001superintendent for Grant School District since uh about 268 days now. I I want to say so since uh July of late July of last year. Um and uh but I've been with Grant School District for almost 17 years now in different roles and capacities. So I'm happy to be with you. Here's the rest of our board. Karen Winder, Kim Chandler, Nicole McDermott. Chris W and Julie went to Chick-fil-A. Okay, so Julie's not here and sorry to excuse himself tonight. So there's a couple of folks here just want to make introductions to. We have our principal here at Granger High School. Not uh not all of you are uh from Granger High. This is kind of a westside um central meeting point. So but uh he's hosting us this evening. He's also um a newly appointed
002assistant superintendent at Durant School District and will be filling that role starting next year, starting July. And then I see Senator Dan Thatcher with us here tonight as well. He serves this area and really more now this way, right? Oh yeah, they took most of West Valley with redistricting. Yeah. And no more Tilla, but it goes straight south to almost without a map. You can't tell. I I can't describe it to you. It's too insane. I can't even remember. It's been a while. So, this is an hourlong meeting. It's just a chance for us as taxpayers, patrons, superintendent, board members to hear, get your questions answered, uh to address outstanding concerns. Couple of ground rules or norms as it were. I don't want to talk about individual kids or circumstances. Um I have to I
003had to adhere to federal privacy laws and I can't talk about individual circumstances. to have do that offline. So if there's an individual concern with respect to a student, let's make sure we have that conversation, but we do it in a private place so that we don't violate anybody's prophecy. Todd uh uh Hopper just walked in. He's our business administrator, essentially our CFO as well. Um so I put some slides together. I have seven slides. I don't have a presentation. I just wanted to bring them in case you had questions about them. So this meeting is yours. Um, and we can just start off and ask questions. What do you got for me today? Okay, Bray. Bray back here. Okay, so I am here with many members of the Arcadia PTA, Arcadia Elementary, as well
004as the community council for Arcadia. We have some questions about funding right now because we have noticed that our aids are now being fired at the end of the school year. We are struggling where our parents are not able to cover the gaps. There are multiple problems going on because we do not have the support systems in place. Our land trust funds are not being based off of how many students we actually have. You guys are projecting things that are lower and you're never making up the difference. So, our aids are getting time cut. We are drowning. We don't have the resources we need. We're losing teachers and aids at the end of the school year. We're It's We're all very very frustrated. Okay. I wrote down three things that I just want to make
005sure I cover them. Is that fair enough? Did you want to add to that list with the aids? I guess two aids that have been uh let go, I guess, essentially, but they're working for free right now. They're essentially volunteering. Julie Jackson who are getting paid are now volunteering because they cannot let the school just fail. Yeah. So, um I did get this question across my email and I looked into a little bit further. I'm still getting some additional information, but this is what I know right now. They got the same amount of funding as every other school in terms of aids and parents, but it appears there was a bookkeeping error at the school level where they were not making the contributions to retirements, which mean they're having to go back and back pay
006to the state. That is an HR issue with the grant school district for your guys's mistake. And now you're pulling it out of our school funds. Okay. So, with due respect, that's not a decision that's made at the the district level. That's a bookkeeping error made by the school itself. They're the ones responsible for the land trust. Districts don't have any authority over your land trust funds. So, it's there is some guidance that's provided by our accounting department and payroll department in terms of making those appropriate accommodations. I'm trying to figure out how to solve the problem, right? Besides just a total funding loss right now, but as you can see from some of our other projections and I'm happy to discuss the district's picture as a whole. Um, right now the short-term plan is
007to try to save as much money to make those back payments school because it is a school decision. So again, if this was a district problem, we would have seen this at other schools, right? But we have not seen that issue through the district. Also, the back pay is not nearly as much as they would be getting up front with just getting paid to work. Sure. And with respect, I barely have scratched the surface. That's what I just heard with respect my initial inquiry on the problem. I'm awaiting additional information. So I'm happy to follow up with you as soon as I have more information and details on what that looks like, what the total cost is and what the remedy is at this point in time. That's the para issue. Yeah. Right. Let's talk
008about projections. Okay. So as a school district as a whole, we're a declining enrollment district. Right. So we continue to see um enrollment declines because frankly you guys aren't having nearly as many kids as you used to. Okay. The other factor with [Music] respect to 600. Yeah, we do have an increase in charter schools in the area and they are certainly drawing students away from Granite School District. But if you look at our population as a whole, this is a data from an independent demographer firm called MGT. It used to be called Davis Demographics. They've done our last previous five-year projection. they won't project further than five years because it gets pretty cloudy in terms of that uh projection after that. So, we've gone back now that it's been 5 years. Their previous projection was
009pretty much spot on. So, we felt pretty good about uh recontracting with them to determine what the next five years looks like. And they're projecting that we will be down to 47,000 students by 2029. You can see right now we're in this period of place. Starting next fall, we expect to be in the 5,300 range. We're going to lose another 1,200 some odd students, 12-,400 students, about 2%. So, if you look at our overall projections, how our process works for staffing schools in the fall has been a process where we use a false uh fall staffing adjustment. Okay? So, what that means is come the fall, we actually look at your enrollment, right? We project in the spring that the school hires, right? And then come the fall, if they're higher or lower, um we
010have typically subsidized those teachers if they're they're lower than their actual amount unless they're significantly lower than what they were projected to be, right? And then we have to remove those teachers. For instance, at one of our elementary schools in in um the Magna area, we had to move three teachers because some of the growth and development um did not occur. Can I finish the Yes. Okay. Because I promise I'm going to answer the question. Well, I'm more Yes. Okay. I just find the projections are off. Okay. I'm getting there. Okay. I promise. Um and I want to make sure we answer your questions. So, if I don't answer your question, you can like slap me at that point in time. We'll make sure we answer your question. So with respect to that, typically our
011uh our projection and our process has been we make a projection. We hold schools harmless in the fall. If they're a little bit lower, if they're a lot of bit lower, then we have to move those teachers after the October one count. Okay? So that's a statewide count. And then it helps with an average daily membership throughout the year. Generally, we're funded from the previous year's amount of students, right? And so we can kind of work with that projection a little bit easier. We also had federal ESSER funds that helped us to subsidize schools that had higher um projections than actual enrollment. So we could subsidize those smaller class sizes, but that's not necessarily equitable either, right? So, uh, in conjunction with our our teachers union, we came up with a better process to eliminate,
012um, the fall staffing adjustment because it's not great for kids to have their teacher ripped out from underneath them after you've been in the school year for six six weeks, seven weeks, right? That's not good for kids. It's not good for teachers. Invariably, one of those teachers I was just telling you about eventually just quit because they were so traumatized by the situation and losing their kid and having to go to a new their kids and go to a new school. So that's just not a situation that works out very well. With declining enrollment, our projections have typically been off by about 2% districtwide. When you think about that as a school, it's it's anywhere between a quarter FTE or a quarter of a of a teacher or a half of a teacher depending on
013those circumstances. Okay? So that doesn't seem like a lot, but when you take it district-wide, that means we end up subsidizing anywhere between 20 to 40 teachers. There's no more esser federal funding that we can rely on to kind of help work through that situation anymore, right? And in addition to that, we don't have resources like other school districts do. I called Anthony Godfrey over at Jordan School District. His board has given him a million dollars just on the side to make any staffing adjustments and subsidize as necessary. Um Rick Robbins up in Canyon, same thing. There's some sort of process. Most other school districts are just learning to project better. So, we've got Todd who has a master's degree and he's super smart, knows how to do funny things with spreadsheets, right? And build
014in error codes and kind of look historically at how far we went off. What we find is our more seasoned veteran principles do a better job of projecting, right, than our newer principles, right? And so, typically, again, we've been about 2% off. So, we have been very conservative on this front end. So that next fall we don't have to move and replace teachers. We can simply add them if the projection is off. And we can do that starting in day one. If our kindergarten enrollment at I don't know our KD elementary is higher than we have projected, we'll immediately in July when we see those numbers start to come in be able to post and hire a new teacher at that point in time instead of waiting till October 1, which the current process and
015that happens. William Penn Elementary up uh in the Mil Creek area had 42 kids in in a kindergarten class and we had to wait under our old process till October one to shift all the teachers around uh to meet that need. With this new process, because we've held back and made sure we've been conservative with the the the resources we have, we'll immediately be able to remedy and hire the teachers based on the actual numbers. And guess what? In the past, if your projection started here, but halfway through the year, you ended up with 40 more kids. Does that happen on occasion? Yeah. Under the under the previous process or the current process, you didn't get more teachers. Now, because we're being very conservative on the front end, we'll have that resource to be able
016to plug into a school that sees a surge for whatever reason um throughout the school year. So, that is how we came to the projection process. Did I answer your question? Were I going to get slapped? All right. So you got you've got the projection going, you know, based off of your enrollment trends, but the actual population of Utah is growing. Not as much in Salt Lake County as it is in Utah County, I understand. But pretty much everywhere but Salt Lake County, right? Except for that southwest end. It's still growing though. It is. So it may not be due to birth rate, but it's happening because of migration. So we still see these enrollment trends dropping. Why? They're going to charter schools, private schools, things like that. So, why are they going to those?
017And I can tell you, declining test scores. They're comparing those test scores because we're teaching the stupid tests instead of, you know, actual good curriculum that those other schools are teaching to. And parents aren't stupid. Okay. Which school? Well, pull up Arcadia's test scores. Yeah. No, they're struggling and they're in CSI and we're working to provide some additional resources. But traditionally speaking, our schools are outperforming all of our our charter competition. Let me pull up an example for you. Go ahead. A lot of this too is how the aids are testing the students. Why don't you want to pull up our KDA? Because I know they're struggling. We're going to be providing some additional resources next year. Are you going to be providing a So my main issue is that the aids have been cut.
018I understand the teachers and the surplus, but my concern is you're projecting less than we always have. We always end up about 415 students and you're saying three something. But that means our land trust funds are not meeting the needs of our students every year because your projections are under. So our aids are under. Okay, here is Send Academy with an applesto apples comparison in West Valley. It's not performing outperforming its neighborhood schools. It's outperforming some other schools that have a light population. It's outperforming Mios. Roly Meadows, which is down the street from it. You can see orange, their proficiency is slightly higher than the 22%. Actually, Jim Bridger is outperforming it. Roly Meadows is outperforming it. Lincoln Elementary is outperforming it. And so the the uh orange is bad for Ascent Academy. And I
019guarantee if you look at this data comparison tool for just about any of the school charter schools in West Valley or within Granite School District, you'll see that the neighborhood applesto apples comparison, right, in terms of socioeconomics and demographics, they're not outperforming our schools. Arcadia is getting outperformed. Yes, it is. And we're going to be res. That's why I want to know. So what is going to be done? I know for two months straight. So I sit on that community council and my wife's heavily involved in the PTA. What's being done other than shadowing teachers, trying to come up with, you know, plans? Um the principal's getting swapped out. You know, I know some things are changing. Absolutely. But nothing's getting transmitted to the parent. Yeah. So, we're we're going in blind without getting any
020answers, you know, and we've got people literally pulling their kids out next year because of it. That's not going to help anything. No. And it's not helping anything because you guys aren't communicating. Okay, that's a valid point. And I'd be happy to make sure that we're communicating in terms we're calling um we're taking our average below our lowest schools. Now, I'm a new superintendent, so I apologize. Um I'm trying to figure some things out to make sure that on the resources this information in a bad way and I've got two kids at that school. Yeah. Well, just like she was saying, you guys project less than 400 students, but my our son's been there since first grade. He'll be in fifth grade next year. We've had 420 plus students, correct? Since our kids have gone
021there. So the the the projection is getting is way off compared to what we're actually in elementary the the hard part to project is the kindergarten, right? A lot of people don't know we don't they don't show up until they show up. It is but guaranteed like I I've been doing like the for example since my first year on PTA birthday bags for students. So I have to have the exact amount for every student. Now my first year on there we had four 420 students. We projected I give or take because you always have students move in throughout the year. I think I did like 430 440. We ended up giving all of them away by the end of the year because of students that move in. So we're getting more students than what it
022that's exactly right. Your mobility rate continues. Mobility is how many what percentage of students are moving in and out? We're getting more in than is leaving it seems like. So if that is in fact the case, are you going to get those teachers as soon as we know that the actual amount of students? And the answer is yes. And I don't have to wait until October one with our new projection system. So, as soon as we see those kindergarten enrollments start to climb higher than we're projecting, again, it's a conservative estimate for a reason, right? We don't want to give you a resource and then have to pull it away. We have a whole bunch of letters you guys to get. Our numbers are higher than correct. But that projection has nothing to do with
023your current land trust projection. Land trust projections, my understanding, go from the previous year's number. Is that correct, T? that it should still be so the land is never going to be based on a projection. It's always going to be based on an actual I thought it was asking me and I was about to confirm. Yes. Yeah. So, so land land trust is based on forecasts that the legislature has already done and then they're tred up when we get to the October one counts. Whatever your enrollment is on that October one date is how your lunch will be funded for the following year. Has nothing to do with that projection for that year you're for the year you're in. that is only used for our basis to hire teachers. Can I can I just add
024one thing, please? There's a big challenge that a superintendent will never actually be able to deal with. Okay. And yes, it's easy to throw bombs at the legislature, especially when we re we do have plenty today. But one of one of the big challenges as you talked about people moving schools is I saw frequently where a student would not be performing well in a charter school and Sometimes you can move from a charter to a different charter if it's not fitting your kid. But more often what you see is that they end up settling into the district school because the district school is walking typically is within walking districts. A a district school tends to collect or gather would you say at least a dozen kids. Prior to the change in state law and how
025the funding mechanism worked, we actually tracked several hundred students coming back into our schools, right, after the October one count because they used to be able to retain the funding with no WPU and with no addition. I'm sorry. Yes. The the way the pupil unit likes to pride ourselves on we're the most equitable funding distribution in in the nation. And it's actually true, but that's like being the tallest building in Toilla. Okay, we do have the most equitable funding distribution, but it doesn't take into consideration Title One. It doesn't take into consideration um English language learners. It doesn't take into consideration poverty. And so I just I want to say I I'm here not to support you or be your cheerleader. you know, maybe I can take a couple of shots on your behalf, but
026also you've been in the job less than a year. The fact that you already have a plan in place to address the October 10th cliff, I don't know if you guys have a better name for it. Um, I appreciate you being here and I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you taking responsibility, but I also feel like you at least deserve for these people to know that you are dealing with systemic decades long challenges plus an unprecedented unpredictability from state leadership and and you're doing it all on the fly nine months in. So, I I'm glad you're here. Sorry to interrupt. I just while you're sitting there graciously taking lumps, I just think it's important that people know what you can and cannot do and what you're dealing with and how much you're already under
027fire. And I think the idea behind our strategy is to try to limit the impact to our schools and our students. At the end of the day, the heart of our decision-m on that process is going to be what is going to be the least impact to our kids. Right? So that projection, I want to be clear, you asked a great question, is not tied to some of the state funding and that's all based on that October one count and the ADM which is called the average daily membership after that. Okay. So they're taking into account many considerations and then we get the funding from the state in in and through that process. But you're right, we do need to fix this AIDS and para issue and until I know more information about how that
028went down, I really can't solve it. Let me get back to the the question and concern about a failing school because that's really important to me too. So, uh, in the past, we've simply relied on what we call a school leadership and improvement director to kind of coach and support instructional quality within a school. And we have changed that. We now have what's called a student achievement leadership team in Granite School District. And that is every district level director um, and those uh, directors who oversee the schools. And we are taking, we literally just met again yesterday to finalize how we're going to identify our most struggling schools. And the idea is that we will take a three-year average of uh proficiency with those particular schools. We'll identify which schools need additional support. We bring
029in the professional development district directors, not just the supervisor are out in those schools on a regular basis. And the the whole goal is to improve uh tier one quality instruction. And that's when we say tier one instruction, that's the the first and foremost instruction that they get, right? Because sometimes teachers are coming into a classroom situation. Um sometimes it's bad habits. Sometimes it's teaching not the core standards that are required that they're going to actually get on the test. They didn't even know how to develop a lesson, right? And sometimes they just it's just poor instruction altogether. So they will be required as part of this boost school program. It's going to be 10 elementaryaries, uh, two junior highs, and two high schools. And we'll continue to run that three-year average on lowest proficiency.
030And the idea is if we can build the capacity of those teachers in those schools, now they might be identified as part of federal identification or state turnaround. Um, but either way, we're saying no more. You don't get to fall into this status anymore. So the idea is to track and identify those schools before they fall into some sort of targeted category from state or federal identification and make sure that we're boosting those schools to appropriate levels of proficiency. How are we paying for it? When we look at the idea of collaboration for the teachers, it was basically kicked back at us saying, well, nobody's going to pay for it. How are we going to pay for those teachers to be able to collaborate and get that extra? They are given collaboration time already and
031paid through the contract on Fridays and we are in negotiation right now with the association to look at um additional planning time to make sure those PLC's the planning the the collaboration is solid but but what you're talking about is is often a cultural problem within the school itself a systemic problem and sometimes it's just collective efficacy what I mean what I mean by that is sometimes teachers will go those kids can't learn and it's not my fault um these kids can't do this or that. And it's never a kid problem, I'll tell you that. Right? So, our efforts will be to build culture uh build collective efficacy and support those teachers with um appropriate professional development. And if they're not getting on board, then I have the authority to move them. And how are
032we going to communicate that to the rest of the school and parents? So, we're kind of finalizing this uh this process and that's why it really hasn't been communicated, right? but he's a member of SALT and he knows that uh we do need to communicate that and that's absolutely valid feedback and I appreciate you bringing that up. Let's come here and then we'll come back around. Mr. What percent of the This guy we've been friends forever. How forever this guy I don't feel comfortable calling Ben in this I sat in this room when was that 2016? It was probably 2008 on the first bond I think you were here. You're like three people here wanting to know why we were raising your taxes to build this building or to do this or that. Right. So,
033thanks for being here. What percent of fourth graders cannot read at grade level and why are we passing them down down? I know the old story. We can't. the legislature won't let us any any attempts been made to get some kind of a program that keeps kids behind or in a special setting so they can learn to read. Yeah. There and that's been a statewide effort, not just in Granite School District. Right. So SP 127 was passed I think two years ago. Um and it's a K through three reading intervention. There's special funding and programming that comes to make sure and you will see as part of salt and our efforts is if kids don't know how to read by at grade level by grade three they're really just in deep trouble the rest of
034so we're I'm looking over here at my high school principal why is your graduation rate this or that and the the answer is well seven years ago when they were in elementary school they didn't get the instruction and help support that they needed so really we're we're focusing more on our instruction instructional quality at the elementary level under my administration to make sure that kids have the ability and the supports that they need in order to be successful moving down the way. Why are we setting them on the fifth grade? Sure. It typically it there's another bill from 20 I want to say it was like 2019 or SB122 and it the number doesn't matter, right? If I was the old superintendent, I'd just make up a section of code because he was really good
035at that. He throw out a number 53G-4. I I'm pretty sure it was 2017 or 2018, but SP122 was a parental rights bill. And that allowed a parent to continue to either ask for their student to move forward or to be held back. And then depending on the circumstances, we will do that um in conjunction with the the parents request. The challenge and the difficulty is really when you get to the secondary level because we don't want to be retaining a perennial senior, a 20-year-old individual around 14 and 15 year old kids. Um, so it gets a little bit awkward. You know, we have people gra not graduating aging out to 12th grade who are functionally illiterate. It's not right. Sure. And and I want you to know that I actually teach in this school.
036This morning I was here teaching a core government class um to know and understand um to learn more about collective advocacy, make sure that I'm knowing understand the circumstances that our teachers are faced with. And obviously poverty has a high correlation to student outcomes, right? Um and we look at some of the data that people look at in terms of school quality and it's usually tied to some factor of socioeconomic status, right? And in reality, the highest factor in in a student's outcome has nothing to do with the school. It has everything to do with you guys as parents. Right. The second factor is teachers. We have so many so many people in that category that only have one parent at home. Yeah. Or both parents are working or a grandparent at home. Correct. The
037raising and they aren't going to get it. Absolutely. So do something different. We do. and and and when a student does get moved on, it's usually because they demonstrated some sort of proficiency and we want to build on what they do know. Let me let me give you an example. Granite School District, there's about 75 80,000 refugee families here in the state of Utah, right? They come from everywhere from Venezuela to Afghanistan, Iraq. I have a student in my class who is from Afghanistan and she speaks only Arabic. Okay. So, what do you think her reading proficiency is like? Okay, but I want you to know she's getting an A in my class. You want to know why? I have on my PowerPoint presentation, Arabic translation. I take all my assignments and I translate them
038into Arabic. She's able to take all of her tests and at the same time, she's still required to go through what what's our state weda weda testing and provide continued growth in terms of English proficiency. But I'm not going to stick that child who's smart and knows how to to to pass the class and take a test and know the content just because she doesn't know English very well and move her back to third grade, which is really where her English skills are at, right? So that's happening. We serve probably twothirds of those 80,000 families here in Granite School District. They settle in places like South Salt Lake and parts of Murray that we serve here in West Valley. Um, and some of those families are coming here with no formal education. Are we going
039to put a kid who's 14 years old, who's at a second grade level in terms of our American uh, standards in a a seven-year-old with a bunch of seven-year-olds? No. We're going to provide the necessary interventions and support to get them up to speed as soon as possible. And that's why you see a school like Granger High School that's actually performing quite well in terms of growth. We talk about two different types of ways to measure success. And even that state website that I just showed you with the data comparison, it has growth and it has proficiency. Proficiency is what we primarily talk about in terms of school success. What type of proficiency do those kids have? Right? Are they 90% proficiency? What does proficiency really mean? If I'm in 12th grade and 48% of
040the kids are proficient in language arts, English, right? What that really means is their readiness for college, right? And not all of our kids are going to go to college. And we shouldn't expect that all of our kids are going to go to college because I was at Silencer Company out here today with our CTE folks looking to expand an intern program with a manufacturing job that starts at $50,000 right out of high school and leads into a career that will make six figures within a 5-year period. That's a really good option for many of our kids. So being proficient in certain areas doesn't necessarily guarantee lifelong skills and success. So, our focus as a board of education and as a school district is to make sure that those kids, we want them to be
041proficient. Absolutely. But we also want them to be prepared to go get the life skills necessary to be able to get jobs and be successful and productive citizens who then can pay taxes to be able to fund the next generation of kids. Right? So, the other component of the state's um system in terms of measuring is that growth component, right? Because Mr. how I'm sure he's an amazing teacher when you taught you taught sixth grade way back when. Okay. If if you're dealing with a lower income population whose families don't necessarily have the ability to read with a kid every night, right? Um they might not have the ability to help them with their math assignments every night, but the teacher is amazing, but those kids are only at 20% proficiency. They might have 80%
042growth. And when when a teacher has an MGP or a growth percentile of 80% plus, that's an amazing teacher even if their proficiency is only at 20%. Because what's that telling us is that 80 plus% of their students are getting a full year's worth of growth or more. Right? So I can take a student that I think a lot of us look at every school year as like a 5K race, right? And we got to run that 3.1 miles. How many of you like to run? Nobody. I don't either. It's the worst thing ever, right? But, uh, when you we all think that all those kids are starting on the the starting line, right? And they're just going to run those 3.1 miles and that's a full year's worth of proof. I get to the
043finish line and yay, I passed third grade, right? But the reality is is if I'm impoverished, I'm probably actually not starting at the starting line. I'm probably actually going back a mile or two, sometimes 10 miles or more, and I'm starting back here. And then there's some kids who usually from higher economic circumstances who I mean if you take an average impoverished kid their average words going into kindergarten is 600 and middle class or higher is 2500. Is that because the kids are dumber? No. It's because they haven't been given the opportunity within within that home. So, I might be from that higher home and I might actually already be on the four mile mark and have finished that that 5k years worth of growth. And the idea is that whether I start here or
044whether I start all the way over here that every kid gets at least a full year's worth of growth every year and has the ability to go even more. And a good quality teacher doesn't just get one year's worth of growth out of a a refugee kid who's only lived in a refugee camp their whole lives. They're getting two, three years worth of growth, right? And then those kids eventually are going to catch up. So, it doesn't do me any good to take my friend Wall um who's a 12th grader and put her back with the fourth graders because she's very intelligent. She just doesn't speak English. So, we're helping her to learn English, but at the same time, I'm giving her the education that she needs right here and helping her to grow even
045more, if that makes sense. So, that's a good good question. I'm glad you brought that up, sir. I'm just a residential homeowner. And so, first of all, I want to say thank God Granite School District's been here to educate me and my two children who have both moved on to double degrees. And I don't even Where did they graduate from? Granite. Which Taylor Taylorville awesome. We got some Taylor'sville love here. I went from Cottonwood, you know, I mean that's, you know, it's first class out of it. But and I'm very successful in life, but it was Granite School District that gave us that foundation. So when people are beating it up, I think that somehow we need to realize that Granite is one of the best damn schools out there. And that's not just bias.
046It comes from experience of of seeing that now as an office technician. I've seen a lot of private the private schools when you got 12 year 14 15 year old kids running around playing tic-tac-toe all day long in the classrooms. Now I don't know if it's changed but those are in those private um what do you call them? Charter schools private school and all they're doing is just you know I don't there's no way that kid could have gotten a high school education. Sure. And I want to be clear, while we we feel confident that by and large 90 plus% of our schools are outperforming their neighborhood charter schools, it doesn't mean that some of our schools don't need to be improved, right? Enhanced. So, not all charter schools are bad. I want to be
047clear, right? And I'm not I'm uh I'm just saying from some of the things I've seen out there, I was concerned that they're going to get a degree or a diploma and they really were just housed, you know, and now like I say, that was 25 years ago I seen these charters. Okay. I don't know what they've done different. But the second point I'd like to make is on our taxes, we have our granite tax schools for our property. But then there's a charter. Does that charter belong to Granite? Because Granite used to have a like a charter program for the kids that are just failing completely. Right. So there's a couple different items and they changed it, I want to say, since 2021 whenever they consolidated the levies. And before that there was so
048we have a bas a statewide basic levy Todd I'm looking at you. Yep. And that goes into the flexible allocation. That right the basic levy goes into funding the minimum school program. Okay. And we have our own granite piece. There's how much is that divided into? Uh so you have two operating levies. The voted and the board local levy. What was the second one? Sorry. Board local. Yeah, local. Okay, thanks. I couldn't remember the term. So, these fund us, there's that basic that goes into a state fund and this is basically an equalization piece. So, what happens is because charter schools do not collect property tax revenue and they lose out on that piece of the revenue. Back in 1998, a long long time ago, okay, when charter schools were first implemented, the vision and
049the dream was that they could do it for cheaper, they could be more creative, they would have less regulation, and they'd be able to do things. Well, they keep clamoring for more and more of the regular funding and yet their performance is not they're not they're not necessarily outperforming. There's about five to 10 charter schools that are really just killing it statewide and and they have a model but they're also cherrypicking the best and the brightest kid. I mean they're attracting good for them, right? There's a reason Skyline is the number one traditional high school in the state of Utah. 50 plus percent of its kid come from out of the area and they want to be part of a tradition there, right? And so success breeds success. But the rest of those other charter
050schools are pretty much performing just what you'd expect based on their socioeconomics and their their demographics just like your traditional neighborhood public school. So that extra charter tax on there is private sector taking money out of my private. So charter schools are publicly funded. They're not considered private schools. So you have to compete with each other. We do. Okay. Now, one last question and I'll let me just say something real quick about this basic levy. So this goes into a general fund and then is allocated uh based on on a per pupil basis as well. But the idea is that charter schools don't have a ability to collect property tax revenue and it's a way for them to make up that difference. So, the last question I got, and I hope I don't get murdered
051for this one, is that with the hacking slash on the federal DOE, does that mother you guys, is that does that hurt you guys or not? Because they keep saying it doesn't, but it sounds like that it definitely destroys your uh special needs kids programs. So, there's a couple pieces to this and the the real answer is I'm just being honest with you, I don't know. Nobody knows. Yeah, nobody really knows. What we do know is that the primary source for funding, and Todd's going to be over there and correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't come through the department. It's not funded by the Department of Education. It's funded through separate legislation. So, Title One funding, which is impoverished school funding, special education funding, a lot of these come through ESA, IDA, and some of
052these other federal congressional legislative pieces. Those are not going away. Right. Right. So the money does sometimes get filtered through the department of education and then passed down to the state board of education that then allocates it back to us. Right. So my primary concern roughly 20 25% of our budget is fedally funded. Uh more 13 14%. Um how much of that school lunch? Uh probably a third of it. Okay. I think it's only about 8% if you take away school lunch. It is. So my primary concern is that's a huge that's a huge loss of revenue. So I I don't see the elimination of the Department of Education as a loss of funding. You've all heard too bad, right? Um the the thing that a lot of our special needs families are concerned about
053with the loss of the Department of Education is the Office of Civil Rights that provides protections for kids. If your if you feel like your child's being mistreated um is not receiving the special education services that they need or deserve as required by federal law, they're their their only renumeration or ability to appeal that is to go through the state board and eventually through the state the federal department of education. And then there's what's called the office of civil rights and they send out attorneys and they investigate things. So that whole thing that happened in Davis where they were under an OCR investigation, the Office of Civil Rights, and came and put sanctions on them and now we have campaigns about everybody's welcome here over there in the Davis School District. That's where my kids
054attend, right? So uh I've just seen this from them perforely. Um they've had to kind of jump through some hoops to make sure that they're abiding by the federal agreements, otherwise they would potentially lose their federal funds. So with the loss of the Department of Education, if that were to go away, a lot of that oversight regulation of those regulations and making sure that Congress's intent in following those special education requirements that would go away. So that's why a lot of our special education families are a little bit fearful of that. Is that a good way for your PR department to put the message out that on this lunch program for kids, free lunch for kids, that that might be the only down meal they get? Because I've got a lot of conservative. We won't
055go any further than that. They're really irritated that we're spending money for free lunches for kids. And when I tell them, look, that might be the only meal that kid get because if he's coming from a home where the parents are both alcoholics and he's haven't come to school, he hasn't had lunch or breakfast or anything and it's proven that these are are helping their performance because they've got some food in their belly. I mean, I don't know what you guys's all thoughts on this are, but if If that's the only meal that kid's going to get and we're complaining because we got to give a free lunch to somebody. How about breakfast? Yeah. I mean, that's what you guys are smart. See, because you've given that kid some nutrients and now he's going to
056do well in school. But there's a lot of conservative uh people out there that are so close mind on giving away like welfare if you want to call that. They don't understand that that kid is in a tough spot coming into your into your school. Yeah. So I have a couple of thoughts on this and I'll just share them briefly. at a macro level at a high level sometimes I feel that schools are overburdened that we're asked to do too many things right and there's all these require and even the state bless their hearts they keep throwing more there was over a hundred new requirements in the last two years on public schools in terms of new regulation in just the last two lists right so it's funny because they cry decry administrative costs not
057Daniel that over here I'm not talking about all the I vote no on everything they'll decry on one hand administrative cost but then give us more regulation that we have and hoops we have to jump through that but I have to hire somebody to be able to monitor this or check off that right so at a macro level I go oh I can't handle this like that's that's not conservatism or whatever schools should not be doing all of these things but then at a micro level when I'm looking at a hungry kid in the eyes and I know that they can't learn if they're starving um then I look at that situation a little bit differently Right. And so on one hand, I'm like, we shouldn't be doing this. I see a lot of waste
058in some of these federal programs in particular, but on the other hand, when I look at the day-to-day impact, there's a balance in there somewhere, right? Well, he's saving you money by feeding you because now he's not going to be behaving incorrectly in class. That's the idea, right? So, the whole goal was to get him through. Yeah. Because he was starving. And that's not the kids fault. They didn't get their circumstances. They had no we helped out one time and we created this little I won't make it longer than we created a little program for a special needs teacher called who killed the cookie and we had a microscope you had to look at the three white salt sugar and bacon soda and make a little symbol of it. Now these are kids who were
059having trouble spelling and writing right and then at the end they had to determine which one of the ingredients was incorrectly put in the cookie to kill it. And those kids sucked that down like like and these were kids who one kid wrote his when he would write a word he stacked letters all on top of each other you know so these were kids with horrible learning be I mean just they were the kids that weren't going to do good in class but yet they they sucked in on it. So, I just was wondering if there's, you know, if maybe with the groups that are just not going to make it, like you say, going to make it out of the system with some kind of education. I'm wondering if there's a way to and
060I know you're talking to just a normal person with all your degrees and everything if there's a way to create these kind of programs that would light up them and once they get lit then you're going they're going to I think and I think the broader answer is we need to partner with other entities within our communities to provide the whole services to families. So schools aren't burdened with some of these roles and responsibilities, but there are other services and our schools really come back to being that community center and we partner with a number of organizations that can come in and provide some of those additional types of supports. So the burden isn't on just educators, right? But I I will tell you the teacher that I've taken over her class here at Granger,
061she has a bin full of granola bars and fruit snacks and other things and she pulls it out every morning and the kids these are high school kids and they're hungry. And is that funded by this school? It's not out of her. But still, it's a problem. Let's come here really quick here and then we're going to swing over this way. I'm sorry if you feel I've been attacking you. I am very pro public education. I have six kids. My oldest is a freshman at USU. She graduated from Taylorville. I have a son that's going to be a senior at Taylorville. I have a child at Benny and I have three kids at Arcadia. We were going through the system. I've seen this happening for years. So, I've watched the trends, but like you were
062saying there our school um Arcadia and it feeds into Vinion and it feeds into Taylor'sville. Um we're struggling because you do have the socioeconomic problem. You have single parent families. You have parents that are working so much that they don't have time to care about their kids' education. They're just trying to eat, right? You you have kids that are speaking English and like I love the teachers at Arcadia. Um most of them are my friends. They're in my neighborhood. I have known them for decades. Um and they are doing the best they can and they are well trained but they have kids that a third of their class doesn't speak English. It's very very hard for them to teach to those kids. It's not like your high school student who can read Arabic, right? You
063have kids who are not reading so they can't They have to go. I was at Arcadia just the other day with the multilanguage learning specialist who had two kids that she was teaching had pulled aside out of class and was working through some basic um alphabet and and site words with and these are older kids. Right. Right. And but see what happens when you don't have a y and that is the problem. She's she's the one volunteering chapter of her day for free right now. She's working every as soon as I can figure out how to as soon as I know what the exact problem is, I I look forward to trying to resolve it. Yeah. Because the parents are burnout, but people are pulling their kids. Yeah. Because my sister and lives in that
064community. Her kids go to Arcadia. So, Right. And so I believe me, I'm hearing it. You don't feel attacked, by the way. I'm glad you're here and I'm glad that we get to talk about this. I just does that phone conversion thing. Are they using that a lot in the school? Like I will use it sometimes to converse with her directly. But I mean are the teachers being able to use that with all the students? They are. But so you have students who are a lot of Spanish speaking students, but then you also have Sudanese students in our area. So you have teachers that are trying to teach to all these different demographics. There's two of that. The thing is I think our teachers are great. And by the way, the state doesn't provide additional
065atrisisk funding for multil- language learners. They passed one bill this last session and the funding mechanism is in a way that will help Granite School District Schools. It will help a school that sees a surge in population from like two to seven kids. And we're already at 20,000 multilanguage learners in Granite. And you have teachers who like you can't train that you can't give them more education. They are just you're piling on top of them. The legislature is asking them to do more but not paying them anymore and they're and they are struggling and they are getting burnt. You got a teacher behind you who's also on the board of education. Let me just say this with respect to that. When we talk about our boost schools initiative, this is not intended to be punitive.
066This is intended to say be out in those classrooms and see what type of help and support those teachers need, right? And then making sure that the district is providing the resources. The thing that uh that's important to me is that our our district administrators and our district staff know that the district exists to support schools and that the schools don't exist to support the district. We are here because Arcadia exists. So, let's go make sure that Arcadia is being successful. And so, that's the whole approach behind Salt. and uh this new this new school initiative here and then here. We got to get all the way down the row and we're running out of time. Oh, mine was just related to the the comment. Do you So, I'm just wondering are we just taking
067money out of like the pool of funds for educating students to feed them too? No. The federal school lunch program is a federal initiative and kids either qualify for that or they don't. There was a bill that was passed this last legislative that session though that will potentially burden Crown School District moving forward in orderly and the intent is good. It's to take away all the reduced lunch kids and make them free lunch kids. But that financial burden only came with some onetime funding from the state. So invariably where is that going to be funded by? The local school district. And if 60 plus% of your kids are already on free and reduced lunch like they are here in Granite School District, that's going to impact Grant School District taxpayers a little bit differently than
068it will pine district, Canyon School District, Davis School District or in the 20%. What do we do about that? I'm looking at my legislators. Does school district have to pay for summer food for the children? That's all federally reimbursed as well. So you're paying for it. Granite school district is not paying for that. We're reimbured for that program. I'm looking at my business guy. So, your taxpayer dollars that you fund for us don't go to fund that. Okay. Right here, real quick. Um, how many teachers from Arcadia went to that learning thing in Las Vegas? I have no idea. You're talking about the PLC,000 that were So, we had a professional learning collaboration conference that was held in Las Vegas a few years ago. We used federal lesser funds. It was approved by the state
069board of education. Yes, they stayed at a hotel that cost $200 a night, which is actually a pretty swinging deal in Las Vegas. It is, but if I mean, in in the article, you had said that it what what the teachers had learned there helped at one school was the No, we had more than we had. It was 14 schools. 14 schools that participated and that conference was actually held here this last summer and we sent a bunch more teachers here. We didn't have to pay for the hotel. Did did the districts or did the country know that the that COVID money was not going to be a forever thing? Because I I do think it's ridiculous that 86 grand when we're already not the trouble with money. Now, let me put it this way.
070If if if your boss comes to you and says, "I'm going to give you this money, but you can only spend it on these five things, and one of them can't be salaries ongoing because that's onetime money, right? You don't want to fund an ongoing expense with onetime money. What's the best deal for that money? It's to do the one thing we could do with your money was improve HBAC systems in schools. We did that to the extent that we could, but guess what? We just put in air conditioning in all of our schools with the 2009 bond. So, most of those systems were already up to date, right? So, the next thing we can do is improve our teacher quality and their professional development. And then that was the nearest conference and the cheapest
071conference. The next nearest option was Kansas City, which that flight would have been a whole heck of a lot more. Could those teachers who went maybe come and help the other teachers in the district? Yeah, but you need to understand the content that they were learning. They were learning about PLC's, which our friend here was talking about collaboration time. And so the conference is actually intended to work with grade level teams within a school and not and actually teach them how to collaborate and learn how to work together to improve student outcomes. uh check for understandings um the whole process of sharing um instructional design and building lesson plans together and evaluating data. So the concept is it'd be great if we were all third grade teachers at Arcadia and one of us went to
072the conference but the other two of us would not really have caught the vision. The the the best practice is for all three of us to go do the training together and then go okay this is how we're going to function together as a team moving forward. So, was there a way that that could be figured out to make that money be able to be And I will tell you when that money was was allocated, we looked at just bringing the provider to Granite School District and doing it for more teachers and we we couldn't do it. We couldn't schedule them. So, our next best option was to go to them. Correct. I I understand that, but I just And we had another We had another 600 educators this last summer in July at the
073Salt Palace Convention Center for the same exact conference. It just happened to be here this year. That 36 for including some from Granger. 36 of them. Very good. And please know I I don't love the the optics of sending a teacher to Caesar's Palace, but that was the I'm not going to put them at Motel 6 in Las Vegas because then we found out conferences that when they're tested these, they go out in the hallway and and here's why I'm I don't like it. He's a kindergartener. He's gonna get distracted as with any most young kids that age. But if he gets a thing wrong, it goes against his testing and it goes against everything for him. If he gets distracted, they'll get a zero. Yeah. On something he masters. Yeah. And that goes on
074his test, right? Mr. And he doesn't get to redo it. No. Mr. Right. and and rice test and let me tell you I'm not a fan and pareducators because those are the ones that are doing these tests. They're the ones doing the interventions and which is why if they're the ones doing the test and they're the ones being that's not always the model, right? Why why is the district paying for it? I'd love to talk to you more about this. Let's get some more questions. We'll share contact information and and we can talk more about this real quick. Okay. Well, I'm actually and the reason I'm sensitive to your time is we actually have to get back into negotiations and as a board of education and discuss some more things and I'm I don't want
075to keep you here longer. I'll leave my contact information. We can perpetuate any additional questions that don't get answered. All right. That's like the fourth time I interrupted you. I apologize. I'm a retired early childhood teacher of 35 years plus the last eight years I've been working for my school. Um, and I feel I'm an expert in early childhood development. And it kind of goes along with all of you that are saying, um, we're doing it wrong to be honest. Um, I want you just to think about when you feel so overwhelmed or that you don't get it yet. It's it's not it. How good are you at learning something? Well, no, I shut down. Right. Kids do. So, kids shut down or their behavior goes. Absolutely. Okay. Everybody agrees with that and yet this
076is what we do. Okay. And you can probably because you guys are there, okay, in the paras or with the class. They go this they go to this and they go to this and they go this. If you don't get it, you go to this and this and this. Those kids are shut down. They're not learning anything more. in early childhood. All the early childhood teachers that I know and I know a lot of them they are so frustrated because it is not developmentally appropriate. Kids need time to do they need time to explore. They need to move their bodies. They are not made to go from this to this to this. It's like you are giving them a job. You are sitting here for eight hours, you know, well I guess it's six hours
077straight. Maybe be at a recess. Although if your behavior's bad, most of those kids have to stay in for recess. Should be doing that, and they're getting nothing. Yeah. Okay. So, they're shutting down. So, you're talking about your grades, you know, you all about the scores, all about the testing. And yet, I'll tell you, when my kids were in seventh grade and stuff, and I went because one of my kids blew a a thing very bright student that he was, he got a D and I made him take summer school and do that class plus another class. And they told me flat out, "Oh, it doesn't even count until Okay, well, school doesn't count. Why are we stressing these kids out so much? My grandkids are so stressed out they cannot perform anymore." in church.
078I'll just tell you, two months ago, in the middle of church and stuff, they had a prayer and stuff that um she gives the sacrament meeting. This little 11year-old prays that they aren't so stressed at school. Now, that's sad. It is sad. And if you ask anybody that their um mental health is both going up in the younger and younger kids and we're providing that to them in my opinion I think we're really you know so when you said you're stressed you're not learning you want our scores to go up let's give them exploration when they're little you add to it as they get older you don't start kindergarten I thought oh all day they're going to have a structured play to learn how play together because kids can't play together anymore. You know, they
079don't go out and play kickball anymore. They don't do any of this stuff. Why aren't we having structure where they can learn to cooperate where they learn and they get this and they go, "Oh, I'm interested in this. I'm No, this is what you were interested in." And I'm sorry, I'm still in the schools. Don't tell me that Granite doesn't do that because we do. And all of the programs are this and Why can't we change it? We can't. And there has to be a culture of less of compliance because compliance breeds mediocrity. Okay? And it has to be a compliance of making sure we're working in the best interest of kids. And that that comes through quality instructional practice. A good teacher is going to take the content and present it in a way
080in a fashion that it meets and differentiates each of the students needs. If you were all in my class here and I'm providing that instruction um and I'm not doing it in a way uh they're feeling that stress from the teacher, right? Yes. That teacher some teachers and I know because the principles I don't know what they did in some of it but there's many principles but I I said I know a lot of teachers and a lot of principles they're telling the teachers if your kids don't make this your job is on the line. How stressful do you think that is for them? Sure. And and and to be honest, build it on the kids. Where's that pressure coming from? As I said, why are we letting that happen? The state accountability system, right?
081Because if we don't show proficiency and growth and rise, then our then our families feel like our schools are failing. Okay. Can I ask? Okay. If you can't do anything, this can't be had like Oh, I can do Oh. Oh, I can do. Okay. All right. Why? culture of compliance breeds mediocrity because I guarantee if you kind of put on where the kids are ready for it and you give them the background and you give them what they're excited to learn and find out my kids when I taught and stuff they all made big progress but so I want to attract and retain the highest quality educators that know how to do that and that's true because because I also teach teachers and they're not all there they aren't I mean, I'll just say not
082all teachers are, but we aren't celebrating. You have a kid I've had kindergarten kids that are at a three-year-old or below level in first grade, and I get them to almost a 5-year-old, but they're supposed to be a seveny old, right? I think that's fantastic. But guess what? The way we have it, you're not doing that. Well, that's why we need to improve tier one instruction. That's why we need to make sure that our teachers have the supports necessary to teach multil- language learner kids, kids who are facing trauma. If you're graduating from college right now, do you know the best instructional practices to address English language learners? No, you don't. Do you know how to work with kids who have experienced trauma, trauma forced pedagogical practices? You probably don't. So, as a district, we're
083looking at our professional development. We're looking at the resources again we're providing teachers. We're looking at our coaching strategies to address this exact problem so that we're not just teaching to a test. We're creating an environment where kids want to be in school. They're excited to come to class. And that's another reason you're listening. And I'm not patting myself on the back as a teacher, but I had a kid who showed up 3 days before the end of the third term. Okay. He's flunky. I've never seen this kid before in my life. Right. What was the first thing I said to him? Hi, how are you? Welcome to my class, Cameron. It's so good to meet you. Don't take this quiz today. Okay, here's what I'd like you to work on. Can you fill out
084these assignments so we can get you a passing grade before and just raise your hand and I'll come over here and help you. Thanks so much for coming today. It is so good to see you. We're going to get you to graduation, right? And that is the strategy and approach we need. I am so sorry you all have more questions and I would like to be able to take more. I have a 30. And I do have a 30 second question. 30 seconds. What network is the new BI school going to be in? Has it been assigned a network? We're having an argument. So, well, you and I. Is there a fed? Is Chick-fil-A involved? Uh, is 100% positive. It's going to be that that's being I don't know the answer to that. Okay. Okay.
085Thank you. That's all I really email address. You are all welcome to email me anytime. And I cannot promise you that I will respond in 20 minutes, but I promise I will respond. He really does. We'll have opportunity to talk further. Let's not let this be the end of the conversation. Let's let this be the start of the conversation and let's make sure that we're providing the supports and we're not perfect. We're not. Well, you never will be with but we won't. But we're going to do our best. And I promise I promise I'm here for kids. Our board members are here for kids. Tyler is here for kids. And we're going to provide the best support and opportunities that we can to make sure that Arcadia grows and enhances, that Granger continues to grow
086in its graduation rate, and that our kids have the resources and support that they need. And that all starts with quality tier one instruction and making sure those kids want to be in our schools and they're excited. But are they going to change them? Because all since I've been here, they just get, okay, this program, this program, this program, and then they pile it up. We're working on overwhelming. Yep. And the teachers are overwhelmed. Why do you think so many are leaving? Yep. Teachers are leaving. Even principles are leaving. They are. [Music] that culture. I'm going to mix it up myself. lights and