June 11th, 2024 Alpine School District Board Meeting

001e e e first three the general the death in the capital Outlet are the major funds the other funds within that downst activity are the non- major but they're also called special Revenue funds in particular the Student Activity is the fund that runs the the revenues and expenses that go through the schools all right turn over to page 13 we still in the executive Cemetery okay the one thing I really like about the executive summary is it has a lot of good information that is summarized and three of those summaries we're going to go over right now it's a summary of revenues expenditures and fund balances so it's just there are some schedules in here that give a quick overview for each fund and where they stand so on page 13 is the summary of

002revenues in particular you can see that it shows the actual for 21 22 23 the final for 24 and the budgeted amounts for 20 FY 25 and then that last section shows a difference between 24 and 25 a section of Blue by amount and also percent so something to note if you look at the general line for the general fund you can see that between 24 and 25 there's a 15.4 budgeted increase in revenues a lot of that is due to property tax increase um wpu increase other local revenues which include um building driver ed summer school things like that um it also within that number also includes a decrease of federal programs um unfortunately we got and you'll hear about this a few times today and we got last minute notification of Title One

003funds being cut by 5.5 million and that'll come up a few times just during this conversation but that is that's net inside the next number is The Debt Service revenues now we know Debt Service funds are just used to pay off pay towards the Geo bonds so you're like well we're paying down our Geo bonds then why is there an increase in that the I just want to point that out because the increase is showing because for FY 24 amounts those XY 24 amounts include the three increment cut in the tax rate that we had last year but the FY 25 we didn't include that in the budget an increment decrease for the FY 25 amounts so that's and the three increment wasn't how it naturally came down it's what at during trth and Taxation

004last year we said we have enough fund balance here to be able to reduce it bring in less Revenue than we need expenses to pull down fund balance from about 40 40 million to like 29 like 42 to 29 million so that three increments it came down more than that just naturally on what we owe what we need to pay but also an additional three to be able to offset the increase okay if you turn over to page 14 it's a summary of expenditures if you have any questions please ask I just want to highlight a few things on here again the general The Debt Service and the capital Outlet the general shows an increase of 15.4 in expenditures big majority of that is the group Insurance increase the step lanes and cola that was

005determined through negotiations it also includes a Nas of about 8 million in salaries um that is due to the expiration of Co funds eser um some Title One adjustments and the tricky part is with trust L and tssa we don't have those all those plans in yet so those are complete budgeted amounts um until we know and receive the plans from the principles on where they want to allocate those those funds and what to use them for we're not sure if they're using on salaries or something else so that's that's just something that we we're trying to budget for but it's difficult to receive those PL um Again The Debt Service um expenditures will go down just because we're paying off that debt also the capital outlay shows 119.4 million decrease due to the completion

006of pending projects like Desert Sky Elementary that got done and also a large portion of the Eco Mountain Middle School all right let's go over to page 16 for the fund balances again this summary the general line we're showing at 3.6 um decre decrease in the fund balance for the general fund and that again you could um attribute to the the group insurance but also that is really the the support of the title one cut and trying to help out and make ends meet for title one just do the late information that we got on that $5.5 million cut and then also I wanted to kind of note the nutritions uh first of all the capital outlay is showing a$ 20.8 million increase the 20 million is what we call a placeholder because of the

007budget process and the capital projects that were approved through the budget process we have preloaded 20 million of those projects in FY 24 in an effort to allow projects to start through the summer so whatever spent in 24 will those amounts will be adjusted for FY 25 as well but that's just a placeholder for you also see nutrition services a decrease that's a plan decrease in fund balances because there is a Federal Regulation that the fund balance or the cash um resource for nutrition services needs to be limited to 3 months of average expenditures so we're guessing average expenditures about 3 or 4 million a month so it should be down to about 12ish and so Buffy and nutrition services are very aware that that fund balance needs to be brought down and so we're

008aware and that's why we're we're showing that fund balance decrease let's go ahead to so on this uh just a couple of points here that what we were saying there if you look at that service so our debt service fund balance was at 45 almost 46 million now we're projecting at the end of this year being about 28 because we're using that with the three increments we took off to be able to pay and then it it stays even right there as how we have it budgeted now there is still room to be able to through truth and Taxation if we go through that and raise in the board and capital to be able to go again three increments down in debt service to use up some of that 29 million which would take it

009down more into the $15 million range of the fund balance the other thing I wanted to point out here just a general philosophy that we use when we're looking at revenues when we're looking at expenditures we're budgeting for expenditures at the worst case so like the final budget for FY 24 in any of these funds we cannot go over in the expenditures or we in the audit we get a big finding there so those budgets for expenditures are set higher than we could get to so they're set very aggressively there and then the revenue is very conservative both on the final year and for FY 25 we're being able to set expenditures are going to be here revenues here knowing that revenues are going to be higher than we budgeted and expenditures hopefully going be

010less and we'll be there in the middle so showing a $3.6 million deficit where we're going to pull down from fund balance it's about 3.6 both in FY 24 and in FY 25 U 3.6 3.7 but we're expecting um when that all evens out that it'll be about even the other thing we had at the end of last year we were able to through a state law unrestrict about $13 million of funds for State programs to be able to use for other things the only way to use them because we unrestricted on that became part of fund balance the only way to use them is to be able to have expenditures a little bit more than actual revenues and so that is a way to be able to to use them so that's why that

011$3.7 million although it looks like we're not balanced there we should come about even and if we don't we have that 13 million that we plan to use either 24 or 2 okay also on that same page page 16 Jason's going to get to this a little bit later is a summary of the tax LS so it's just a quick Lance on what all the tax LS are Jason you don't put that 13 million in the budget well yeah it can be budgeted as an expense but when we're looking at so how that works there it's not it's not budgeted as a revenue because we already had it it just becomes a balance to be able to use it you have to spend more in expenditures when you brought in Revenue to be able to

012draw down that fund balance the question was is this a balance budget the answer is yes yeah yeah because if you look at there and even where we were so if you look on this one at the end of fy22 we were at 106 million in general fund and fund balances it jumped to 120 million at the end of last year because of that about 13 million were able toct now now we're saying at the end of FY 24 we're going to be 116 which is 10 million more than we ended two years prior and then at 112 or 113 is still 6 or 7 million higher than the end of fy22 okay other things including the executive summary are listing of the general fund FTE detail the things that were determined through negotiations for

013certified classify an administrative employes it includes major fund summaries also a summary of budget expenditure forecasts it includes towards the end of it includes a student achievement indicators which rise testing results graduation rates and also um early benchmarks the last page of that section on page 24 is the association of school business officials budget award for FY 24 we plan to go out for that again for FY 25 compl all right next section is organization section there's a lot in this section and I'm just going to run down some summary points with that include the history of ASD um a summary on the local economy and what's happened in the last year it also includes accounting and budgetary policies of note our Utah laws that as they relate to budgets as well as significant accounting

014policy used in out School dist uh the budget turn to page see page 39 Jason was talking about how the budget process really extends throughout the year I like this because it has a listing of the budget calendar and the different parts of the budget calendar process on 39 and 40 and really um goes in details what what all is involved and that's why I say a lot of people in this room are involved in this whole process um it also includes detail on account structure in particular it includes detail on function and object those are two parts of our account numbers in all of our school accounts and I'll go into that in a little bit more detail but we are using function object throughout this entire report to summarize the data that we

015have also included this year thank you Joel Joel could explain this better than I can but on page 47 is the out School District coherence map which includes the Mission Vision Values the focus um it's just a good thing to have to remind us what what we are all about in our school district and also the last section of the organization section you turn to page [Music] 50 um it includes different uh summaries and overviews of every leadership Department in the district and so for example this one is the Board of Education it includes an overview of that department so to speak as well as FY 24 accomplishments FY 25 objectives on page 51 it also shows the actual FTE for fy21 22 23 the budgeted for 24 the proposed for 25 as well as

016expenses for those years as well so can you just I just want to so uh under the um accomplishments yeah he mentions allocated 65 fpes for class size reduction now is that just the total that we use in class size reduction that's a total that is the board ftps for the year to allocate okay so that's not new there were a lot if you as you page through these organizational sections there are a lot of changes this year and of we have a chief of staff um position that was added we have an executive director of legal services that was added um the executive director of operations used to be called the executive director of internal relations and operations and that's been change there were some other name changes to the executive directors um as

017you P up so some of these organization overviews are a little bit different than last year changes okay let's go to P 74 and 75 this is where we start getting into the numbers on pages 74 and 75 is a budgeted combined statement of revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance this is where we go object and function um can you just can you object and function can you just help me out I mean it was highlighted in blue and I'm I'm going to get to that's a perfect exactly what I was going to say okay so if you look it up just just to keep it really really simple if you look at object you're going to see the differences in the expenditure sections and the summary statements in this report that's how we

018break it out object you're looking at what is it when you look over at function you say what was it used for so if you look under this on page 74 under expenditures you say what is it well it was salaries it was benefits scroll down supplies and materials property and equipment and then on 75 under expenditures by function what is it used for you see instruction Support Services Debt Service um nonk 12 those kind of things does that answer your question the totals the totals you see the total revenues total expenditures will be the same it's just how it is categorized tables and that's what's nice about this book is everything by function object the totals match by Revenue and fund balances they if you look at them they will all match but the

019expenditure sections will be grouped differently based on gives you a a different way of looking at it because people say well how much was spent on instruction that's why got all right so 74 and 75 if you kind of keep your finger in that if you wanted to compare and then you page back to 102 through 105 we have the exact same information for 7475 just numbers for 25 but back in 102 through 105 those also include the actuals for those same schedules for 21 22 23 and the bud for 24 7475 doesn't haveed 24 223 22 history okay and Back Again A's question if you turn to page 116 there's a pie chart by object or by function so again we're these are general fund expenditures so if you ask yourself okay what is

020it it's at the top by object it's salaries it's employee benefits IT supplies and materials that's showing what is it the next one is what was it used for by function um instruction was 71.99 of general fund expenditures it's also used for transportation maintenance student services those kind of things it's just there are pie charts throughout the report as well if you look over on page 117 again going back to what Jason was talking about just kind of highlighting the fund balances from FY 23 and FY 24 you see that decrease in fund balance due to the three increment cut um and then using the fund balance to pay down that debt in fo4 hey the and throughout the first part of the financial section the major funds that General The Debt Service and the

021capital outlay have more uh detail for those funds in this in this book once you get to the non- major funds which start on page 124 then we go to more summary statements by function and object so all of those non- majored funds you'll see just summary statements by object but again like Jason said the totals will be the same by Revenue over okay towards the end of the financial section you'll see sumary statements by for five years 5 years statements page 140 on page 140 you'll see just another summary of all those governmental and proprietary funds um for all the years that we have um mentioned before by function and object and then if you go to page 144 the last part of the financial section actually gives threeyear budgeted forecast by object and

022by function so to begin with each of those funds you have a budget for FY 25 but then forecast for FY 26 27 and on page 160 just the example that's on the slide for the Student Activity fund forecast again you'll see the revenues uh the total by object and by function on 16 161 you'll see the budgeted titles across the top for the forecasted years along the right hand side you'll see projected growth rate that's either a positive growth rate or a negative growth rate um and then on the bottom of each statement or schedule are assumptions used to set those growth rates so if you're wondering well how did we come up with this percentage like 1.5 or point4 and it um I know as we know there were legislation there was registra

023legislation recently um for student fees and how some of those will be going away starting upway 26 so that would have been one of the assumptions that we used in the for going forward for some of those years knowing that student fees will decrease in future years okay and then finally the information section I'm not going to go into detail but I just listed some bullet points of all the things are in that a lot of the things in this information section are things that are shown as summary in the executive summary but the details back in the informational section things like property tax rates taxable values enrollment comparisons outstanding debt and nutrition services statistics um again this is where we can find detail if you're looking the executive summary you want to details back

024to and from there there any questions otherwise Jason's GNA kick off the property tax side any questions so far before we go into property taxes are you going to talk about 67 I just wondered if you could give us this amount based on a $488,000 home yeah we'll have stuff in there on okay so this next section is what really I appreciate what be did on taking us through those so the last few years we haven't gone through that much detail on kind of flipping through the book went back and looked at our presentations the last two years and it was mainly just about the property taxes so got um an improved presentation this year thanks okay so property taxes this is our rates for FY 24 the final rates and what we estimated originally

025FY 25 the the rates that are in this book right now aren't necessarily estimated we have some actuals some are still estimated so what we have here we have the capital voted and board and then Debt Service so the three that are um part of the certified tax rate process whereas value go up rates go down to be able to receive the same Revenue are capital voted and board and those are the only three that can be um taken through Tre taxation by school the de service is set by by just entering into the state's uh program is how much revenues needed to pay principal interest on General obligation Bond B on on that so you can see here the capital local Lev we in the current fiscal year it was set at 1018 so

026that is about that's 10 increments plus a little bit more um we estimated that would slightly go down to 101 voted at 1232 slightly going down board 778 slightly going down and Debt Service staying about the same because of that three increments we took down artificially last year so overall we estimated growth the overall tax rate value the values of the property to go up 8% tax rate due to New Growth we estimated at 4% and then estimated that rates would decrease by 1.6% due to the certified tax rate process and we've we've talked about that before just because something um the tax values go up 8% doesn't mean revenue would we only get new revenue on New Growth so if all that new increase in tax rate value was just inflation there would be

027no new Revenue but the 4% we were estimating would be on New Growth so be able to get new reeven so then this next slide shows what's actually happened um The Debt Service is still we'll get that set um probably tomorrow the next day and then the basic rates will come in on probably this Friday or next Monday so the basic is not set yet either so you can see we estimated pretty close on these the capital voted we really close the board local um looking up just a little bit that may be corrected a little bit too we'll see how that goes so the overall tax rate value instead of going up 8% 4.3 tax rate value due to growth was 3.5 we were we estimated four so we were pretty close there certified

028tax rate value as it's shown here is up 1.5% the board local Levy there was some RDA value adjustments the last two years so that may come into play there and then the charter school levy increased by 4.7% and that's just set by the county and the state for the the charter school ly okay so this is in your book but this is just showing um what's happened with the property tax rate yeah it's it's right 12 it's right after Shane right after Shane so uh the total is the 5598 basic rate we're assuming right now that we've used for all our calculations is 1383 we're not again we'll get that number Friday or next Monday and then we'll produce a new book with all of the finalized rates um so total increase right now

029at less than an increment so pretty much flat on the tax rate as as the charter school went up a little bit The Debt Service went up a little bit other ones were down about flat on the total rate you can see that on the chart too 5518 to 5598 okay so this is a graphical representation the last six years of what the adjusted tax rate value so in fy20 tax values were about 27.9 billion and today uh the latest in f25 about 52.2 billion quite a quite an uh increase in those six years you can see even though some of the orange one is the percent change so none of those are going down we had an increase one year over the next of 16 12 11 and a huge one of 35 and

030we had a six and a 4.3 what page is that is this is not in the book it's not in the book okay this is just an analysis just based on change FR and then this next one is so this is just the adjusted taxal value just what happened to the the value not having anything to do with growth this next one having to do with growth so we've been averaging looks like they're somewhere between U 1.9 to 2.5 billion in growth each year and so the percent growth you can see that's changed we're slowing down in the growth but this last year we had a growth a 3.5% increase in growth and um about 1.7 billion was just due to growth of if we look back there it increased from 50 to um and

031so I think what we were showing there 4.3% gr but 3.5% so most of that was from from New Growth we've also included in here the inflation rate this was very interesting so we we looked at every month that would produce the year-over-year inflation rate and then be able to average it for the fiscal year so we can see that inflation um was probably in FY 20 21 and 22 I think historically it's somewhere around 3% inflation rate so for three years we are used to this low 2.1 or 1.5 then it jumped up to 7.2 6.3 last year is now at 3.3 for the last 12 months so it's getting closer to the historical Norm of about 3% we don't know if if next year that'll show down at 2.3 or it kind of

032hover around 3% so that's what we're looking at there the cost of housing and food and gas did not go down correct which it usually doesn't go down slowing the increase yeah when people say I hope things go back the way I don't think they ever will just we don't want them to be increasing 7% over last year if they're in increasing 1 to 3% that's what noral that's normal okay so the state guarantee this has to do with the fiveyear look back theold harmless so in the the voted we are approved with a voted local Levy at 16 increments right now in the current year 1232 we're projecting or we the actual for FY 25 is 1222 which is below the 16 but we have a hold harmless that we still have a few

033years left so we um for the state guarantee our rate is at about 16 in so even though we don't locally generate that we are guaranteed that amount for those 5 years hold harmless and for the bo board local it needs to be at four increments you can see that we're above that we're at 778 last this current year and 8.42 next year so all of that above the four comes in as unrestricted funds to go to so last year that 778 before we went through truth and Taxation was 378 or 478 and we increased at 3 increment so the 478 it was above the four that it needed to be all those three increments that increased it was didn't affect our guarantee or didn't didn't get offset by state funding it was all all

034able to come in as new Revenue to be able to use unrestricted so we can see it also we need to look at the whole harmless of the 20 increments you can see the last two years we're over that anyway with the combin um so we don't have an issue at all with the board the voted it'll come up soon where we need to increase that back to the 16 increments and when we do that it doesn't generate any new Revenue because you have to get back to that Harless um so the second bullet point down there says within the state guarantee each local dollar generated an equal amount reduction in state funding so if we were to say in the voted local Levy where it's the 1222 if we were to go through truth

035and Taxation and increase that to 16 this year it wouldn't bring any new Revenue we would just the revenue that came in through property tax would be offset by a decline in the state state p so um last year and by the way I would I would appreciate any insites this whole well we decreased The Debt Service by three but I thought it the net effect was we got three more in our budget so is that what you're saying here if we do something similar with trading off debt service is that a way of getting the money into our budget where if we just increase increments don't can no we can increase so the we'll have the recommendation there but we like if we increase in the um in the board one another three increments

036and capital four increments and reduce Debt Service by three then that's a net of four increment increase because we've increased Capital by four which we've discussed before with um being able to fund a high school for increments if we increase and that's kind of off on its own the for increments but on the C on the operations if we increase the board local ly by three we can reduce the debt service by three not a net of zero in that of those two in terms of Total Property Tax in essence you got the seven in ter you got seven additional increments in terms of spending power seven yep and then be able to use fund balance that's in debt service that can only be used for Debt Service be used in two ways it can

037be used by what we did is reducing the um effect through property to property holders that year or you could pay off debt quicker um once but certain times you can there's some call dates you can't do that on the debt when they come you could do that you reduce your total amount of debt um the way that we did it last year was just be able to pull fund fund balance down and not have to collect As Much from the property taxpayers that year so is this going to be I mean moving forward it's going to there's no real benefit to increasing the uh moed local that because you know uh it just reduces the amount we get well but we only have 5ye hold harmless so at so so it it was at

038the 16 within the last 5 years that's why we get that but as soon as that 16 of the highest water mark of it is gone we have to increase it and we can do that in a combination of looking at um you can you can change like the the board On's four above and if we went through increments again and did another three it might be you know be seven above the thing you could switch them a little bit to be able to do it same with capital as long as the net so at any year you could say well I want to increase my board local Levy by three increments in my Capital by three and you don't have to do to retrieve the taxation because of that but The Debt Service isn't

039part of that you if you're reducing debt service so if we were to say we're only doing here we reduce Debt Service by three still have to go through Tru taxation CU The Debt Service isn't part of the certified tax rate process and when so what when year is the whole Farm L over or um I think we have at least two more years of okay so this is a visual of what the board local lby I looked at last year this amount before we went truth and Taxation was only about 2 or 3 million so that was good that we we increased that because those three increments brought in about 16 or 17 million more and continue to to do that if we add another three there then that would be about another $18

040million or so 158 okay so these are the options the possibilities for looking we I know we have a meeting on Friday to discuss um possibilities of using those increments um will be discussed this evening whether because when we approve the budget it's saying okay we accept these as are are we going to have a hearing not saying that those are set but the hearing would be um communicated that we that we would have that in August to be able to have the truth of Taxation so um if like last year if seven increments was chosen forign Capital three in the board it would generate about a little less than $40 million of additional Revenue about 5.7 million per increment so cost of that $489,000 and that $489 is less it's interesting that the medium

041home value went down FY 25 from FY 24 so it's at 489 I think last year was like 494 or 498 um but it would cost about $188 annually or $15 monthly for that seven increment increase um seven increment is approximately 13.7 on the trop in taxation additionally the Deb service rate could be decreased by % so when we're looking at that that 188.com [Music] reduction um for about $8 a month on the increase and that 13.7 you can see that it's about 2% increase per increment so if we really only net a four because we reduced The Debt Service by three we're looking at about an 8% tax increase and that 8% tax increase wouldn't be over what last year's taxes were it would be what these this year's taxes would be if we

042didn't do TR taxation yeah sinks and then you add it up but we didn't get that much it was about even right now so it would be about that okay that is the last slide any other questions so again I I guess superintendent asked this but just I'm just verifying so we have what is essentially a balanced budget budget is that correct yes there's the the 13 million that was used unrestrict last year that can be used and hasn't really been used for fway 24 can if we have a slight um deficit which would be more expense than Revenue but we have the fund balance to cover it and still be able to have all our fund balance minimums that we need and then fy2 if there is that $3 million if that comes to

043fruition that that is there then we still have plenty to be able to cover that but this this book doesn't make assumptions that can't really be made and there's no assumptions in this book on revenue for increments so this is if we didn't go through truth and Taxation so if if going through truth of taxation of course the four increments has been discussed in for um to be able to team up with the least Revenue B for the high school so none of that is contemplated in this book um for the building before increments anything like that nothing in the lease Revenue bond fund of any new Revenue just as is and then um yeah the the three that were recommending in operations is not included in this no additional questions okay it was very

044thorough president how come that conclude that report okay at this point um are we adjourning to the open house no no dinner dinner oh dinner dinner that's right start and then uh the information opportunity starts at 5:00 okay thank you let's do that let's adjourn for dinner and then we can join the public out in the hallway to answer questions if you wish and the we will have three hearings tonight they will commence at 6:00 e e e we have one we have one minute to to start and if someone on the staff could go get the list of speakers I'd appreciate that e all right welcome it is a beautiful June summer evening and we are delighted that so many of you have shown up with your enthusiasm and your inquiries and your concerns

045so we we will begin we have three public hearings before the board meeting I think most of you are aware of that so our format is going to be a little bit different tonight uh the first one is a public hearing for the 2324 final budget so I now declare the public hearing for the Alpine School District 2324 final budget open I have here a list of speakers who have signed up to give comment and the first one will be John Gad so John come right on up make sure that microphone is working give it a bump don't start time yet which he's done walk the good evening uh my name is John Gad I've lived in I had my home in Pleasant Grove for 24 years so as far as the 23 24 budget

046the final budget um I just wanted to talk really quickly about the money the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the board is spending on diversity equity and inclusion and those words all sound nice but what they really boil down to is institutional racism against the straight white majority um in your budget on page 59 you have an executive director of equity inclusion and student support and then down in the comments where it talks about what goes on with those hundreds of thousands of dollars you talk about a district Dei committee which the school board members serve on and a district Dei parent advisory committee and this is immoral and it's harmful so on June 29th 2023 the US Supreme Court ruled in students for Fair admission V Harvard that consideration of an applicant's race

047as one factor in making an admissions decision particularly to realize the educational benefits of diversity is unconstitutional and Alpine School District continues to have a diversity equity and inclusion program and it continues to classify students based on their race and then treat them differently now in the Declaration of Independence and in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution the standard and the ideal is equality but what the school district is implementing is something different you call it equity and those are not the same thing they sound similar but equality is giving equal opportunities to all students Equity is all kinds of mischief and what Equity ends up being is looking at a student's race and their skin color and treating them differently and I have proof so I downloaded off your website today and I

048printed this out it's the Alpine School District Foundation scholarship and this is a scholarship that's offered every year if you go back you can look that it's offered yearly but in the qualification section it says preference will be given to applicants based on and then it lists a bunch of things and one of the things it lists is race so you're saying when we give out this scholarship from the Alpine School District Foundation we're going to consider your race and if your race is a race that we want to give benefits to we're going to give you a bump but if your race is a race that we disfavor we're going to move you down the scale so if you have two applicants with the same grades the same uh qualifications the same activities and

049they both want this scholarship depending on that student's race right off your website uh you're going to give a preference to one student based on his or her race over the other student based on his or her race so that's what the end result of your diversity equity and inclusion program is is you treat people differently based on their race it's it's illegal and it's in violation of the thank [Music] you thank you John all right there are there is no one else signed up to comment on the uh fiscal year 24 budget so I now declare the public hearing for the Alpine School District 2324 final budget closed and we are adjourned from that hearing the next hearing will start at 6:05 which is now all right I now declare the public hearing for

050Alpine School District 2425 tenative budget open we have two people that have signed up John come on back you're first and then John baric the John's okay okay so again um now I'm looking at this year's budget the 2425 Budget on page 64 and it looks like there was some efforts made to sort of hide what you're doing a little bit instead of an executive director of equity inclusion and student support you change the name to executive director of educational opportunity and student support but if you go down into the comments it says the executive director of educational opportunity and student support has administrative responsibility for district Equity inclusion and student support services so you haven't changed anything you've just change the name and the Public's really smart we can see that you just did

051a search and replace um instead of a district Dei committee um you renamed it the district Equity committee but again like I said before the standard from the um Declaration of Independence and from the 14th Amendment is equality we should treat all people equally but you changed it to equity you should have a district equality committee to make sure you're treating everyone equally but you have a district Equity committee and instead of a district Dei parent advisory committee you change the word to District cultur diverse patent parent focus group so you changed some names but it seems like you're just going to go on keep keep on doing the same thing here's a quote from Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Justice or excuse me this is Ben Carson um this quote's from Ben Carson he said

052it's an article on the racist shift from equality to equity there's been a sub subtle shift in the conversations its focus has moved from equality to equity that is instead of pushing Reverend Martin Luther King Jr's ideal of judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin Equity would reward and punish people because of the color of their skin rather than equality of opportunity Equity would mandate equality of outcome the goal is not only unamerican it is impossible to attain again that's Ben Carson so I guess I would just encourage the board to do to try again instead of just changing a few words on page 64 of your tentative budget go back to the standard from um the Declaration of Independence and from the 14th Amendment treat all

053students equally don't go down this diversity equity and inclusion iuson rabbit hole which um which has been outlawed in state law and there's it's widely recognized to have all kinds of problems it it creates all kinds of morale problems it divides PE People based on race there really isn't any place for it in our school district instead of trying to push diversity equity and inclusion please go back to the the right standard which is treating people equal thank you okay thank you John John I would like to thank uh business services and the board for the fiscal year 25 budget I appreciate the opportunity to review it um I have just a couple of quick comments on page 171 where we're estimating the future taxable base and Page 170 where we're we're um using the

054current year fiscal year taxable base um June 4th 2024 the Utah County Assessor um issued their new valuation for the district and it appears to be a little bit overinflated here so i' just like to mention that um and then on page 171 you estimate the historical projection for for next year to be 12% um and it was it was about 3 and a half% um and uh in the face of 7% interest rates in mortgages we're unlikely to see the even the historic iCal average which has been 6% since 2000 and so I think the numbers are a little bit High which tend to underestimate the tax um the tax implications and impact to homeowners and then the last thing I'd like to mention is on page 169 oh nope hold on on page

055167 excuse me on page 167 you um give the appraised value of a home and you show the average value of a home to be 488,000 which I find to be fairly reasonable but you have the average value of the home in 20 to be 40 4886 and you have it to be projected for next year to be 4886 and that's a little budget trick I've sent emails to the district under a prior business administrator that this is inappropriate if you change the value of the house to match increases in the property tax base it doesn't show taxes going down it shows taxes going up and so this is a budget trick and I'd really like you to change it to show the actual average value of a house in 2020 and change it to

0562021 and 22 because we know the value of houses have gone up and I will email your business services director copy of my example that shows that Actual taxes have gone up 8.5% from 200000 to 2023 and this shows that in in several years in the last two years taxes have gone down and that's because of the budget trick that I mentioned and so I would love to see a more accurate depiction of the average household value and I'd be happy to email that to you thank you for your time thank you so noted we do not have anyone else signed up to comment on the fiscal year budget that being the case I declare the public hearing for Alpine School District 20242 tentative budget closed and adjourned all right next see how we're doing

057all right the next public hearing is on the reconfiguration of Alpine School District so I now declare the public hearing for a possible reconfiguration of Alpine School District open I have a list of 10 people who have signed up to comment and if you'll please come up in the order I will announce two at a time so you can come up if you'd like to sit here on the front row that would be just great um the first one is Tony kitner followed by Michelle senson come on up hi my name is Tony kretchmer most of you know me as Anthony kretchmer on the various orm forums what's happening in orms save orm School Facebook pages first of all I'd like to thank Julie King specifically and Stacy bitman for having wonderful BL blogs and

058interactive Facebook pages where we can active actively discuss the district splitting I'd like to read a post that was posted on stronger together which is a political issues committee that was started specifically to stop Orum from becoming its own School District this is by one of Alpine School District's community council members Charlie Smith largy she posted back on July 25th of 2022 4 months before the November 22 election in which prop two appeared quote I would love to see another scenario in which orm city works with ASC to move toward an eventual split at the district I've heard the superintendent say that the school district knows it's big knows eventually it will split but it will split when the time is right if orm City really wants a smaller School District they could avoid all

059the issues of sharing resources cutting lynon and Vineyard off and needing to make expend uh exceptions for them paying on current bonds plus passing their own bonds Etc by working with the district to split itself if for example we had a Pleasant Grove lyen or and Vineyard together we would have four solid high schools with plenty of students and plenty of resources and the mess of figuring out which students go to which schools over City borders would be eliminated plus when a district splits itself the resources like bus depot are are split equitably teacher benefit insurance and more stable and the city wouldn't have to pay the school district for the properties yes the city of orm wouldn't have full control over its District but that wouldn't have happened anyway right the school board works

060with the state school board not the city council it may not happen as soon as orm would like but if we're going to push for a smaller District working with the c current St School District in the surrounding cities who are directly affected to help encourage ads the split itself is going to be a much better scenario than any they have come up with so far there were 166 comments on this post almost all of them positive I'll just read one thank you Charlie Smith largely I find it disingenuous for some to claim that orm is exercising its best option if it's so great why we not informed of it included in the process seen it discussed vigorously in public meetings and claims of it will never happen let the process of good governance work

061and lighten up in my opinion everyone who wants a seat at the discussion table is going to have to earn it that was by aah Wilson I think we're at that point the cities have earned the right to be at the table to make this decision 10 cities have entered two inter local agreements which fall right in line with option four you guys are wrong to support option three okay Michelle Sorenson followed by Heather Lambert hi I'm Michelle Sorenson or resident I have four children who have graduated from temp tempus high and our fifth is a rising senior there I would like to speak in support of staying together as one District but if we were to split I think the option the board has presented is the least disruptive least expensive and least divisive

062as we all know in 2022 a few city city council members in orm wanted to create an Orum only single City District I would like to clear up a misconception I have found from discussions with residents in other cities about the orm prop to vote the reason given by those who wanted to split from ASD and because they did not want was because they did not want to support building new schools in the west and wanted to keep their own small schools open however during the selection season I was part of a group which advocated that although a large person of our ASD Bond money does go to help Capital needs for the growth in the West orm greatly benefits from the reciprocity across the municipalities in The District in a recent social media post

063Lehi City council member Heather Newell pointed out how we M mutually benefit benefit each other in her comment she states right now we have a balance between paying for the West's growth with bonds and they pay for the extra overhead in the East with wpu this is exactly the position we used during our prop to discussion I would also like to add to Heather's observations that Oram and Lehi also contribute to the district with their large tax baces in the end 72% of orm Voters chose to stay with ASD because they recognized its reciprocity and want to be a part of a district working to help all students throughout the district not just their own City even after another difficult dilemma and the possibility of closing orm schools orm residents elected three city council members

064who were in favor of staying with the district this was a talking point during the following year's election I would like every ASD constituent to know a majority of orm residents know and understand the value and benefit of the reciprocity within our School District wpu bond funding tax bases across the district are diverse just as the needs are too but as ASD has worked to create a well-run district it serves its students well from the MGT study we which was able to survey those most invested in the district 88% say overall their educational experience with ASD is good or excellent I appreciate the MGT representative Mr Richard's words when he said If This Were about the students we would not be having this conversation because ASD serves its students well in a moment of study

065today I read this quote from a prominent ecclesiastical leader a a vocal minority oppose institutional Authority and assist that persons should be free from any restrictions that limit their individual Freedom yet we know from Millennia of experience that persons give up S some individ individual freedoms to gain advantages of living in organized communities I hope that we can um navigate this election season and strive to work together as 14 M municipalities to give our students the most benefits and advantages together thank you Michelle next is Heather Lambert followed by Wendy Jensen hello my name is Heather Lambert and I live in Saratoga Springs uh I'm here tonight um for my own opinion uh not any opinion associated with any position that I hold so I wanted to address you guys as a board to let

066you know how I feel about this District reconfiguration um right now it's it's really difficult to kind of vocal everything and how I'm feeling but one of the things that I did want to say is that I feel like all of the sides should be focusing on the benefits for the children this isn't about me this isn't about my neighbors this isn't about the East versus West this is about our children our future leaders of our communities future Mayors future city council members future Olympians future uh teachers future parents we need to be focusing on what is going to be the the absolute best for each of them and their educational needs I do feel that a reconfiguration is what's best for their needs now we need to look at which configuration will do will

067serve them best I feel unfortunately that if we stay together as one District we are going to face reper repercussions from legislature and we will no longer have control over how our district will be sliced in half or thirds or fourths or fifths and we will all feel the repercussions from that and it will not be good if we can come together and agree on something that will work for all of our children and give local control then we can best serve our children and provide them with the programs that they need to succeed and I just wanted to to share that with you please think about the children and what's going to be best for them thank you thank you heather my name is Wendy can you hear me now yeah I'm having the

068same problem so Wendy Jensen followed by Molly barington thank you yes I am from Saratoga Springs I'm a mother of six today I am representing my children and the other children in the west I am no longer affiliated with any groups that I held before um today I want to tell you my concerns because I feel like I have not been heard my concerns are real you have taken away our buses say you have tried to take away our programs you have tried you have cancelled meetings to advocate for our new high school we don't have enough room in our schools our children in the west have experienced a serious imbalance of programs growth is not being addressed fast enough and the west side has been under represented represented for years that will continue unless

069we split I have advocated for years you have heard my please I have sent emails I have expressed myself in public and you have not responded in a way that shows that you even care about my children I am disappointed in the way the last school boarding meeting went I have you have upset parents and teachers and cities and it's time to do the right thing it's time to build our school and do what is best for our children no matter what there are seismic issues in the East their growth issues in the west and it all needs to be addressed Alpine is too big and you have neglected to take care of our kids the way that you should have as far as the MGT study I feel our money would have been better

070spent on students needs elsewhere I feel it's flawed I want to thank the West board members for the dedication at this time I want to thank them for all the time they may spend advocating for our children and and their best interest I'm requesting that the district vote for a split the district split three ways consistent with the current local agreements we are no longer stronger together thank you thank you Wendy Molly barington followed by Emily Peterson hi guys um this is hard for me I have never been more disappointed in the board as I was the last board meeting when you Mock and belittle your constituents and the other local leaders you so division you don't sow the love and the support of our children the US government and the state governments and the

071local governments have been set have set checks and balances and when the local leaders saw that the needs of their students were not being met they set in motion these checks and balances and they being a governing body as well which is quite a bit larger than Alpine School District board voted to go for the in could be met it wasn't a political grab it was we need to take care of our children if you don't support all of the students whether they're in the East or the west or the North or the South you sink your own of the district as well the only way way that this District works is for the board to work together and there's a high school needed in the East there's a high school needed in the west

072there's several things needed in the west but by your own numbers not even mgt's numbers the West will do just fine supporting themselves they don't need the East but it was very nice to have it and if you don't support the needs and you belittle the needs of everyone in the school district the other governments will take and make the decisions that need to be made nobody wants to work with people who want to work together to meet the needs of the entire District the East West argument is moot if you don't work together the district doesn't work I am for the split because I see that board members won't work together and are starting to play the blame game there's no blame here you guys are supposed to be working for our kids I

073have five nieces and six nephews in the west and I have an equal number in the east in the west my nieces and nephews have to run to class to even try and get a seat that's wrong the the high school should have been approved a year ago and that way we'd have another year that our kids wouldn't be scrambling just to have a chair because you don't learn well when you're sitting on Lum thank you thank you Molly Emily Peterson followed by uh John baric good evening I'm really short sorry good evening I wanted to start by thanking all of you guys for all of the hard work that you've put into um studying the split working with local leaders and MGT and all of the other work that you've done and I also

074want to thank those of you who are opposed to the split and still willing to look at all the information and hear what everybody has to say um I really appreciate that um I am for a split so I've been to to a lot of these meetings a lot of local um meetings and I am an orm resident and all I wanted was for somebody to stand up and say oh but there is this group in Orum that wants a split there are you know 28% the voted for an orm only split and another large population that would have voted for a split had it included other cities because we are seeing problems in our school we are seeing um issues getting ignored um so the thing that I am the most passionate about that

075I am seeing right now is a loss of Arts and Music in our elementary schools and this isn't something that I'm like concerned could happen it is something that has happened those FTE hours have been allocated to put another teacher in the classroom so that we can say that our classroom sizes are really okay and wonderful and look at the test scores they're great but unfortunately without art you don't have a full education and a compl compl education includes art and it completes a human being we need art it is so important and this step of using an FTE that belongs to an art teacher and a music teacher to put teachers in the classroom is the first step of a slippery slope that we have seen happen in the United States all over the

076place and it's something that's hard to walk back from Once you make that step and once you use that FTE for something else it doesn't come back it's not something that's easy to recoup and so what I am saying is whether this is a two-way split or three-way split or no split there are things that need to happen because right now like who cares about no art or music teacher on the east side when there are not chairs for students on the west side and it's going to be a lot easier to solve those problems when we have a smaller District but even if we don't let's make sure that we're giving power to our principles let's make sure that we're giving power to local areas so that we can make sure that these types

077of things aren't happening and we don't fall down this slippery slope that has happened in many other districts around the country and children suffer because of it and again I wanted to thank all of you for all of your hard work and all of your time so thank you thank you Emily John bar then John Gad I'm here today to talk about the lack of transparency in the financial information from the feasibility study again Business Services is failing to use Gap generally accepted counting principles they're using fiscal year 23 general fund operation data with fiscal year cap 24 Capital data and F uh fiscal year 25 data for the taxable base that's taking apples oranges and peaches and combining them and calling it a basket of apples it's just not true I would ask why

078those choices have been made MGT and ASD have told the West Side they had surpluses of 36 million and 30 million and 21 million and8 million and 8.5 million depending on the assumptions you could be throwing board darts at a board and be closer to the truth the Westside inter local hired lrb Finance who came and used the correct data fiscal year 24 data like I told you you should have used and they came up with a Westside deficit of five $6.2 million you gave them surpluses and surpluses and surpluses and surpluses and they have deficits if you use the right data so imagine the surprise of the Westside city council people when lrb told them they had deficits which I told you too moreover board member Wilson in 2022 in prop 2 claimed with

079her husband who was the CFO for the stronger together pick that orm was losing $30 million a year simply wasn't true the Utah taxpayers association called that data that came from Business Services also patently false and last board meeting board member Wilson said that she was for option to because the twin Financial pillars of the district Lehi and orm well if orm was losing $30 million two years ago it can't be a financial pillar today so which of those statements is false I'd like I'd really like to know the answer answer to that and I know what the answer is but I don't think you want to tell me and you're creating Confusion by putting a two-way split an earlier speaker said that half the board was against a split none of the board is

080against the split three members were against the two-way split which was putting confusion on the ballot they wanted to follow the cities the interlocal agreements and that is the right decision as several people have asked for ASD has potentially violated various provisions of Utah's political activities of public entities act I usually think that chairman uh superintendent Farnsworth is a pretty honest and straightup guy but the video that he published that said MGT was independent was false and after sending a proposed ballot initiative to the Utah County Clerk advocating using District resources and emailing them using District resources is a violation of the of the Utah State law I'd be happy to discuss that with you further the needs of the people aren't being met the wests side need schools the east side needs to fix

081their seismically safe schools and we do need art in the classroom thank you so much for your [Applause] time my name is John Gad um so this is a pretty conservative School District politically and most people are fairly conservative and there's a couple of conservative ideals that are I think are not being talked about the ideals of limited government and local control and the message that we keep getting from this school board and from the superintendent and from the business administrator is that bigger government is better government the bigger the school district the better the more powerful uh that that everyone's better off but the reality is according to conservative principles smaller government is better and this this fearmongering that the school board keeps pushing to all the the employees of the district that they're

082all going to be worse off just isn't true the reality is with smaller school districts students families teachers staff and taxpayers can all be better off because the school boards of those smaller school districts will be more responsive uh there will be less bureaucracy there will be less red tape um teachers will have the latitude and the freedom and the flexibility to do their jobs better and they'll be more satisfied so there's all kinds of benefits that come from limited government local control bigger government is not better so why why does the school board want to keep this bigger District why do you want to keep the biggest District in the state and I don't know what's in your hearts but usually when you follow the money you can kind of see what's going on

083if you go to the transparent Utah website and you look up the highest paid employees in Alpine School District you'll find and and First Look up the governor last year the governor made $211,000 in total compensation in Alpine School District 50 55 employees made more compensation than the governor of the state of Utah for some reason in Alpine School District there's 55 administrators who must do more administering their little piece of the school district than the governor does for the whole entire State because they get paid more than him and so I think what's really going on is with the smaller school districts we're probably going to stop paying people up to $350,000 a year which is what two people sitting up here today make we'll probably stop doing that but you know what teachers

084are getting get paid the same or better and staff are going to get paid the same or better and students are going to be better and better off and parents are going to be better off and taxpayers are going to be better off so my my urging for the board is I don't think you were planning on these interlocs the west and the central splits being on the ballot but now that they're on the ballot I think the school board should step back and not try to put a confusing competing split on the ballot you've done your work at the end of all this I think you should vote to say look we're going to let the the West interlocal and the center central interlocal people vote and we're going to let them decide what

085they want to do whether they want to split away from the district and then we'll regroup after that my my concern is that the only reason you wanted the split on the ballot in the first place is to provide cover so that you could push against it which you're absolutely doing producing videos and everything pushing against the split so that for the next 20 years you can say well we put it on the ballot and the voters didn't want it but really you fought against it so don't put it on the ballot let the west and the central inter local agreements go forward and just step back and see what happens in regroup after that's done thank you okay thank you John last Leela Machado Leela Machado did I say that right yes you did

086thank you so my name's Leela Machado pay I live in Saratoga Springs um I grew up in South Carolina in a very large school district so I personally don't have an issue with the large school district I recognize there's a lot of problems that you guys are trying to solve and I really appreciate your time and all the work that you guys put into being school board members I recognize that it is not always fun and that getting yelled at in public is not a pleasant experience so I appreciate you and I know that you're going to do what's best um according to your conscience so just a couple of thoughts that I don't think have been shared yet um my husband is a teacher in Alpine School District my sister-in-law is also a teacher

087in Alpine School District and she was working in Jordan School District when the school district split and the teachers did not receive a cost of living increase in three for 3 years um we're already dealing with retention issues for teachers across the uh uh school district and I think that it's something that we need to really consider the idea that splitting and gaining a lot of debt um is going to lead to better teacher pay is a bit of a pipe dream um we don't value our teachers already um if you look at the benefits and the compensation that are available to teachers compared to the public sector um as an HR professional who deals with with compensation I can tell you they're not well paid uh for the amount of Education that they have

088received um so I think that is something that you should consider um I also think it's a false equivocation to compare a school district to a government it's obviously serving a very different purpose thank you very much thank you Leela okay that is the end of our public comments oh it's not the end of our public comments okay sorry page two all right let's keep going um Janelle hail and followed by Megan Jorgenson come on up I just want to thank you for taking the time to do this it's very very important and I I know that you know that it's very important I also want to say that um I was here months ago and I was really grateful I just made some com ments and I was just really grateful that I received

089um a note back a personal note writing that the person there on the board member was really grateful that I was I spoke so that just really is neat um I do my understanding is that the hearing is to decide whether or not uh the school Recon or the district reconfiguration can be put on a ballot for November vote and so if that's not what it is I'm sorry I do agree that the a reconfiguration for Alpine School District should be on a vote ballot for November and I'm really glad to see um interlocal agreements I think it's great um I am grateful also for any art and music that is in the classroom I definitely want to uh Echo those two um votes for that in the in the past um or mentions I

090should say um I also I don't like to call people out I just was really grateful for the things that were said at the last school brand meeting and I also I'm really grateful that I can get on the internet and watch the school board meetings I can watch all of it I can watch you do there what you do here and I really appreciate that that really is nice um and so I wasn't able to go to the the end of May's uh Schoolboard meeting but I was I was really glad to hear what Mrs King said because and then also to learn this these these these children getting around I had no idea until I was aware of what what was said that such circumstances were going on I it's very very difficult

091and I know none of you none of you want that to happen for yours your children anybody else you know and so I'm really glad that you're here you're listening and I I'm grateful for those things thank you thank you Janelle next Megan jensson and Ryan [Applause] Newman so I have learned a ton tonight from all these comments I had no idea all this was going on I just wanted to take my right as a citizen to share my voice and say I'm just in favor of the split thank you for all that you do I know it's really hard to run a school district so I just want to let you know that thanks thanks Megan okay Ryan then Shelley Harward hello my name is Ryan Newman um I'm from Pleasant Grove I teach

092at Pleasant Grove High School I've been a teacher for 19 years in Aline School District educated in Aline School District um I would like to just uh thank the board and thank um everybody that for their well thought out comments it's been it's been great um I would like to comment on behalf of of teachers I don't definitely speak for all teachers in the district um but I've had enough uh you know water cooler comments and conversations to know that uh there's a heightened sense of alarm um amongst teachers in the district about a three-way split um the and and I've read all my emails I've been to all my meetings and I can comment on the comment that has been made to the fearmongering we as employees have not been fearmonger by the district

093um it's just been informational and uh we just it's more common sense that if there's a lot of deficit we feel like our contracts are in Jeopardy and we feel like that we're just where the rubber meets the road for student learning and it's a morale issue for teachers and if uh if the district becomes split into multiple smaller entities then um and I know a lot of people think that teachers are insulated by our teacher contracts but we're really not um statute currently is that we will we would be able to have a contract for a year and then everything would be renegotiated and that scares a lot of teachers about the future um of of Alpine School District uh Alpine School District being large um is considered kind of a safe for teachers

094in the State teachers want to come here um they feel like there's a good contract um and uh and and also I would like to comment the idea of smaller government um comes from some of our founding documents but also um I would like to just comment on the idea of of of large government comes from Federalist number 10 that basically the minority rights of of and Liberty would be protected in in a larger institution and that's the only way that that can happen and that that is that's in the in the Constitution so thank you so much and on behalf of teachers um we would a lot of us support no split or a two-way split thank you thanks Brian Shelly Harvard and then Lauren Earl um thank you I've I've learned a lot

095tonight listening to a lot of um the comments as well and um as a parent um I'm from American for and as a parent I when I originally was reading about it it's like oh yes we need to split it it's so large it's just too it's it's unmanageable it's crazy but as I have talked to teachers and try to learn more about it um I H I have heard from them that it's kind of if it ain't broke don't fix it and that Alpine School District is the place that teachers do want to come because um you know they they have the numbers and and the you know and let's be honest the bottom line is money that's that's what it's all about and by splitting um I don't see that that there will

096be more money and I also I grew up in uh Sandy so was part of the Jordan and canion split and it's very painful they're operating in you know they'll operate in the red and um so just kind of my simple simple thoughts of try to how to break it down and process it was if you have one household um that's the expenses for the one household if you break those households in into two you now have the same expenses for both households and you have double expenses now and so um it's going to cost more it will we will have a tax increase and teachers won't be paid more um you know it the split's not going to create more money and so those were just kind of my simple thoughts but I I

097don't have the answer I I don't have all all you know um it's just a complicated uh situation but that's how I kind of broke it broke it down so I'm in favor of a no split just from who I have talked to um and um thank you thank you all for for your management here thanks Shell Lauren Earl followed by Kathy Miner this is scary getting up here so I thank you for everyone's comments and willingness to share I'm kind of just like Megan I just want to say thank you for what you're doing and I just want to voice as a citizen that I in favor of a split so thank you thanks Lauren Kathy Miner hi it is a long walk up um hello board members superintendent Farnsworth and administrator sunberg um

098thanks for just being here on listening all these comments and being invested in hearing from all the stakeholders um so my name is Kathy Miner I'm a resident of District 2 um I work in District 2 um my husband has also worked in District 2 and my children um attend school in District One um my thoughts and feelings on this have largely been conflicted um but I'm now firmly in the camp that I think that we should split the district um my K12 education did take place on the east side of the district I loved my Alpine experience um I felt that I had many different ways to be involved academically in extracurricular activities um I was engaged in service and Leadership opportunities um it it was really idealic um um I like many um

099other employees and parents do acknowledge that Alpine School District is well-run um I do support the visions and goals of the DLT and the board um I think we are led by people of Integrity however the more learned about the current funding structures of the district and just The more I've become educated on issues in general um and just my time like living and working on the west side it's become quite apparent that the visions of District central are not being carried out equitably on the east side and the West Side school leaders allotted fewer FTE per student population cannot prioritize student achievement in the same way School leaders who are adequately funded can when school leaders use site budget to fund ft e there is a huge opportunity cost for faculty and students teachers

100with less classroom resources professional development mentoring and coaching will not be as effective as teachers with access to these things no matter High how highly qualified they come um and unfortunately these issues don't renew year to year as the budget does but the cost of these overburdened schools is compounding burnout a faculty and school administrators exists where demands are greater than available resources to complete our work with pride so like I said I am for the split but no matter what the result of this is I hope that um you know we can continue moving forward and and working for what's Equitable for students and staff everywhere in this County thank you thanks gy next mayor mckin followed by Becca Morales I'm mayor mckenny from field probably half of you don't know where we came

101from um small town out west of Lehi I have been involved with the school district since I've had kids I have seen the lack of attention that the West gets but my biggest concern is you have had 10 Mayors come together and support this interlocal agreement these people elected us to do what is right for our towns let us do what we're supposed to do as a town we can do it we're all prepared to do it let the West go and do their own interlocal agreement same with Central Lehi they can do it I don't know why you guys think that we need to be together still the Alpine School District has been around for as long as I can remember I grew up in Lehi and yes it served its purpose when we

102were all growing up here it's been a good District but we have grown tremendously out West let us go and let us take care of our kids the way we need to take take care of them the way that people elected us to take care of them I am fully for the split and I think that we can do it and I want to thank Julie for what she's done too to support us thank you mayor Becca Morales followed by Melissa Clark hi I'll keep my comments brief um I'm here as a parent of a student at Dan Peterson School and so I have a really special interest and special education um and there's I think not many of us that are able to have the energy and time to speak up and even though

103this won't affect necessarily my son who is 12 I think by the time he'll be just barely aging out but um I do have a lot of concerns for his classmates um and so I would just implore you I know they're a very small percentage of the students Cent our district I realize there's not many of us um but we are the most vulnerable especially with access to Services as the split happens which it sounds like it's happening so if that needs to happen then I understand I understand there are a lot of different concerns um but I would ask you to respect the educational needs of those students I also wanted to make sure as I've attended my local city meetings um there seems to be a little bit of misinformation potentially about where

104these students might end up after a split my understanding right now is that the funding does not necessarily follow those students out of a district so I would encourage you and I i' I've been getting different answers from different people as I've been asking um but as of right now now I mean we have students in Provo that want to come to Dan Peterson and have we've been told that the funding will not follow them to our school and even if the per student I'm sorry I don't remember the terminology it's the per student what is it thank you that unit is uh a lot educating a student like my son in the wheelchair back there is a very different uh undertaking you know compared to the typical wpu um so I just uh I

105would encourage you to please uh consider that as and I've gotten a big fat maybe from everybody when I've asked about the plan for these students there really isn't a lot um there um so please make sure that there's good information out there for you guys as you're considering that whether the funding is following the students or not um how transportation is working and what's going to happen to the kids that don't have a school anymore thank you thanks Becca [Applause] okay our last speaker according to my signup sheet is Melissa Clark go ahead I first I want to thank you guys for taking the time to be here I serve publicly so I know that when you hear us yelling at you you hear us caring loudly so we're really really grateful for the

106time that you've put into it um I've heard a lot of Schoolboard members say that we need to pull our residents I've heard Schoolboard members say that this is a power grab and different things like that and it couldn't be further from the truth I have a ton to do as a city council member of our community and I would rather not have to address this issue but like a family and with our kids when they can't behave and get along sometimes Mom and Dad have to step in and I'm not saying that the cities are Mom and Dad but what I am saying is it's clear that the Alpine school district is a dysfunctional family and I pray that you guys can make it work it would be amazing if we could fix these

107things but the reality of it is is I think we've passed that point of no return I just want to share real quickly with some of the time that I have left um one I'm a trained teacher I taught for a decade before my twins were born so I know what it's like to be in a classroom I'm not coming to this information ignorantly this is experience I'm also a mother of special needs kids who've been in the Alpine School District since they were three years old when they aged out of kids on the move so I know exactly what it's like to have a kid who's sped actually two of them but what I want to do more than anything is share with you that there are teachers in our district that are afraid

108to speak out because our highest ranking staff member of this District District came and told everyone what he wants and what the district wants and they're afraid to say what they really want so I'm going to tell you what they've told me look at the geography west side is huge when you listen to the east side people talk it's clear they H they hold contempt Hold Us in contempt I've lived here for 24 years I've worked for ASD for 13 we've always been pushed to the side our title $1s are sent to the east side our kids are suffering let's split and take care of our kids another teacher from the West I used to be strongly against a split but after watching all the Schoolboard meetings and attending some Town Halls I've changed my

109my position one of the big issues for me as a teacher at Cedar Valley is that we need another high school we are bursting we have 40 plus students in our core classes we are using janitor closets as offices I'm out of time but I'm going to ask you have the courage to care about all the kids in our district not just some in certain zip codes thank you Melissa I have one more paper I think this really is the last one correct all right James Porter come on up you are really the last speaker on this I think it's a lot of pressure to be the last person um as I sat back there and I noticed that there was still an opportunity to speak uh one of the things that I wanted to

110convey I've got two kids in the district I'm from PG area uh the concern that weighs on my mind I'm an educator I started off in a charter school and year after year I had to sit down with my administrator and find out whether I continue to have a job so that sort of feeling is coming up again with this sort sort of situation I'm worried about my fellow employees and what will happen to them I'm worried because a lot of them work with the special needs groups uh where or are kind of classified in that same category um and when I hear about budget issues and I see people who are fighting about you know how much we're going to have and sometimes they're saying well we're going to let whatever the situation rolls

111out to be they're going to decide that concerns me greatly I think that we need to have a a firm plan and and I appreciate those who are are working towards it I've been I'm a a history teacher by profession so I went through and had a little fun looking at all of the different schools that have been built uh using the 100y year history that Alpine School District put out um and what's really interesting is there's a lot of opportunities on there where they talk about how bonds didn't go through and yet Alpine School District continue to thrive they were able to work through figure out a plan to educate their students and I think I think that that's something that we can continue to do I think there are opportunities for us to

112look at and see how growth has affected us and that we can continue to find ways to be cohesive and and work together um one of the things that uh I don't think has been said as clearly is that there there is that percentage that said how many people want to put on the ballot this issue and for a lot of people that I've spoken to and again it's hard when you try to characterize percentages right but um one of the biggest things we wanted to do is say let's make a decision so we can move past it whether it goes one way or the other and start focusing on the educational aspects that we need to focus on that we can spend less time talking about this sort of stuff and focus on curriculum

113elements and figuring out how to support students and teachers uh to be effective community members um I didn't pay to build the schools that I attended I came up through cas Canyon View orm High um and I I think I'm a decent product of Alpine School District but it was because other people saw the value of education and how that creates an opportunity for our communities to thrive um and so I think that that I'd love to see more of that I worry when um constituents are getting in there and and saying hey we need to let uh these other entities decide what's going on I think the school board's doing a good job in trying to to put forward a a clear message that says we want to figure out what's the best option

114and let everybody vote thanks thank you James okay um at this point I declare the public hearing for possible reconfiguration of the Alpine School District closed and adjourned it's 7 o'clock let's take about three or four minutes uh before we begin our regular Schoolboard meting meeting if you would like to stay you're invited to stay if you need to leave you're welcome to leave now so let's uh let's begin our store our board meeting at 5 after e e e all right we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance that will be um we will be led by Scott sumers we invite you to stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all

115it never gets old I love hearing that our inspirational thought tonight would be by Rich sto thank you uh I'm going to read a quote by the late Sir Ken Robinson human resources are like natural resources they're often buried deep you have to go looking for them they're not just lying around around on the surface you have to create the circumstances where they show themselves today marks 3 months that I've been a member of the Alpine School District team and I've been so impressed and humbled by the work that goes on here daily our district is a system that is designed to reveal and develop the best in our employees and our students I'm so proud to be a part of an organization that does that thoughtfully and so well our dedicated employees our Board

116of Education and parents across the district partner daily to create the circumstances in which people can become their best selves we should all be proud of that partnership thank you thanks Rich next um one of our favorite things is recognitions we'd love to look at the excellent things that are happening by students and teachers and families in our school district so um we would like to congratulate our graduating class of 2024 um I don't know did some of you go to the to a graduation this year we did and it was inspiring we had more than 6,600 students graduate from Alpine School District and um I just want you to know your future is in good hands um I have the privilege of going to uh timpanogas and Orum High graduation and uh when I

117talk to the students and I see what they've done and I see their enthusiasm for giving service and being part of their communities and for real for working hard I feel really confident that we are in good hands and I am grateful that that we all have a part in that and that as Educators we can give them that that uh springboard to go into life and to go in with confidence and skills so we are we love graduation we're grateful for this time of year now there's some other exciting things have been happening so Mark will you tell us about some uh high school state championships certainly would like to uh we'd like to honor these state championship teams from various schools we uh before would try to bring them in and it's will

118unwieldly with a soccer team or or even the track and Fields so we just are going to send certificates to them to be given during their recognition ceremonies but we we want to honor them here from American Fork High School the 6A boys soccer state champions American Fork High 6A girls track and field state champions from Tioga High the 4A girls track and field state champions from Lone peai the 6A girls golf state champions from leehi high the 6A Boys Baseball State Champions and from Pleasant Grove High the 6A boys volleyball state champions okay thank you just have to say Alpine rocks all right we have no Community comments for board meetings so we'll move on to board business um first of all we have approval of the minutes do I have a motion to

119approve the minutes I move that we approve the minutes and a second I second it okay it's been moved by AA and seconded by Mark are there any comments seeing none let's vote all in favor say I I I any oppos say n okay the minute stand approved uh claims Dr Farnsworth yes thank you president hackin you have received the claims for your for the month and I recommend you accept the claims okay do I have a motion to accept the claims I move that we accept the claims second okay motion by Julie second by Stacy are there any comments for the public uh well we'll just go on um all in favor say I I I any oppos say name okay the claims are approved Dr FS with routine business yes you've received the

120routine business for the month and I recommend you approve the routine business okay do I have a motion to approve routine business I move that we approve the routine business thank you Sarah um has made a motion do I have a second and aah has seconded are there any comments okay here for the public routine business includes budget summary the Alpine Foundation board summary Personnel hiring releases student trip requests Lea specific licenses and the 2024 25 negotiated policies um I think we're ready for a vote all in favor say I I any opposed say nay okay the routine business has been approved Dr Farnsworth okay the first action item is the approval of the the 20 fiscal year 2024 final budget and we recommend you approve the budget I move that we approve the fiscal

121year 24 final budget okay do I have a second second okay it's been moved by Stacy and seconded by Jo Joy Lyn are there any uh questions or comments see none let's vote all in favor of approving the 20 fiscal year 24 budget say I I I any oppos say nay okay fiscal budget for 24 passes thank you next item is approval of the fiscal year 2025 tenative budget which was reviewed with the board in study session and we recommend your approval of the fiscal year 2025 tenative budget okay do I have a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 tentative budget I move that we approve the fiscal year 25 tentative budget and do I have a second I second it okay it's been moved by a and seconded by Mark are there any

122comments or questions is there no presentation on that we had a presentation study session yes I'm aware yeah so no okay is there anything Jason that you'd like to present at this point it works today does that work no we didn't have anything else prepared but any questions we can be able to answer as presented in work session so for our public uh they can refer to our work session for a full um run through the budget as posted and I believe it will be online at some point corrected it already is online okay thank you all right um all in favor it's been moved by aen seconded by Mark all in favor of approving the tenative fiscal year 25 budget say I I all oppose say nay nay do we need to have a

123um individual let's have a roll call vot vote on that starting with data uh board member Wilson I board member Lincoln no board member Clement I board member King nay board member hacken I board member b i board member bitman nay okay it passes thank you Dr Farnsworth yes the next two action items are policies these were not part of the negotiated agreement but the policy committee has been working on these policies we'll invite uh Craig br inhoff legal counsel to come forward who chairs that committee the first policy we are requesting retirement of that policy it's policy 4736 and we recommend that that policy be retired yeah so I just wanted to give a a quick synopsis of of these two policies this particular one the 4736 um because of the nature of the

124policy and the way that it's um carried out and administered it has no effect typically on administrators um because it requires that all uh personal leave or all vacation time to be taken before we can access this administrative leave um so in discussions with the admin the administrative employee Association um they were agreeable that uh this policy could be done away with um you'll see 1.4 administrators can only use their personal leave when all vacation days have been used um we we have a generous vacation lead policy that gives us plenty of time and so it's it's very rare and and quite difficult if not impossible to use those up to ever get to these and so that was part of the justification for wanting to uh get rid of this policy or retire it

125sorry get rid of it doesn't sound very good retire this policy thank you do I have a motion to retire policy 4736 I move to retire policy 4736 personal leave I'll second it okay it's been moved by Jin seconded by Sarah is there any discussion or comment seeing none let's vote all in favor say I I I any opposed say may okay policy 4736 is retired Dr Farnsworth thank you policy 545 safety Health and Welfare some changes have been made to that policy and we recommend that you approve the changes to policy 545 safety Health and Welfare with this particular policy um we brought it into our standard format with our other policies it had previously not had a statement of policy so we added a statement of policy to this particular one also that

126we adjusted just a couple words that uh uh made sense and and made the the policy read better and then at the very bottom of the policy um we added a line that that we took out of a a policy that we previously retired but that this line was important to our risk management team um and they requested it that it be retained and so this was a good place for that uh to be included it fit well in this policy it was taken from the student insurance policy that you might recall we retired where previously we had um contracted with insurance companies so people could get student Insurance when they played um Athletics and other things and where that is no longer being offered we retired that policy but this piece of that was

127um important to our risk management team so we've included that at the end of this policy okay thank you do I have a motion go ahead I move that we approve policy 545 the safety Health and Welfare policy thank you do I have a second second okay it's been moved by Sarah and seconded by Joy Lynn who are both on the policy committee uh are there any comments or questions seeing none let's vote all in favor say I I I any opposed say nay thank you that policy has been approved Dr Farnsworth yes the last report uh on the agenda here is a membership report and you've received that the final one for the year uh we still have uh five elementary schools over a thousand uh and several right close to that that which

128we need to continue to Monitor and adjust and then we have a little bit of movement uh in our secondary schools some schools uh did not grow quite as anticipated which is fine because we have significant number of students in Cedar Valley high school and West Lake High School so uh they're down a little bit over projections but we'll continue to monitor that as well I know the board is contemplating a possible high school out in the west to address some of that okay thank you Dr Farnsworth we now have time for board member and superintendent reports and information items is there any board member that would like to make a report at this point I would love to there's one question I had though on the fy2 budget I think we need to have

129in there about the desire or not for the truth and Taxation hearing so I sent an email to three of you with script on it but maybe didn't yeah last last year in ours when we were doing that if if we are and it it doesn't set those rates but there was a script that we used or the wording last year is to be able to accept the um attack rate and then also recommended tax rate will be finalized at a truth and Taxation Hearing in August okay so are you suggesting that we go back and revisit that vote with um amended yes language that the board meeting we had last year this time had this same or similar wording okay let's take care of that right now then um president hackin I believe the

130proper way to do that would be to have a board member that voted for the um the item to vote to bring it back and then we would redo the agend or motion so I would like to move that we revisit um the vote to approve the tentative fiscal year 25 budget okay thank you do we have a second for that I'll second it all right mve by a and second by Mark all in favor of going back and revisiting that language say I I I any oppos say name all right that being the case let's entertain a new motion okay I move that we approve the fcal year 2024 final budget and I move sorry 2024 2025 year tenative tenative budget for fiscal year 2024 2025 with a recommended tax rate of 0.005 531

131the recommended rate does not include the charter local Levy of 0.0067 set by The Tax Commission and may change due to the certif C ified tax setting process the recommended tax rate will be finalized at a truth and Taxation hearing scheduled for August 13th 2024 at 6: PM do we have a second for that I second it as stated definitely okay is there any discussion about that or Jason do you want to clarify that yeah I can clarify so when it's say there is that may change there's some things so the basic rate hasn't been set yet that should come out on Friday or Monday um that'll just that's just set by the state and doesn't change change a lot that changes how much comes in through property taxes but we're guaranteed an amount through

132the wpu so if there's if the basic rate goes up and brings in more money through local property taxes the state portion would go down to be able to match the guarantee or vice if the basic rate went down then there'd be more from income tax from the state so that's not the the final thing there's still some just just this week we got the final ones set by the uh by the county for the board local or the board and then the voted and then Debt Service is going to be in the next few days also so there are some moving Parts still on that so the 5531 is where it's at right now um but this motion says whatever the certified tax rate takes it to we approve but then it also at

133this point says we if we don't do vote now to be able to say have a hearing in August that may or may not pass whatever is decided and I think on Friday we'll decide the amounts that go into um that'll show up on people's notices tax notices to be able to have the hearing so those those don't have to be set tonight on what increments the board would like to go for just that they want to have the hearing to entertain the idea of it and so it's already with the county we set that early in January try to be the one of the first ones on just so we have the time that aligns with our board meeting so August 13th is a Tuesday 6: PM um to be able to have that

134that hearing okay very good thank you so again I think this is just characteristic as we spoke about in uh work in our work session that we in this budget do not make any assumptions um and those and that this amendment will clarify that there could be some movement in this budget the budget book as the budget as presented for fy2 included the rates as they would be from what the certified tax rate does with no extra increments that would be through the truth and Taxation process so nothing is in the book assumed that the board will do but if the board would like we we discussed in study session the possibility ility of some increments in the board Levy in the capital and be able to reduce The Debt Service Levy again to be

135able to offset some of those increases thank you have a question so I thought we had determined that Friday was just a work session to start the conversation but then you said we were going to determine an amount I think I misspoke study session today is what I was referring to not not our work session that's coming up the the amounts to be able to set for the tax notices that go out due on June 21st so we have to go into the system um to be able to say this is the max so like last year the board in that process around June 21st said we're going to increase the capital rate for increments the board by three increments and that is what went on people's tax notices when we came to the August

136meeting then that was determined that that's what the board wanted to do but they could have gone the board could have done less than that but not more so whatever decided to put um by the board to be able to put as an increase in taxes to go out in notices those tax notices go out and they say what time the hearing is also so those all have to be generated by June 21st or entered by June 21st so the county has time to complete all of the notices that go out in the summer before those meetings so I thought we had those conversations in small groups we so this is a work session is different right so it hasn't been noticed if we're going to vote doesn't it a to be noticed as a

137board meeting it will be noticed I thought it was just a work session just want us on the same page other questions or comments so he has been moved by Sarah and seconded by Mark do we need to read the entire statement again or can we vote as memory serves all right all in favor of the The Substitute motion as read by Sarah please say I I I uh any opposed to say nay nay no roll call vote uh board member Wilson I board member Lincoln no board member Clement I board member King nay board member hacken I board member b i board member baitman nay okay thank you all right are there any uh board member report S I would like to share one thing I attended the star summer reading program this morning

138with the Alpine foundation and that program is a program for uh young folks who need just a little more help and um it is a fabulous program and this year we have about 20 sites and we have um several classes each site about three classes at each site and we have about 1,500 kids in enrolled who are thriving they are loving it they have a three-hour rotation where they do something each hour this year they are integrating um science with literacy and doing some really really fun science activities that are emphasizing literacy and um they showed us some test scores from last summer and the um the rising first graders so these are little guys leaving kindergarten coming into first grade um they came in last summer at a 3.5% proficiency overall and they left

139with a 58% proficiency after only four weeks of the star summer program and so I asked them if they are tracking these kids to see how much loss there could be during the summer like what is their beginning of their scores and they're holding up really really well they did have that data for last year so um I congratulate Alpine foundation and all those teachers who are participating in that and um it is just so exciting to see these little guys and they were so cute this morning like I get it I get it and um this is one of the things the foundation provides for the district is just outstanding because it's all paid for with Foundation money um and the title one sites are paid for with Title One money okay anyone else

140okay seeing no okay say oh hold on we're just fighting over who goes first oh okay great good so last week I attended one of the uh administrative PD days and um I just wanted I think this is one of the things we probably don't talk a lot about um to our public with um if you're not in an SEC or PTA meeting but over the last couple years there's been a switch in kind of how the district support schools and the goals that the schools set and it has been a phenomenal thing to watch um everybody's kind of got the same priority areas but each school gets to set goals that are unique to that school um and then this PD day was kind of the kickoff for next year so what what are

141you building on you know what things are changing and I I think there is a an excitement among administrators that I haven't really seen before um just everybody knows what their um goals are and what they're chasing and I love that we are looking out for both the academic and social emotional needs of students and so just wanted to say thank you to um our principles who came and spent their day and and just watching kind of the breakout conversations and how everybody's interacting ING with each other um I just it's a it's a really fantastic thing to watch and to see how great they are and how they're preparing for our kids when it is so hot outside and they're indoors so just grateful for them and for the district team for providing um

142that opportunity for them to get together and to get ready for the next year any else wison I just uh we as the board received an email from jod Lindsay that I was really excited about she um is reporting on our districtwide seal of biliteracy numbers that are just off the charts and I just wanted to to uh brag a little bit about what they're doing in in um from going from single digits um we have gone in 2020 we had 53 seal of biliteracy graduates uh then we went to 255 371 520 and this past year 647 graduates graduated with their seal of biliteracy in a combination of uh four eight nine 10 11 languages which I think is amazing so thank you to jod Lindsay and her team do you want to comment

143on or do you know what they have to do to earn that it's it's here 18 or higher yeah 18 or higher on their ACT test three or higher on their AP English test three or higher on on the English section of aspire a 4.2 weeda comp composite score and a 12 in speaking writing and one anyway it's extensive it's not just a giveaway yeah they have to show literacy in both their for language and and in English and so these kids work really hard at this this is a remarkable achievement and I think business and industry leaders are valuating EV valuing this when they see these kids coming in with this seal of by literacy they know they're solid they know two languages thoroughly and and they're very much um in demand in the

144workplace so part of that test is they have to demonstrate both in a verbal conversation and written so it's not I mean it's it's a significant thing and every student does that live so I think sometimes we don't talk a lot about how long and intense the process is for them to pass that okay Dr fwith do you have any I would like to take a moment and recognize Kimberly bird she is a member of our senior leadership team has spent several years in Alpine School District and is retiring this year um we have developed what we call the influencer reward and you can read up there um the purpose behind this but this uh is given rarely to a few individuals who have shown significant influence on others and all of us on the

145senior leadership team have been influenced significantly by Kimberly bird she and her career has served in various positions I don't know of anyone who has served in more of a variety of positions in Kimberly and has done each of those incredibly well uh she's currently executive director of operations Communications was a teacher at Westridge principal at Northridge worked as a Director of Human Resources public relations assistant to the superintendent just a multitude of varying responsibilities oversaw operations Communications District spokesperson and just has left a significant impact on Alpine School District uh she's always Jo jovial positive and a great team member and we are honored to give her the influence award and wish her well in her future endeavors as she continues to be a significant influence on others thank you C Kimberly come up

146no come up you have you have to come up here [Applause] all right are there any other reports and congratulations Kimberly well deserved you have been an influence on me and I think everyone on this board and most of the people in this room okay do I have no other comments or reports do I have a motion to adjourn I move that we adjourn I'll second it okay move by Mark and second by Sarah um all in favor of adjourning say I I any oppos say nay this meeting stands a journ thank you for coming and