MARIANNE B ALLEN
Wasatch County School Board County South
New Voice
Unique Perspective
Inclusive Approach
Community Questions
These are questions that the community has asked through multiple forums (Facebook, emails, Cottage meeting, and conversations I've had while out knocking on people's doors in our community).
In being transparent in who I am and how I think, here are my answers to those questions.
Q: How do you plan to better involve the community as the school district plans for future growth and new schools?
A: I would like to see a great deal more opportunities provided for community comments and input as we grow and need more schools.
I would use more surveys, whether through email, or otherwise, to decide courses of action the community wants to take. I would use open comment periods and citizen-involved committees, and even seek to utilize social media to communicate more. I would involve the community a lot before only one bond option is presented, (or possibly present two bonding options) by using pre-bond open houses so that they are more aware of the process and can be part of the process if they choose to.
Making community involvement in school board meetings a lot easier, is also essential. I appreciate the steps taken to finally add a public comment period at the beginning of school board meetings. However in these interesting times, I would also like to make it possible to comment online during the meeting and make it easier to comment about agenda issues the day of, not days in advance before even agendas are out. Simplifying this process to make it easier to participate would be beneficial to the school board and the community. There are many ways this can be done, and has been done, by other government entities as well.
I would also like to broadcast work meetings. By doing so, the public can see how the board reaches the decisions it makes and the process that they went through to arrive at their decisions. I feel this is another way to increase transparency and involve the community better.
Q: What are your short term suggestions instead of a new high school? Are you looking to help add additional elementary schools as well? Because that will also be needed in the next few years.
I strongly believe that by bringing different perspectives and experiences to the table, better solutions can be found for the problems we face. Having been a teacher in a junior high and high school, a coach, and mom, I do have some out-of-the-box ideas that I would bring to the table.
One is a short-term solution until a new high school gets built, or additions are built if that's what the community would like, is that we utilize TIS as a 9th grade only building. It requires no additional buildings and gets roughly 500 students out of the high school. 9th grade students could still participate in extracurricular activities. We would then figure out a solution to the lunchroom aspect by consulting with the Food Services department. It would cost a lot less to add a lunchroom to TIS if this is a viable option.
Two. The district stressed that they were looking as Cache County and Washington County to model after. Washington has grades 10-12 in high schools, Cache County has grades 9-12. Depending on our numbers, we can look at any benefits of adjusting there as well. There is research that points to the benefits of both 10-12 and 9-12 so community input and direction is once again vital.
Third. Let's explore our options at the high school with hybrid schedules and possibly online for *certain* classes to relieve the crowding at the higher grade levels.
I would encourage others to share their ideas as well, as this is vital to the concept of bringing more perspectives to the table to find better solutions. One person does not have all the answers, but they can contribute in meaningful ways to finding better solutions. My ideas might not work, or if the community voices their opinion that they do not want these, I would hope the ideas would at least help further the discussions to find solutions for the issues we face.
Yes, most definitely I am very supportive of adding new elementary schools. I know there are many developments have already been approved by the city that will bring new students with them. Just in south end alone, we are looking at needing one much sooner than people realize.
Truthfully that is a huge reason why I want to be as fiscally responsible as possible while supporting the needs of education in our community.
We still have approximately 10 years left on the high school bond and the DCE bond has approximately 16 years left. We have around 86-87 million in bond debt. We need another high school (board members have even talked needing to bond for two and that was during last fall), we also need 2-3 elementary and another middle school soon plus the teachers needed to teach at these schools. That's a lot of money needed in the next ten years alone. Granted with the influx of people moving in there will be a bigger tax base, however it's still a LOT of money. I have no desire to tax our neighbors out of their homes. If people start leaving because they can't afford the property taxes then we've build these schools for naught. It's a dilemma that is hard to balance, but I feel time needs to be used to balance it as well as possible. My priority is being transparent to the community about what we are facing so we can get their input on what they want in terms of sized schools and the costs associated with different options. It is vital to have more community input.
Q: How do you plan to support me as an educator?
I am a firm supporter of ALL teachers at ALL levels of education! A huge part of supporting teachers, is listening to teachers and what they need. I have been reaching out to teachers, asking what they need in terms of support as a parent for years and will most definitely continue to do so regardless of this election. I have been told that class sizes are a huge issue for some teachers right now (38 in a class is intense, let alone in Covid) and I would work to explore options to get smaller class sizes (this goes to short-term solutions and the bond quite frankly). I want to make sure teachers are being listen to when they need classroom supplies, more work days, or even PPE. I will protect teacher benefits tooth and nail because those are benefits that should not be messed with, at all. I was extremely pleased with the raise that was finally given last year to the teachers and will work hard to make sure teachers are fairly compensated for all that they do. I am so glad that you have felt supported here as a teacher-that's a distinction I will proudly work to continue if elected!