as a parent and expert in education, Park City School District has the strongest team of administrators we have had in Park City for years, and among the best, I have encountered anywhere.

The careful and deliberate work done to evaluate the needs of our community has been focused on what is best for our students. Currently, the plan we are being asked to support is the culmination of months of planning with input from a wide range of stakeholders and experts. Our elected body of Governing Board members has examined the recommendations of the master planning committee and superintendent, which was presented in August.  With meticulous consideration, the board now asks the voters to support the needs of our students.

For those who have not followed the process, it all comes down to addressing two main overall needs: capacity at our schools and increased learning opportunities for our students. Three of our four elementary schools are at capacity and to the point where we already have trailers at one school. Treasure Mountain is a sick school and would be more costly to fix than replace. It has always bothered me that 9th grade is not included in the high school where it belongs.  Ninth grade students need to experience high school and begin the critical preparation for college and careers at a higher level that can be provided at a junior high. As a businessman, I look for team members that skills fostered in a more rigorous and intentional environment

The most economical solution is to move 9th to the high school and place 8th graders at Ecker Hill. The decision to move 5th to Ecker Hill is also sound. It supports the community philosophy that we bring our students together in a unified, cohesive community to foster the community values and beliefs.

I recently visited a K-12 school in the barrios of San Diego. It reinforced the notion that 5th graders should not be with 8th graders is simply ludicrous. The K-12 School I visited was one of the most respectful, clean schools I have ever encountered. Like the PCSD plan, the 5th graders get instruction in a carefully designed village within a school that is intimate and provides the basis for project-based instruction. The PCSD plan also reduces the number of times our students change schools to the national standard of two transitions during the middle years. The plan makes fiscal sense, and it is also what is BEST for our students.

I fully trust our administration to continue the deliberate work they have started to increase literacy, growth, and performance while utilizing the resources this bond will provide to provide the next generation of learners in the type of learning environments that will produce exceptional community members. Join me and support Proposition 1.

Reading, Writing and CODING!

When I look over the landscape of successful leaders in the business world, they are more than just technically literate, they are technologists.

I believe it is our responsibility as a society to provide each student with a firm foundation that includes STEM -- specifically the ability to code. Look around you, the phone you hold, your doorbell, car, thermostat, smart speaker, TV, all the medical devices, traffic lights and all the computers that make up the internet. Without software, they are all just useless shells. These devices only come to life once there is a basic operating system and then the specific applications that make them useful to us.

With code integrated into virtually every aspect of our lives, why are we not introducing our students to the basics of reading and writing code in our K-12 education system? Do we really want the first time a student formally learns how to code to be college? What if we sent students to college without the ability to read and write? The demand for innovative programmers will only continue to grow and we are already having a hard time filling the current need of programmers.

Let's start with some misconceptions.

1. Coding is a creative process like creative writing. While logic is a huge part of the process, you don't have to be a math whiz. 
2. Writing code is creative. The best programmers are problem solvers and usually good at other creative activities like music or art.
3. Computers don't write (all) code. Often people ask me: "Don't computers write code?" Not really, computers can help with some of the basic processes and fill in the blanks, but people write code. 
4. Anyone can do it. All you need is a basic computer.

Like music, art, language, and sports the lessons learned through coding can be applied to life in general. Problem-solving, finishing a task, expanding your mind, collaborating with a team and attention to detail are all learned while coding.

Like other core competencies, coding should be integrated into our education system and our homes at an early age. Like creative writing, not every child will grow up to be the next great American novelist, but without integrating the basics of creative writing in our education system from an early age, few will reach that pinnacle of literary success.

Likewise, without a system that integrates coding into early education and the ability for interested youth to dive deeply into programming, she may never develop the next great technology innovation. We need a new systematic approach to creative coding that enables all students to reach their full potential in this new environment.

If you have young children, introduce them to coding. If you are an educator, look for ways to integrate coding into every aspect of the student's life. Students should code early and code often.