UVU benefits by having an ASD board member working at UVU in their teacher prep program which gives them prominence within ASD and gives principals reasons to hire UVU's students without direct pressure from John. “Oh, is this one of the students you reviewed?” I'm sure there's no potential for abuse because no district employee plays political games for advancement. ;) John doesn't need to attempt to “circumvent that process” as he states. It's the fact that the potential for abuse exists that his running creates a dilemma.

ASD benefits because they get one of their own back that loved Investigations math. The status quo can be maintained without a threat to the constructivist agenda.

Hi Kyle,

It appears that you have read Mr. Norton’s “Part II: John Burton’s Serious Ethical Dilemma.”

No, there is no conflict of interest and I will not resign my position at UVU if elected to the Alpine School District Board of Education.

I would never put pressure on any administrator to hire any candidate from UVU. My position here at the university does not depend upon how many prospective teachers I can place in Alpine or any other district.

On Mr. Norton’s website, he is simply speculating what might happen. I totally disagree with his speculation.

There is an established process in place for recommending and hiring teachers in the district. Principals interview and select the candidates they want for teaching positions at their schools. They make their recommendations to the Administrator of Human Resources. The Administrator of Human Resources takes these recommendations to the Superintendent who shares them with the board members and asks for their approval of the recommendations. As a board member I would never attempt to circumvent that process.

I have checked with both Alpine School District and Utah Valley University and neither entity sees any conflict of interest whatsoever!

Thanks for your email. Have a nice day.

John

In his error, however, if he disagreed with the plan, a meeting could have been called to alter the plan before implementation and it appears to me that that was not done. According to your report, he also did sign his support of it. That tells me that he actually does support the program, which contradicts his campaign claims, or he may very well be opposed to it, but did not read it before he signed his approval of it, which is a serious concern to consider.

The CRT scores in the link I gave you above just give the horror story as to what happened in the years immediately following the implementation of Investigations math in 2001. When I presented those graphs and data to the school board in 2005 they just tossed them in the “round file” and it took a couple more years of major effort to get rid of the program (sort of) after a lot of negative press and the legislature helping to raise state standards. The last few years they teach the times tables, long division, and division by fractions, when those were removed from the district for a few straight years. Unbelievable.