Oops, twice: The State Office of Education got it wrong when it announced that 73 percent of Utah high schools met the standards of the state U-PASS, which determines whether students' learning is up to par. After rechecking the numbers, education officials said only 52 percent of high schools met the goals. It seems the state office had counted unevaluated schools as meeting the goals. The office made another error when it miscounted 35 schools as failing to reach federal achievement goals last month. We're sure these were only tabulation errors, but we hate to think those in charge of our kids' education are failing to get these important answers right.

Mending fences: The Granite School District has been accused of communicating poorly with parents. Administrators with weak listening and responding skills were blamed for a movement to break the district into smaller, more parent-friendly units. Now the district is making a good-faith effort to do better. One part of that effort is the addition of a translation and interpreting department to make sure students and parents whose first language is not English can understand what's going on. It's a great idea, even if it's a bit tardy.

Facing justice: Hard though it is to believe, the city of Orem is making ready to bring Betty Perry to trial for not watering her lawn and resisting arrest when an officer tried to cite her. A district court judge has set Feb. 11 on his calendar for a three-day jury trial. The 70-year-old grandmother will thus become an example of what happens to scofflaws in law-abiding, lawn-worshiping Utah County. We wonder, though, how much green it will cost taxpayers to make this point.