001Welcome everyone. We're so glad to see you here. We are excited. Um, but I think we should have left the divider closed cuz some of you on that back row back there from White Pine look. Yeah. What? Like, all right, it is 5:30. We are here in the boardroom on Legacy campus. It is the 20 Thursday, the 20th day of March and we are excited to be here. Uh we'll begin with um roll call today starting with Randall. Randall Baggley, board member. Brian Chambers, board member. Todd McKe, superintendent. Roger Pulzer, 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 for being here. And Randall will lead us in the pledge and mission statement. If you would all please rise.
002I 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. Thank you, Randall. I appreciate that. Um, we're going to do a little switch up with recognitions today. Um, and have the principal of the year award first and recognition. Um, uh, principal Bear brought his own cheering section with him. I see that back in the back. And um so let's have uh we will are excited to recognize Principal Derek Bear as the Utah Association of Elementary School Principles Principal of the Year. This w uh award will be presented to him by Stacy Williamson. Well, I had to te teased Eric a little bit
003like good good of you to show up. We had a little mixed up last month when we were going to do this. So, I got to like refine my words for an entire month. This really is my pleasure, though. I mean, anytime you can stand in front of a group and you can give kudos to somebody who you absolutely admire and appreciate, isn't that like the funnest thing in the world, right? Love it. So, Dererick and I have been working together now what, 5 years? Yeah. Yeah. 5 years. So, for a while now. And really, he is really one of truly our very best principles in the district. He is somebody that all of us go to as a mentor and we admire. So, I'm going to like, you know, cut my own thoughts short
004and share things that everybody said about you and I could read all of them if you want. Okay, I'll give you the highlights and these are the nominations from our group. Derek made every day at fun at Sunrise and with silly trivia and music to start the day. What I admire most about Derek is his genuine kindness and passion for education which inspire those around him and create a lasting impact on his school and district. Dererick is eventempered, calm, but is also realistic with expectations. Anyone who interacts with Derrick walks away with no doubt that he cares about their their success. Derek has been a great mentor and leader. He has helped me as I have switched from secondary. Thank you for all you do and being awesome. Derek is awesome. Derek is a kind,
005level-headed principal. He approaches tough situations with grace and dignity, plus a great sense of humor. Derek is an excellent educator who makes all who work with him feel valued, accepted, and appreciated. Finally, Derek is very thoughtful at his leadership. As colleagues, we know we can reach out to him and he'll be understanding and compassionate of the situation while mixing in a little bit of humor as he provides some sound advice. He has a gift of bringing some fun to our team. Derek is very deserving of this honor. So, and a little side note, as I asked for nominations, all of them just kept running coming in for him. So, we didn't even have to take a vote. I was like, well, clearly our team wants to honor you. So, I present to you the Utah
006Edge Association of Elementary Principles Elementary Principal of the Year, Derek Beer. [Applause] Can we put you in the middle? Thanks for being a good sport, Principal Bear. We appreciate you. Uh, next up we have our teacher of the year recognitions. And we will just move a little further down south in the in the district with um to recognize Ashley Grimness from uh North Cash Middle School. This award will be presented by uh Principal Cindy Parkinson. That was a little tight. So, um, I reached out to one of her co-workers and asked her to share a little bit about Ashley. So these are the words by Eden Swinson. Okay. So it's with great honor that we present Ashley Grimness as teacher of the year for North Cash Middle School. In the classroom, Ashley consistently demonstrates what
007it means to be an exceptional educator. Her education to her students and commitment to their success is evident in every aspect of her teaching. Ashley is a model of organization and structure. She plans lessons with precision and ensures that each day runs smoothly, allowing her students to thrive. Her classroom environment is one where students feel safe, respected, and ready to learn. Her attention to detail ensures that every student receives the support and guidance they need to succeed. And I can attest to everyone all of these statements. Above all, Ashley cares deeply about her students. She takes the time to understand each child's unique needs, strengths, and challenges. She's not only a teacher, but a mentor, always willing to lend a hand, a helping hand, and a listening ear. Her students know that they can trust
008her to be there for them whether they are struggling with the content or with something outside of the classroom. And there are several more paragraphs. I'm going to for brevity, let Ashley read that. I do have a couple from her students that I wanted to share. So, at Northcash, we have shoutouts not only for fellow um students, but for our teachers. Our students will um go online and actually fill out a shout out for their teacher, and it's completely voluntary. This year, Ashley has received 11 of those to date. And here are just a couple of my favorites. So, I am not good at math, but this year I am because of Mrs. Grimness. She explains math concepts super well and makes math easy. I am so glad that I got put into her class.
009Thank you, Mrs. Grimness. Um, Mrs. Grimness is one of my favorite teachers. She always laughs at our jokes. Our jokes or us, who knows? But she is the perfect amount of strict and humorous. She's also way better than Ed Sheeran. That's saying something. She always laughs when I show her my different types of dabbing. I'm so happy that she was my teacher last year. She is funny, caring, cool. She helps me with my work, makes me understand it. You hear those same statements over and over again. That she the kids know that she cares for them. She holds them accountable for high levels of learning and the kids are having a great time doing it. And that is exactly why Ashley Grimness is our North Cash Teacher of the Year. Let's hear it for Ashley
010Grimness. Hello, cowbell. There's never enough cowbell. Hold it. Do you want them to say something? You good with them? Okay. So, I think she's been doing a a long fake. She says she's lost her voice, but I don't believe it. Maybe. Okay. Can you hold this? Okay. So, you have to bear with it. It kind of just comes and goes. I'm really good at this. So, this is really short. It says, "I'm truly honored to receive the teacher of the year award, and I want to express my deep gratitude for this recognition. This achievement is not just a reflection of my efforts, but a testament to the incredible students I've had the privilege of teaching. Their curiosity, dedication, and unique perspectives have made every day a rewarding experience. I'm uniquely I'm equally sorry thankful for
011the opportunity to learn from my amazing peers whose support, collaboration, and shared passion for education have continually inspired and challenged me to grow. I deeply appreciate the confidence and encouragement I received from both my students and colleagues, which has helped me to become the educator I am today. Hey, thank you. And again, cowbell. Did you ever have enough cowbell? Right. Congratulations, Ashley. Thank you. Uh, next up we have Danny Herby from Mount Crest High School and her award will be presented by Denise Morrison, principal at Mount [Applause] Crest. Are you prepared? Oh, okay. Okay. Um, we're so excited that we get to present Danny Hervy tonight. Um, Danny is in her fifth year, sixth, shoot, sixth year this year. Um, and you would think that she is in her 25th year because of the knowledge
012she brings to Mountain Crest High School. Um, she currently is teaching medical anatomy. She's taught health, chemistry, pretty much anything we need, this is who we go to. Danny's amazing. She helps us with graduation, runs the whole show. Um, she is at every sporting event there is at Mountain Crest High School. Not only is she there, she's running the scoreboard or she's announcing while she's chasing her 2-year-old around and one on the way. So, we don't know what we're going to do. And Danny has to bring two. I might have to be a babysitter cuz she's such a rock star. Um, Danny always has great scores in her classroom and the kids absolutely love her. She has grown the program in medical anatomy by several sections and she is not afraid to do what it
013takes to get her kids to pass her class and really to learn the material. She's very hands-on. She got what kind of what's that thing called? An anatomage table. There you go. That's why I won't say that. Um, and it's amazing cuz it's so hands-on. She helped write the grant to get that and the kids absolutely love it. Danny, I wish I could have a 100 teachers like Danny and our school would be amazing. She is a rock star. We love her and we are so excited to give this award to her. [Applause] I was not prepared. Uh just thank you. Um I lucked into education, but I'm happy to have found my spot and very fortunate to call Mountain Crest home. So, thank [Applause] you. Congratulations, Danny. Uh, next we have Melanie Christensen who
014teaches kindergarten at Milville Elementary School. And this award will be presented to her by um principal Brady Johnson or [Laughter] not. Brady, you changed a [Music] lot. Oh, I love that so much. Well, Brady's misfortune is my great honor because Brady is home so sick and he sent an email because I was Melany's instructional coach and I have been in her room and absolutely love her. So when he said, "Could you?" I was like, "Could I? Would I?" Mhm. I almost went into Dr. Seuss. Could I? Would I? On a boat. Yes, I would. I'm going to let you hold those because fun fact, I need you to. Okay. So, just like all these flowers are so different and beautiful, Melanie helps all of her kindergarten students. She's phenomenal. She loves them with such a
015power and vigor and genuine just authenticity. She is so caring. Um, we sent out a Google form and all of your beautiful staff said the kindest, most wonderful things about you, Melanie. And I'm going to share it with you later because there are so many great things and I go, "Oh, I wish I could say that. Oh, I wish I could say that." But if you have had any time with Melanie, you've left feeling better. You have left feeling uplifted, that you are valued, that you belong, and that you do this with kindergarteners every day. Every day. And for years, I'm like, you're phenomenal. I have seen it in real life. I've seen it with her students. I've seen them learn and grow and thrive and I've seen it with your co-workers and and heard
016it through all of their comments today. Almost every single one talked about your smile and your kindness and I was like, "Yep." So, everyone take a big look at that big beautiful smile right there because that's what she brings to kindergarten every day. So, I am so honored to be here today to celebrate you and I just wish I could go on because I could go on and on and on. You're amazing and you do great things and your kids know that they're important and that's huge and I just love you and your kids love you and your staff loves you. So, let's get a whoop whoop for Melanie Christensen. Now, you're going to live Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I just love Trish. Thanks for stepping in at the last minute and being here
017with me. Trish was my instructional coach. I spent two years with her and it just she became just a lifelong friend. So, thank you for doing that. Um, first of all, I have the best team. They're sitting back there. So, Jen and Alisa, thank you. Honestly, you make it a joy to come to work every day. I just couldn't do it without my friends and my mentors and thank you. And second of all, Milville is the most supportive, loving school I've ever been in. And I love the support that I feel from the other teachers. Um, for me personally, and also just for the kids in general. I just know that we we all have a common goal to do what's best for them. So, any one of them could be standing here. and I
018appreciate them so much. Um, and of course I have the best kids and family that are here supporting me and the best students and that's why I do it. I get to come to school and do what I love every day and kindergarten is where I thrive and I'm happy to be there. So, thanks for supporting me. Congratulations, Melanie. We are so grateful to have great kindergarten teachers to get everyone off to a good start. And last but not least, we have Megan Tanner who is teaches math at and among other things at Cash High School. And her award will be presented by Sheree, Principal Sheree Hansen. And I have been a board member for only 12 years, but I think Megan is teacher of the year at Cash High about every other year. I
019take this. Is that part of the gig? Mhm. Spencer, don't boss me. Okay, I know. I know I do. Um, so I I don't actually have to read about Megan. Terry's right. She is teacher of the year like every other year. And that's just to give someone else a shot. But, um, what you don't know about Cash High is if you teach there, you have five preps. And, um, not only does she have five preps, she takes on any new assignments. So, she teaches the drone, she teaches whatever comes up. and certifies in it. She has great relationships with Bridgerland Tech departments and Utah State and they come and do training in her classroom often. Um, probably the most impressive thing about Megan is she's worked two years straight with a migraine they can't get
020rid of. And um, she probably wishes I wouldn't share that, but I do because I get migraines and I want to die and I don't go out and I hide in the dark and it doesn't matter. She gets up, she makes sandwiches for kids every day. Um, I can't even talk about her without getting emotional. Um, we were following elementary and she said, "Oh, they're so nice." And I said, "I can be nice." Like, come on, man. But, um, but I just I'm proud of her and we love her and she does have so much support. She has four kids at home. One serving LDS mission in Lick, Texas, and she can't talk about that cuz it makes her sad. Um, and three others that are wrestling, and that's where they are tonight. Um, she
021has an embarrassing husband who showed up and she wanted to do it without Reed, but he's here and somebody switched the uh around. We did. But you're welcome. I love her and we're glad to have her at Cash High. We're lucky. Congratulations. too. [Applause] I know. I just am lucky to be where I am and work with the kids that I get to and work for the best principal around. So, I'm just blessed and lucky. So, thank you that I can [Applause] You're good. Congratulations, Megan. Thank you for being here, Reed. And one of my favorite stories about Megan was when she decided to do a weather balloon and put it up right by the airport and then got in big trouble and it was so fun. It was awesome. I love that our teachers
022in our schools are so willing to try all kinds of things to engage and train and teach our our students. Thank you so much for all your work and for being here. Those of you are who are here um supporting uh these five people that we have rec are recognized tonight, would you please stand? Anyone here with a teacher or the PR or principal bear? We we recognize that they can't do what they do without a great support at home and in your team. So give yourselves a round of applause. Thank you for [Applause] being and we'll be moving on to the business part of our agenda. So if you want to escape, now is the time. [Music] Daddy. Mommy. What? We'll take the pen. Well, the pro the good thing is we have lots
023of them. That's awesome. Wow. All y'all who are left in this room, could you just please move forward? Seems so far away. Next time, don't open the divider. Yeah. Uh we have and it we en one of the parts that we really enjoy on our agendas is the reports we get to hear from our schools and tonight we have a school report from Mount Crest High School and it will be presented by Principal Moritson. We're so glad that you came and you're going to share the great things happening at Mountain Crest with us. So my other than that's fine. Okay. Well, here's really what I want to talk about. You guys all have my slides and you can kind of go through. Um first, Mountain Crest is an amazing place to teach and work at.
024Um I couldn't ask for a better school, better faculty. They're all amazing. um kind of the demographics. You can kind of see what we're super proud of is the enrollment of our CTE classes. Um we would love to see our AP classes go up higher and concurrent um enrollment classes, but we're also proud of that number. So, um next you can see our data, English and math I threw in there. Um we do know that um Common Lit has been a big thing and we are loving it at our school. um we've seen great results from it and these are a few things here. Um same with math. Uh they do math of course a little bit different. Lots of data so you can check that out. Um opportunities. I mean how can we list
025all the opportunities? These were just some of our our highlights here. What we do love um is that our students get to go to BTech. We offer CTE classes. Um of course we have so many activities at the high school. it's you can't really put a number to it because if you want to start a club, let's do it. Um to get more kids involved. So, um something else that's big there is our MC grit and that's ran by the counseling department and they do a lot of different service activities. They run all of our QPR stuff at the high school. So, that's just another outlet that we give kids some leadership as well. So, that's been a big ad to our school. Um, of course we all have challenges. Um, but these are also
026challenges that we know are not going to go away. But how can we help work through these challenges? And um, you all know that our mental health is a big deal. We have recently um, been able to add our student concern report and I feel that this has been a big impact for students as well as our teachers. And what this report does is anytime I feel um things are a little off with a student or um they haven't seen a student in a while or wow this kid's really sleepy today. Would you guys mind checking on him? All the teachers do is they type up a little thing in this and it sends to all of the administration and all of the counselors and then we follow up with that student and then we
027have another sheet that we follow up with the teacher so they know that we did contact that student. So it's 2 seconds for the teacher. Um then that way they can rest assure that we've taken care of that student. So that's been super nice. That's been a big ad this year and thanks to Spencer's help cuz sometimes people mess it up so he has to fix it for us. Um we know attendance is always a big thing. Um but we have recently added digital hall pass to our school and um this is one of our things of pride that we've added. Um so I'll come back and talk about that for attendance. Um and we also are working to build um an academic culture. We know that our scores have been lower. Uh so we
028are working to build on that for this coming year and this year. So we've changed some things for testing this year um based on some of our test scores and what we feel we could help improve on. So our points of pride we we rolled out three big things this year for our teachers um based off of our climate survey from our teachers as well as students stakeholders. Um, phones were a big issue. So, all three of these go together. This slide and the previous slide all go together. Um, we decided that we wanted to really take a big thing, a big part of our teachers sort of battle with the cell phones. So, we changed nothing in our policy um other than teachers now have a form that they can quickly throw the students
029name on if the student is caught with their phone out because we know that's a power struggle, right? No teacher wants to get in a power struggle. And so, they put the kid's name. If they ask the kid to put the phone away and they choose not to or they don't comply and put it in the different things the teachers have, they put the students name on our list. And um my two assistants, they're amazing. Um they have a little mobile cart that they cruise around in the hallway and they go to the teacher's classroom and they get the phone from the student. Um so the student so the teachers never put in that power struggle and we feel that this has been the biggest change. We changed nothing in the policy other than us
030as administrators were going to take the phones. So you can see um with the data on the next slide is that here are the offenses. So, what happens if you get put on our list? Then your first offense, it's for the rest of the day and the next day you have to surrender your phone and you check it in and you get a little ticket that you take with you cuz if you have to put your phone in the pouch, then they put the ticket ET phone home in the pouch and then they can come get it at the end of the day. Um, we feel this has moved mountains at our school. Our learning time has increased tremendously. Students are no longer I'm bored or I have nothing to do so I'm going to
031take out my phone. So we have absolutely loved our cell phone policy and I think our teachers have also really enjoyed it and it's we just took the power struggle out. So that's kind of the data sheet that you see on the top right is that's the sheet that we get as administration that the teachers just put in and then we follow up with them. And the more offenses you get, the longer we get to keep your phones. Um we have only had one parent complain about it. So it's been amazing. So and I think our teachers too. Um along with that the digital hall pass. Um, what we decided is we were having issues with students being in the hallway. Where are they? What are they doing? How do we track them? So, we
032had heard about digital hall pass. Students have to sign out to go to the restroom and or to get a drink. Anytime they leave the class, they have to use a digital hall pass to sign out and then when they come back, they sign in. Um, we can also block people from using a hall pass. or if I know that me and Terry are going to meet up in the bathroom at 10:00 um or we do it every day, I can block that Terry and Denise cannot be in the hallway together and it won't let them leave the classroom. So, it's been amazing. As you can see, um the freshman, they loved using it. Our upper classmen, they were choosing now to stay in class and not leave class. So, we've also seen a big
033thing in that as well. So, along with that, we changed up our intervention program as well. Um, we do intensive success off of our third-hour class and then we do Mustang success at the end of the day. This on the left side is the tracker that every student at Mountain Crest has to fill out. whether you're straight A's or you're failing, you fill this out and then it's a reward if you meet the standards to leave um and have a longer lunch or go um at 2:15 to other classrooms. Um this was all teacher driven as well. We have not perfected it yet. Um but we work on it every try to kind of tweak and see what our kids need. and our FS have gone down tremendously. Um, as you can see the data
034there. Well, second tray. Yeah. So, um, we are liking that because we feel we can dangle the carrot and we're focusing on the students that we need to be focused on and they're asking questions instead of keeping them all um that have straight A's and that are bored. they can then go to their AP class and not have to stay in that con that assigned class. Um, one thing that we're going to try that we're trying to work in is our digital hall pass at the end of the day for them so we know where all of the students are if they leave their fifth hour class. So, um, we feel it's worked great and we're liking it. So, of course, we're tweaking it every trimester to make it better. Okay, those that's mountain crest
035for you in a nutshell. Do you have any questions? Any questions for Denise? No question for me, but just congratulations for taking some really hard uh issues and getting to solve the problems with it. Awesome. We have a great department team that helps out. Um Danny, Michael, they're big on my committee as well who are here. But yeah, we feel we can always not fix everything but manage everything. So nice presentation. Denise, I have just a quick comment and question. You do a great job and I'm glad at Mount Crest. So on the report, the sore report, uh, 23 through 24, yes, math and language arts are quite a bit lower than the other schools. What is it that we're doing at Mountain Crest to help that? So, okay, so that's what we talked about.
036Um, so we think that our common lit scores are going to help tremendously because we've seen such growth this year that we weren't doing last year. So we think that that will help tremendously because we've already seen those growths. Um, same with math. We would we've changed up some things in our testing. Um, and we think that that's going to help also with our upcoming testing last year. We just put them all in a room and tested and we feel like we really weren't meeting the needs of the students. So, we changed up things. We're PLCing much better. we're actually looking at the data and I don't know how well we were looking at the data data prior to make decisions. So, um that's what we've been working on a lot to do that. Um
037we have a lot of kids failing math 9. So, we've worked on some different things that we're going to put in place, well, that we put in place this year, such as more tutoring, um, credit recovery at the school, and so they don't have to go to cash high. Um, but let's get them in. Let's see what we can do for that third try. So, we've had to change quite a bit up. So, which is good. Data's always amazing. So, yeah. Awesome. Thanks. Yeah. So, I have a question. How how do you use your um trust lens funds and your um TSSA funds? Do you use them to try and support those efforts? Yes, 100%. Um so we are currently on TSSI TSI for um our EL e students and our special ed students. So,
038we've actually implemented a lot more co-eing plus just more FTEEs to lower those class sizes. But then like this year 9th graders, I don't know where they came from cuz we like upped so many like ah um so that's what we try and do is really keep those class sizes lower so we can focus on those students that um need more support. We do feel that um putting the lower or at risk students in regular classes has helped tremendously too. So we have a lot of co-eing this year that we have not had before. Um instead of putting you know 15 of your little kids in one class, we've spread them out and we think that'll help. We are also um we've we have not had a consistent eel teacher in since Emmy Staker left
039which was quite a while ago. So we think we found one now who um we're going to really take and put her like the sped department. So then we can have all that support that we haven't had before. So that's kind of where we're at. So, both plans help with that as well with lowering class sizes. Okay. And after school tutoring, um yeah, the credit recovery. So, yes. Excellent. Great. That's the way a lot of other schools use that those two um source fund sources, too. Yes. I learned that last year. So, it it's uh um they're great sources of funds for those types of things. Yes. And um anyway, great kudos to you for that. Well, it's it's my teachers. The students of course are amazing as well and they've adapted amazingly. We thought
040throwing three new things at them um that it would be really hard, but the kids want to put their cell phones away. The kids want to be engaged in learning. And the teachers have also stepped up and now it is truly 60 minutes of learning instead of well, we're done. And you can get on your phones now. I mean, it's remarkable when you walk in our classrooms and there's no cell phones out. Like, it's pretty pretty cool. That is cool. We've we've loved it. So, all right. Thank you. Any other questions for Principal Moritson. All right. Thank you so much for coming up. Um, next on our agenda, we have public input. um either general public input or public input on school fee uh the school fee policy and school fee. So um we have
041one person signed up for public input and so uh the in information and instruction that I need to give you about that is that um your comments will be limited to um 2 to 3 minutes. Um, personnel comments are prohibited. Comments are recorded as part of the public record. So, it's important that you remember to please be respectful. And so, uh, Heather Holmes, if you're here, oh, there you are, Heather. Um, if you would come to the podium, then, uh, you will be given three minutes to give us your public input. Thanks for coming. Awesome. Good to see you again. Yeah, you too. Okay, good evening. My name is Heather Holmes and I am from Nibi. Um, I'd first like to thank you for all the amazing things that you do for our students in
042this district and can continue to do for our students. One particular example is how prepared you were for the CO 19 pandemic. Um, you had a plan right from the beginning and you implemented it very quickly. Um, it made a difficult situation much more manageable and I really appreciate that. Um, I am here as a concerned parent of current dual language immersion students. I have six kids and they have all been enrolled in the Spanish program at Heritage. My oldest is now a junior at Ridgeline and she um took the AP test in 9th grade continue did not continue with the bridge courses because she wanted to do orchestra and other electives. My son is in 9th grade preparing to to take the AP test and um is planning on continuing with the bridge courses
043next year. I also have a daughter at South Cash and three kids in Heritage all enrolled in the Spanish program. Um, when we made the decision to enroll in the DLI program, we committed to the district's program knowing that it would start at our neighborhood school, Heritage, continued on to South Cash, and then eventually go to Ridgeline. This consistency was key to our decision. Now, with the proposed changes, I feel like our family and others like us are being treated as just numbers. The possibility of moving the DLI program to Mountain Crest along with other boundary changes has us concerned that we might lose the very access we've had in the program. I understand that growth in the valley necessitates boundary changes, but I urge you consider the impact that these changes will have on
044families like mine. We've invested 11 years of time, effort, and sacrifices to make this program what it is. My oldest child even took early morning seminary in order to do orchestra and Spanish. Our commitment to this program has been immense and we've built connections within our community. When boundary changes happen, accessibility must remain a priority for current students. Moving the DLI program to Mountain Crest makes it significantly less accessible for many families, myself included. Right now, my 11th grader can drive my 9th grader to Ridgeline. Um, but with the change, I would have to drive my now 7th grader to Mountain Crest in 2 years. Um, this is not just a personal concern. and it affects many families who have turned down job opportunities or even relocated to be within the heritage boundaries for the
045DLI program. Finally, I ask that you consider giving current DLI families a grace period, allowing the the program to be available at both high schools for some time. The bulk of Spanish DLI students live within the current RG Ridgeline boundaries and are a part of that community. Moving the program entirely to Mountain Crest would leave many of us feeling disconnected and overlooked. In conclusion, while the goal of the DLI Magnet School is to make the program more accessible to the district, it is actually making it less accessible for families like mine who have made a long-term commitment to this program. Our students matter, and I ask that you please take into consideration the dedication we've shown and the impact these changes will have on us. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you for
046coming, Heather. Yep. Good to see you. All right. Um, do we need to do anything with fees or just Okay, great. We just needed to have an opportunity for it. So, okay, you're okay. All right. Um, moving on. We I'm looking at the consent agenda and I will take a motion on the consent agenda either to approve or amend it. I move that we approve the consent agenda. I second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda. Uh any discussion to that motion? All right, we will vote electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously. Thank you Jared. Um now we will move on to our action agenda. The first item on that agenda is the approval of kindergarten assessment and start dates for school year
047202526. Um this is the information that Britney um presented to us um two weeks ago uh where kindergarten teachers would be allowed to uh do the their kindergarten assessments um at the best time for their school communities. Um any questions or discussion on this? Gary's here to answer any questions and Gary will answer all the questions. Anything? Okay, then I will take a motion on this um action item. I move that we approve the kindergarten assessment and start dates for the school year 2526. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the kindergarten assessment and start dates for school year 2526. Uh we will vote electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the proposed kindergarten assessment and start dates for the 2025 2026 school year passes unanimously. Thank you Jared.
048Uh next up we have the approval of school fee policy and uh the 202526 school fee schedule. Um so with the extension to July 1st due date, Jared, is there anything that we need to do differently or do you prefer that we go ahead and approve these this evening? I would recommend that the board go ahead and approve what we have presented to this point. We will need to do an update uh mostly to the policy uh because of what was passed in the legislative session. Uh and we'll prepare that between now and July 1st. We will need to go through another um two public hearing uh opportunities for that. But by approving this uh tonight, it would give our schools a fee schedule to be planning on for the upcoming school year. Okay. And
049if if we need to make any adjustments to the fee schedule, uh that it would be really minimal. I think we've we've already covered most of if not all of what we need to for the upcoming year. there. One thing to be aware of uh for the 2026 27 school year, our fee schedule will need to have at least one uh route to graduation that is free of any uh class or any other type of fee. And in in talking to a few in the district office, we're really close to that. In fact, we may already have that built in. But if not, we'll need to make some some adjustments to the fee schedule for the following school year, but that will not apply for the the upcoming school year. Okay. Thank you. And thanks
050to Dave for your work on the policy as well, even though you'd rather face 10 angry parents than write policy. We appreciate your effort. And Jared, thank you for your work on this as well. Uh, any questions or concerns from anyone on the board? The only comment I have is, and I appreciate the district and all they're doing to try to provide as many opportunities for the kids. It's expensive. We're trying to be as competitive as possible with the other districts, I realize, and regions, but we're excluding um we're excluding kids and families. We're not the only district that's excluding kids and families. And I don't know what the answer is to it. I think it's a big challenge that goes way beyond Cash County School District. Um, but it's just a concern. I just
051wanted to address it and think that as a community and as a wider athletic uh society, the people that support these these events, these activities, we have to we have to figure out what to do here because I don't want the cost being spread even more upon the schools, the district, and parents who are already paying exorbitant amount of money to have their kids participate in this. academics is a key to what we're trying to do here and it feels like so much of what we support and do uh goes to athletics. So just watching that balance and again I appreciate what you're doing Dave. You're doing a fabulous job but just general concern. So what you're referring to is extracurricular fees. Correct. Yes. Not curricular fees. That is correct. Okay. Thank you. Any other
052questions or concerns? All right. Um, I will take a motion to approve the school fee policy and the 202526 school fee schedule. I make a motion to approve the school fee policy for 2025 and 2026 the school fee schedule. I second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the school fee policy and the 202526 school fee schedule and we will vote on that electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the school fee policy and 202526 proposed school fee schedule passes unanimously. Thank you Jared. Um and you are up with the monthly financial report as we move into our reports agenda. Okay. Thank you. Um recognition to uh Robin and Chris and others who help to prepare the information that we send you each month for the financial report. One thing I did
053want to to make you aware of um we continue to participate uh quite heavily in a ongoing state audit about school construction and procurement procedures. So we have spent a lot of time uh providing information and answering questions uh with that audit. And just this afternoon I was contacted by the legislative auditor's office and will be participating in an audit. I I still don't understand the the full scope of this audit. Uh but it's a statewide audit with not just uh school districts but universities and and other public entities that's evaluating the effectiveness of internal audit procedures. Uh so we have in our district an internal audit function. Three of our board members serve on that and we have an inter internal auditor. So it's looking at how uh public entities are utilizing the internal
054audit function. So more information to come on that. U the of course the legislative session uh is is over for the year and and uh compliments especially to uh board president Rhodess and and Superintendent McKe who spent a lot of time with our legislators and and working on that session. In terms of funding, the the big items would be that we have a 4% increase on the WPU or weighted pupil unit amount and um there will be a uh increase to the educator salary adjustment and also a one-time bonus for school-based classified personnel. We're still waiting for details on on all of this funding and exactly what our numbers will be. We anticipate that next week we'll receive our our initial numbers from uh USB and at that time we'll be able to start putting
055more information together. Uh I included for the school board a copy of our annual fraud risk assessment. We do this every year. It's it's required by the uh state auditor's office. It does not require board approval or action. Uh, so I've included it for your information, but if you have any questions, um, I'd be happy to look into those or or answer them for you. And we're currently working on, uh, our budget, specifically right now, our FTE allocations for schools. Uh we do have a fairly rigorous process where we get all of the available data points to project student enrollment for next year and then we use our formulas that are in board policy to allocate those FTEEs to to schools and we uh try each year to have those out prior to the spring
056break and we're on track to do that this year as well. and that's what I have to report. So, um when I look at the fraud risk assessment, that's uh impressive that we have moved to the um almost to the very low risk uh level. that um has something changed um on that risk assessment recently that puts us with a higher score there? We're the same uh to my recollection as we have been in prior years. I've been hoping we could check off a couple more of the categories and get into the very low. Uh I'm I'm happy that we're in the low category. that that's a good positive thing. Um, but we haven't been able to to quite get in place yet. A couple of the other uh things like if we were to
057have a a statement of ethical behavior that we're we're committed to in writing each year, if we could have that in a checklist for all of our employees, we we could add that. We just haven't um been able to get that implemented yet. But our score is the same as it was last year. Okay. Um, will we be able to implement the ethical behavior statement soon? Well, I don't have a timeline. I think as we continue to build out our our uh HR on boarding and and some some of those related systems, we should be able to implement that. Um, several things that we're we're working on. So, I don't have a specific timeline, but I do think it's it's possible. Thank you. Uh, anyone else have questions for or comments for Jared on the
058financial report? Um, what are you going to say, Senator Roger? Um, I have an a meeting with the with OLAG in two weeks. Do you want me to ask them any specific questions about that new audit? I don't have any off the top of my mind right now. The auditor who called me um was going to visit with Allen, our internal auditor, uh briefly and then give me a call back and I think at that point I'll have a better idea of the scope, but Okay. Um I can't think of any specific question, but if I do, I'll let you know. Right. Thanks. Great. Thank you so much for your very easy to read financial reports. Uh moving on to board member reports. I see Kathy, you are on the agenda for that. Are you
059giving Smithfield rec center updates? Yes. Did I do this at the last meeting on the rec center? No, the last meeting was a study session. Okay. I mean, you and I have heard the information, right? But yeah, I thought you had, but I I might not be remembering that correctly. Okay. Sorry. Um Okay. So, on the um board member report. I didn't go back and look at my notes. Um guess I didn't read this part too carefully, but uh we had a rec center meeting a few weeks ago and the budget is great. Um, we have um what we need. We have about $800,000 uh between Smithfield City and the district and there's about $20,000 that's um going to be used for things that we've always already designated. But because there wasn't anything else really
060big that needed to be repaired, one of the issues at the rec center is they have a a running track in the building, but it's cement. And um for years they've been wanting to do the um flooring that makes it softer. And so um um Brett, who is the director of the rec center, was going to check in to see um exactly how much it would cost to do that. And we approved that if it fits within the budget, uh we would have that done. So that's the next thing to be fixed on the rec center. and financially it should be fine if we do that. All right. Anyone else have a report? Um, okay. My board president report uh is related to the fact that I am now on the state board trust lens
061advisory committee and um went to my first meeting Monday. And I'm telling you this because uh I learned that the state board is rewriting their trust lands rules and um creating a creating a new rule related to uh the fact that so many schools in the state have are carrying over more than 10% of their um allotted amount. And so, uh, the new rule will make it so that any funds over and above 10% that are carried over, um, will, uh, return to the to the district to be reallocated by the district to schools who are using all their funds. So, um, that was a interesting thing for me to learn this week and, um, hopefully will motivate all of our schools to use their funds every year. Um, there were there always are, um,
062legislative uh, the only word I can think of is attack, but um, I I should think of something more politically politically correct. Every year there are uh political attacks um by the legislators on um the trust lands funds because the the uh fund balance is currently sitting at $3.2 billion and um they really would like to have access to that for legislative um uh priorities. But and so this legislative session was no different. Um thankfully those who work with uh all of the committees um regarding oversight of the school land trust funds and other trust funds that the state holds. Um were able to change those bills going through the legislature so that um the funds continue to be safe. But um anyway, that's one of the changes that will happen is that um we
063will be the district will be reallocating any funds uh that are carried over more than 10%. So that's the end of my report. Okay, my turn. Yes, your turn. All right. Um so as as mentioned, we just concluded the legislative session. Uh, I want to stay state upfront that I I really appreciate our delegation. They've been very willing to engage and to to hear us out with concerns about certain bills. Um, I feel fortunate in our area that we have great representation and we they may not always vote the way we'd like them to, but they are willing to listen and I think that's important. That being said, um it was a challenging session. I think it was a fair way to to put it. Um if you've been paying attention in the news, you
064know that I believe it was 582 bills that were passed, which was the second highest number of bills. At my last count, 40 of them were dealing with public education. And in that, there is that mix of of good and bad. Some of the things that I felt um were really good and helpful. One is we are really appreciative of the legislature and the governor um increasing uh teacher pay. I think that was a win for teachers and we're grateful for that. Um and that they're trying to prioritize that, you know. Um I also felt like their efforts to address um student need particularly around the school lunch program was a real bonus and a real win for for kids. Um, our lunch program is set up where, uh, based off family income, students either
065qualify for free lunch or reduced lunch. Um, and we found that the students in that reduced lunch range. Um, oftentimes we're going out. They're oftent times the ones that are carrying a a balance forward and the legislature has stepped up and will now pay for breakfast and lunch for those students as well as the the free lunch uh, students. So that I believe that was a win. One bill in particular I I found troublesome uh that I I believe the community really needs to understand clearly and that was SB37. That was the property tax bill. Um our community may not be aware. Um certainly when they open up their tax assessment every year and they'll see the the big portion of their property tax that's being paid to the Cash County School District in there
066there's a line item that talks about minimum basic school. And the assumption I'm sure from our community is all of that's coming to the district when in fact for the longest time a little bit of that has gone to the state to help equalize property taxes across the state. SB37, which was passed this last year, this last session, and is waiting the governor's signature, and he seems to be drawing this out. So, I'm hopeful that he's looking at this very carefully, changes that uh completely. All of that within that that property tax will now go to the state. It will not go into the education fund. it will go into the general fund which means the the legislature will have freedom to use that property tax how they wish. Now in the bill they've made
067a commitment to backfill those funds to the district through income tax. Um but it is a fundamental change in tax policy in our state where now the the the state legislature has greater control over property taxes and may be using and changing ways um going forward. We also know that income tax is far more susceptible to to dips and valleys in the in the economy compared to property tax. And so that leaves us with a lot of concern. Um I felt it very important for our community to be aware of this change because it will continue to show up on their tax assessment as if it's coming to the district when it is not. Um that being said, there were some highlights now that the the session is over. Um, you know, it was a
068chance for me to to step aside and it's been really gratifying the last two weeks to get back into the routine of getting back into buildings and visiting schools. I've been able to visit nearly a dozen schools in the last week and a half. Um, I was able to participate last week in the mock interview for high school students, which was a really um, a great experience to engage in with those students as they're preparing to exit high school. Um, I've been able to attend the Young Writers and Artist Festival as well as the um, cargi hall concert yesterday. A lot of great things going on in our district. It It's so gratifying to see our staff engaging with students and the great work that they're doing. I'm I'm grateful to them and I just
069want to make sure that they hear it publicly that uh they're awesome and we wish them all the best as we're starting to wrap up the year. And with that um that's I conclude my report. If you have any questions, I'm happy to respond. Anyone? All right, that uh brings us to the end of our regular agenda and we'll be moving into uh an executive that is a closed session. So, everyone else in the room is welcome to leave and thank you for coming and being here. We appreciate your attendance. We have to make a motion. Can you do a motion and second for that? Yeah, we will. [Music] Oh no. You want us to go in there and stuff?