001Here [laughter] he comes. Welcome everyone. We are glad to see you all here. It is Thursday the 19th of February 2026. And at 5:30 in the evening, we are beginning our meeting. And we um are meeting uh in the boardroom on Legacy Campus tonight. Uh, we'll begin with roll call beginning with Randall. Randall Baggley, board member. >> Ryan Chambers, board member. >> Todd McKe, superintendent. Roger Pulse, board member. >> Terry Rhodess, board member. >> Kathy Christensen, board member. >> Alan Grunig, board member. Jeff Nielson, board member. Jared Black, business administrator. >> Thank you all. And we have a special guest this evening who will be here who is here to lead our pledge of allegiance. Could we have Isaac Hoff come to the front? >> Everyone, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> Stand
002up. Okay. >> All right. All right. You ready? >> Mhm. >> Okay. Go for it. [snorts] >> Pledge. I pledge allegiance. Pledge allegiance of America stands one God invisible and living for all sit down. This is for him. >> Thank you so much Isaac for coming and for his parents for bringing him. Our mission statement is to educate students for success in the ch in a changing world. And probably what most of you are here for is our recognitions part of our agenda. And that has teacher of the years this time. And we have three that we're excited to recognize this evening. Uh first we have Kenzie Shepard who teaches kindergarten at Wellsville Elementary and her award will be presented by Principal Glenn Harris. Well, it's an honor to be here tonight to be able
003to uh recognize our teacher of the year, Miss McKenzie Shepard. She's in her third year as a teacher. She's pretty new to the profession and and just in her second year uh as a kindergarten teacher. Um, and she has really hit her stride in the kindergarten classroom. Really, it's been her life dream, right, Kenzie? Uh, since she was a little girl to to have always wanted to be a teacher, and she's worked so hard to make that dream a reality. Uh, she's so coachable. She sought to implement and accomplish everything that's been asked of her. She loves her students and wants them to be able be able to be in a position to always learn at their best. She's very creative in her approach. Her students work hard to learn, but she makes it fun
004and engaging for them. They love having Miss Shepard as her teacher. In the short time that Kenzie has been with us, she's earned the respect and admiration of our staff, as has been demonstrated tonight, for they chose her to represent them uh as our teacher of the year at Wellsville. Let me just share a couple of things some of her peers had written about her. Kenzie is an incredible teacher. She works tirelessly to ensure the well-being of all the students in her class. She creates a calm, structured learning environment where each student feels valued and appreciated. She also uh she also is creative and fun in the way she teaches and helps students learn. Kenzie puts time and energy into helping her class be kind leaders here at school. Even to be kind to creatures
005smaller than we are, even bugs. >> Even bugs and spiders. She is so deserving of this award. We're lucky to have her here at Wellsville, helping shape our kindergarten kiddos into amazing individuals. And just one more from another pair. Kenzie is so sweet. She's an amazing teacher and does so much for our kindergarten students. Her classroom is a world of discovery and warmth. We are so lucky to have Miss Shepard. Thanks, Kenzie, for stri striving to be the best teacher you can be for your kids and representing our school so well as our teacher of the year. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> CONGRATULATION, Ken Kenzie. Thank you so much for being part of our team. Uh, next we have Angie Bger who teaches fifth grade. Sorry. Um, I see her every
006month uh at the school community council meeting at White Pine Elementary. And uh, her award will be presented by Joseph Johnson, principal at White Pine. Well, we are really excited for Angie. Um, but we're mostly excited for White Pine Elementary cuz she is a great teacher there and we're so excited to keep her this next year as well. Um, some things about Miss Bger. Um, Angie represents the very best of what education should be. Um, she's not only an exceptional classroom teacher, um, but she's also a compassionate mentor to students, but also to her fellow teachers. Um, a collaborative colleague and really a cornerstone to the Richmond community. Um, Angie consistently puts students first, um, working tirelessly to ensure that every child feels seen, valued, um, and capable of success. Um, parents deeply appreciate um
007the care that Angie shows to her to their students. Um, one parent shared that Miss Bger genuinely cares about the well-being of her students. Even when particularly challenging circumstances arise, she makes times time to help her students sort them out. She brings a rare energy of passion, creativity to the classroom, and we're highly impressed with her as an individual and as a teacher of our student. Another parent wrote that Angie goes above and beyond making sure that kids know she cares about them as people and truly wants them to grow. She shows up for all of her students every single day and she definitely makes learning fun and enjoyable. Our student has grown leaps and bounds. Um some of her colleagues also wrote a little bit about her. Um, one of her colleagues said that
008Angie gives it her all [laughter] every single day when she comes to school. She loves to see the students succeed and progress in all areas of learning according to their individual abilities. She is always searching for new and exciting ways to teach and to meet the needs of every individual student. So, they're eager eager to be at school. She has seen them write. She has them write in a daily journal which helps her learn more about those students and also connect with them. She reads those every single day. She's a great asset to the students, her colleagues and the community alike. Um, another colleague wrote that Angie is always willing to support our school in whatever capacity she is needed. Um, she serves on our PBIS committee and she's also serves on our school community.
009um council. She truly cares about her fellow teachers, the staff, the community, and most importantly her students. She has a giving heart that makes White Pine a unique place to be a part of. Um but probably Angie's biggest impact is on her students. Um I got an opportunity this last couple weeks to talk to her students and to ask them about her and just one student shared that Miss Bger is the best teacher that she has ever had. Um, she does such a great job at teaching that I actually want to come to school because learning is fun in her class. Another student told me that Miss Bger is so kind with all those O's. I feel that she knows me and what I need to do to be successful in her class. She also
010wants me to learn and I have learned more this year than I've ever learned in all my other classes. Um, beyond the classroom, like I said, Angie serves on our school community council. She's a huge impact on that council. Um, she brings a very unique perspective and we're so grateful for her. Uh, so let's give her a round of applause. [applause] [cheering] Congratulations, ANGIE. [applause] [applause] UH, last but not least, we have Holly Mitchell, who is a math teacher at Grand Canyon High School, and her award will be presented by Principal Jim Crosby. [applause] You need to me too. [laughter] >> Get over here. >> Sorry I didn't have all that fanfare for you. >> Well, it's okay. >> We're from a high school though, so we get that every day, right? [laughter] Um, it's
011kind of funny when we presented her with this award. We kind of did it without you even really knowing anything was coming. I just kind of in blind side. And she, it was funny. She got up there and I said, "You got anything to say?" and she said, "Why would I get this?" [laughter] And I was like, "Good question." And we didn't give her a lot of details then, but quite honestly, there's so many good things we could say about her. Her students love her. And before I even get into some of that, the best thing I say about her is she is built to be around kids since she loves kids. And she loves Green Canyon. Um, she's the perfect picture and model of what we want to have at Green Canyon with our
012with our culture. And she fits right in. I I lost track. I think it was four years ago. Oh, you came to us. >> Yeah, >> we hired you out of Las Vegas. >> Kind of. >> South Cash. >> Oh, yeah. South Cash. >> Get hired in August here. Like, >> that's true. >> Now, February. [laughter] >> But she comes, if you know her and you know her family, she comes from a great family, which I noticed her here tonight. Um, and she married into a great Logan family that we've I've known for my whole life. And it's just been fun to bring him in and watch her even with her own son. And it's pretty easy to see with her and her kids what kind of person she is and what kind of kid
013she raises. But I think the best thing I could tell everybody here about her is we have a great math department and and a math department that loves each other and really helps each other and the parents even tell me about all the time how they're so willing to help each other um helping kids with um whether it's in packour with help or whatever. But um Nan Kebie who I like to call the grandma of the school and I say that with love cuz she told me that might have been the best compliment I could ever give her calling her the grandma. um if when she pays a compliment, you know she means it. But she says Holly is literally the very best. She's the first person to volunteer to help kids and she goes
014and meets meets with the kids that struggle in math, probably the hardest and she knows how to connect with them. And I've been in her classroom and firsthand watched it. They love her. They can't say enough about her. I asked a few kids today, what could you say? And they said she's just the coolest. And I I I wish I could have her every for every math class. And she they they do mean this. So we love her and we're she's this is very welld deserved and our faculty loves her. So congrats. [applause] Congratulations, Holly. [applause] >> [laughter] >> Thank you for being part of our Cash County team. Um, can we have everyone who is here supporting one of these teachers stand up, please? Thank you so much. [applause] People [applause] say it takes
015a village to raise a child, but we know it takes a whole family, an extended family, and a village to support all of our great teachers, especially the ones who get go above and beyond and give so much of themselves to their classrooms. Thank you so much for participating and supporting your teachers. We love them. And now um we are going to uh move on to the business section of our meeting. So if you want to escape, this is the time to do it. >> What's that? [laughter] >> We did write this about her. [clears throat] Teacher of the year, you >> want to hang them in your house, right? >> Okay. Next on our agenda is a school report, one that um Allan and I have been excited to hear. Uh it will it's
016the Green Canyon High School report and it will be presented by Principal [snorts] Jim Crosby and we are excited to hear from him. >> Is Isaac your assistant? is for me. >> All right. Thank you, Isaac, for being here. >> Thank you. Look at this. >> Isaac, Isaac. Thanks, Isaac. Great. >> You have enough, Isaac. >> Hey, thank you very much. I'll take one more. Okay. Thanks. Come here, Isaac. Come here, buddy. While he's here, I figured I would just kind of introduce him a little bit. This is obviously we introduced him for the pledge, but this is Isaac Huff. Do you want to tell him what grade you're in? >> Mhm. >> Tell them what grade you're in. >> Um, I'm in ninth. >> Ninth grade. Yeah. N He came into our school this
017year and I tell you what, he I fell in love with this kid. pretty quick. Um he's probably one of the most friendly kids you'll ever meet. You got me choked up, bud. Um but he will make your day when you walk down the hallway. He'll just run up and give you a hug and tell you what, if I ever need a pickme up, which I don't need very often at Green Canyon, he's got me. And uh I wish you guys seen him yesterday and a few weeks ago. What did you do yesterday at the school? >> Um I always see Jim all the time and I love him. >> [laughter] >> They're going to think I paid you. Did you want to tell them about basketball? >> Um, I like playing basketball with Jimbo.
018[laughter] >> Yeah. He got to play in our unified sports. We had all the schools come yesterday to the school and they had a big basketball tournament. Huh. >> Mhm. >> And it was pretty fun. They got to do things under the lights and have our band played for him and you had a lot of fun. Pretty cool, huh? >> Yeah. It's pretty cool. >> Anyway, I wanted him to be able to say hi to you. He's a special kid and he's Green Canyon through and through. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Now you can go with your mom. >> Does that sound good? All right, buddy. [laughter] >> Thank you, Isaac. >> Sorry, but thanks for that. That was Isaac's pretty cool kid. Um, first I feel like it's an honor. I mean, just
019to be here tonight and get to present Green Canyon. I remember when I first heard this, I thought, well, that's not going to be very hard. And you can tell it gets hard for me cuz when I start talking about Green Canyon, it's uh [snorts] it's pretty easy to get um choked up cuz seriously, I feel like I wake up every day and work with the best people on the planet and and I truly mean that. Um some are here. Um but man, it's just it's fun. Um I promise I'll get it together here for a second. It just takes me a minute. But I work with the best team with my my assistants and we can sit together and we can laugh about anything. I tell we talk about it almost daily about how
020much people miss what we get to do or don't even realize what we get to do. And if they got to wear the goggles we wear, they will find out that high school kids are the most funny people on the planet and whether they're screwing up or not, we still find it funny. So, it's pretty fun for us. And Green Canyon is a very special place and we do everything we can to keep it that way. But we'll go through this. I know I'm not here for the entire thing and we'll get to what we need to, but um I just gave you the little packet cuz I thought that might be a little better to follow than just a power I'm not a PowerPoint guy. So when when Emily told me I needed to
021do, I was like, "Dang." Oh well, here we go. So, in fact, I think I told him I don't even know how to use this clicker. [laughter] Anyway, um I think everybody's heard our pack. I mean, we pretty much are in everybody's face with that. Our poor kids now, they hear it every day. We have it as our uh a pack advisory announcement and our newest teacher gets to [snorts] uh recite packed everybody and now you hear the kids in the hallways and they recite pack along with with the teacher and it's pretty fun to listen to but you you'd be hardressed to find any kid that didn't know why they were at school and what we stood for. Let's see. Which one am I clicking? Oh, that one. Okay. I just must have Oh,
022that's that popped up a little weird. Just quickly, there's our demographics. I mean, I know these are numbers you guys have probably seen, but I think the best thing you could get from that [snorts] is uh we're growing. We've just steadily been growing, I wouldn't say, at a high pace, but one of the things that uh affects our growth quite a bit is uh through the open enrollment and school choice. We get plenty of those every single year. Um, I know a couple weeks ago when we hit the school or the open enrollment button, I think we had nearly 100 kids wanting to come to us next year from other locations. Um, [snorts] and that is awesome cuz that's what we like at Green Canyon. We love to bring in lots of kids. That's just
023kind of been our model from day one. And and you can see where I mean we're obviously not very diverse. None of us are in Cash Valley, but you can see where those numbers balance out or what they look at right there. This is just real quick a quick chart. And I know data is a funny thing for me too. I believe in it. I like to w look at it behind the scenes. I don't like to send a lot of it in front of the teachers, but maybe behind the scenes is where we use it a little more. [cough] And I know we can throw up any kind of data to make us look good. So I thought, why not? There's ours. [laughter] So this is from the Aspire testing um that came in
024for us last year, which just speaks volumes for our kids. We're very proud of them. We believe our culture, which you're hearing me talk a lot about, is namely built on our academics. If you're not good in school and killing it academically, it's hard to get all the other things to go. But I credit that obviously with our parents, the kids that we get, our teachers. Um, we're always growing. And I think that's the next thing I can show you. Like I threw on this so it' be easier for you guys to read. But this is the Aspire uh testing data from the last two years. And I threw it up there so you could kind of see a comparison to see some growth. and you'll find that we we grow. We've we've been growing
025every year. I don't think we've had a number that's dropped below yet. [snorts] Um it's been fun to sit with my uh two administrators the last few weeks and go over a lot of these things and try to poke holes in it. But we've also find it very hardressed to find too many flaws. But we also know that good is the enemy of great and we are always wanting to improve and we've been meeting with our department heads quite a bit recently to figure out other ways to move the needle. But these are just some of the language arts testing data. I did ask why the ELLL didn't show up last year and what I found out on that was um it takes a while to get that because the numbers are so low in
026our schools that when it when they publish it they choose not to because it's pretty easy to find out who those kids are. So they keep that private and that's why the number from 23 24 is on there because that's a year past if that makes sense. Again, here's our math. We're very proud of our math. Again, we have a great math department. They they show great improvements every year. And then even last year where we showed a lot of great improvement was in our science. And um if you know high school kids, science isn't always their favorite, but it's it's nice to see that we're still improving there. Um, these are just a few bulletins I thought it would be uh good for you guys to see. I mean, we're very proud of our
027graduation rate. I know that all of us in Cash Valley have a very high graduation rate. Um, one of the things we really push hard at um, Green Canyon is obviously higher level classes a few uh, years back. We implemented the highest honor in our graduation to be in um the honors track or not necessarily the honors track but we call the top scholars which encourages kids to not just chase four O's that's okay but instead of chasing four O's let's uh let's chase high rigor and then we believe that translate into better students at the college level and you know brings them a little bit better on pace for the advancements in life and what they're going into and uh I believe the last time I checked and I don't think it's changed at
028Green Canyon I think offers the most AP classes and that's something we're very proud of. Um, that's what I believe helps us stand out throughout the state is how many we have and how many students we have in that. And then even our AP test rate, which you can see there, is at 74%. And our average uh ACT scores about I think a little bit above the state, but about where people would expect it to be. The career pathways, this one's we're very proud of. We had um I wouldn't say newer teachers. He's probably on by maybe year five. Uh Wyatt McDaniel, who's one of our CTE he uh teachers, has done an absolutely incredible job. And I'm angry because we lost him. He's going to move on to one of the elementary positions, but
029we put him in charge of CTE pathways and he absolutely hit it out of the park. He's changed it literally overnight. Um we have the 28 pathway options and we had 141 completers and I believe in that book that I gave you, you'll be able to see there's a little chart and you'll see that growth, how it jumped when Wyatt took over and started focusing on those pathways. Um, and then you can see that we have 16 AP class offerings, which again we're very, very proud of. And we love the fact that our kids are getting this high rigor, and I think that's a very good reflection of why they test so high. Um, you'll notice that the student I put the students there again and any of you I think most of you may
030know that the number fluctuates. I believe right now we're around 16 89ish, but we're at even one point up to 1711. Uh but this is something that we're actually very proud of and this is something we hear a lot about you know whether we go to conferences or sit in other meetings we hear a lot about student attendance and why is it so drastic and I don't you know we look at we like to look at things differently at Green Canyon when it comes to attendance. Um you'll notice that our overall student attendance is a 96.8 which I think is absolutely incredible uh for 1,700 students. And so we we look at that and I and I know it sounds like a weird number. It says chronically absent, but what that chronically absent number is,
031that 8.2 is you take that 3.2% that's left over there. And then that's the 8% of that is what's chronic. And when you calculate that into numbers, you're getting down into the low teens, which means those are the kids. They just refuse to come to school. We've used every option we can to find them and get them there. And they just they're just a few hand, you know, there's always a handful that won't come. And those are hard to move, you know, academically or even change their attendance. But where we like to choose to focus is that other little gap that's there. And that's those that might be failing a class, but they come to all their classes. And so we're constantly looking for new ways to remediate, reach those kids, kick them into our
032tier three or tier 2 intervention and reach them because that's where we believe we can move the needle, not focus so much on that lowhanging fruit of what kids we can't find, but find the ones we can find and really go get them and help them. And that's where we like to use attendance data. Um, another one I'm very proud of is our teacher. Um, overall our teacher retention. I wish we put that number on it, but 67% actually ranks very high in the state for teacher retention. And we have an overall teacher attendance of 91%. And I would say a big chunk of that is due to other activities, whether they're going to conferences, other workshops, um, taking kids to activities. Um, obviously there's vacations in there, but our teachers are very active and
033interactive with our students. challenges. I'm sure this is the one you guys were waiting for me to get to and I make sure we explain these correctly, but culture onboarding. I know that sounds like a fancy word. I didn't know what to call it, but I think everybody that's heard anything about Grand Canyon, you'll hear that culture is super important to us. One of our challenges is um in any given year, we're looking at at least a handful. I mean, a couple two or three. I know that this year we're going to look at five or six new teachers because we're shuffling people around or teachers have taken new positions um or retired. The thing that uh Gordon and Phil and I stress most about is how do you take a new teacher, bring them
034into a school that has such a great culture and teach them how to fit into our school and make it work and so the kids understand it. And when you start bringing in outsiders, it takes them a minute. So when I say culture on boarding, it's become a very cognizantly I mean we're cognizantly aware of how we have to do that and handle it and next year we're going to start actually implementing um on the Wednesday mornings with our collaboration. We're going to start doing some culture pieces with that so they get to know more teachers and understand how we all function and treat each other. Very very important to us. Um district collaboration. I don't want this one to be interpreted wrong. Um, and the way I wrote that, I don't know if that's
035necessarily how I mean it. The superintendent likes to use the uh freedom within a framework. I've heard him use that quite a bit. I call it the sandbox. Um, but the challenge for us is um when the new superintendent came in and with all the different things going, there's there's definitely new policies or or at least a change to them. There's tweaks. Um, and I can give you examples of those whether it's English curriculum or the new direction with a CT director and how funds are used and things like that. We want to play nice and we want to be on board with all that and we want our teachers and our faculty to to come on board and do that. But it's it's challenging when you're asking people, especially teachers, right, to make changes
036and they they kind of go through the the rough grasp for a minute, if you want to call, and it takes some caring to get them out of that. But that's one of I think that's one of our challenges is getting people to be on board with everything that's coming at them with them and still feel supported and feel like we're still green canyon. Um, societal, I think everybody's dealing with this, but I believe we're we're doing very well with it. Obviously, we're always worried about cell phones, the artificial intelligence, those kind of things. Legislative proposals. I currently sit on the um UHSA executive committee and they were begging me to come down even to the hearings this week and I'm like, I can't. there's too many things going on at the school. But I
037felt sick because there's so many House bills coming at us that just and um hopefully in my position, what I'm trying to do is just build a better relationship so that legislators and our people that represent us actually understand us and we can communicate clearly so all of our kids can just benefit. But those are just some of our challenges. There's a few others. Safety, obviously, we're always working on safety. We care about those kids so much and there's just a lot of challenges that come with that, but we're definitely working on it. finances, you know, with the fees being gone, that's never going to change. We have to get creative, but I think our teachers have adapted very very well to that and and we're we're doing just fine right now. And then obviously
038I've talked about this and it's the intervention strategies, reaching those kids that need our help and always finding new ways to reach them. And then as points of pride, I could go on and on about this and I'll make sure I keep it in check, but I put them all I think I mo wrote most of them out in that book so you could read them on your own a little bit. But we obviously feel very proud of everything we give our students and our faculty. Um what we we give them opportunities to do things. I'd say the best way to put that is we always want to put our teachers or any faculty member, staff member, even our kids in a leadership role. Give them that chance to grow and develop. feel that sense
039of belonging and obviously we want them to feel like they can get better in their profession and if they choose to go on to do something else that's great but we've given them the tools to do that so we're always looking for ways to do that we're we're very much a student driven school um I know Gordon snuck in here behind me even though I told him not to come but he's done an incredible job over the years building our um executive council and what we do with that and he's built he's done a great job building what we call our student senate where all kids have a voice they meet regularly We listen to them. We literally make sure they talk to us and we listen. Those kids know we'll listen to them and
040we will do and make changes accordingly and they do it as a group and they all know that they have buyin. And I think that's probably one of the best things I can say about why we're able to continue to have such a strong culture is cuz the kids own it. And I think that's come in a lot of maturity of what me as a person even being in education and my profession and that is stepping back and just being an instrument to let people go and develop and blossom and and just be the face of it. And when they own it, you get to ride that magic carpet with them. And man, it's pretty joyful. Um, but again, you'll notice I didn't focus on a lot of the extracurricular activities or things like that.
041We feel like we have a great balance. were very competitive, but man, if we lose a game at night, not many of us are going to lose sleep when we know how to keep it in check and I've made that a priority with our entire community. I think I lead that in the sense that athletics are not more important than anything else. And that goes for all the things, but we're so proud of everybody that's in that school, our band to our drama to our debate to we the people who just won the state championship and we have an incredible teacher and Mike Creby that takes care of that. I can go on and on about it, but I wrote a little story on there for you. But this picture represents Green Canyon. This was
042taken at the end of last year. When we ask kids what was their favorite memory or what they loved about Green Canyon, this is the memory they bring up. And this really, this was at the end of a basketball game, but it had nothing to do with a basketball game. Um, this was a night just a culminating night for the season where everybody knew it was just something big. And if you'll notice, it's kind of hard behind my I think you can see it in the notebook a little better, the picture, but we have obviously a very incredible band. We can we look really big because we can fill the seats with band kids. But if you come to one of our games right now, this is one of the fun stories. Our basketball coach
043went to the band, our drum line, and asked him what it would take for them to bring the team onto the court like they do the football field, and they said pizza. And he goes, "Now you got to up your game." And believe it or not, what they picked was White Crocs. Um, so the basketball team went and bought them white Crocs and our traditions just keep getting added to. But if you come to one of our games right now, you'll see a pack stands most of the time, which you don't see very often most high schools anymore. And to watch those band kids or those that drum line march our kids onto the floor and then hit the cadence that they hit and they're getting pretty famous for it, but every one of our
044kids stands and they all have the same motion and they they love our band and they cheer to it. My mom's even told me the best part of our games is coming to watch the drum line, not our own grandson. So, um, it's pretty special. And you'll see that it's not just our band. They're united with our student body. Our student body loves them. And I mean it when when I say they're the heartbeat of our school. But what you see there is a bunch of kids with their arms around each other singing a school song. Very proud of that moment. And it followed a very cool situation where one of our students that had cancer hit a big three-point shot. And what people can't see on that was we were playing Ridgeline, who I'd
045consider probably pretty big rival, but um every person in that building was cheering for Cash County. Um it wasn't, you know, it wasn't just Green Canyon, there was the valley came together and that's who Grand Canyon is. That's what I have. Questions? I just have a comment. >> Okay. >> So, um, Principal [snorts] Crosby, I don't get a chance. >> You can call me Jim. Principal's hard for me still. [laughter] >> I just want to say thank you. I I uh my kids go [snorts] to Mountain Crest. My wife's at Ridgeline, so I don't get to the North End as much. But >> you're the epitome of what I think for myself I would see as somebody who makes a huge important difference to 1700 high school kids and um I admire the culture that
046you have at Green Canyon and there's just so much that I think speaks to who you are and what you do and how you accomplish your job and it's you have a tough job and you do it phenomenally. Well, and I just want to say thanks. >> Thank you >> from my heart as a Wellsville guy for all you do >> in our district. >> Cool. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And just >> and from Hyde Park and having the kids go there. When I walk into that school, there's a great feeling. >> I do all the maturations and not all the schools in our other districts feel that way. and I just appreciate you so much in what you do and and the feeling and the attitude that the kids have. They care for
047each other and that comes from administration down. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, >> Jim. Will you tell us about your student senate? >> Um what are the ages of the kids on the student senate and when do they have meetings and uh what types of things do they do? >> Well, it's every age. I mean, we're going to have we have kids. I mean, because we have the freshman class, so you have, you know, your freshman class officers. So, you have your freshman, sophomore, junior class officers, the executive council, our ambassadors, which we don't talk enough about. It's funny. Uh I really actually have Gordon come and tell he's this is his baby. Um but our ambassadors are a group of kids. You know, we kind of look for extra kids to put
048in leadership and this thing's morphed into such a prestigious thing that we actually as administrators have to screen it down sometimes from close to 60 kids just to get it down to 16. and they they go through a pretty rigorous interview with us, which I mean that's just an incredible experience in itself, but they also have to come to us with what service they're going to do for the community. And they don't just say it, they they follow through. Our teacher that's over them makes them follow through with those uh service projects and they all work together. Um there's a representative from every organization. um you know from band to drama to the sports teams and obviously that not all of them attend all the time but for the most part it is it's a
049we go to our lecture hall and they pretty much fill the lecture hall and we let the executive council run that the student body president runs it. He comes with an agenda. We as administrators come and for the most part get to be the fly on the wall and watch them go through and talk about what's the plans for the school going forward, you know, in the next future, whether it's uh cleaning up some miscommunications on dances or um things in the future with um service projects for things they need to change. I can tell you one of the things we're going to throw at them next year and let them take control of is the roundabout outside the school. We've got permission now from the city to go and make improvements to that. we're
050going to hand that over to the student senate and that's going to become one of their things and they just they just plan and coordinate everything together and they all get a chance to say something and like I said Gordon's done a great job. It's now Erica Loftton who's over them and uh Kristen Lee who does the ambassadors and two young teachers now in leadership roles taking these kids to another level and and again I think the important part is they all know we we make sure they we beat it into their head. I know that sounds weird, but it's their voice that matters and it's our ears that are going to listen. We don't go in there and try to guide it necessarily. I mean, sometimes you get high school kids that go way
051out, but I think Gordon would vouch for it. We don't ever have to really pull them back in too much, do we? No, it's a pleasure to even be with them to watch it. It's pretty cool. And it just gives every kid in the school a voice, and that's that's life. That's what we want everywhere. So, if I understand you right, the Senate is made up of all of the student leaders in the school as well as a representative from each of the um organizations. >> Yep. Clubs are invited, you know, whether they're a president of a club or all are invited. >> Wow. How do you not have to have your meetings in the auditorium? [laughter] >> Well, like I said, not all. I mean, Dungeons and Dragons president doesn't necessarily come every time.
052>> Okay. [laughter] and you know not all the sports because sometimes it depends you know but um definitely our exec the ambassadors the class officers and many others and I think they I think the biggest part is they love to be with each other and they know they have that voice and um I also think we enjoy it because I know the kids do that that's a chance to be with them we love to be with those kids and we've been known to bring a few treats but um nothing like over the top you know it's a little candy bar here and there but they just they think it's fun to be with us and get to make decisions and sometimes we take things to the Senate that we don't know what to do. We're
053going to say, "Let's see what the kids say." >> Yeah. >> Great. Anyone else have questions? >> Great job, Jim. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> I love Wellsville, too. I was a mountain Chris guy for 20 years, so I've been everywhere. [laughter] >> And you left us behind and went to the North End. >> Yeah, I still have a lot of love for those guys. So, yeah, Mountain Crest will always be a very dear place in my heart. And it was a fun run out there for sure. but they're the ones that train me for where I'm at. So, okay. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for being here. >> All right. Next on our agenda is the public input section. And there is no one signed up for public input.
054Uh in general, is there anyone signed up for public input on school fee policy? >> No. >> All right. Thank you. >> Two down. Uh, and then we have a very long consent agenda and I will take a motion to either approve or amend the consent agenda as it's printed. >> I move that we approve the consent agenda. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda as it's printed. Most for those who can't see it, most of what's on there is uh policies that we have heard in the last two months and um those have been uh thoroughly vetted and uh amended as needed and are ready to be put in the policy uh book. So, it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion on this motion? All right, then
055we'll vote electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously. Thank you, Jared. Uh, next up we have our action agenda. We have two items on there. The first one is a request for approval of the sex ed instructional materials and the committee report uh that we heard two weeks ago. Um, so I'll take a motion on that action item. >> I move that we approve the sex education instructional materials and committee report. >> I second that. >> [clears throat] >> Uh, it's been moved and seconded that we approve the sex education instructional materials and committee report. Is there any discussion to this mot? Thanks for being here, Britney. >> You can ask me any questions you want. >> Really? >> Do you have any really >> about this? >>
056All right. Okay. Way to back out of that one quick. All right. Seeing none, we will vote electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the updated sex education instructional materials passes unanimously. >> Thanks Jared. Thanks Britney. Uh last on our action agenda, we have a request to authorize the purchase of land. And uh this is presented by Jared Black. It's been uh for those listening it's been presented multiple times in uh executive sessions in the last two months and or I guess it's the last three months about so uh this has been under uh discussion for some time and we had to wait on a grant and other things. Jared do you want to speak to this? >> You bet. Um so the uh USB just recently approved a variety of grant applications
057uh under the the category of catalyst center grants and uh Cash County School District was fortunate to have our grant application approved. This will allow the school district to uh build a a CAP center um over by the where the current uh transportation uh and and maintenance departments are at uh just off of 14th North. Um the so the cash school district presented a proposal that that uh combines u opportunities for students in cash loan boxer does it include rich as well? So okay so multiple school districts will will benefit from this proposal and the grant uh the funding provided through the grant uh will pay for the land that uh is being presented for approval by the board. It's about five uh just a little bit over five acres. The purchase price would be
0581.862 million. And uh the district has um had an appraisal performed on the property which came in at about 1.9 million. So just above the asking price. So, this again, this would be paid for from uh grant funding uh from the state through USB and then the district would be able to move forward in in building a CAPS uh facility. And John could maybe speak a little bit more to that if you'd like. Uh and the CAPS facility would also be built with with grant funding. >> John, do you want to say something about the CAPS program? >> Only if you want me to say something. Well, for the public who are listening, >> uh, say something about the proposed new building for the CAPS program. >> So, the CAPS program, uh, the proposed CAPS
059program is to, uh, provide six different strands of educational opportunities where kids get a unique opportunity to work with industry partners as well as industry mentors on a project that's assigned by the by that industry, uh, coached by a teacher. So, it's a great opportunity for kids in their junior and senior year to go above and beyond with an experience that is really a capstone experience. That's the that's the idea for these kids. Um, in addition, having this facility will allow us to be able to uh provide opportunities that are currently pigeonhold in just a single location. And I'll use for example the biotech um program. We we accepted a grant uh were awarded a grant a couple years ago, two or three years ago, and they gave us about a quarter of a million
060dollars to be able to to start a biotech program in in one of our schools. And we chose Green Canyon uh because the facility and that the space that they had available, etc. But the the drawback is only Green Canyon kids can really take advantage of that. And so being being able to have this facility, this CAPS facility, we can do these one-off programs and allow kids to take advantage of the same busing transportation that's already going to BTE um in the same time frames, etc., and have kids from all across the valley and not just the our own CCSD kids, but kids from the other districts that were mentioned. So, it's a great opportunity to to enhance the education for all kids. >> Thanks so much. That was a great explanation. Yep. >> All
061right. I will uh take a motion. >> I move that we approve the purchase of the 5.32 acre parcel of land in North Logan at 1,862,000 using the catalyst grant funds. >> I second it. >> It's been moved and seconded that we purchase the that we approve the purchase of the 5.32 acre parcel of land in North Logan at 1.86 862 million using catalyst grant funds. Any further discussion or questions for these presenters? All right, then we will vote electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the land purchase in North Logan as as previously explained passes unanimously. >> Thank you, Jared. And you're up next. U moving on to the reports agenda, we we'll hear the monthly financial report for January 2026. >> Thank you, President Elds. I've shared with school board members
062our our standard financial report. I apologize that I did not get my normal cover letter on that this month. Uh but a couple of things that that I would normally report on that that I'll share with you. We have uh closed out uh or or are nearing closing out a couple of the audits that we've been been participating in with the board's approval of the time and effort documentation policy. this evening, we'll uh be able to uh send that in and and close out our title three audit. Uh so we appreciate your your support of that. And uh we have also been working uh with a land trust audit in uh particularly with the rules of order and procedure uh for our land trust plans and uh we've satisfied all of the requirements of that
063audit. So, we got a letter uh earlier this month that that that audit had been closed out as well uh with with uh good results and both our elementary and secondary uh departments have worked closely with the schools to make sure that all of the things that we need to have online are there and uh I think it will uh improve our processes going forward with with our land trust plans. So, just wanted to report on those two audits. Great. Thank you very much. Uh, next on the reports agenda is board member reports. Anyone? All right. Um, then my board president report. I don't think most of you would have seen this, but Brian wrote an excellent letter to the members of the committee that are hearing the bill on uh introducing partisan politics into
064local school boards. And um I appreciated that. Are you okay if I read a part of that? All right. Sorry I didn't warn you beforehand. I just thought of it cuz I thought these guys haven't seen it. I don't think um so um I'll read just one part of his uh letter that he sent on our behalf and I appreciate it. He said, "I am registered as an unaffiliated voter in Utah actively supporting honorable men and women who run for public office. I care about family faith and freedom. I'm conservative by nature and advocate for moral and civic principles. The current state of our political environment is deeply divided. Partisan politics have disrupted civil discourse in all parts of our lives. Contempt has increased, causing lifelong neighbors and friends with differing political affiliation to stop
065talking. I see my role as a school board member to be the voice of my constituents providing a safe and supportive educational experience for children in my community irregardless of political affiliation. As a local school board, we are all friends and neighbors working to provide the very best environment for the rising generation. Political affiliation has never been the reason for any decision in the two years I've served on the school board. Pushing politics into elections for school boards will disrupt what we've created and maintained for many years. While I don't understand all the reasons behind HB256, I would think deeply about this new bill and how it may disrupt communities. Kids deserve our very best without partisan politics. Best regards, Brian Chambers. Thanks for doing that. >> Thanks. >> Appreciate it. Anybody else have something
066to add to that? >> I thought it was great. >> Yeah. Well done. Thanks, Brian. Uh, superintendent. >> Yes. Uh, my thanks too, Brian. I It was very well stated. Uh, a couple of things. First and foremost, I want to extend uh my gratitude to every staff member in our transportation department, facilities, custodial, our teachers, our aids, our school administrators. Um our that storm yesterday was very disruptive to everyone and it was a big lift on everyone's part to ensure that schools continue to move forward and that kids were safe and that at the end of the day we were able to get them home safely and I'm just grateful to everyone's response to that uh situation. You just never know what the weather is going to do in Cash Valley. um I've come to
067learn. Um but it's it's gratifying to know that we have people that will step up and u make sure that they're putting kids first in in all that we do. Uh secondly, I want to um extend my my thanks and gratitude uh to to John Anderson, Cindy Parkinson, Michael Tory um on the successful grant application for the Catalyst Center. Uh the board may recall that the legislature uh set aside $65 million last year session for catalyst centers. We were re rewarded awarded um nearly 15 and a quarter million dollars of that nearly uh 25% of the entire amount was given to the Cash County School District. And I give that give credit to those individuals that have worked for the past two and a half years on this concept of CAPS and how we might
068implement it and have a positive impact on students in our community. And so I'm just grateful for their their big lift and the work. And you know the real work starts as we have this money to to to work with. Uh two other items I want to share with the board. We just recent recently um were informed that Nibbilly Elementary was recognized for the second time this year uh for their excellent work. Uh this time they're being um noted as a bright spot for their third grade reading achievement and they will be featured in an upcoming edition of the 74 which is an education publication. So we're we're thrilled for their success and they're uh we continue to cheer them on. I also want to let the board know that I've approved an out ofstate
069travel request um over spring break uh for Mountain Crest baseball. They're traveling out of state for a baseball tournament, but it's over spring break and should not impact uh school days. And then last, um I don't know how to how to do this without um she knows that I don't get really emotional, [laughter] but uh tomorrow is uh my executive assistant's last day in the district. Emily Rigby is moving on to greener pastures. We're really thrilled for her because this is an outstanding opportunity for her to to move into human resources at Utah State. Uh but she's going to be a huge loss to us. She's been an incredible me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me
070me member of our executive team. She was the very first face um that I saw when I walked into the building for the very first time and I you know I I credit her with a lot of my transition and any success that I may have experienced. I I share that equally with her and we're going to miss her. So thank YOU >> [applause] >> THAT'S my report. >> Great. Thank you. And just so that you all board members know, um in case you haven't heard already, Kathy and I uh gave uh a gift basket from Cox Honeyland to um Emily last week cuz we didn't know if she'd be here this week. She might get antsy and leave early. I don't know. Anyway, [laughter]