A new year means a fresh start for the newly seated Park City School Board — and a new chance for its members to build better relationships within the community.Recently named board President Meredith Reed and Vice President Nick Hill acknowledged the challenges surrounding the outgoing board, and said they plan to highlight a collaborative leadership style that prioritizes the students, school district and community.“It’s a genuinely new start,” Hill said in an interview at The Park Record office Thursday morning. Elected in 2022, Reed and Hill are the only incumbents on the five-person board. The three new members, Susan Goldberg, Eileen Gallagher and Kathleen Britton, were sworn in during a special meeting on Wednesday. Then Reed and Hill were nominated as the board’s new leaders.But that doesn’t mean the pair will hold all of the power. They said the new board’s ideas, concerns and goals for the future of the district are “all very broadly aligned.” Reed and Hill highlighted the need for transparency, effective communication and community engagement to instill confidence in the board.They described how a successful school board needs to have an open dialogue with its members, the school district and the public. They want to make sure the three new members understand they are valued and that their input is an important part of the process.“It’s critical to the success of our district,” Reed said. “We’re not running classrooms, but our effectiveness as a board does impact our students.”Now halfway through their first terms, Reed and Hill have become familiar with the mechanics of how the school board functions, and also an opportunity to see what doesn’t work. The pair said they looked forward to several “quick wins” they could make, but said there would be others that take time.One major one is the search for a new superintendent to bring stability to the district. The school board is still accepting community feedback for the position, and they encouraged the public to become actively engaged in the process.Hill acknowledged a “trust deficit” between the school board and the community. He advocated for people to know how, and why, certain decisions are made. All feedback on the superintendent search will be discussed during a public meeting, for example. Hill also wants to amend the board’s meeting format so more students, teachers and parents can participate.“We have to change that. I think that communication is absolutely critical to how we change that. I talk a lot about changing the paradigm from what is the minimum that we have to make public, to switch it completely and say, ‘What is the minimum we have to keep private?’” Hill said.The school board leaders said they plan to find the right person for the district following the departure of former Park City School District Superintendent Jill Gildea in September. The Board of Education oversees the hiring and firing of the superintendent and the business administrator and is responsible for holding those leadership positions accountable. Otherwise, members set the policy and budget.Reed and Hill opposed renewing a two-year employment contract for Gildea, who began in 2018 and was the state’s highest paid superintendent throughout her tenure, instead asking to wait until the new board was seated this year. Three of four candidates for school board seats publicly requested the same, along with an online petition organized by parents that gathered 561 signatures. Former board members Andrew Caplan, Wendy Crossover and Anne Peters all withdrew their reelection bids last spring and summer, before the vote was taken in August, and chose as a lame duck majority to renew the contract. Gildea subsequently announced her departure, eventually taking a job leading a charter school network in Colorado, and then-Treasure Mountain Junior High Principal Caleb Fine was named interim superintendent in September. Fine said then that the school district is in a season of healing, and Reed and Hill on Thursday agreed. They were excited about the opportunity for the school board to “fundamentally revisit” how it works.While they noted the district’s high academic performance, great educators and amazing class offerings, they also didn’t shy away from addressing challenges. Reed and Hill were alarmed by the findings from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that asserted the school district failed to adequately respond to almost 200 reports of student harassment based on race, ethnicity, disability or gender — and they called for the district to do more than just complete the required action. They wanted to see changes that are embedded in the schools and the broader community.The new board will also address issues like student enrollment, housing teachers, and how to successfully educate the Park City youth. Reed pointed to new potential for community partnerships through the municipal or county governments as well as nonprofits to create positive opportunities for students, the district and the community.“The world is our oyster there,” she said.Reed and Hill expected the board will set the pace for the upcoming year during a retreat next week. There, they’ll discuss their top priorities and goals. The post ‘A genuinely new start’ for the Park City School Board appeared first on Park Record.