District 1: Current school board member, Terryl Warner, faces opponent David Clark in upcoming school board elections. While both candidates were handpicked by Gov. Herbert, they do have distinct differences in ideology that should be considered before casting your vote.
Warner expressed concern that in the smaller districts that comprise District 1, the funding is not best used to invest in technology. While she understands the advantages of an I-school she states her hesitation is based on the fact that most of the smaller schools are not set up with servers that can handle the load and it would be outrageously expensive to rectify. She also pointed out that the federal funds have to be matched with $749 per student- and that adds up to money our District simply doesn’t have ($454 million to implement. She went on to state that her goal is more transparency and to move the power to the teachers since they are the ones who know what is really needed in their classrooms.
David Clark also expressed concerns over Utah’s overcrowded classrooms and limited budget. However he believes that technology could be the answer. He stated that with I-schools you can teach more students effectively and monitor the progress of students making it easier to pinpoint problem areas. Clark also went on to state that creatively using our buildings and resources “differently” could help ease the burden on the system. He believes we need to be fiscally responsible and come up with different ideas on how to creatively manage the problems facing Utah School districts.
Both candidates are still evaluating Common Core and what role, if any, it should have in Utah Schools. Both had concerns about classrooms “teaching to the test” and the data mining that comes with Common Core.
