Huntsman praises vision

OREM — Many of the issues that politicians weigh in on each year are often irrelevant to their own generation, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said at a school ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday in Utah County.

"Politics by its very nature and decisionmaking by its very nature is forward thinking," he said. "The generation we're serving is not our own."

Huntsman spoke of investing in children during the dedication of a new wing at Northridge Elementary in Orem, where he also signed three recently passed bills into law.

• HB139 specifies how school board presidents and vice presidents are to be replaced when their positions become vacant.

• HB188 provides money for the Public Education Job Enhancement Program, which provides signing bonuses to teachers who have achieved a certain level of expertise in math and science and provides aid to teachers seeking master's degrees in those subjects.

• HB382 increases the Weighted Pupil Unit — the basic per student funding allocation. It also provides money to the State Board of Education for school supplies and the electronic high school, among other items, and modifies the formula for calculating increases in enrollment.

The governor has spent much of the week signing many of the 370 bills passed in the just completed legislative session into law, said Mike Mower, Huntsman's legislative liaison.

Shortly after the ceremony at Northridge, Huntsman and his entourage were rushed to the airport for a trip to southern Utah.

In the afternoon he visited Kanab High School, where he signed a resolution opposing nuclear testing and bills affecting the Agricultural Advisory Board and amendments to state land use laws.

By Thursday evening he was in St. George, where he signed 20 bills into law, ranging from education issues to the title insurance industry.

Mower said the governor is trying to coordinate the bill signings with their relevancy to the areas he visits — local economies, issues of concern or legislation that was sponsored by local representatives.

At Northridge Elementary, the 800 students greeted Utah's top executive. The new wing cost $2 million, took about 10 months to construct and covers 19,152 square feet.

The space will be used for specialty programs — music, arts, computers, science and social studies — to free up space in the older building for core classes.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com