April 22, 2025 - Alpine School District Board Meeting

001Change We'd like to welcome everyone out to study session today. Um, Superintendent Farnsworth. Thank you, President King. Appreciate that. We have three items on our agenda today. The first will be our fiscal year 2026 maintenance and operations budget. Jason will lead his team in that and then following that we will turn some time over to Scott to do some work on school land trust plans and then the rest of the time we will give to uh Joel and I will handle the uh recent audit that we had by OLED and give a report on that. So Jason turn over to you and your team. Thank you. Thank you superintendent. We're excited to be here for the FY26 operations budget recommendations. We did the capital um budget a few board meetings ago. Um so we have

002we've shared this with the board. You received this I think last night. So we have a PDF of the presentation. We also have some a large print for you when we go through this. Um so be is going to kind of get things started kicked off here and introduce our team that's supporting here. Okay, team today we've got Robert Ber, the director of accounting, and Ryan Clark, the assistant director of accounting. Also, just want to highlight the budget team. Um, they're not here tonight, but they do a lot of it's our whole department that does a lot with this. Everybody, payroll, everybody. Um, but in particular, Laura Lee Neker is our senior budget analyst. And then we have Crystal Michaels who's just moved on to another position, but she's done a lot of help with

003this. So I want to highlight her as well as Jen Nielsen and other budget analysts. So they do a lot and I just want to thank them for the work that they do. Um if we go ahead and get started. Uh the first slide last year as I looked at the um at the presentation I realized we stepped you through many different clicks to get to see um where budget documents are contained. And Jason's done a really good job with getting us all on the business dashboard. So now we only have one slide and one click to go to. So, as long as you have business dashboard, the operations documents will be within the FY26 budget process folder, that link uh that is on on the slide right there. So, all of it will be

004there and for the public that's still available that same not to get to this, but the documents are still available through business services web page on part of the process um that we start with is meeting with the district budget. we get all the requests and we'll go in that in just a second. But um the first big meeting that we have is with the district budget committee and that's comprised of a lot of different uh people within the district. There's three board members, there's nine DLT members on that committee. There's 10 from advisory team, 10 cluster principles, and then nine support staff that we use. And as part of that process, we divide up into teams and each team is given the list of requests and they start prioritizing. And from that point, we

005also take those numbers and gather the data and then list the preferences by you know how many times a team has selected it, if they selected it at all. Um and that's kind of how we kept progressing through this process. So, um, the operations process starts in December when we get the packets out to everybody. It's a quite a long time. It feels like as soon as we get done, then it's time to start all over again. Um, but for operations, we turn it out, the budget brackets in December. The budget detail for the request, the deadline is February 3rd. And then we meet as a district budget committee. Between the time that we get the requests and we meet, we're comprising and putting the spreadsheet together so that the district budget committee can meet

006on March in March, mid-Marchch usually to go ahead and go through those recommendations and meet as teams to determine the priorities. Um then after that, the district leadership team recommends looks at their recommendations. And then in April, we met with the finance committee and went in detail through we handed out a list like we'll hand to you today and went through and actually listed their recommendations and we'll do the same with you tonight as well. And then we're meeting today. So, um, okay. And then that's just the budget calendar. It's something that I go by. I love checking it off every time we get something done. Um but that's just kind of again to show you the how we go through this whole process from December all the way down to August. Um it will

007extend August if TNT is determined and decided upon. Um but the main time that we will meet next with this whole process where we combine the capital budget and the operations budget is to bring you the budget book in June. And so that will be something that um will go before the board with all the detail and that's you don't have seen it before. It's 200page document that we're gonna um get working on right away. So okay the calendar no just on the calendar. So the by statute we have to have the budget book and it's the superintendent's budget and that is due by um the end of May. So we'll have it ready the last day of May so that you can review it but then we will present in that June board meeting

008on the 17th. Okay. The first part that we start with when we are determining the operations budget is really to start with the main component of revenue and the main component of operations budget is the state revenue and what the increase is from the prior year to the next year. And to really kind of simplify that down, it's really calculated by an increase in WPU and a projected student count for FY26. Just as a means of information, the projected decrease for FY26 is 226 students. The WPU is increased uh by 4%. The FY26 WPU would be 4,674. So those were two of the big components that we used to determine that state revenue estimate for FY26. In years past, maybe 7 8 years ago, that projected student count increase would be 1,200, 1,800,400. So there's

009a lot of new revenue with student growth. Um the last few years, it's been where we've had growth of 35 or 50 or 75. Um, so we're staying pretty pretty flat right now with the future ones after next year's growth again for the next four years. And just to clarify, this is based on our projected student enrollment that we talked about like in November. So the numbers are based on on that. Y clarification. Y, you guys are saying increase, but the presentation says decrease of 226. It's a decrease of states. Okay. But in the next four years it will be there's a projected for student count there's a projected decrease for next October for this October coming up and then from there slight increases but the WPU is still increasing. So overall the student count

010went down but the whole amount that we're using as state revenue is still increasing. So okay. So kind of broke it down a little bit different this year in hopes that it's a little bit clear. Um, as far as where we use as a starting point for that revenue, the first item is the projected state revenue. So, what I just went over, our projection for state revenue over FY25 is 25 about 25.2 million. On to that, another revenue source that we've used in our projections is a credit from FY25 one-time funded requests. So those include secondary hold harmless literacy textbook adoption and comp high school. So those were approved in FY25. They were approved as one-time funding. So that comes off and gives us more additional revenue in FY26 to use since it was just

011one time in FY25. You can see that two of those well are requested again in full for FY26, but then the comp high schools decreased a little bit to 8.875 875 FTE and that I think that'll drop off the next year. So, and then there are requests that are self-funded. Those include CTE requests and warehouse requests. So, th that income comes directly from those departments and that was of 546,000. And then we have increment funded requests which were previously board approved and that came to the amount of 16.8 million. Then there were two items um new district money. We have 5 million that is um set aside for the new districts for next year and the year after. Um and that came to 5 million as well as math curriculum uh adoption which was 2.8

012million but those were from different funding sources. So we're just adding that income to the total amount that we have to work with. And then you can see that those self-funded the increment funding and the fund the new district funding and math curriculum are pretty much a wash because we have those coming from different income sources. So really the new income that we have to work with is 31,822,000. I just have back um on the comprehensive high school when you say that that's phasing out to zero. What are we talking about? Yes. which means they're going to have to absorb that in different ways because we can't not offer comprehensive courses. Correct. Right. Yes. Just so we have the ones that are set apart just for that then they'd have to be approved through another

013source. They have to be approved through another source. Okay. All right. Raise for Okay. And then on the next slide, I just gave you a sampling. We're going to go through in detail all the requests, but these are just a sampling. The total requests received were 76 operation requests totaling 63.4 million. Um, some of those requests include obviously a 1% cola and this that is just for 1%. Um, for contract and hourly it would be about 5.7 million. the step increase and these also the 1% cola and the step increase also include the amount for spent as well. Um the step increase was 7.6 million. Um we just recently met with EMI and the medical insurance increase looks like it'll be a 8.3% increase which equates to 8.3 million. New school opening cost 3.1 million.

014the elementary FTE allocation decline because the f the elementary FTEES um the enrollment's declining then we have less FTE to allocate out so it actually freed up some gave us a little bit more of a credit within the available income so that's why that's showing as a negative of 2.2 million secondary hold harmless again that was re-requested for FY26 2.6 6 million and then the comprehensive high school 1.1 the secondary FD allocation growth because that will be growing um one million even the literacy textbook adoption this is one of a two section two-year um request so it was requested last year the second half of that's been requested this year as well and then the math curriculum textbook adoption of 2.8 eight and then there also was a request for sped pair educator flex support

015as well as three FTEEs and that's been added um about.7 million and again we'll go through we're about to go through a lot of this in in greater detail but just kind of wanted to go through some of the bigger requests and then the budget priorities um as we see now continued investment teacher compensation evaluate programs with one time revenue revenue. This is something that's come to us as questions quite often right now is grant um also grant revenue versus ongoing revenue. Um and then the sped funding funding gap. Um that's always a challenge and um as sped funding changes so we're trying to close that gap a little bit. Then the next slide is just kind of a teaser for what we're going to hand out next. Can I just ask one question on

016the evaluate programs funded with one-time revenue? I mean, we see this same principle reflected in our legislature. Yes. Is this is this our choice or is this something that we're doing because the legislature is doing it also? I don't I think it would be ours, right? Which one? Second. I can comment on that, but my understanding Dr. Ree, you can help explain this. We just have some there's some questions from time to time when you have things that are funded. It's it an ongoing need, but you're funding it with temporary funding. And so you're looking at those and say, is that something we're willing to be committed to long term and can we move it off of grant funding to ongoing funding? And obviously you can't do all that because we you don't have the

017funds to do that. So my sense of this is that we're evaluating programs that are funded through grant say the possibility to pull that over to ongoing funding. Some we can't some we can't. We prioritize that. So it's not necessarily an effort to eliminate it. It's an effort to shore up. It's an effort to sustain it to say if it's worth investing in. If it's something that we keep funding with grant money, if that grant money runs out and it's essential to what we're doing, we ought to move that over to ongoing funding when possible. Okay. We can't always do that where it makes sense. Yeah. Makes sense and when we have the resources to do that. Yeah. The sense I get from the legislature is that they're looking to eliminate rather than to support.

018So I I just wanted to eliminate uh grant funding from the legis one time, you know, these things that like CTE. It's hard to hire when it's just a one time. Yeah. Yeah. Things that we take for granted. They're looking at and evaluating and it's making us nervous. Okay. Okay. Yeah, lots of colors on here, but let me just kind of step you through a little bit. At the very top, so you can see the request numbers as we've received them, but at the very top is the required new district funding set aside. It's $60 per student. So, we're trying to prepare for that. Um, that equates to 5 million based on our um student counts. And then the blue section are anticipated priorities because we're either already into like medical insurance increase. That's just

019something that we need to address. Um other things that um that are already part of things that we're involved in that we just listed in that anticipated priorities. Another one would be something like the building rental graduation. That's just going up and there's really nothing that we can do about that. BYU's been great with us the last few years. Um but it's come to the point where we need to adjust our budgets to go in line with that. The orange section are prior approved increment funding items and then the white section were every was everything else. Um, let me if you go through and then if you work your way across the first green column is the total requested cost. That's what came through on the initial request. The gray column was what came out

020of the district budget committee recommendation in March. And then there have been two district leadership team recommendations as well committee recommendation. All of those all of those meetings really encapsulated the required new district funding, the anticipated priorities, and the increment funding. The increment funding is kind of a given obviously because it's funded already by increments. And then um after that, you can see that a lot of the yellow um in the columns, those are other items that have been um discussed and decided as priorities. that includes colas as well as uh district I'll go through some of these new ones. Um on line right underneath line 39 or request 39 we have district support staff stipen. So the legislation that just came through as far as educational support stipens of 1000. It's a onetime $1,000

021stipen that did not include anyone that's on a district level or departments. it's just direct directly working with children um or in the schools. So this is to cover to make sure that all district support staff are able to receive that. Um the next part is part of the um and that's our classified employees classified. Yes. The OTP SLTSA is the educators salary adjustment amount and again those aren't um originally included in that. So that's the but the district side of um trying to cover those positions for that adjustment again that's the $1,000 as well as benefit. Yeah. So the the OTP SLT so a couple years ago when the 4200 was added to teachers and counselors other um things the OTPTs and SLTs didn't have it the first year. Last year we added that

0224200 which became 4452 this current year. Um the increase of 5% on that 4452 plus adding a,000 isn't funded by the state but that's the part to be able to keep those and that's the number of employees on that one is about 20 25 to 30 employees. So that's why it's just the 57,000 and it's just the increase on the existing 4452 and the $1,000 for that. And the $1,000 going to the ESA isn't a one time like the education support professionals. It's should be ongoing according you know as long as the legislature funds that. Okay. that the next item the two-tier 401k that is um last year there was a 7% 7% amount that they would have to contribute but then in to make up for that the district would contribute into their 401k

023of.7% that's going up to 81% they'd like to do the same thing and cover and put that amount into the 401k to cover for that it's just half half sorry for the certified it's half and for the classified it's the URS. Yeah. So the URS employer, this is a credit of 2.3 million. So the amount for tier one and tier 2 that the employer has to pay to contribute to keep up on the tier one and tier 2 benefits for a defined um benefit. Then it was a half a percent decrease. So that with all the employees comes out to about $2.3 million of savings that will be realized as we run payroll each month. The next item, job study placements. We met with the association for classified employees. There was a job study done

024in 2022 is it? And there were a list of job study placements that would change um certain employees positions to different job lanes. And so we've kind of been chipping away at that long list. And so this is just another means that we just met with them and these were based on their priorities for keeping to chip away at the list. I think we only have a few that's left that we haven't covered. And so that would be about 133,000 to keep up with the job study and and make those changes. And that amount is on your all of your sheets, but wasn't included last night because that meeting happened today. Uh again, math curriculum textbook adoption funding 2.8 million. Um and there are other funding from other sources on that as well. There were

025other things that came up recently when we met with the finance committee. There are SRO's that are not first of all the middle school SRO's the student resource officers. They are usually they're halftime in middle school. So this is a request to make them full-time, but also the ORM SRO's are played at a different rate than other SRO's within our district. So it also it makes them full-time, but it also or full Yeah, fulltime. And then it also equalizes all SRO's to be the same amount. And then the next item is also the high school SRO equalization. All of those are full-time at high schools, but they're not equalized. Again, the or SRO's are paid at a different rate than the rest of the SRO's. So, that is in a means to equalize that. Um,

026we mentioned previously item 59 PAR educator flexibility support. Um, that would be for that as well as three FTEEs which were um estimating to be about 725,000 for that. And then towards the bottom, um, we have other the last four items 73 through 76 are all self-funded through CTE or the warehouse. Um, so those are again part of that self-funded um, income. If you have any questions, uh the goal for tonight is to fill out the orange column and to work through that with your recommendations as we move forward through the budget process. So the bottom line is this is it's under budget by 58 million. Is that right? What's that the bottom orange column? Sorry, the orange column is just great right now because we don't have anything in there. Okay, but as of

027through the process, the last column, we're at about 4.8 over budget. That's quite a It's a lot better than we were last year at this point in time when we went through this process. Okay. It's a lot less than last year. Um but yeah, and anyway, so no, go ahead. So, what I was going to um was looking at there, the the key here too on the operations budget, when we do the capital budget, we're showing the full thing. So, whatever that amount is goes back to zero each time. Our budget, our our capital or our general fund budget for the year is not 60 million. It's more like 850 to 900 million. And so those things that are ongoing continue on. we add to those like the one the bonus or the 1% colas

028whatever the cola is we're adding to those or adding new positions and it's growing that so this only represents about 7 and 12% of the total budget that you'll see in June this is all the new revenue and new asks to be able to bring that in um and then the part there with the $4.8 8 million deficit. What we share a lot is when we're when we're budgeting and we're looking at, okay, what's our revenue revenue going to be? It could it's probably the new revenue is in this range. Let's say it's between 50 and 60 million. We're always going to budget for the the worst case 50 million in revenue. Let's say the expenses are also 50 to 60 million. We want to be conservative there. So, we're going to say it's the

02960 million. So, if we're we're doing it that way, we're going to show a $10 million budgeted deficit. But when it comes in, we know throughout time on averages that it's going to probably both meet about 55 right there in the middle. Um the odds of it being worst case on both sides are are going to be very low. And as we get through a year, if we see that that revenue is going to be there, we can rebudget the expenses a little bit to be able to match that. So hopefully that helps to bring that in the perspective, the philosophy. I guess my my question was so is this 1% cola is that what we're thinking we're going to be able to give no more than that right right the one so in the

030green column the 1% the very first column you can see the 400,000 the 4.6 and 728 that's what each of those would be if we just did 1% but over here in the last one you can see it's 1.2 to 12 and two. So, you can see the multipliers. It's because of all the different um like the $1,000 bonus and the added to the ESA, we had to break it down to a lot finer detail, but this is the end result there instead of it being we're still in the process of determining what that that cola would be. We we shared this morning and superintendent meanings went out in the minutes what our recommendation is for that. We do have that on a discussion action item for tonight. And so part of the discussion is

031this the whole budget here and then find the comfort level of the board to hold on that employment benefit package for 20 fiscal year 26. So the recommendation then is calculated in the the April 16th DT. Correct. A fully funded recommendation. Yes. Thank you for that clarification, Mark. Did that make sense? Yes. Thank you. So, I think you're saying we're sitting pretty good with that. So, I think what's left is or what's the task, as I understood it, is to say, do we want to pull what's in the green and blue column over to the orange column? What do we want to pull over? If we were to pull over everything that's listed, then we would have the same bottom line outcome that is listed in the blue or the green. Yeah. And we'd say

032the blue is the most up to date. That last one, the April 16th is the is the recommendation that we are making to the board. And if everything if it's looking good, then we would just say equals to all of those things. and we'd be at that the same totals as that last couple and that's within your comfort level of saying we can that's a reasonable budget that we can live with. Correct. Yes. Jason, does that only apply to blue or green as well? Sorry, one more time. Is green a comfort level? It's not that much more than blue. Well, the green doesn't have the colas matching there. Um, so it's there's some differences there. I mean, if we were to add other things in there. So, we'd want up in the 37 through 39

033to match what's in the blue column in the green column. Also, but I think most of the green column is in the blue column other than um PCBs, mechanics. Mechanics. Yeah. when we went to the mechanics when we had that discussion said if there's more then we want to do this and then the BCBAS we we did I don't know if I shared that with you but what this is is it's not increasing those it's just moving them from kind of soft money to more ongoing so it's something we could do but it doesn't increase the number of PCBs it keeps the same so all the blank places we see here are things that were not If something we've done in the past is if there were the board were to go through truth and

034taxation, there were addition additional revenues that were added later, then this would become the list that we go back to to say what of these can we prioritize. And we do that's something that we did as part of the district budget committee meeting that we had we gathered the information of things that would be a priority because the teams worked within a budget. I mean they really tried to stay within it but we had a section that said if you ran out if you had more money what would you choose as a priority? So we do have that list also of other priorities in addition to this. Yeah. The other item um line 18 need to make note of. So that one was through truth and taxation with 45 more targeted FTES on top of

035the 65 plus the eight that we have for the comprehensive high school. right now with the allocations that have happened for FY26, we still have out of the 65, I think we still have um to look for sure, but I think there was like 18 left there. And then for the 45, we'd only used about eight or nine, maybe 11. What we're what we're recommending here, you can see along there, it was 5.6 million, taking it down to 2.49 to be able to provide a little bit more incas. So, it's taking that 45 down to 20, which we felt comfortable about. We discussed going down to 15, but left it at 20. So, it's 20 additional on top of the 65 and the eight. So, we feel we're in a good spot to be able

036to probably hand out those right at that 20 mark and not need above that. How many? So, of the 65 and 8 and 20 on the FTEES, how many have not been allocated at this point? [Applause] All right. In the 65, there are still 14.7 remaining. Um, out of the 45, that now would be 20, there's 8.5 remaining. with the the legislative um teacher pay raises. Is there anybody that we haven't covered that we don't need to? We've got everybody. Yeah. the OTPTs and the SLTs are the ones that we added last year because they weren't included in the first one because everybody that qualifies we did the very first year then they they were kind of similar but for some reason the state didn't include us whatever reason. So then we went through and

037said yeah it makes sense to be able to to your peers that similar to So those teacher pay raises actually that are a negative to us because we had to Yeah, it depends. So when they fund teachers, but they don't give it to administrators and other people, we have to chip in for that. It actually cost us when they do the if we're trying to match that if we're trying to keep everybody on the same just on those ones would be the only I mean if you're looking at the one where they said for the education support professionals where they said $1,000 one time and then we have the few but they say only those that are at schools or bus drivers you know they're looking at that but then we want to say well

038we want the secretary at the at transportation to be also receive that. Then there's some the funding that we're requesting from from districts. Any other questions or concerns? Just looks like facilities kind of got put on hold there. where they ask is in the capital budget. That's where they were funded with their projects and things. These are positions or um mileage and dollar amounts you can see aren't very large on those. You feel comfortable pulling that column over the orange column or I think that sounds like a great idea. It's a quick way to do it, but you want to make sure everybody's comfortable. This point, we don't want to upset the If you have questions that come up or recommendations that you'd like to see, um, send superintendent and myself an email or talk

039to us and we can we can talk about it in DT further and and make that recommendation. I think this just gives the direction to the budget team to say this is what we're planning on for the end of May, finalize that and then the board can make adjustments to that if they wanted to in that June. So I see there's no more incentives, additional incentives for bus drivers or substitute teachers. Which one are you looking for? The substitutes. It's on 42. So the 42, but there was one, if you look, there's one up on 19. The subpay increase was increased $15 through your truth and taxation, $15 for this year, and it'll continue. It's not get taken away. This was just an additional ask that then wasn't recommended. Okay. So it's not totally on

040the table, but it stays the same rate as it is right now. Correct. So, it's not an increase, but the but the increase happened wasn't in the original budget last year because it went through truth and taxation. When it did, we increased instead of waiting till FY26, we've made it um made it active for FY25 for that increase. Something I wanted to mention also was in when we receive requests, it's all through ASD forms. It's a totally it's an online process and part of that um electronic form there's a request um for us to make sure to include next year for FY27 process is say how many years has this budget been requested and so we're going to add that to the form for next year so that we have more data to go off

041and say okay how many times because when you're saying that it looks like it didn't get on well they have the chance to keep putting on but now next year hopefully we'll have more data for you They say this is how many years it's been requested. So that should help also. Okay. Thank you for your time. Want to recognize be for her great work coming here. This is her second budget process and she's just amazing at what she does and her leadership and helping with the team. So want to thank her and congratulate her on this process. Solid A for B. Hey, you made it a whole 37 minutes. I didn't know I was working on it. It just came out right. So, okay, we will transition to Scott. Appreciate his work overseeing land trust

042funding and uh turn to you. Great. Okay. Each of you have received a folder. Uh the folder is the uh physical copies of your land trust plans for the schools that you uh work with directly. Um I will be emailing you a digital copy of all the schools. You can peruse the other schools as well so you can see what other uh plans are doing. These have been thoroughly reviewed by uh by a number of people. And so if you look through these plans, just want to um on the inside of your packet, there's a inside of your folder there's a a timeline. We are down towards the bottom in the March and April area. You look at that um the board of education that uh fourth bullet or first fourth line on the March

043and April board of education will review and approve plans by May 15th. Uh these plans just if you review them, if you have suggestions or changes, email me and then I'll work with the supervisor in the school to make the changes in their plan. They could be anything. Question marks. Also in your packet, you've got a list of um this is kind of a repeat from before, but a list of um approval guidelines from the board and also appropriate expenditures sheet so you can look at it and approve. If you don't or see something in there that you're just like, I'm not sure about it. Email me. We can make the changes and then we'll put it back in edit mode. The schools can fix and then we'll show you the review. Um if you

044don't have any changes, that's a good thing. That means we've we've not been thorough with them and um we will look to our next board meeting on May 13th where there will be I believe there'll be an action item to say um we approve those plans and then once you approve them I will go through one by one and hit approve and hit the date on them uh to submit them to the state. Do you have any questions about land trust plans or anything that's in your folder? Can I ask you a question, Scott? I'm just curious. Um, I went down a hole with like the report cards online and I'm wondering, have we ever looked at data as far as any kind of correlation with schools and like whether it's their growth scores or

045their proficiency scores and how they're utilizing uh, land trust dollars? Like have we ever looked at like are there best practices for how those funds should be allocated? Um I think the best I think the best practice comes in with a coherence map and we've been looking about setting up those priorities. That to me is the best um where it was just kind of a a each school should go through like kind of that GAN model the greatest area of need and say what are the areas that we need to improve our school and some of those have been a lot more targeted now because of the coherence path of the three priorities. I would say the bulk of our plans will address their priorities in their building. But as far as looking at their

046data and doing a comparative analysis, it's just so different from each school of what they're looking at. But I mean be it' be fascinating to look and see when we do see some impacts that they've been using funding for that. We have we've not done that piece. I think there's so many other variables it would be hard to isolate the land trust variable as the contributing factor into that. that that would be a challenge I think because of other variables other things that are impacting that they may for instance if they have a mash math initiative at the school they're using TSSA funds or other things to support math or literacy and supplementing that with some land trust. It's hard to say that that portion of land trust that went to literacy was the determining

047factor for the increase in scores. It's just interesting to me because I know like you can do comparisons between like sister schools. So you're not doing apples to oranges. You're doing apples to apples as much as possible. And I will say that like visiting Vic at Westmore last year and seeing what they're doing with their literacy aids particularly in kindergarten where they got that level of training and they provide time for them to set up and prepare and like the level of integration at that level. I'm not saying that's the magic bullet, but it felt a little bit like it was the magic bullet. So I'm just wondering like you know but obviously you know Vic has spent title one dollars trust lands things like that. So I'm just wondering if there are ways in

048which I'm not saying every school is going to do that but if there are some things where we can say hey here's a highlight of how a school was successful this is how they utilize funds and if there are a couple of ways we could say hey for our title one schools we're seeing these are the top three things that are happening. Um, I just don't know if data and evaluation has looked at that. And I'm not saying like it's going to be the same across the board, but it may be something where whether that's in dual language immersion or high poverty or with multi- language learners, we might see some trends. And I'm just interested because we have so many schools and so many different demographics, it would be kind of interesting to see

049if there are trends that we're seeing that could potentially inform better practices, I guess. Yeah. And I think that there's where I think we could find some leverage to say okay we the these are high achieving schools of the variables that we look at let's include trust lands and say okay what factor correlation is there between the trust land spending and being high achieving sure yeah and I think you'll in agreement with that for sure but I think you'll also see the the schools where they were more individualized of what they were doing and now they're becoming more united in how they do things. So one particular supervisor will look at all the schools in general and say here's some here's some positive things happening from this school what are you considering with this is

050you have the same type of situation so I think a lot of those conversations are happening but to actually put it on paper to say this is happening or this has been a correlation of success I think we could do some of that when we isolate some things see thanks it would surprise me if that same question hasn't been asked on the state level so I I just wonder if there's any input slashguidance on the state level. Um I've not seen that from the state. I think that one of the focus if I were to interpret what the focus is is now to have specific goals to your school. I think we're really not think we are really getting focused in uh targeted instruction or targeted use of funds and our plans are starting to

051align a lot better. So our trust lines is similar to our TSSA to our PTA like all of our school goals are now focused in one direction and that's been that's been one of our key areas. So our our plans are really I I won't say they lack creativity because all schools can do it differently but I think they're all working towards similar things working towards improving learning in their school. So that may not be true in every district. Yeah. I'm not sure I'm not sure how the other districts view it, but I I know our focus has really been to target those three areas in our in the budget. Okay. And like I said, any changes or suggestions you have on the plans you see, let me know and we'll we'll make the schools

052aware to make the changes. Thank you. You done that? That's it. Okay. The last item is the systematic performance audit of Alpine School District. Most of you are aware for the past 12 months now, 11 months or so. Um, the office of the legislative auditor general OAG has been here in Alpine School District doing a systematic performance audit of us. Was a great experience. Uh they were professional, transparent, um thorough in what they did and uh appreciate Dr. Perkins who was the point person for Alpine School District on organizing that. But they reached out to schools, to supervisors, to employees across the district, looked at data, looked at our facilities, looked at policy. It was just a very thorough I mean they were here examining for nine nine months. Um last week we had the

053opportunity to see the finalized report and to respond to their presentation of the auditor's presentation of the report to the um leadership of the house and the senate and the committee that oversees audits and it was favorably received. It was a very favorable audit. I appreciate uh board president King being with me there. We responded to their questions. we have replied to their findings. So, we thought it would be good for uh because it was embargoed until right when we presented that or it was presented to the leadership there, we thought it would be good to review that with the board and the public. Um, I'll say a few comments and then turn over to Joel to go through the presentation that they actually gave to the uh House and Senate leadership to the audit

054committee and then uh make a few comments uh at the end on our perspective of it. But I I really appreciated the fact that they highlighted some of the great things that are happening in Alpine. appreciate opportunities to improve areas that they made recommendations for and I think it uh this audit really is a tribute to the board and their priorities and to the staff uh teachers, support professionals, everyone in Alpine. It is probably from my opinion and I've heard this from several other people uh the best audit that they have done of a school district to this point. I think Julie, you heard comments about that from others that have reviewed audits and uh it's a tribute to to you as a board and to the district and the great work that people in

055Alpine School District do. So Joel, we'll turn over to you. Thank you. Perfect. Um so I reached out to the auditors. Uh we've become good friends that we we interact a lot and uh they they shared with me the PowerPoint that they used when they presented to the committee. And so we're just going to walk through that with you. If you want the full report, this is an overview that I'm going to be sharing. The full report, we sent you an electronic link, but you should also have in your in your box 92 pages of fun. And for me, it was it's fun. This 92 pages is is incredible. Having having read all of the audits for the school systems that they have done in the last uh four years. Uh I just want to

056echo what superintendent did. This was this was exciting for us to see. uh we believe in continuous improvement in the PLC results cycle and this felt to me as if this were an assessment uh a spot check of our work where are we and how can we improve and grow and what are the good things that are happening and we felt like there's a lot of really good things that came out of this audit so let's just jump right in they did an overview page nothing surprising here um number of students schools teachers don't get hung up on how many schools exactly we have schools we have programs which are which don't don't worry about that that's just an overview that they gave to the uh subcommittee. It was discussed back and forth. It was

057an ongoing discussion. It still might be a discussion, but we're going to move forward. Um the first finding that came out of the audit, which uh we were very pleased with and again, testament to all of uh all of our amazing folks and uh the leadership here from the board. Alpine School District performs well and should continue to focus on low achieving groups. when they talk about in this chapter that some of the things that they highlighted is that Alpine School District has some of uh the highest district proficiency rates in the state and that uh we were aligned with uh peer groups or peer school in in our peer group we outperformed the other two schools that are close in size to us or the other school districts. Thank you. Uh so uh we

058outperform both Davis and Jordan school districts in their findings from the proficiency rates in Alpine School District which is exciting to see and very fun. You you'll also notice on this just so you can see one of their other points is the the state has set new proficiency rates kind of the target or the or the bar that's that dotted line the orange dotted line that you see there. And while we're outperforming all of our uh peer groups, uh we're not yet reaching those uh the standard or the goals that Alpine School or that uh the state has set for us uh moving forward in the future. That's the new target and we will continue to uh hopefully outperform other districts as we chase now that new target that they've set for us. But very

059exciting to see uh them recognizing the the incredible work of our uh our great folks. uh when they mention in here that achievement gaps exist in alpine school district schools uh they indicate in their report to the subcommittee that this is a follow-up topic that they have seen in other uh in other reports and audits that they have done. This is an ongoing we all have students who are not achieving where we want them to be across the state. Um in our district they found that uh we had schools with small gaps and those gaps were narrowing and we had some with larger gaps and uh they certainly gave us the recommendation one that we wholeheartedly agree with that we should continue to assess the reasons for these gaps and target those. And that is

060what you'll see when you look at the coherence map and the work that we're doing with setting student group goals. That is what that is about. And so it's it's complete alignment with where we're wanting to go. Yes. So there's some, you know, keeping the identity of the school shielded here, but we did we get to know who A, B, C, and D are. Um, I I have that information. Okay. We could we could probably talk after if we wanted but yeah and and that's a great question especially because those schools A and B for example who are closing that gap we want to learn from them so that we can help that be scaled across all the schools in the in the district. Uh so for sure okay the the next chapter of the

061audit findings were that Alpine School District has schools that are implementing best practices. Specifically with this they talk about um the effectiveness of in many aspects. One of the things that they highlighted was the effectiveness of our uh admin mentoring program. The new admin support network I believe is is how it's been re rebranded. Right Scott? Um they highlighted this. They they indicated that they had seen in a school in Texas uh some great success from this type of program. And they indicated that in all the audits that they have done thus far that we were the first example they had seen of a dedicated uh new administrator program to to build the capacity of our administrators. And the recommendation was that we should continue to uh do the great things that we're doing and

062that other districts could learn from what we're doing as well, which is uh obviously very exciting. when they talk about the best practices they've seen. They they talked about PLC work and the amazing work that our high performing teachers and teams are doing. Uh this is one of their uh this is one of the points that they made that many of our ASD teachers have successfully successfully improved performance of low achieving students. So this bubble graph, I believe that's what they call this, uh demonstrates how we have teachers who are moving students from uh you know lower performing areas to to uh help them to become high achieving. And so that was pretty exciting for them to highlight the work that our teachers are doing in those amazing teacher teams. And throughout this uh throughout

063this process, they highlighted PLC's and the PLC's that are happening here. Uh referencing not only uh the great work that they're seeing here, but the attitudes that our team teacher teams have that they see great value in meeting together and working as teams. I think something that the board has mentioned, something that we've been intentionally focusing on is teams learning from teams within the district and then outside the district and the partnerships that we have. Scott and his team uh have been identifying those high-erforming teams and then sharing that best practice. The uh audit team noted that and recommend that it be continued because there are some and I think that's in alignment with what the Senate president commented on as well said we need to surface best practice and replicate that scale that throughout

064the organization. something that we intend to do and the audit team recommended that we continue to do that. And one of the great things that the audit team uh also indicated is that when they met with those teachers who were doing so well, they asked in those interviews, the teachers indicated that a collaborative professional learning community team was that prioritized student needs is extremely important and the secret to their success. So that was exciting to hear. Um the next chapter of the audit re uh indicated that our strategic plan follows best practices and should be considered by other LEAs. Uh they specifically explained to the subcommittee that our strategic plan is called the coherence map and they showed on the screen the coherence map in all of its glory. Um, very exciting to see that

065they uh they felt like our plan is uh in line with best practices and that they felt like others could benefit from learning about what uh what work we're doing uh as we prioritize the strategic plan and the really achievement for for our students. Uh this was some fun data to look at as as we talk about uh the coherence map. One of the one of the things that they did is and as they surveyed our our folks to find out about strategic planning for example uh 96% of our school administrators knew about the strategic plan. They knew what the coherence map were what they knew what the coherence map is and how it guides their school practice which is great. uh makes me wonder about those four where they've been hiding but uh 96%

066is pretty awesome. We have identified those they miss K12 excuse uh the the other thing you look at as you look at faculty and staff 57% of our school faculty and staffs indicate they know what strategic plan is and how it guides and believe that it guides district or school decisions. uh when you start to think of course 57 is not as good as 96 but then you start to consider this includes all faculty and staff custodians custodians yeah nutrition services uh and and so we were we were happy about that that 57% but also indicates a path in which we can continue to help people to understand and connect the work that they're doing to the the overall work and I really think the initiative the the genesis the focus of that strategic plan

067was to build capacity in administrators. So to have that high of a level of school level awareness of it was was a bonus because that was not the targeted audience for the coherence map and the strategic plan was really building coherence among our administrators with the idea that the next generation of that would take that to the school level classroom impact. So to see that already was was remarkable. Very good. Okay. Uh here they they started to align best practices from a best practice handbook that research that they use when they look at strategic planning and they just did a comparison to our work and where we are and uh how we have the elements in place. They they do recommend that they that we continue to bolster these uh components at the district level

068as well. they they feel like we're doing the work really well at the school level, but maybe some of the elements of the strategic plan haven't been developed as fully as they could at the district level, which is something that we acknowledge and are working towards. And it was intentionally done because we wanted to have it working at the level where the kids are initially, right? That's that's been the big focus. So, great finding there. Uh, one more comment on that, please. I think uh as board as we look at new districts coming into the into play in the next couple years. I think a finding from the research that we have seen um evidenced in our work is getting significant touch points around clarity in the vision. Uh our supervisors elementary and secondary our

069curriculum people going out and meeting with schools on a regular basis having the dialogue with them. where are you at with your goals? Being loose upon we'll meet you where you're at, but we'll continue to help you improve is a tribute to the supervisors to curriculum um individuals who just made that part of the routine to the learning leader team that that was always on the agenda. So I think once you have a compelling vision uh the aspiration is there you just need to amplify it and that's what the teams did to make it so we're getting 96% awareness the others said that it does guide what we do at the school and our improvement efforts at the school that was also very high I think going into new districts that as you develop as

070strategic plans and visions are developed make sure that you build in systems processes to oper operationalize that to get the discussion going of that. That to me is what turns the momentum of and why we had such high levels of engagement and support because of the supervisors curriculum, the leading leading learning team making this just part of our walk and talk on a regular basis with enough flexibility to allow school adaptation. It wasn't so tight that they couldn't we always talk about the banks of the river shape the banks but they control the flow of the river and uh it was that good combination of loose tight. Perfect. See, isn't this fun? This is great stuff. Okay. Uh the chap or fourth chapter of the audit uh indicated that Alpine School District has adequate internal

071controls but some can improve. And then they specifically talked about uh some of these elements. Uh we have some elementary schools that have incomplete fencing because they are on property that is shared municipality. Uh we have five schools where we have open park open sections on the school property that that are right next to school parks and uh there hasn't there needs to be some uh cooperation as we work to to remedy those situations, secure those properties. They also indicated that uh we need to uh improve our bullying policy which we're aware of and it's in process but we are working to bring that into alignment while they the thing I love here and I just have to say that they indicated that our practice is in alignment with state statute but we need to

072bring our policy into practice. So that was that was good and uh certainly something the policy committee will be working on. And they also indicate another location, one of our locations where additional school signage would be helpful in uh indicating that this is a school. And so that is already in works as well. The last chapter that they uh that they had in the audit finding was specific to administrative costs. Uh and in in this chapter they they did review our superintendent salary and where that falls. Uh indicating the seventh highest superintendent salary. um while we're the largest school district, which I thought was fun for them to point out. Uh also, uh helpful here is they indicated that we have the third largest per pupil cost for district administr administration. Third, or sorry, I

073apologize, I just said that backwards. Third lowest. Um when you divide it by the p by the per pupil rate. Any questions about any of that? Okay. Uh and then really they they use our audit as a platform to say uh there's a couple things that they need to financially work out. While it's consistently reported in Alpine School District, they found that other school districts are not as consistent in reporting those salaries in the two different locations where they have to uh indicate between OSA and USP. Okay, that in a nutshell is the summary of the audit. Now, in the 92 pages, the last I believe seven or eight, if you go to the very very back, you can see the 13 recommendations that they gave Alpine School District or well technically two went to

074USB. Um, but uh you can see those recommendations. You can see our individual response to each recommendation, what the next steps will be for each of those recommendations, and then who the point people are to uh make sure that we are in compliance with the audit findings. But I don't need to go into all that. He tell you how that right there as you go through those 92 pages of joy. Any questions? You want to talk about next step? And we're we're close to being done with this relationship. This relationship will last forever because we're so connected to we are good friends now. That's great. We do have one more um opportunity to respond. We will be going to the uh the education subcommittee. Uh we believe that's going to be June 15th, right? Uh

075to again the the audit will the audit team will present their findings and there will be follow-up questions from the education subcommittee with regards to the audit and the steps that we're taking and uh hopefully more great opportunity for President King and Superintendent Farnsworth to share uh and answer questions and really demonstrate the amazing work that's happening here in Alpine School District. Thanks to your leadership, to the leadership team, and all of the amazing people. I mean, I for me, this is this is a gratitude moment as you look at it and you see the tremendous findings here that really validate the incredible work of our awesome people. So, I'm I'm thrilled. Anything else? I have a question. Yes. I don't you guys can hear me or I didn't see your hand raise. I apologize.

076You're fine. I I was wondering from the auditor's perspective, did they share with you any key risks that maybe as a board we should be monitoring as the district transitions into three or did they uncover maybe any vulnerabilities or inconsistencies um that could you know complicate our district split? uh they did not highlight anything that I would say would be risks or complications. They did indicate in multiple times throughout the report in the full report that this is a practice that really should continue that the each district should for example the the work with PLC teams or the new administrator um support network. Some of those things that were that are yielding great results. They indicated as we go through this transition, each of the new districts needs to ensure that that focus continues because

077these are these are best practices. In the strategic planning as well, they talked about that these are best practices that we saw in Alpine School District that each of the new districts should make sure in some version or another that they continue. And the last question I had and and Mark can kind of maybe pipe in a little bit here, but as we were meeting as a board of directors for the USBA and we were talking about the auditors coming in. I think we were down the list, right, Mark? I mean, they they did like eight or nine before us. But my question is, and some of those schools didn't have as uh a pleasant experience and I was so happy to read the report that it was positive. Did they supply us with or

078ask us for an exit survey for them as they were leaving? maybe giving them feedback or um just curious of you know their practices because it wasn't too positive for some of those earlier ones and I'm so happy it was with our district. Yeah, we did we did not do an official survey. We did have follow-up conversation with the team at multiple times as we were ending and discussing the experience, how it went, what what things we felt were um positive, any any suggestions we had for the future as they interacted. But to be honest with you, our relationship was so positive with this group that I don't feel like we ever had a situation where there wasn't a negative negative taint on any of the relationship. Yeah. Uh board member Bon uh I believe

079uh we were aware of those concerns uh that those have been surfaced in state superintendent meetings. We had read the previous reports and there was just a very open honest conversation at first that uh we're aware of your reputation and what has gone on and we we don't believe that needs to be the case here. Uh we want to learn from this experience. We want to be open and transparent with you. We want to be a positive experience. We won't you no surprises. Let's be as we discover things. Let's have conversation about it. We won't hide anything from you. You don't hide anything from us. And let's just have regular meetings. Joel facilitated that very well. And we just just kept working through it and developing that relationship of trust, openness, and honesty and cander

080along the way. And uh it just resulted in a I think a positive outcome from for them. They asked that because this was a positive outcome that we in meetings um future meetings shared um that that is something that can be achieved and it was achieved by us. Um I have shared that with other superintendents. Um and in my letter response uh to the uh auditor general, I indicate uh just our appreciation for the way the audit team handled that and our gratitude for the findings that they came. So that that was kind of my Yeah, we just went in cards face up and uh addressed the uh elephant in the room and uh had a great experience. By the way, if you have if you have uh suggestions for them for future audits, I

081meet with them very regularly, so I'd be happy to pass those on. Um, in the past, the some of the things you you kind of mentioned that have been problematic are the report is a surprise, right? And uh they're looking it's a witch hunt. They're looking for, you know, just looking for gotchas, you know what I mean? And so I'm really happy to see that we didn't see much of that in this this audience. So we didn't see any of that and when they shared you've got some low performing you got see we're aware well well aware of that as part of our strategic plan. Every school needs to set a goal. So we um we acknowledge the challenges that we had and uh I think they felt felt trusted. I think the other thing

082that I've talked to them a lot about is they always see these low performing students and high performing students and they're like there's something wrong with your district. You should be able to bring those low performing students in. But I've shared that that's what everyone is trying to do. You know what I mean? It's a heavy lift. We're doing our best. And so you can't say just because there's a difference between low performing and high performing that there's a problem at the school. It's a hard problem. They're working on it. And Um, I think that has been helpful because I didn't see many of those statistics in this in this uh report. So, and I thought they did a great job putting us in context of other like districts and how we compare to say

083this isn't an isolated problem in Alpine School District. This is a challenge that public education faces. So uh they they were again publicly I would say they were exceptional to work with very professional um very open very transparent and and my comments to my colleagues have been as such that you this is not something to be feared it's something to be welcomed they are a strategic partner with you to help you improve. I'm just noticing on page 75 of the booklet that they do uh acknowledge that we are splitting into three and they they give us the data the achievement data for each of the three areas and kind of what the challenges we face. Absolutely. Uh just one last comment and I thought uh on page 20 it gives the responses from uh teachers

084on PLC teams. I thought this was maybe the most important thing in the whole in the whole uh audit because it's incredible that 90% of our uh teachers feel like uh effective PL that we have effective PLC teams and that student data guides instruction to say 90% feel like student data guides instruction is like incredible and uh I can remember when we first started PLC's more than half the students thought it was I mean teachers thought it was stupid and like uh a waste of their time and for 90% to feel it was either they agreed that it was very important or strongly agreed that is like a big accomplishment and uh I would say that maybe if districts moving forward if they could say if we can keep those PLC's going that may be

085the most effective thing we can do. Yeah. And I I thank you, Mark, for highlighting that. I I think really it is a celebration of professional learning, community work, and what collaboration, datadriven decision- making can do for a district and put you on that achievement uh heading northeast in that. And I think as you mentioned, some great momentum to continue to harness going into those new districts. I think they also provide the survey that they took at the back, which is helpful. Yep. Lots of great stuff. I told you 92 pages of fun. Enjoy. Enjoy. That's right. I think it's worth noting and I don't know if I said this or not, but of of the recommendations, the 13 recommendation, we agree with the recommendations. The recommendations that they have are in alignment with where

086we're going as a district, where the where the coherence map is taking us and the work that we believe in. And so we we are very happy. Any further questions, comments on it? I know that it's always uh you're not sure what what you're going to expect, but I appreciate you enjoy being up there and answering the questions and doing it with grace professionally. So, thank you. I have one more version that's just as good. But it's uh thank you for the board. Thank you for your priorities on student learning, on teacher capacity. um that that matters and you see it reflected in a very positive positive audit. Okay, President King, that is all we have. Okay, so we will end the meeting and reminder that we have our first public hearing at six o'clock

087today. Give me They're muted on the console. They shouldn't be. Yeah, we've been working all night. Yeah, but on your console here. Yeah, I think that's a little bit like that's it. We might run it over. Um, it is I think 601 602ish. You see the 602. We will now hold a public hearing to receive input from the public with respect to the proposed issuance by the local building authority of the district regarding these bonds. Any person wishing to express his or views on the issuance of the bonds or the facilities to be financed with the bonds can come forward. Now, we do have a signup sheet regarding this and I believe that we have three people who have signed up to comment. Um, the first individual will be John Gab. The second individual is

088Eden Davenport and the third individual is Molly Arington. Good evening. My name is John Gad. I've lived in I bought my home in Pleasant Grove 25 years ago, which means I've been paying profit tax school district for 25 years. Um I'm here to speak against the lease revenue bond for $238 million for a single high school and a single elementary school. This will be the 12th time that we voted to raise our property taxes seven years. That's rate increases. Now, in the August, October time frame this last year, you had a truth and taxation hearing where you raised our property tax rates. And in that time frame, you were talking about that, you know, sometime in March, we're going to do a lease revenue bond for about 86 million. That should be enough to get

089us over the hump to finish this new $175 million high school. Well, you've now tripled that from 86 million to 238 million. Now, I came to a meeting a few weeks ago and asked you why you did that. And your answer was, "Well, well, now we can. SB88 takes the $200 million cap off. We can do that." So, in essence, you're saying because we can now get away with it. We're going to do it. You didn't say we need the money because you don't. You don't need this money for one high school and one elementary school, but you're tripling it just because you can. Because you can get away with it, which is a really horrible reason to take out debt for the next 31 years. Debt that I'm going to be paying. and kids

090who aren't even born yet are going to be paying property taxes on this debt that you're going to decide on tonight. Now, I understand that SB 188, which some of you lobbied really heavily for, maybe requires you to do a lease revenue bond, but it doesn't say when you have to do it, and it doesn't say how much it has to be. So, your choice is to do it two and a half years before the district splits, so we all get to pay for it for two and a half years. And your choice is to triple the amount that you actually you probably don't even need that much, but you're tripling it because you can. Um, this hurts the the taxpayers in the district. This hurts seniors who live on fixed incomes. This this hurts

091people who are disabled who live on disability income. This hurts the moms and dads of the kids that you guys care about so much that you're educating because they can barely afford their houses now. How are they going to afford it when you jack up their taxes with this new bond? This hurts the teachers and the lunchladies and the janitors and all the staff that you employ because they can barely afford their houses right now. And how are they going to afford them when you jack up their taxes again 12 times in seven years? You guys are taxing us to death. It seems like you never saw a tax increase that you weren't all for. You waste so much money on so many different things and this bond really is not necessary. So please don't

092issue this bond. Please tap the brakes on this. Wait, um decrease the amount and wait until the last possible minute so that it's not being spread across the central and south districts to pay for this bond. Thank you. Hello, my name is Eden Davenport and I'm a resident of Saratoga Springs and I'm a mother of four children in the Alpine School District. My sophomore attends West Lake High School. I have also been out to Desert Sky and I can tell you that this bond is desperately needed and I'm speaking in favor of this bond. Um, you know, as someone who works with youth in our community, I have seen firsthand the negative implications that overcrowded schools have. I've seen it the difficulties that some of our children face making social connections because our schools are

093beyond max capacity. This bond is needed and it is needed now. I am grateful for the support of the Utah State Legislature in passing SB 188 and for the actions of this board to help reduce some of the educational disparities that exist within the district. I appreciate your vote of support for this bond. Thank you. Hi there, Molly Bington. Um, just wanted to say thank you for putting this on forward and as I have been out working in the schools as a substitute and also working with my nieces and nephews that are out this way. This is so needed and it so needs to happen yesterday and so I'm so grateful that it is and that it can work towards having our place having our kids have a place where they can truly learn rather

094than being wall to wall and not having the places and the equipment they need to learn. So I truly appreciate this and I thank you and um in favor thank you at 6:08. I think um public hearing is now closed. Um our next session starts at 6:15. So we're going to saunter until 6:15. is um 6:16 and we're going to call this meeting to order. We're going to start off by um having our pledge of pledge of allegiance which will be led by Cammy Harper and then our inspirational thought or reflection will be offered by Michelle Sorenson. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

095Good evening. I'm here with region 9 PTA tonight and um we have a little special section tonight where we get to honor our Utah State PTA award winners. Um my inspirational thought comes from the Mauy culture. The children in New Zealand are taught this proverb. I come not with my own strengths but with the but bring with me the gifts, talents and strengths of my family, tribe and ancestors. This reminds us all that our children are shaped and strengthened by those who came before us and those who walk beside them. In Alpine School District, we see that spirit come to life every day. During volunteer month, we especially se celebrate the over 10,000 region 9 PTA volunteers who form a tribe of dedication and heart across our schools. Their time, talents, and tireless efforts reflect

096the best of us in our communities, and they are united in a commitment to help every child succeed and thrive. Together, as families, educators, leaders, and volunteers, we strive for excellence that provides the opportunity for every student to be successful. Thank you. [Applause] PTA is such an important partner in helping us meet our mission in Alpine School District. Each year, the state recognizes outstanding individual contributions to our parent teacher organizations. We invite Kim Toppam, Michelle Sorenson, and Courtney Holmes, our region PTA9 leaders, to present the annual award winners. My name is Kim Topham. I've had the honor this year of representing region 9 as its director. And I just wanted to take the opportunity to quickly thank Superintendent Farnsworth and Eric Woodhouse and the board for the particularly strong relationship that exists between parents and

097educators in this district. We know that that is a choice that you make to foster that culture of collaboration and we look forward to finding more ways to further that. So, thank you for having us tonight. It's my opportunity to introduce Courtney Holmes. Courtney is not only the state awards specialist for the state of Utah, but she we are lucky to have her as our awards specialist in our region and she will be announcing these individuals tonight. Thank you, Kim. I am going to say this is the most exciting part of the evening. So, you guys are welcome. Um, so happy to be here and acknowledge our winners. And Dr. Farnsworth, I am going to stay on script starting right now. Good evening. Utah PTA sponsors an award competition each year to highlight the effort

098efforts of excellent administrators, teachers, staff, and volunteers across our state. We are delighted to have seven state award winners from region 9 Alpine School District this year. It's my pleasure to recognize these remarkable people who are making a meaningful difference in our schools and with our students. Well written, ladies. Um, let's start out with Todd Dawson from Lone Peak High School. He won the outstanding administrator award. Todd Dawson's Todd Dawson's leadership at Lone Peak High is rooted in a forward-thinking vision. He consistently seeks ways to improve the school and enhance the learning experiences for his students. When it comes to leadership that inspires, Principal Todd Dawson exemplifies excellence. His dedication to Lone Peak High School has profoundly impacted students, parents, and faculty alike. With unwavering enthusiasm and a genuine commitment to fostering community, Mr. Dawson

099embodies what it means to be a transformational leader in education. And for this sake of time, I'll ask that we hold our applause to the very, very end. And then we're going to give the most massive applause we've ever heard. Um, our next is uh an outstanding elementary educator by the name of Kirsten Bby from Lynen Elementary School. We welcome you up, Kirsten. Kirsten Bby is passionate about fourth grade subject material and genuinely cares about her student success. Her enthusiasm is contagious, inspiring students to be enthusiastic learners themselves. Kirsten has also created a powerful classroom culture based on principles of good character and good citizenship. Turn the page. She teaches her students that they are all a team who works together. She inspires students oh my eyes to believe in themselves and their abilities. She

100helps students discover their interests and passion. She motivates them to pursue their goals and their dreams. Kirsten has also taken her mastery of teaching remedial math to an even higher level with her early morning math sessions. Kirsten welcomes students not just from her own class, but from any fourth through sixth grade class into her classroom each morning. Kirsten takes the students who most teachers cannot handle because of behavioral issues and turns them into students who are excited to learn and come back the next day. Our next up is Paul Andress. He is from Oak Canyon Junior High and he has earned the outstanding secondary education award. At every level, we seek ways to help reach the children in our school or community with all of their various needs. Mr. Andress has been an example of

101that at Oak Canyon Junior High with the introduction of his new sports literature class. He started the class as a way to help students who may have previously struggled in this subject to find a connection that works for them. Parents and students alike see that Mr. Andress Andress is setting these kids up for a lifetime of learning and growth. Our next up is Eric Schultz from Tempenogus High. Is there anybody here from Tempenogus representing Eric Schultz? Okay. He couldn't be here today. Um but we'll just really quickly let you know about this amazing man. He won the engagement award. Uh he saw the underutilized school website and social media as an opportunity. He set up a five-year plan for increasing community engagement. partnering with a web design company started by a Tempanogas alumni. His plan

102included teaching the students to design, write, and publish content. Two years into his plan, the engagement on the website and social media channels has increased exponentially. This has a profound impact on the culture and engagement at the school, as well as teaching valuable skills to students involved in Mr. Schultz's program. Our next up is Mountain View High's Key and Win. He won the inclusivity award. He embodies the spirit of inclusivity for his outstanding efforts to foster inclusivity, celebrate diversity, and create meaningful cultural connections within the school community. As a Spanish teacher and the adviser for the Latinos and action program, Katon has played a pivotal role in bringing two languages and cultures, making him a key advocate for inclusivity at Mount View. He has empowered students to embrace their cultural identities and become leaders within

103their school. You guys are doing so good. Okay, next up we have Allison Madson from Westmore Elementary. Um Allison is has earned the development award. She has been key in starting the winter break mills initiative at Westmore Elementary. Operating in a community where approximately 70% of students qualify for free and reduced meals. The winter break me mills initiative is more than just a food distribution program. It is a lifeline for families during the extended winter break. Through this program, Westmore Elementary demonstrates its role as a true community school dedicated to addressing all aspects of student learning and well-being. And finally, we have Adonna Smith at Mount Mahogany Elementary. She won the Spirit of PTA award. Her involvement with the PTA over the years has spanned many roles from carnival organizer, fundraising chair, communications designer, treasurer,

104and her current role as Mount Mahogany Elementary PTA president. In every role she takes on, Adonna demonstrates an unwavering commitment to the success of our students, teachers, and the entire school community. She is always willing to lend a hand, share her expertise, and give her time to ensure that every PTA event is a success. Thank you so much um to each one of you, and I am so proud to present to our distinguished board um you and your amazing contributions. Let's give them a big old round of applause. Okay. [Applause] And could we have our principles and PTA presidents stand up so that we can give you a hand as well? Principles and PTA presidents, come on up to a picture. Let's get you in a picture. Principles and PTA presidents, come on up. We'll

105take a quick picture. It's going to be This is a great photo. Here we go. [Applause] Sorry. Winners, will you please come shake hands with the board? Forgot to announce that. want to thank everybody who is here for um recognitions. It's totally appropriate if you want to leave now. That was the most exciting part of the meeting. That was legit. Um it is now time for community comments. We now have up to 30 minutes set aside for public comment. This opportunity is allocated for patrons living within the Alpine School District boundary. A 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. Is the thing out again? Oh my gosh. [Music] Okay, I am okay.

106This is awkward. Uh, 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 lobby will also direct you to the form. As you are called up, please introduce yourself by stating your name. 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. Personnel issues are not appropriate discussion items for an open meeting environment. If you have a personnel concern, please contact a member of administration or put your concerns in writing and address it to the board of education. We have one individual who has signed up for public comment. Um, John

107Gad. Good evening. My name is John Gad. I live in Pleasant Grove. Tonight I want to talk about um a DEI scholarship that Alpine School District's been offering since 2020. Um it's been offering this with in connection with the Alpine School District Foundation, which Alpine School District controls, and it openly discriminates against straight, white, and Asian students, which violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, violates various titles of the Civil Rights Act, and violates Utah's 2024 law banning DEI in public education. Well, how do we know the scholarship is discriminatory? Because right on the website at different times, it said, "Preference may be given to students from underrepresented populations, including LGBTQ plus, black, African-American, Hispanic, native, or indigenous Polynesian Pacific Islander." By stating that a preference may be given

108to students of most major races besides white and Asian, it is clear that white and Asian students will be discriminated against in the awarding of the scholarship. And by listing a preference that a preference will be given to LGBTQ plus students, it is clear that straight students will be discriminated against in the awarding of the scholarship. Where did the scholarship come from? Although the district tried to keep it a secret in response to a public records request, I have the original contractor, a contract between the secret donor who's listed on the contract as Julie King, donor, Alpine School District board member, and ASD. That's right. The current president of the school board is the secret donor behind this discriminatory scholarship. But it is also clear that the funding for this for the administration of this

109scholarship comes from taxpayer money paid to ASD. Your your dollars and my dollars. So what's the big deal? Didn't ASD stop offering this discriminatory scholarship a few weeks ago? Yes. The website is now down, but it is clear that this discriminatory scholarship is not going away. Again, in response to a public records request, I have a text conversation between the secret donor, presumably board president Julie King, and Alpine School District. In this text conversation, on February 25th, 2025, the secret donor, again, presumably Julie King, instructs ASD as follows. Yank the scholar, the quote, yank the scholarship for this year. Rename it aspiring and get rid of the inclusive unquote. Because there is no mention in this text letter of removing the discriminatory aspects of the scholarship, it is clear from this text conversation that the

110plan is to yank the scholarship for this year but offer the same discriminatory scholarship next year but disguise it as not being discriminatory by dropping the word inclusive from the title of the scholarship. Shame on this school board for offering a discriminatory scholarship that discriminates against students based on the color of their skin and based on being straight. The only race that this school board should be concerned with is the human race and it should treat every single student in the school district equally as required by the US Constitution. Point of order. By having this discriminatory scholar, it's my turn. By having this discriminatory scholarship, it's it's com you're setting a horrible example for the students in your district and you're discriminating in a horrible way. I encourage you to back next year as you

111promised to do. Thank you. Okay. Okay, next on the agenda, uh, approval of minutes. Dr. Farnsworth. Yes, you've received your minutes and we recommend that they be approved. I move. So, I'll entertain a motion. I move that we approve the minutes. Second. Okay. We have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board me board member Peterson. Do we have any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. And that approve uh that's passes unanimously. Dr. Farnsworth. Yes. You've received your claims for the month and I recommend you accept the claims. Okay. I'll entertain a motion. I move that we accept the claims. Second the motion. Okay. With a motion by board member Baitman and a second by board member Clement. Do we have any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor,

112please say I. I. I. Okay. Next. Routine business. Superintendent. Yes, you've received uh the routine business which includes a budget summary, Alpine Foundation board summary, personnel hiring releases, school land trust amendments, and the elevate plan from Mountain View High School. I recommend that you approve the routine business. I motion we approve the routine business. Okay, we have a motion by board member Peterson. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, second by board member Wilson. Um any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Action items. Superintendent. Thank you, President King. Uh we'll begin with the uh first two items. They are uh we'll invite Eric Woodhouse to come forward to answer any questions that he has. We can move the mic over to the table. Derek Farns

113as well. Uh both of them work on our operations team. We have two areas that we would like to publicly declare our intention to uh adjust some boundaries. The first action item is our in to initiate the communication to patrons regarding our intent to change the middle and high school boundaries for the wildflower development in Saratoga Springs. And we recommend that the board give approval to the staff to begin that process. Any questions? Um I don't I don't think so. So basically just to clarify for the public this is not us declaring what the boundaries will be will be. We are saying we are opening a boundary study. We will hold the required um public hearings at the district office. So this is basically just starting the timeline. Correct. That's correct. Okay. So, um, do

114we have a motion to initiate the communication of intent to change the middle and high school boundaries for the wildflower development in Saratoga Springs? I move to I move to initiate the the communications and intent to change the middle school and high school boundaries for the wildflower development in Saratoga Springs. Do we have a second? Okay. So, we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Baitman. Um any discussion? I just want to say that I I appreciate being proactive and looking at areas in high growth and making boundary changes um for the most part before students are in seats so that we can accommodate them without having to transition them through multiple schools. Any other discussion? Okay, seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. Any Okay, seeing

115none, that passes unanimously. Okay. Uh, Eric, stay seated. We have one more action item that involves you. Our next I just knew Derek was going to handle it. So, okay. Our next action item is the Inest development in Lehi. We want to also begin uh the process of changing those boundaries. So our action items to initiate the communication of intent to change the school boundaries for the inverous development in Lehi. We recommend your approval of that action item. I move that we initiate the communication of intent to change the schoolboard boundaries for the immers development in Lehi. Second the motion. Um so for the public, this only affects the areas of Emeris that do not currently have students and houses. those in the development that are already in Belmont will remain in that boundary. And

116I'd just like to make a side comment that these are not the only areas in the district that are growing. Um my area also has a very uh active growth area in uh the city of Vineyard. And I just wanted to acknowledge that we are aware of the pressures that are on trailside and vineyard elementaryaries, but we have made the determination that we do not want to move students multiple times and the potential exists that that would happen if we made an adjustment. Now, so we are making physical um facilities adjustments rather than a a boundary change. So anyway, that's something I'd like the public to be aware of. Thank you, board member Wilson. In conjunction with that, I think we should clarify that we do not anticipate if boundary changes are made in these

117two areas, it would trigger another boundary change after the reconfiguration. We believe these will hold still through that reconfiguration process. I need to restate my motion or are we clear on what we're voting on right now? actually had a point of clarification. I wanted to ask when we are saying to change school boundaries, are we discussing all three levels, elementary and middle school and secondary? Okay. So, we have a motion by board member Baitman and a second by board member Clement uh to initiate the communication of intent to change the school boundaries for the Inverous development in Lehi. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Sorry, I was waiting for the lag for Sarah and then Sorry, it I I did and it didn't un it didn't unmute. Sorry. I Thanks, Sarah. Um,

118also before we go into the next action item, superintendent. Um, there is also a signup sheet if you want to comment about the lease revenue bond in the board in the ASD board meeting versus Nope, I said that wrong. Did I say that wrong? If they Yeah, if you wanna if you want to comment about the lease revenue bond, there's an additional sign up that Dr. Perkins has. See doc Dr. Perkins with his lovely clipboard. If you want an opportunity to sign up, now is your time to do that. Okay. Sorry, I just had to insert that because I forgot that earlier. Um action item number three, Dr. Dr. Farnsworth. Yes, we have resolution 2025-00002-1. This is an amendment to our previous resolution. Uh the resolution 2025-00002, the land that we need to purchase for

119the elementary school uh has expanded due to some consideration of roads and infrastructure. So we're bringing this resolution back to the board recommending your approval of the expansion of the number of acres in that purchase. Thank you, Dr. Farnsworth. Okay. So, uh, do we have a motion regarding resolution 2025-00002-1? I move that we approve resolution 2025-2000, I'm sorry, 002-1, amending resolution 2025-002, the purchase of 13 acres 13.29 acres in Eagle Mountain. And I will second that motion. Um, any discussion? Okay, seeing none, all in favor of resolution 2025- 0002-1 amending resolution 2025-002, the purchase of 13.29 acres in Eagle Mountain. Please say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that appears to pass unanimously. Dr. Farnsworth. Yes. Action item number four is resolution 2025-00007. It's amending of the resolution 2-23-00007. That is the purchase of

12070.15 acres in Saratoga Springs. A similar situation as we have finalized that piece taking into account the infrastructure, the needs for roads. That's an expansion of that acreage for that high school site. And we recommend your approval of that resolution. Okay. Do we have a motion? I move that we adopt resolution 2025-00007 amending resolution 2023-00007 purchase of 70.15 acres in Saratoga Springs. Okay. And I will second the motion. Um any discussion? I just want to bring up that these are longtime budgeted items. they've been uh planned and on our you know on our budget items for a long time and we are just finally acting upon that comment for the public. Uh as we develop a school in a new area that does not have roads, again, we end up having to allocate part of

121the acreage for a purchase for roads and for mitigation of uh slope in that on that site. And so as you get the site plan that is more refined and ready to start on building, then you sometimes need to adjust the amount of acreage that's needed so you can account for those roads and trails and uh the grade in the property. So that's kind of the reason for these things. Okay. So with a motion by Oh, sorry. So one thing on this just so we have it right. The resolution is 2025-00007, but the old one was 17. So 2023-17. So that was done in like October of 2023. Um board member Lincoln, do we need to restate that or do you feel like you can accept that change? I can accept that change. And I

122was the sec I was the second. So I'll accept the change as well. Okay. So, uh, the motion is to pass resolution 2025-007 amending resolution 2023-017, the purchase of 70.15 acres in Saratoga Springs. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Dr. Farnsworth. Yes. The last action item here is resolution 2025-00008 to consider a resolution authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds by the local building authority of the district and we recommend that you adopt that resolution. Okay. So we will consider a resolution authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds by the local building authority of the district. I move that we accept resolution 2025-00008 authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds by the local building authority of the district. Does it matter if we say adopt or accept?

123I move that we adopt resolution 2025-00008 authoring the issuance of the lease revenue bond by the local building authority of the district. Um do we have a second? Okay we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Baitman. Any discussion? Hey. Oh, sorry. I just want to point out that the nature of a lease revenue bond is that it is um because of the financial health and strength of the entity, it is like a self bond, meaning that we're not raising taxes with this LRB bond. Um and in addition um the prior um discussions of the LRB were a different configuration of uh financing these two schools. The amount needed to do to uh build these schools never changed. Um it's just the um how it's funded uh that that

124has changed. Thank you. Okay. So, we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Baitman. Um, all in favor of adopting the resolution authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds by the local building authority of the district, please say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Okay, so we now need to convene as the board of trustees. Am I doing this right? No, we have to adjurnn. Okay. So, we now need to adjourn to the local building authority. I move that we adjourn to form our local building authority. Okay. Do we have a second? Second the motion. Okay. We have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Clement. Um all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously.

125Okay. So, we now need to open the public hearing. This is super confusing. So, if you guys are confused, same. So, okay. So, now we have to move into a public hearing. So, we will now hold a public hearing to receive input from the public with respect. Am I good? Okay. To the proposed issuance by the local building authority of the district of lease revenue bonds. Any person wishing to express his or her views on the issuance of the bonds or the facilities to be financed with the bonds can come forward. Now, did we have anyone sign up? Dr. Perkins. Okay. Um, the public hearing is now closed. Wait a second. We have to do the action item first, right? The hearing can close. Sorry. Okay. So, now we're going to consider a resolution authorizing

126the issuance of lease revenue bonds by the authority. Do we have a motion? I move to accept um the LBA resolution 2025-00001 consideration of a resolution authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds by the authority. Are you okay if we say adopt? I did say accept. I'm sorry. Let me try again. I move that we adopt the LBA resolution 2025-00001 consider a resolution authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds by the authority. Do we have a second? Okay, so we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Baitman. Any discussion? Okay. Oh, sorry. I just want to say I both adopt and accept and I think it's a great idea. I just there are attorneys paying attention. Okay. So, we have a mo a motion a motion. Yep. A motion

127to adopt the resolution authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Now we need to reconvene as the board of educ Oh, sorry. We have to adjourn to reconvene the ASD board meeting. So I I move that we adjourn from the local building authority and reconvene as the ASD board meeting. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have a motion by board member Clement and a second by board member Baitman. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? That passes unanimously. And now we're back to our regularly scheduled program. That was rough. Okay. Okay. So next up um we have our discussion action items. Um Superintendent Farnsworth. Thank you. We will invite our legal counsel to come

128forward. We have two policies that we want to discuss and if the board feels uh comfortable with that discussion, ready to move forward, we would recommend that uh we approve those changes in policy. The first one is policy 4108 salary supplement for highly needed educators. Appreciate our chief legal counsel Craig Brinkerhoff and his work with policy committee. Thank you, superintendent. This is a new policy. Um, it was enacted through legislation about a year ago and it basically allows for seller supplements to highly needed educators in specific areas of education that are either hard to find or hard to um hard to hire um where there's a need basically. And uh this this policy goes through and talks about who those educators are, what subjects they're covering and teaching in and also a little bit about

129the process of how they would qualify for that uh salary supplement. So this is a discussion action item. We can choose to discuss or if someone wants to make a motion, we can um take action on this tonight. Not seeing any discussion. So I'm going to move to adopt policy 4108 the salary supplement for highly needed educators or shine. Second. Okay. So we have a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Wilson. Any discussion? Yeah. This um policy is based off of some good legislation and this is a great policy. Um I like the ability to make adjustments at a local level. So I recommend everybody approving it. Okay. So with a motion by board member Lincoln and a second by board member Wilson, all in favor of approving policy 4108,

130salary supplement for highly needed educators, please say I. I. I any opposed? Okay, seeing none, that passes unanimously. Um, Superintendent Farnsworth. Thank you. Next policy is policy 4285 dues deduction and we recommend as board is comfortable that we retire that policy from our set of policies. council. Yeah, just to clarify a little bit about this policy. You saw it last board meeting and we held on it um because of the referendum to legislation. Uh I've since again spoken with our um employee association. They've decided that they're going to go a different direction with their dues collection. And so they have uh asked that we go ahead and and retire this policy regardless of the referendum. So that's why we're proposing it to you for retirement today. I move that we uh adopt policy 4285 dues

131deduction. Did you retire that we retire policy 4285? Do we have a second? I second a motion. Okay. So we have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Clement. Any discussion? Okay. Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I I Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Uh, Superintendent Farnsworth. Yes, I would invite our executive director of human resources to come forward, Cammy Anne Harper. Appreciate uh her work and the work that's been done with those who uh work to support our employees in their uh benefit package for this next year. She has some information uh we can review. We shared earlier with the board what that uh compensation package looks like for our certified employees for our classified employees. It is similar. The state has done different compensation um

132with respect to classified versus certified. So we're honoring that, extending that to those who are not covered. uh and then adding an additional COLA uh cost of living allowance to those classifications of employees as well as no increase in insurance costs. We're also Jason I believe honoring the 32 hours of summer work that's able to be done uh through legislative support and uh what am I forgetting in that package? the tier 2 retirement into uh into their 401k. This is part of the budget that we reviewed in study session and we would recommend that the board um approve this benefit package for our employees. We appreciate the great working relationship we have with them. We understand there is some state statute and referendum associated with collective bargaining. Uh as we committed earlier on behalf of

133the board, we have a great working relationship with them and we'll continue to confer with them u regardless of the changes in the law. Um we will comply with the law, but we will maintain that uh relationship of doing all we can as a board and as a senior leadership team to honor and compensate our employees. as well. Alpine is one of the leaders in the state in terms of employee compensation. Uh we're proud of that. That enables us to attract wonderful employees and we want to continue to be able to do that especially as we go into new school district. So Cammy, I'll allow you to add any additional comments you wish to regarding that process or the outcome. Do we want to go into any specifics? We want to go into specifics as

134you deem appropriate. Okay. Well, we do want to thank um once again our employee associations. We did have some great meetings with them um and appreciate um their advocacy on behalf of our employees. Both the new word now for classified is employee sorry education support professionals. So, we're trying to get used to calling them that. Um and then our certified. So, we want to thank them. Um we can get into specifics if if that's okay. say there was a large um increase in insurance costs, not as much as we had last year. So, we're very pleased with the impact that our insurance changes we made last year um have had on our utilization. So, um Alpine School District will be covering that cost so that there will not be any change to our employee insurance.

135Um for certified um we are 2.5% cola is what we're recommending with the money that they're getting from the legislature that also that will take them above the average salary will be above 4% increase um also step and lanes and um the money into their tier 2 sorry for tier 2 employees um into their 401k it will be 0405% is what will be contribut contributing and then the classified or ESP or education support professionals um because they are getting um less money from the legislature and they it's not ongoing they have a larger cola so it's a 3% with that cola in addition to the money they're getting from the legislature that will be over a 4% salary increase as well um they will be getting the tier 2 money into their 401k from the

136district. We'll be covering their insurance. We'll also be making some job movement um on the job study. I don't have the details of which positions. I apologize. That happened at the end of the day today. So, I don't have that. Um and then Stephen Lane and there was one other thing I'm missing uncertified that I just forgot what it was. But I think those are the the general and then we will have some policies um that we'll be making some changes to. We're just going through the final revisions with the board approval on those. But really the big highlight from the policies is that we are um by state statute required to have our maternity and paternity leave. It can't be less than what state employees get. And so now our employees that qualify for

137benefits will be getting three weeks of maternity leave. that doesn't count against sick leave. And then they'll also be getting people who qualify for parental leave will be getting three weeks of that also. So we'll send more details out as that comes available. Briefly mentioned the 32 hours as well. Oh yes. I don't know if that was the other benefit. That was probably it. So, in the past, based on the the legislature gives us a certain amount of money and based off of what our employees are making, we um have to divide that up and we haven't been able to fully fund the 32 hours since the first year that it it was announced. And now, because the legislature has given us additional funding, um we will be able to do the 32 hours. And

138I do remember the other thing for um classified or sorry ESP and certified there were some jobs that were not included um for by the legislature to give them that extra money the extra ESA. So for classified um all of the district level employees unless they were a bus driver. So um nutrition service workers physical facilities all of those employees were not covered in this extra thousand dollar. So, Alpine School District is going to cover that $1,000 for those employees. And then there are three classifications of employees in certified. Um, our occupational therapists, our physical therapists, and our speech language technologists, tech te tech, sorry. Um, and we are covering the um extra money that the legislature is giving to everyone else. We're covering it for them. Just to clarify, bus drivers were covered by

139the state. Yes. So, we're covering those that were not covered by were not covered by the state. Yes. Thank you. A lot of information to keep track of and just have off the cuff. So, well done. Okay. So, um for the FY26 employee benefit package, um we can have a discussion or a motion. I have a question or a statement. I just wanted to clarify that as you reached out to different associations, if there were multiple associations in that same um space that they were all given opportunity to comment. Yes, the the ones we're aware of, I reached out to. Thank you. I have a question. It's all right. Um is there anything timesensitive about our actions tonight? Giving peace of mind to our employees. they are feeling there is a lot of uncertainty. There's

140uncertainty with um collective bargaining and the referendum. There's uncertainty with district split. There is a lot of uncertainty and if we could get approval tonight and be able to share details tomorrow, um we believe that it would go a long way in helping to settle our employees. Can you tell me the significance of the May 7th preference deadline? So the May 7th and I may need some help from someone, but if my understanding of the bill is correct, you needed we need to have a um you need to have a contract in place before the bill goes into effect on May 7th in order to be able to have a contract. We are we still don't know what the format of this agreement is going to look like. So that's why we're doing it this

141way, which is a little bit out of the ordinary. So I would like to move that we approve, accept, and adopt FY26 employee benefit package. I appreciate that you covered all your bases there, Mark. Um, do we have a second? Second. Okay, so we have a motion by board member Clement and a second by board member Wilson. Any discussion clarify one other point for our administrators that is a four 4% thank you cola yes honoring step and lane and all the other benefits that were thank you sorry I have another question that I forgot to ask earlier um if there is any change in um educators compensation based on the ruling last Friday of the Utah fits all scholarship not being constitutional and where there had been money tied to that, would we then have

142the opportunity to revisit this? Yes, we would. If that funding is pulled by the state, then of of course we would need to go back and and make uh compensating adjustments in the uh the benefit package. Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. I. I any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Superintendent Farnsworth. [Applause] Sorry, we don't do that. I need someone to come yell at me. you have received the membership report uh in your board documents and I would recommend that you take a look at that uh the trends that we have been seeing throughout the year continue. Uh we will have one more of these at the end well two more of these uh include the year and then we'll be done with membership reports for a season.

143But uh you have received that and I'm happy to entertain any questions you have regarding that. Okay. So, I think we're all good with that. Uh, it's now time for board member and superintendent report and information items. So, um, anyone like to share? We'd like to open the floor. I'm just so excited that I I was going to jump in, but Joan, I'll go after you. that I did want to accept and adopt um the high school in Saratoga Springs that is in my area and we are so grateful to begin that process. We've waited for a very long time like that for that. I also had a very unique opportunity to be a part of the prom for ATC um at Tech East, A Techch West, Dan Peterson and Horizon. This event is easily

144in one of my top 20 best days of my life. The joy and excitement that filled the air brought tears and smiles to all present. Um, and I'm just going to go ahead and turn time over to the good member, board member Baitman, to um share her thoughts and list the thank yous. It is one of the best nights ever. Um, wanted to thank a few people. Um, you know, in education, we don't quite have the budget that we would love for some of the things that we do. And so just wanted to say thank you to some folks who made this night possible. Um Carson Cook and the Lehigh High School student council, specifically Flossy, Danica, Rachel, Haley, Mace, Desi, Jacob, Michael, Grace, Anna, and Katon. They came and put several hours in after

145school. Um we hung up several hundred stars, Hollywood stars for our students. Um and it was a very cool um thing for them to walk into. Also, Alicia with our photo booth comes and gives her time. And then Shauna and Lacy, our photographers. Um, it is I don't know how to articulate this well. Um, it it is a really very amazing night. Um, also thank you to our communications team who will not love this, but Karen Ashman in East came uh and they were facilitating with KSL did a story on one of our students and anytime that we can share a student's journey um is a good day in my book. And so KSL was able to follow her um from getting ready and her day picking her up, coming to the prom, and then

146she was crowned duchess, I believe. Um and it is it anyways, it's the best thing ever. Just trust. And so we're just very appreciative to all the people who come together to make it happen. Um particularly because um our these students are in specialty schools and so oh my good night. And please crumble. Thank you to David Stevenson, Rhonda Bramley, and crew who come. I think that's the first thing the kids ask about every year is crumble coming again and they come with hundreds of crumble cookies. Um and they serve the kids and that is a highlight of their day. So we are just really really appreciative to everybody who shows up um donates time and goods and talents and things. It's really um a remarkable night. Board member I just had a report on

147um a committee assignment. Um the human sexuality committee met last week and we discussed some changes um because of the HB281 that's mainly going to affect some of our health curriculum. They added some of the legislation. It just added um success the success sequence. Um basically the success sequence is that it's we are to be teaching in our health classes um things that should be done in sequential order like um obtaining an education uh obtaining a job and getting married before having kids and that if we do these things in sequential order we see that people are able to pull themselves out of poverty easier. So that is part of HB281 and that will probably you'll probably be seeing some changes in our health 2 classes um in unit six and that will be added.

148And so, um, one of the things that we also did discuss that I tried to think of any other committee that we all attend that has parents on that particular committee or any committee. And I think the um, human sexuality committee is one of the only ones that we have parents that are that participate and help approve things that we discuss there. And as we were discussing last week, we do have parents there that represent the central part of the district as well as the south part of the district, but not necessarily a parent in the west. And because we have to approve curriculum uh yearly, uh it would be great um to have someone that would possibly represent the West area so we could have um just a continued support but also continue um

149with parents and kind of as we go in and we segue into a three-way district, we have that already set up and so we don't have to worry about that. But if there is uh parents and you board members know of parents, specifically those of you out west, Julie and Joy Lynn, that would be um willing to serve on the human sexuality committee. Um you know, you two can talk to me later about that, but uh we're we're happy to meet and approve some of those things. And so there's some exciting things with this particular bill and I'm very very supportive of uh the success part of the bill, the success um uh sequence. I feel like that's an important part to teach our kids and we had some great discussion on that. So that's

150just a report from my committee. I forgot a few people. I'm so sorry. Uh so back to prom. uh Jake and Brent who are two of the custodians at Lehigh High School um who were there for many hours and so helpful from after school all the way through the night. Um there's a lot of people coming through there and they just did absolutely everything that we needed. And then I also wish to sing the praises of Phil Clark. I really should write him a rise nomination. Um my favorite very favorite thing about this job is the community and when people come together for for kids. And when I first called Phil and said, "Hey, can we do this at your school?" We had kind of outgrown our previous space. And he was like, "Absolutely. let's

151figure out what you need. Um, and was not supposed to spend his whole afternoon and early evening helping to get things set up. Uh, and he did. And while I'm singing his praises, I will also just say he is just one of our best administrators and I love watching him whether it's getting a kid in the class in the hall who needs to get to class on time or stopping to talk with someone who's just kind of having a rough day. He is truly extraordinary and I appreciate that his efforts go reach all of our students. So, thank you to him. I just wanted to say a big thank you to all those who uh showed up for a community meeting in my area uh that um board member Peterson and I sponsored at Tempenogus

152High School. We had it in the little theater and it turns out it was too little because it was pretty much standing room only. Um they our community is really interested in doing everything we can to uh form a new vibrant and vital uh healthy school district. And I just appreciate all the all those uh who showed up and especially to the superintendent and Farnsworth and our business administrator Jason Sunberg who gave us some very important and vital information that we need to as we make adjustments in our district. Thank you. Emily, you were there too. Yeah, I thought it was really great. People had good questions, made good comments, and I really appreciate um Dr. Farnsworth and Jason uh for coming and putting forth all that work. It was really great. So, I think

153we've got some really good opportunities. I'm excited about the prospects. I just make one comment, Julie. Uh I just uh am looking out here at our association leaders. We appreciate you being here in our board meeting and we appreciate the way you represent teachers and uh staff and all those who make things work for our students. Um, I almost tear up when I think about the service that we get from our teachers, administrators, a bus driver who also runs a uh uh a club for uh students that are having trouble, janitors who mentor students. I just love the Alpine family and the way we all come together because we care about kids. I don't know how to express it, but as we're trying to I hope you realize as a board that we are just

154trying to provide compensation. We know it's not enough, but we're doing our very best. I hope that you'll also realize how much we care about you and appreciate the service from all of our teachers and staff and and those who uh really help to uh build the next generation of our of our public. So, thank you so much for being here. Just echo Mark's comments and on behalf of my team, the staff, I appreciate the unanimous vote of the board to support our employees. I think this is a testament to your concern and care for the employees of Alpine School District and uh thank you for taking that step that was not required but is a great show of faith and support for our employees which I have consistently seen throughout this transition period of

155reconfiguration a consistent commitment by the board to take care of our employees. So thank you very much for that. Um, Superintendent Farnsworth and I were given the um, opportunity to go meet with the legislative leadership. Um, generally that is not an activity I look forward to. Um, but we underwent a um, almost a year-long process of going through an audit with Alpine School District. Um I have watched several other uh leas go through those and they're generally pretty painful and um I think it is very clear that we had the best experience an LEA has ever had in front of um you know an OLAG report ever. And I will say one of the things that was communicated to us by legislative leadership was how much they were appreciative of teachers and we said that

156we would share that message. So, I want to make sure I go on public record to say we're incredibly grateful for everyone in Alpine School District. Um, every role that gets played makes an impact on students and we are grateful for everyone who shows up every day committed committed to our students and to our community. So, thank you for that. Um, we do have need for a closed session. So, um, we need to take a roll call vote. Um, I'll entertain a motion for us to move into close session. I move that we move into close session for purposes of litigation, personnel, etc., etc. Okay. Do we have a second? Okay, we have a motion by board member Wilson and a second by board member Baitman. Um, board member Wilson, if we could start with

157you. If you're in favor, please say I. If you're opposed, please say name. Board member Wilson, I. Board member Lincoln, I. Board member Clement, I. Board member Baitman, I. Board member King I. Board member Peterson I. Board member Bon I. Okay, that passes unanimously. We are now moving into close session. Thank you all for being here.