School Board Meeting - Study Session: November 6, 2025

001starting this meeting, we were in uh several of us were in an internal audit committee meeting that went long and it's all due to the federal government shutdown. So anyway, >> blame that on every >> uh welcome everyone. It is no or Thursday, November 6th. We are meeting in the or we are meeting in the boardroom on legacy campus and we are glad you are all here and we will be begin with roll call starting with Brian >> Brian Chambers board member Jeff Nielsson board member Roger Pulzer board member >> Kathy Christian Jansen board member >> Alan Grunik board member Todd McKe superintendent >> Randall Baggley board member >> Terry Rhodess board member >> Peter Black business administrator >> thank you everyone And we uh Alan will lead us in the pledge and mission statement.

002Please rise. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Our mission is to educate students for success in a changing world. Thanks, Alan. And so, moving into the rest of our agenda, first up, we have our systems of support reports agenda. And we are very happy to welcome back Matt Dougdale from Stiffel Finance who is going to give us our bond report. >> Thank you, President. President Rhodess invited me to come and spend a couple hours um [laughter] walking you through the the drama of Gio Bond. So, I'm happy to start. Let's dig in. >> No, thank you so much for having me. I I will be brief. I I

003we do have a digital up there. I have a few hard copies if anyone would like and um you can use it as kindling if you'd like or um if you have trouble falling asleep tonight. But no, thank you. What a privilege for me to be here and uh what a privilege for me to partner with the district. And I am so pleased to come tonight almost exactly two years after your successful bond election to say that the bonds have been successfully issued and they are completed. The bonds are done. And so I just wanted to share a few highlights from from the process. Um and who who's driving? >> You should have a clip. Oh. Oh, I have Oh, thank you so much. Um, well, so as as you know, whenever you enter the

004capital markets, it's definitely a process and just I want to give my highest compliments certainly to the board um for the process you went through in starting this with your election. uh you ran a very great election and I think the results spoke for themselves and um the the bonding process then you did everything that's statutoily required and then we had just a great cadence over the last couple years and issuing the bonds. There was a lot of strategy which I'll I'll go over and and the results were very successful. So, a lot of steps along the way and maybe I'll just start briefly um with uh again just highest compliments on on the election that you ran. Uh 9700 votes cast in favor and um just just a really great success. Then in January

005after the election was passed, we uh the board adopted the parameters resolution and uh that set forth the the first statutory step after an election for the bond issuance process and the board uh created the maximum parameters for the b the bond issue uh and gave direction um to to your business administrator to move forward. Um, as we went through, uh, there's, uh, even prior to the election, as as many of you will recall, the the board actually saved millions of dollars for taxpayers by refinancing your prior bonds. So, before these bonds were even issued and and even approved by voters, the district underwent some refinancing transactions that were very successful. um a refunding in 2021 that uh saved taxpayers about $7.5 million. And those are not dollars over the the life of the bonds.

006Those were present value savings. So you book those in your financials as an economic gain that year. Um we came back the following year uh with another refunding, a little smaller, but still really great savings. So, prior to even putting out to vote the bonds, the district saved taxpayers $8.2 million. Um, and so that was folded into the analysis for the 139 million that was uh that was issued. And so, a lot of uh a lot of thought went into it. Of course, we followed uh this is just a little thumbnails of our bonding calendar. And I I I put this up just to really um so that you can um maybe uh give Jared a high five because in each of these dates he had to deal with me. Um, and so give him

007a high five for having the burden of having to deal with me. But, um, [laughter] the the rating process I did want to to mention, and I know the the board's aware of this, but just really want to offer my highest compliments to you for the great district that you run because as we were going through these uh, bond transactions, the district was actually upgraded. And for those listening um or [snorts] uh if this is recorded, that's basically your credit score improving drastically. So the district prior to February of 2024 was rated A1 and uh in February of 2024 was upgraded to a double A3. And that's significant because when it comes to bond ratings to go from uh a single A category to a double A category, that's you know as you walk upstairs

008that's a big stair to walk up. And so that was very significant and really want to extend um thanks to to Jared and his team in the business office, but also to superintendent and to President Rhodess for participating in those discussions with the rating analysts and their their input was very valuable and they played played a key role. Um but also to the board. You've just run a really great district and well deserving of of that upgrade. And so what does that mean for your taxpayers and your patrons? the bonds that were issued as a result of those upgrades basically uh the interest rate was lower and so you saved literally saved your taxpayers [clears throat] significant significant dollars um on you know uh the the rating analysts and these are third party groups oh

009and I I turned my page but not your the page up here um the third party rating agency uh that reviews the district is Moody's and you know they just site your growing economy your management plan um your your low leverage relative to peer districts and again this year when they sustained the double A3 rating mentioned again your strong local economy um your enrollment low leverage uh uh and also just overall management and positive rating metrics for the district. So congratulations. Um uh as as we enter the market, there's a lot of timing strategy. No one can really time the market, but but we do try to use as much data as we can to make sure you're entering the market at a good time. And I'm I'm pleased to report that um on both

010both transactions we um you know, we were able to issue um you know, in in kind of a trough in 2024. And then this year um you know we we issued when benchmark rates were were in a downward trend. And so um you know in looking at some of the again no one can control or predict the markets but um you using some good data we we set some good good targeted dates and I'm I'm pleased it worked out. So um I'll probably skip this again. Don't want to take too much of your time. I know you have a a big agenda here but a lot goes into the the package for investors. What are they buying? They're buying the rating. They're buying the the legal structure of your bonds, the structure of the bonds

011themselves. Um, and you had a lot of interest from some really great uh names in the market. This is interesting. As we go out to sell the bonds, it's it's kind of a an auction process and it's date specific and time specific. and appreciate President Rhodess and uh Superintendent for participating in this with with Jared Scott and I um and actually watching these bids come in. It's really exciting. You're on the front lines of the market and there's so many moving pieces akin to a corporation issuing an IPO of stock. You know, you're right there. And uh so in 2024, JP Morgan bought the the first trunch um 68 million 3.45% 45% and despite all the volatility we've seen in the markets this year in last month locked in uh BFA bought the bonds at

0123.58 so 3.45 45 and then a 3.58 um which again given that volatility great congratulations really great result and the um I I wanted to show this information because in our estimates in going through the bond election we had estimated about 4% on on the bond. So I'm pleased to say we were able to lock in lower than estimates. Let's see what else can I bore you with. Um one last slide. This this represents the district's annual bond payments. And to me, this just reflects good solid planning uh by your team. We like to see a downward trend in debt service because what that does is that just lays the foundation for the future. um if if you do uh need additional capital in the future um that that gives you some flexibility for um

013for future financings, future elections, whatever the board decides down the road, whatever your needs are. If this were an upward sloping debt service curve, that would be very challenging. So, we like steps, we like it downward slope, and um uh we we call it a a dinosaur tail. It's a great looking dinosaur tail. So, I'm happy to answer any questions. I know I cruised through that, but um again, just congratulations and thank you so much for the opportunity to to work with you and I'm so pleased at the results. >> So, my only question is when can [snorts] we refund bonds again? >> So, you have some refunding opportunities um in the next few years. Um we'll track those. Um your uh I think your next one is 2027. Okay. >> So, we'll keep an

014eye on those. >> All right. You got one question. What is NPV? What is that? >> Net present value. So, those are dollar today's dollars. >> Okay. >> How do we put that on bumper sticker? >> Uh, we Let's do it. Absolutely. I always joke that, you know, it's an economic gain. You book those savings as an economic gain on your financials. But unfortunately, we can't you can't spend present value on refunding savings. But it is it is a true economic gain. I have a question. This is not my area of expertise at all, but just looking at this graph, what happened to purple and blue from 230 to 235? Because the yellow is the series that came earlier than those two. So, how how does that work? >> So, those two uh were the

015refinancings that took that I mentioned. So, those uh those bonds did actually and this is another credit to your solid management. Um, what we did in those transactions is the the debt service did go out longer, but we actually did what we call a scoop and pull strategy where it's kind of converting your 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage because interest rates were so low. We could pay off that debt early. So, you're paying off that debt early on. >> Scoop and pull. Scoop that principle. Pull that forward. Pay it off early. >> Sounds like we said it sounds like something we said on the farm. >> Yeah. [clears throat] [laughter] It's better than the scoop and toss. We don't like to toss dead out further. We like to bring it forward. >> All right.

016>> Thank you very much. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me tonight. >> Thanks so much for coming, Matt. We appreciate you coming up. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, next up is Don Adams, our facility supervisor, giving us a update on our new construction. >> This is almost as exciting as Bonds. >> Matt is a tough act to follow. I'll I'll see if I can be as exciting. [laughter] >> My scoops and polls are a little more farm oriented, I think. So, and Matt, no pressure. You don't have to stay through the presentation. I promise. Okay. I do believe I heard that we have a long agenda, so I will try and be uh quick about it. [clears throat] Here's some great progress photos. October 25

017in the upper November 25 and the lower. Uh continued with some grading. Got some paving done around Hide Park Middle, the fire lane, and then at least a good pathway that leads us to the front door so we can avoid tracking in some dirt. Fingers crossed everyone that the weather holds and we start to get the paving in next week. So, we've been pushed back on some of our paving. Uh we've had quite a few projects um that the the pavers have been working on besides us, namely our friends at UD do up Logan Canyon, and they buy a lot more material than us, and so I could understand why they got the priority. They're also fighting some elevation and some colder temperatures. So, uh, we think we're holding. The precipitation that was projected was

018really minimal this morning, and so we don't see any negatives, and we're very hopeful that we'll get our paving taken care of. Uh, just some good uh looks at the uh the main entry and the media center. Media center, we're showing just the last little bit of ephus that's going on the building, and they'll be done before weather sets in. And so, the kind of the the capping of the building is finishing off. Uh we're getting rid of any uh water infiltration spots on the roof. So we're pretty darn happy that we're going to be weathered in. So we've had some good advancements. Our windows that are about 95% fire sprinklers moving quickly at 75. Uh you'll see some good pictures of the ceiling grid and some of the lighting. Most of our interior framing

019is done. uh our exterior block. Again, we just have these little things that that that will probably wait throughout the winter to get completed. About 60% of our drywalls in, so they're moving very quick. Structural steel roof deck, our roofing uh is done, our fire lanes done, and we have all our mechanical units on the top. So, it's great to see the completes list starting to grow. [clears throat] for all the electricians that are watching us. Uh the exciting part of the main electrical room moving right along. These are big things for us because uh these are big check boxes. There's a lot of equipment take a lot of time to do. Uh some of the pretty things that are happening. You're seeing some of the uh ceiling grid, the lighting and the mill work

020starting to to show up. And believe it or not, these little squares, that's your new LED light. So, that little square puts out a little bit more light than your traditional lighting. So, uh it looks pretty fancy. We're excited to see it. Again, uh that main hallway gathering seating starting to frame in and you can see all of that drywall going on at Hyde Park Middle. Our drywall is already in the kitchen area. We have framed the internal part of the counseling center. put this in your memory because you'll see uh in the Nibbi Middle School that it actually is further along. So, we'll compare and contrast here in a bit. Our dressing rooms uh moving right along. That drywall will be up, the plumbing will be in, and we'll actually uh progress to tile

021uh in the not too distant future. And then this main hallway, uh the drywall's up. It's a little hard. Uh again, a compare contrast. We're ahead of drywall in the main hallway at Hyde Park compared to our friends at Nibbi. So, you'll see how that staggered construction uh is working. Starting to get our tile uh going on in our restrooms. And uh of course, our our tradesmen, our true craftsmen, you can see here that they're very careful to mock up something on the floor to make sure they get it right before they start cutting and putting it up. So, these guys have really uh I've been impressed with their quality. They're doing a nice job. They're very thoughtful. They make sure that the contractor and the designers are happy with the mock-ups before they move

022on. So, upcoming [clears throat] more paint, more cabinets and mill work, uh the pavement. We're starting to get some of the electrical finish in the classroom. That means we're putting in outlets, cover plates, etc. Um, for me, the electrical closets and the panels should finish up uh hopefully in the next month. More HVAC distribution. We've been harping on that in this meeting now for about 6 months. And it's because there's a lot to do. So, we're putting a lot of HVAC in. And then the title and the restrooms will continue. Uh, I'll try and give you a heads up before we hit some of the bigger areas such as the kitchen and um the the dressing rooms. We're anxious to get started in the kitchen because that drives we can put up the power distribution

023in the kitchen which drives the kitchen equipment. So, you'll see me start to to get a little antsy on that kitchen in the not too distant future. I think we'll hit it. I think we'll be fine, but um it's a big part of the building to make sure that we deliver for all the kitchen work. Okay, our friends at Hyde Park Elementary, if you remember last month, I said, "Boy, when those tilt panels start to go up, suddenly there's a building." So, it didn't take us very long to go from footings and foundations to standing up approximately 40 45% of the panels. And we even start to see some of the roof truss work showing up here. So, our joists are going in, which at the end of the day really hold that building together.

024Once we start some of the roof deck, um the [clears throat] crane operator is efficient. So, uh, we'll see the crane come back on site and, uh, he should have that building tilted up, uh, before we leave for the Thanksgiving break. This guy actually scared me. I have some video of this. He was moving that crane so fast that the the guys with the guy wires almost had to break out into a jog to keep up with him. And he set it down quick and gentle. and um he does a good job. We get him back on November 10th, so we're pretty excited to see some of that happening. This gives you a good idea of some of the texture that's showing up on on the building to give it some interest. And we're finishing

025up some of our last uh cast concrete walls uh that are part of uh kind of internal wall structure, but really retaining walls as well. So, u this is starting to look really good when they peel it off. Uh they are they are making hay while the sun shines uh at the project right now. Uh last Friday starting at 4:00 a.m. we started to pour the last of our 52 panels. And you you can see we even have some roof deck going in from when we took the aerial photography on November 1 until this was yesterday's progress. So we're starting to uh to really get going trying to to get everything done that we can. So again, tilt panels for A and B are up. We're starting that roof framing. Hopefully around the 12th, we'll

026start putting those panels in place again. The crane comes back on the 10th. We believe they spend about 2 days putting the crane together with another crane. It's really interesting to watch. A cavalcade of trucks come in and suddenly you have a crane a couple of days later. And then we'll lift all those steel panels in place. uh Nibbi Middle. Uh there's a lot more asphalt down uh at that school. So, in the month between the two images, you'll notice that we put in the circulation roadway, which connects up to the neighborhood and our north uh parking lot. We did complete, of course, all of the roofing and we have all of our mechanical units in place. So, uh they're they're rushing as well. Main entry um including the awning is up and starting to

027to finish some of our roofing. And then just a nice shot of the gymnasium, noting that we're getting most of those windows in place and getting ready uh to weather in that building as well. So, we're a little farther ahead. We have about 98% of our sprinklers done there. Ahead on fire sprinklers by about 5%. Ceiling grid is coming along. Um the images you'll see show ceiling grid, but no electrical finish out in these particular rooms at this time. And again, our interior framing and block are on pace with the other school. the check off list. Same structural steel roof deck. Roofing. Yay. That north parking lot pavement. That's also where the buses do their pickup and drop off. And then of course we have our mechanical units on the roof there. You you can

028test your memory and see that we're about the same condition uh in our dressing room areas. Um hide parks a little bit ahead, but that's okay. Uh the framing for the stage is a little further ahead at Nibi. restroom wall tile going up here. We have some insulation. And then again, just trying to close in that gymnasium. These are on the north side. So, good progress in in all of the large areas. Here's the difference in your counseling center. If you'll notice, the framing extends out about 8 ft into the hallway. So, this is showing you your final space that's in front of the counter and everything in the counseling center. And then just kind of the architects love these little fun treatments that bring more uh light into the space. The main office framing

029is right behind. Again, you can see how it's coming out and meeting the main hallway. Again, their gathering seats are are uh in place as well. So again, when we say our framing is about 95% at each building, everything's looking really uh really good. They have some of their mechanical room main plumbing in. Those are the big things that again I like to see. And you'll notice that the drywall at Nibi starts really in the south and we don't have that northern section completed yet. So, it just shows you how the schools nibbly starting three weeks later is trying to play catch-up and gain on on hide park. Uh we're going to focus on some electrical distribution in the building. Uh really trying to finish that plumbing rough end, mainly the culinary, the hydronics, the

030heating and cooling side uh will come together, but they're really trying to get that culinary done. They'll focus on the large areas like the cafeteria and hallways. those second story levels, a lot of lifts, a lot of manpower associated with that. So, it doesn't come together as quickly even though they're they're doing a lot of good work and their fire sprinklers are tracking right where they should [sighs] >> that was fast. It's been a busy few weeks uh on our side of the operation. Uh folks are working really hard. There's a sense of urgency. >> No pressure. Tons of seen snow on the 20th. >> Tons of pressure. Tons of pressure. >> Snow on the 20th. >> Oh, but I just checked the 10day forecast and we're good. >> I like our prediction better. Now,

031we we spent some time in construction meetings and even on our on our our discussions today talking about winter conditions, making sure they're prepared. The two junior highs are weathered in. They're heating them uh right now with with portable natural gas heaters. As a matter of fact, by the time it's 11 o'clock in the junior highs, you cannot walk around upstairs. It's that hot as the heat rises. >> Yeah. So, um I'm not worried about the middle schools. >> Are you Are you going to superintendent ask me how I feel about the elementary? >> Don, [snorts] how do you feel about the elementary? >> But the crane operator's coming back in four days. >> Yeah, I we're excited to have him. He's he's really helped kind of ease our our concerns on the walls. Um

032we talked about all of the heating that we'll need to do is temporary uh issues or temporary tenting if we need to for rough plumbing, rough electrical. It's tight. There is not a person on the project that will not tell you that the elementary is tight. And uh I think um the discussions today were really we will we will understand our fate good, bad or indifferent by January 15th. >> Okay. So that's the day. >> All I need is a chance. Is there a chance? >> January 15th. Yeah. We're pushing hard. We're we're not going to stop. We're not going to stop. No. >> There's a chance. >> Okay. Yeah. Any other questions for us? Is it possible to add more workers to speed it along? >> They're actually staffed up really well. And so

033the junior highs are seeing um anywhere between 80 and 90 employees on site every day. And I would say that the elementary with the limited trades that are on board, we're probably in the 50 range, which for footing foundation, masonry work, and tilt panels is a lot of guys. if they start getting many more, they'll probably start to trip over each other. And so I haven't seen a push for for more employees being the need. We have seen some of the subtrades uh actually starting to think and implement Saturdays uh as as extra time. So they're recognizing their schedule and they're responding. And the nice thing is they're doing it without the district having to prompt them. So, so it is really nice to see them take ownership and say, you know what, to get

034us where we need, we'll work six days. So, I I I mean, kudos to the subs, kudos to DWA. Um, you don't often find that with your sub trades being that proactive. >> So, we're pretty excited about that. Hopefully that answers some of the questions. >> Okay. >> My last question is, >> yes, ma'am. >> Did you find a house yet? >> NO. >> [laughter] >> NO, I HAVEN'T YET. BUT >> OKAY, >> we'll get there. We I I focus more on the schools than I do on my house. So, yeah. Yeah, we're good, though. Appreciate it. >> Good. >> Okay. Thanks. >> We have uh three extra bedrooms at our house. >> There could be some snowy nights. If the superintendent is correct, I'm going to call you. Appreciate it. Thanks for [laughter] >>

035um uh next up in our systems of support agenda, we are going to talk about our first ever student activities policy and procedure >> elementary naming. >> Oh, sorry. We're going to talk about our first ever uh elementary in Hyde Park between Third and Fifth North. and uh principal Amy McNeel, who is has been hired to be the principal for that new elementary, um although she's currently serving at Summit Elementary in Smithfield, will come and talk to us about the naming of the new High Park Elementary School. >> Okay, thank you. Thank you for having me here. I do have a little presentation to share with you just so you can get [clears throat] a better idea of what the results were with our community with our voting. I can probably pull it. Um, >>

036I think we have it. >> Okay. All right. So, we'll just kind of walk through this together then if you can look at it >> then. Um, so just the first couple slides is just a little bit of a background of the process that we went through. Um, sending information out to the community to give us suggestions. Oh, there we go. um give us some suggestions on possible names and mascots. And then we also utilize that to give us some information on interest in serving on committees for the new school. You can see we received 110 responses and 32 of those responders expressed interest in committees. And so as we looked closer at the committees and the amount of people that we responded, we noticed we had 13 community members who expressed interest in only

037being on the naming committee. And then we had 19 additional. So to narrow that down, we decided to go ahead and choose those that just wanted to be on the naming committee. And so those invitations were sent out to them. Then we had our first naming committee meeting. This was held on October 23rd. We had five out of the 13 members attend. So, we did have a little bit lower attendance on that first meeting. And the process of the meeting, we talked about norms and the parameters and the district parameters as far as naming a school. And we went through the survey and removed the duplicates. We reviewed the current school names and mascots. And then as a committee, we narrowed those selection the selections down to three options. And those three options came down

038to Alpine uh hills, uh pirates, berry hollow badgers, and old ephraim cubs. Um so we prepared the survey with the final three selections. We did add an additional comments box so we could get additional feedback from those three options and that was sent out to the community. Once that came in, we had our second meeting. We had nine um attend that meeting and so we went through the survey results. We had 298 responders which was a 20 vote spread between all three options. So we were very surprised how close they were to each other. So you can see the percentages there. 30.2% for Barry Hollow, 32.6 for Aspen Hills, and 37.2 for Oldmir. And so we went through the comments um to add to the percentages. We wanted to see what some of the additional

039suggestions were from the community. There were two concerns that came up for the old Ephraim of um naming Ephraim in a public institution. And so I think we have some um differing perspectives on the word Ephraim itself. I think a lot of the community who some may be around from here or have been around a long enough that they understand what old Ephraim refers to, but we I'm sure we have that small population that is not sure what that means. But then we had the comment [clears throat] of they love the historical context of it. I did skip over the part with the um with the mascots that the community wasn't super excited about the pirates, so that that was eliminated. So that takes us into the next slide. We did take out the pirates

040and then we had a discussion about old Ephraim. Again, the confusion of the religious connotation versus the history of old Ephraim. So I did put in reference here and this was information that came up from the committee members themselves about the history of old Ephraim and where the name came from. And also there is a link there um that is a digital booklet of old Ephraim from Utah State University that I included. And what what it came down to as a committee is they felt that they like old Ephraim, but they know that it would be a part of that would be educating the community of what that is. and they talked about it would be great, you know, up on the website the first thing that comes up is you have the information about

041Old Ephraim, maybe a picture um so that we can continually be [clears throat] educating the community about that. And then we went into discussions about how exciting that would be and the opportunity to pull that aspect into the school itself as we create our PBIS program um and our character development, how we can tie that into Old Ephraim and the Cubs. So they they had some really good discussion about that. So, as we've finalized our discussion of all three options, the committee by majority vote chose Old Ephraim. And so, I'm here representing the Hide Park community for um selecting Old Ephraim Cubs as the Hide Park Elementary. >> So, did your committee members know there's a Old Ephing skull is up in special collections at the USU Merryill Conair Library? I I assume some know

042about it, but [clears throat] we didn't get into that discussion that night. >> You might be able to use that on your website. Yes. >> To go up there because they do have it on exhibit down in the special collections and probably can give you tons of stuff that you could use. >> Yeah, I there I think there's a wealth of opportunity with that as well. Yes. Thank you, Kathy. >> So, your [clears throat] uh vote was not unanimous. Was the majority a vast majority or just a small majority? I believe it was six six out of the nine that we had that night. Mhm. That chose the old friend. We had a couple who one one wanted Aspen Hills and two liked the um Berry Hollow and then the rest chose Older. >> People

043on the committee par they're parents of kids that will be attending the school. Yes, there is one who was not when and that vote was for Aspen Hills. No, excuse me. That was Barry Hollow. Yeah, >> Alan, you're a height parker. What are people saying about the name? >> I haven't heard anything. But this is old. There's a lot you can do with that. A lot. Barry Hollow is just a little small hollow [clears throat] in in Hyde Park that's mostly homes now. and Aspen Hills. We have more sage brush than we do aspens. [laughter] >> One of the goals at the very beginning at our first meeting when we talked about norms and the parameters is we really wanted to focus on it being significant to the community and the area and you know

044old from is signific significant to cash valley itself. Um but it does have ties in each community in the area. We have a lot of trees lately, so it's good to have an animal. >> Something a little different. Yes. [laughter] >> Awesome. Anyone else have questions or comments for you? >> Thank you so much for coming. >> All right. Yeah. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Nice job. >> And now we'll move on to our first ever student activities policy and procedure presented by our executive director at secondary schools, John Anderson. And uh just so the rest of the board knows um Brian Kathy and I met with John and the superintendent Jared last week to review this policy and procedure before it's before we put it on the agenda. >> So just a a little

045recap on what we've been looking at. We we've done some things by separating the policy from the procedure was one one piece. Uh we took it out to several different groups, principles, athletic directors, assistant principles, anybody that might have some input on on this and got feedback on the policy to clean it up a little bit. And we've come up with what's before you. So I guess any questions on the policy or the procedures? pretty straightforward. >> Yeah. No, >> no questions or comments. >> That looks good. >> I think it's really great that we're finally we're creating this policy for some standardization across schools. >> Uh principles, administrators just in buildings in general felt the same way. So >> Oh, that's good. >> Yeah, >> that's really great. Hopefully that gives them some support.

046Yeah, >> I'm really glad that you took a look at the transfer situation because that can get to be really messy. So, let you go covering that is a good thing to >> Thanks. U those questions come in pretty regular into my office. So, >> anyone else with comments or concerns? This is a great thing. Thank you, John. Thank you. >> Okay. I don't see Kirk here. >> All right. Uh last on our systems of support reports agenda is uh an employment provisions and orderly termination policy. And uh just for background, board members um Brian Chambers, Kathy Christianen and I uh met on this policy last week as well. And it's pretty impressive that um Kirk has taken five other policies and condensed them and combined them into this one. It makes it a fairly

047long policy, but it's uh it also makes it a very comprehensive policy for all employees. >> That's what I was thinking. It's very comprehensive. >> And Kirk apologizes. I received word from him late this afternoon that he was planning to be here but was dealing with family situation. Um I can just share with you though that uh he and and Tim have been working diligently at HR on our HR policies. I think up until this point we have like 80 different HR policies and so trying to condense and consolidate where it makes sense um will be helpful in terms of employees board others that are it will be fewer policies that we have to search to find what we really need. Uh so I think he's done a nice job of consolidating. The request is

048for the board to retire those um existing policies and replace it with this. That's correct. Correct. >> Any questions, concerns? All right. Thanks for that report. Uh moving on. Our next uh the next section of our agenda is regarding learning and growth. And um we have Jeremy Young here who are our director of assessment to uh give us a math data report. And I thought this was pretty exciting. >> Yeah, me too. >> Teacher. >> Yeah, as a former math teacher, I like math data. Um so essentially I compiled um uh a little bit of historical data um related specifically to math um for for this one for the last three years. Our first one is Aadian Math. Um, and I did K3. Even though we give Aadian math K5, the rest of the state,

049fourth and fifth grade is optional throughout the state. And we it's only required K5. And so to include state data, if you include fourth and fifth grade in that, it is not necessarily consistent because it varies which schools and which districts um add that in. And so um and also third grade really is our transition um from learning to read to reading to learn. Uh and so we we usually just go through that third grade. We also have a the board has a goal aligned with third grade reading and third grade math. And so that's where this one comes in. Um so for the last here's four years worth of data on Aadian math. Um the metric is percent of students that are at or above benchmark. Um and we see a consistent increase uh

050for over that that three three years. Um the USB's increase is so the state number is 11.2%. Uh our districts was 10.2. Um so we're still well above the state average. Um close to that 70%. Um one one thing as we were looking at um a breakdown of that a little bit that I have noted there is a significant increase in the percentages of endofear proficiency with our kindergarten students last year. So in last during the last school year at the end of the year um that jumped up 11%. Um and the the entrances the beginning of year proficiencies were essentially the same as previous years. um likely due to all day care. >> Um and and you see um growth at the state level with that as well um a little earlier because the

051the rest of the state kind of implemented all day K a little earlier than we did. Uh and so you see those that jump a little earlier if we're looking just at kindergarten um for the state, but not as significant. it it didn't go up 11% like ours did. And so we were really excited about that because we see that that has a long-term effect um as we have more of those students proficient in the early grades um that that that kind of carries through um their their years and and there's a a long-term positive net gain with that data. Any questions on Kaden's math? Okay, our next one is eighth grade rise math. Specifically, we looked at this one because we have a a district goal that's on our district data dashboard that we

052went over before for eighth grade math. Uh currently using RISE. Uh so you have the past four years proficiency scores for eighth grade math. Um the the state average and then our district average um over those three three years. Um we have um 2.9% increase from USB and a point4 increase for for us the 24 year for whatever happened that year. We'd like to replicate that and may may dig into that a little bit. if there's reasoning or a cohort, you know, we can look at some of those things and see if that's just a a a high group of kids from whatever happened earlier that just kind of tracks through or or if there was specific changes that that impacted that. But a fairly consistent I mean 61 to 62% is very consistent for

053for what we get. We see fluctuations from from school to school and year to year, but overall as a district is pretty set. Any questions on >> You're just saying fluctuations from school to school. >> Yeah, those those you see move up a little bit. Um but almost as one goes up, one goes down. And so our our district numbers essentially stay the same. um you know, even even if they're a school is traditionally performing better than other schools, when they dip, the others rise a little and and kind of it all balances out for us as a district with our percentage aside from 24 for eighth grade math. So I I don't know that comparison is useful, but how does this compare nationally? Do you know? >> Um, no. Because we're rise is unique

054to Utah, >> right? It is, but um just 8th grade math proficiency in the US. >> Uh I don't >> Okay. >> No, >> but I I don't know. It's we still have 39% of our or 38% of our students who are not proficient. So what do we what do we do with that? >> It's a great question. It's a question that we talk about with teaching and learning and with principles as the instructional leaders in in those buildings. Um, personally, I think um there's a little dis I' I've talked about this before and I don't know that I I should, but I think there's a little disconnect between um end of level state assessments and true proficiency. >> Okay? you know, as as evidenced by things like ACT scores later on or graduation rates

055or other things like that, you know, I I think that we we can look at this assessment for what it is as um a student's ability to perform on this particular assessment at this time in in their education, right? and and and we can have those conversations with teachers to to see if there's better ways to um help the what they're seeing happen in class. Because I'm I'm sure if you talked to any teacher in eighth grade math teacher in the district and said, "Is it true that only 62% of your kids are proficient on your standards?" They're going to say, "No, it's a lot higher." And so what can we do to to help those match so that what they're seeing the learning that they're seeing take place in their classroom connects with how

056they're performing on this assessment and and those are conversations that we engage in whether it's um messaging about the the usefulness and validity of the assessment. you know, there's um we we've tried started to a little bit incentivize um academically the students to take it and to try hard because oh there the it can positively impact your grade, but there's you have to be very careful in how you do that with the the state and board rules around non-academic incentives and things like that. And so we we engage in those conversations and we try to promote that as best we can. We try to help teachers build a culture of of wanting to demonstrate success. Um, but it's it's very tricky to to move the needle on on a state assessment like this. I don't

057the superintendent I know has feelings [laughter] around this, but >> it's one it's one >> it's one data point. It's one data point and that's really what it is. And and we Yeah. It it begs begs the question of looking at other data to kind of round out the picture of what's going on here. So to Jeremy's point, you know, it's it's taking it within context. As I look at this data though, it shows some real stability which I think speaks to the overall programming. Um, as he Jeremy somewhat alluded to it, the more you kind of drill down to the school level than into the classroom level, you're opening up yourself up to more student differences within students and within students, you see more variability in numbers. At a district level like this, it

058shows that we we have a pretty stable program. Um, not knowing what other data might suggest though, to get a different result would require us to start to look at things a little bit differently, maybe a different curriculum. a different instructional approach or different expectations for kids. Um, those are the the elements that make up what Richard Elmer called the the instructional core. And I know we're going through a curriculum adoption this year. >> So I you know that's certainly is going to play into this going forward is how that curriculum adoption comes into play. >> Thank you. So Terry, uh, if you believe AI, the the proficiency of eighth graders in the US was 26% or at or above the NAP proficiency level. So I don't know how those two compare, but I would

059imagine that the state of Utah would be above the the average in the United States. >> Sounds reason. >> I don't know. We give NAPE. So we we can look at we could look at our NAPE and compare because we were very often selected to participate in NAP and so we have NAP data. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you for reminding us that um that this is one data point. >> Yeah. Um but it is so if we look at it that way then we can be take that as a positive and because it's it's a high high point for one data point. >> It is a high point >> especially in math. >> Yep. >> I always had a few students who who just didn't care about that test. So they were done in

06010 minutes and that wasn't that wasn't math but you know they used to go through and mark ABC ABC ABC and be done. and no matter what I said or did >> and yeah >> go back and check your answers it it didn't matter to them too. So there's a lot of factors that go into >> right >> um these percentages. >> Yeah, it's true. Those are there. >> Okay, our next one is all grades. So I I looked 3 through 8th grade math if we consolidate. So again, yeah, look even bigger. Include all of the all the students that we can get. Um not just that eighth grade group. Um and we see those percentages um so in 2022 um through 25 USB um increased their percentage proficient by 0.9 and we've increased our

061percentage proficient 3.5. So we're seeing um a widening of that um gap a little bit. Um I don't know why necessarily um but but that's a positive trend uh when when we include all of that data uh that we're increasing overall proficiency >> is our tenure of our math teachers increasing? I mean they're more experienced. They know how to prepare the kids better. They know the material better. I don't know I >> we are providing a lot of additional math PD it's particularly around mathematical practices helping teachers incorporate math discussion math number talks fluency so I some routines that are happening so I would a lot of that work >> I yeah I thank you for mentioning that another thing that I'm aware of is our math specialist in the elementary levels has been doing

062a lot of work on number sense in in the early grades um which I think attributes to some of the success that we see on that Aadian math but that's foundational that builds on you know so a move from algorithmic work in math to conceptual understanding of mathematical practices um you know more of the >> abstract >> well yeah Common Core, if you don't want to say that, Utah core. Um, but but you know, the the multiple ways to solve problems and what does this mean and why does this work as opposed to I don't know, just these are just the steps that I do to figure this out. And so when when you get a shift like that, then then you see these sorts of things happening. and and and I I think that

063I believe that some of those practices, those numbers sense routines and and that work I've I've heard positives as I've been out in schools around that work and I I think that would attribute to some of this as well. Uh our last point or point of data is Aspire Plus math. So this is 9th and tth graders uh that take um Aspire Plus math. This is grade banded math. Even though our 9th and 10th graders take different courses, uh this is uh we have one more year of this test. Um legislation that was passed last year um will move this to be course-based assessment um starting 2027. Um, and so instead of having just a ninth grade math test and a 10th grade math test, um, and and not just math, but all of those,

064they will have if the a secondary math one test, a secondary math 2 test. So any student regardless of grade that is in that course will take it at the end of their part B, which we um, uh, in the group of assessment directors throughout the state are really pleased with. It's more useful. it's more applicable. Um it's more valid. Um and any anything we can move that um with assessment that direction is going to be a positive thing. Uh and so we'll have one more one more data point on this uh at the end of this year and then it'll essentially go away because it will be too different to to compare that way. Um but overall with this USB saw a 1.2 two increase of 1.2% 2% proficient over the past 3 years

065and so what did we moved up the exact same um there there's a lot of variability with this uh you'll notice a dip in 24 um in ours 37.5 um there is with this test in particular uh there is a lot of well there's a lot of student choice. Is that a way to say uh to say that um it's really hard for teachers to influence um outcomes in this test? Um because it's given similar to the ACT. It's a time test in one sitting um and kids just do what they want. Um that year in particular, I have a cousin's son that took it that year and informed me of a practice of his and a lot of other students to get done as fast as they could. >> So it was one of

066those things from a large number of students in one particular school. Um and it is reflected in that data. And then last year um we had a a lot more attention placed on that. A lot more attention around messaging of hey this is an opportunity to show what you know to you know you'll get an ACT predictive score and you know the some of that messaging around the test and and I believe I don't know that our kids were that much more proficient than last year. Um I think they just tried harder on the assessment. So, did you have a family intervention after that? >> No, but I wanted to ring his neck. I was I was so upset, [snorts] >> but I held my tongue. >> Yeah. >> But there are classes that that's

067the case. >> Oh, yes. >> Yes. >> Get through as quick as we can. >> So, what percentage of students are actually taking this test? These nth and tth graders. >> Um 95% >> most of the kids Yeah, most of them you know we we watch opt outs and we watch we have to have a 90% proficiency or participation rate um for accountability um and then accountability rules if we drop below that the state fills back fills up to 90 with zeros and so it's in our best interest to to stay there um and and have students participate. Um, but even with the optouts that we get as a district, we were around 95% >> participation. >> Can we have a few smart engineers like Jeff come in just before this test and let them

068know how awesome their jobs would be if they can do well in math? >> Absolutely. Yeah. Any of those motivating factors to have them try their best? Outside of English, I think math is probably the second most critical at least from a workforce readiness and just job availability and need is pretty critical. >> Kids realized it >> as a math teacher. I see the value [laughter] >> I I see the value in in the critical thinking side of it in the um the application of of rules to solve problems and those sorts of things. Math >> is pretty key. Yeah. Any questions on this this one here? So, just some final conclusions. Consistent K3 growth with strong data for kindergarten last year. 8th grade math remains about 20% above the state average. Um although the

069gap is slightly closed over the last three years um and overall proficiency is increasing at a rate higher than the state rate. Any other questions about that? >> That becomes a moot point after this year. >> Just for Aspire Plus. >> Yep. Just for Aspire Plus. >> Thanks, J. >> You're welcome. >> That's awesome. >> All right. Last but not least in our learning and growth agenda is the CTE report which is pretty fantastic if I do say so myself as I looked at it. >> Thank you. >> Although very long >> I know. So do you guys have a hook to like pull me off the stage when the 10 minutes is up? >> We can do a timer. >> I will I will I will do my best. Um this is a for

070you. >> Okay. Thank you. So, as I moved into this position, I had multiple people share with me that um CTE is such a big elephant. I shouldn't really expect myself to really get a grasp on it all until like three years. I heard that repetitively. So, grand total of four months in, I will do my best to accurately reflect all of the intentional and hard work that's gone into this CTE program. Um, I'd like to recognize John and all of the CTE team that have been very intentionally working towards um, growth and improvement in the CTE program. And I think throughout this presentation, you'll you'll be given just a taste of the incredible work that's been done. My job as the new CT director is to continue to further the excellent work that's been

071done. So, um, let's see. I don't know which. There we go. Nope. Did I hit the wrong button, Spencer? There we go. So, here's the team. Um uh we have uh a combination of CT specialists and coordinators. We have career center coordinators. We have a big team helping us to accomplish this this job. Just give an idea of what their roles are. Each of the specialists, even though they work um together in an interconnected team, they have kind of their areas of focus that they excel in. Um Amber Jardine is our workbased learning coordinator. She also assists with our new CAPS program. Um and then we have a school coordinator, one school coordinator with the exception of Mountain Crest that has three individuals that share in that um school coordinator role. Um and these positions

072are um supportive of our uh Perkins needs assessment that we increase our work-based learning opportunities and specifically assist our special our our underserved populations and we are seeing growth in both of those areas. >> I have a question. >> Yes, Brian. >> So is it difficult with Mount Crest with the three coordinators being able to work together to try to move forward the efforts of CTE? I I know when you have a full-time person, it seems like you can get a lot done. If you have a few part- timerrs, it can sometimes be difficult to coordinate amongst. >> Actually, I'm finding with again my grand total of four months in um I'm finding that we're we're getting a very good response. We're kind of getting triple benefit because it's not like they say I only

073work this amount of time and then I pass it off. They all kind of collectively work together and they'll have one that kind of is the voice for the three. But I'm finding we're we're actually getting >> benefits from the three. Okay. So, um John and the CT team, they put together these seven vision statements and I was just going to go through each of those quickly and just show a little visual glimpse of evidence of these um vision statements coming to fruition. So, the first one is that students and parents will be aware of and and knowledgeable about CTE and how it can benefit college and career pathways. And John warned me. He said, "When people congratulate you about your new position as CTE director, they're going to say, "Congratulations, what is CTE?" And

074I was like, "You're kidding me. They're not going to say that. Who doesn't know what CT is?" And he was 100% correct. So, this is a very important um vision statement to spread through marketing um and awareness campaigns of exa exactly what is CTE and what are the benefits of CTE. Um you can see here, oh, I hit the wrong one again. Sorry. Um, as we're going through, gosh, next week we have our our the state's coming up for our CTE program approval process, which happens every four years. Lucky me, I get that one as well. But I think it's actually been beneficial because it's helped me to really have to gather the information, become acquainted with the full CT program quickly. Um, a minimum requirement for a quality CT or for a CTE program

075is to have one pathway available. Cash County School District has 25. um two concentrator classes we have or concentrator courses we have 41 and have opportunities in two clusters um we have opportunities in all 14 clusters as of last year they changed and updated our career clusters to 14 to align to the national clusters too. So our Cash County School District students have many opportunities in multiple pathways and clusters. As far as growth is concerned, which is another indicator of um awareness and success of the CT program, our seniors in 2021, we had 31% who were pathway completers. And just to clarify, um a completer is additional investment in CT in a CT pathway than a concentrator. So we're focusing on completers. In 2025 that bumped up to 38%. If we look at skill certifications

076which are the end of course testing that the students have to reach a certain threshold to demonstrate proficiency and earn that certification in 21 52% of our CT students earn that certification and in 2025 73%. We actually go ahead. >> Are certifications like like in machining, welding, um accounting, those types of things. So >> where they take proficiency exams? >> It's kind of both. So they take a proficiency exam. So they demonstrate their knowledge base and they also have some required skills that they're supposed to demonstrate throughout the course of the uh throughout the course mastery. And so if they get a certification, it shows that they have that requisite um knowledge base and skill set that's been indicated for that course. Um we actually the C cash county school district um CT program got

077a shout out this year for the growth in the skills test. This is the state data. I'll just jump ahead. Um if you look at the growth from 2021 to 2025, 2021 we had a 51.6% certification rate and as of last year 72.8%. So over a 20% increase in skill certification. Um when I got that I wanted to dig into why and a piece of that is pre-esting became um a practice that was new to our CTE courses and teachers were starting to implement that pre-esting. And this year we're it was not every class had the pre-esting. It was encouraged this year where the expectation is that all courses will provide that pre-esting. so they've got that baseline and kind of know how to help their students progress and and get that knowledge base and

078skill set. Okay, vision number two focuses on um I'll just kind of summarize here um industry connections and career connected learning opportunities. Um in 2020 24 and 25 um Cash County School District hired their first workbased learning coordinator. Um, prior to that, you had a work-based learning teacher in each school, but we had a a district coordinator, um, 24,25, 30 different CD industry field trips and various industry sponsored scholarships. And then our CAPS program, um, which started this year, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a sec. Actually, what happened? Okay. Um, if we look at our I think we're missing a slide. Okay, I'll just continue here. Um if we look at our number of industry partners in 22 23 we had 71 and if we look at like 3 four

079years later our numbers have tripled with industry partners and um Amber Jardine who is currently the workbased learning coordinator is doing an outstanding job of reaching out and making those connections with the industry partners and increasing the internship opportunities for our Cash County School District students. Here's just some pictures of the variety of internship opportunities. And what I love is you see those smiling faces, right? I know it's a photo op, but if you talk to the kids who have these internship opportunities and CAPS specifically, um you you can see and feel the positive benefit that's had on their education. um CAPS uh that opened up this year with um the education um program and the business in marketing and entrepreneurship. Um it's they have about a hundred kids already enrolled for this year. We're

080excited that next year I am missing some slides. That one's out of order. Let me go back. So next year we are opening up two more um of those strands. uh creative computing and engineering automation industrial design. We were able to hire two amazing teachers that will be joining our CAPS team um Emily Roo and Amanda Salter and are really excited about the prospects of growing the CAPS program even more. The following year we'll add two more um strands. So, agricultural natural resources and um health and medical sciences. So, we're really excited about that. And I I hope you're uh familiar with CAPS to know that um CAPS is is an opportunity for students. It's it's that step beyond even an internship where they actually get to work on a a realworld industry project with

081an industry partner and have a mentor along the way to help them be successful. So, um I know Brian has been involved in CAPS and helped with one of those projects and um got to chat about that yesterday and see the kids because we're here in the last week of fall trimester and see the benefit or not the benefit, see the their end products and it's it's really impressive. Um and if you want to know a little bit more about CAPS, Michael Tori is uh he has an office down there and you are welcome anytime to stop by for a tour. It's impressive. So if you haven't taken advantage of that, I would really encourage you to do so. Okay. Our vision, our third vision statement is focused on use science as a career and

082uh college and career guidance tool. Um from 23 uh we had 48.70 48.70% um completion and it's popped up in this past year to 78%. So we're seeing that um utilization increasing which is encouraging. >> And why is that important? Um, youth science is a tool that helps students to um, they do these brain games which helps them to it it helps them to discover what their top career interests and aptitudes are and it also helps to expose them to potential scholarships. It gives them information about colleges and universities and the programs and their requirements. It's just a really helpful tool for the students but also their parents which I think we're going to get there on one of these slides. Um so we're finding that our student use is going up. Our current goal

083is that we really want to market um parent use of youth science because we really feel like the next step rather than having um it be a school-led initiative to have students use youth science, we would like parents to join that and partner with us and have those conversations outside of school. Right. Um our fourth vision statement um is again to and here it is to intentionally guide all students based on their aptitudes, interests and experience. So again this is where you science comes in helps them to discover what those aptitudes and interests are. I really like this graph. It shows if we look at the demographics of our students um that are enrolling in CT our CTE courses um you really don't see any kind of huge disparity with some of our um subopuls

084or special populations. So you have to worry about um you know funneling students into a program or funneling students out of a program. And this is encouraging that we're not seeing that happening that all students are being given um encouraging them to um take the advantage and opportunity of a CTE pathway. >> What would the special ed students be taking? >> They could take any of them. There would just be accommodations put in place. >> Give me an example. What would they take? They could take um gosh, you've got your photography, you've got computers, you've got business, you've got intro to health science, you've I mean, okay, >> you've got facts, family, consumer science, welding. Um they would just need to have their the accommodations that have been identified in their IEP to help them

085to be successful. >> Okay, thanks. >> You're welcome. Um this is part of some youth science information that just shows again what are the top aptitudes and top interests in the 14 different clusters and we like to pay attention to this. Is there a is there a discrepancy there? So if you look there at digital technology you have a lot of students who you science is saying has an aptitude for digital technology but they're not expressing an interest and and why do we want to pay attention to that? Well, if you look at this one, if we look at our on occup our occupational chart, it shows that in Cash County, software developers is one of our fastest growing um occupations. So, that tells us that we need to make sure that we are um

086marketing and exposing and letting students realize the opportunities in in these fields, especially the fastest growing fields. Um the fifth vision statement is to support our teachers with um growth and change which always happens. We want to do our best to support them because if you have a happy successful teacher, you're going to have happy successful students, right? So these are just my some things that we do to help support our teachers. So the CTE coordinators in each school building helps to do that marketing and um support of our teachers. uh we have uh they I know this wasn't me but the request is prior to me is to get a centralized location for teacher resources. So trying to instead of having everywhere just have one place one-stop shopping for information all things CTE um

087professional um professional development CTE specific. So at previous district PD days they've had sessions that are CTE specific. I'm excited in February we get to have the whole PD the whole PD day CTE for our teachers so we can come together and really work on what they need. Um they have conferences summer conferences UATI their professional organization we get we've given them surveys to gather their feedback and gather consensus behind these vision statements. And then of course you got to have funding to support the CT programs which if you were to ask our CT teachers what are their what is their top concern right now I think they would tell you the uncertainty of funding because some funding has been cut. Um so our CTSO funding has been cut from the state level. We are

088still functioning with our CTSOs um out of our general CTE budget, but state support financially has been removed this past year and that will require a legislative change to reverse that. Also, our funding for our college and career awareness courses in the middle schools have also been cut. So, we're still offering these courses and these programs, but it's a chunk that comes out of the CTE um pot of money, which means that takes a bite into supply money, right? >> Are there any businesses that are interested in being sponsors of CTE? >> Um, I mean, we have a lot of industry partners as far as mentorship and projects, but I I don't know that I I don't know, John, has that been explored previous years? Sorry, >> just wondering if there are any industries that

089would be interested in financially donating supporting like say a CTSO. >> We haven't explored specific to CTSOs but I >> or CTE. >> So we do have back a couple of slides we talked about industry partners. We do have some um scholarships that are provided by industry partners. So there has been that investment, but as far as like supporting the program as a whole financially or to augment the I don't think that's been looked into. >> There be companies and industries interested. >> That's what I'm thinking is that there would be companies that would be >> fill labor needs or labor shortages in specific skilled areas. >> Okay. >> One more job to add to your list, but >> yeah, it would be >> Michael, will you remind me of that? Thank you. >> Okay,

090perfect. Thank you. Um and and then just costs are increasing. This is just to show you why CTSOs are important. Um uh a CT the CTE program models that you have the curriculum um you have your CTSO experience and your workbased learning experiences so that you have actual lived experience and not just academic contextual you know just book learning. um CTE expenditures, 83% of our CTE budget goes towards uh salaries, benefits, and subs, so personnel, which leaves the last 17% to support everything else. Um as teachers um increase their years of experience, their wage goes up, right? Um and as our program grows, we bring new teachers on board. Now, that should it's it's an investment because as we add another course, we get more students in seats. We get um money for the the

091students that enrolled in the course, but it's it's a year behind, right? So, this is a little bit of a concern um is that our our personnel expenditures are going up and our supply and equipment percentage is is going down and then the CTSO adds to that as well. How would the how would these numbers compare to other districts? >> Um, >> balance between salary and >> so when I went to my CTE director's meeting, I sat with the CT director at Boxelder and asked him and he said they're about 79% of their CTE budget is spent in personnel. So >> close. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> But that's the same as our general budget for the whole district. I mean that that about 80% is is people salaries and benefits and then we pay

092for all the rest with the 20% that's left. >> Okay. Um let's see our sixth vision statement again is just marketing getting the word out what is CTE and what's the value. This is just a little collage of all the different things, the career fairs, the flyers, the stickers, just anything and everything to get get the word out there. What is CT and what's its benefit? >> So Cindy, yeah, this has been one of my I guess soap soap box issues on CTE is that parents don't know what they don't know. And you know, I brought this up at the um BTE trustee board meeting that I was at and Logan School District had kind of a good idea, several good ideas with this, I thought, but one of them was they had flyers at

093all of the parent teacher conferences that they gave to every parent starting at least with nth grade. But do you think it should start sooner than that so parents know about this program? >> So actually that goes into our seventh vision statement. So um this the and before we get to that this one just shows you um the programs that our students are enrolled in. So 22% in a almost 13% in business family consumer science almost 27% health 10% computers just under nine and tech 18%. So we do have um we have a lot of offerings for the kids. So it's not like just one pathway or cluster is offered and doing well. there's a variety for students. So, here's our final vision statement and and that's to have and use a K12 career connected

094learning roadmap. And you're like, what does that mean? This is the road map that the team prior to me put together and it's just that let's get that that discovery starting kindergarten, right? So, K through 12, get that early discovery in the elementary, in the middle school, allow that exploration through college and career awareness. hit your high school programs and hopefully the kids will start to see a path that they're interested in and they'll they'll concentrate in it or even complete in one or more pathways. So that's our >> Does that affect the parents >> or is this the students? >> It's students. >> So these are students but we also along this whole way a a conversation that we are consistently having is how do we get the word out and involve the parents

095because until we get them part of the having them having those conversations outside of school, we're still going to have this roadblock. >> Yeah. So, >> they need to know the process of how to get their kids going into the CTE classes and stuff. >> And I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of all the efforts that the CTE team has put in place in the last two years in that marketing and and awareness campaigns. Um and and again um just feel like our CTE program is a really important piece in the product of our portrait of a of a of a graduate. Just having students who have that strong knowledge base, that skill set so they are ready for their next steps, whatever those next steps may be. And I will finish with

096education is the key to success. And I would propose. So education is the key to success. But I would propose that CTE is what can guide our students to know which door to open to their best future because there's a bunch of different doors they can go through and how do they know which one leads to their best future. So I think CTE helps them to discover, explore, and test that out. So, and I have a key for each of you. So, I'll just pass that around. That's it. >> Great. >> Thank you. Excellent. >> Questions? I know you asked along the way, but >> for information, >> okay, how much did I go over? >> Awesome. [laughter] >> Thank you. Uh in our relationship section of our agenda reports agenda, we have a list

097of um high school clubs. Uh Kathy and I requested this from the uh district leadership team because we felt like um in the past few years all we've seen at the board level is new clubs and that we should probably be aware of what all the clubs are that are sponsored at our high schools. So that's why you're seeing this report um tonight. and um John Anderson again, our executive director of secondary schools will present this information. So you can see there's a long list under each school of of clubs that have um maybe you can see hopefully you can see on your own documents um clubs and advisors uh that are going on in the schools or that have been going on. Not every single one of those may be active but um they're

098all clubs that we've had active in the last year or so. So there's there's a lot of them. Um, currently there are I believe it's six, just double check here. Two at Green Canyon, three at Mountain Crest, and one at Sky View that or yeah, one at Sky View that are being proposed to be added to the list. So, um, years I can't remember how many years ago, somebody helped me who's been on the board for a while. Didn't we approve an an esports program club at Cash High? >> I can't remember where it was at, but we did >> approve it. So it was a cash high and I think it was experimental before they began um the esports at the state level I believe if I remember correctly. So they started out as

099a club. Uh they were going but they are not because I think Sheree would say the kids just don't want to stick around after school. So >> got it. >> Yeah. >> Understand. What is the cubing club in Green Canyon? >> Say it again. >> C I N G Cubing. Cubbing. >> Oh, I'm not >> that one in orange chicken. Scary as well. >> Uh they they've had some strange ones like when I was >> I can kind of >> when I was there they had the the serial killers club and it was just an opportunity to get together and eat cereal at lunch and talk about [laughter] whatever. So >> there for a moment. Um, >> oh, so >> ca cereal with a C and edible. Yes, >> orange chicken. Maybe just going to

100the Chinese restaurants and ordering a plate of orange chicken. And >> it's it's kids that are excited about, you know, like interests and they get two or they got to get at least three and they get a few people together and an adult that wants to chaperone it and away they go. So, >> so Terry, did you have a concern about any of them or just to be made aware? I think our policy says year to year. >> Our policy says that we will um approve the Well, what does it say? We'll approve not that we'll approve them every year. >> He says >> it says it that you'll let me see here. >> Is there a frequency of re of review or >> No, there's not a frequency. Well, annually and so >> review

101all Okay. Yeah. So that's why you're seeing them and and um John will fill in the these um spreadsheets as we >> uh carry on. Somehow it um when I went back through minutes of our meetings for the last five or six years, um I think because of changes in personnel in the secondary uh director position over the course of um not very many years, we had multiple changes. Mhm. >> Um in about five years ago and before we saw this every year and it was presented to us in in spreadsheet format. >> Got it. >> And so um I'm just trying to bring that back so that so that we're all aware of the clubs that are in our high schools so that um because that's part of our responsibility. >> Sure. >> Um

102>> just kind of over >> according to our policy and according to state code. So, >> no. Good idea. >> A lot of fun stuff kids are doing. >> Yeah. Yeah. The nerd herd. I mean, that sounds pretty [laughter] >> intriguing at at best. >> So, um did So, I assume the principles or vice principles provided you with these um spreadsheet to fill these spreadsheets, John? >> Yes. And you don't know if all of these are currently um active or inactive or >> um [clears throat] we tried to come up with a list of all the clubs that had been uh active within the last few years. >> Okay. >> And I'm pretty sure a few of them are not active currently. >> Yeah. Um because the other issue is that um if if clubs

103are happening at our clubs are happening at our high schools that we once approved um and uh an advisor leaves and they just put another advisor in, we should know about that. >> Yeah, absolutely. Terry, here's here's the exact language in the policy. So, it's it states that non-curricular clubs will be required to required to have an annual authorization from the school board. >> Okay. >> And that's policy 3620. >> Okay. So, anyway, just trying to um John's helped us helping us get back on track with our um approval of school clubs. So do you see Terry then we would go back and just find out whichever are current and then they would bring that to for our approval. Is that what >> Sure. Um this year I think this is as far as we'll

104go but um because there are a lot of things that John's working on right now but um we can we can make this an annual um review at a certain time every year. >> Yeah. My my plan is to uh go through this and put a few documents together to support the the process or the system to get clubs in place approved and tracked so that we don't have to dig and ask and try and find >> sure >> put pieces of records together. We just want to make sure that that um that the clubs that are have I'm not that we don't trust our administrators but sometimes they have undue pressure >> put on them by parents or students certain students or whatever and so we thought if um we um put this back

105in place according to our policy that um it would be a support to our uh school level administrators so that they could say there's a process for that and this is what it is. >> Sure. I agree. >> So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> I have a quick question, John. Sorry. >> Yeah. >> With all these thoughts I just think about the teachers and their time and um all the work that they're doing. Teachers are happy and content with these additional assignments as advisor. >> It's it's non assignment. The students have to go to those advisors and get them to consent. So, it's not an assignment from the administrators. It's completely studentled. Um, so they'll they'll talk to the the teacher and say, "Hey, here's our proposal. We want to meet once a month

106on our lunch break. Can we do it in your room with you present?" That type of thing. And yeah, the teachers are consenting to do it. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. That's the kind of questions that um I I hoped that would be asked um about these types of things so that we can make sure that we support our schools, right? >> Yeah. Excellent. Thank you, John. Um the last uh section on our agenda is board business and uh the only uh item under in that section is uh discussion on whether the board should attend NSBA or not [snorts] um in 2026 because of our denial of our property tax increase request through truth and taxation. Um there all of the district is um all district personnel are being asked to be

107careful and to to evaluate their budgets carefully through this year since we we did we don't have that increase. And so several board members asked if we could um just discuss this as a board that this would be something we could do to save some money. Um we traditionally do uh go to two professional development conferences every year. Uh the Utah Schoolboard Association and the National School Board Association. And so I suggested that perhaps we don't go to the National School Board Association in 2026 because it's the most expensive because of the travel and usually because of where it's held the accommodations and um PDM expenses are are high and so anyway that's why this is on here and so I open it up for your discussion. Well, I think the district has not You

108want to tell us about the trial? >> Yeah. So, let me speak more specifically to what we've done with with the denial of certification and then also anticipating a difficult uh funding year ahead of us with the legislature. Um, as Terry's mentioned, we're scrutinizing all budgets carefully. We've asked people to be really careful about how their expenditures that we're distinguishing between wants and needs. And I know that the business office is watching for anything that's frivolous. We've also implemented a freeze on all non-classroom hiring. So anything that's outside of the classroom that doesn't directly impact the classroom, we have frozen for further review. So that there may be a real compelling need and we'll absolutely move forward with that, but it's going through an extra layer of scrutiny before we we approve that. We've also

109frozen all out of state travel um going through that same process of a further review. There may be some requirements around uh grants to attend certain conferences and those things and we certainly are going to continue to hold up our end in that regard. Uh but we're just elevating the level of scrutiny in all of our expenditure. >> I think that's a good recommendation. I'm with that for sure. >> I think it's a good show of faith on our behalf that we're trying to help uh as a school board maintain the budget uh for this next year and tighten our balance. >> Yeah, I think it's wise at all levels of the district. >> We all have an influence or impact on the bottom line. And so I think if everybody's tighten their tightening their

110belt, we can do the same. Well, and if um uh as the superintendent said, um they're not approving any outofstate travel. So, that would definitely be out of state travel for us. And so, um if if everybody else is not traveling out of state, then there's no reason that we should as well. >> And if we have to pick one of the two, USBA or national, USBA is for my benefit a little more important. >> Okay. I think it's a for me it's I get more out of that one than the NSBA one. But >> just to really clarify so there's no confusion that freeze means an extra scrutiny. There may be individuals that will continue to travel >> but they justified it. There's been a a reason for that. Uh I know that uh

111there are some have already expended funds for travel and it would be impossible for us to recoup that at this at a late later date. So I just don't want there to be any mixed messaging if you hear of people that are doing some things. >> Okay. So, um I don't think that requires any board action um >> in two weeks, but uh as we've had this discussion, we'll just plan to not attend in 2026 >> the National School Board office. >> Okay. >> One other item if I may, Terry, just to bring up with the board. Um, in our business meeting in two weeks, um, I will want to request that the board reconsider, um, the decision on DLI in the secondary school. Um, whether or not to to vote up or vote down

112that proposal that was brought before you. What we we're finding right now is um, Tim in December will outline the the process for the shifting of staff and preparation for the new schools. We're on really really tight timelines. Um, and all that to say is for us to to adjust or make any change. It it's going to be next year before we can consider anything around DI. I know that's going to be really difficult for families to plan. I know you're hearing from them. I'm hearing from them, right? Um, you know, it it it may be in our best interest simply to make a decision and then allow us then to whatever that outcome may be to start to plan forward. I think it'll be in the best interest of those families as well as

113for us as a district as we're shifting staff and trying to figure out um where our what we're going to do with our schools. So, I I'll present more. I want to unpack all the options that we've considered in terms of uh Spanish DLI specifically, but I will make a request that the board consider um a vote up up or down on the proposal. >> Okay. >> So, that votes in two weeks, you say, or >> on the 20th. >> Okay. >> So, will you will you send us more information in an email between now? >> I'll provide you a memo with the with further details of what we've done or what we've looked at so you can consider that. going into that meeting. Um, my intent is to make sure that you're fully equipped

114um to make the best of the decision you can at the time. >> Anybody have heartburn with that having a vote on the 20th on that decision? >> Terry, I you asked me to help on the math adoption. Uhhuh. >> I picked a bad week to be out of town, so I will not be there to hear their presentation on the textbooks and stuff. So maybe you need to have someone else be there for that. >> Okay. >> I don't know. I because I think it's important that whoever's representing the district is there to hear what options represent from the different vendors. >> Okay. So, is that the 21st? >> Yeah, that's on the 21st. >> Is there are any of the other board members interested in the secondary math um adoption or math curriculum

115adoption information? It's an all day uh meeting to hear from different vendors on um uh their particular curriculum and it's with a lot of other people. >> What day is this? >> It's on November 21st. It's a Friday and there's uh >> there's another meeting on the 19th for parents. >> A meeting on the 19th. Uh there's one during the day and one in the evening um to help orient you to what you'll be looking at and and the um information that will be presented if anybody else is interested in participating. I'm participating in the elementary one that day. And Roger was going to do the secondary, >> but if if no one is available, that's fine, too. >> We can certainly adjust. >> Okay. All right. >> Okay. See, we have arrived. Anything else,

116Kathy? Um if you would like to do your MBA, it needs to be done by the end of uh November. So uh the master board >> masterboard certification >> and I can give you some strategies on how to do it rather aimlessly. >> I'm not sure that I have qualified yet because I haven't got my I've done everything I thought I could and they still haven't said well done. [laughter] >> So >> you want a real challenge? Get on the state auditor's website and do the audit committee training. >> Oh yeah, that one's a killer. >> Yeah. Oh my gosh. >> And then my second question is, would you still like to do the Christmas party um next What's the date on that? Did you >> The fourth >> December 4th. It'd be right after

117this meeting. If we can kind of cut this meeting a little shorter than normal, that might work out. >> I like to hang out with you guys. >> Yeah, it's fun. >> Yes. Or we could do it on the 11th. Um, that's what we ended up doing in August or >> Oh, that worked better. >> It worked better to >> Okay, let me look really fast here. >> So, the 11th is the Thursday between our two meetings in December. >> Yeah, that's fine with me. >> Does that work for you? >> Uhhuh. Okay. >> Should we do it then? Yeah. >> Okay. Everybody's okay doing it at my house again >> on the 11th. Okay. I'll um give you more information. That's Do you want to um contact Jeff and let him know that we

118made that decision because he's got >> you can send out food assignments for us? >> Yeah. Yeah, we'll do that. >> All right. >> And what time? >> Um what time's good? >> Six. >> Okay. 6 on the 11th. >> Awesome. >> Anything else? Right. Seeing we have arrived at the end of our agenda, we Well, I