Solid modeling and a cell tower

The Carbon County School District No.2 board of trustees met Monday for its monthly board meeting and quickly moved through agenda items.

For the first meeting after the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year, the board mostly discussed routine matters, also taking the time to approve a new solid modeling class for high school students and voting to approve a new cell tower adjacent to Saratoga Middle-High School (SMHS).

Jim Copeland, superintendent of CCSD No.2 schools, told the board of trustees that a solid modeling class that teaches students computer modeling would be a boon for students and would be a more cost-effective way to provide the class to students.

Currently, Copeland said, students interested in taking the class travel to a college campus.

Contracting with a CCSD No. 2 teacher who is qualified to teach the class in district would be a more cost effective solution, Copeland said. He added the cost of offering a contract to a certified teacher is less than paying tuition fees to a college.

The program will also expand the curriculum from a semester to a year, making it easier for students to follow along, Copeland said.

The course is particularly popular with students who plan to study engineering at college or seek work as a designer/draftsperson. The software the students will be taught is industry standard that is also used at the Sinclair Oil Refinery.

Copeland said Sinclair had expressed some interest in helping the school with the course. “I’m hoping that eventually it might work out to be an internship type of thing,” Copeland said.

The board voted unanimously to offer the contract for the solid modeling class.

The board also discussed the building of a cellular tower for Verizon in property adjacent to the school.

The tower would be built on land owned by the town of Saratoga, but due to zoning ordinances, the builder must get a petition from adjacent landowners, with more than 50 percent agreeing to the project.

There are only two landowners affected; the school district and Carbon County.

The tower, the board was told, is intended to offer to Verizon’s cellular service to Saratoga, as well as high speed 4G LTE internet. The tower has already been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration due to its proximity to Shively Field, and Verizon is currently working out a lease agreement with the town for the land.

After asking several questions about the tower, the board acted unanimously to allow board Chair Joe Gaspari to sign the petition in favor of the tower on behalf of CCSD No.2.

The next scheduled meeting of the CCSD No.2 Board of Directors is 4 p.m., Oct. 16 at Hanna Elementary School.