“I am so thrilled to have my two worlds collide here tonight.”

That’s how Taylorsville City Council Chairwoman Meredith Harker welcomed her “second world” inhabitants to the April 2 city council meeting. Residents of that alternate world have become a bit foreign to many of us – empty nesters, in particular.

They barely stand taller than our hip. They throw lots of words around we don’t understand. And they only know the leader of their world as “Mrs. Harker.”

Most don’t know her first name. A few are probably startled to learn teachers HAVE first names.

Harker’s Calvin S. Smith Elementary School third graders were invited to what was likely the first city council meeting they’ve ever attended, not by their first-nameless teacher – but by that lady whose first name is “Mayor.”

“Meredith (uh, that’s ‘Mrs. Harker’) did a school project with her students to have them design park features they’d like to see and play on,” Mayor Kristie Overson said. “The kids worked in small groups to come up with all kinds of ideas; zip lines, swimming pools, sports courts and several other things. Then they used artificial intelligence to create pictures. They are just wonderful. After I saw them, I knew our city council needed to see them, too.”

“The state recently changed our third-grade core curriculum for social studies and I love the changes,” Harker said. “It allowed me to teach my kids more about government, which is my passion. First, we focused on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But then I wanted then to study something more relatable, like how their local government determines what goes into their city parks.”

Harker is teaching 45 third graders in two different groups this year. She’s into her eighth year on the Taylorsville City Council; but has been helping to mold the minds of 8- and 9-year-olds a whole lot longer. She says work on the project that led to an April city council meeting actually began before Christmas.

“The first thing I did was invite Taylorsville City Planner Mark McGrath to come talk to the kids,” she explained. “He is such an expert on our city. He told them about what our area was like 100 years ago… 50 years ago… long before we were an actual city. He told them about railroad tracks that came through here decades ago – they loved that.”

After getting the students a little excited about municipal government (and you and I thought that wasn’t possible), Harker divided her students into groups of three, asking each trio to brainstorm a particular amenity they’d like to play on in a park.

“My students were great,” she said. “They shared ideas, discussed them, did some hand drawing of what they were thinking. Then I asked them to describe their ideas in as much detail as possible so we could enter those written descriptions into a computer AI program. When the computer produced drawings of their zip lines and swimming pools, my students were thrilled.”

As Harker described this learning exercise to the packed April 2 city council audience, many of her students exchanged proud glances and side hugs with their parents. Harker’s four fellow council members also smiled and nodded, while undoubtedly wishing they had a larger parks budget to turn the plans into reality.

“I invited Mayor Overson to come visit my class to see the park ideas and to talk with my students,” the council chair continued. “I told my three-student teams they each had one minute to make an oral presentation to the mayor. I guess she liked what she heard, because she quickly started talking about inviting the students to share their presentation at a city council meeting.”

And that’s what led to last month’s packed house.

“I just love the out-of-the-box thinking these students do; their creativity is just incredible,” Overson said. “I wanted these kids to have the full experience – to see how presentations like this are made at city council. The students are so smart. I learned we really need to involve younger minds in our park planning. Some of their ideas are completely doable.”

Luckily for the visiting students and their parents, the AI parks presentation came near the top of the city council agenda. After hearing Mrs. Harker brag about them and receiving their applause, about 90% of the audience slipped out to pose for a few group pictures.

Among them was 9-year-old third grader Sofie Bassett.

“It was my first city council meeting and I thought it was fun to see Mrs. Harker up in front, leading the council,” Sofie said. “She’s a really good teacher and really nice. We have lots of fun activities in class. I liked this project because my group got to design the swimming pool and hot tub. I was surprised by how good the AI pictures looked.”

Sofie is Stefanie Bassett’s fourth child to have Mrs. Harker for third grade.

“I think it is so great she serves on our city council,” Bassett said. “She is such a great example to Sofie that girls and women can do anything. And having the students design parks – what a great idea. Sofie seemed to learn so much.”

As most city residents already know, Taylorsville Park (4700 S. Redwood Road) is in the midst of a complete makeover now, while the brand-new Summit Park (6200 S. 3200 West) has new pickleball courts, with other amenities coming. It’s unclear whether any of Mrs. Harker’s student ideas can be incorporated into those sites. But city officials seem to agree, the issue will be funding – because the 8- and 9-year-olds’ ideas are solid. λ