Coming up through the ranks has some advantages, new Tooele School District Superintendent Paul F. Skyles believes.
A veteran of more than 30 years in the district, he was named this summer to succeed Michael Jacobsen, who moved to the Provo District.Skyles began as a teacher in the district in the early 1960s, was a principal at Dugway for four years and then served as principal of Tooele High School for 15 years. He then joined the central staff as director of secondary and vocational education and for the past eight years he has been assistant superintendent.
"It takes awhile to know a district and its problems," said Skyles. "I think it is a privilege to be selected."
Among the problems he faces immediately are coming to agreement with the Tooele employee unions on contracts for the 1994-95 year, resolving a conflict with Nevada school officials over joint educational services in Wendover and anticipating how to handle a redistribution of students if the English Village housing in Dugway is closed by the federal government.
In Wendover, Elko School District officials plan to construct a high school on the Nevada side of the line. All the city's high school students now attend a high school in Utah. Unless the two states can agree on shared services, the small community could end up with two high schools.
Before leaving the district, Jacobsen asked the Utah Legislature for more than $300,000 to pay the costs for Utah students to be schooled in Nevada, which has much higher per-student expenditures. The Legislature may be asked to continue to consider the issue.