Board Meeting 1/20/2026

001Board of Education. Today is January 20th, 2026 and we're meeting with the district office located 936 East, Utah. The first item on the agenda is our 2026 legislative updates and Charlie Evans, director of external relations and Susan Evans, public engagement coordinator will be presum I sent you guys a text message today. I'll talk about a little bit more in a minute that listed all the bills that they added to the calendar today. Um, and there's a couple of bills on our hot list that but nothing we're too concerned about. They did pass two of those bills through one through the House and one through the Senate this afternoon and so they're off and running. Um, but I think everybody will remember that first day is in the last three sessions has been they've gotten up

002to quite a bit of mischief and none of that so far this year which we are pleased. So, uh, one down and 44. Um, want to just do Everybody of course knows Susan. Everybody knows Brooke who is going to be part of our legislative team this year. And uh, Henry, what's Henry's last name? >> Bara Bara. >> There you go. >> There we go. >> We left him at We left him at the Capitol uh, during floor time. He'll be down here and we'll introduce him one night when he is here. Henry as our intern this year and doing a wonderful job and we're looking forward to working with him. So I just want to talk for a minute. Do you want to say anything about any of the bills before we get into communication?

003>> No, I don't think so. Like like he said things already moving. Your tracker is up to date to the minute before you started. So >> So that's why I want to talk to you about it. I think everybody's familiar with the tracker. We will be sending that. That will come as it always has from Brooke. And uh so you'll receive that via email every day. And Susan and I and Brooke are going to um make an effort at the end of each day to send you guys a short text message that just gives briefly and in a very general way what happened that day at the legislative session. So um everybody should have received that first one from me today. It'll sometimes come from me. It'll sometimes come from Susan. Occasionally it may come

004from Brooke as well. Feel free u to ask questions on that thread. If you think the whole board would be interested in it, if if it's just a very specific question that you want answer to, feel free to text me or Susan or both of us and we'll be happy to get back to you. So, at the at the end of each day, till we get too burned out to do it, you'll get that text message from one of us, which won't be too long. And it'll just just be a very brief overview of what happened that day. And then it'll any bills that are listed on that, you will have to go find in the tracker if you have any interest. And that tracker is completely up to date and will always be up

005to date as we always have done it. Anything else we need to add about that? >> You have any questions for us? >> Questions for Mrs. Nyar? >> I didn't get a text. So, you have my new number. >> Well, some whoever's got your old number got a really nice text today tomorrow. >> I think I know who that is and it probably went >> I also I also included a different Brooke than Brooke, too. So I got to >> random people bring that up. >> Fortunately, we didn't say anything too egregious today. [laughter] >> You didn't get yourself in trouble. >> You want to add any [clears throat] to that reporters to that? [laughter] >> No. Although that will be very generic. I mean it won't be anything that's top secret >> on that.

006I don't want to put anything, you know, that's all >> grammable. >> [clears throat] >> I did a quick question. Just because the governor is pushing this early literacy deal, I would like to see Senate Bill 127 expanded. Is there any traction talk movement along that line? I realize that they tell us that they just ignore him. Had a couple of legislators just say, you know, it doesn't matter what he says about budget. Doesn't matter. We're just going to do what we want. We don't care. But he's pushing that pretty heavily in the community and he is sending his research group out to all the schools in the districts. >> Well, that's a good question. >> Legislators like to talk about how irrelevant he is, but he's not irrelevant forms public opinion. >> He's as

007relevant as he wants to be, but he often chooses to be irrelevant. And so that's the answer to your question. Depends on how hard he pushes it. If he wants it, he will get it. But I just don't know how much he wants. I >> just hadn't heard anything and I know that you guys likely haven't heard anything. It's like he's digging this right >> back up from 22. >> We've heard the same things you have and Susan and I have talked about it and we're just wondering >> because if he if he does truly make it a priority, he will get it, but he's going to have to make it a priority and we haven't seen that so far. That doesn't mean he's not going to do it. We just haven't seen it so

008far. >> It's possible that he's just building momentum and that it will be a next year thing. >> Could be. I don't know. You know what I mean? Getting all the what? Studying it first before you speak. >> You might be. >> I'm surprised. Okay. Thank you. >> I had a thought and maybe we don't want to move anywhere past our legislative priority priorities in that little pamphlet they get, which is great. But when we set up appointments this year to speak with people when we go to the hill, I was wondering about if we think it would be helpful to have if you look at the number of unfunded mandates and underfunded mandates. I sure wish we had a little graph that we could give to those that we speak to that day and

009just say, you know, just to keep it in mind. >> Leon, you put something together like that and something else. Could you >> duplicate that? last year >> and USBA day on the hill is January 30th. So it's a week from Friday events. >> That reminds me I'm sorry. >> Two different events. >> I didn't mean to cut you off. Did I cut you off there? >> I was just going to say yeah like it would be for the 30th. But it would be nice. I think I think there are definitely some people there that will listen and if they have a little thing to look at could be helpful. >> So if I'm reading the tea leaves right from that day, you guys have JLC from 11 as usual. So, you're wanting to meet

010with legislators prior to 11 mornings. >> Yes. >> And they're in committees and I've already put it on their radar and said, >> "So, what they're going to what they're going to want us to do is come and stand in the halls and meet with them >> in the hallway, >> which is fine, which is fine to do." And >> just for clarification, because the two seem to have merged occasionally in our conversations, the first one is this. It is tomorrow. >> Yeah, Thursday. >> Tomorrow is tomorrow. >> Tomorrow. Um, we wanted to have not a rally. It's not a rally. And the legislature is going to be doing their thing. It's not necessarily completely for them, although we want them to wander through >> committees when Yeah. And then they'll come through. But we

011um we as in USBA have decided that we wanted to have a po something positive to reinforce what they have done, right? Which isn't a lot, but we'll go with that. >> You know what I mean? Just be more positive about public education because they think we're just the bad guys. So, we're just doing a PR thing from 3 to six. And we have our school have our district has three >> five. >> Okay. Representatives each. We know it all falls on the Wasatch front because the rurals can't get people up there, but there's no student performances, but we have booths and people that can talk and and anyway, if you can come and support that, that'd be fine, but it is not the day on the hill. The Day on the Hill is the

01230th and it is not going to have anything in the rotunda. It will all be over in the new building. >> In the [clears throat] new building. >> Is parking better? >> Yes, parking is better. >> They left spots for people. >> Yes. You didn't say good, but it's better. >> Where do we park when we go? >> Wherever you can find the spot. >> It's you you'll still be on the street >> there's more street parking than there has been before because of all the they moved all the staff underneath, you know, into the Okay. So, it it is it is based on today quite a bit better today. >> Okay. >> Based on today, it was much better. And so, that I'm glad you guys brought that up. So, tomorrow is actually a

013really busy day for us. And we've got the Senate having its first meeting and they've got a long agenda with several times. >> What's that? >> What time is that? >> It's at three. >> Citad's at two. >> Oh, excuse me. Okay. >> I'm going to come over and greet you guys and say hello, but I'm going to spend most of my time in the committee and Susan's going to have to come over for at least part of it. Uh, but we will be there and available. >> We'll be there meeting our team. Okay, >> that's coming up to set up and help everybody >> get everything they need taken care of. >> Any other questions for us? >> Um, just tomorrow, Karen, where is that event? Is it in the rotunda? >> Is in

014the rotunda tomorrow? >> We don't have specific legislators scheduled to come down. I think someone >> All of ours have been invited. >> They've been invited. Exactly. But they're not >> All right. We just know that that was >> be on the lookout. They'll be walking through even if they don't plan it on. >> That's the idea. The idea is just to give a very positive view of what the public schools are doing because they have undue I feel like personal opinion undue influence from the privates. >> Yeah. >> And the homechoolers. >> The other time on the hill I was looking for McKay is Friday morning 8. Um you're being recognized for the work that we did on the um technology. uh uh >> good >> that McCay oversaw that committee. So he's going

015up to represent um Friday morning at 8 that we're being recognized as a district of distinction probes. It's slightly short five minutes >> and he's meeting with Senator Cull. >> He doesn't know that yet, but you do now. surprise. [laughter] [laughter] >> So, so I think that's positive as those bills run and and I I told Amber this um our some of our parents had attended a town hall meeting for some of our legislators to to make sure that they were aware of these bills and to introduce them to them and talk about them. So, um, so I think when they hear that Canyons is actually getting recognized for what we did, I think that's positive and, um, you know, I think that's and that was Senator Baldry that scheduled that up, um, after hearing

016the presentation at our at our lunch. >> We're looking forward to that. Yeah, >> that's going to be a huge issue in this session for sure. >> We're ahead of the game. >> Is there any way you can let us know like if our schools if our schools end up coming up? Is there >> We always We always do that. We don't have We have four that we know of >> field trips and we've got some other entities. So there's yes, but we will get you the full calendar. >> Anybody that's talking to because we always have at least one school that shows up every year that we're not expecting and that's fine with us, but we give them so much more of a better experience than they would get otherwise. And so if you

017talk to principles, principles um that are planning that, make sure that they come through us. It's not because we want to control them, but they will get a better experience through us, >> which our staff completely this year retoolled the field trip booklets >> um and uh and the teacher >> usually get them back into the lounges and things like that that public tours won't give them. So, >> good. I have a suspicion we don't know of some coming because the four we do know are all in the same area. They're all >> That would be a low four. I mean, we usually have so many more than that to come. I know [clears throat] some went earlier because I know my >> had several go earlier and we have four scheduled later but four

018for the session is about a third of what we usually have. So that's kind of interesting. >> Thank you. Thanks so much. We appreciate all you guys do. >> We will see you tomorrow. >> Okay. The next item on the agenda is item B and it's the 2026 board of education graduation assignments and Dr. May Robinson, assistant superintendent, who will be leading us in this discussion. >> So, the very first thing we're going to need to do is computer out the center of this table. Three slides go on for arm wrestling [laughter] wrestling that way. Um, I'm hoping that you are able to find the two documents in your folder. I thank Cindy for putting those together for you. The one that I emailed you actually have had a change since then, so I wanted

019to make sure you have the most current. So, if you look at the 26 graduation information document, Diamond Ridge should be Thursday, May 28th, and Entrada should be Wednesday, June 10th. So, if you're seeing that on yours, you have the >> It does. Correct. >> My question is is what does Jordan's theme say? >> Jordan Valleys, >> Jordan High. >> I'm not sure. >> Is unwritten. >> The rest is unwritten. >> Something is unwritten and I can't read it. >> I just know the song. The rest is The rest is unwritten. I can send you a new one. >> I just wondered. >> Yeah, >> because so really what we need to determine and then the other document is just from last year so that you can see what's there. Um anyone that plans on

020attending, we'd love to know those names as well because they'd love to have you recognized on the um program itself and then who will be speaking. So those are >> Do you real quick, McKay, do you and I'm good with whatever. Do you want to rotate you and I or leave it as? >> We can do that. The reason why I put it like this was very selfish. Jordan High School still have students of mine when I was at >> Well, then keep it. >> Who wants to sell? >> It was very selfish. >> That's great. I'm good with it. >> But I can. >> No, no, no. Hey, I did I didn't know that. That's awesome >> because that day at some point will be no more and then you really >> don't remind

021me. [laughter] He's already feeling old today. >> He is. I know. >> And he's feeling his immortality. >> So I'm I'm simply ready to jot down names as you discuss and who wants to be where and how we want to go about this? But >> so the first is Ala. So last year Ollie spoke and Amanda attended. Are we fine like reversing that? >> Yeah. Okay. So, Amanda speak >> and then Holly will attend. >> Okay. Then Brighton is me and Katie. Um Katie, are you okay if I speak last year? >> Okay, perfect. >> So far, no arm wrestling. >> This is no fun. >> True. >> Okay. Corner Canyon. So, last year >> Amanda spoke and Holly attended. So, are we okay to flip-flop that? >> Do either of you have someone graduating

022or not? >> Not this year. >> So, it's next year there'll be an arm. >> Do you have someone next year? >> Maybe it's two years. >> My son My son graduates next year, but then I don't have anyone after that for a bit. >> I have someone in 2028. >> Okay. Oh, great. This works great. >> Stay tuned. >> So, I apologize. What's >> So, Holly's gonna speak. Amanda attend for corner. So, the opposite. Yeah. And then Hillrest. Um, let me see who spoke. Oh, >> Jackson spoke and I attended and Andrew attended. >> Not not this year, but next year. I have a grandson. >> Jackson, are you okay? >> Graduating from Hillrest. I kept deferring first to Mont Jackson. >> Okay. >> So, who's speaking at? >> Andrew's gonna speak >> next

023year. >> Jackson, you want to attend that one? I >> Oh, yeah. >> And then what did you say, Karen? Sorry. >> I'm just saying that I'm I'm I'm going to need it next year. >> Oh, you want to speak next year? Okay. >> I have to >> I would like to speak I would prefer to speak at my grandson's graduation. Do you want to attend this year or are you okay not attending? >> Okay. Because I think I >> other places I hang out. So >> I haven't attended Jordan for a while. So okay. So it'll just be Andrew and Jackson with Andrew speaking and >> Okay. Jordan, >> we've been taking turns. >> So Karen back Andrew spoke last year. >> Have we been taking turns? I'm pretty sure >> you were sick

024one time. So it was your speech and my my voice. Oh, see I thought I had just been hogging up the whole time and then it was your [clears throat] turn this year. So >> it should be >> It is your turn this year. >> Do you mind? >> Okay, Karen. >> No, I >> because my community goes there and I know lots of the graduates. >> I was >> my students >> in my head. You were speaking this year. >> Good. Then there's no arm wrestling. >> This is just going so well. Okay. I would like to attend though. So it'll be Karen speaking. Jordan, Andrew, and I attend. Okay. Then Diamond Ridge and Diamond Ridge note is a different day. >> Diamond Ridge I have been doing and I really enjoy doing it

025because that's one of my schools. >> Okay. >> And I could attend that one. >> I know I attended last. >> She went you guys went last time. It's fine. >> I know another kid this year too. >> So Karen, do you want to speak? >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> I don't need to speak. If Karen's if she started doing Jordan, she can speak there too. >> Okay. So, Amber and Katie will attend Ridge. >> Karen's speaking. Okay. Entrada. This is also a different day. June. >> I I I spoke there because it's definitely a different day and I can ad >> I'm not sure. Does anyone else want to attend? Karen, are you fine speaking? >> Those two are real fun and really trust me. They're they're fun. I look forward to >> You

026can put me down. I'm just% sure I can. >> Hey, Amber, can you remind me? I don't have the document in front of me, but what day Entrada is? >> Entrada is June 10th, >> 7 p.m.'s nest day. lots of performing arts. >> Would it be possible for me to attend Brighton's? I have a niece that's graduating this year. >> Yeah, sure. >> The only problem with that is it's at the same time as Altas. >> Oh, it is. Okay. >> And you were gonna speak it up. >> Yeah. Okay. Never mind. >> That's the problem because I've come to Altas, but Brighton and Alta are in different. >> Good point. >> One foot in the one foot. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah, sure. So, let's write down Jackson. >> Which one did you say? >>

027I'm just telling you, I'm gonna have the world's shortest speech. Just wait. >> It's going to be like 15 seconds. I'm planning it for already. >> 15 seconds. That's a sentence. >> And I bet I will get like a standing ovation. [laughter] Just kidding. I get more the more the shorter it is, the more compliments I get. I'm just saying. So, >> okay. >> People like long monotone speeches. >> We all know that. Just kidding. [laughter] >> Especially when they don't focus on students. >> This is true. >> That's a good point. [gasps] >> Okay. Jordan Valley. And that is >> introd. Do I have a buddy coming? >> Yes, I'm gonna come. I will and then I think if I can't I will maybe just message some of you guys and see if anyone

028else can >> Okay, sounds great. But I think I can. >> Um, okay. Jordan Valley is May 22nd. It's a Friday from 3 to 4. Okay. I would really like to go. >> I'll go too. >> Like to go. >> Okay. Sober. >> No, they don't speak. No, we don't speak. >> That was a fun one to go to last year, by the way. >> Okay. But no one's speaking. Perfect. >> There four. Sorry. >> It's just the three of us. Got it. >> Not Karen. >> Okay. >> The Life Skills Academy. That is Thursday, May 28th >> at noon. Okay. Katie, >> do you want to speak this time? Katie >> or no? They're also >> sure is pretty short. >> Super short. Like >> two minutes is long. >> I'll go. >> Karen

029Karen again. >> I can go too. >> And Amanda. Okay. >> Great. >> Okay. So, I will type this up, finalize it, make sure that Natasha Bettington's lyrics are feels. >> Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out that >> they are written. >> Yes, they are. Nice. Nice. >> I'm going. Was that intentional? >> Um, and then I'll send that to you all just to make sure that I didn't miss anything and we'll go from there. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now, we're about time. I didn't. Okay. [laughter] Now, we're going to have item C, the Bella Vista and Rich Pest Consolidation Update. and Sally Samson and Alice Meredith, directors of elementary principles, will present this to us. >> I hope it's okay. As we were getting ready for this presentation, we have

030so few slides, we thought it might be easier for just one of us to present. I'm here also to help support and answer questions, but >> Okay. >> Well, sure. That's great. Well, we are grateful um for the opportunity to just update you on a lot um that has been taking place throughout the community um behind the scenes. Um just so you are aware and I'm sure you know I'm just going to start out by saying this has been hard. Um this has been a process that there isn't a rule book, right? Um and there is a motion for everyone. There's a motion in the communities. Um there's a motion for a Rididgerest. There's a motion for Bella Vista. There's a motion for um parents that might be having changes to their lives. Um there's

031certainly a motion for teachers that might um have changes coming to them. And so it's been so wonderful to to have a team um a team of people to to work with um and to support us as we're going through that. Um, a lot of the work has been taking place, Alice and I have been working very closely with both principles, um, principal Allen and Principal Winder, um, in order to work through a lot of of the logistics that are happening, um, with employees and some of those pieces. And then we have our transition team that we're going to talk about today. um that um we have just begun and we actually had our first meeting last Thursday and it was it was you know it was hard and there's emotion there and there's feelings

032but it really was great to see a whole team of people coming together from all the aspects of the communities that are being affected by this decision and to really set the stage for our goal in doing what is going to be best to support students through this through this transition. um our advisory team was um you know designed right there it talks about what um the team was designed for and on the team you'll see there's representation from the district um key departments in the district that are going to be needed um along the way and their expertise in in the meetings both administrators from the schools and then we have a PTA a school comm and a school community um rep from each school as well as two teacher reps from each school

033so that we have a a a pretty balanced committee that is um able to really give us a lot of different viewpoints. And I think that's the thing we left that first transition meeting from is how wonderful it is to have all of those viewpoints and then center those towards um hard decisions and hard things that that we can help support the communities through. Um our goals for the transition team are listed there. Um and and with that our you know Sarah um Allen our principal really made um a great I guess opening statement to the transition team about having students as our center and and that's going to be our guiding our guiding thing as we work through um and and as you can see there's there's multiple parts of this transition that people

034need to be involved in. And so what we feel like it's important as the advisory team is to be aware of all of the things that are happening but then have the committees um that are focused on the specific events or the things being the ones involved like I'll give an example the Bella Vista legacy right it's their last year and um the Ridgerest community might not necessarily need to be involved in all aspects of the celebration for Bella Vista and so we're we're making it so that there's um an opportunity for everybody to be involved um in the advisory, but then the workings about that come through with these smaller um smaller committees. Um the one of the big things that we um have been working through right now and and when I talk

035about kind of one of these smaller committees, this is the license or the staffing, right? The HR aspect of this um that's kind of the the focus that we've had uh beginning that immediately, right? because those are a lot of things that our employees are feeling uncertain about. And as we start um as we started with that, we had kind of some of our big first big um things happen this last week. And um I think I think it's, you know, it's fair to say that it is again another emotional thing. And I want you guys to be able to understand kind of the the numbers behind the decisions and the policies. Um everything that we're doing is under the direction of our policies, our obligatory transfer policies as well as our reduction in force

036policies, which is only for our ESP um our ESP employees. Um we've been working hard with our HR team and with our leadership team, with the principles and Alice and I, um to really be transparent and inclusive in in helping our employees to have the information that they need to make the best decisions for themselves. um in in the combination the combining of the two schools it's it's a little different than what we've done before because in the um the combination of Edgemont and Belleview we were able to bring everybody along right there was enough space for every teacher that wanted to move to the combined school to go. In this situation, it's a little different um because we had two school communities that were both being um supported with additional FTE and with the

037the boundary changes that are involved currently between the between two schools, there were 36 34 sorry 34 employees and the FTE that we anticipate um at Ridgerest will be 24. So you can see there that leaves 10 positions that would have to be oted. Um because we did it um as a merge or a combination, we took the seniority from both schools and following our obligatory transfer policy, it goes by seniority. And so um the first it goes by senior, it goes by volunteers first, right? And if there is not enough volunteers, then we go by seniority. So with that we have six teachers that um are Bella Vista teachers currently that will be moving to Ridgerest. We have five Rididgerest teachers who are now, you know, so to speak, losing their spot at Ridgerest

038and being moved to another school um based on the seniority so that the Bella Vista teachers um move along with the students and then we have four additional teachers from Bella Vista that will be ooted to other schools in the district. Um the important part with this whole process to understand is that we are committed to um finding a placement for all of these teachers. Um if history proves itself, we have always been able to place our teachers in positions. Where the the emotion in the heart is is it's not always known, right? We aren't able to tell them you're going to be at this school in this grade. It's those are placed as we u move along our hiring process which you can see on this on this um slide. We have increased um

039a lot of our deadlines that the whole district operates by. We've kind of moved some of these up to help ensure that we're giving as much lead time as we can for these employees that are that are dealing with, you know, being displaced or being moved or having to make a decision to move. Um, so that kind of gives you a little bit about what's been happening with our license timeline and you can see there some of the things that are happening um with our with our our team of HR and working through with the teachers. The same thing is also um will and is happening with our ESP staff. Where it's a little different here is there's two different um policies, whether it's a full-time ESP or a um part-time ESP. And um if

040they're part-time, they're they're simply not guaranteed a job. And that that of course is hard for us to to say that, right? Again, with history in in when you know there's been FTE changes at a school, we have been able to find people another place. Um, but it's always not, you know, an immediate process and it may not be the exact placement and it's not their school. And, you know, we all know our schools, there's just heart in our schools. We, Karen can tell us, being a Willow Canyon Wildcat is, you know, who you are and having to move is is hard. Um we've been really um working hard with the ESP staff to identify the full-time placements within the district for openings that are happening now and working on plans to where they can

041stay and finish out their assignment in Bella Vista. But then and and we have kind of a sub person at the other position and then they'll be able to move to that position. We also have the school secretary that's been working at two um schools because we had an opening. And so there's been a lot of really um employee forward creative um support to help get employees where they need to be as far as the full-time. We don't anticipate that um we won't be able to retain any of the full-time ESPs. Um where some of the challenges have come with the ESP um is both schools and this is a tribute to our awesome schools and communities is they have um very experienced brain booster staffs um playground assistants um office staff who have been

042at the school that um have have been there a long time and um that is going to be a challenge where we again are going to follow the same policy that's um we we did with the um glacier Hills and well when we make Glacier Hills is that they will be interviewing for the ESP positions and both principles will be helping to support those interviews and um anybody that isn't able to continue on in the com the combined Ridgerest school will be working with HR to find a placement for them. So that this is kind of our timeline for that. Just so that you're aware if you hear about some of those things happening um you're aware of that. Our big focus with the transition team um is is first off just ensuring that everybody

043that information is getting where it is needed, but also that we're doing the right things because we can think we know what a community might need, but really those in feeling it and understanding um know what they need most. And one of the beautiful things I think that came out of our first transition meeting was um one of our Bella Vista members like shared we our families just want to get in the school. We have to make decisions on permits and we just want to come have an open house at the school and immediately principal Allen scheduled an open house for Tuesday the 27th. Is that Tuesday? Yeah, it is a Tuesday. Tuesday the 27th for all the Bella Vista families to come. And then we were able to talk through, should that just be

044the Bella Vista family? Should it be um everyone? And another parent was able to say, you know, we have loved that you've invited us to the skate night, but it was overwhelming. And so we um because there was a lot of new and so we feel like this would be more appropriate. So it was really just a a really good way to learn information from the the people and make some um decisions that were really going to benefit the school. We've also had a great discussion about branding and um you know it's another hot topic right and um there were there were some uh members of the team that really wanted to rebrand the school in needing a new name possibly a new mascot like what we did with Glacier Hills and you know we

045we let them know that that would have to certainly come from the board but with the time frame that we're in doing that for this next year it's really adding another big piece um of work that that may not you know that I think would we'd be able to include more of the community and the students if we had a longer a longer time to do that. We actually are so lucky that both schools are the same mascot. They are tigers. We have Bella who is Bella Vista's tiger and Reggie who is um Rididgerest Tiger. They're also the same colors and um they really as the committee talked they talked about the um the pride being a tiger's their pride having both mascots actually having both um both of the mascot I say costumes if

046any kids are listening but the mascots [laughter] um and then also you know talking with communications on how they can really update the um what's the word logo thank logo and and make it um have pieces of both of the the tigers. Um so by the end um we did a fist of five with the committee and and they decided that's where they want the route they wanted to go now um with the option of you know reaching out to the board and seeing if that's something in the future that that might be something to work for. both principles and the parents actually on the group we said well do you you know do you refer to them as the school name or you know the mascot and and they said oh we're the tigers

047like the kids identify with tigers and so that piece will not be changing for them they'll they'll both be tigers and then the last thing that really I wanted to share was there's just been it it was beautiful again to see the the combining of events um where the PTA has just welcomed um Ridgeest PJ has welcomed Bella Vista's PJ. They're already texting, planning events, planning shared um spirit nights. Um Ridgerest does a big uh Chinese New Year's event at Butler Middle School. They've invited the community to that. They actually do an evening talent show and that was something the PTA really wanted to do at Bella Vista and so they're going to do a combined talent show with both schools. Um in the evening there's going to be an event um through Cottonwood Heights

048to rename the 7200 South Road right out in front and they chose um Tiger Cub >> Cubway so it's um it fits and so having that be part of the community. So there's a lot of events and things that will be taking place with both of the communities in addition to the events that will take place at Bella Vista for the closure. So with that, that's kind of a little >> and she looks straight at me. [laughter] >> Thank you. Um, yes. Board questions and we'll start with Karen. >> I am very impressed with what you've been able to get done so quickly. That is amazing. Kudos. I mean, you guys have really made made a huge stride in getting these communities to mesh. And what you're doing is setting a precedence for all of

049our other schools, no matter what we do, that communities, you're modeling for them that the communities can work together in a positive way and that in the long run, the students will be better off for for the change. It's hard to [clears throat] change, but I think it'll be really good. My only concern and that's only because I know not happy people are the ones I always hear from so I know they're not the majority but I wanted to know is there any leeway? I realize the policy goes by seniority but as the principles are talking are they looking to see if they can balance new and old staffs. You know what I mean? we don't want all the senior teachers all in one building because then they're all going to retire out or whatever

050it is all at the same time and then you're going to have all new people that there's more a continuity long term. I know you can't balance that exactly but and I know our policy doesn't exactly say special needs gets precedents or whatever but is there a discussion? >> It has. Yes. and and it has balanced it out a little bit in that some people volunteered to OT themselves. They said, you know what, I would rather, you know, go into the district OT pool because we will have additional OT's in addition to the ones that we have from this situation. We'll have other schools that will be losing FTE. So, they chose to go into that pool to go into a bigger >> a different um area. and they um some of them were the

051ones by seniority would have been able to stay but unfortunately we've had to follow the policy um along with after volunteers but what's been great is both principles really work together in designing the teams so that there were representations from Bella Vista as well as Ridgerest on every team one through five and that was intentional but some people were upset about that do. And so it's, you know, there's and there's reasons why PR when principles make decisions for staffing, you know, they hire, you know, a lot of times you have three candidates and you hire the one that's going to be the best with that team, right? >> Well, they were principal prerogatives. >> And so that's [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Well, I just want to make sure because they were really complaining about >>

052Yeah. >> more of one school and then the other. >> Well, and the politics of it. >> Yes. So when we started it was much greater but as I said it ended up being six Bella Vista teachers are going into Rididgerest. So of the 20 four teachers six will be Ridge will be excuse me Bella Vista teachers but that meant five Ridgerest teachers are now going to be somewhere else. >> Okay superintendent. >> So real quick just first off kudo as much appreciation to Sally and Alice for doing this. I mean, amazingly difficult work and I think we all have to be settled with we're going to continue to be uncomfortable. Um, anytime any organization, teams, companies merge, right? I mean, it is a difficult difficult thing at best. So, there's that. But, um, couple

053of things to think about. you know this is long-term five years 10 years as the district grapples with declining enrollment school merge you know schools merging I really think just my recommendation is policy committee take up the obligatory transfer seniority policy it's much different than what we do with riff um we have not done a riff in in canyons with certified teachers so um now that creates It solves some problems, it creates more problems other ways, right? So things like if you add in, for example, in some districts that don't strictly use seniority, you're talking about things like, you know, is it a skill set? Is it teacher evaluation? Those things can also be very subjective, right? Having said that though, to your point, Karen, about how do we support principles as we go forward

054long term, long after we're all gone, this is going to continue to be a major issue, not just in canyons, but you know, across the state and the country as districts start to have to reconfigure to meet all of these issues. So, that's one. The second piece is at one point the district did do an early retirement incentive. That's another tool that you know Leon and I just throwing that around. Um the district did that. What year was it you did it in Leon? >> You remember in going into the 20134 year when we did the grade figuration that was >> ninth graders going into high school, sixth graders into middle school, you know. So many teachers had to shift up. We did a we did a uh a thin van, you know, that was

055just for one year. We paid them $6,000 stipen or we would pay their medical insurance premiums on COBRA for one year. Most took the Cobra. We had 120ish. We offered it to everybody, you know, ESPs and administrators. had about 120 or so people take the incentive. Now, some of them were going to retire anyway, right? So, they'd already made up their mind. So, we basically paid their their premiums for a year, but uh others, you know, they take it, you know, probably 40 50 who weren't already planning on retire. >> If they're sitting on the fence, they're going, "Can I go a couple more years or am I going to do it now?" That made them do it now. They just said, "Okay, it's worth it for me." So, just throwing that out there as

056a potential tool that the board can consider, you know, and I I don't know if that's a now thing. We've just been trying to brainstorm different ideas that, you know, as we kind of go down this road, this is going to be a recurring theme that is going to have to deal with now and in the future. So, those are a couple of ideas. >> Counc are you okay with the recommendation to have Let's go to policy. You guys look at the policy. >> I'm very much in favor of that. >> That's you, Amanda. >> Did you want to say something? >> No, I agree with what Rick has proposed. I think it's a good idea. >> Okay. What about the whole early retirement? [clears throat] Do we want this policy committee to discuss that

057>> policy first? I think >> and then we look at our numbers of educators and where they're calling and see if that was something that will help us both financially and also in placement. I don't think we know that right now. So I think that we'd have to address that in the upcoming year for the next >> kind of worked out for now. I'd hate to change it now because then it'll change who wants to what >> it's not ideal and >> and then it's it's Andrew then I don't know that. >> Let's just go down the line. >> I I feel that the tool of early retirement options should be given to administration right now at your discretion. Um, I feel like whatever tools we need to take care of people and to take

058care of the Ridgerest community and the the teachers that are transitioning and if if that means that that's an offer, then I feel that that's a tool that you should have, but I don't necessarily want to get in the middle of that. That makes sense. >> Yeah. So you're saying just for that community, just for that. >> We would we would have to offer it >> policy have to go to everyone and that's why I'm >> I'm not sure we should go with a we just do a one year like we did then. >> It was a one time and you made it very clear one time only. >> That doesn't need to go into policy. Uh you know if you wanted to give us that authority to look at that it would have to

059go to >> it would have to go to everybody. We you know we looked at just looked at just one you know if you have two schools merging just look it for them. That's unfair to everyone else. So, >> true. >> Really need to >> That's broad. >> How do the rest of you guys feel? Just kind of >> quickly I'll have Katie. I mean, are we all okay with that to give them that that ability if they think it's necessary? [clears throat] >> I'm more just curious. Not that I It's just numbers wise, like what are we looking at cost for Cobra versus cost savings on wages? >> Yeah. So, we haven't looked at those numbers. You're probably, you know, >> Cobra is going to be around or a couple, you know, most will

060be couples. You will have some singles and you will have some families who, you know, people who have and it's under 26. Cobra is around 15,000. I'd have to get the exact number of that. >> So that's why most people would take the insurance over the the stage. >> Exactly. That's a better deal. >> That's what I thought when you mentioned it. You probably have to crunch some numbers. >> If you feel like you >> and you get, you know, you'll get some people who you're hoping would stay take it and others, you know, you know, one of them, you know, it's not going to be, they're not ready to go yet either. So, you know, it's just it's a it was helpful back in 2013 when we made that change, but it didn't correct

061everything that we were going through reconfiguration at that time. >> I do have a thought about that. because this is a merger situation where people's jobs have drastically changed. I I I don't when you're saying it wouldn't be fair not to open it up to everyone else. I also feel like it's kind of nice to offer something for those people that I mean to make those changes >> that that are impacted like no one else in the district are impacted with this major disruption. Um, our schools are kind of like their own little worlds. And so when you combine them all, I mean, we just got an email and I will reserve my comments for after Katie goes, but when we're just talking about this one thing, I kind of like the idea that it's

062giving people the a little more choice in a circumstance where they didn't have much choice. So, I like to do that. And then if we want to look at doing that in the future for another time, I I just >> I kind of like could also be that's just a perk. We'll just call it the only good one of the good things about merging >> merging >> honestly >> for employees is that that one time >> that you might be a that might be available for you and everyone has to understand it's because of the unique circumstances. >> Yeah I mean you think a lot about the the kids and the families and how it changes and disrupts their lives with the merger but think of the faculty [laughter] and the administrators and the teachers.

063>> It's hard changing grades within a building. I'll just tell you it's >> yeah [clears throat] I would love to see it as actually a benefit of the merger [clears throat and cough] >> have a little more choice to people. >> It sounds like the board is supportive of if you guys feel like you need that you can look at that and we'll let you figure out the numbers and if we even need to I don't know maybe we don't even need to do it. >> Um okay so >> my question my question was just asking about those costs. >> Okay Holly. Okay. I just wanted to first thank your team. It's amazing. A lot of work has been done and I really appreciate all the feedback. Um I'm wondering if in a situation like

064this with administration, are we combining? Because there wasn't anything on there about that. Is it just one school's administrator? >> It is um Sarah Allen and Crystal Connors will be the principal and assistant principal at Bridgerest. >> Okay. So the two heads will come together. Okay. >> No no no AP will stay. current principal and assistant principal will be staying at Ridgerest >> at Ridgerest. >> Both current principles have been in tandem to work >> have been working. >> Barbara is the principal at Bella Vista and that's why she was on the slide earlier. Yeah. Okay. That was why it was in my head. >> Both faculties with >> so she's been working on the merger but then she will exit and same >> she will have another assignment. >> Okay. Okay. So, um, one

065thought is we did just get an email where there was some frustration over how some things, um, happened with teachers and assignments and new grades and, um, making and, you know, some some teachers feeling like they weren't as valued as the teachers from the other. I'm sure you know, like we we know this is hard and difficult. I would be really interested in if we could have um a survey and some feedback because this is one of more that we'll be doing. You know, how did we do? How did you feel? Did you feel, you know, what are some what are some suggestions you feel might help this merger in the future? I would really love to hear from because I don't know if this email is just an outlier and most people felt like

066>> you know or or >> but and it and you don't know and it could be or it couldn't be but I would I would love also we might just get a few great ideas too about you know because they were in it and going through it all and maybe they have just a few little suggestions that come >> and that was our plan is responding to everyone that did email um myself and our HR um administrator over elementary Lori Reynolds will offer to meet with all, you know, anybody that's sent that email and just talk through and and hear, >> you know, the impact that, you know, the meeting had or what was discussed at the meeting and certainly, you know, take that feedback. We're >> That's awesome. >> individually with each of those

067people. That's an email I have ready to send out. >> That's awesome. So, but you're not just sending it to those that have emailed that were frustrated. You're going to let all the teachers that have gone through the process. Well, that was my plan with just to address the emails that came through. >> Um, >> I would love to hear just from all of the teachers that I mean, not me, but you guys. >> I think at the end we're going to have to >> the process. What are you talking about timing? >> We're kind of in the middle. >> You're in the middle, but there Yes. But maybe even if there's a three question survey about what's happened so far and just hear from faculty because there may be some things that you know

068you as as you move on with the transition that might be helpful. >> Yeah. And we actually do have a feedback um it's it's a question answer Google doc that both um faculties have and they put their questions there and then we communicate with that document and it's actually linked in both of the staff's uh employee landing p landing pages so that they can have any specific questions or concerns or misunderstandings all of those can be addressed. >> Oh good. So you already have it. that's already taking place and and with that that is what's helped that is actually what's helped frame some of the the action that we've done already. So I I think we're getting feedback um from that and and the employees have been really wonderful in in sharing it with us,

069right? And and putting their names by it so we can ask them further questions if we aren't sure what their concern is. Um, and HR has been really helpful in helping us um, instructional supports when we have questions that involve curriculum. Um, so and we wanted a document that everybody was um, answering so that they weren't getting different answers in different places. So that's that's you know a great source of feedback for us in these are the questions and we're doing the same with our um transition meeting is you know what is what is the community meeting and then that's like the last meeting was there the community in the transition wanted some information on transportation and then the openhouse so so we are I guess building the plane in the sky we hate to

070say that right the book as we go and learning you know some things that worked well >> so we are certainly certainly doing that. >> That's awesome. Thank you. >> That sounds great. Um, superintendent. >> Yeah. Just I mean, we did listening tour at both schools, right? And >> anytime you do something like this, literally, [clears throat] I don't remember anyone, you know, dying to raise their hand about how great this is. [laughter] >> Thank you for doing this and changing our lives and everything upside down. Um, but I think it's important and I appreciate, you know, Sally and and Alice really focusing on two things. One is really starting with relationships, right? That's where I think what you're speaking about, Holly, is un, you know, seeking to understand anytime you're looking at, you know,

071change theory, it's kind of first order change, second order change. First order change. This impacts my daily personal life. like how dare you turn my life upside down now I can't function right there's that then it's really working to a place where I might not completely agree but I understand how this has to happen and how do I fit in the bigger global picture to make this work that's where we want to get people so to do that and I know that this is the hard part of leadership but it's really starting with relationships but then looking forward right it It's we have to, you know, get to a place where what is the vision with us coming together and moving forward. Not, you know, some of the stuff that we've heard over the last

072couple of months about one school's better than the other or why is this person being chosen versus this person. Um, we've guaranteed everybody a job, you know, nobody. So, there's no impact that way. But it's just getting to that place where we see the vision going forward and we're not going to spend a lot of time, you know, being mired in all of our feelings about water under the bridge because none of that can change. It's it's what is is. So, you know, so I I feel like our team that's that's the direction that that we're going in and getting that feedback. I but I also want to be thoughtful about not getting you know not getting trapped kind of in that paradigm of the past and my feelings about that. Yes, there's a lot

073to be learned from that but now it's where I to me we're at a place where okay what's the you know what's the vision forward now that we're together h how are we going to you know how are we going to move this ship forward? So >> that's good. >> Great. Any other comments or questions? >> Okay. Well, thank you Sally and Alice and I just want to say I just echoing what the superintendent said. I just hope that moving forward it can be positive and we just need to build each other up and do the best the best that we can >> for students. >> Okay, thank you. Okay, that is the last item on our study agenda. So, >> we can now adjourn. We will have a little break and then start. Thank

074you everyone. Welcome everyone to the meeting of the Canyon's Board of Education. Today is January 20th, 2026, and we're meeting at the district office located at 9361 South 300 East in Sandy, Utah. Um, Mrs. Oaks will be joining us on Zoom. So, even though she's not here in person, she will be joining us on Zoom. And we are now going to have the pledge of allegiance. Um, actually, just a minute. First, we need to approve the agenda. So, do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> I move to approve the agenda for tonight uh January 20th, 2026 with one amendment to item seven, consent agenda. We need to add item G, approval of administrative appointment. >> Okay, thank you. Is there a second to that motion? >> I'll second. >> Okay, thank you.

075Is there any discussion or questions to that motion? Okay, seeing none, I'll call for vote. All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes unanimously. Now we will have the pledge of allegiance by principal Shelley Karen and she is from Indian Hills Middle and then after we will hear some school highlights. 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. >> Well, good evening everyone. Thank you for uh giving me the opportunity to come and give you just a few highlights about Indian Hills Middle School. Again, I'm Shelley Karen and this is year three for me as the principal and thrilled to be in the middle school where all of

076the wonderful and crazy things happen on the daily. So, just wanted to give you a few highlights from our school year so far. The beginning of the school year, our building leadership team crafted a new mission statement and in that mission statement, we have some values that we're trying to connect more deliberately to what's actually going on in the school. Some of those values include achievement, growth, connection, creativity, a lot of words that you might expect in something like that. But I wanted to highlight just two of those things for you. The first is creativity. And as many of you may know, our our performing arts program um is is thriving. I just want to thank the school board on behalf of our school, my teachers, our community for your support with our new choir

077and band room. um specifically Amanda Oaks who was very supportive and helpful and in making that happen and also uh Leon. My community is thrilled. My band teacher is not leaving. We can hear each other in the band room. It's really a beautiful space. If you have a chance to see that our choir room likewise is is fantastic. We had an open house before the holiday break and we had lots of community members come and walk through and and marvel at how much more space there is in that band and choir room. And again, we're so grateful for the support of our school board and um what that's going to do for our students. Our our our uh instrumental programs are thriving. Lots of students uh in in those programs. We anticipate that those will

078continue to grow, including choir and dance. And we have a a new theater afterchool program this year. I I had I've had students the last two years say, "Miss Karen, can we have a school play? We don't have a theater teacher or program." I thought, "But that's a really good idea. I think we should have a school play." So, my school community council supported through our TSSP, uh, a drama program that we are starting. And I thought there might be 20 kids show up in September. There's 80. They come every week and we're going to have our first performance in April. So, we'll see how that goes. So anyway, lots of good things going on there. Um I applaud um a lot of the creativity that's going on in our classrooms. Um history day was

079uh the week after the holiday break and it's really amazing to see what seventh grade students can do with research um when they're properly taught and um also our social studies teacher have have a a couple of them have some new ways of doing assessments. There was a student that came to me and said, "Miss Karen, in social studies this year we don't have tests this year. We have assessments which was I thought charming because those are very similar things but um the way that u Mr. Fitzpatrick one of our teachers is teaching is is such that kids are using projects and presentations and different ways of expressing their learning and that's really been fantastic. And we have some similar things going on in our math classrooms as well. And just briefly on uh you

080know one other value that we we've put into our mission statement connection. I went with our eighth grade students over to Ala High School last week for a CTE tour. And it's always fun to see the eighth graders go into the high school classroom. Lots of big eyes and all of that. And uh anyway, we are have done some partnerships without the high school to help that transition from 8th to 9th grade be much more smooth for our students. And likewise with our fifth grade students. The middle school is this gigantic place of transition and where we have to build bridges and we get to build bridges from one level to the next. And so it's been really great to see that. And to say nothing of the connections that our students are building with

081each other, um the food drive that we did back in November, we'll do a Makea-Wish fundraiser coming up in a few months and it's really really great to see middle schoolers get outside of themselves and making connections and being kind to others and that's something we are continuing to build um continuing to encourage at our school um because we know that kindness uh always goes such a long way. So anyway, lots of great things going on. We have a multicultural um week that's coming up in March and um we get to celebrate the fact that every voice matters at Indian Hills Middle School. We we like to emphasize that especially in a world where sometimes kids don't always feel that way. So anyway um onward and upward I say and lots of good things going

082on. So thank you for your time and have a good evening. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um we love to hear about what is happening at our schools and we want to just thank you for all you do and please pass on our thanks to your staff. So thank you. Thanks for being here. Okay, the next item on the agenda is Canyon Strong Students and I think we're going to have some staff recognitions as well and Jeff Haney, director and Christian Stewart, associate director of communications will present this. Thank you, President Schill, for this time to recognize the many ways in Canyon School District that we learn more, do more, and be more. We are Canyon strong through and through. Now, it's been an exciting few months in the Canyon School District. Shortly before

083heading into winter recess, the Corner Canyon Chargers, they competed against one of the country's top prep teams at the first ever high school football championship game. Now, the Chargers, they did us proud at this national game. They competed against St. Francis Academy. Ultimately, they fell just a little bit short, but it was a massive honor for Corner Canyon High Canyons District and the state of Utah. It was also the very last time that we'll see vaunted Charger coach Eric Car on the sidelines at Charger Stadium as the head coach at Corner Canyon. Now, he may visit us while he's on recruiting trips for his new position as the head coach of the Weber State Wildcats. I may be a little bit biased because I'm both a Charger fan and a Weber State Wildcat. But this

084graduate of Weber State and a current adjunct at the school is excited for this fall when Coach Car's Weber team will be at Stuart Stewart Stadium. My mom even got me a new Weber State hoodie to wear to the games in the fall. Now, it's exceedingly rare to see a high school coach jump to a D1 college team as a head coach, but if it anyone can do it, it's coach Care. You can see there that the community turned out last week to say goodbye to Coach Care. The farewell in the fieldhouse gave everyone a chance to say goodbye and good luck and see you later to coach Care. You can see Mrs. Oaks and Ms. Nyau among those who attended. You can see there that Dr. Robbins had a chance also to talk to

085the coach before he left for his purple pastures at Weaver State. Now, it also gave everyone a chance to get a sneak peek at the new fieldhouse. We'll hold a ribbon cutting in the coming weeks and we'll make sure the community is aware about when and where and how we can celebrate the opening of that facility. But it was a great way to say goodbye to coach care. Now the bestkept dis secret in the district. Well, that's not a secret anymore. It's the secret about the new coach at Corner Canyon High School. The person who will succeed coach Care. Today, the internet is alive with the news that Brighton High head coach Casey Suter has been selected to succeed coach Care at Corner Canyon High School. Coach Suter tells us he's incredibly grateful for the

086time that he has had at Brighton High School and he loves that community and will always consider himself a Bengal. But he lives in Draper and he was once the defensive coordinator for the Chargers. That was right before he went to Brighton four years ago. But you know with the talent in Utah, we are thrilled that he is still in Canyon School District. We're calling it the Suter era and it has started for the Chargers. It'll be electric on the sidelines this fall at Chargers Stadium. And this past season several times, Holly and I stood at the sidelines and cheered the Corner Canyon Chargers as they crossed that line to score a touchdown. It's going to be electric this fall. What do you think, Holly? >> Yeah, I'm really excited. I'm so excited uh first

087off for Coach Car. It's amazing. He's going to Weber. Um and you know, he has done so much for the athletes. He's he's an architect of football careers. So many of his athletes have gone to collegiate scholarships and the NFL. And at the same time, I'm so excited for Casey Satara. Casey, as Amber well knows, having been the football coach at Brighton, he is just fantastic. He's he's got great football knowledge and then also he's just awesome at character development. You can't find a man that has stronger character than Casey. So, I'm super excited for the Satara era. Okay. So, next fall we'll be there cheering on the chargers. We will. Okay. Great. [laughter] I'll see you there. So, congratulations to both coach Cara and Coach Suter. Both are an important part of Canyon's district

088history and future. Now, the next people that we want to mention in our Canyons strong recognitions are the Sunrise Eagles. They hosted Lieutenant Governor Henderson and state education policy adviser Dr. Rich Nye as those state officials toured schools and they studied how children in Utah are learning literacy skills. Now they stayed for 90 minutes at Sunrise last Wednesday. It was a lot of work for our Sunrise staff to prepare for this and they did so in just a few days. But they were absolutely phenomenal ambassadors of the district. You know, in short, we have one word for Sunrise's performance during the Lieutenant Governor's visit. It was amazing. The instruction was phenomenal. The students were entirely engaged. And when we had a panel discussion with teachers and the top state officials about education, it was a

089fantastic conversation. We give a big shout out to Principal Dr. Angela Wilkinson and assistant principal Penny Armor, plus instructional coaches and curriculum specialists. They pulled data, showed the finest in instructional strategies, and they engaged fully in a deep discussion with state officials right before the start of the legislation session, legislative session. The Eagles were truly impressive. They soared. They are canyon strong. We thank them for doing that for our state officials to come and learn how we teach our kids to learn how to read. The next slide, we honor [snorts] a bright and high color guard captain, Sadie Anderson. Sadi was among just four Utah students who were handpicked to perform in new on New Year's Day with the 2026 Band of America Honor Band at the Rose Parade. Even through the rain, the 250

090talented musicians and performers who represented 50 states wowed the crowds throughout their appearances. This honor band performs at the Rose Parade every four to five years. And we are so proud of Sadi for bringing the national honor to Canyon School District. Now, you've [clears throat] heard me say that I'm an honorary Altahigh bandad. Well, we also want to give a shout out to Bandad Justin Anderson who is our CSD TV coordinator. He supported his daughter Sadi at this national achievement. And congratulations to the Anderson family on being selected for the Bands of America Honor Band at the Rose Parade. Now, if this were the Hoger Games, a Corner Canyon Charger would be racing toward that weapon that is favored by Katniss Everdine. A big congratulations to Corner Canyon freshman Avi Gerjar. He recently won first

091place for his division at the recent state archery competition. So a big shout out to AB for this amazing accomplishment. Now our employees are canyon strong. We say it all of the time. They have had quite a heavy lift in recent months. We are moving to a new computer system and for 17 years we've been a skyward community but will soon be a cumulative community. But first our staff has had to get the system to work and to train everyone else so they can use it effectively. The time, effort, support and ongoing professional development invested in this work. They have done a phenomenal job doing all of that. This has been a huge task for the roll out of cumulative or as we call it Q. Now we think it's just been exceptional. We've completed

092the transition on the financial and the accounting side. We're preparing the roll out for teachers and parents this summer and this has been an enormous undertaking by our IT department and especially by Sharon Simmons NIT. Now she does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work. Sometimes it goes unnoticed and in reflecting on the magnitude of this project, we wanted to note Sharon's leadership and dedication and it certainly stands out. We also want to say thanks to our payroll department as we have put cumulative into practice. They have had that major job of making sure that our employees get paid through our system. And guess what? We did. Big thanks to Sha Shauna and her staff for making sure that cumulative was adopted and our employees got their paychecks as they expected. Now, additionally, as a follow-up

093to our community conversation on digital devices and Chromebook use, we want to give a big shout out to our IT director, Scott Mcomes, and his team, Thomas Bailey, Christine Kchner, and Jeff Murray, for their commitment to the development of our technology filtering system and the implementation of the three strikes process. This was the result of the board and the administration's outreach to our community to see how we can best use digital devices and that we don't rely on them for instruction, but we use them as a tool for learning. That's exactly what's happening in Canyon's district classrooms. We also partnered with our parents to make sure that tools were being used appropriately and content was appropriate when students access them. The success that we are seeing is a direct result of their expertise and leadership.

094So many people have contributed to this community conversation, but we are so grateful for our IT team for doing a lot of work. So, we give them a big Canyon Strong shout out and a thanks for all of they do. We also want to wish good luck to our cheer squads. Jordan High and Corner Canyon High will be competing this week at the state competitive cheer competitions. Now, they competed in qualifying events to make it to state. Jordan High will compete tomorrow in 4 4A and Corner Canyon will compete in 6A. Now, here's another piece of exciting news. I actually don't know if this is made public yet, but she told me this last night and I just can't keep it to myself. A big congratulations to Corner Canyon cheer coach Whitney Lunt, who's is

095the 6A cheer coach of the year. Congratulations to Whitney. If you know her, you know how dedicated she is. So, congratulations to her. She'll be celebrated at the state competition when the Chargers compete later this week. So, we are cheering for those who typically cheer for everybody else. Thank you, President Schill, for the opportunity to show the world the canyons is strong. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Haney. We have now come to the patron comment portion of our meeting. The board often designates time in meetings to patrons of the district to listen to patrons of the district. Patron comment time is limited to residents and taxpayers of Canyon's district, students and parents of students and current employees of the district. Patrons may provide board members with written documents and these documents must be submitted to

096the board secretary at the meeting or emailed. Did you wave [laughter] or email to the Office of Public Communications by noon of the day following the board meeting? Tonight, individuals will be given three minutes and those representing groups will be given five minutes. Comments made during patron comment time are part of the public record. It is the board's practice to listen and take notes during patron comments. The board of education does not discuss matters that are not on the meeting's agenda, nor engage in public comment on individual students to protect their privacy or employee issues. If a patron wants to comment on a district employees character, professional competence, or mental or physical health, the board requests that those comments be submitted to the board in writing. However, if the patron determines to visit verbally comment

097on those personal issues, the comments need to be civil and refrain from personal attacks, insults, defamatory or slanderous comments about an individual. The board of education values input on all sides of issues. To maintain decorum and respect, we ask that those in attendance refrain from applause or other types of demonstrations during the patron comment time as well as throughout the meeting. Okay, we have three people that have signed up today. Um, the first person is Elsena Seline and then we'll have Jake Garfield come up. >> Good evening. Thank you so much for your time this evening. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Canyons Association. >> Nope, there we go. Sorry. Good evening. Um, thank you for your time this evening. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Canyons Association of Elementary Principles. Um, I

098want to begin by sincerely thanking you for making very difficult decisions around school closures. Um, we know these decisions are complex and carry a real impact for communities. Many of us in small schools recognize the opportunity cost of students in very small schools. um and we see the necessity of this work and truly appreciate the care and responsibility with which um you approach it. I also want to thank you for your continued commitment to professional learning and PLC's. Um this priority has made a meaningful difference in many schools um all of our schools and it has given our teams the time and the structure to collaborate, reflect and improve practice in many ways that directly benefit students. At Granite, my teams have been using um this time intentionally with our professional learning days. We've focused

099closely on student engagement over the past year and a half. We've been doing a faculty book study of engagement by design by Fiser and Fry led by our building leadership team. In our PLC's, my team has been identifying essential standards and setting 100% student mastery goals so we can sharpen our instruction and ensure our efforts are aligned to what matters most for students. Thank you. >> I also want to express our appreciation for the board's recognition of the importance of our school wellness staff. As elementary principles, many of us are increasingly concerned about potential cuts to wellness staffing and budgets as the state reviews funding and passes new legislation. We recognize that our district budget is shrinking with our declining enrollment as well. With that understanding, I need you to know that our schools have

100worked so hard to build strong preventative systems of support. We worry that if those allocations to our wellness staff are reduced, our systems will not be sustainable and we will revert back to a more reactive approach that we had coming out of COVID and be able to do less proactive and preventative work that is serving our students really well right now. Thank you so much for your leadership for making hard decisions with students at the center and for continuing to invest both in professional learning time and PLC's as well as student wellness. We're grateful for your support and partnership in serving our students. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you so much Jay Garfield and then Lisa Curtis. >> Good evening. Um, I know you've heard a lot from me and I apologize for that. Um,

101but this is of such import to the Parkland community. That's why we keep coming back. I I hope the board understands what it is that the Parkland community really wants. It's just one thing. We want to be treated with the same respect and the same fairness that we're shown to Quell Hollow and a reach. That's all. You never consider closing either of those schools because they they have larger enrollment than Bella Vista or Granite. Then you the default position for both of those schools was to keep them open because they have higher enrollment. Parklane has higher enrollment than Willow Canyon. It has more stable enrollment than Willow Willow Canyon or Granite. And yet again and again Parklane is the target for closure. And I don't understand why. Uh we've been told a lot of different

102reasons over over the last several months. At one point it was the parking lot. Now we're being told it it's the FCI score. And yet FCI score has never really mattered when you're making these decisions for other schools. Um with Bella Vista and Ridgerest, uh Bella Vista had a fantastic FCI score score of 38. Ridgerest is one of the worst FCI scores in the whole district of over over 90. And yet they no [clears throat] one ever even considered closing Richest again. And and you shouldn't have because there was a much larger school. would have impacted much more families if you had moved the Ridgerest population to the Bella Vista building or move the the Quail Hollow population to the Granite Building. Um, I'm not saying you should never close down a a school with

103higher enrollment and to move to a school with lower enrollment. Uh, but if you're going to do that, it's a momentous decision that deserves more scrutiny, more study. And that type of study is exactly what was proposed just four weeks ago by the Long Range Planning Committee. with that fantastic proposal to do a comprehensive um datadriven study that would figure all these things out. And and if that study was performed and came back with a result saying yes, Park Lane really should be closed down and moved to the Willow Canyon building, I would wholeheartedly support it. Uh but the current path that's on the agenda for the night, I think is the wrong decision. I would [clears throat] urge this board to reject proposal B from the from the current proposal and go back to

104the December 16th proposal to do a long a comprehensive study. That's the right thing to do. It's the just thing to do. It's the fair thing to do and the democratic thing to do. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Thank you. Now, Lisa Curtis. >> Okay. Um, hi. Um, I was just going to start off by saying I'll meet the time limit, but I appreciate you giving me five because I I'm gonna need it. Um, I am a teacher at Bella Vista. I know I've spoke here before. Um, >> you know, you weren't supposed to have five. That's a mistake. >> I'll read your paragraph. >> It's okay. Just Just go ahead. >> Because of a school closure and the closest of [laughter] the heart. I was going to ask for your indulgence. I'm looking

105like four, three and a half, four. Um, I am a teacher at Bel Vista. Um, in every presentation connected to our school's closure, um, there's been a lot of data, and data drives most decisions in education, which is fine, and it clearly drove this one. Um, there was financial projections, enrollments, operating costs, etc. Um, but numbers are concrete and they're safe, right? Um, but numbers never tell the whole story. Um, over the weekend, we were watching Payton's place. We're football fans and we have a son named Payton, Payton Manning. So, they were talking about the quarterback rating and with this big equation um with the catches and touchdowns, blah blah, but uh Payton's score is 96.4, but that obviously doesn't tell the whole story of his whole career, right? Um doesn't tell the story of

106the 2003 Monday Night Football game when Payton led the Colts in the quickest 21 point comeback in NFL history. I think it still holds the record. Um he did it in less than four minutes. So, while not nearly as exciting as that moment for Payton, um I'm here tonight because Bella Vista's story is also bigger than the numbers that's been presented. And I would um so I want to when I was hired in hashtag 2016, Bella Vista was a thriving school with a deeply engaged community. Our principal Corey Anderson pushed us to build math instruction around rich classroom discussions and problem solving. Even then, he knew that we needed something to set us apart. So he advocated for STEM focused professional development and hands-on curriculum. He wanted STEM to be our thing and we worked

107hard to grow these practices and even without the materials we'd hoped for. Um I feel like that it's moved on with us because it set us set us up for success later on. Um Corey was reappointed um after that was the COVID year. We had that principal for just the one year. The next year, Eric Gardner was our next principal and he reopened our school after the COVID. He re-energized our staff. He strengthened our PBIS. He elevated our PLC's and rebuilt trust and collaboration. During this time, he imagined steam Fridays and every teacher committed to creating and teaching four to six week Steam units to rotating grades throughout the year. We felt momentum was going. Um, our enrollment was still going down, but we were really excited about what we were building, but he was

108reappointed. Um, that was a heartbreaker. Angie Holden served one year as our principal, and she carried through with the Steam Fridays. Um, the students love them. They still do. We're still doing them. Um, where was I? Teachers. Um, that same year, some of our teachers voluntarily pursued their STEM endorsements. And despite losing FTE and operating with just 10 teachers, Bella Vista earned the 2024 National Blue Ribbon School Award for Student Growth and Instructional Excellence. We taught oversized classes, split grade classrooms, and shared the load daily, stretching ourselves professionally. Our current principal, Barber, inherited all of this and has met it with courage and optimism. Across the years of uncertainty, Belvisa's staff and administrators have consistently showed up for our students. On the evening of December 2nd, I sat on my couch and cried unanimous as

109you guys unanimously voted to close our school. My husband and boys were with me and I had all my teacher friends in our group chat. After the vote, I listened to opportunities that were going to be offered to my students at Richest and I agree it's going to be wonderful. I've I they deserve more than what we've been able to offer them. But what I kept waiting for was some acknowledgement for our work that it took to hold Bella Vista together and maybe condolences time of dusk. Um I don't know but it never came. I know it wasn't intentional but the impact mattered. It was like a punch in the gut when I was feeling vulnerable in that moment. The silence I was also afraid reinforced the narrative that Felista had failed and when the

110truth the truth is very different as I tried to explain. So, I want to end by saying tonight what I wish had been said to us that night. To the Bella Vista community, past and present. Thank you. Thank you for choosing Bella Vista and being the stability and constant for our students. Your work was your work has been meaningful. And thank you for loving our students. They love you back. This closure impacts your careers and disrupts every aspect of your daily work life. It's scary. It's stressful. And it's traumatic. Regardless of perhaps some painful messaging that's being sent to you surrounding your current placements, you are fantastic and effective teachers, you've shown up and been dedicated and commitment to professional growth and you will continue to positively impact the students you teach no matter where

111you end up next year. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, the next item on our agenda is the consent agenda and I will now ask for a motion and then please read all the items. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda for tonight, January 20th. Item A, approval of minutes for December 16th, 2025. Item B, approval of minutes for January 6, 2026. Item C, approval of hire and termination reports. Item D, approval of purchasing bids. Item E, approval of December financial reports. And item F, approval of LEA specific licenses and endorsements. Okay. We amended the agenda to to um >> Oh, that's right. >> to have another item on there. >> Yes, we do. Um it is the administrative appointments. So, we're adding that as item G item. Administrative appointments. I apologize. >>

112Okay, perfect. Um so, we have a motion. Is there a second to that motion? >> I'll second. >> Okay, thank you. Are there any comments or discussion to that motion? Okay, seeing none, I'll call for vote. All in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay, that motion passes unanimously. >> Okay, the next item is new business and we are going to start with the K12 math curriculum adoption proposal. This is third reading possible action and Dr. Amber Rodri Lenward, director of ISD, will present this. Hello everybody. I'm excited to be here for our third and hopefully final reading of the K12 math curriculum adoption. Uh, President Schill mentioned that we are on a little bit tighter timeline tonight, so I will be brief. Um, I'm happy to just start and ask for

113um if we're all in favor and we can just end right here. [laughter] >> Perfect. Just kidding. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. We'll we'll go ahead and talk through these then. So there was a request um in the last board uh meeting when we talked about the second reading as well as in board leadership to talk a little bit more about the technology components of all of the programs that are on the docket for tonight. So as a quick reminder we are looking at amplified desmos math for elementary and then reveal math for our middle and high school. So those are the three curricula that are being proposed for districtwide adoption. And before we talk about technology, I just want to highlight and have in the record the best practices that we have been following with

114regards to technology integration into all of our classrooms. We really have been pushing in terms of our pedigogy to really focus on intentional use of technology. So this has been an innovation and a conversation as well as a coached model in our district for a number of years and will continue to be so um with every curriculum that we adopt. So, with that intentionality in mind, um what I shared with you and hopefully you had a chance to read before tonight really highlights all of the digital resources that are available both for student access and for teacher access. And what we really wanted to do and what you're looking at right now is an example from elementary is really highlight highlight how those digital teaching components will be used for educators with regards to both

115their instructional delivery and their instructional planning. So you can see kind of an an example of how we would recommend that those things be used. And then most importantly, I think what we have a lot of parents who are um wondering about is what that in-class digital learning component will look like. And so you'll be able to see through this information how students can access specific digital resources during instructional time and what that might look like. Specifically, what we've tried to highlight with this information is that within the instructional block of time, this is an example for kindergarten, [snorts] how much time students might actually be spending on devices. So, in this example, you can note that there are a couple of lessons, two um approximately with each grade level that really will need the

116digital component to be taught successfully. In kindergarten, those lessons are approximately around 10 minutes each or at least the uh digital component for that hands-on learning piece is about 10 minutes. In addition to that component of the lesson design and structure of the curriculum program, there is a supplemental program that is embedded into the curriculum that can be used for personalized learning and small groupoup instruction. And in kindergarten, what that looks like is approximately 10 minutes two to three times a week. When we move into first grade, you can see just a little bit of that shift. So those two lessons take approximately about 15 to 20 minutes, whereas that personalized small group or individualized learning that happens two to three times a week ends up being about 15 minutes. And then that is also

117similar for 2 through fifth grades. So, when we think about um there's also some examples, again, I'm not going to get into this um so that we can have time for all of your questions, but there are some fantastic examples that can be viewed um online, but that really highlight again how these digital models for those particular two lessons really show um the depth of understanding that can be provided with the digital tool that is a little bit unique and different than versus just um a print resource. So at the end of the day when we think about the digital impact and I know many of us are concerned or wondering what um the potential language will be for some of the bills that have been presented at the legislative session. If we find ourselves

118in a position where technology um will be prohibited in our classrooms at the elementary level. I think it's important to note that this curriculum can be taught completely um print and for the most part that is how we will lead out on that instruction. We really got excited about this program and some of you hopefully have heard from some of our teachers who are early adopters because what leads this program are those collaborative discussions and the hands-on manipulatives that are part of the curriculum as well as the support for the teachers um outside of classroom time for them to be able to use those effectively. So our students can engage in math um every single day without a digital resource um if that is what is necessary. the implications of that and what we could

119potentially lose if that were required um as a state. Some things that will relate specifically to how we track student success and progress monitor that would have to be done more manually which will create uh more time and potentially more burden in terms of um teacher time outside of the classroom for how they're supporting students. And then as I mentioned, there's a couple of lessons o overall in the whole curriculum about two per grade that would be a little bit more challenging to pull those models off without technology, but we certainly could make that happen. When we move into our secondary resources, again, you can see what those digital resources look like for both our educators and our students. when you move that into the classroom and what it means for instructional delivery and instructional

120planning. You can note and and you saw this on the elementary as well that many of the digital resources for our teachers are for their planning purposes and then they have some of the components that they can bring into that interactive piece during classroom time to demonstrate and um show students u examples and how they can digitally manipulate some of those mathematical models. So for our secondary students, we've added one category for their digital learning because we have uh much more I shouldn't say much more, but we have more homework in the secondary settings than we do in our elementary classes. So you can see the breakdown for how students will access and utilize technology in class versus at home and then which resources might be used for both of those. So again highlighting that

121one of the the things that we've been um utilizing with our current program and will continue to integrate and use with uh reveal math for middle and high school is that instant feedback through that interactive homework component um with our supplemental program that we use with these programs. And that's something that um our students and teachers have again become a little bit more reliant on with regards to in-class time. [snorts] Uh many of those hands-on components can be used with a device, but a lot of these again will be optional. So when you look at the middle school block as well as oops, I'll go to the high school block in just a minute. You can note the total time for the component of the lesson and what portion of that component may include some

122technology. And I say may because as you will note in every component of the lesson in these instructional blocks for both middle and high school, it is optional. So when you look at the middle school and um again here are some examples that we really just wanted to highlight. But for middle school and high school, you'll note that all of the technology components are in fact optional. This program can stand alone uh with the print materials. And just like in the elementary, we really feel like the collaborative tasks and the supports for the teachers behind the scenes to lead those tasks as well as the student discussion are what lead the instruction so much more uh than the technology access. So the technology does certainly enhance the opportunities that students have to deepen their understanding.

123So noting here um what some of those implications might be at the secondary level if we were not allowed to use technology in the classroom. There would be a slower component to that learning process. And by that we mean the immediate feedback that students can get with that interactive homework component when they're working at home um is is huge. Not just for whether or not the um answers to the problems that they're working through are correct or incorrect, but but where in fact they have had a misstep and the resources for um that how-to in terms of the the tutoring, some of the videos and some of the components that the students will access in the digital platform um would be lost in that process. And then just like in the elementary, there are some

124components within our math standards that manipulating those models digitally um is critical for the depth of teaching to the rigor of that standard. And some of those could be hindered a little bit without that. So that is the technology component. Um, wanted to also just make sure you were up to speed on what we've learned since we were last together about the high school pathways and what the uh, Utah State Board of Education is considering with regards to those standards. From what we understand, the board is expected to take action on which pathway they will be um, moving forward with in February. So again, whether that's integrated or traditional or whether or not they're just going to let districts decide from there, they will in March take action to actually approve the K12 standards. And

125then I think I mentioned this last time, but um we'll stay the course, meaning the state will will be staying the course on high school assessments that will begin next school year. So that will be with the integrated model regardless of what they vote. And then in 2728 it will be the new standards the approved pathway and the new assessments all in the same year. So with regards to what that means for canyons um we have outlined just the the pathways of or the action and steps that we will take regard uh depending on the action that the board takes at the USPE. So obviously if the integrated pathway is approved we maintain the course and implement the curriculum as intended. If the USB decides to move to the traditional pathway then we would move

126forward in 2627 um with giving PLC's um at the high school the opportunity to use the new curriculum in the digital form. Remember that both the um the high school curriculum we have options for both integrated and traditional. It's the same curriculum and the same standards that would just be re-sequenced. So we feel very comfortable in allowing teachers who want a head start and getting familiar with the platform to do that with the um integrated model and then the following year would be full implementation and purchase for the traditional um curriculum and moving forward with that pathway. And then again, if we get to choose, then we will be coming back to you um as soon as possible with a recommendation for you to help us move forward with the pathway for our district. And

127we'd come to that recommendation by working with our stakeholders and looking at our historical trends and data to be able to give you all the information you need to be able to make a decision to move forward. Um, I did include just again for reference what the various pathway options would look like in integrated and in the algebra geometry and algebra 2 sequencing. And then there was a question during the second reading about the costs. And so I just wanted to reiterate that the costs that we have at this point um the first year the reason why there's a first year total is because we uh particularly in elementary are purchasing things that we only have to purchase once and that would be the manipulatives. And then every other year we would not need to

128purchase those. So even though we're getting the teacher resource kits um and those licenses that is still a one-time purchase and that doesn't change after that first year. So, what you're looking at, the annual total represents the annual total for the life of the contract, which right now we're looking at um five and seven-year contracts. Once the board takes action, um we'll continue to work with purchasing and LEON to determine which uh type of contract makes the most sense for us. And so, that is the same for middle school. Again, that $23 per student would be for the life of that contract. And so the annual total um would be consistent across the years as would the high school. So with that, the last um item for discussion that I wanted to share with you

129today was our uh process to collect stakeholder feedback. Uh after the first reading, as you know, we send out information widespread. We have the great support of our communications department to blast out how stakeholders can access the materials as well as give feedback. And since that was done in [sighs] November, I think it was end of November. Yes. Um we have only had seven responses. Um again other discussions are taking place and SEC's and faculties and and um we're answering other questions through our fantastic math team. Uh but stakeholder who submitted responses there were only seven. Four high school, two elementary, one middle school. And you can see the stakeholders varied from parents, teachers, and we had one student, which was great. I don't actually think we've had that before. So, that was exciting. Um,

130of those comments, only four of them, well, four of them were questions, three were comments. We've, um, checked in with those individuals who sent the questions, but from that there were no discernable trends. You, as board members, um, as well as the public have direct access to view the feedback in its authenticity. And with that, are there questions? That was definitely under 15 minutes. I know it right. >> It was about 12 minutes. So, great. Good job. >> You weren't even talking as fast as I know you can either. So, >> is that a challenge next time? [laughter] No. Um, okay board. Are there questions? Anyone? >> Uh, superintendent. Let's >> So, thank you, Amber. This is great. And I really appreciate the clarity on screen time for our elementarymentaries. I think we need to

131be laser focused on exactly what that looks like and it looks like to me it's great resource and can be you know more centric to what the teacher's doing. What is the option in middle and high school for textbooks? Is that not part of the curriculum or is that an option? >> No, it it is. So in the middle school it will be a print consumable and so that's >> similar to elementary. Same type of >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. And so that's an annual purchase. Um we're playing with some options about how we can make that a little bit more sustainable if we need to. And then for high school, there is an actual textbook. >> Okay. Okay. Awesome. >> Okay. Um Mrs. Nybar, then Mrs. Dolly, >> thank you. Awesome job getting

132through a lot of information and being quick, too. Um a couple questions I have for you. Uh right now currently I know the kids in elementary school a lot of them are on some computers for math as well. Did we do will you go back to that slide about how many minutes? I know some of it was for the elementary >> thanks. Okay. So um some of it is cooperative groups and partners which is awesome. It's more hands-on and that's what's so cool about it. But I just wanted to ask you two questions to point out. So do we actually feel like this is an increase in technology time to what we currently have. >> It it is actually a decrease in technology time. >> That is what I thought because I go into the

133elementary school a lot and help. Okay. So um thank you for pointing that out. And then the second thing is this program is amazing. um from everything I can see and I got on and did the demo and everything, but um but you're saying some of it is I if in fact that legislation has passed, it's a little more difficult because you said some of those pieces are critical online. >> Just just two lessons approximately per grade. >> Okay. That so >> Per unit per unit. >> per grade per unit. Two lessons out of how many lessons in a unit? six or 17. Okay, I was way off. Okay, >> so out of 17 units, there's two that would be problematic. But even if the legislation is passed, your department still says this is the

134best bar none. Even if the legislation is passed, and there isn't another program we're going to find that doesn't use technology that's better than this. It doesn't look like it to me, but >> that is correct. >> Okay, thank you so much. >> Okay, great, Mrs. Dolly. So, I know a lot of as we've talked about this, particularly with elementary, there's a lot of hands-on and manipulatives. Are there is there anything similar for the middle and high school? So, we can still reach those kids that are more of the kinesthetic learners um in this process to I the the online simulations are great to sort of envision that in real life, but you know, the manipulation is a valuable aspect. >> Absolutely. And and I should have um highlighted that even more. So, the mathematical

135practices that are the best practices for teaching math span K12 and and Rachel Marshall can jump up here and and add in even more details, but those mathematical practices really highlight specifically that hands-on learning. Um, really focusing on discourse, really focusing on being able to um manipulate physically and engage in more of that type of math instruction. So, we will still continue to support those practices. um it looks a little bit different than an elementary, but Rachel, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the the highlights since you're a little closer to that? >> So, we still in middle school um use manipulatives. It just looks different. We just don't have the big manipulative kits that have the huge base 10 blocks, the little teddy bears, and all of those. However,

136um I know we we use spaghetti to um create lines. Um we just we they we use um algebra tiles to um model solving equations. So those are still in there. We just don't have the big manipulative boxes that come with the with the curriculum. But most schools have already bought their own um twocolor counters for integers. So, we still do use those. And um the manipulatives do look different into high school because it's kind of hard to manipulate a quadratic in physical form versus in digital where you can plot different points and see what's actually happening to the quadratic equation. So, when we were growing up, it was the TI 83 calculators that did that for us. Um and they were a little bit more cumbersome and we still use those. However, with the

137digital manipulatives, it's a lot easier and a lot clearer instead of having to zoom in or zoom out like we used to when we were growing up. So, we still do have manipulatives physically. Um, they just do look different in elementary school. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, Mrs. Oaks wanted to say something. Hopefully, we can hear her. We haven't tested that yet. >> Go ahead, Amanda. >> Can you hear me? Okay. We cannot hear you. >> Oh, that's rude. >> See, I'm not on mute. >> Can you hear me now? >> Uh, just a minute, Amanda. They are going to work on it. >> Um, okay. I'll let you I'll come back to you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else wants to say anything? Um, Mrs. Penderson, >> I just wanted to say as a

138teacher from within our district that I am excited about this program. I think it encompasses more completely our desire to have students following our strategic plan and we can implement it more um holistically and do it and do it with validity. All those neat words that I get to use. Anyway, um [laughter] big words. I'm really, really, really pleased with this. So, I'm I'm really in favor of the program, whatever way we're going to have to do it. Uh, it does expose our students just enough to computers to not be afraid of what a computer can do. And it models for them correct usage of a computer. >> That here's your questions. You're going to move this around so that they're not going outside on their own and just surfing all over the place looking

139for different kinds of answers. So, I find that I it's just my opinion, but I feel like it will give them um modeling even for the computer, but I'm glad that that's not the key component that it's really not, but that that option is there. I don't really want to see additional burden on the teachers. And so I already expressed to you earlier that I was concerned that with adopting Q, the cumulative um program for our teachers this year and adopting a new math program in the elementary might be pretty burdensome. It it's hard to do a lot of new things all at the same time. So we're going to have to look carefully at how it's in implemented. But as you mentioned to me earlier, and I'm just >> reing what you told me,

140um that there are components that we can add later. there's more to this program than what you're we're starting with. So, we're starting >> Q >> for Q. There's more that we can add to Q that if we need, you know, teachers get the basics down, then we can expand that and we're not going to dump the entire possibility of of this program of the Q program on the teachers so they can focus more. So, Q is for grading and whatever else it needs to do. And that this will will be able they'll be able to truly focus on making this change to the new program. So, thank you for the hard work that you're doing and for looking ahead and I do I do endorse that this is what I've seen far better than

141what I've ever been able to use in my past experience. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Pson. And just to to also just add to the the Q conversation, elementary teachers and secondary teachers use Skyward currently uh different in terms of the grade book and so Q will be similar in terms of those differences. Wow, that's an interesting sentence, isn't it? Similar in terms of differences. So, so the elementary teachers because they have not been using the Skyward grade book, um, as we move forward with Q, the gradebook discussion and how they will use that will be, um, slowly rolled out while they're focusing on the big portion of their day with with math. Perfect. I like that. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, now, Mrs. Oaks, try to speak. We'll see if

142we can hear you. >> Okay. Can you guys hear me now? >> Yes, we can. >> Okay, great. A Amber, thank you so so much for your presentation that's really helpful. I know um we'd had a conversation before about making it clear for the public um just how hands-on it really is. I was personally very impressed being able to look through some of those manuals myself and they're really delightful and um did a great way did a really good job of being able to express to a child how to conceptualize certain mathematical concepts and so you know similar to what you were saying before if we're taking a step ba back away from being technologydriven in our math um instruction I think it's a win and uh obviously we we don't have very many choices

143but to move forward forward with something else because what we've been using is really not available anymore. >> Correct. >> Um so I am supportive of this move. I think it'll be a good thing and especially you know in talking to some of the teachers and educators I highly respect that have had opportunities to engage with it and excited they are about it. I think that that says a lot. >> You okay thank you. Um I just want to add my thanks. Um this presentation was really great. I appreciate all the time in it and just like the technology piece is really big and we are worried about that. So thank you for all the detail on that. Um so board this is a third reading possible action. So I will now entertain a motion

144if you want to move forward at this time. Um oh I do want to say one other thing. I talked to Amber about the cost and this is similar to what we've already been paying. It's within her budget. is not going to um be like an extra expense on the district. So, just wanted to let you guys know that. Does anyone want to make a motion? >> I move to approve the K12 math curriculum adoption proposal that has been presented tonight. >> Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Dolly. Is there a second to that motion? >> I'll second the motion. >> Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Nybar. Okay. Is there any further discussion to that motion? Okay. I will now call for a vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. And any opposed. I think

145that was unanimous. So, >> yay. You can move forward. >> Students deserve this. So, we're very excited. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Amber, we appreciate it. Okay. will go on to Oh, I'm like >> I'm just going to hang. Why are you leaving? Okay. Just gonna bask in this, you know, moment. [laughter] >> Perfect. [gasps] So, next is the dual immersion update. And that is why Dr. Amber Roberto Glennwood is still standing. [laughter] >> She Are you going to put on a hat? Change? >> I should. I know. >> I know. I need a >> You're going to speak another language? That would be good. [laughter] I I would be speaking another language if I had had the incredible opportunity to participate in our district's dual language immersion programs, which is

146what I'm here to talk to you about tonight. So, I'm here to share with you an update about some solutions um that we have been working through as we've been problem solving the ongoing enrollment challenges that our district has been facing for the last handful of years. It's no surprise to any of you that the declining enrollment is impacting all of our schools which means that it's also impacting a lot of our school programs including our dual language immersion programs. The schools that we have seen the most significant impact of declining enrollment both in terms of overall student enrollment and then what that means for interest in applications in the program are Lone Peak, Okalo and Silver Mesa. So the impact with those schools as the numbers of their overall student population decline, the district

147has had to supplement a lot of FTE to and this isn't just to our those three schools. The district has been supplementing FTE to maintain our DLI programs in a number of schools both to support the DLI classrooms so that we can maintain that two-teer model as well as supporting the nonDLI classes to make sure that there are two classes when possible that um aren't serving or using the DI program so that we can have more options to serve students. We have not been able to supplement to the extent that has been needed because the need has been so great over the last few years and we have seen a significant impact on those schools. Many of those things I've listed here in the slide that hopefully you've had a chance to digest over the

148last handful of days. But um overall it it impacts our students and the school's ability to be able to serve both them and our dual immersion students particularly in a way that is cohesive and united. across those two programs which is critical for the experience of both the students, the families and the teachers. So with those things in mind, we have been working really hard to identify some solutions that would allow us to sustain the program while also meeting the needs of the overall school community. And our solution that we are sharing with you tonight um that we are putting in place for the upcoming school year 2627 school year would be that we reduce the DLI student cap at these most and highly impacted schools by that enrollment. So that would be again Lone

149Peak, Okalo and Silver Mesa. So with reducing the overall cap for DLI students who enter the program, what that means is that we have to move from a oneclass cohort model to a twoclass cohort model. So, traditionally where we have been able to um admit 56 students into our dual immersion programs at each of the dual immersion schools, we would now move to accepting a cohort size of roughly 30 to 32 students. We would still be implementing the model with integrity as outlined um by the state, which is what we've been doing for the last 15 years. So that instructional model would still be 50/50 in terms of 50 in the target language, 50 uh% in English and they would still maintain a two-teer model. The difference would be that um right now in the

150two class cohort model, the two teachers are teaching the same grade and um sharing those students. And moving to this model with the cap and the one class cohort means that the two teacher team would be teaching and sharing two grades. So if I'm the English teacher, I may teach first and second grade um and then my partner would teach first and second grade in the target language and that is how that would um look over time. So we are moving to this model in the 2627 school year and then just wanted to highlight and and share with you some of the data that led us to this decision. So for each of these three schools, I've highlighted the current DLI enrollment numbers um adjacent to the overall school enrollment numbers and then you have

151in just the detailed note information, the number of applications and the priority placements. Priority placement is what we give to siblings that are in the program and this is uh been again a practice and policy since the beginning of implementation. So siblings in the program get priority and then this shows how um the number of out-of-boundary placement as well. We've also put together the projected enrollment from numbers that um Leanne was gracious enough to share so that we could look at that over time. So in this particular example and then you can play it out for all of the um other two schools. We have 56 kindergarteners right now at Lone Peak. If um every single one of them applied um they they did not all apply but um of those 56 we have roughly

15235 30 um six of those who did apply. What that means is if they all get in um and we have a two cohort model we would be pulling all of those kindergarten students in and it would make for a very low or non-existent kindergarten classroom that is not DLI. So again, just projecting that out over the next handful of years, you can see that sticking with um the cap of 56 students for the two class cohort would be really challenging for a school like Lone Peak to carry out given their current enrollment and their projected. You see those similar things across Oak Hollow as well as Silver Mesa. So it's it's a tough decision to make. Um we were actually really excited to be able to come up with a solution that allowed us

153to sustain um a quality dual immersion program while uh not um creating inequities across our schools in terms of services so that we can make sure to support all students within the school. So we would move forward with that. We run the lottery. Um it's running actually right now and notification to families would go out this Friday and that's for all dual immersion programs. For those who have applied for these three programs, we would notify them, we're going to notify them that these adjustments have been made and that we have had to reduce the cap and um they can again uh work with us if they have any questions. We we will maintain waiting lists um if that is something that school that families would like to stay on and then we'll continue to work

154with the schools to address those questions and then plan for long-term implementation of these new adjustments. Any questions about that? >> Okay. Thank you. Um Mrs. Nybar. >> Okay. For Lone Peak, you said that there were only 30 something who applied for first grade. Is that right? So there's 43 applica applications and seven of those are out of boundary. So that would be 36 of the students at Lone Peak, we're assuming again it's those from that kindergarten class have applied for their dual immersion program. >> Okay. So then if we're lowering the cap, remind me because it was a slide before. What what's the cap at 32? >> The cap would be Yep. 32. >> So 32. So, of the ones that are um zoned for Lone Peak, there was 36 applications. So, four wouldn't

155get in to the 32, right? >> Possibly. Yes. So, we we work with each school. Each school determines how many in and out of boundary students they're going to take. Usually, it's a percentage. So, we would be looking at what percentage um we want to invite in from out of boundary to again, you know, bolster the the school community with um diverse and new students. But essentially um with the 32 new cap >> 22 uh priority placements will already be automatically in. So of those 10 remaining spots it'll be yes potentially a lot of them lone peak and then maybe a couple of them from out of boundary. >> From out of boundary. Okay. >> So um and then does that trend follow when you go to Okalo because that those slides skipped through so

156quickly. >> I'm sorry. I >> No, it's okay. We've looked at them before too. It's just different when you're talking about it. So, >> so with Oak Hollow, you're saying the 41 >> 16 priority too. So, we're still, what we're doing is we're saying, okay, we're going to the cap before was too large. We don't have that many, but we're still going to cut some. Um, a question I have with that is is when these families and and you tell me, but possibly some of the out of boundary or or maybe kids and families who already maybe speak the language in some cases if it's Spanish, right? >> Speak the language, they'd be given priority. >> They will give priority. Okay. But then there's a probably a fair number of students that they want to

157do this as because they're looking at probably parents and families are looking at this as hey this is a way to challenge our child. They need a little more. So um my question is for those kids that that won't get in um and we're talking about equity within the district. Could we look at other other options for them as far as ways to challenge them more in math or reading groups or things like that? The other the other um thing I'm thinking about is when we put it down to 32, would that be two classrooms? >> one classroom one classroom of 32 children. it it would be. And so one of the data points that we looked at to come up with the solution and the way we came up with the 32 number is

158we have roughly 8 to 12% attrition between first grade and fifth grade. And so to be able to account for that attrition and not send even fewer students onto our middle school, we need to start high, which is why we have 28 in our classrooms right now within the two class cohort. So starting at 32. Yes, that that would be a lot. Um we do have we have heard of other schools that have done this. Um and and we can work with the schools to support that and talking with the principles. Um many of them are already providing supports with assistance and pair professionals and so they felt like they could accommodate that. Uh but that then allows us a little bit more of a safety net if we have attrition by the time the

159students get to fifth grade. >> Okay. So then if you take Okalo, so the overall enrollment is 66 >> kindergarteners. So then if you say 32 of those 66 go into one classroom, then what about the others? Is that going to put 34 into one classroom or do they get divided into two classrooms? >> That's a decision that the principal makes based on their overall FTE allocation. And so it could be two classes more than likely. Um I would guess and again Sally, she was here. she could probably do that in her head as well, but again, the principles look at their overall FTE allocation with the whole student enrollment and decide where they're allocating that FTE. And so sometimes you're making those difficult decisions about whether or not you have two classes in kindergarten

160versus two classes in third grade. And it it varies. Again, >> I just have a concern about that. Um I think our studenttoteer ratio, that's concerning to me, >> especially in the younger grades. I think it's a lot harder when kids are learning good habits of school and I think kindergarten and first grade that's really challenging when those teachers there's just one of them and so many students and how that affects like high quality learning. The other thing that is a concern for me is when we don't have the opportunity to actually switch up classes where students get to mingle with other peers. there can be some negative impacts socially where they aren't used to inclusion and there can be that I think for whole child purposes. Um years ago we used to have the

161um the Salta program spread out to more elementary schools and my older sons participated and I did find that there was some um negative impacts as far as kids not being very welcoming when someone moves in and they're just not used to, you know, when kids get switched up to different classes and get to mix in with different peers. There's this whole socialization thing that happens that's so important for them and it creates resiliency and making new friends and things like that. And so I I'm concerned about that as well. I'm really concerned about the the high numbers by teacher and if that's best. And then also the fact that they won't get shuffled around, at least the DLI kids, they will just be going from kindergarten to fifth grade and then all of a

162sudden they'll go to middle school and there will be some shakeups. So um those are some initial concerns I have. Um, you know, I obviously the DI DLI program has some really awesome benefits. Um, but I wonder if if it would be better to look at possibly having less schools host that and if maybe there's some other programs we can offer for um those parents whose whose students need more um to to make sure they're engaged and and being challenged in the classroom because I think that's a little bit problematic with the high numbers of class size. I think that's one thing that we hear all the time and it's a big concern for parents and teachers. I know um the first grade teacher that I was helping last year, her numbers were a lot

163higher than they were in the past and it's just so challenging. It >> I don't think anybody would argue that it's challenging to have that many bodies in a first grade classroom and I think our principles get very creative with their FTE as well as their TSSP funds to ensure that they're providing the best supports that they can. I think with regards to the one class and the student students not having options to move back and forth, that is exactly what we have created in these dual immersion schools for the kids that are not in DLI. And that's been um extremely challenging for those schools with DLI being a choice program. It's one that I have opted to take advantage of as well as a parent. Um that is that is the risk that I

164take because it's a choice program. Uh DI is also not a gifted program. It's for all students and all abilities. And so, um, yes, I think every student needs challenge and supports for their specific needs. And that is something that is part of our overall programming that has been compromised, um, with the programs and the declining enrollment that we've had in the current makeup. So, I actually think that this solution for these three particular schools allows them to provide more of that personalized support because we are able to sustain a choice program but then create um a better wraparound support for the kids that are not in DLI so that we can have that welcoming environment. Uh DI is also quite different than a Salta program because we are not having students enter um off

165and on throughout the course of their time in elementary school. they are they are in it um from first grade on and so we don't have a lot of that revolving door um if we had the revolving door maybe our numbers would be higher but um that that's not the how the pro program works so um I think your point is is a good one whether or not that's something you want to you want to consider eliminating dual immersion program that's a directive I will take from from all of you but right right now this was the solution that we put in place to support the enrollment and sustain the choice programs that we have in our schools Okay, thank you. Mrs. Oaks had a comment. >> Amber, you so much for presenting on this.

166This is it's hard to kind of go through some of this. Um, and we talked about this in high quality learning and I'm I'm grateful that it's coming before the whole board. >> Um, [clears throat] most of you know that all five of my kids have participated in dual language immersion and so this is something I care a lot about. Um it's been an incredible gift to our family. We've loved it and my kids have grown um like gang busters through that experience. With that said, um it definitely does present some unique challenges. So I wanted to clarify real quick a question to um Miss Ner's point about uh the numbers that we start off with and attrition. I know last year when we were talking about making sure we were having sustainable numbers, the

167suggestion that some districts um have gone with of allowing second graders to come in and and really work very hard to catch up with those that started a year before them. Are we still allowing parents or students to be able to come in and do that in the second year if they didn't have an opportunity and perhaps the space opened up in the sec in that second grade year? >> Yes, great question. I'm glad that you asked. So, all of those practices will remain intact for all of our schools, including these three. So the students um that would be now potentially on the waiting list for Oak Hollow and Lone Peak and Silver Mesa, if space opens up, then uh we will draw from the waiting list to fill those spaces. And we actually even

168extended the entrance point of when you can continue to enter into the program through second grade. It is through March for Spanish and French and January which we we bumped a little a few months um for Chinese. So that gives us a longer window of when students can enter the program. Uh after second grade if students are able to demonstrate a level of proficiency comate with their peers who have been in dual immersion then they can continue to enroll at that point if there is space beyond second grade. >> Okay. Thank you for pointing that out. The other um thing I wanted to kind of point out, I think it's really important because it it's painful for me to think about having to pull back on some of these programs, but when we sat and

169we looked at the numbers as a committee and saw I'm going I'm going to take Lone Peak as an example for instance. It it's astounding that we're dealing with this right now with a school like Lone Peak because in the past they had huge waiting lists. Um, but we're at the point that still the majority of parents who have students entering first grade are wanting to do dual immersion. It's not a function of there not being a demand. The difference is now our enrollment. And because of that proportionally, even though you have a large majority of parents who would like to do it, the enrollment overall has decreased so much that it is no longer big enough to be able to fill two classrooms. And so at that point, you have such a small like

170remainder of what's left for a regular first grade classroom that it really creates a massive imbalance in the school that's not sustainable. Um, and so I do think um, our staff has really been creative in trying to figure out ways to be able to preserve this program for families. Um, I know not only in Lone Peak, but in other areas of the district, whether it's Oak Hollow or Silver Mesa, there are a lot of families who really care about dual language immersion and still want their kids to have that opportunity. And and so I I recognize this is going to create some additional challenges. I for sure I've seen as a parent that when you only had two classrooms for instance in Chinese and they kind of followed each other throughout school um you know

171through grades one through five without the opportunities to intermix sometimes that that was tricky and I do think that this will probably make it more tricky and that's one reason I wanted this information to get out to the public so that parents have the opportunity to consider that and and consider whether or not that's still the best choice for their kids if that's what they want or um you know to Miss Nibbar's point perhaps they might want to choose a different option for them whether their kids do self or something different but um I do think that this is probably the best option we have moving forward to be able to do some of this with the way that funding is is going from the state legislature um and even with enrollment and how that

172impacts our district. I don't know if we have a whole lot of other choices if we're going to preserve dual language immersion in those particular school communities. >> And if I can just add um one of the things that again came from many of your experiences and feedback we got from stakeholders early on in the dual immersion program was that um cohort mentality. Whether you're in a nonDI class or a DI class at this point, one of the huge assets that we have been implementing for the last handful of years, as you all know, is the brain booster model. And just this year, we've moved to having the brain boosters for an hour each day. And so then you have the opportunity to mix up our students. And so our students are are with their

173peers from across classes. No matter what school you are in, having the opportunity to engage, socialize, make friends in different classes because you have different students in your class for brain booster than you do for your home room. Again, be that dual immersion salt or um neighborhood. And so those things have been really helpful in making sure that we can have a united which which I think again makes solutions like this a little bit more feasible and palatable um when you have that already in place. >> Okay, great. Um thank you Amanda and Mrs. Dolly. Just real quick, thank you so much for your work on this and and finding an innovative approach so that we can maintain the number of these programs that we have in our schools, but also for note of the

174public to to realize that this is becoming less and less a magnet program and really a neighborhood school program. You look at the number of outofboundary permits for each of those and it's uh less than 10%. I mean, not even a full class of students across all all at least these three schools. So, something to note, something that we need to pay attention to over time. really good point. >> Okay, board. Any other comments? Um, I would just like to say something because I am on high quality learning and I am I just really appreciate Amber's work on this and her um department because like to me I do not want to get rid of this program. I think parents are really passionate about it and I also know that other districts are closing their

175program. So, it is a way to bring students to our district even if that may not happen right today. But I do um I do think it's important and I I really value the program and want us to be able to continue it. So um so board, this is not something we vote on. We would only vote on this if we were going to close a the program and then there's a whole, you know, statute on how we do that. [laughter] So this is just kind of an information item for us unless we don't agree with it. And I mean Holly has some concerns. I didn't really hear concerns from other people, but >> I I actually I really appreciated what um Amber just said about the brain boosters where there's more mixup. I think

176that's really a a really good thing and I think that helps that situation a lot. And I I also think your answer to the other questions like, hey, they're going to be really creative with FTE and other ways because, you know, it's that it's that student teacher ratio that's the most concerning for me. But I do appreciate that you're being innovative and and absolutely giving parents choices the very best. So I think if we have a way to work around that, then I feel good about it. So thank you so much. >> Okay. So board, we're all good with them moving forward with this. Okay, great. >> We'll keep you posted on implementation. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. We appreciate your time. Okay, we're going to move on to item C

177on new business and that is the long range planning committee update and possible action. This will be presented by Leon Wilcox, business administrator. >> Thank you, President Schill and members of the board. Uh, thank you to Amber for her two presentations. It should be said that I as well am a dual immersion parent. Uh I remember 10 years ago when my oldest was starting the program lottery at Oak Hollow, uh we were even worried if we were going to make the lottery because they were you know the 56 getting in lottery size was around 70 75 applications. So it's hard the school of course the school enrollment at that time was approaching 700 where it's 450 now. So, it's hard to see that drop. And that's part of the that leads into this discussion here

178as we continue to deal with uh [clears throat] school closures, boundary changes due to our decreasing enrollment. Uh want to just give you a couple updates before we get to that though on two two areas. One is our small capital updates. Uh at the December 16th meeting, we said we were looking at projects this summer of a budget around $5 million. And we had a list there. We're not going to go over that list because we did it then. We want to add a couple more uh projects. Again, that list there was 3.8 million. A couple more projects go moving forward. one is we really would like to do something at Reggerrest for the Bella Vista Reggerrest uh uh consolidation and for those parents and students and teachers there and one of the things that

179we really feel is the biggest need or one of the biggest needs is the carpet. So, we would like to put carpet in the building. We know we're looking at rebuilding that school a few years down. Carbick does give us a pretty big bang for our buck, if you will, with the look and the environment that it does bring as we've done several schools with that over the last few years. Uh, so that is one recommendation. The other one is we talked about the Altus Foods room again about 600 700 square feet smaller than the other four high schools. Would like to enlarge that. And also uh on the consent agenda on that meeting the 16th, we approved door locks, interior door locks, part of the safety bill for seven schools. That cost about 350,000.

180We'd like to equal that up and bring another 350,000 to the project. That actually that seven schools there is probably going to be understated. We think we can do uh a few more because these are a different type of door, the ones we're looking at. So that could get us up to 18 to 20 schools done with another 350,000. We're hopefully going to be after these schools 8 to 10 left. Uh and we'll look at our ongoing budget. That is a priority of the committee to to get those door locks in. I know it's been a little bit of a struggle for the our elementary teachers because they have to go open and close the door every time someone leaves. So we'd like to fix that if we can. So that's what we're proposing. You'll

181see those bids coming on the consent agenda agenda that you approved tonight was the controls at Oako, Copper View, and Albian as well as the repeaters at Union and Midville Middle. And we'll be going on those projects soon. Next one is our [clears throat] birth update, our birth rate update. Uh every December the Utah Department of Health gives us uh the number of bursts per zip code in our in our district. Our zip codes do not line up with our school boundaries. We'll go to that on the next chart, but you can see uh in 2024 we had about 2547 bars credited to the zip codes in our district. And you can see the chart there and you can see that line going down which leads to the the issues that we have with the

182enroll you know part of the enrollment you know when we started in the earless we go back is 2007 that would have been the most of those would have been in the graduating class of 2025 those born after September 1 would be in this year's graduating class but you can see there we had you know 3,400 burst and you can see we're down not quite a thousand but you know getting in that 850 range lower. And so that's, you know, as we see that continuing to we think we're kind of bot. We've actually up about 60 from 2023, but that's still an issue. You know, you look at the in 2012, we started to drop down. That would be our class of 2030. Uh those born after September would be in 2031. But you can

183just see our that's a big driver right there. And uh you know we capture about 68% of these students that's around 16700 coming to us five years later. You know we of course capture some from other zip codes moving in. Some of these students will be move burst will be moving out. We know that. But uh that is a uh that is you know one of that's really the driver right there of our decreased enrollments. It's and you can see it through that chart here is by zip code. Uh we have [clears throat] uh uh seven zip codes in our area. So Draper, Conwood Heights, Midville, all have theirs. You can see theirs listed there. Sandy has four. And I'll let you see those as I try to note what part of Sandy they're in.

184Uh but you can see all of them drop. Some drop at a higher percentage than others, but you know, all of them are dropping over the last over the last 15 20 years. And so that's just why we're in this position that we are. We can we think this has bottomed out, but as I showed on this chart, but we really don't see it increasing, getting up over that 3,000 mark that we were, you know, 10 years ago. So, uh, we'll see what the future brings, but, uh, the state is not predicting a, you know, continue to predict a drop in K12 students because the 12th grade classes going out are just going to be smaller. I mean, a lot larger than the kindergarteners coming in to replace them, if you will. So, so there

185is that. Uh, oops, going the wrong way. want to just go over our our proposals uh regarding our consolidations regarding Quell Hollow and Granite. We'll call that uh proposal A and then Park Lane will Canyon proposal B here shortly. What we're doing is we're just going to as we talked as a committee is just restart the 90 days today. I know we talked about restarting it on November, it was actually November 11th, uh, but with the holidays and coming and when to have the hearings, we thought, no, let's just start a new now tonight. Today, with the uh the new proposal. So again, just to refresh, the proposal A would combine Quell Hollow and Granite in the Quail Hollow building with the exception of a portion of those students who attend Granite who live south

186of Dimple would go into Lone Peak. Roughly 40 students there. The rest would be combined in the Quill Hollow building. Should be noted the EEC unit would go with them. They do feed into Albine into Brighton. That was one of the big impacts in that we heard at the uh at the public hearing that that night at granite. You can see the respective FCI scores there. We know uh the next slide here you know this preserves the feeder patterns gives us more ability to do full grade level staffing and teaming. uh you know it's Albian of course right next to well hollow easy access there and you can see the FCI scores we're looking at uh roughly 23 stu classrooms needed quell hall has 28 you would need three more for the EEC so there's

187could be probably a couple left after that we would need to move out Quell hollow's abs and their preschool some of the things we'll need to look at though is continuing to move forward is the start and end times, the traffic flows, you know, parking and walking routes, all the granite students would be bust. You know, that's over a mile and a half from even the nearest. So, we're not worried about that. But there is that, you know, they start the Albian and Quell Hollow start pretty close together and we have heard that there is some congestion uh during that time. So, to work out. So those are future considerations there. Uh moving on to proposal B. This would combine all of Parklane and all of Willow Canyon in the Willow Canyon building starting the

188year 20 for the 2728 school year. The combined enrollment you can see there would be about 580. That's a you know it gets to be a pretty big school. We do have a couple more who are would be above that uh in Draper and Sunrise. Midville would be close to that. Uh that would also include the ACC from Park Lane which would go to Willow Canyon. Keep in mind they have had a an ACC unit there in the past or excuse me an EEC unit there in the past. So they the building has that capacity. Uh again it was maintained that feeder pattern going up to Eastmon and into Jordan. You can see the FCI scores for the two buildings as well. Willow County is one of those schools that we did a complete overhaul

189on when we started back in 2010 time frame. Uh again you can see the uh keeping the school communities together. That was one of the things we heard a lot of in the in the uh public hearings and throughout this process, the feeder systems, uh the drop off, drop pickup at Willow Canyon, the walking uh students who could walk and and the FCI scores there. And then oops again the class size is about 23 and will does have 27 classrooms. [laughter] This would combine about this would take about 23 of the regular ed classrooms plus the three uh for the ACC. So maybe one or two left over as well. Well canyon does have a preschool that would need to be relocated. Still looking at start times and traffic flows. Uh any busing and walking

190issues there. You can see where the two schools sit on the map. About a mile and a half distance between the two. When we looked at the, you know, our original proposal was Park Lane and Granite go combining together. They were also about a mile and a half a part of that. Then uh here's our proposed timeline. We're free to move this up or down. Of course, it has to be 90 days, however the board would like to look at this, but uh we start the 90-day window tonight. We'd have to hold those public hearings. Whether or not we want to hold those during the legislative session or wait till it's over, that would be either way would be fine in early March or late February. Again, you have to give 30 days notice once

191you determine the date of the public hearing. means the notice when we send out the information you know the the official notice which is both parent square and by US mail uh we would propose then to if we do have them in even in early March our second reading this would be first reading second meeting be our second meeting in March March 24th third reading again we're putting out there on the May 5th keep in mind April we have only one board meeting schedule and that's our teacher of the year. Uh board's always welcome to schedule another meeting as well if you'd like. So again, if you approve this, the transition teams as we heard in the would begin for the consolidation would begin in the summer and fall of 26 again for implementation the

1922728 school year. You've heard Sally and Alice mention how those are proceeding with the the Bellst and Ridgerest uh with that consolidation there. One of the things that we again that we want to emphasize that is just for you know that proposal for those four schools. We are continuing to look at boundaries to address this declining enrollment we are in. You know, we did have other boundary issues out there that we uh have pulled, you know, last fall that we decided to pull off. Silver Mesa, Sprucewood, some of those, you know, as they move, not so much the elementary boundaries, but uh the middle school boundaries where those schools feed into. We're still looking at those. We have other ones that we're also looking at as well. You can see the areas that were, you

193know, if we want to pursue something, we would bring that back to the board in probably late May or in May and discuss a timeline for that. Again, the earliest they could go into effect would also be the 2728 school year. So should be noted that of course all boundaries except for the ones that you approved back on December 2nd will be in effect for this 26 27 school year upcoming. Here are a mo two possible motions if you would like to take those tonight. This first one deals with the granite quill hollow consolidation motion to the parklane Willow Canyon. uh consolidation. So with that uh happy to take any questions or comments or you can any members of the committee could also uh may have comments as well. >> Okay. Thank you Mr. Wilcox.

194Um Mr. Edel wanted to comment >> uh before we get into the exciting topic of the two proposals. Could you go back to slide two real quick? Uh so I just wanted to hone in a little bit on the uh interior door locks. It it seems like a small item and I I don't know if I've mentioned it just in the the public board meeting before as to the significant quality of life impact that these door locks make. Um uh as as the school safety stuff rolled out, kind of a minor change was made that uh mandated uh either that doors had to be locked and secured and and some other things that that go along with that. Um but basically what it did is at all levels created quite a bit of disruption throughout

195all the class days no matter how you put it. Uh, and these locks solve the problem. And so I just kind of wanted to emphasize it. It just seems like such a small kind of weird item to be on there, but just how incredibly important that is um to quality of life. And we did have a little bit of of confusion, I think, at the end as to kind of how much was going to be allocated and such. But I'm I'm pleased to hear that that you think that we'll be able to get pretty close to taking care of the elementary schools. Um, and then of course those those have to get installed and there's there's time that takes and then as as we move forward into future years, we'll have to move into middle

196schools and then high schools to get those fixed. But just this small item um I think is one of the single greatest quality of life uh pieces that we can make. um with our small capital projects that impact the entire district. And so I just wanted to call that out um as it's kind of a it's kind of an obscure item. >> So if I could add on to that just really briefly again as I said you approved seven schools the hardware that should be coming here within the next week or two. Takes about two weeks to do go through a school and and install the locks. Uh some of that has some of that can be done during school time. It's best most of them need to be done after school because we don't

197want to interrupt classrooms while they're doing that. So that's when we'll plan on doing that. Then we'll be ordering you'll get the PO here in the next or the purchasing letter here in the next month or so ordering the additional 350,000. So, between all these, that will take us up through the summer, you know, June, July to get all these installed. Then we'll see where we're at again with our budget and see if we can do a couple more. Again, we're looking at hopefully having eight to 10 left after this batch after after we get all these done. Yeah. And then that's all I had on this. So, uh I'll let someone else start the next discussion and I'll join in in the middle. So, so I want to ask a question along with this.

198So, our newer schools like do the high schools, so none of our schools have them. Okay, that's what I was >> all these opened before the bill. >> Even even Union and Peruvian Park glacier. Yeah. >> So, basically all our schools, not just elementaryaries. >> Yeah. All >> right. Yeah. Okay. Uh, who wants to start the next discussion? Okay. Great. Mrs. Nmar, >> first off, I want to thank President Schill for giving us the time to have a healthy discussion tonight regarding this because I think there is so much that goes into this. Um, I think uh, as we all know, as we've gone throughout this process, I well, I can speak for myself, but there sure is a lot to consider. And I know long range planning has spent so much time going through

199everything. I had um some thoughts that actually were pretty similar to that Jake Garfield who came and spoke. Um, the reason why and what I spoke to last board meeting why I wanted to put this on hold is because I wanted some other considerations to be explored. And I don't know that anything has changed as far as um much considerations or new um a lot of new information or research has been done since December. um with this this is pretty similar to what we saw in December, but in December we decided to put it on hold. And and for me, the reason why I was interested in that was for a few reasons. First off, I I do believe that we need to look at this very strategically, as we all do, and we need

200to look at okay, what's the five-year plan? And one thing I really love that we've done with capital projects, which I think was your idea, Leon, is we organized the capital funds projects and you actually gave them a level of importance. Do you remember that? Where we had kind of numbers of importance like roof and different things because we had all these needs. We kind of went through, okay, what's what's the highest priority? And one thing that has been and I said this actually back in the when we first started discussing this is um when I look at the school populations if we just go by school populations of what's the highest priority um you know obviously Bella Vista came up Brookwood Oakdale Granite and Willow Canyon but Parklane wasn't one of them just because

201all those others have lower populations than they do. Um, but I've also thought about, you know, what what data points are we looking at? Like, you know, we can look at we can look at student population, we can look at median household or median price of homes to see, okay, if we're going to have a youth wave turnover, if if interest rates are going down, would it be more likely that um families with young children would move into the area? Um, one thing that I think would be interesting is looking at the um, special programs that are offered. Um, the number of students that walk. We've done that a little bit. The number of students that are bust. Um, what I'm really interested in is within the neighborhood, what percentage of the population do we

202actually capture to our public school and how many go elsewhere? um uh number of preschool-aged children, looking at birth birth records from you know four years ago and looking at okay what do we have upcoming um how many classes per grade I think some of those things is data points because I do think two things I think we are going to need to close some schools but the second thing is I think we have to be so strategic about that as I've been considering these proposals I was thinking about in business when the market changes there's one of two things that happen. The successful business owners adapt to the changing market. They come up with a new strategy that works and you and um and they tend to be very very successful. There are businesses

203that when there's a changing market, economy downturn, they close their doors. My concern is we're in a bit of an educational race as the state of Utah as more money is being poured in to divert the money elsewhere to um alternative educational pathways. I think we're in a bit of an educational race and I think that maybe what we need to do is we need to think about how can we adapt. Now one thing I would suggest is the stronghold. What makes us the strongest option for parents and families is that they get to send their kids to school with their neighbors and our school becomes the epicenter of the community. And we've seen that in our community input meetings. We've seen parents come and say, "This is our community. This means so much to

204us." And they're all wearing their pride shirts and they're talking about how awesome their school is. And my concern is if we start closing schools and we aren't extremely strategic about it, are we cutting off our arm in the educational race? Are we then taking this neighborhood that goes to their neighborhood school and now all of a sudden they don't have a neighborhood school and then maybe they decide maybe we should go to a charter school or a private school? um we're kind of taking away the thing that makes us so great is that we are the neighborhood school. And so I I do know that some of our schools that are really struggling in population, we're going to need to look at closing or combining. But maybe also what we need to look at

205is how to innovate and how to adapt. So I'm just going to throw out a hypothetical. Um Granite Elementary, you know, we have low numbers there. 273. But what if we kept that open and we looked at piloting a monastery model? Um something that's very innovative, something that optimizes education and makes it very personalized. And we look at um reducing cost too at the same time combining grades. I mean, this is all very very um non-traditional, but and I'm not saying that's what we would do, but I do think if we look at more personalized educational opportunities and we can keep that stronghold of being the neighborhood school in the community, that might be the best way to keep public school as the number one choice. When I moved here from Tennessee 15 years ago,

206um I actually at the time our neighborhood school uh Willow Springs was really um was not as strong and healthy as it is today. So I moved into an area that had Channing Hall Charter School and Summit Academy. And the neighborhood I moved into, I quickly learned that none of our neighborhood kids but two went to Willow Springs. They all went to Channing Hall or Summit. Um there have been some there had been some dissatisfaction and actually I learned that a lot of the people on sitting on the board at Summit Academy lived within the neighborhood I had moved into and the neighboring neighborhood and um that's turned over now and now most of that neighborhood I no longer live in that neighborhood but most of that neighborhood goes to Willow Springs. Um I think

207those are some things we face. I know we're saying right now we're going to close these schools and we're going to keep the buildings open for possibilities, but eventually if we do actually end up closing or combining five or six schools, we're not going to be able to hold on to those buildings forever. We are going to have to put them up for sale. And if this legislation passes about having um the first right of refusal going to charter schools or things like that, I just I I worry um greatly about that. Are we adapting to the changes in our educational market? Um, again, I acknowledge I'm not trying to be too um idealistic. I know we do need to close some schools, but my concern is are we being very strategic about it? and

208and um why is Parklane um something we're considering when we have like Oakdale um in Brookwood that have lower numbers and how can we look at being innovative and I and so anyways I'd like to start that discussion and hear from the rest of the board. >> Okay, thank you. Who would like to go next? Anyone? Um, Mrs. Dolly, >> thank you. Thank you, Leon, for all your work on this and Kirsten on working on the slides. Um, this has been a lot of work. I think a lot of us on the long range planning committee probably think about this about every single day. So, it's not the the process is still continuing. Uh, what we're just asking today is to make a motion to start the clock. So, we leave oursel with some options

209available uh come spring. We want to acknowledge for Bella Vist and Rididgerest. This has been a hard process and I think realizing we it's going to help our communities if we can give them a little longer runway in this process to do the transition. Um it's really difficult for our school communities and and so giving them time to adapt in this in this this doesn't mean it's a final vote. It we still have options opportunities to change and adjust as we go along. But it's also that there's a lot of discussion, as we've heard this last week, of potential cuts to education in this next legislative session. Not to mention the unfunded mandates we've gotten in the last couple legislative sessions. And as public education, we're going to start to end up between a rock

210and a hard place when it comes to funding. And we need to be ahead of the game in this. It It's not fiscally responsible to continue to spend a million dollars a year on each of these small schools. That's $4,000 more per students. That's not fair to the students across the district. As principal Seline said, there's an opportunity cost for these students. Also, they're not getting the same variety of programs. They're not getting the same wellness and other wraparound supports um in their schools. And so, as a school district, our largest expense is personnel. And as we start to fill this pinch, it's not fair for our personnel to to feel that. If we're not able to give cost of living adjustments or we have to cut positions, it's not fair for them, the staff,

211to feel that that burden that we're going to be faced with if we don't deal with this sooner than later. So, we are aware of the concerns that it might that you know, with having if we close both of these schools down the road that it could leave a larger geographic area without a school. But those are things we're looking at in our long-term plan and how we will adjust that in the future um as we have the opportunity to rebuild aging schools and and to look at those things. So, uh we're still we're still studying and we're going to continue to study for a while now as we adjust to this changing demographic that last year we lost 700 students in the district. 450 of those were elementary students. That's an entire elementary school

212of students. It's projected we're going to lose,00 students this next summer. Probably a large portion of those are elementary. So we have to get ahead of this trend and and be adapting and being strategic now before our hand is forced um when we're in a even tougher situation. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Dolly. Um anyone >> I'll let whoever >> Okay. Mrs. Person. Mrs. Person then Mr. Edel. >> Oh, come on. It's more fun to play ping pong back and forth. Um, I being a member of the committee, I also agree with a lot of the data that Mrs. Dolly has been presenting and I want to make it clear that we're not anxious to close any of these schools. We're not thinking that that's our only option, but we are looking at

213what can we do that would be more efficient and a better support for our students. Um, our point of making this these motions is just simply to say we have a date for closure that this isn't going to go on and on and on because if we keep extending it that pushes this whole problem one more year and then we'll have to do more again. You know what I mean? This is not a one time done and then we're done. We we know that the domino has to be tipped and that we know that further things are going to happen. So, I'm not saying we're closing we're closing these schools for sure. We're just saying that we would like to have that decision and our community has said you're killing us. Just help us get

214a decision. We're saying that we would like to have continued information that we're studying. Um most of a lot of it is border um boundary information and other school op you know looking at some of these other lower schools and seeing if they are factors into some of these um choices that we're making. This may or may not be may this may be the decision that we settle with at the very end, but we're not saying it is the decision right now. Um, we're just giving a a date that we need to make that decision for so that we can give them that would give if these schools merge and or close, whichever the version you want to say. This gives them a decent runway that would give them all the summer, all the school

215year, and then the con next summer to get the communities organized together to plan out strategically and meth method anyway carefully. I'll just say that I can't talk. Um to be able to plan the best things we can for our students because our goal is still what's the best for our students. do they have the choices for courses equally throughout the district? And it's true they don't. Some schools have more options than other schools. So, we're kind of looking at what can we do that will help spread when everybody moved in all at the same time, everything clumped together and they're all a mile and a half apart. We we are looking as a committee if long term where are our region you know where do we need to make sure that each region you

216know each area has the best location for those students. Some students may have to travel a little farther. It's not convenient. It's not fun. It's not great. And we want to make sure that we have the best teachers in those schools. If we drag this out, we do know that that some teachers need a little more uh stability quicker and they'll leave those schools. They will transfer there. There's a possibility. I can't guarantee, but there is a possibility that our our our teaching staffs will shift on their own and we won't be able to choose from the very best that we would like to have in these merged schools. Not saying that the ones that leave aren't the very best. We just want to make sure we have the strongest possible combination. So by making

217this motion, we are saying we're still studying this. We're looking at more factors. We know a lot about our communities, but we haven't looked at some of the surrounding boundary issues and we want to make sure that what we do doesn't damage um our feeder system as well. So, and that's been a concern from our community as um as we've been going to these meetings. They're very concerned that we keep keep um that we can strengthen combining for instance Willow Canyon Park Lane together. Those are the very same people that are going to Willow are going to go down that feeder system to um Eastmont and Jordan. Moving them to one building or another doesn't change the number. It's it's not improving that. It's not hurting it, but it's not improving that. What would improve

218that is if more parents in those areas chose to send their students to those schools and not go out of the boundaries. So we need to look at where our boundaries are at and what we need to do. So we need more time which we're giving ourselves three more months at least three more months of time to make that decision so that people can move on and our communities can relax and they won't feel like they're um in limbo forever. So that's the reason why the committee felt that we needed to give a harder stop, not just say, "Hey, we're just going to move this on." We need to say, "Okay, we're starting it over. We have a lot of information, but we're still gathering a lot of information, and that in the next 3

219months, we will have a better um have more information to help support the final decision that we make. So that's all I have to say to that. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Edel and Mr. Lewis. >> All right. So, uh, the opening song of Star Trek Enterprise starts with, "It's been a long road getting from there to here." And this has been quite the long road, uh, getting from there to here. Um so as we started this um it it really started as at least for me the wakeup call was was was interestingly the granite community coming and telling us that uh we need to do something about it. Uh and so that's when I really started looking at things a bit more in depth. Right? That's when we identified or that's when that's when

220I started to see Bella Vista which was a recurring topic uh that predates me um and had hung on for for quite some time. Uh and then that's ultimately what led into the various proposals um that have come and then of course we went through our public hearings uh and the communities um spoke very distinctly as to what some of their desires or some of their concerns were especially when we look at the granite community with their concerns for maintaining EEC um with the students as well as uh staying within their current feeder system. Um, and so we heard that and so we looked at a pivot, right? Um, and I just wanted to also throw out some enrollment data. Um, so this is from our attendance matrix from November, so it's still fairly current.

221Uh, and so our lowest enrollment school of course is Bella Vista. um that's followed by Willow Canyon and then Granite which has one additional student beyond Willow Canyon. And then right above that there's a cohort of four schools um that are within five students of each other. Um so the lowest being 312 and the highest being 317. Um Park Lane is included within that cohort of schools. Uh I mean so this is right an issue that's affecting um almost all Utah schools. Even if you look at our neighboring districts that are growing uh like Jordan for example just put a pause on all new schools. Um and Jordan's been expanding for quite some time um as they have the western edge of the uh of the county and they're able to to continue to build

222out whereas over here in canyons were fully built out with that. I don't think that anyone can reasonably argue that um our east bench is going to have a resurgence of of populations and kids. Our eastbench is pretty pretty tapped out and it's not going to get better. And it's not an issue of they went somewhere else. It's not an issue of of any of that. It's an issue of it's expensive and people aren't having as many kids. We can see that from our demographics. Um, and that's not something we made up. That's provided to us by the state. Uh, and that just is what it is. uh some other areas um are going to be more stable due to the to the better cost of living. So, as I've gone into this, this one's

223been really really hard. So, proposal A for me is a lot less hard. Um I don't feel that that area is going to have any changes. I don't feel um that we've gone wrong and I' I'd really like to proceed forward with proposal A. Um and overall the the granite community spoke and said that they they do want to maintain their feeder system that enables them to do that. Uh proposal B is what I've gone back and forth with uh so many times right and for a lot of reasons. So [snorts] first I want to acknowledge that I have some of the most amazing colleagues here with me on the board. Um, and that I think that none of this has been easy for any of us. Uh, and that the logic that everyone brings

224is pretty sound, which I think is why it makes this so hard. Uh, and why I am happy that we're having this discussion, right? Because um, the discussions that we have not in public can't be heard and and so I feel like um, you kind of miss some of the context behind it, right? So, as we look at Park Lane, Willow Canyon, um we look at an area that has to be addressed, especially if we look at Willow Canyon. So, I identified based on our November numbers, um that Willow Canyon was uh second lowest enrollment in the district. Um and Willow Canyon, I mean, we we could very well continue to limp the school on for a period of time. We did that with Bella Vista, but we learned that that's not the best. Um,

225and we even heard some of that tonight. Uh, where we had our Bella Vista teacher who described that was really hard, right? Um, and but our Bella Vista staff has been amazing. Um, because we've got we've got pretty amazing teachers, um, ESPs and administrators within our district. uh and kind of no matter what the circumstance that they're thrown into um like they they rise to the occasion every single time. So that's a concern, right? Is the population especially as we look at Willow Canyon and it's come up several times. Why is Parklane in the middle of this? Literally because it's in the middle. Um, literally Park Lane is in the middle of all this because it's in the middle. Uh, and we we're going to have to address lines at some point. But then comes

226my hesitation which has been pointed out which is um a significant gap of schools within that area. um as well as when the the difference in population and kind of I don't know how to put this politely so so I'm just going to throw it out there. Okay. Uh there is a social economic difference the further east you go. Um and that is a reality of life. And I was talking to one of my colleagues of some different lenses that we have as we look at things. I live in West Sandy. My kids have always lived in a or always gone to school in in a different neighborhood. Um I had Belleview kids and we love Belleview and then they became Glacier Hills kids. Uh always across seventh which you would never have elementary kids

227cross seventh. So we've always been in a hazard uh route zone and like those are distinct areas that don't interact with each other. Um, so they've always gone to school in a different neighborhood and we've always been fine with it. But again, that's through my lens. That doesn't mean that's consistent across the board for all people, right? And that doesn't also mean that it's wrong when I say that's not consistent across the board. We we have different lens that we look through. And I think that's an important consideration as we look um at the Willow Canyon um Parklane area. Uh again, the further east you go and it's it's pretty consistent, the more affluent you're going to be. Um but that also expands uh the options that you're going to have um uh in terms

228of of education, what you're going to do with with that respect. So that part does concern me as well. Uh as well as the advocacy of those in the Parklane area. So I think of advocacy is something really important. And I know that uh some some in the Parklane area have rubbed people the wrong way, but I think it's important too that we don't combine bad actors with good advocacy. Uh if you have a large peaceful protest and you have a couple people who start breaking windows um or setting cars on fire, are all of the protesters bad? They're not. Right. Is the cause of the protest bad? It's also not bad. Um and I think it's unfortunate that there's going to be bad actors in every group. And I'm not saying that they've set

229cars on fire, broken windows, and I appreciate that they haven't gone to those extent. Um, but there have been various impolite people, right, that that have been encountered and have rubbed people the wrong way. But I think it's important to separate the advocacy um from the bad actors um that are part of that. We just had Mr. Garfield here um who was extremely polite um and uh and and I've had I've had a number of conversations with people who who've been really fantastic uh w with all of our discussions. um that we've had so far. So, this is this is really long, right? But in the end, I think it's because the situation's really complicated and we don't have what I think to be a truly good solution. And that's why I feel like um

230like trying to balance on a really thin fence line, right? Um, not because I'm flip-floppy like I kind of feel I am, uh, but more because I think that this is a really hard situation with a lot of variables that goes into it. Um, and and I think I think the outcome is is is going to be really important and and it feels like if we if we delay, right, we potentially hurt Willow Canyon. uh we incur additional costs by subsidizing uh the low enrollment. Uh so there's some distinct some distinct issues that happen there, right? And and Parklane is potentially not far behind. Parklane's potentially stabilized. We don't really know the future. Uh but we do know that it is in that cohort uh of low enrollment just right above uh Willow Canyon and

231Granite. Uh on the flip side, right, if we were to if we were to go ahead um and I know we're not voting to close any schools right now, um but go ahead and combine them into Willow Canyon. Um you know, that is fiscally responsible. Um but at the same time I do think that it does leave that gap open uh in I think in an area that really does need a school located there in the Parklane site itself. I wish we could just I don't know if you've ever used Sim City 2000 but you can just kind of level the level the ground and then blow up the building and then just throw a new one there. Uh, and in a perfect world, that's what we'd do today. Um, and then tomorrow, everyone would

232just go to school in the new one. Uh, and it would be great and, uh, we'd just move the roads and, you know, be easy. But, so, I guess I guess that's my hesitation as we're at right now. Uh, is this really is a a a highly complex uh, situation here with proposal B. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. >> So, I'll start my comments on proposal A, which I just want to echo what Andrew said, I have no issues pretty much with proposal A. Ready to move forward with that. Um, just as he said, it's a affluent area. don't see a whole lot of change coming over there specifically with the Park Lane Canyon consolidation. Uh I have a couple of issues with the current proposal specifically with the fact that we don't have

233a plan for what we're going to do with Parklane moving forward. Um, I think just from where I'm coming from, this is the only proposal, the Park Lane and Willow Canyon consolidation that we are asking the school with the higher population to join with the school with the lower population. And I think it would be appropriate during for this specific proposal to offer a firm deadline for the start of a new school construction because we've considered constructing a new school on the Park Lane site. I think it's pretty clear that it is the central location. It's a pretty good location and we also still own the property. um we should set a firm deadline for when we're going to start it and I think that would ease a lot of the concerns in the Parklane

234community as they were the loudest community during this last process. Um if we say yeah you will have a new school on the Parklane site opening for example in 2032 I think that's going to ease a lot of fears 2032 2033 whatever we'll figure it out but we should have some sort of deadline. I don't know if uh that means we put off approving proposal B until the next board meeting. Um which I believe would be the latest that we should be putting it off for if we were to put it off at all. Um but that that's kind of my only thought here is that we're if we're asking this kind of unique situation of all the three the three consolidations that we're considering, this is the unique one where we're asking the bigger

235school to join the smaller school. should give them a little bit of a a almost a consolidation for joining the smaller school. >> Okay. Thank you. Um now we're going to have Mrs. Oaks. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, um yes, hard hard discussion, hard decisions. Um I know it's getting late for everybody. I am in agreement with regard to PO proposal A. I think we need to move forward on that. I also feel like we do need to move forward with proposal B. And I'll tell you why. Um for the reasons that um Miss Dolly shared, there is financial urgency and with the rate that all of our enrollment is falling as quickly as it is, I this is not going to get any easier. We've got to be discussing

236it. And that's really to Miss Patterson's point, that is what we're voting on is to have further discussions about that. I would um akin to what um Mr. Jackson shared like to have further discussions about what it would look like to have a school constructed on the side of Park Lane. I do think it is um from a a perspective of location, it is a better location for traffic purposes and other purposes. Um it makes more sense. I will say um I was driving up to rural Idaho last weekend um for part of the weekend and as I was driving up there it was very interesting to drive past public schools and see how many buses they have. Rural kids in Utah and elsewhere are used to having to be bus. It is just a

237normal thing. And the thought strongly occurred to me as I was headed up there that busing is going to become increasingly more and more a requirement no matter where you go to school for the most part because as populations decrease and children are flung areas in order to be able to create a critical mass for a school. Um it's just going to be part of the reality that we live in. Again I I've mentioned this before. My kids had an amazing experience with busing and I loved it. I thought it was the greatest invention that ever came along for a parent personally. But um but I recognize that the pain involved with feeling like you had a certain thing and then that thing changes. Um someone moves your cheese and it's pretty painful. And I

238recognize that's hard. It it doesn't mean that the other experience has to be terrible. I actually think that both of those school communities are incredibly strong just like Quail Hollow and Granite and there's a lot of strengths that those schools will come together with that after the initial growing pains will start to show. Um again, we haven't made any definite decisions. A lot of things can come out and those public um hearings and discussions, but I would encourage the public to be open-minded and consider some of the challenges that we have. If we were a state like Wyoming, which invests a significantly larger amount of money into public education and we had the flexibility that we wish we did, we would be able to keep these schools open without a problem, but it's simply not

239the reality. We're 51st in the nation per pupil spending and the legislature is not backing away from cutting taxes and increasing unfunded mandates and a lot of other requirements on us as as schools and without continuing to push upward our property taxes again and again and again. We have to be fiscally responsible and figure out something different. Um, again, I I'd like to have further discussions about what it looks like to to plan a school in the future at the Parklane site, but um, I think we need to move forward with public discussion and give some of these schools an idea of what to expect. I think in a lot of this, the hardest part is just the lack of clarity. Um to Miss Nyber's point before about being really creative with other options and

240with the monastery thing I want to address um I am an enormous fan of monastery education. I had my kids participate in some of that earlier along with Waldorf education. It's an incredible model. It's also a very expensive model. If you speak with anybody who has ever started a monastery school or runs u one with that it it's very insightful but in order to be able to properly do it it's expensive in part because your your teachers have to have additional specialized training the materials that go into that are also very expensive and um usually the way that the class sizes run it it's not as straightforward as one might expect and so again that's something I would love to see an artsbased model of a a magnet school in our in our district. I'd

241love to see Monasuri. I'd love to see a lot of different things, but when we're dealing with a pretty limited budget, it it makes it difficult to figure out how to make some of that work. So, anyway, those are just some of my thoughts. >> Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Oaks. Um, so I want to make a few comments. I will not repeat what everyone said, but um I really do appreciate all my fellow board members comments. Um, I I do think it's important for us to move forward with both proposals at this point because I would like us to have the hearings and we haven't heard from Parklane and Willow Canyon. We have not heard from Granite. Um, well, we have heard from Granite, but not with this proposal with Granite and Coil Hollow. And,

242um, I do want to hear, you know, what Park Parkane says about this. Um, at the same time, I want to echo kind of what um, Mr. Lewis said as well as Mrs. Oaks, and that I would I would really like us to have a plan to um, rebuild a school as soon as we can. And I also think it should be built on the Parklane um, site because that site is more central and um, there's been some other comments about why that would be better. Um, but I don't think it's good to leave like a big gap of no of no schools um right there in the middle. Um, I do I do think um combining Parkland and Willow Canyon will um support the Jordan feeder and I want to make sure that we

243don't do anything to damage that feeder. So that's also why I think it's important um for us to just figure out when we can rebuild that school and announce that at the same at the same time or just as soon as possible. Um because I would love us to be able to do that Glacier Hills model. I mean that that was really smooth. And I mean I know it's still hard. It is still hard to combine schools but um that would be at least for me my ideal thing. Um, I I also want to clarify something that Mr. Garfield said, um, because people keep saying this. The reason we never considered moving Ridgerest to Bella Vista is that Bella Vista could not hold all those kids without multiple um, portables. And of course, we don't

244we don't want to do portables if we can help it. We do have to do them once in a while, but that's not ideal. So I mean so it wasn't it was nothing about that that we didn't consider that we did consider it but it wasn't possible because Bella Vista is the better um condition school. It has a better FCI and FCI is important. We're not just discarding FCI in this whole thing. It's one of the data points we look at very seriously. So um so I think at this time if it didn't seem like anyone had questions for Mr. Wilcox. So, I think we can move forward with um the motion. The one thing when I looked at the motion is I'm wondering if we would want to add the school year to that

245just to make it even more clear. >> Sure. Yeah. >> Like um >> uh >> 2027. >> Uh >> I know where would that go. Mr. Edel. Okay, Mr. Edel. Maybe he'll he can put it in there. Yeah, I think I think I can insert it appropriately. I move that we initiate the notification required under Utah code section 53G-4-4224 and provide notice that the board is considering the closure of Granite Elementary School uh starting in the 2027 2028 school year to parents of students enrolled in the school, parents of students enrolled in other schools within the district that may be affected by the closure. in particular that one current in particular the current section of sorry in particular that one current section of Granite Elementary be boundaried into Quail Hollow Elementary School and another section

246be boundaried into Lone Peak Elementary School and the governing council and mayor of Sandy as well as required public comment uh and date, time and location of the public hearing. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second to that motion? >> I'll second that motion. >> Okay. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion to that motion? Um, yes, Mrs. Nyar. >> I just want to say one thing. We have been here before. We had a situation at Alta High School where the population dipped down to 1,600 and we had um extreme innovation called um Dr. McIll who's here and figuring out the step to the U program and having the kids earn college credits and in a few in just over two years we

247went from 1600 to 2600. So, I just want to remind all of the board members, I do want to be fiscally responsible. Um, Katie said we need to adapt and we need to be strategic. And I agree with both of those statements. And I know we can't possibly keep all of our elementary schools open, but I do think we need to start being innovative in our elementary schools. Um, our high schools all have pretty thriving populations and we have been innovative in our high schools and we also have special programs in our high schools that we don't have in our elementary schools. So, I know the declining birth rate is a problem, but I also know we have other schools like Beehive Academy and others who we are losing students to. So, I do think

248we need to be strategic. I do think we need to be innovative. I do think we need to adapt. I do think we need to look at piloting um other ways to deliver more personalized education to our elementary schools so that we can um we can maintain good enrollments and healthy enrollments. The last thing I would say is my my largest concern is when we say we're going to continue to research, I think once we move down this step of going back to community input meetings, at that point after another month or two of doing all of that, the 90 days, I think it's almost a fordrawn conclusion that this is going to go forward because I don't think we can continue to study and at the same time take five steps towards this. Um

249I think if you're going to continue to study, then you place it on hold. Um we'll we'll take community input and and the granite proposal is slightly different and I think there was a lot of the granite community interest in going to Quail Hollow. So if they're excited about it, I'm excited about it. But I think we have heard a lot from Parklane. So I just would remind our our the board that we also look at being very strategic and innovative. That's it. Okay. Thank you. And just just as a reminder going off what your comments were, I mean after the hearings we did a total pivot and totally changed the proposal. So I don't think we can say if we're going to approve these right now, this is what we're going to do because

250I don't believe that at least at least not for the second motion since a lot of people brought up some hesitation. Anyway, okay. If any any further comments. Okay. I will now call for a vote on motion number one and that is proposal A moving forward. So all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes. >> I'm opposed. [laughter] >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um that motion was not unanimous and Mrs. Nyimar voted no. Nay. >> Okay. Now I will entertain another motion um if we want to move forward with that proposal B. I'll make a motion. I move that we initiate the notification required under Utah code section 53G-4-42 24 and provide notice that the board is considering the closure of Parklane Elementary School for the 2027 2028 school year

251to parents of students enrolled in the school parents of students enrolled in other schools within the district that may be affected by the closure in particular that Willow Canyon Elementary School's boundaries be changed to include the current boundaries of Parkland Elementary School and the governing council and mayor of Sandy as well as required public comment and public hearing. >> Okay, thank you. Is there a second to that motion? >> I'll make that second. >> Okay, thank you. So, there is a motion, a second. Any comments to this motion? Okay. Um, I will now call for a vote then. All in favor say I. I. I. And any oppose say nay. >> Nay. >> No. >> Okay. So, there are four yays. It is um Mrs. Oaks, Mrs. Patterson, Mrs. Dolly, and Mrs. Schill. We all

252said yay. Yes to that. And then those three. So, Mrs. Nyabarb, Mr. >> Those three. >> What? >> You're like, and then those three. >> Those three at the end. [laughter] >> Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't nothing against that. I'm just saying this side of the room is made. [laughter] So, Mrs. Nybar, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Ed Renee. So, that motion does pass and we will continue this process. I do have one important question that is when will this postcard be sent out and when will we figure out the hearing dates? >> So, yes. So, we will notify both UPS and Parent Square within the next couple days of this. >> Okay. Do you hope to have the hearing dates before that or No, we'll just notify by uh >> we'll notice >> we

253can have the hearing dates. Maybe we'll run those by board leadership and make sure you guys are okay with that and and get >> Well, and maybe before the board only because we need to have a majority of board members there. So, I we just need to make sure four of us can be there for the hearings. >> Yeah. it the last time we sent the card had the hearing dates. Okay. >> So, I know that would be our pref preference. We [snorts] don't have to send two different cards out. >> Well, if if we can figure that out, if we can get that done this week, >> you know, in the motion it was public comment and hearing. Does we don't you know, we need to let obviously the committee know the dates. Uh

254that's not required of of a motion or anything, but uh we will get a couple possibilities out. >> Okay. >> This week and then go >> and the postcard will go this week. >> No, I think we're going to if if possible, we'd like to get the dates and send with the postcard. >> Okay. That No, that's fine. But I but we need it sent this week to start the 90 days officially, right? So >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, we'll try to get it out as Yeah, we want to get it out as quick as can, but >> let us work on dates tomorrow and Thursday. >> Okay. >> See if we can get there. >> Perfect. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Wilcox, and thank you board for that discussion. It was not easy. Um,

255okay. We're going to start with staff comments then, and we'll start with the superintendent. >> Thank you, President Schill. Uh first off just uh want to tell you as a board thank you uh for your your great uh service and um you know watching you wrestle with these difficult uh issues over recent months really um really builds my faith in our system as a American democracy that this is this you know this is what it's all about and um with all of the political noise and everything going on in the world. Um, you know, watching you all in action take up these issues and and really take it to heart, take it personal, carry it carry these heavy burdens with you. uh you know I I don't know that the public always is fully aware

256of just how heavy that mantel is that that you uh carry but many of us see it uh we see this daily uh this is really you know your second job full-time job uh that you you take on and uh I just want to express uh appreciation uh for that Um, secondly, just appreciate everybody that's presented tonight and uh all of the comments uh that that have been uh said. So, thank you. And then also just want to give a shout out to our district science fair is tomorrow and uh you all got a invite on that. You're welcome to attend uh if you'd like to. The judging will be from 4 to 6 here at Canyon Center. So if you have some time, you want to swing by to see that. Science fair for

257our students in Canyons is always a a great event. Uh highlighting a lot of the things that that we've been talking about when it comes to hands-on learning and looking at, you know, what we can do to enhance our students experience. And then the awards will be Thursday night from uh 4:00 to 5:30. So both will be in the Canyon Center uh if you'd like to attend. So, just wanted to to throw that out there. So, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Hey, one other thing, too. Last week was a heavy week for listening tour. We had seven or eight stops between schools and programs. Just thank thank you to the board members and our admin team that have been able to attend. But super super positive and more listening tour stops

258this week. But for all of our departments and schools that we've we've been at uh this this past couple of weeks, just want to tell them all thank you for their input and um just really positive morale and and a lot of great things have been said and a lot of appreciation to the board for all the things that you've done to support our employees. So just want to mention that. >> Okay. Thank you, Superintendent. We will now have the business administrator report by Mr. Wilcox. >> Yeah, just uh one comment uh on the again [clears throat] when you approve our consent agenda, you have the hire and terminations report. Uh one name on there on the termination side that I wanted to bring out and that's Janet Goal. Uh she uh been she's one

259of those who's been with us since day one when the district started as our as our great CTE director. So many great things she's done over the time. Uh Janet has been out last little while with some uh [clears throat] with some health issues. We know she there is that they do continue and so she has retired. We these we certainly love her and wish her and her family the best going forward with her her her health issues and want her to know how grateful for you are for her service for the 17 years she spent with us and for all the many great things that she did for us and that we're continuing to keep her in our thoughts and prayers. That's all I have for tonight. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr.

260Wilcox. Now we will have board comments and we'll start with Mrs. Nyar. >> Thank you. Um, first off, I want to thank those who presented tonight for those presentations and for all the time and effort that goes into that. Um, I too wanted to express my gratitude and thanks to Janet. She was one of the first, um, people who reached out to me when I got onto the board five years ago and made sure I had a tour of CEK and invited me to lunch and learns at Corner Canyon. And um Janet is not only a fantastic person and just a great leader with CEK and education, but she's also just someone that uh you you you quickly love. Um my thoughts and prayers are with her and her family as well. And um it's

261it's with a heavy heart that um that I I looked at that um that resignation. Uh to the Bella Vista teachers, I want to tell you thank you. Thank you for your work. You are effective teachers. We appreciate all that you've done. Bella Vista was an amazing elementary school. It was a blue ribbon school. um you were dedicated and you did do a fantastic job and I want to apologize as a board member um to that teacher and all the teachers who were watching that I failed to thank them because your efforts did not go unnoticed and you are amazing and we're lucky to have you as part of Canyons. Um I want to do a quick shout out to Whitney Lunt for being the cheer coach of the year. She has an amazing work

262ethic. Uh you have never seen anyone more energized in um pouring everything into her program. She has shaped so many athletes. She has created so many um collegiate scholarship opportunities for her cheerleaders and she's just so fun to watch. I I love watching um her teams compete and perform. Uh, another thank you to Eric Car. The thing that's probably the most impressive about Eric Car is he really does care about all of his athletes so much. I had a conversation with him a few years ago. I said, "Eric, are you going to leave us for college?" And he said, "You know, it's kind of hard. I just love the personal development of each athlete so much. And in college, there's the transfer portal. It's going to be hard for me. I don't know. I don't

263know." Um, congrats to Weieber, though. I I think this is so neat for him and his career. But I'm so grateful for all he's done, not only for our students and our athletes, but for Draper at large. Our community has created Friday night Friday night lights are just a tradition. And I love it. And it feels like a small town as the as it feels like so much of the community comes out to cheer on these student athletes. not only the ones playing on the field but the ones that perform at halftime and I just I love that so much and um a lot of that is because of his program and also the amazing um boosters that help too. In fact, we have some parents, um, Kelly and Nate Shamler that have run the

264snack shack for so many years because they almost had as many boys as I did. And they all have played football and they are their last son is actually graduating. He's got a scholarship to Weieber. He'll follow coach Care there and and uh we'll no longer have their services with all the food, but they've sure put in so much time. Uh, a big congratulations to Casey Sata. I'm so excited about this. Um, if you've ever had the chance to talk to Casey, he is such an excellent coach. He's also all about character and developing these kids and making integrity um, and personal responsibility and accountability important. Um, the other thing I love about Casey is that I know Casey is going to be there, that he cares about the Draper community. He lives there. He

265has young boys himself and he wants to build this program and he's not just just there for a year or two. In fact, I know how much he loved the Brighton community. I talked to him and he said it was really hard for me to put in that application even though I live in Draper and my kids play for Corner Canyon little little league prep teams. He said it was hard because I just feel like I love the Brighton community. So, I know it was it was hard for him to make that decision, but I'm really excited for what he has to offer for stabil continued stability for a coach that's going to be there for a long time. So, I'm grateful for that. Um, finally, I just need to recognize that uh Martin Luther

266King Day yesterday. Um, y'all have heard my story about the little old lady I met in Cleveland, Ohio, Robbie Penman, who sent her sons with Martin Luther to pass out pamphlets door to door and had him to her home for dinner. When I met her, she was like 103 years old. Uh, and she would talk about the light in Martin's eyes. Um, a couple of my favorite quotes of his that are go a little unnoticed, um, but are some of my favorites are, "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." I love that. Um, that that you're still engaged in a anxiously engaged in a good cause and and looking towards the future with positivity. He said, "If you want to change the world,

267pick up your pen and write." Then he said peace if possible but truth at all costs. That truth is the most important thing that resonates with me. And then the final one I want to leave you with today that is uh become personal for me is if you can't fly then run. If you can't run then walk. If you can't walk then crawl. But whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. Thank you to Martin Luther King Jr. for the leader he was and for what he has done for our country. And that's it. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. >> All right. I just want to acknowledge uh today is the first day of our state's legislative session. So, good luck to everyone in this room and good luck to everyone in this

268state. Uh I have a couple of bills I do want to talk about [clears throat] specifically to the teachers, uh administrators, and staff who are watching the board meeting live. Um, first, uh, we I have an ask, please reach out to your state board of education member, uh, member Erin Longacre or Amanda Ballinger about the potential cuts to public education, uh, that are being considered. Um, we received a ton of emails, uh, asking us to vote against these cuts. These cuts are not coming before this board. They are coming before the state's boards of board of education. Um this the cut is because of the $300 billion $300 million excuse me uh federal shortfall uh as a result of the big beautiful bill and the state legislature has asked all appropriations committees to cut 5%

269of their base budget. Um, we I at least I would personally encourage each and every one of you to reach out to Aaron Longacre and Amanda Ballinger and ask that instead of cutting extremely valuable programs in public education such as the Beverly Taylor Sorenson program to instead uh cut the Utah Fitzall scholarship, a bloated and frankly unnecessary piece of uh public spending um just on the basis of government of the people should pay for public goods, not private enterprise. If private enterprise cannot sur survive on its own, it should die. The next bill um HB278 would reestablish the Utah State Board of Education as a nonpartisan entity. As everyone in this room knows, our board is nonpartisan. It's the reason why it functions so much better than the state's Board of Education. And this bill

270is being ran to simply fix the problem that was created in the last decade by making our board our state's board partisan. Uh the next bill is SB60, which reduces the income tax, which by the way, the state of Utah's income tax can only fund public education. Uh it cuts it from 4.5% I mean, yeah, excuse me, 4.5% to 4.45% on personal and business uh uh revenue. this uh will cause uh this board and boards across the state to increase property taxes in order to meet that gap. Um on a personal note, I work full-time. I rent. I just got out of high school. And when you cut the income tax, you are cutting my burden of supporting the school district and forcing it onto older people who have owned their homes forever. Stop cutting

271the income tax. Stop eliminating young people's uh ability to contribute back into their school system that created them. And stop forcing elderly people who have not had kids in our schools for decades to continue to put up the burden of funding this school system on your backs. It's the legislaturator's fault. Um there's also a bill, I'm not sure the number, but it would it's being ran to make our board partisan. It's ran every year. We don't expect it to move, but if it does move, expect five alarm fire. This board, local boards cannot be partisan. So, just keep your eye on the legislature. All, no matter what you think, they're coming after public education and they're going to be sneaky and they're going to be deceptive and they're going to be vicious about it. So,

272just keep on your toes and uh watch those bills. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Edel. Yeah. So, I want to say that uh we're not the best district in the state or the region or anywhere by accident. Um not by a long shot from the top um all the way throughout our schools. uh every single person in our district uh contributes to this and we no kidding have the best people anywhere. Uh I'll never be able to say enough thank yous uh or enough you guys are amazing. You'll never hear it enough. No matter what uh no matter what role you're in, you you won't hear it enough. Um, and and I try to say it when I go into schools, uh, but know every single one of you that you are amazing. Uh, so

273I've got four kids in the district now. Uh, and we've we've we've been in it for a while and the experiences that they've had uh have been absolutely phenomenal. My kids love going to school. They try to go to school early. Um, my kids are not okay when they're told that they're too sick to go to school. Like, that is a really bad day, right? That is not by accident. That is not a fluke. Uh, that is because of the amazing people that we have within our schools. Um, it's our teachers, it's our administrators, uh, it's our ESPs, it's our bus drivers, right? So, so all of the different people um who touch the daily lives of our students uh or support them like contribute to this. So, I feel fortunate that I get to

274see firsthand the impacts of our district and our phenomenal public education system that we have. Uh, I feel fortunate that I get to hear my children talk about their teachers and the great things that they do in their classroom. I feel fortunate, uh, that the biggest complaint when I have a sick child is that they're going to miss something at school. Like, and no kidding, like that is the biggest complaint I can't miss this week, it's such and such this week. Literally every single week. [laughter] Uh there's there's there is something every single week that they absolutely cannot miss. Uh and that they're so uh unhappy to miss. Uh even to the point where you know how siblings you know rub each other with pointing out things. Anytime they're not able to go to school,

275one of the siblings can say you miss such and such at school. Uh and so I just want to say thank you uh to everyone who works in our district. Um I'll never say thank you enough. um but continue to to do the great work that you did. Um our comment today from the Bella Vista teacher uh as an example of of how it goes in our district, right? Uh no matter what you're given, no matter what your circumstances, you are the best at what you do. Uh and I see that consistently throughout our district. We have the best and they always do the best at what they do. No matter what we're given, no matter what we have to work with. I mean, we it's been pointed out several times, right, that we are

276funded 51st, 51st in the nation for per pupil spending here in Utah. Um, and yet we have such amazing schools. That's not because we're funded 51st. It's because we have the best people. And without that, right, we'd be nothing because our people make us everything. So, thank you to all of all of everyone. Um, and I don't have much more to say than that other than, uh, every time I get to interact with our staff. Uh, I'm continuously amazed and I'll do whatever I can, uh, to continue to help support you. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Edel. Mrs. Oaks, are you ready? >> Yep. Can you hear me? Okay. Um, I want to start off by thanking um, Shelley Karen for coming tonight. Um, Shelley won principal or administrator of the year for the Apex

277Awards with very good reason. She's been such a wonderful addition to the Indian Hills community. And what was able to take place with that um music room and addressing the need, the very profound need that was there is in large part due to her advocacy and her helping us to be aware of what was going on. I believe it's anywhere from a quarter to a third of all of the students at Indian Hills actually um participate in that program. And that says a lot. It really does add a great deal to the community of Indian Hills for which I'm very grateful. Um I want to echo what Miss Nyar said about our thanks to Coach Care and our welcome to Coach Satara. We're excited and I think it's going to be a great run. Um

278I want to echo some of what uh Jeff said earlier about how amazing the visit from Lieutenant Governor was and to Sunrise Elementary. I was so impressed by those teachers and um their level of professionalism and joy. I just sitting in each of their classrooms was an exuberant experience. It was so great and I was jealous of their students actually that they get to go there every day. It was awesome. Um I really appreciated being able to attend the superintendent listening tours at Quarter Canyon and Draper Park Middle School. Um, every time I go to those I learn something new and it's very insightful and it helps us address things earlier on. Um, and to kind to teach not only faculty members how to better advocate for issues that come up for them, but it

279help us to be more aware and and figure out on our end as well. Um, I really appreciated going um to the CEK open house last week or the week before. It was that was awesome. It was amazing to see how much public um engagement and excitement there was. And I on that note, I do want to thank Janet Goel for all of the work that she's done at the district. Really, the long waiting list for each of these programs and and the excitement that um attends these students as they get to participate in this type of learning in large measure is a tribute to the work that she's done while she's been at Canyons. and we're going to miss you, Janet, and we wish you all the best and we'll be thinking about you

280and you're in our thoughts and prayers. Um, and lastly, I want to thank all of my board members who attended the USBA conference. Um, that was an awesome event and I'm always so proud of um, how much our board works to really um, craft and and become better board members. Um the USBA's entire purpose is about building better boards and each time um we participate in digging in and better understanding our role. We really do see great improvement. Um Canyons was very well um represented there. Um, Vice President Edel had a a phenomenal um, presentation on AI and um, Susan Edwards and um, Shereice gave a wonderful presentation on um, bringing better awareness to the gang issues and um, need for gang funding and gang prevention funding. Um we also had um Dan Harper that

281gave a presentation with regard to legal issues that are coming up in education. So I mean we could have been there. Oh and I don't want to forget that um President Schill also presented along with former president Nancy Tingi about um being a a great um USBA board president. I mean, we've had two USB board presidents come out of our district, which is not is no small thing. It's saying a lot. So, again, I I just I feel very grateful to be able to work with such great board members who earnestly really try and think through these issues and and vote in a way that they feel like is um appropriate and um well thought out and considered. And I I really appreciate working with each of you. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Dolly. >> Thank

282you. I'll be brief here. Uh, I want to thank the community for just your patience with us as we work through these difficult issues and and understanding that we're not going to necessarily find a perfect solution that's going to work best for everybody. And yet, we realize the impact this has on our teachers and staff, on their their jobs, and also on our families and and the change that it can bring for their their children. So, thank you for your patience in this process. I want to thank Dr. Wilkinson and her staff for supporting the Lieutenant Governor's visit. They did a phenomenal job as has been mentioned and they did it on very short notice and so we appreciate them. They represented Canyons well. The lieutenant governor is just visiting one school in each district

283and Sunrise did a great job of rep representing us well. Uh I want to thank all those that have you know for our district science fair to happen tomorrow. There's been lots of science fairs in our schools throughout the district. And so, thank you to those teachers that have taken on that extra assignment to help support students um in learning how the the scientific method and applying those things. Also want to thank our PTA and all their work and supporting the reflections contest. Um Karen and I were able to attend the awards ceremony and that was a a fun opportunity. And I also want to thank Karen for her work on the USBA board and and helping to put on that excellent USBA conference along with our other Canyons members that participated in that. But

284grateful to work with an awesome group of board members and also staff and administration in this district. As Andrew said, we are able to work with an amazing district. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Peterson. >> Wow, you've said it all. [clears throat] I do have a couple of comments, but I really appreciate all of the great comments that you guys have shared. We do have an awesome board who really do care about what we're doing and we put we are willing to put in the time to uh support our students and our teachers and our schools. So, I I appreciate everything that you do. I just want to do a recognition for Kirsten Stewart and all those that worked with her to um present another successful Canyons preschool and kindergarten openhouse. Um this

285is our second year and she said that they had 360 preschool applications come from that and 760 um kindergarten enrollment which we were already counting into. I mean, that's not in addition to what you've already said in other other numbers, but our preschool, we're reaching out to our students earlier and earlier, and we do such a nice job of setting them up for success down the road. Um, I was really impressed. They asked the parents to give feedback on why they came and what and anyway feedback and they said the reason they chose either to apply to preschool or kindergarten is because of strong academic programs, the reputation of the schools that they're safe, they have a welcoming environment, they have experienced, caring teachers, and um some of them appreciate proximity to home and work

286and that it's costefficient for them. So, um, and it provides bonding for the comm with other people from the community. A lot of people who are in preschool particularly don't know a lot of other children in the school community and this gives them that opportunity to become part of the community. So, kudos to that group. Um, I'm going to give a little background if you don't mind. Um, when the news came out about holding back retaining our third graders, everybody went bananas because that that's not um documented good practices in education. And I was concerned that what they were saying in the news, I wanted to know, is that what they're really doing or is that just a hook to get you to watch the news? And as usual, um, I found out that that's

287the hook to get you to watch the news. There's a little more to everything that they say on the news. So, I had the opportunity to attend the governor's um, literacy and reading symposium, which was held just a few days before they did come to Sunrise. That's why I was so fast. And I was really concerned about what direction they're going. What are they thinking? And there were some pretty significant people that were there. Of course, it was presented by the governor and his wife. Lieutenant Governor Dedri Henderson was there and Kristen Basler who is from the US Department of Education was also present as well as many many educators and I found it fascinating a lot of business leaders. I sat next to um a lady whose family owns and operates um I can't

288remember which dealership it is now. my mind goes blank. But anyway, people out in the community because the purpose for this whole meeting was yes, we have some problems with our third grade readers not reading at minimal, you know, only reading at minimal proficiencies, but um Governor Cox while he was presenting what his goals were, he referred to Senate Bill 127 which was passed in 2022 and we are fully implementing the parts most of the parts of that bill, but he would really like to see it expanded to put greater emphasis on literacy as a policy as a focus from the lit the legislature. He also emphasized that due to cultural influences from technology that literacy is also a crisis for adults found across American dem demographics. He would like to see grade retention. He

289wants grade retention pressure to get cultural change. he feels like if there's no stick, the parents won't take it seriously. So, that's why that's in there, and I'll I'll elaborate on that a little bit in a moment. Um, he'd like to see more budget focused on resources. Um, make sure that we have PAR professionals available for every classroom in the state, earlier interventions. Sometimes we can't get kids um identified and in actual programs until they're in sometimes second, third grade. We need to identify these kids back in preschool, even kindergarten, and then track those those those students and make sure that they're getting support, extra support if needed. Um, special reading plans for the struggling students. We we do a lot of that already and we'd like them identified sooner. Of course, he's emphasizing better

290school attendance. And then um Mrs. Ba basler from the uh government emphasized that it is not emphasized that it's being a workforce issue, an economic issue and not just an educational issue which made me really happy because we're doing a lot. We're doing way more. We hit you we've already brought out that despite our funding we we do better than any any other um state as far as what we're able to do with our money. He would like to see this is not a law but he would like to see it expanded but as far as the retention part what I shared with them I've now mentioned it to them twice so I hope that works that I'd like to see it not implement it all at once if they do expand it but that

291we do it gradually that we identify a cohort in kindergarten who's struggling who's having those difficulties and then we track those students and give the support that we he's asking for and that we know is should be available for them. And then and then after they've gone through first, second, and then by the time they hit third and they've had three maybe four years of intervention, only those students would be the ones that would be retained. The whole point of it being that parents also need to be part of this this program that they need to be uh informed more clearly that your start students struggling and we have these things that we'd like to to have done and then what can you do on your end? Um they were very concerned that our parents

292aren't reading anymore. Our kids don't see them reading anymore. are the parents will be uh feeding a newborn and on being on their texting on their phones at the same time. They're not getting that connection and that um exposure to literature. So, they're asking communities and our business leaders to come up with some programs to promote literacy in their businesses. They used to do uh those pizza cards, you know, if you read so many you could go and get a free pizza. That hasn't been done for a while. and they said those kinds of things, putting up posters in your business, our employees are reading this, you know, just bringing up the the importance of literacy because we need a literate community for for business. So, I'm happy with the direction that they're doing. They're

293taking their time to go to every single district and study it. I wish the legislature would pay attention to that before they start making rules. They are actually studying this and I think that they may come up with a great program. So, um I'm really happy that we've been included in the data for that with with Sunrise and I I'm going to follow it and continue to see where where that's going. Um did I have anything else? We already talked about Sunrise and then uh I was going to mention the USBA part as well. Um we have a fantastic board and and our district is so amazing that we have um presenters every every year to represent good practices to our state. So I'm really proud of that. Um we're also having a public USBA

294is sponsoring a celebration of public education tomorrow at the capital to show legislators the positive of educa of public education. And I think they hear so much about private private and homeschooled that we wanted to do a balance. So we have some I think we have five groups representing our district up there to show what's the positive in education. So if you can come up in the if the community would like to come up and take a look. It's in the rotunda from 3 to 6. And it's not a rally, it's not a protest, it's just a celebration of what education is able to do. And uh I think that's all I'm going to say. Thank you. [snorts] >> Okay. Thank you. Um I am going to be brief and not repeat a lot of

295what other people have said. Um I have attended many of the same events. Um a couple that I attended that are different. Um I went to Jordan High School and they had a speaker on Topaz the Japanese internment camp and that was just really fascinating. It was so good. Um, I also attended Butler Elementary's PTA meeting and their PTA is just amazing and they really do so much to support students and so I really appreciate all their work. Um, I also want to add my thanks to Bella Vista teachers. Um, as you know, my kids went to that school and I've always thought of that school as just a really special place and it really is a gym and those teachers are amazing and I am sorry that they felt neglected in that meeting. Um,

296I do think all of us really appreciate them and their work as well as all teachers in our district. Um, I [snorts] want to thank Janet Goel for all her work. um the CT program, CTE program in our district is what it is because of her and I know she feels super passionate about it. And um I want to add my thanks to to her. Um and lastly, I just want to say congrats to Casey Satara Corner. Canyon's gain is Brighton's loss and he will definitely be missed. Um he is one of the best coaches my son ever had and my son loves him and he's an amazing coach that builds um student athletes and teaches them more than just um a football but how to be great people. And then lastly I a lot

297of people talked about Sunrise and I just want to get on the record that Sunrise is the number one elementary school in the state. Number one. and many of our schools are very similar. They're the top schools in the state. So I re really appreciate all the work that is done. So um that is all and I will now conclude the meeting and thank you board members and thank you administration for Everything.