Candidate for School Board - Park City School District

Peter Yogman

Park City School District #2 board candidate

Informal Bio

Park City Time

I moved to Park City in 1995 from the Portland, Oregon area.  My son was 3 and my daughter was 8.  Both of my children were educated in the Park City schools, although my son spent two years at the Winter School while he competed in national slope-style ski competitions.

My wife and I were both active in the schools.  We were early funders of the Education Foundation.  At this time I was running my own companies so I made time to be active in the classrooms.  I often tutored math in the elementary school, by teacher invitation, to kids who were not getting a particular concept or to kids who wanted more enrichment.  For instance, I did an intro to binary math (how computers work) to show how  “dumb” rules could allow numbers to be added with the kids flipping cards with a 0 or 1 on either side.   

I became more popular for my science demonstrations.  I taught an electro-magnetism unit in the fifth grade that culminated in bringing the Van de Graaff generator over from the high school.  We integrated a lot of hands-on fun with physics concepts and math, such as why the generator doesn’t kill you at several hundred thousand volts but 120 volts at an outlet is dangerous.  I taught a chemistry unit where we split water and then created tiny explosions to introduce concepts in chemistry around molecules and energy conservation.   I am thrilled that to this day some of those students, now young adults, remember the classes and come up to me on the street to say thanks.  As my kids got older I stepped back from this level of involvement.  I did some free tutoring in math for high school students.  I saw kids who were often on the verge of dropping out and for whom school seemed irrelevant to their lives.   These experiences have shaped my ideas on how schools can motivate kids and fail them.

When Park City had the initial influx of Hispanics my son and I decided to engage by volunteering for the Ninos on Skis program run by the Catholic Church.  We would “adopt” a Hispanic child and get them to ski lessons, ski with them, have them over, and meet their families.  As a result, I understand some of the issues with this community, but also remain confused on some of the persistent problems in education.  Our family also lived with a Mexican family in Mexico to learn Spanish – unfortunately now largely forgotten.

Re-engagement

It is great to see younger people come to town with children and reinvigorate our schools.  The recent bond, however, has now reinvigorated my own desire to re-engage at a different level.  There was so much that was wrong with this bond, both as to its content, its priorities, and the process by which it was created and marketed.  Simply voting YES for anything stamped “Schools” is no longer a viable option.  More detail on my concerns is located on my website (still in development).  As a result of my efforts in support of the NO vote I have done a great deal of independent research.  Topics in which I feel conversant include grade structure, full day kindergarten, pre-school, and neurological development and early year education.   I am aided in some of these topics by my cousin, who is a professor at Harvard and an MD with leading expertise in child development.

I believe we can have excellent schools by making well-researched and rational decisions that are mindful of clear priorities, our resources and the desires of families, neighborhoods, and the community as a whole.  Clarity, Collaboration, and Community are the words I have chosen to provide the guiding principles for how we must proceed to ensure the best future for our school system.

Education and Work Stuff

I grew up in Connecticut and went to public schools.  I graduated from Williams College with honors and highest distinction in my major, economics.  I received an MBA from the University of Chicago with a concentration in finance, where I also took upper level classes in mathematics and economics.  I had the unique experience of taking classes taught by subsequent Nobel Prize winners.

In the 1980’s I was the CFO of an energy company that built very large, complex energy projects.  A typical size was $200 to $400 million.  I closed billions of dollars of non-recourse, project debt.  I had to master almost all aspects of these projects, often find creative solutions to close financing, and negotiate with the world’s largest banks and best business attorneys.  I then started my own company in partnership with my previous employer to develop natural gas storage sites in the Western U.S.  One of the sites is operational in Utah.  I ran several geology teams evaluating locations.  Upon sale of this company, the knowledge we gained was used to start my next company that drilled for natural gas.  One of our discoveries is operational in Utah.

I have been pretty much retired since my late 40’s. I remain interested in new technology and have invested in public and private firms advancing biotechnology and revolutionary clean energy solutions.  For the latter I hope to see some very significan