Park City school board president runs for Summit County Council seat

Meredith Reed is trying to turn school board leadership into countywide power, and that shift could matter most to the neighborhoods of Jeremy Ranch, Pinebrook and Summit Park. The Park City Board of Education president is running for Summit County Council District 5, a seat now drawn under Utah’s district-based election system rather than the old at-large model.

Reed announced her candidacy on December 31, 2025, and her campaign is built around housing, transportation and future planning. Those are not abstract issues in District 5, which sits in one of the county’s most closely watched growth corridors and is now one of only two council districts on the November 3, 2026 ballot. The county council serves as Summit County’s legislative branch, approving budgets, enacting ordinances and shaping local policy.

Her challenge is an incumbent one. Canice Harte, who was elected to his original County Council seat in 2022, is seeking reelection in the newly configured District 5. The race grew out of Utah’s HB 356, which forced Summit County to redraw its election system around districts. The county’s districting commission finalized the map in 2025 after a public process that had to account for population targets and neighborhood boundaries, including the Jeremy Ranch and Pinebrook area.

Reed’s profile leans heavily on her experience inside Park City schools, where she was elected to the board in 2022 and now serves as president. She has been on the front line of some of the district’s most difficult moments and says that taught her how to listen, manage conflict and work through emotionally charged public issues without losing sight of community goals. Earlier coverage described her as an Air Force veteran, a background that has also shaped her public image as she campaigns on accountability and transparency.

She has lived in Pinebrook with her husband, a retired Army colonel, after first renting there when they arrived in Park City in 2009. Reed has said she loves the community and believes deeply in public service. She argues that housing and transportation are tied directly to the county’s larger question of how to grow without losing livability, and she says need-restricted ownership housing must be part of the solution if workers are going to have a realistic chance to live in the community they serve.

That balancing act, between accommodating growth and preserving the feel of places like Pinebrook and Summit Park, is likely to define District 5. Reed has framed her pitch as one of “thoughtful, healthy collaboration,” a promise that will be tested by the council’s authority over the county’s budget, land use and long-term direction.