December 9th, 2025 - Alpine School District Board Meeting

001to order. Thank you all for being here. Um we have several items on our agenda. Uh Superintendent Smith. >> Yeah, we're excited. We've got three items uh to share with you tonight. Um we've got uh representatives from DSS and I think if you'd like we'd love to just kick you off first and then we're going to hear from um Rich stole. He's got uh some information to share with us about an employee survey. And then I think we'll wrap up with the last presentation from Mr. B on um some feedback from uh cell phone policy survey. So crew, >> that's me. Steve, >> that's me. Okay, if I introduce Steve while he's getting >> logged on to the system. >> So, I think our board members know, but this is Steve Timl. He is um

002one of our HR directors and he his main responsibilities are over what used to be classified employees. Now they're called education support professionals and with that he is um our contact with our main contact with ESS which is our substitute provider and substitutes. So he is going to just share a little bit of information about um substitute the the state of the state of the state with >> state of the district with substitutes. >> Yeah. That's my llama. No, kidding. >> Hello. All right. So, um I was asked to kind of talk a little bit about um ESS and kind of where we are with the with ESS and the numbers and kind of our partnership with them and um kind of a day in what what's uh been happening in 2025. So um my

003performance not my performance my presentation here is to um is to share information. It's um you're welcome to ask questions. Um if I don't know the answer I have lifelines right over there. So um but so let's go ahead and get started. I'm just going to give kind of like a 30,000 foot overview of ESS and and kind of what's been going on. And so, um, kind of the the agenda or kind of what I'm going to talk a little bit about, um, is this the agenda, current, uh, usage, key measures and results, bill rates, financial overview, contract terms, and then if you have any questions or answers. So um just to get started the current staffing usage for this school year and this is for the whole district for um Alpine School District. So

004teachers is uh just over 21,000 and then professionals and that includes bed aids um just over 4,500 and then clerical and admin support uh 11. So, you see kind of where the majority of our our uh our subs are are the need is for our subs. Um, but that's kind of where we're at right now. We'll get into more of kind of what those percentages are, what that looks like. Um, the peak usage periods. And so I kind of I I um talked to Joseph and Natalie a little bit and Joe um and the the need for um subs is right in January to March kind of that's where our illness season and then also in between April and May that's where we have a lot of um admin things going on testing and and

005that kind of thing. So um so those are uh some bits of information these key measures on the f on the oh is there a delay there we go so these are the key measures so I wanted to uh point out so this is for um the period of July to November for 2025. Um the absence filled, this is we just kind of went over that, but here's the breakdown. So the fill rate overall for July to November for Alpine School District is about 90 it's actually 98.7% but or 98.3%. Um but for intent of purposes um and then we kind of break down what is from teachers, professional pair professionals and clerical and then we break it out to the fill rates. And so one of the things that I I noticed, I've been

006here since uh July of 2023, excuse me, June of 2023, and um ESS and their numbers continue to get better. Their fill rates were in the 80s, some in the low 90s when I got here a couple years ago. Um, but it just continues to rise and it continues to get better in their fill rates. So, that's something that is promising for us as well. So, we like to see um and you'll notice that we just put some numbers here for 2024. Same time period, July through November. Um, not as many fills. Um, and um, but the fill rate was about 95%. still a respectable number. Um, but you could see that we're we're increasing that as well and we kind of went over that. Um, one of the things on on this slide that

007that I haven't presented was why is it not going? I'm sorry. I don't understand. that's happening. Um the trend, so the fill rate, um these numbers are a little bit low, but what I mean by trend is is that overall, like I said before, when I first started a couple years ago, um the trend, you know, um was in the high 80s, low 90s, and as year overyear, it continues to go up um two to 4% more towards the the 4%. Um but average of that trend. So >> speak question. >> Go ahead. >> I love hearing that the fill rate is continue to increase and why is that and what can we do to make sure that that filler rate increase continues at the same I guess current rate or to even continue to

008increase. What's happening to help them? >> Well, a couple of things. Um the first and foremost thing is that when I got here I um asked a lot of questions and um a lot of that was um trying to understand the process. But in in doing that they took some of the information that I was asking and put it to to to paper. And so then they would they started looking at those things and then the feedback that I gave them with regard to uh some of the um the incident reports that we get because I see all the incident reports and things like that. Um they had some um some um what would I say in in their office. Um they were they had they had employees they were they were hired. Um but

009but then there was some turnover and kind of thing and so they they just continue to get better and with feedback from me and from um the principles and from incident reports. And so they've just been making some leaps and bounds that way. And so they're very res responsive and receptive to our feedback and how they can better. And so we just we've established that relationship with them. And so we continue to to do that and that's what would keep us going and keep us um increasing in that. >> So Steve, are you only going to show the stuff from July to November? >> Yes. Okay. I'd love to see I know that you talked about how the peak usage was like January to March then April to May. Um I get that it's not

010a part of this presentation, but I'd love to see that data comparison as well. >> Like just in the future. I mean like not for today's session, but just like an email would be awesome. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um and then so these are specific fill rates for each of the different districts um that that we've kind of identified. So Aspen Peaks, Tipponovas, and um Lake Mountain. So you can see um the year-to- date fill rate for in Aspen Peaks and um they provide us with a lot of information from clusters. So what I did is I just had them take those clusters and then put them into the different perspective districts. Does that make sense? So So in this area for Aspen Peaks um it would be 98%. For Tipponogus um

011about the same and then for Lake Mountain it would be about 97%. And then this these next slides, these are total absences um compared for um from 2025 and 2024. I don't know that we need to go into those per se um because I did give this um presentation to um Bri and Cammy and so you'll have access to that too. Um I I don't know that I want to spend time on these. Um just if there was a question this one um Oh, it's good. It's it's it's it's keeping up with me. That's great. Um so this slide, what I asked Joe was is, you know, of the different districts, how many of how many of these um subs live in those districts? And what could we expect if we were to if we

012were to say, "Hey, let's divide in three today." And what could we expect? What would that look like? And so, um, right now we have a current subs is, um, 2017. So, it's approximate. It kind of es and flows a little bit, but that's about what it is now. Um, and then, um, those are the subs that live those are the total subs for ASD. But in the pie chart, you'll notice that um this is this here, blue is um that's Aspen Peaks and then the green is um Tipponogus and then the orange is Lake Mountain. And so what I did here was um so there's 760 that live in this area, 440 in this area, and 531 in this area. Now, there's a discrepancy between if you add those three numbers and that number

013because there's other subs that are living outside of these district areas. So they come in and help. So that's there's a discrepancy there, but that's why there's a discrepancy. Um the um what else did I want to say? Are we going to get this slide down >> at a small cost? >> Okay. >> Is that okay? >> I'm just looking at it at the green and the blue and in the key. I'm like, okay. >> It's hard to see. >> Aspen is blue. Okay. >> Yes. Right here. >> Mhm. >> All right. And oh this is what I wanted to say was that what I did is I took the student population of the projected student population of each of these and you you divide this number by that. So this one I took the

014number 355 here would be 24 uh 7 and then 243. Um, and I know those numbers kind of go back and forth, but all right. >> Um, anyway, and so then that would um, in each of those, that's about 2% for each of those areas that live within that area right now. Okay. Um, also financial overview just to let you know that our annual spend with the SS um, thanks to um, Jason and his crew to give me this these this information. So 2023 was 5.5 million, 24 was 6.8, and then 25 was 8.9 million. >> Say that again. The last term. >> Oh my gosh. Sorry. >> There you go. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sorry. I don't I don't know why it's delayed. Um, so 2023 5.5, 24 was 6.8, and then 25

015is 8.9. Also, what I wanted to do just for your information, the cost breakdown of a daily rate for certified subs. So that increase in payments is that because we have more hours that are being filled or the >> cost per >> and and so the cost breakdown so the daily rate for certified subs is anywhere from 100 to 135 per DM. Hourly rate for ESP is between 14 and $18 an hour. And then our agency markup is about 33%. And then conversion to higher fee which a lot of other places a lot of other staffing agencies have um we don't have in our contract. So that's nice. The in the interest of time um this I'll just talk about the slide briefly. What this what this shows is that um with 24-hour lead time

016um that that's what if we have 24 hours plus this is how much we fill. These are the numbers 12 to 24hour lead time this is what we fill and so on and so forth. If you were to do the percentages here it' be 99.4% when we have 24 hours at least 24 hours notice to to fill. So that those are um fill rates for that. And as it goes down, it's it's a little higher just because um time gets shorter. But trends of the week, these are um what days of the week are people most absent. Um and you'll notice it's on a Friday. Um these are the absent reasons for sick professional meetings. one slide behind. There we go. Um so these are the absent reasons um sick professional meetings, personal days. Um

017just an FYI, so they're recruiting channels. They use local colleges, universities. One of them is University of Utah. Um they uh one of the things that you know to answer your question um Sarah was to one of the things that um I really like what they did was they um we had a lot of people retiring and want to come back into and work for us. And um I asked if we could kind of um speed up that process for for those because they know our culture and that kind of thing. And so we were getting more people from that retired from ASD. And so that was that was another reason why we our numbers are getting better. So >> and out of those that fill rate is it it's about 14% of those that

018live outside the district that come into the district to sub are those ones that I mean do you even know this data? Maybe you don't. Uh, how many of those, at least the 14%, do they solely only want to sub an alpine or are do they have their fuelers out in other districts as well and they're doing it between different districts and they're hopping? Do do you happen to know that? >> We do know that we have individuals that are shared with Jordan and with Provo that are >> I was hoping you were going to say nope, they all just wanted the same. I was trying to prod you answer. >> It's okay. No, thank you. >> Thanks. Um >> I'm just amazed you were able to fill so many after it had already started.

019You know what I mean? That's incredible. >> They're amazing. Um so technology plat I'm not going to go into that. Um contract snapshot. Just wanted to let you know that we renewed the contract with them in 2025 May 31st. Um and then that renewed till 2020 2030. Okay. And so um and what'll happen is is that um those prices will stay the same the costs and things for us. In the event that um we get together and that the district split and they want to kind of go a different direction or that kind of thing. Um we have some contract language in the contract that'll help kind of facilitate that. And um and will be renegotiated or not renegotiated. >> Um well, is that renegotiated? >> Well, we we'll need a new contract, but we

020set up in our original contract was to honor the pricing for all three new entities. And so, if the new entities choose to work with those who we hope to earn business, then we will enter into an agreement for that. >> So, there is the potential to to enter on the same rate. >> Yes. Yes, we will. We will. Yes, we that was the negotiation that we did when we renewed the contract last year. >> Is some of that cost um going up for the wonders training because we have all those teachers going? I know we budgeted for it. So, I'm just curious, is that part of why this year's cost is a little bit more than the last year's? >> I'm not familiar with. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. >> Okay. Thank you, Keith.

021Okay. >> A piece of it. >> Like how much? >> So, is there such a thing as an unemployed substitute teacher or if if you're a substit in the pool, you pretty much have a job any day you want or >> Absolutely not. >> Okay. That's that's what I wonder. >> I I I we we jokingly >> Well, you sub in this. >> We jokingly refer to it as playing the ponies at our house where like an app notification and if you don't immediately like the job is gone. It's very hard to actually get sub jobs in ASD currently. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Well, you substitute and then you do too, don't you? >> But I never pick them up. Like I just get teachers ahead of time. >> Okay. >> Anytime I log in,

022it says nothing available. >> Oh, wow. >> Okay. >> All right. Well, that's really that's all I had today. Was there any other questions? And and definitely we will address your question um and send out the presentation. Hey, >> thank you. >> Thanks to the ESS team here as well. So, appreciate you being here. Rich, I think you're up next. Okay. >> Board Room 220 East 0627. change%. >> Thank you. Thanks for your time. Uh I'm going to talk today um about this feedback that we got from employees. Uh and we were measuring sentiment. Uh you might conclude that we were measuring morale or feelings or even thoughts about the transition. That's what we were focused on. We Rob really wanted to know what he didn't know at the time about the workforce heading into

023this important transition. So we used a tool called Parseek and Parseek is different from other feedback gathering systems. It's it's really focused on qualitative feedback rather than typical surveys. So they kind of brand themselves as the anti-servey. Um the way they put it is um they can do conversations at scale. And so we felt that this was a topic that really needed a a tool to get to some of the feelings, some of the emotions that maybe we couldn't measure in a typical survey. And particularly, we wanted to be able to get to uncover things that we couldn't anticipate, right? And and as we're thinking about how to frame um a survey, you know, sometimes we we force people into certain ways of thinking, certain answers, and we wanted to avoid that. So, we we

024chose this tool because it's really good at gathering qualitative uh feedback and like I mentioned the way we see this as as having conversations at scale. So, we did hear from over a thousand. We had this open for a little over two weeks in late October. Um more than,200 unique respondents. So, we're really happy about the the breadth of the responses that we got. So, here's who responded to this call for feedback. Um, in some of these, if you if you're quick at math or if you're quick on your calculator, you notice the responses don't always add up to 1,200. Not we didn't make any of the questions required. We wanted people to feel welcome to speak about what they wanted to speak about. So, some of our respondents did not indicate their role. Most

025of them do. >> Rich, >> yes. >> One question. Um, when it talks about the role, what is that in comparison to actually like the real numbers? Yeah. What are the proportional? Yeah, >> have some HR folks in there. There you go. >> Sorry, you can get back to me on that one. >> I uh the the raw number that I always throw out is 10,000 employees, 300 administrators. >> I think it's about 35. I mean, this is Jason, you can correct me. I think it's around like rounded 3,500 teachers and CL uh ESP. >> Okay. I mean about >> so 300 admin well the admin would be included in >> certified okay >> okay yeah and we can we can dive into that >> that's approximate >> it breaks out okay so we asked

026four questions and you'll see a pattern in as I present these this feedback to you um we asked a question we got we got back thousands of answers per question over a thousand answers for most of the questions And this platform runs some analysis on it and puts it into themes for us. So what you're going to see for each question is three themes and then I'm going to show you some positive feedback that I just copied and pasted and some negative feedback. So sit down if you're standing or stand up if you're sitting >> for the feedback. So the first question we asked, share an example of how current school or district administrators have helped build a strong and supportive community as the district transitions. So this is this is one thing I appreciate

027about Rob starting off with the positive what's going well and this was really um we wanted to know what's what's going well and what we've learned a lot of this is confirmation but that um our administrators and the answers will show you that particularly at the schools school administrators do very well uh communicating with their staffs for the most part um there's there's a recognition that there is an effort at the district level to uh to engage the community in some of these decisions and these processes and principles are really working on strengthening their teams that came through in so this is what's going the these are the themes that the responses to what's going well fell into. So here we have some of our exact exact uh feedback and this feedback came in text.

028Sometimes it came in through voice. We had a few video responses. Um but these are all these were all typed in either to a computer or phone. I pulled these out. I mean this was me going through manually trying to find representative uh examples of some of the feedback. So, I didn't want to repeat themes and just give you four things that were the same. This was, you know, wide variety of ideas here. Um, but you can see what what's kind of working. Um, that last one, they've helped us not stress too much and know that it is going to be okay. Okay. So, for some negative ones, the other side. Now, it it wasn't as negative overwhelmingly. this this answer came back positive as we saw from those themes. But some people still feel

029like they don't know what's going on. And I experience that every day when I talk to people um whether they're workers uh employees of the district or even people in the community and media particularly. There's still a lot of um misinformation and and just misunderstanding about what is happening with this transition. seems as if the current administrators do not know what is going on or what is going to happen in the future or they are trying to promote themselves for a position in one of the new districts. >> It gets better. >> Okay. Then we asked them what professional or personal concerns do you currently have related to creation districts? So this was a negatively framed one. We first asked for the positive and then we we asked for some critical feedback here. So here

030are the themes. the the concern about resource allocation among three new districts anticipated that particularly with um programs that would benefit students. There's a there's a fear that those programs may disappear or be altered in such a way as to negatively impact students. teachers still they're uneasy and we knew that but you'll see in some of the comments maybe the degree to which we sort of comprehended that you might you might shift your thinking on that a little bit and then there's this um concern about uh salaries and benefits that of course we would expect um but you can see the the way that the feedback comes in 73% of all responses to this question had to do with that first theme and the salaries and benefits was was sort of a lower uh concern.

031I love the district's approach to providing us a breath of good resources while still giving teachers wiggle room for how to exactly apply it in our classrooms. I hope that continues. That's good. And then this person was just really excited and I think that I think that represents a lot of a lot of employees. They're eager for this. They're eager to see new opportunities. So those were the positive things. >> Thrillshare. Oh, >> Thrillshare is our communications platform. >> Okay. >> Sending out messages to to parents. Some of the negative ones on It's close. In all of these comments, I copied and pasted exactly. There were a few words that I did the right click to spell it correctly because, you know, they type on their phone. I didn't want you to uh to have

032any bias against them for for mistyping something. This one stands out to me. I this was represented in some other comments also. Um on that comment alone I truncated it because they had a lot to say and I really just wanted to capture the part about email and and systems. And I think at first when I first read that I thought you know that's the least of our concerns but maybe employees that account and the the wealth of information that they've built up is a real concern. >> Yeah. A big issue with Google Drive. Yeah. >> Right. Like am I access am I going to lose on my Google Drive? So yeah. >> Okay. We asked them about resources that we could apply to make this easier, smoother for them. This is a this is

033a note that we keep hearing more transparent communication. That was the biggest theme for how we can make this smoother. Um teachers want assurances on job security and benefits. Maybe not a surprise there. >> So Rich, can I clarify with this one? >> Yeah. Um, are they talking about it says school boards, so I'm assuming they're talking about the current ASD board as well as communication from the new school boards. Is that accurate? >> I think so. And when we launched this, I mean, we assume that, right? It kind of depends on me of individual responses, but remember, we launched this before elections, >> right? >> Uh, and so we viewed this as data for you all. And I think it will be important for new school board members uh to take into account. But

034as we look at how to um take action on this data, we're thinking what can we do for our employees currently who are working for Alpine School District and if it benefits new school boards, then that would be a bonus. >> Sorry, that was over three. >> Yeah, I don't think that can be overemphasized. um stakeholders wanting a say in decision making and um I think that just bears bears repeating and emphasizing even though it was one of the minor themes. Okay. So the good the good stuff here some confidence in new school boards that came through the timelines um that we saw that in many of the responses people to know what those timelines and milestones are um and I think we've we've made an effort to do that. I know Rob has um

035really made that a priority and and so I think that that concern is is well received. Okay. I don't have an example of this. No one really seems to have any answers or know what is going on. that that could be sort of a legacy answer for a long time. That was sort of the the holding statement. We just don't know. New boards will decide this. New boards will decide this. Well, that I think what we saw in some of this responses that only goes so far. There's got to be something that you can provide for us to at least give us some assurance that someone's driving the bus. Uh this this was not isolated. This is this came through in many of the responses that um on the negative side, right, that that uh

036they feel like they're being acted upon instead of uh collaborated with. And then I think I don't know if anybody else can relate to this last one. I don't know what to think. It's just a lot. Okay. Okay. Then finally, we asked them, "What could the district do better to prepare the community?" Transparent communication and decision-m really putting that forward, I think, is probably the best thing that uh that any any board could do, especially we're not in routine times, right? That that came through loud and clear. this is not business as usual and so it demands maybe an extra level of transparency even if sometimes things feel redundant or we're repeating ourselves and we've had this conversation um at the district level. We feel like this is you know we live and breathe these

037these items every week and every day but maybe folks in the schools or the parents who've got other things going on they don't. And so we think that we're overcommunicating but but to many of our stakeholders we are not communicating enough in some cases. Obviously, people want stability in times of change and and perhaps there are um there's there's only so much you can do there. But but this is an opportunity, I think, for especially school leaders to look for opportunities to um supply that stability within the context of a district split. And then uh community engagement at at our in two days when we meet with uh new school boards, we're going to be talking a lot about community engagement and what that looks like and what it doesn't look like. So here's our

038positive responses again emblematic of the the hundreds that came in. And that last one just I think was I don't think it could have been said any better than that. I don't I don't know if the teacher said that or if the administrator said that, but I think that's great advice. >> It works on school boards, too. They need to be praised. >> You're doing a wonderful job. >> Thank you for listening. And and I just want to say like some of this feedback might be hard to to hear or to receive. And I don't read any of this as saying that a particular group or a particular person is at fault. This is just what people are feeling. And so it's company incumbent upon leaders to recognize that and to take it into account

039as we make decisions or as we share things out. So, you know, in that in this one, HR, you know, probably there's not a lot HR can say right now about benefits, right? There's still a lot of unknowns, but it it we also need to understand that that's going to be a source of anxiety until we have clear answers that we can communicate out. Okay. So a little bit about uh who was responding. So you can you can take this in and when we supply you with the final report in uh written format, we will break this out. So what we can do is we can just do all of those themes rerun them with for just Aspen Peaks for each school district independently. >> How can they be in more than one location? >>

040Well, if you work like for district department >> Oh. Oh, okay. There's two different questions. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so Eric and I were talking about this like what what is it that you all want to know from this besides just getting dumped all of this feedback or or a representation of it? And what I we thought would be helpful to you is to explain to you what we've done as a communications team with this information. And this is what we've done. We we recognize that there's a lot to do and this phrase preserve the core just came to mind. We invested in communication tools and training and thank you all for your investment in that. I think thrillshare has been a real benefit to us during this time. It's easier to

041get out information more quickly and more reliably. And I think that's a response also. you know, we um we we sort of pre uh what's the word I'm looking for? Ahead of time, >> Preemptively. Thank you. We preemptively saw this coming and we decided that uh we needed better communication tools heading into this. It's been really helpful. We've we've sort of preserved and guarded our uh opportunities to appreciate employees. So the rise the rise awards and the recognitions that we do that's one thing that we've said we're we're going to say start saying no to some stuff but we're not saying no to that and I'm I'm I'm glad you know like my team Karen has really um been a force for that and I think it's wise especially in line with this this feedback

042and then this idea of taking teaching and listening opportunities it goes along with communication and transparency but what we have found is that we still need to teach. We need to explain what is happening. We can't just tell people what's happening. We need to explain that to them. And if anybody's been in the classroom, it doesn't always click on a Monday. Sometimes students need a Tuesday and a Wednesday to to understand something and you need to circle back to it the next week and the next month. And so, um, reminding ourselves that there are a lot of, um, feelings and a lot of perspectives and a lot of situations we need to take into account. and we just to be more patient as we're teaching our constituencies what's happening here. >> What's an example that

043comes to your mind? >> Um, well, we just the idea there are still people I talk to who say, "So, what's where you are you sticking with Alpine when this is all done?" I get that all the time. Once a week, people ask me, "So, who's going to be Alpine when this is all done?" And so, you have to teach. No, this is a a brand new paradigm. everything that you thought you knew about public education and how it's organized, you got to kind of reset there and let's build up and teach what's going to happen brand new. Everything's starting over. Uh kind of a correlary to that is we get a lot of feedback about what programs are going to remain in place and of course we you know it's not our place to

044answer that but one of the things that as a communications team we try to teach is everything is on everything is always on the table for any boards have you know almost unilateral unilateral authority over many things and so teaching them governance and how to get in touch with your board members and how to share your concerns is a big part of what we do and not just to assume that boards are going to continue everything that has been done decades before. Did that answer? >> Okay. I want you to reflect for just a moment on this question because I' I've shared with you what it has meant to us as a communications team. What could this information mean to you as as the board of education? You don't have to share out. It's okay.

045Um if you want to feel free, but just we'll just take a minute to reflect before I conclude. >> I'd like to share it. I think that mean this means that I mean we have an obligation but the new boards also have an obligation to be uh very intentional about engaging their public their future public and um this idea of stability and security they will need to provide a lot of that. Yeah, thank you. As as we've discussed a lot of this feedback, another thing that comes to mind is we should be offering grace to all of the people who have very strong feelings one way or another because this in many cases has dismantled their identity, right? If they they grew up teaching alpine, this has really rocked their world. And to just allow

046them to have those feelings while we communicate with them and teach them and try to build some of that stability back into the new the new work. Any other thoughts before I move on? >> Rich, I was going to say um I appreciate that sentiment because there's a lot of us that were educated >> through elementary school in this district and that now you know or we're older and our kids and our grandkids have had that experience and so it is a little difficult. I I think one of the things especially after um having gone through this uh survey and kind of listening for the responses is the fact that there are those feelings still out there and having been someone that didn't necessarily want the district to split, but trying to plant a seed

047in my heart of the good things that can come about and sticking with those and I have found that that has grown and I'm able to see the excitement of do you know how many people in the nation would love started the district from scratch that reflects the values of your own community. I mean, that's >> and to really stick with the positive things, not to be fake about it, but to really find and I think each of us as leaders, regardless of where you are in in different capacities, we need to be able to find that because the only way our communities are going to move forward and not just move forward, but move forward positively is if we find that. And so, it's not been easy. for me. But I think that it's

048important for me to move forward. >> Yeah. >> So that we can all see that there are some great things that are that are happening because it's so easy to, you know, cling to the past but move forward. And I think there's some wonderful things that we can move forward with with with Alpine that we can share in other districts and and use some of those things and start from scratch. But I am finding that the more I'm focusing on the positive, it's easier to be positive. >> Is it simpus? >> That's it. >> Always forward. Simp what? >> Anticus >> always >> paid attention to his presentation. >> Yeah. >> Hey, um I I really I wanted to tee off one of Sarah's comments and that is there's this emotional bond to Alpine District

049that um I think has contributed to making it great. For example, when I go to talk to new teaching graduates, right, they all want to teach at Alpine because they know there's this culture of excellence and support and things. And uh I think we have a lot of goodwill among uh previous teachers uh community members who've served on uh PTAs and things. some of them that that it was actually that Alpine brand that really um made them feel like I'm going to go beyond what I normally would do because I want to be part of this excellent thing. >> And I I think that it would be so the challenge for PR is can we transfer that allegiance from Alpine to these new districts, right? How do we create that same sense of excellence um

050as we as we do that is it's largely a PR problem like can we reach out to our public and say yeah >> look this new district is going to have the same um you know quality and uh u u support as the old district did. I don't know it just is an interesting question because I I feel like I'm the same way. I'm like I feel like I've always been a proud member of Alpine School District, right, for my for decades. And now what am I? I almost feel empty like oh I don't really have anything to do with the schools but what I should do is I'm now part of the new >> Sundance district. I don't know what it's going to be called, but yeah. Yeah. How do I transfer my allegiance

051so that I feel that same emotional connection to the new district? >> Well, that that's a that's a problem that we'll be grappling with um over the next few months. I would add on to that a thought that I had is that these new districts don't have the trust that Alpine has and that's our currency and the communication department is trust. And it's not because it's broken trust. It just hasn't had an opportunity to build to grow. And what a great opportunity that is, right, for these new school districts to grow that from a from a in a fresh garden with fresh soil that, you know, no weeds in it yet. >> Well, one one thing that will happen like when you create a new maybe you've divided your company or something, right? you can

052have the president of the old company, you know, try to build trust with the new president, you know what I mean? Or something like that. So, I'm I'm just kind of trying to uh to think about ways that we we as a u the old Alpine could actually build trust in the new districts. >> Yeah, >> it might be interesting. >> And and I would expect that'll be the topic of lots of conversations that Derek and I have with Rob and the team going forward. Well, and you know, Mark, also with that, we've seen a massive shift in the last seven years with school boards. No one came to school board meetings when we when I first got here. Now, it's more thing and you see the involvement of the communities more. It's going to

053be different in at new school school districts with with school boards and they will learn so differently than you know boards that we've had previously in outline. It just it it's different because the involvement of the community and that kind of goes along with the trust thing. So, it's it's bound to be different whether we like it or not, but it's exciting to see how much involvement that people want to have in these new districts. That's exciting. >> Maybe we need to partner cities, you know what I mean? Because they they can build trust, too. >> Yeah. >> I don't Sorry. >> No, no. I just I just was going to piggyback on that comment, Mark. I how I frame it partially is um the three new districts are pieces of us. They are part

054of Alpine and Alpine is a piece of them. And so how do you build on that? How how do you see your identity in one of the new districts? These are still our communities. These are still teachers that that work in in all of our cities in in all of our schools. These are custodians and bus drivers that still provide service today. They will just be providing that through a new district. And so those three new districts are pieces of us and we are of them and and how exciting it is not just to think about that historically and what that means and can mean to us that have a lot of loyalty to Alpine, but the that coupled with the new opportunity of three new boards to take a lot of the good things

055but to innovate and build new and that new excitement and energy as Sarah's talking about there is a lot of excitement and energy building in those things and we saw that over the last two weeks in the new school board uh swearing in the new meetings the the agenda items the things they're tackling on their field trips their road trips these are great people who've stepped up to say I want to be part of this and so that's how I would frame it is they are a part of us we are of them and we have some great people that are going to be building that trust in the new districts over time. It doesn't happen all at once, >> but a little bit at a time. >> Yeah, >> maybe that helps. >> On

056a final note, um this is my daughter. She visited on one of her during the break one time and her superpower is making a mess, >> so I thought this would be appropriate. We we we're in a messy period and it might get a lot messier and so we should anticipate that. But what I love about this is she can come up with some of the most beautiful creative artwork. And I've got to let her get a little messy sometimes to see that result. And so we, you know, as a as a district staff, we all want to be patient as we get through the mess and let people have their emotions. But I want to leave you with three recommendations that that I think uh have have emerged from this data. Expect a new

057level of transparency. I think I transparency is uh one of the themes that came through in almost every single question and I think it is an opportunity for you to think about what that really means. What is the standard of transparency during this transition to three districts and as a communications team we will we are ready to honor whatever you tell us your expectation of transparency is communicate to teach. We've talked about that. It's, you know, an opportunity again instead of investing a lot in one way communication and just broadcasting out, building relationships and teaching through communication. And then think about setting some milestones for this transition. Um, asking one of the things that came through all of this feedback is I don't know what to expect next. And I think most of our employees

058recognize that there are a lot of unknowns, but if we can tell them when they can expect some clarity or some new information, that would be helpful. So, as a board, I think it's an opportunity for you to set some milestones and some performance metrics on how us as a as a district staff and particularly a communications team are meeting those milestones and so we can we can improve if we need to. >> Thank you. AWESOME. >> THANK YOU. THANKS, RICH. UH, KAREN, JONAS, MICHELLE, PHYLLIS. YEP. >> You're awesome. Eric, thank you for engaging in the work we've done, too. Doing some some great things. Craig, turn it over to you. >> Thank you. This presentation is going to look uh similar to Rich's. Why? because we also used parseek for this presentation. Okay. And

059the and the information that we got. So the reason that we did this this kind of stemmed from two things. Uh legal services works close and with the policy committee and the legislative committee. Um we recently did a new cell phone policy uh within Alpine School District as a result of legislation that was passed this past session. Okay. So a lot of the things that we did in our policy were given to us and directed uh from the state legislature. So we we had some control over what we put in our policy but not control from the ground up full control. Okay. So, some of the things that we we've uh we wanted to get information from parents, students, employees on how it's going so that we could look at how we might change or

060adjust our policy in the ways that we can change and adjust it. Okay. Um, the other reason that we wanted to gather information is so that we could report back to the legislature and tell them how it's going and maybe offer suggestions on ways that uh it would be helpful to us as a school district to make adjustments to the statute. Okay, so those are the the main reasons why we put this out there. Uh you'll see that we had 10,000 over 10,000 responses uh 4,500 from parents, 4,700 from students, and uh a little over a thousand from employees. This is the overall sentiment. Now, I'm going to just point something out to you real quick. These percentages are quite low actually, right? Um so typically you would highlight the big percentage. The big percentage

061in all of these is going to be neutral. Okay? So most of our responses came back that they didn't have necessarily a strong preference toward the policy or against the policy. They're going along with the policy and they're okay with it. They're adapting to it, etc. Okay. The overall sentiment then from parents 20 27% favorable with 40 47% neutral. Okay. Students, you shouldn't be surprised by this. they were the lowest on on the favorability scale as it applies to cell phones not being allowed in school. But again, we had a 36% neutral uh rate there. And employees are our most favorable. Um this is primarily our teachers, right? 47% favorable and also 27% that were neutral. Okay, so we had several questions that we sent out to these three demographics. Um the questions were not

062exactly the same as we sent them out, but we grouped these questions into general themes um with this presentation. So in general, how has the cell phone policy affected student learning? And then I'm going to show you the results for each of those three demographics. So parents, um although it's 27% favorable, again, 47% neutral. Okay. But we did see a lot of uh parents indicate that they saw improved focus, learning, and classroom engagement. Some saw more completed work. Others said there was little change and there was a few that said they had concerns about their students anxiety and emergency communications. Those are themes that you'll see throughout um all of the questions is concerns about being able to get a a hold of their student and emergency situations. Um students um you'll see have those

063same similar things. Okay. So, a lot of your students said, "Oh, well, my change my grades haven't changed." A few said that they saw focus and improved focus in academic performance. Um, others said that it was it made it harder to complete their tasks because they couldn't use their phone, which they're so used to using for a lot of these processes. Okay. Then, of course, employees. So, our teachers saw strong gains in their focus, fewer disruptions, better face-to-face interaction between students with their peers, um, and still some resistance obviously from from their students. These are some of the positive responses that that were taken directly from the survey with regards to this idea. And as in all things, not everything is positive and not everybody sees things the same way. So there's some negative responses,

064too. I certainly think that that one's true, right? Kids are find finding sneaky ways to get around with the policy. There's that concern about emergency situations creeping back into the responses again. So those are some of the the general feelings. Okay. The next question or theme that we had was >> can I can I interject with that that comment there? That's the first um indication I've seen that there's a concern that the phone is not available for the child to video in the class. That's Wow. I just had I had not considered that. >> It's true. >> I mean, most of the negative PR we've gotten has been from kids videoing. >> Yeah. I had I had not considered that as a board member. So, I'm just saying. >> Now, there are some of our

065schools, right? Our schools are applying this in different ways as allowed under policy. So we've allowed our schools if they so cho chose with their student community council and PTA and others that they got feedback from to lock the phones in pouches or lockers or other things like that. >> That's not from the board. >> No. No. And other schools are just allowing their student to keep it out of sight, right? So leave it in their backpack or their purse or whatever it might be. Just a comment at this bottom on the left there. I hadn't thought about that before, but you know, a student who's on their phone like >> 18 hours a day, >> all of a sudden they put it away, >> it's going to feel different emotionally. You know what I

066mean? >> Anxiety. >> I mean, it's like you almost have withdrawal. Like, yeah, it's good for the drug drug addict to get off drugs, but there's going to be a withdrawal time that he's going to have. >> Yeah, >> bad reaction. And maybe we maybe that same thing's happening with our students a little bit. >> And you'll you'll see this theme pop up more as we go through the different questions. Certainly, it does cause some of them stress whether they're missing a text, right? Or they texted somebody before class and they know that they've got a text response and they can't see it and they're worried about what it might say. All right, this next thing was how has the policy influenced behavior, mental health, and social dynamics. So, in general, parents were positive on

067this one. They felt like it made uh students feel safer and made them be more respectful. >> Um helped them stay on task, reduced cyber bullying. Um another thing that you'll see is this one here. While many students showed improved well-being, some experienced anxiety often tied to inconsistent enforcement between schools. and some >> that's a concern. >> Some of the responses we'll see too um one of the recommendations that I saw was that they would like more of a district-wide enforcement, right? So it's the same everywhere. So you might have a parent that has kids at one elementary school, a different middle school, and another secondary school. And each of those schools treat it differently. And so the parents struggling to stay on top of, okay, what is the cell phone policy? because it's a

068little tweaked a little different in each of their kids schools. So again, students reporting higher anxiety without their phones, right? >> It's interesting that so many felt there was no change. >> Yeah. And you'll see too on this one. This one was interesting to me just that some students felt more connected with their peers, others felt less. Um, I can only imagine that they felt less connected because they can't text their their friends or their they can't scroll through their, you know, their feed to see what their friend is doing. But the positive side is that they're having that. >> I wonder what it would have looked like if we would have changed it to do you feel more or less connected face to face. >> Yeah. >> Or something because I I thought the

069same exact thing the less connection because they're not >> so certainly the the way that the the question was asked to influence the response right Craig just um two secondary schools that I uh visited recently I asked students uh in the class teacher gave me some time and I asked him about this and several responses from students were we feel more connected um but I noticed there were other students that when those comments were made. I don't know that they agreed their body language was telling me. So, I think this is one where I think about split. Some are more willing to vocalize some of those things in a positive or affirmative way. But there are other students that are vocalizing just don't feel comfortable to share that for a variety of ways. But I

070did notice that in a couple of secondary schools where I asked students for their feedback. And I I think it's probably um common for those that are most comfortable communicating on their phone, not face to face, to also be those that are less likely to raise their hand and bring that to your attention. So this is one of the strongest ones for employees. um they absolutely 69% response rate with regards to improved behaviors and mental health since the policy went into effect. Okay. Stronger engagement, more peer interaction, improved behavior. And again, it's interesting to see your different uh categories. Here's some of the positive responses with regards to this. and some of our negative responses. See the emergency piece again. smartwatches popped up a few times and the different things is things that they would

071like to see maybe some exceptions towards. Okay, this is one that we we saw a few complaints about from our all all three demographics actually is the consistency and how well it was trained on or communicated out to parents and also students. Most of our schools did it through their email systems, right? Some of them held um assemblies and trained the students that way. A lot of them hung up posters, um things like that to help remind the students. It was mostly done at the beginning of the year. Um so there's possibly a need to do a refresher to uh do some reminders, maybe do it again at the break. Um so that students are refreshed on what the requirements are. This was an interesting statement to me. The second sentence, while some understood the

072rationale, many felt clarity came more from enforcement than explanation. So they learned what the policy was when they got in trouble for it or somebody else got in trouble for it versus when it was explained to them first. And that's it. The all the responses were pretty similar as far as like how they received information. So this is one of the big reasons why we wanted to do this survey is survey is this question here. What concerns improvements did uh would they recommend concerns that they still have that they'd like to see addressed? Um so this I think this section is highly important for us. It's interesting to me that some of our parents wanted us to be more strict. Um I I had a an email come to me personally where where the parent

073asked us to just ban them all together because that was that was so good for their kids. And the reality is is that they have that power themselves. That's what I was going to say. >> But they they want us to impose it, right? Um, but it was interesting to to hear parents ask us to take away their their students cell phone. Um, and just the irony of their ability to do that. And again, you'll see the smartwatches pop up, emergency communication pop up. Students obviously want less restrictions. Uh the the music piece came up quite a bit actually in the many questions. So students want to be able to listen to music particularly when they're maybe on their uh free period. A lot of schools have a period where they can work on their

074homework. Um and so they like the idea that they can listen to music while they're working on their homework. And for some that helps them I saw this uh issue with cameras come up a few times as well. So that was interesting to me. I don't know how many teachers are asking students to use their cameras, but apparently they do. And so they they feel like there's limitations with the Chromebooks that they have versus using their their phone to complete and submit assignments. Um the other thing that I thought was interesting is it appears that they're doing more of their research on their phone versus their Chromebook. Um I I suppose and and Darren could maybe chime in on this a little bit that might be due to the restrictions that we have on our

075network that is not imposed on their cell phone. And so for them they can access a wider uh wider view of material on the internet than they can on their on their Chromebook. They can get more information on their cell phone. So you know certainly there's there is some understanding there that that's that's likely true. Um others other students and staff have identified too that these students have found workarounds. We're workarounds and they found ways to compensate for that loss, right? So, they found new ways to do things, which is great. Here's some positive responses as far as like what changes or things we might make. So, some of them are like, "This is great. Leave it. Keep it." The daughter's doing great. And then of course there's the flip side. Watches pop up again.

076Less restrictions for the whole day. >> Both teachers account >> all by like elementary and secondary. >> Um so these are all combined. This is elementary, middle, and secondary combined. Um I think we could did we >> you do have to >> so we can break out the levels. What we cannot do is we did not ask any questions with regards to location. So we couldn't break it up based on district but we could for the levels. >> I would be interested to see if the negative watch comments come from elementary parents since that's where we have challenges. >> Those negatives are actually supportive of the policy. Right. Some of them are this. >> They just want stronger policy. >> So, this is a quick little summary that I put together of of themes that

077I saw. Um, students again want more flexibility overall don't love it. Parents do like it. Um, but worried about safety in emergencies. teachers are the most supportive of all the demographic groups but would like more consistency and enforcement across the board. Some of the teachers expressed concern that other teachers were being more lenient even within their building where they have the same policy, right? So there's concerns that um and then I wanted just again to point out that the the biggest percentage was always neutral. It was never positive. It was never more negative. It was always the biggest contingent was neutral of the responses. So in general, I think that that supports what we've done. Um >> we didn't hurt something. >> Yeah. Or they're not willing to raise their hand. Right. So next steps

078for us, we do have raw data on all this. So individual responses from those 10,000 people. Um, I can show you what that looks like here real quick, just so that you have a an idea. So, it's just lines of every question and their responses. We didn't want to have yes no questions because we didn't feel like that would help us in our uh goals to learn more about what we could do or change. So almost all the responses are open-ended where they could type in a dialogue box and share with us their thoughts, but there's we have three spreadsheets like this and they're, you know, 6,000 responses per spreadsheet. And so um I tried to grab some themes uh from those spreadsheets. I used a some AI to help us put those together as

079to what some of those themes are. Um, and it's it is interesting. Hopefully, you can see that. I don't know if you can, but here's some standout things from the the responses in general. So, this is taking those individual uh spreadsheets, and this is stuff we want to dig into more to get specific feedback, but you do have people that are asking for more centralized enforcement. So, either either let's do the the lockers or let's do the lock boxes or whatever or let's not. There's concern about funding um and wanting some funding at the school so that they could do some of those things. Um taking the changes gradually. So, let's not quickly adjust the policy. Let's let it sit and simmer so that they can get a feel for it before we start tweaking

080it. That was one of the comments. Um, and this last one was interesting. I thought anyway that we could get software that blocks like the signal rather than trying to make them put their phones away. So that that could be a an interesting option. Anyway, th those are some of the things that stood out from from the individual responses. >> Okay. >> Discussing this in policy. I think we heard in one classroom where they just simply take a paper bag and staple it shut >> with the phone inside. So >> yeah, it's great. So >> I don't know that we need to pay all these companies for locked pouches. >> There's lots of lots of solutions and some of our schools have done the locked pouches and seen great results and others have done paperback

081and seen great results. So Craig, at the beginning of your presentation, you mentioned that, you know, this is something that we all as a board even wanted to have happen so that we could share this information with legislators. What's the plan after this and how are you going to share it and what's can you give us some background or >> I can talk to that a little bit. So, what we've been doing as a legislative committee is each month we've put together a different postcard and we've mailed that US mail to our legislators and shared it with the different board members. So, uh we have a whole list of different postcards that we're doing. So, the one of the postcards we're going to do is the cell phone and we will include some of this

082data with that postcard and some of the highlights on the postcard and just let them know that we're discussing it. We're having conversations about it. Um, and that will help you also to open a dialogue with them and say, "Oh, did you see our cell phone uh survey postcard?" Right? Let's talk about that. Let's talk about ways that maybe we can improve the legislation surround and and I would just echo that that's one mechanism. The first step was to report out here to you and identify some opportunities similar to what we did with the employee survey and then set milestones and metrics. How are we what medium are we going to communicate? Postcards is one. Um is there other areas that we can look at? But to be transparent to say, hey, we asked for

083this information. Here's what it is. There's good and there's some challenge but mostly neutral. Now what do we do about it and how do we communicate and and affect that moving forward. So that's next steps that we'll talk about. That's one idea. >> Do we have do we know if there's any other districts that have also put out a similar survey to their employees, parents and students? >> Good question. I'm not aware. >> I'm not aware of any at this point but I imagine others will. I just want to point out that this is like an external access assess assessment a survey what we haven't done is an internal accounting >> so we don't have from our from each school >> you know what is what is your enforcement looking like >> oh sure >>

084we don't have that inter internal assessment so I don't think we can really go anywhere until we also know that >> yeah we haven't we haven't been tracking how each individual school is enforcing By the way, um, so there's at least one new cell phone bill already filed. >> All right. >> So, whoever said let it pass through for a while before you >> too late deal with it. Too late. >> Too late. Too late. >> And there's also a couple bills that want to restrict um laptop or divide screen time in total. >> So, Chromebooks, too. So I think if I was to do a one takeaway from this that neutral thing is telling right I think that the sponsor of the bill initially thought there would be a huge change and um it

085didn't seem like that materialized here. So maybe hold off on the screen time thing too. Um might be a conclusion that we could communicate. >> Yes. So just good great information that you can share back with your legislators. >> It seemed like the teachers had a clear response and I think it's our teachers we really need to listen to and pay attention to. They're in the classroom. They they know what's happening. So >> although neutral was still pretty high with teachers, >> still high but teachers >> teachers had the most favorable responses with regards to >> policy. >> They may be predisposed to give that answer though. >> So >> okay, any other questions? >> Thanks Craig. >> You bet. Thank you Craig. Good work. That concludes our topics. Thank you. >> We are adjourned

086until board meeting at 6 o'clock. Thank you. It is December 9th, 2025 and it is 6:02 p.m. Um, I am calling this board meeting to order. Um, first on our agenda, we have our pledge of alle allegiance by Craig Brinkeroff. Um, followed by Brian Jolly, who will be giving us our inspirational thought. Please stand and say the pledge of allegiance with me. I pledge allegiance 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. Uh in all my years uh of education, I've had uh many many conversations, probably too many to count, um with educators about why they chose the profession that they're in. And almost without exception um there is a very very common important theme

087um that surfaces as we talk. Um and uh even though the answers might vary a little degree, the the one common theme is the joy and fulfillment and uh the meaning that that comes as we work with students and as we help to change the lives of students. That principle can be uh summed up by this simple and powerful quote by uh one of the great pioneers of our society, Jackie Robinson. He said, "A life isn't significant except for its impact on others lives." And I am grateful to be a part of an organization, an institution, a a uh a just this great group of people um that have that type of inspiration and and impact on the lives of students. Thank you. >> Thanks, Principal Jolly. We appreciate that. Um, I'm gonna make I'm

088going to entertain a motion to amend our agenda. Um, two separate things. First off, I'm going to motion or I'll entertain a motion that we move community comments before the public hearing. And then the other thing um is that we somehow don't have our recognitions on the agenda. So, I will entertain a motion for us to move community comments to the agenda now and to also add recognitions to our agenda. Would someone like to make that motion? >> Um, I would like to make that motion. I motion that we amend the agenda and move community comments to before the public hearing and add our recognitions to the agenda. >> Okay. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion by board member Peterson and a second by board member Baitman. Any

089discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? I. >> Okay, that appears to pass unanimously. Um, so we are going to open up our time for community comments. Um, we have one community comment this evening. Um, Wyatt Cook. Uh, we now have, um, time set aside for public comment. This opportunity is allocated for patrons living living within the Alpine School District boundary. Signup sheet was available prior to this meeting, allowing up to 10 patrons the opportunity to speak. Those living outside of ASD, and those who were unable to sign up before all slots were full can submit written comments at alpineschools.org/schoolboard. Scanning the QR code in the co in the lobby will also direct you to that form. As you are called up, please introduce yourself by stating your name.

090You'll be given up to three minutes to speak. While the board does not engage in a discussion during the public comment period, they may arrange for a staff member to communicate with you later. Personnel issues are not appropriate discussion items for an open meeting environment. If you have personnel concern, please contact a member of administration or put your concerns in writing and address it to the board of education. Okay. So, Wyatt, if you want to come up. >> Good evening, board members. Um, I'm Wyatt Cook. I'm the mayor of Cedar Fort. Um, I'm here to strongly oppose the closure of Cedar Valley Elementary School. Um, so something that I've been thinking about is the the studies that have been brought forth um are are great. Um, the staff has done their due diligence and going

091over every option. Um, with that in mind, studies always you can find a study to further any point um on either side. Um there's there's always a study that can say this is better or that's better. Um they're never 100%. They're never foolproof. Um you can always find a study for either way. Um but I don't want to discredit the staff. They did a great job. Um they they did their due diligence on that. Um the the next point I want to go over um is your of voting. Um I'm an elected official. Um with every elected official across the state, across the nation, everywhere we are put in, you're put into these positions to vote for the public. You're the voice for the residents, for the people. Um it's all the way up to

092the president. They do it as well. With that being said, the majority of people in this area. I've spoke to them. They want that school left open. I understand you guys have to look at the bigger picture. Look at the district as a whole. Um but the people that are in that area, the majority of people that are in that area want that community, want that school left open. Um that and it's not just Cedar 4. Um there's there's four communities in that area. There's Cedar Fort, uh, White Hills, Firefly, and Fairfield. So, there's two cities. Uh, White Hills and Firefly are in Eagle Mountain. Um, I've spoke to residents in every one of those areas. All of them love Cedar Valley. They love the values of the school. They love the school, and they

093wanted to stay open. And lastly, I'll end with this. Um, you guys don't know them, but I can tell you right now, the teachers, the students, and the parents at Cedar Valley are dedicated to keep that school open. They will help you further that any way, shape, or form. If you decide to keep it open tonight, they will not let that fail. Um, I know that. I know the people in that area. Um, and they will make that school succeed in any way, shape, or form they can. Um, whether it's funding, uh, getting that at any level, whether it's filling the classrooms up, they will they will do that. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Wyatt. Okay, next up, we have our board recognitions. As the board of education, it's important for us

094to recognize various accomplishments made by students, employees, and patrons from throughout Alpine School District. As we honor the individuals and groups this evening, we acknowledge the families and others who have helped them achieve their goals. Thank you for the support you've offered uh to those we recognize at this time. We appreciate your attendance here tonight. Um Alpine School District is thankful for so many teachers and staff members who excel in making a difference for students, parents, colleagues, and others. Tonight, we would like to recognize nominees who've been selected to achieve the Alpine School District Rise Award, which stands for remarkable, inspiring, selfless, and encouraging. Um, I totally forgot to say that after we do the recogn recogn recognitions, you are welcome to leave. It is not rude. I don't expect you guys to stay um

095for all the other action items. So, it's totally appropriate for you to exit um once all the recognitions are complete. Um, first up we have Joy Peterson who's the media specialist at Sage Canyon. She was nominated by Jordan Bradshaw who's an employee. And so we would invite Joy Jordan and then principal Ryan Jolly to come forward. This is what Jordan wrote. Joy is our librarian and she does so much more than help with books. When we were looking to help our students do better quality research, she had an amazing lesson ready to go that she led my students through. My students created a much higher quality project because of the excellent research collaborative lesson with our librarian. Thanks, Joy. Next up, we have Jones, who's a teacher from Lehigh High School, and she was nominated

096by Shanda Smith. So, we invite Mrs. Jones and Shanda and Gavin and Aiden and to join us. Chander wrote, "Mrs. Jones is an exceptional special education teacher who transported my high school experience. She has been an educator they trusted throughout their education, going above and beyond. She advocated for their needs, ensured they received proper support, and made their graduation possible. Her genuine care and dedication were evident in every interaction. She didn't just teach, she believed in them when others didn't. Her dedication made it so they were able to have a positive academic experience throughout high school. She exemplifies everything the Rise Award represents. Thank you, Next up, we are excited to recognize Dayton Sie Miller, who is a bus driver in West Transportation. He was nominated by Amy Miller. And so, we would invite uh

097Dayton, Amy, and our transport transportation director, David Lewig, to come forward. That's okay. We're going to celebrate Dayton anyways, even if he's not here. Amy wrote, "Dton has made the kindergarten's bus riding experience fun and safe, and it's been a huge reassurance as a parent. He gives knuckles to every kid in the morning, but gives extra attention to the kindergarteners to make them feel comfortable and safe. I appreciate how well he follows safety policy, not letting my boys get off the bus until they see me at the stop. When my boys miss school, they talk about being sad not to see jokes with my anxious kindergarten about having my son drive the bus for him, and he loves that. All right, next up we have Lisa Carl Carlson from Centennial Elementary and she was nominated

098by Natalie. Natalie wrote, "The start of the school year was very scary for my son. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in July and his world was flipped upside down. He was nervous about everything, especially school. How kids would react and if he could actually do third grade. And then he met his teacher. She has been the kindest, most supportive and loving bright spot in my son's life that I could have ever asked for. I am beyond grateful to Lisa and her calming effect she has had on my son. I will be forever grateful to her during this time of major change in my 8-year-old's life. You are the best. So, next up, we want to invite Sage Laughlin and Principal Brian Jolly to come forward. We want to extend our congratulations to Sage

099Laughlin from Sage Canyon Middle School. Her design was selected for our 2025 district holiday card. This year, our communications team did something new and exciting. For the first time, students from across the entire district were invited to submit original artwork for our official holiday card. The response was incredible. 68 students submitted creative and thoughtful designs. These designs were narrowed down to 14 outstanding finalists. From those finalists, Sage Laughlin's artwork was ultimately selected to represent the district and will be featured on the ASD 2025 holiday card. Thank you, Sage, for sharing your artistic talent with us. We are pleased to present your framed artwork along with several copies of the greeting card for you to share with your family and friends. Congratulations, Sage. Okay, our last recognition is for ORM High School. Congratulations, ORM High School,

100the 5A state football champions. Award certificates have been sent to the school to be given to the student athletes during their recognition ceremony. Thank you. Um, I will now entertain a motion to close that we close the board meeting. All in favor of the board meeting. >> Next up we have um I will entertain a motion to open our public hearing. Do we have a motion to open the public hearing? I move to open the public hearing. Okay. Do we have a second? So we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a board me and a second by board member Baitman to open the public hearing. All in favor please say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. That appears to pass unanimously. I now declare the public hearing open for the potential

101boundary adjustments between Blackidge Elementary, Brook Haven Elementary, Pony Express Elementary, Silver Lake Elementary, and Thunder Ridge Elementary. A signup sheet was available prior to this meeting to the opportunity to speak. Those living outside of ASD and those who are unable to sign up before the meeting can submit written comments at alpinechools.org/schoolboard. As you are called up, please introduce yourself by stating your name, what city you live in. You'll be given up to three minutes to speak. While the board does not engage in a discussion during the public comment period, they may arrange for a staff member to communicate with you later. We have two um comments available uh for our public hearing tonight. First up, um Sarah Payne and then after that, um Whitney Colg Sarah, >> thank you all so much. I know that

102this boundary study has been a really huge effort. with the amount of change going on within the district within Saratoga Springs within Eagle Mountain and all the changes involved in the new district splits. I know that this has been a huge a huge effort by the Alpine School District to make this happen and push this forward. My children attend Thunderidge Elementary and they've been there for this is our fifth year for our family. Um we have been affected by the growth. We've been part of the growth. We live in the new homes. Um My kids are currently experiencing the difficulties of having a very overcrowded school of having a lot of new moveins. Um, and they have a lot of friends who will be affected by whichever boundary study option is selected tonight. I I

103just want to emphasize my support for a decision to be made in a way that is going to help support all the children in the area for the long term so that there isn't another boundary change that needs to happen in in three years where we're not going to have the ability to have a new school be completed in the next three years. I want to make sure that the growth and the construction that's happening in my neighborhood is taken into account. And I believe that the numbers on the that have been studied don't necessarily account for the 160 homes that Edge already has under construction right now and the 300 more that the city has approved that will probably begin construction in the next two years and that's all within the Thunder Ridge boundary

104from the current boundary. Um I want to to again reinstate my support for option C. I think that that new boundary location offers a couple of really big benefits. The first one um is the amount of growth that's happening and where the growth is happening would allow for some of that growth to also maybe go to Silver Lake or Thunder Ridge depending on how fast things are changing in that area. And I feel like both schools can experience that growth together. um while making sure that there's enough room within the Thunder Ridge boundary for all the new construction that's currently happening within what will be the Thunder Ridge boundary. Either way, um I really like option C because of the safety aspect. Um having having been a person who's lived in that area for the

105last 14 years, the the traffic on Pony Express Parkway is really really difficult in the morning. And I know there are students who have to at that crosswalk already, but having students from Quail Hill have to walk on the sidewalk adjacent and parallel to Pony Express Parkway in order to get to Pony Express Elementary um is just not really a safe walking route at any time of day. Um and so I think that having them cross straight onto Silver Lake Parkway and having to take Silver Lake Parkway down to Silverl Elementary would be a safer route. Thank you. Thanks, Sarah. Whitney. Is Whitney here? Okay. Um, I declare the public hearing Oh, I declare the public hearing closed at 6:24. Um um I'll entertain a motion to reopen the board meeting. Do I have a

106motion to reopen the board meeting? >> I move that we reopen the board meeting. >> I'll second. >> Okay, so we have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Peterson. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay, that appears to pass unanimously. We are back on um our agenda. We've completed our community comments and so first up is uh a motion to approve the minutes. We have a motion to approve the minutes. >> I move we approve the minutes. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> Okay. So we have a board we have a motion by board member Clement and a second by board member Lincoln. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay. appears to pass unanimously.

107Superintendent, >> you've received the claims and would recommend that the board accept the claims for the month. >> Okay. Um I will entertain a motion to accept the claims. I move that we accept the claims. >> Second the motion. >> Okay. We have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Clement. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay, that appears to pass unanimously. Next up, routine business. Superintendent. >> The routine business for the month consist of the budget summary, the Alpine Foundation board summary, personnel hiring and releases, and LEA specific licenses. And I would recommend you approve the routine business. And if I can just note, I'm doing double duty. I'm also taking minutes because if you'll notice, one of our key people

108is not here. So, if I'm jumping back and forth between my computer to type, I'm trying to record some notes. So, anyway, just wanted to make note of that for the board and the public. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the routine business? >> I move that we approve the routine business. >> I'll second. >> Okay. So, we have a motion by board member Baitman and a second by board member Peterson. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, that appears to pass unanimously. Um, next up on our agenda, we have our action items. Superintendent. >> So, action item number one is for the board to consider the closure of Cedar Valley Elementary School effective for the 2026 school year. >> Okay. I'll entertain

109a motion. Do we have a motion regarding the closure of Cedar Valley Elementary? I move to close Cedar Valley Elementary effective for the 2627 school year >> and I will second the motion. Um, any discussion? >> Yeah, I'd like to say a few things. Um, this is a really difficult decision and I want to explain um why I'm voting to close Cedar Fort. Um, this is a community I care deeply about and this the feel of this small town of Cedar Fort. Um, it currently cost almost twice as much to educate a student in Cedar Valley, about 17,658 per student compared to the district average of in the West of 9,747. Even if the school went to 300 students, the cost only drops to about 15,000, but the capacity of the school is only around

110205 um before you have to start setting up split classes. Um, a second, third grade class, a fourth, fifth grade class. um 71 additional students will overwhelm the system. Um and those 71 students have to come in exactly the right grade band. You have to have the exact number of third graders, the exact number of fourth graders to get this to 71. Um the projections for next year are 78. Um so this is going to cause to have split classes. Um with only one class per grade, students don't have any alternatives if they do not connect with the teacher or if two students struggle to get along. um resolving the conflict can take up a large portion of classroom time and if two students are struggling that that conflict can continue year after year after

111year monopolizing the fill of the class. Um students don't have access to the same specialty classes, programs, and supports that their peers receive in larger schools. The expansion of the building into the parking lot has significant safety and infrastructure challenges. We did explore them in depth. Um, parking and drop off becomes a problem. There are sewer limitations. Students crossing a street um during the day to access different facilities and potentially even restrooms um and the need to fully fence according to new state safety statutes um cause significant difficulty with that. I deeply respect this community and I know this is emotional but my responsibility is to ensure every student has safe schools, full opportunities and um a responsibility to stewardship to taxpayers. I have heard from the families. I have been out there um and

112I have heard that if if they have to move, they want to go together. Um, this is why we're looking at this now is because we have that opportunity to integrate them as a new school opens. This means instead of being rebounded later, it allows them to help develop the culture of the school, not be integrated into an existing culture. I want to express my appreciation for Mayor Wyatt Cook. He's been here along the path um every time we we come to to discuss this. Um, he has deep advocacy for his community. explored multiple options and asked hard questions. He spent many hours um working on this project and has a genuine commitment to his residents and I appreciate that. But my vote reflects what I believe is in the best long-term interest of the

113students and that is why I'm voting to close Cedar Valley Elementary. Oh, one more thing. Um as we look at the new school, I am not interested in um using the name Cedar Valley for that school. I want to erve that name for the Cedar Fort community. I fully believe that the growth in that west area will someday need another school to return to Cedar Fort and I want that school to be named Cedar Valley and for that heritage to continue at that point. Um this this has been like a gut-wrenching experience. I've represented um the area of Cedar Fort, Fairfield, White Hills, and Eagle Mountain for seven years. Um I love the school community. It is a phenomenal place to be. I love that, you know, I have a group of kids that leave

114early sometimes on Fridays because they're going heading to rodeos. I love that the teachers know every single kid's name in the school, not just the kids in their classroom. It is a fantastic community. Um I also have said repeatedly current um if the school was going to close effectively meaning that if Lake Mountain had said no, we would not as an ASD board be able to that school. That vote was cast last week and it passed 6. Um the people local and closest to the community um felt like this was the move that needed to be made. Um I echo a lot of the things that Joy has said that um I've been to faculty meetings um we've been to community events. I've talked to to parents to teachers and there's no question people would

115love for that school to remain open. I'm not contending with that at all. um just the reality of what we've got to look at moving forward. Um with the growth coming in Firefly that the the limitations of the building are significant. Um Firefly has 8,900 units approved. Outside of that, Cedarport has also approved around 200 um family homes and growth is happening. Um Fairfield and Cedarport have largely been protected from the growth and it's now starting to encroach in significantly um that we're seeing and continue to see over the next few decades. Uh the things that I've heard repeatedly have been um we don't want to close, but if you close us, we want to move together. We want to move as a group. Um students as well as faculty. And um they also have

116requested that they not be tagged on to existing schools like Blackidge or Mountain Trails with the argument of we don't want to be seen as part of the problem, as part of the growth issue and be just, you know, 130 extra kids that are now contributing to an overcrowded school. They would like to be part of establishing a school community. Um and I think that the opening of the Brley Farm School next year gives them that best shot at that. So um in favor of closing the school. Um, and we we did spend an sign I appreciate that Mayor Cook took the time to acknowledge our staff. They spent a significant amount of time. We looked at every option from satellites to portables to working with the, you know, state security specialists to um going

117down every option that could be explored. We went down every rabbit hole. And I appreciate that they were thorough and that never was the not going to explore that. It was always yes, we're going to look at that. We're going to see if that's an option. Um there were hundreds of hours spent looking at options that did not include the closure and unfortunately none of those came out as as the top viable one. Um so um any other discussion? >> Yeah, I just want to mention so I stopped these last year during a similar situation and And the overwhelming thing that I hear is first of all people love and that is a good school and we love our schools as well. The other two things that I heard repeatedly is the only opportunity that

118we have to do that because we're building a brand new school. We can move everybody over and um I appreciate everybody that's been so passionate about this. Um we also feel very passionately about went out and visited the school. I've um had lots of discussions. Can we do this? Can we do that? Anything to avoid this. But at the end of the day, after exhausting all of those ideas, um it really does come to this and um with that hope and that optimism that Cedar Valley gets to move as a community and um and with their teachers, which I think is going to be really key. So that is how I can support it even though it is sad. Um, I had the opportunity, um, as a representative of the central area and not very

119familiar with the west side of things to go on a tour with Mayor McKenna and also with Julie and it was very helpful to drive around to see the growth, to see the school. um as I sat and listened and we had so many wonderful representatives coming from that area and coming in and speaking and advocating on behalf of their students. Um, I my my heartstrings were a little tugged and pulled because I know that's such a difficult thing and I wanted to make sure that my eyes saw for myself and I went out and had the opportunity to look and there are some concerns and I'm not going to use more time because Julie and Joy Lynn have already articulated some of the same feelings that I had and concerns that I have that

120making sure that all of these students have the same level of access to a wonderful education that the rest of our students do And that is a huge concern. As I looked at that school there, you know, there were obvious um needs there. Um and uh anyway, I I feel even though it is a a hard thing, we are tasked to do the hard things sometimes. And this is that is um one of those votes that I I know it's going to be hard, but I feel like it's necessary. >> I'd like to address this just briefly. Um, I think the most important thing you said, Julie, was that the the new board that will be taking over voted 6 to support this. And I think it behooves us as um the board who will

121be u disappearing soon that we not be a barrier to um to their representation. and I don't want to be a barrier to this future board. Um, I grew up in a small town. It wasn't this small, but I know what it means to hold some an institution dear to your heart. So, I I mourn with that that loss. It will be a loss to that community, but as Joy Lynn said, there is a future for this community that is very bright and this is the path forward. Thank you. So, we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member King um uh to close Cedar Valley Elementary effective for the 2026 2027 school year. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay, that appears to pass unanimously.

122Um, next up, we're going to turn some time over to Mr. House and Mr. Barnes to talk with us about the next uh Oh, actually, sorry. You guys want to >> next three items all together? >> Yeah. >> Great. >> Just want to take a minute. I mean, I've had some time to reflect on Exactly. What I wanted to say before I turn the microphone to Derek because nobody knows the numbers better than Derek and I definitely appreciate him for heading up these committees and making sure that we follow a thorough process. These boundary considerations as well as school closure considerations are one of the most difficult things that our staff can do because it's unpopular whenever you change boundaries. It's an emotional um consideration and that's a good thing. It's a good thing that

123people have emotions that they don't want to leave their school. That means that we're doing something right in these schools. What I've noticed is that no one wants to leave their particular school. That's because all of our schools are good. And with that, we have the same confidence that no matter which boundary decision we make, they are going to go to a good school. But I think sometimes there's confusion by the public on because it is such an emotional decision, we have to make sure that we follow a thorough process. And that process has gone through different iterations over the years, but especially over the last year and a half because of the number of boundary adjustments that we've had the privilege to be associated with, we've continued to refine what that process is. So

124the the bigger the emotion that something has, the more um definitive we are in following that specific process so that we make sure that we're making good decisions. But part of that decision-making process is important for our committee to make sure that we're not just going over the quantitative data, but we're going over the qualitative as well. It was really good for us to be able to go out there and visit with all of the staff and the teachers and the mayors um at at Cedar Valley Elementary and to tr truly understand what the emotion is behind there, especially in these other considerations for Thunder Ridge. I appreciate the parents and advocating and researching and studying these different options that they can present for our committee to truly consider. But not just the quantitative but

125also the qualitative too because it does inform the decisions that we make. But then at the end of the day, the struggle is that we're always competing priorities that we consider. And Derek will talk about some of those. And sometimes it's not necessarily between a right and a wrong. And I think that's where some people feel like, man, I why did they make the decision that they made? Because it's a decision between a right and a right. I could make an argument for every person that's come up and made a comment to say you need to consider this. And I I can totally see exactly the point that they're coming from. But sometimes it's a combination of those competing priorities that wins the day in these situations. And that's after hours and hours of consideration

126in a boardroom with a lot of different eyes from different lenses to make sure that we're not just one person making these decisions that we're armchair quarterbacks saying, "Yeah, let's just throw a dart and make sure that this is the one that carries the date." We have to make sure that there are multiple lenses looking at this through an academic through a fac through a lot of these different financial considerations to make sure at the end of the day we feel confident about the recommendations that we make. And I'm here to tell you that we feel confident about the recommendations that we make tonight that these students when they move to these schools that the minute this decision is made that the board directs us to follow these recommendations. We will make sure that we

127are going out to those schools and making sure that we are alleviating all those variables that make it hard for those kids to transition. And we are actively working on that process as well to make sure we're getting that even better and because there's always something more that we can do to improve. So, I'm I apologize for taking so much time, but I feel passionate to let the public know that that is the process that we follow. So while they might not be in agreement with the considerations that we've done, they can feel confident that this the staff here will do everything that we can to make sure that these adjustments are good for those students that there is no gap. So with that being said, Derek, take it away. >> Thank you, Eric. Thank

128you, board, and superintendent. Uh I also just uh would would feel uh regret if I didn't express my thanks for all of the people who participated through this process, especially the parents and patrons. Uh those are here tonight, those comments online, those who reviewed hundreds of comments, those who come to open houses, those who come to public hearings, etc., etc. And that makes it a much better and more robust process. And appreciate those that have have participated uh without uh anger or or uh there can be frustrations obviously but being being civil and professional and kind in their in their process um and and that's helped us speaking of the process as you can see on the screen there's a process and timeline that we followed trying to be thorough in this uh for this

129first uh boundary process with Cedar Valley Elementary School potential closure and and uh the new elementary foundry and the associated schools around it. The formal study began in August as you can see. We had committee meetings in September. We posted options online that committee brainstormed, refined and selected down the three options. We put the online feedback form on that again hundreds of people responded to. Held a public hearing on September 23rd. held open houses at Cedar Valley Elementary and at Desert Sky Elementary in October. Had a another committee meeting in November to refine and to identify the best option moving forward with the new elementary boundary. And last week, as Julie mentioned, the Lake Mountain district voted to close Cedar Valley and the final decision by the board tonight to close with then move forward

130of what the new elementary boundary will look like. Those criteria that Eric mentioned, there's many criteria that can be considered. These five we look at as being our primary criteria. The first one you can see there is not surprising for an educational institution. impacts on educational programs and outcomes. That's huge. That's what we're we're here for, to help students as they progress, as they learn, as they grow. The second, the school capacity utilization. We we have to be fiscally responsible as we as we do these things. And we're looking at the enrollment trends. We're looking at utilizing the schools and what we have and and what we're going to have next year with the new elementary being built. We look at proximity to schools. Most people, they want to have a school they'd rather not

131travel too far to to their school. So, we try to have schools that are that are close in proximity when we're looking at the boundaries, keeping neighborhoods, communities together, keeping those friendships, those relationships, and keeping those neighborhoods together as much as possible. And looking at impacts on transportation, both school bus transportation, what do those routes look like? How many do we need? What does the traffic flow look like? But also with the parents in traffic flow, what does that look like for pickup and drop off and that transportation at the school? So those are some of those those criteria, but to second what Eric mentioned, those criteria often conflict with one another. Ideally, we'd love to to meet all five perfectly, but we've got to prioritize in those as we move forward and look at

132the advantages and disadvantages of each boundary option. So looking at the boundary options, option A was the one that kept Cedar Valley open because the board has voted to close. We're not going to spend a lot of time on that one. There are obviously pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages to that. I think they were pretty well uh mentioned by by Julie with some of the limitations and some of the things there. Option B, the advantages that most schools have a stable enrollment looking forward through the next four years with those schools. The growth is concentrated at mountain trails through an option B. The enrollment resources can be focused Mountain Trails. Now, that's a a disadvantage that there's a lot of growth there at Mountain Trails, but again, we can focus that support at Mountain

133Trails with uh additional staff with additional facilities, additional portables or satellites. So, we can have the flex there at that school as it grows and then potentially as we can only anticipate or only project there will be additional schools in the area in the future. Uh the future split designed to impact less schools. really one school there, Mountain Trails. As much as possible that it has less of an impact that we're not changing schools over and over for students if we can help it have some consistency there. As as it was mentioned before with most of the Cedar Valley Elementary students, they can move together. Not all of them. The Firefly part goes to mountain trails in this option, but most of those students in those the traditional developments in the Cedar Valley elementary boundary,

134the traditional the ones in Cedar Fort, and Fairfield can move together to the new elementary in this option. The former Cedar Valley Elementary community can help establish and build a new school culture at the new school and it gives an option for the Cedar Valley Elementary staff to move together as well. Looking at option C, there's some similar advantages and disadvantages. Uh there's some stable enrollment in this case. All of Cedar Valley Elementary can move together to the new elementary school. The uh school built by that Cell Elementary community as well with the staff moving together potentially as well as they choose and there's more flexibility for future boundary changes if a new school is delayed in the future. The disadvantages obviously high enrollment as you can see in the projected numbers at both the

135new elementary and at mountain trails uh the enrollment resources are split between two schools. can't be focused just at one school in this option and the potential for needing a satellite at two different schools. So as a boundary committee as we looked at these options we weigh the feedback we receive from parents we the numbers looking at enrollments looking utilization looking educational outcomes all of those things from the boundary committee is option B with a slight adjustment and that adjustment is keeping the Eagle Point condos and town homes keeping within the mountain trails boundary. So that alleviates a little bit of enrollment pressure at Eagle Valley about 70 students making it what I refer to here as option two of B2 but that uh with that adjustment. With all of that being said, any questions

136about the recommendation for the new elementary boundary? >> Um I'm going to go ahead and actually make a motion, Derek, and then we'll come back to you if that's okay. Um, I move to approve elementary school boundary option B for the new elementary school in Eagle Mountain with the adjustment of the Eagle Point condos and town homes remaining in the Mountain Trails Elementary boundary. This establishes the school boundaries for Desert Sky Elementary, Eagle Valley Elementary, Hidden Hollow Elementary, Mountain Trails Elementary, and the new elementary school effective beginning of the 2026 2027 school year. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. Okay. So, we have a motion by board member King and a second by board member Lincoln. Any discussion? Um, thank you for all of this. I know this is one that we have

137stressed out about and I know I mean the numbers are pretty intense when you look at what's happening in 2029 and I appreciate that. Um, we've been having this discussion back and forth and back and forth and back and forth about what to do. Do we let mountain trails get really high and like junior high high with numbers? Um with this change it'll put I mean the projections are over 1500 by 2029. So that is somewhat terrifying. Um it shows I think also how quick the growth is coming between it's not one development. It's not just Firefly. We also have Harmony and Parkway Fields. So both of those are going really quickly. Um but if you look at kind of our our our goal I think is we're is is to create some level of

138stability which is hard when we have this level of high growth to create stability. But the idea that I think has been talked about and discussed again and again is a lot of the growth is essentially in the next 15 years going to be centered around mountain trails. Can we establish supports at mountain trails? Whether that's a satellite, whether that's additional builds that you know the Lake Mountain School board will have to talk about, but do we establish some supports there, not only with capital, but also potentially with M with having additional administrators there with with having a process where as we have a new school that's being constructed, we potentially bring in a principal, an assistant principal early so that they have that being constructed to be additional administrative support when a school gets

139that high. At the same time, we're also going to have growth in this school because it was this was the first year had Spanish immersion. So, we'll be bringing students from outside the area as well. There's a lot of complications happening, but the idea is can we let one school get really high, provide a level of capital support, provide a level of administrative support, and look at that as Instead of breaking off schools piece by piece by piece, can we keep mountain trails relatively stable and then as new communities and new growth comes in then we just move the growth off while the core of mountain trails kind of stays the same. It is an ambitious idea and I think it's one that's going to require a lot of communication with the community and a

140lot of conversations. Um I had a conversation with the principal and assistant principal at Mountain Trials last week and we talked about how if this is the way this ends up going, the conversation starts tomorrow as far as how do we provide the supports? What is the administration looking at? We're looking at student needs, what needs to change. Um, it's also Mountain Trails is the only title one school in the Lake Mountain School District. With some of these changes, that may shift. It's hard to stay title one when you've got that students, the percentage kind of gets skewed. Um, but like the section 8 housing will now shift to Eagle Valley. So, at the same time that we're talking about providing the right supports for mountain trails, making sure that Eagle Valley also has the

141right supports if they become if they hit title one status. Um, the new elementary I think is going to be gorgeous. Also, Frank knows my first question when he shows me um you know, the plans is where are the portables going, Frank? Where's the satellite going? Because we know that this is the norm. Um, I also appreciate, um, this one doesn't really affect Black Ridge and Hidden Hollow. Essentially, in just about every option, those schools remain the same. I know that may change in the next item, the next boundary option we discuss. Um, also trying to maintain desert sky in a good place. We talked about kind of what we refer to as the popsicle stick. kind of drop down in the map having them stay at a relatively stable section because essentially we've got

142Desert Sky which has 1,200 kids and some of the options almost split Desert Height in half with their student enrollment. This one I think gives us a better balance as far as yes, the school's going to hit 900 in a in a couple of years, but I think it better balances out the enrollment between like Desert Sky, Eagle Valley. Um, and Eagle Valley, I know you guys know this, but it's the the build that we have where we added wings on and it was kind of added to and there's some curves and some interesting things about that. So, we're also taking into account each of those buildings, what we know they can do and how we utilize it. So, um, this one is one I feel like we spent an intense amount of time with

143and figuring out that that last kind of shift with, um, the Eagle Point condos and town homes to bring those on the mountain trails and give Eagle Valley a lot of a little bit of breathing room, I think is going to lead to long-term stability for Eagle Valley. So, I feel like this plan gives the longest term stability to the most schools while also into account a a high high level of phenomenal growth and doing everything we can to offset that there is a level of stability associated with it. So I really just appreciate everyone involved and I know this was really intense and there were a lot of numbers and ideas and I think this one is probably the one um that is the closest we're going to get to being like right where

144we need to be and I think we're going to have to ongoing discussions over the next couple of years as we watch what happens to mountain trails and to the new school of Riley Farms. We're have to watch really very closely um and make sure that those right supports are in place and I'm appreciative that staff is committed to that we work with I'm really excited to explore the opportunity support that I'm excited for the possibility on this. Seeing none, we have a motion um to approve the elementary school boundary option B for the new elementary school in Eagle Mountain with the adjustment that Eagle Point condos and town homes remain within the Mountain Trails elementary boundary. This establishes school boundaries for Desert Sky Elementary, Eagle Valley Elementary, and Hollow Elementary, Mountain Trails Elementary, and

145New elementary school effective beginning with the 2026 2027 school year. Motion was made by board member and seconded by board member Lincoln. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Clarification. This is called presented to the public. Okay. Any oppos? Okay. That appears to pass unanimously. Next up to the springs and Eagle Mountain area boundary study. This involves the schools of Blackidge, Pony Express, Brook Haven, Silver Lake, and Thunder Ridge. And I'm not going to walk through this whole process and timeline as it's very similar to one from before with just obviously different dates. For example, the formal study began in September as opposed to the last one was in August. Um, but we still posted options online, received a lot of feedback. Love to go through those. And I know some people

146might laugh to say we'd love to go through those, but it's wonderful to receive all that feedback from from patrons. Held open house at Thunder Ridge and public hearing. Uh, and as a committee, we reviewed the options. This one was difficult because there's not a lot of what I'll use for the very untechical term of wiggle room. There wasn't a lot of wiggle room. These these schools, all five of them on average are going to be about a thousand students. And so there's not a lot of wiggle room. We know that uh that there's need for an additional school potential additional school in the area in the in the future. And so as we look at the advantages and disadvantages, there were some that were shared by all three of the boundary options that were

147presented to the the public. Some of those advantages include Pony Express has the ability to absorb students. They have the room again using that that facility capacity utilization. Uh they it allows for Thunderidge to have teacher growth where we're alleviating some of that uh that enrollment pressure off of Thunder Ridge. Some of the disadvantages when we move students from a 9:15 a.m. start time to an 8:00 start time. It presents some challenges for transportation because of uh the needs the number of bus routes they have at the 8:00 time already with high school and junior high at almost the exact same time 7:45 and 8:15 respectively. And so uh that that creates a little bit of problem if we try to move some of those students moving them to Blackidge in particular that's at the

148earlier time. uh the split feeders that uh some patrons have have commented uh about. Uh we recognize that there's split feeders with Pony Express and Brook Haven currently in all of the options. There continue to be split feeders and it's it presents a challenge. Ideally, we'd love to have pure feeders going from the elementary to one junior high. So, we don't have to separate those communities, those friendships as the students move to their junior high years. We also recognize and anticipate elementary and secondary changes in the future as this area continues to grow and uh with splitting up uh trying to keep neighborhoods together. None of the options keep all of that quail hill area together. Ideally, we'd like to, but is a disadvantage that it would overload schools if we tried to keep them

149all in in the same school, whether keeping them at Thunder Ridge or moving them all to a different school together. So, those are some shared advantages and disadvantages by all three options. In option A, some additional advantages include that the schools have similar enrollments. There isn't a school that has a huge out outlier of several hundred kids more than than another school. Brook Haven has a little bit lower of an enrollment than in options B and C and some advantages of that. Brook Haven has some anticipated growth in its boundary as we as we move forward. Um not that it's the only one, but it has some and there's some concerns with the capacity limitations there. some of the disadvantages uh with this option. Quail Hill neighborhood walking along and crossing Pony Express Parkway. Some

150concerns that are raised with uh the safety along there and some things that uh we've tried to to mitigate as we we've looked at those uh those options and there's a big jump in enrollment for Silver Lake, jumping up a little over 200 students from what it would be projected. And so that's a significant increase for for a school one year to another. In option B, the schools similar enrollments as an advantage. Silver Lake a little bit lower than than the other options. Some of the disadvantages, higher enrollment at Blackidge, there's uh some concerns with the um available space for buses and parent pickup and drop off. And so that limited space presents a challenge if if there's additional students or more and more additional students. Um and the future wildflower growth and anticipating that

151in the Blackidge uh area Quail Hill neighborhood again similar to option uh A walking along and crossing Pony Express Parkway there concerns with that same same concern as an option A and this moves the transported students from late to early moves more of them from late to early that mentioned as is a challenge but there's more of them an option to be from that 95 to In option C, there's additional room for growth at Thunder Ridge. We pull out more students from Thunder Ridge than in the other options. It does utilize one less bus route as we look at bus driver shortage. That's an advantage with option C. Some of the disadvantages, Silver Lake has a higher enrollment in this option than in the other options. There's along with that a discrepancy in enrollment between

152Thunder Ridge and other schools. As you can see, Thunder Ridge projected in this option at 837 students versus Silver Lake at 1,089 students. And so trying to to reconcile that is a a bit of a disadvantage trying to even out that that facility capacity utilization. The Quillhole neighborhood, there's still a safety concern with crossing across Pony Express Parkway in this option. And similar to option A, there's a big jump in enrollment for Silver Lake in this option. After reviewing all the the options, the advantages and disadvantages, the staff recommendation is option A for the Sarog Springs area and with the elementary boundaries in this area. Any questions that you have? >> I'll entertain a motion um regarding the boundary adjustment for Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain with Brook Haven, Pony Express, Silver Lake, and Thunder Ridge.

153I move to approve elementary school boundary option A for the Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain area, including school boundaries at Blackidge Elementary, Brook Haven Elementary, Pony Express Elementary, Silver Lake Elementary, and Thunder Ridge Elementary beginning in the 26 27. Um, and I'll second that. Um, we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member King. Um, yeah, I just wanted to speak to this motion. Um, I moved to a small town in 1999, um, at just under a thousand people and I now have 70,000 close neighbors and friends. Um, the growth has been incredible and that's why we find ourselves in this situation. Again, my own children have bound been boundaried and rebounded multiple times. The running joke in our house is wherever you went to first grade is not where you

154went for second grade. Um, we know there's a problem. Just don't move my kid is a natural reaction, but it's also shows how much our families love their schools. Loving our schools means making decisions that keep them strong for every student now and long term, although it may be just short term. Um, boundary A provides the most stable and responsible solution while we wait for new schools to be built. It allows us to fully utilize the capacity we already have across the different buildings instead of overwhelming a few while others sit underutilized. It balances enrollment, reduces pressure on teachers, and protects instructional quality. This process also mirrors what our students experience every year. They move into a new class, they meet new friends, they build new classroom cultures and grow through change. We can model

155the same resilience and community-minded approach that we expect of them. This option for us is shortterm. I really wish I could long term, but again, 70,000 close friends. Um, but it models short-term success and ensures that every student has a safe, effective, and learning environment in the near future. This one's tough. There's not a new school. There's not a brand new shiny building. It is it's a shuffle. Um, it wasn't there in 99, but it was there in 2005. And um my kids have also gone like they went to four different elementary schools. This is a common refrain in this high growth area. Um if my calculations are correct, this is the ninth boundary change for Pony Express. This is Yeah, this is just the hard thing about it. I wish we could move all

156of Quail Hill together. Um I know what it's like. My own neighborhood we had split in half. two schools. I know that that is rough and I wish we could move all of Quail Hill together. The numbers don't allow that to happen and so it's not an option. Um I appreciate that Derek mentioned that we have some specific challenges with specific buildings. Brook Haven sits in a way that we are only able to get three portables on that site. Um we cannot put more than three portables which means we cannot under any circumstances allow that school to get over 1100. So, we have got to keep Brook Haven as low as it can be um to give them space. The amount of growth that's also coming into Brook Haven as far as vested units in

157Eagle Mountain is significant. So, doing everything we can to get that number as low as possible. What's really important, um Silver Lake is taking a huge hit. They are the ones that are going to see the greatest increase. They're going to essentially grow over 200 kids overnight. And just like we talked about mountain trails with the addition of Spanish immersion, this school has the addition of all. And so that's also um a factor that complicates it. Um Mountain View corridor runs right in front of Thunder Ridge. I mean it's all the things. Um I I heard what Sarah said, right? Like we would like stability and it's the one thing I cannot promise you. I I just the real I'm just going to be straight up with you. is the one thing I cannot promise.

158Um the reality is this is a band-aid situation until we can get another school built because we need another school in that community. When every school has a thousand kids in it, that is a pretty compelling argument for another school build. At the same time, we have to be very cognizant of finances and if we attempt to go the Lake Mountain School Board attempts to go for a geo bond. So what we are looking for is a band-aid solution. Um I know the feeder has been discussed with the high school opening in 2028, it is inevitable that we are going to have changes in the secondary feeder system as well. Um, and if you look at the projections for what's going to happen in 2030, and I get this doesn't take into account the new

159high school, but we're talking about 3,600 kids at Westlake and 3,300 kids at Cedar Valley. As soon as we finish that high school, there will be discussions. Well, I think there'll be discussions before then, but there will be a push to where the fourth high school will be built. So, it's change. It's a lot of change. And I get that as a parent with your kids, not what you want. I also don't know how to say like the secrets out that this is such a phenomenal community. Stop talking about it. Stop inviting people to come. We need to slow down of it. Um, I know this is this is something that this is a tough one like I said because there's not a brand new shiny school. I cannot alleviate. Basically, we are asking everybody

160to like hold on until we can get another school constructed. This gives us the best chance for every school to be able to hold on and that's that's just the reality that we're facing. Um, so I am supportive of moving forward with option A president. I'm going to recuse myself from this vote this evening because of a potential conflict of interest for me. Any other discussion regarding the motion? Okay, seeing none, we have a motion to approve elementary school boundary option A for the Saratoga Springs Eagle Mountain area, including the school boundaries for Blackidge Elementary, Brook Haven Elementary, Pony Express Elementary, Silver Lake Elementary, and Thunder Ridge Elementary beginning 2026 2020 2027 school year. Motion was made by board member Lincoln and seconded by board member King. All in favor, please say I. I. Any

161opposed? And please note that board member Bon um recused herself from the vote. That looks like that passes unanimously. Next up, it's just your show tonight. >> We've got one more boundary study uh tonight that we're looking at. the Lehigh area boundary study including North Point Elementary, River Rock Elementary, Snow Springs Elementary, and Lehigh Elementary. Similar process, some dates are changed, names are all the same. The process is the same. Still trying to be thorough through it and and to achieve the best option possible. This one's a challenge as well where we recognize there's there's tremendous growth. There's also some capacity available surrounding schools around North Point we recognize and can't emphasize enough with the growth they need immediate relief immediately. They need relief for next year. They there is not room for them with

162the projected numbers to hold out for 2027 for a potential new school for a potential change a year later. They need something to change for next year uh if we're going to adequately serve those those students in that community. And so we've gone through the similar process having committee meetings, having online feedback, having an open house at River Rock Elementary, having public hearing, and now here tonight, uh, as we went through the the different brainstormed options we and ideas for for boundaries, uh, we ended with one option that we put out to the public. This option A, uh, it was it was one that, uh, that balanced the tension between those competing priorities. This is we cannot meet all five of those prior or those criteria perfectly. And so in balancing that the advantages of

163this option is it alleviates the enrollment pressure at North Point. As mentioned, it needs it immediately. It provides the board and a future board with in the central or Aspen Peaks district uh with the flexibility of making future facility decisions and we recognize that that Aspen the Aspen Peaks board will be studying that later this week. of what options they want to pursue with potential build uh some potential options as they uh begin operations in 2027 with with the schools. Um it strengthens the enrollment at River Rock and Snow Springs as well. Both of those schools had lower enrollments with declining enrollments and it pulls off uh some students shifts in students. So it strengthens and bolsters those those enrollments. The disadvantages, it does not, as as you'll notice looking at numbers, it does not

164full fully utilize the capacity at Lehigh Elementary. In addition, not included in this study, but right next door is Meadow Elementary and Dry Creek Elementary, and there's some capacity there that potentially can be utilized. Now, one might say, looking at Dry Creek's numbers right now, Derek, what are you talking about? It's full. Well, we recognize with the district reconfiguration that part of that school boundary is in Saratoga Springs right now. And as the district reconfigures and that that splits off, uh that'll split that that boundary in Dry Creek uh will have a lower enrollment potentially and potentially some capacity that can absorb some students. But again, this boundary option gives the the uh Aspen Peaks board some flexibility with future decisions. Uh one additional uh disadvantage is North Point River Rock as you can tell

165the enrollments are are high in in 2030. Uh does do these boundaries remain through 2030? I can't say. I don't have a crystal ball that or I don't have the budget for it. Jason, can we get that in the budget process? Um but uh this can be looked at and watched over the next few years by the Aspen Peaks board and if there's any adjustments that that need to be made. So that is the the recommended option is option A for for this boundary. Before going into discussion just with all three options, just want to let you be aware and let the public be aware that with the board voting on these these boundaries tonight, families will be notified uh later on tonight or tomorrow at the latest of any final decisions and the adjustments

166will take place for next next school year, 2026 27th school year. Any questions on the Lehigh area boundary study? >> Thanks, Derek. Um, I will entertain a motion regarding the elementary school boundary adjustment for the Lehigh area. I move to approve elementary school boundary option A for the Lehigh area, including school boundaries for Lehigh Elementary, North Point Elementary, River Rock Elementary, and Snow Springs Elementary beginning with the 2627 school year. We have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Baitman. Any discussion? >> Um I'd like to speak to the motion. Um this option keeps neighborhoods together and it reduces unnecessary travel and uses the capacity we have in a responsible way. Um it balances enrollments and no school is overloaded and no school is underused. It provides stability for families

167as we continues to grow and reflects a thoughtful practical approach to this challenging problem. I want the communities to the 14 schools I represent to know that if you weren't discussed tonight, um, you're not out of the woods. These will be conversations that we will continue to have over and over over. My own kids started at Meadow Elementary, so we'll continue to have these discussions. Um, for these reasons, I believe that this is the strongest boundary option for West. >> I'll add a couple of things to that. I've had a few people reach out and ask because previously before River Rock was built, North Point was bigger than it is now. And so a couple of the factors that have changed during this go around. Um there are seven sections of kindergarten currently at North

168Point, which is incredible. Um and kindergarten is all day. So before there were sections, but you had half kids at the school at any given time. So having kindergarten kids at school all day means you have to have all of those specialties. They get to these other things. So, it's just a different um weight on the school. Um also, in the last few years, we've just seen an increase in the constant enrolling and disenrolling. It happens every day of the week, every week of the month of the year. So, um circumstances were a little bit different and also when we started this process and a year and change ago, we really did believe that we could hold for two years and just as the things kind of started happening, it became clear very early on

169that that was not going to be the point. So, we appreciate in those who very much wanted to see this earlier and um the faith that those that were willing to stick it out and I really do think this would be the best thing for the school um give the relief needed will also um stabilize in the other areas and I appreciate the addition of moving Jordan Willows back to snowman. So >> I just wanted to clarify something. Um board member Baitman said there are seven kindergarteners. There may be schools out there thinking, well, we have eight. Um, North Point would have eight. They just don't have a room for eight. Any other discussion? Okay, seeing none, we have a motion to approve elementary school boundary option A for the Lehigh area, including school boundaries

170for Lehigh Elementary, North Point Elementary, River Rock Elementary, and Snow Springs Elementary, effective beginning with the 2026 2027 school year. Have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Baitman. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? That appears to pass unanimously. Next up for our discussion and action item, Superintendent. >> Yeah, just >> Eric. Thank you, Eric. You guys are awesome. >> Just would echo thanks to Eric and Derek for their good work and the entire committee. And then uh next up, we've got some policies. Uh would invite uh Craig Brinkerhoff to come forward to talk about the policies uh before the board. And we'll start with policy 4751, medical, surgical, and extended health benefits. Thank you, Superintendent. Members of the board, this policy may seem a little

171bit familiar to you because we passed one almost identical, but for the other association. This particular one um is clarifying the the practice and the benefits that EMI offers to our employees where if they are terminated during uh any part of the month their their benefits run through the end of that month and when they're hired um those benefits start the beginning of the subsequent month. So, we've made those changes to this policy just like we did for other policies that represent the other associations and we would um invite you to approve and pass the revisions to this policy 4715. >> I move that we approve uh changes to policy number 4751 as stated in the document. >> It is 4751. Apologize. It is 51. There was a transcription error on the >> 475. Medical,

172surgical, and extended health insurance. >> A motion by board member Wilson. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. Have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Lincoln. Any discussion? Sorry, I thought people were really excited and so I was just sitting back and pausing and there was nothing. It was just awkward silence. Okay, so we have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Lincoln. All in favor of approving policy 4751, medical, surgical, and extended health benefits. Please say I. I. >> Any opposed? That appears to pass unanimously. Um, Mr. Rinkerhoff. >> Thank you. So, the next uh policy that we have on the agenda for discussion and possible actions, parent complaints that we're amending to have the title be patron grievances. I'll just give

173a little background as to why this policy is being brought before you. Specifically, u a new rule has uh recent recently been passed that goes in went into effect in August of this year. Um, USB rule and that has to do with um the complaint but button that USB has uh it's a hotline that they have. They allow as part of that rule for individual leas to have their own hotline or own feedback button. And so um Alpine School District does have a feedback button that is on all of our websites. And so in order for us to accept feedback through our own hotline and not have posted the option to go then to USB's hotline. We have to have a policy in place that suggests what our hotline is or what our feedback button

174is and how we respond to any complaints that come through that feedback button. And so this policy is an attempt to um put together kind of a procedure and policy and plan as to how we will respond to feedback that comes back through the feedback button that is our own so that we don't have to um have the button for USB on our websites. So that's the long of the short of the story, but um we talked about this in policy committee today. There were some few concerns and and questions. So I'll let the board members have those address those and then um present to you for your consideration. >> You have a motion. >> We well we're kind of just wanting to >> be discussion action. >> Yeah, we were hoping to leave it

175as a discussion as we met today as a policy or we kind of had a low comfort level with this one just there were a lot of wills that maybe should be maze and we were just not comfortable yet with the verbiage. We wanted to get more board feedback uh from the rest of the board um on how things uh are written there. And um yeah, we're just loving a little bit more board feed feedback with this. There was, you know, some concerns of um like I said, the verbiage of it. We just all just felt a little uncomfortable with it. And so we want to leave it at the discussion and then continue to get feedback from the board. We specifically wanted to get feedback on 2.2. You want to scroll through that? >>

176It's it's in the case where um a complaint is made, but when uh staff makes an attempt to contact the complainant, um they can't they made two attempts and and this we just didn't like the wording of this. It it sounded like we would drop it. um entirely and we we wanted to revisit that and maybe perhaps get more feedback on that. >> And we were kind of concerned a little bit with 2.3 just, you know, talking about the formal complaints. um just making sure that it's understood by the public that even if there is an anonymous complaint that we would still be investigating within that time period that it's not dropped um within the 10 business days. Okay. So it sounds like we still need quite a bit of discussion feedback. So um looks

177like we can kind of move on from this one and potentially address it in future board meeting. Okay. And we are requesting really for more feedback from board members. Um can I guess Craig would you mind sending out the entirety of the board tomorrow in email just to highlight these specific sections just so that we all have that >> and can take the time to respond to it? Um and it looks like uh we're going to move on from that and then next up on our our agenda is policy 1618. >> Thank you. Um so this policy naming of new schools this came up on our rotation. So our policies typically we try to renew at least every five years. This policy hadcliped that year mark and so um we bring it back to you

178for your review and approval. Uh on this particular policy it had previously not policy. So, we added the statement of policy. Most of the other items are very similar to what existed before with a few edits, but we would uh propose this to you as a renewal from the prior policy of new schools. >> I wasn't sure if Craig was gonna keep scrolling or not. And so I was trying to watch the scroll and see if the scroll stopped. Yes, I will entertain a motion. >> I move that we pass. >> Okay. Wow. >> Okay. Everyone has to take turns. >> I move that we approve policy 1618, naming of new schools. I'll second it. >> Okay. So, we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Bon. Any discussion

179after that? There's no discussion. Like, okay, fine. We're going to utilize utilize this policy real soon. Exciting. >> That is accurate. 100%. Okay. Um we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Bon. All in favor of approving policy 1618, please say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that appears to pass unanimously. Next up, uh policy 3064. >> Thank you, President. Uh this policy is district investments. This policy also came through on our five-year rotation. And so, uh, we've made a few tweaks to it. Again, we've added a statement of policy. We worked with business services and their, uh, director of accounting on this to make the tweaks and to bring it into or bring it up to speed with what their current processes and practices are as well, and get

180their feedback. So there's just a few very minor changes to this one and again it's mostly for renewal of this policy. >> I move that we Sorry. No, go for it. Okay. I move that we approve policy number 3064 district investments. Second. >> I'll second a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Bon. Any discussion again? This is just cleaning up and uh getting things in the proper form. And it was passed by our business department and our VA. Um I just wanted to point out that it does um does outline the principles that we uh the priorities that will be followed the safety of principal cash flow liquidity and yield. Um, so it's it's has the safety uh priorities built into the policy that that Alpine School District follows. Okay,

181I'm sorry to be a pain, Craig. This literally just popped up when it came right on my screen. Um, secure the maximum public benefit. I have a slight pause with that because I appreciate what Aida just said about making sure that like, you know, we want to make sure that we're balanced and fiscally prudent, but technically the maximum public benefit could be we throw everything in stocks because we've been making some great investments recently, which have been great, but that is not that's that's that's real high risk. So, I'm a little bit worried when we say secure the maximum public benefit. that could be interpreted as being really really aggressive. I'm sorry that I literally just literally popped in my head as as I saw it on the screen. I'm sorry. >> That's fair. I

182mean, the the flip side to that, I suppose, is that by protecting the benefit or being more conservative, you're giving them the maximum long-term benefit. But we're we're willing to make >> I may vote no on this. Not out of spite, just because I'm a little bit nervous about that. I don't think there's anything necessarily like scary about it. I just worry that the wording could be misinterpreted. And since we have a standard that we only approve the, you know, the policy statement, then I'm looking at it just as the policy statement. So now we had that discussion you know about safety of of our funds um which is why we looked at uh 1.3 and yield is the the last uh criteria um for establishing which investments we make. Jason, do you want to

183address that at all? >> Yeah. So I guess on that uh President King on that you're saying the top part if if Craig scrolls up the part that's above the one now. >> Yes. where it just says maximum public benefit because like I said securing maximum public benefit you make the most money from being aggressive with the stocks but also that's also the maximum like doesn't feel super secure. I just worry that like I said because we're approving the statement of policy how that could be interpreted. I get that the actual like details may not reflect that. I just am worried a little bit about the word. So your your issue just is with the verbiage. Secure the maximum public benefit is that's I don't have a problem with the policy. I have a problem

184with the verbiage and how that may not reflect what actually we're intending. And I don't think anyone's going to come and say your own policy says you have to throw everything in the most aggressive fund. I don't think that's going to happen. But I'm just hesitant that that verbiage could be interpreted as such. And I feel like we have been great with the funds and we have done well. But I would not want that interpreted differently than I think what we intend. And so that's my pause. >> And on that, Craig, was the was there no statement of policy before? >> There was none >> because that was really just 1.1 moved above the line there, right? >> Yeah. >> I'd be happy to readress it. That's okay. >> Yeah. I was going to see

185if we can make a friendly motion to or I don't know how what's the proper ter. >> Can we just discuss it? We can just leave it as a discussion because it's listed as discussion action. Yeah, we'll just leave it as a discussion. >> Okay, thank you. Sorry to do that last minute, Craig, but it literally as it scrolled up, I was like, wait. >> Okay, so I think we're going to pull that one and just shift it next time. Okay, next up, policy 4752, the retirement incentive. >> Yeah, so let me explain a little bit on this one. Um, what we're going to recommend here is policy 4752 be with 4752.1. So there's a little combination that's happening there and then the reason that this is being done. So in 2023 as part of

186the agreement between the association and the board there were some changes that were made um with regards to the certified policy where admin policies typically follow the certified pol policies in those agreements. um the certified version of this policy was updated. This managerial or administrative version of the policy was not updated at that time. So we recognize that this one needed to be updated. Um so what what's happened is we've taken the certified version and applied it here to the managerial or administrative version and then just adjusted for the calculation which was the big change between the two. So the administrative calculation was at 50%, the certified is at 54. So that's going to stay the same. The other verbage is carried over from the certified policy. So this is to bring into uh bring

187this policy into what has been the practice based on that agreement from 2023. The other piece that the 4752.1 uh that really restated the URS um rules and regulations and how they do their calculations. So instead of restating that in a separate policy, what we've done is put a link and referred to the URS rules and regulations stating that we will follow these rules and regulations so that we don't always have to update our policy when URS updates theirs. Is that clear? >> Yeah. And Craig, I'm not seeing it reflected on this current policy, but didn't we switch out the title of this policy to read as administration retirement incentive? >> Discuss that. I don't know if we came to >> you left early. >> We came >> five minutes. >> What happened? >> That

188was that was still >> Did you Yeah. Yeah. We So we decided to leave it the same >> in an effort to minimize the the nerves of people and to make changes that were necessary. We decided to leave it as similar as possible that well stated or sorry >> mostly it's just to honor the negotiations that happened in 2023 and the name change wasn't in those negotiations. Now the only reason that and I'm going to push back it just a little bit. The only reason because it's not going to change the policy or the statement of policy, the procedures or anything else. It's solely to make sure that there is a differentiation between the administration between certified and between classified. That was it. And so I still stand by that just because I think it

189helps. I know we say it's in the 4,000s, but I don't think our public knows what the 4,000s is. And so to have it. So I'm just going to stand by the fact that I really do like the fact that it it would clarify bring some clarity to that. It seems silly. I know. >> Board member Bon, would you like to make a motion? >> Well, are you going to be rolled? >> I don't like the title. >> Okay, that would you like to make a motion or should I just move on? Okay. Does anyone like to make Would anyone like to make a motion regarding policy 4752? Well, let me make some ask a clarification. Do we have to can we pass it and still change the name or what does this entire board

190have to approve the title of the policy? >> I think based on our policy and it's that that indicates that you guys are typically over the statement of policy we could probably make that title change as a policy committee. That would be my >> I move that we did anyone want to jump in or am I okay to jump in? I move that we we uh pass the revision of policy 36 oh sorry 4752 retirement incentive. >> We have a motion by board member Bon. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have a second by board member Clement. Any discussion? Okay. Seeing none. All in favor please say I. >> I. Any oppose please say nay. That appears to pass unanimously. Um Craig. Next up, policy 4752.1. >> Thank you. So, as uh

191discussed in the prior policy, we've uh folded this policy into 4752. We felt like the need for a 0.1 was not there, not necessary. And we've referred now into now in 4752 directly to the URS uh rules and procedures for calculating retirement. um and calculations. >> Okay, so I'm just slightly Okay, I'm just trying to figure this one out. Why is this not just like under 4752 is just like a little extra doodad instead of a point? This is just odd, Craig. I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind it. >> We're trying to correct it right now. >> Okay, >> that's why we would we invite the board to >> Oh, we're retiring it. Okay. I did not for some reason my brain is cute and I was like I don't understand what's happening. >>

192I do not want a policy named 0.1. I do not want to go down that dark hole. Okay. So, you're just looking for retirement motion. Okay. Does anyone want to make a motion to retire policy 4752.1? >> I move. >> We all do. >> We're all excited about retiring a policy. Okay. Go. I move that we retire policy 4752.1 purchase retirement credit. >> Second. Okay. >> So, we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Peterson. Any discussion? >> Okay. I just want to point out that this is the one. If we didn't do this, it would constantly change. It it turns into a link that can be linked to um the the requirements of uh Utah educators retirement benefits. Anyway, it goes to a link now which is constantly

193updated instead of us having to constantly update. Other discussion? Okay, seeing none, all in favor of retiring policy 4752.1 with a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Peterson, please say I. I. Any opposed? That appears to pass unanimously. Membership report time. Superintendent. Yay. >> Patterns. Really nothing here to note. Uh let's move on to the next item if you're okay with that. >> I love that you're doing double duty. You're just like pass. Okay. It is now time for board member and superintendent report and information items. Um floor is open for those reports to be shared. Yes, I do want to share that in policy, we were discussing how the new boards um according to the law can are required to adopt ASD policy um for the first well they

194have to adopt it and um it's according to the date of creation I believe and I don't that's my understanding so the changes that we make of creation in July 1st of 2027 will probably need to be addressed by those those three boards and and either accepted as a a lump or anyway they need to think about that there's a little gap there in policy adoption so let's let's be careful and do it right >> I' just like to clarify the only policy that is under that is the personel benefits policies. So, um other policies like parent complaint revision that doesn't fit that category of policy that has to be adopted from creation 8. >> Yeah, I think they can they can massage the d the the policy um but that that one policy about

195employee benefits and salaries cannot be changed. Craig, can I put in a request? Sorry to like call you. You don't get up. You can still sit down. Can um would you be willing to as policy gets adjusted that is specific to benefits? Can you send an email to all three board presidents that state we changed the policy, this is why we would like you to maybe plan on changing that on July one of 2028? And can we just have kind of like a running any benefits related ones? We send those to board president so that we can make sure that we're supporting them and getting those changed on their agendas, please. Thank you. Appreciate that. So t the season for the concerts and all the things. Um and so I just wanted to give a

196shout out to our arts teachers. Um one of the things that I love most about subbing for the arts is watching kids grow year over year. And I will never understand how teachers can take kids have never touched an instrument or never used their voice as an instrument and magically by December they sound beautiful. Um it is a crazy time for everybody. Thank you to the parents who are patient with our um facilities that don't quite house enough people the right way. Um and just a shout out to our students who show up and they want to get better and it is so cool to watch them grow not only in their craft but as leaders and so to watch ones that came in as kind of seventh graders and you know by middle of

197eth 9th grade they're leaving class and then to watch them um continue to grow and so I just very much appreciate all our teachers who in addition to the normal teaching load plus your family commitments and holidays um put on these incredible um concerts and also just as a reminder that community members are welcome to show up and support whether you have kids at school or not. Maybe not Lehi Junior this year um or go early or walk far but um they love when we have community members that Hey, this is the first uh schoolboard meeting we've had since we've had new school board members sworn in. So, I just want to extend congratulations. I know we have several of the board members sitting in the audience today for um Aspen Peaks. And then I

198think we're still doing the quotation marks for Lake Mountain and Tempus as they're um pursuing naming committees. But I just wanted to say congratulations. We're um excited to welcome some of those board members here. excited to have you here and be able to participate. Um, and just impressed with everyone um, the work that's being done and um, the confidence that comm that community members have shown in uh, their boards getting the work done. And also wanted to publicly state all three districts have their superintendent searches up and ready to go. I love how everyone's aligned because everybody posted essentially within 12 hours of each other and um let the games begin. Any other board comments? Okay. If not, um this is one of my favorite things about board meeting is just sharing a few numbers.

199And rather than having you listen to me uh again, um you'll maybe have to listen to me in other settings, but I invited Jason Croin uh to come share uh our our emphasis on numbers and our students. And Jason is the the team member that creates magic. He takes in essence a black and white, which I would refer to as data. Um and he creates media and information that is consumable. It is informative and it guides instructional practice for teachers and administrators to make an impact for children. So Jason, thank you for that and uh take it away. >> Thank you. Uh thank you superintendent, thank you board um for the opportunity. Um I love sharing what's happening at schools. Um I'll find by the numbers. Um we've done high school data, some survey data,

200and today what we want to talk about is some elementary data. Met with the superintendent, um, Dr. Perkins, Dr. Carter, and kind of talk through what should we share, um, about the great things that are happening at our schools. I do want to recognize my team that supports me um, with this data. In elementary, we have a test. It's called a cadence reading. And that assessment is a one-on-one assessment. And you can see that part of the priorities of the district, the coherence map, literacy is a priority. Literacy opens the gate to all content, to learning, to next level readiness, and to connection. This test is a screener. So that screener is quick and it identifies if a student is has the skills they need for future reading success. That data is used by teachers

201and schools to determine which students might need additional support and what do we need to do with our tier one instruction um intervention and extension. And you can see the dialogue on that slide is just a quick check In our system, we have a lot of big events and a lot of these are testing events or survey events. And you can see in September, we had a big event, beginning of year testing. And this test is a the reading test that we do one-on-one with every single student in elementary. Let's talk about that event so we can kind of see what happened this year. We have a tester team um almost 110 testers and they go out to all of the schools and sit one-on-one with every student and give an assessment that happens in

202about three weeks. We assess 41,000 students. That's a lot of one-on-one assessments to give data to our schools and our teachers. I put the data from 2025 and 2026 beginning of year so you can kind of see where do we come in this assessment baseline beginning of year data tells us where are we at what happened over the summer was there a slide you'll notice that three through six we're it's pretty stable and the same throughout the year throughout each year you're noticing first and second there's a little bit of an increase from beginning of year 2025. Our kindergarten students came in a little bit lower by 3%. Um it's about 180 students um difference. We broke this out um into two buckets. There are students that meet the benchmark goal. They come in beginning

203of year and they meet the goal. We have students that almost met it. They're not there yet. And I'm very want to be deliberate with that that verbiage that we have students that we're still working with and they have skills, they're just not there yet. Um, historically it's 70% when we come in that that have met that those goals. So I talked about these big events. Sometimes we talk about the big event more than the most important part of the data. The most important part of the data is what happens in between the big event. And if you look at that quote um from James Clear, Atomic Habits, the goal is important, but that's not the most important thing. We know that the daily routines and the things that we do weekly are the most

204important things. That's what makes the difference. It's the small things. So, I want to talk about the small things and recognize we are actually testing middle of year right now. We started December 1st. So, we'll have data in January. So, let's talk about the small the small things. We have these groups of students that have met and students that aren't there yet. There's recommendations that my team with the literacy team that's led by Carrie Milner and we train teachers, pair of professionals on how often should we check in with students and we do that. We check in and you can see guidelines from the state SB127. We're supposed to be checking in on students to make sure that they are achieving these small goals throughout each month. students that have met. So if you look

205at that 70% group, the requirement is they're checked at least once a month. So that could be the teacher, it could be a paraprofessional, but they sit oneon-one with a student and do a formal check that's recorded. It's called a progress monitor and we're checking on those students. Students that are almost there, they have maybe some prerequisite skills that they need. So they get that intervention and we more often to make sure that they they catch up by middle of year. So, you're probably wondering like, how are we doing? And that's the purpose of this. How are we doing with those little checks? Thinking about the 28,000 students, if they need to be checked at least once a month, so October, November, that's 56,000 checks. It's a lot of progress monitors. We have 12,500 students.

206They need to be checked at least twice a month in these formal one-on-one sessions with the teacher. That is almost 50,000 more checks. And now think about the teacher's life. How does that happen? And we do have support. I want to recognize our instructional aids, our pair professionals that support this work. And here's how we did. If you add up what we should be doing, it should have been 107,500 progress monitors in those two months. Look at what our schools are doing. 260,000 one-on-one checks with our students to make sure that they're ready and that we are tracking data to know what's going to happen in middle of year. Um on the left you can kind of see the recommendation for the students that have met. That's 57,000 and actually there was 137,000 individual progress

207monitors across our 60 schools. That's an average of five per student. The recommendation is two. And we have schools that are constantly attending to the data to make sure our students are taken care of. Let's look at the almost students that are almost there. They are averaging 10 progress monitors in between these benchmark windows. Now, these are formal checks. Teachers are doing well beyond these types of formal checks. They're doing informal checks every single day during instruction. That is a tremendous amount of work. Each of these progress monitors where they sit with a student and the student reads a passage or they might blend different words are one to two minutes. Multiply that out. It's I think something like over 300 straight days of these progress monitors. Like that's phenomenal. Um just to close I

208want to just reiterate it's the small things that are happening and the small things and those daily things that are happening is what's making a difference with our with our students. And we're excited to see what happens middle of year and then we'll continue to do this after that. So thank you Amazing. Thank you. I just wanted to quick say that that's 259,483 checkins. But that also means that that's 2500 or 259,483 modifications and adjustments to instruction being made by teachers. >> Jason, could I just quickly ask you how how your um how are these reported the progress monitoring? >> It's a great question. So we have a platform that our teachers and prayer professionals they log in as the students name and then they can do that oneonone check and it's all recorded digitally.

209So we have historical data on all these students and then that allows us to be able to put that together. So we put that together for schools so we know where student where schools are doing really well and then there are maybe schools that need a little bit of push and like we're not maybe meeting those needs and so that helps us. >> Thank you. We appreciate that. Uh we do not have need of closed session this evening. So I will entertain a motion to close meeting. >> I move to adjourn. >> I second a motion. >> Okay. All in favor please say I. I. >> I. >> Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for being here.