001Today is November 11th, 2025 and we're meeting at the district office located at 9361 South 300 East in Sandy, Utah. The first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda for today. So, I will now take a motion. I move that we approve the agenda for today, November 11th, 2025. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second the motion. Okay. Thank you. Is there any discussion to the motion? Okay. Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. That motion passes unanimously. The next item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance and it will be given by Sunrise Elementary Principal Angela Wilkinson. And today the flag ceremony will be given by Jordan High Navy Cadet Corps program. You too. Well done. carry
002colors. Present colors. Will everyone join me in saying the pledge of allegiance? Ready, begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Thank you. Cadets, you may exit. Order out. You know the Order colors. Ready, cut. Post the colors. Steady about facing left face forward. Left face forward. Thank you. You may be seated. Good evening, members of the board and everyone here. I am Dr. Angela Wilkinson, the principal at Sunrise, and this is Penny Armor, the assistant principal. We are so fortunate to have her join us this year, and I personally want to thank each of you for prioritizing assistant principles in elementary schools. I also
003want to thank you so much for having us both here tonight. We are always grateful for the opportunity to address you and brag a little bit about Sunrise. Before we begin this evening, we'd like to take a moment to recognize and thank our veterans. Today on Veterans Day, we pause to honor the brave men and women who have served our country with courage, dedication, and sacrifice. Their commitment to protecting our freedoms is something we can never take for granted, and we are deeply grateful for all they have done. At Sunrise, we make it a priority to teach our students what it means to honor and appreciate those who serve. Each year, we hold a Veterans Day assembly where we welcome veterans and their families into our school. During the assembly, our fifth grade students perform
004songs to in tribute to our veterans. At one special moment, as our veterans stand, our students will uh welcome among them to personally hand each one an American flag and thank them for their service. It's truly a moving experience, a powerful reminder of gratitude and connection between generations. We also decorate the front of our school with American flags and share a special announcement to express our thanks. These moments help our students understand that honoring our veterans is more than a tradition. It's an act of respect and appreciation for the freedoms we enjoy every day. To [clears throat] all of our veterans from our school community and beyond, we want to take a minute and thank you for your service, your courage, and your example. At Sunrise, we teach 653 students and our 653 students teach
00572 faculty and staff. In other words, we learn just as much from our students as they do from us every single day. Our mission at Sunrise is to empower a collaborative culture where all learners are problem solvers. We truly embrace this. Every person in our building, students, teachers, and staff alike, is a learner. This mission guides our daily decisions and continues to shape our success. In fact, just recently, US News and World Report ranked Sunrise as the number one elementary school in the state of Utah, an achievement we are incredibly proud of. We are also one of two elementary schools in the district that has the gifted and talented program, SULTA, or supporting advanced learners toward achievement. Each week, all of our teachers at Sunrise collaborate in professional learning communities or PLC's, diving deep into
006grade level data and discussing ways to take learners learning further and make it more personal for students. While our teachers collaborate, our students are engaged in brain boosters, exploring STEM in our maker space, making music, creating art, engaging in playworks, and diving into the library. This year, our Brain Booster team has truly shined. From breathtaking performances like our Veterans Day program to introducing students to 3D printing, green screen technology, and cooperative play, our music teacher also works side by side with our classroom teachers to integrate music into our everyday lessons. At Sunrise, we have truly appreciated the additional time given to our students for the arts. The energy and excitement at Sunrise make it an amazing place to be. The students, staff, and community truly feel like family. When you walk through our doors, you're
007greeted with a smile, something visitors frequently comment on. Everyone in our building is willing to jump in and support one another. And that spirit extends beyond our walls. Our community is an essential part of what makes us our school so special. One of our strongest partnerships is through our watchdogs program. This PTA initiative encourages fathers, grandfathers, and other male role models to volunteer in our school. It's not unusual to see two or three watchd dogss in the building on any given day. Each one helping to make our school a better, safer, and more connected place for our students. Our time with you this evening is short, but we hope you've given a we've given you a glimpse into what makes Sunrise truly shine. Our culture really is one of students first. We will continue to
008soar because that's what Eagles do. Thank you. Hey, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate you, Dr. Wilkinson and assistant principal um Penny Armor. And congratulations on being the number one elementary school in the state. And please pass on our thanks to your staff and teachers because that is definitely a group effort to achieve that. So, thank you so much. Okay, the next item on the agenda is the Canyon Strong Student Recognitions and Jeff Haney, director and Kristen Stewart, associate director of communications, will present this. President Shiel, thank you for this time to recognize the ways in Canyon School District you can learn more, do more, and be more. Derek, are you punking me right now? So, while he fixes that, I want to introduce a friend of mine. His name is
009Cash Butler, and Cash is a music student at Diamond Ridge High School. And if you've never seen Cash play the guitar, then you haven't lived. We've asked Cash to help us celebrate and commemorate Veterans Day by playing a patriotic song for you tonight. Cash. I want to say thank you for enjoy. That's good. [music] [applause] So, Cash is a member of Diamond Ridg's rock band. It's one of the first and only high schools in Utah to have a rock band class. I'd like Mr. Brandon Lupus to stand. He is the teacher in the start of our music program at Diamond Ridge. [applause] On December 11th at Alta's Performing Arts Center at six o'clock, Diamond Ridg's music program, including their rock band, will have a concert. We encourage everybody to go. I have been to one
010of their concerts before, and it is simply amazing. And I understand that our resident rock stars, principal Amy Betger, who's a drummer, and Mr. Lupus is a drummer, and they're going to have a drum off. Is that true, Brandon? Oh, yeah. Okay, everybody show up to see who wins, the principal or the upstart teacher. I'm putting my money on the principal. Cash, thank you so much. Okay, let's give him another round of applause. [applause] [applause] Now, he's certainly rising above. That was Jimmy Hendris like in the way that he played that song. So, Cashwin, you're a rock star. I'm going to give you the phone number to the Canyons Education Foundation because we want some donations. Now, speaking of rising above, because Cash certainly did. The veterans in our community were honored today for their
011acts of courage in the US armed forces. This is our tradition in canyons. We hold events and activities to show clearly that in our schools we honor the flag, the brilliance of the Constitution, and the rights and the privileges that come with being an American. Now, of course, we know that none of this would be possible without those in our military. So, please, President Jill, if you'll indulge me for a second, [snorts] I'd like to uh honor my hero veteran. Um, my dad, Lieutenant Arthur Carol Haney. [snorts] He was in the National Guard and he was a police officer for 30 years before he passed away. He was the strongest man I have ever known and I live every day in hopes that I'm making him proud. I honor his memory tonight along with that
012of my grandfather Pierce Haney after whom I am named. He served in World War II in the Navy. I honor all of our veterans including my family members. Now earlier today we had Jordan High's Naval Cadet Corps. They presented the colors as President Shiel said and they did this at numerous events. I think I saw them at three events today. They were very busy presenting the colors at our Veterans Day events all across the district. [snorts] The core is a partnership with the US Navy. This is unique to Canyon's District in the Salt Lake Valley. If any high school student would like to participate, they certainly can contact Jordan High School and become a part of this amazing program. and we salute them not just for the service to our community but to our country.
013Now every year Veterans Day is a big day in Canyon's district. The board of education and the administration send a letter of appreciation to every employee including substitutes who are currently enlisted or have been enlisted in the US armed forces. We express our appreciation for all they have done to ensure the rights of Americans, including the right of every child to have a free and appropriate education. Also, this year we have started an honor wall on the in the west lobby across the way from our Canyons achieve trophy case. We are putting the photographs of every employee who's been a veteran or who is enlisted in the National Guard. We want every employee to give us their photo in their uniform so we can appropriately honor them for their service. Now, today I went to
014Alahigh's Veterans Day Assembly. It's been nationally recognized for its excellence. And after the event, two Vietnam vets shook my hand and with tears in their eyes, they said, "We didn't get this kind of welcome when we came back from the war in ' 69." All I could say was, well, I am glad we get to do it now and we will continue to do so in Canyon School District. The board has given us the directive that Canyon's district will continue the tradition of honoring our veterans as an important part of understanding civics, government, history, and service. You'll see there the photographs of many of our events across the district today. I believe that's uh Vice President Edel with his kids right there. I understand that Glacier Hills Veterans Day event was amazing and I was
015at the Alta event with Vice President Oaks and Mrs. Person. It was absolutely phenomenal. I also want to note that we have many employees who are serving or have served. You can see a Sandy council member who also is a teacher at East Sandy, Allison Straoud. There's a picture of her right there at East Sandy's Veterans Day event. So, thank you veterans. We salute you. Now, I mentioned that music concert of Diamond Ridge. Diamond Ridg's music program is brand new. Last year, it was their first year. So, if you can make it to their concert on December 11th, please do attend that. [snorts] Now, the next people we want to honor are the Corner Canyon Chargers. They are the 6A champions in girls volleyball. They won at the recent 6A state tournament that culminated in
016a match against the number one ranked team. Skyidge Corner Canyon ranked number two, claimed the first two sets, then dropped the third, and then they came back in the fourth to snag a spot in the record books as this year's champions. So, congratulations to this year's team and to head coach Mindy Ricks and of course all of the parents who have supported and cheered for their student athletes. It's only November and Canyon student athletes have already won three state and team titles in Utah High School Activities Association sanctioned sports so far this year. Congratulations to the Chargers. Now, all of us who have had teenagers know that they are very, very talented at arguing. If you give them the skills to debate, well, watch out because they may have later curfews and fewer times washing
017the dishes. Canyon's middle schoolers, well, those debaters, they can be incredibly persuasive, especially in the debate competition category. We recently held the Turkey Turney. That's the middle school debate um competition. And a total of 42 students tested their skills in four debate categories and they scored high enough to make it to the state competition. So congratulations to the students from Butler, Draper Park, Eastmont, and Indian Hills Middle. Volunteer judges bestowed prizes on those who scored among the top 20%. Now, this was a friendly, but it was a fiercely competitive event. It gave students a platform to hone their research, their reasoning, and their public speaking skills. We've seen some of those students at our open houses, and they are incredibly persuasive. A huge thanks to the staff at Albian and to the coaches, the judges,
018the parents, and the teacher librarians who make the Turkey Turney and middle school debate possible. Now, I don't hide this at all. I am an old band dad. So Brandon Lupus was in the Altah High marching band when my son Jaden was in the marching band. So I've known Brandon since he was a freshman in high school. And the adviser, Caleb Javastisteri, well, he tells me that I am an honorary Alaba Bandad. And I have to say that these photographs are a sight to behold. And I surely wish that I could hear the photos. Here in Canyons, we believe that the magic of a marching band is that its music is magic in motion. An Alta Hillrest and Brighton marching bands competed last weekend in St. George at the Red Rocks State Marching Band Competition.
019Alta High took third place in their division. Brighton took fifth place in their division and Hillrest took seventh place in their division. Fantastic. Congratulations to the musicians, the color guard. They had amazing choreography, costumeuming, and it has been amazing to watch them put their field shows together. Now, I also want to thank the parents. Being a band dad is tough. They are a committed lot. First, it's hot all summer, and then it gets rainy, and then it gets cold. And for four years, we had to have a car that could either hold a saxophone or a tuba or both at the same time. So, congratulations to our marching bands for their successful seasons. Congratulations to the Hawk and the Bengal who ended the cross country season on the podium. Ala's Aiden Neil crossed the finish
020line in fourth place in 5A in the boys races and Brighton's Bridget Smith a sophomore, excuse me, Smith, a sophomore, she took second place in the 5A girls race. Overall, Ala Ala's boys finished eighth. Brighton ended in the 18th spot and Hillrest in the 22nd at the states race. In the girls 5A race, Brighton was 11th, Ala 14th, and Hillrest 17th. So, congratulations to Aiden and Bridget for hitting their strides at the state championship. And in 4A, the Beat Diggers, both boys and girls are a top 15 cross country team. Boys finished 12th, girls finished 13th, and the Jordan boys won region. So, congratulations to all of our cross country runners. Now, Canyon School District still has two teams in the hunt for state titles in football. The Bright and High Bengals have made their
021way through the bracket like bosses. They will appear Thursday on the field at Rice Eckle Stadium against Springville. I will note as aside that Rick Robbins was once principal of Springville, so there's a tie to that game, too. A win will propel the Bengals into the finals next Friday again at Rice Eckles. So, wear your orange and blue on Thursday as a communitywide effort of cheering the Bengals to make it to the finals. We want to give a big shout out to coach car coach Casey Suterra and his team captains and of course the parents and boosters of the Bengals who work so hard every year to make it a successful program. And on Friday, [snorts] it's a Robins versus Robins. Superintendent's gonna get mad at me for pointing this out, [laughter] but he can't
022do anything. I made the microphone. Uh Dr. Robbins's son Nick, and he's incredibly proud of this and I would be too, is the head coach at Mountain Ridge. They'll be playing against Corner Canyon in the semi-finals at Rice Eckles on Friday. Now, the Chargers is obviously in Canyons and his son is the head coach and so we all wonder what color is he going to be wearing. So, he's going to be cheering for the team that wins either way. I'm wearing tonight. So, he's wearing the Corner Canyon jersey tonight. And I want to say no matter what Dr. Robbins wears, Dena, principal caller, I will be wearing corner Canyon Blue as will our entire community, we wish them much luck. Coach Eric Care, I believe this is his seventh, seventh or eighth. Do you know
023Dr. Robins? Eighth time headed to the semi-finals at Rice Eckles, which is a very ve it's incredibly challenging to do. So, congratulations to the Chargers, the coaches, the captains, the team members, and the parents, and the boosters. We couldn't do it without them. Now, tomorrow morning, we plan to record a podcast with Dr. Robbins, Coach Robbins, and Coach Care. It'll be a light-hearted conversation about friendly rival rivalries, doing rowdy right in this in the fan section, sportsmanship, lessons learned beyond the score of making it so far in the postseason. So, please tune in tomorrow to Connect Canyons to hear more about this Friday's semi-final matchup between Mount Ridge and Corner Canyon. And if you're looking for something to do this weekend, I want to mention our fall musicals. Can't miss those. Opening this week are
024Jordan High Cinderella, Corner Canyon's Mary Poppins and Hillrest, Wendy, and Peter Pan. These are fantastic shows. Please don't miss them. President Sheil, what a fantastic start to the school year. Happy Veterans Day. Canyon students are Canyon strong. They make us Canyons proud. We turn the time back to you. Okay. Thank you. So, the next item on our agenda is new business part A and that is the long range planning committee proposal regarding school boundaries and school consolidations and closures. This is an update and the second reading and this will be presented by Leon Wilcox, business administrator. The next item agenda is business. Thank you, President Shill. I too want to echo my thanks for our veterans. I want to just point out the two that I know are in the room and apologize if there
025are others, but I want to recognize Vice President Edeto for his service and also in the back Rick Sheis uh who puts together all the maps you will see tonight and from our IT help desk for his service as well. U and all the other veterans out there. Thanks for all you do. Uh we want to go over as we've gone through our public hearing process and whatnot. We want to go over some updates and some proposals to the to our our boundary study and school consolidation. But first of all, I just we just want to preface this with the declining enrollment that we are seeing here in Canyon School District and throughout the state. So again, this is the right I have here and I want to emphasize this presentation is out on board
026on excuse me our diligent website. Now uh the state has put together has completed their October one counts and we went over those last a few meetings back but you can see here they've put together a few charts that they have shown shown the state board of education. I'm going to show a couple of those to you tonight. This is being the first one here. This is the decrease that we are seeing in public education enrollment. That would include public and charter schools, district and charter schools throughout the state. You can see a dip. We we dropped about 10 11,000 students this past year. We hit the high mark of about 675 students in the 23 and 24 school year, but we've had decreases since. They are expecting a pretty big decrease next year of
027around 17,000 students uh down to about 643,000. So in a few year period they will have dropped 30,000 students. They do expect that those decreases to continue pretty much throughout the rest of this decade getting down to around that 600,000 student mark statewide. we mirror them and you can see our drop here you know for years we were very consistent just under 34,000 students uh for many years and you can start seeing just after co our numbers decreasing uh we're about 31500 students right now we do expect to be down another thousand next year so and same we are projecting our enrollments to decrease throughout the rest of this decade and then hopefully level off and then we'll hopefully start to rebound a little bit. But we'll see how that progresses. One thing is always
028to look at students per grade or population per grade. Again, this is from the USB. They put this chart together, but you can see the number of of 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th graders there around 53, 54,000. And you can see how that number has just decreased as you get into the lower grades of about uh nearly 8 to 10,000 students down to the first and second grade. Obviously that gets into a demographic issue of you know in 10 15 years of these students go to college. What does that look like? Then join the workforce after that. What does that look like? So again, big issues for the state upcoming with this uh decreasing school age population. And we mirror that here. You can see our uh our 10th, 11th, 12th graders just under 3,000. That's
029historically where we've been at. But you can see our as it just drops down into those lower grades. We're actually starting to see that now in the ninth grade. We're about a couple hundred fewer students than our 10th and 12th 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. And you can see that continuing to drop down over time. As you can see, there are almost a thousand fewer 12th graders than there are first graders. So, that's something that, you know, that's why we're looking at this this process that we've been going through. Uh, as we've completed our public hearings, we certainly want to thank everyone who's come out and attended those. You can see the numbers on my left there of the attendees. Just want to point out a couple things that we uh that we heard a
030couple themes that came out of those. I won't go through all the bullet points, but I'm looking going to go to the second one. Uh, pervert preserving neighborhood schools. So, that's one thing that the committee has gone back and looked at. We also appreciate number four, the comments we've heard from that that understanding hard decisions have to be made to balance enrollments and we we uh we we appreciate that consideration as we go through this process. The fifth bullet also want to mention is uh consider combining parkling and willow canyon together and then granite with quail/brookwood to look at the feeder patterns and we'll have a couple slides on a proposal on that upcoming and these other themes that you saw there. So with that in mind as that as the preface uh we are
031going to make these recommendations tonight making that a second reading with possible action at our next board meeting which is on December 2nd. Uh these changes would go into effect for the next school year the 26 27th school year. So these are ones that we've gone over before want to go over them again. This is in the northeast region. Uh the first one would be the section of Ridgerest below 13th East between 13th and 7th would go to East Midbell. That would align East Mid that section up with the Midvil middle boundary. Okay. So that there's around about a 100 students there. They would go to East Midbell. along with that proposal is that we would consolidate Bella Vista and Reidest into the Reggerrest building. You can see uh the FCI scores of the buildings
032there. We know Reidest has a lower AC FCI better, but it just does not have the space to accommodate the two schools together into one. some of the benefits that we see of this. I'm not going to go through every bullet point there, but uh I'm going to go down to the second supports grade level staffing and teaming. You know, we we feel like PLC's and that collaboration with teachers is very important to our academic model and that is better supported in when there's three or four teachers per grade. I'm also going to go down to the third bullet, supporting choice and of classes and academic programs and supports. And also, of course, both these schools already in the Butler and Brighton feeder system. A couple things that uh just to mention here, second bullet
033down, we're we're looking at about a 600 enrollment once these two at the new Bella Vista and Regress combined. That would be about four to five classes per grade with the average grade class size being at 24. As you can heard uh principal Wilkinson here earlier, you know, Sunrise, one of our biggest schools or that in Draper, she's about 650 students. So, we do have schools that size. East uh Midville would now go up to about 540 students. Uh we are still looking at long-term placements for the ABS and preschool. We know they cannot stay moved to the to the uh uh Ridgerest building. So we are looking at placements for them. So that is all the school consolidation for right now. These other next three slides are boundary changes that again we are recommending
034to go into effect for next school year. The first one is putting all of the Brookwood Elementary boundary in. So that's pretty much along the Willow uh the what's the Willow not Willow Can Willow Creek Drive. I apologize. Thank you. All of that would go on the uh that west of that would go into Brookwood. Most of the students do permit into Brookwood right now. I mean into Albian. So all Brookwood go into Albian. also recommending that also into Albian the Pinnacle Apartments just below Brighton High also go into that again trying to clean up the feeder of Oakdale Elementary so it goes into either Union or Albian. Okay, so that is that proposal. We're now going to move down to Glacier Hills and East Sandy. build the query area by uh the Walmart and
035Lowe's. Those uh apartments and condominiums there, town homes there, they would go from Glacier Hills into East Sandy about 20 students there. They that area does align with the current Union middle boundaries. So that is that proposal. And the last one would be, this one has been uh I'm going to say revised somewhat. We are still going to recommend putting into Brighton everything uh east, if you will, of CS, I mean, excuse [clears throat] me, everything west of Siesta Drive. That area, I'm going to point it out here. This area right here would now go into Brighton. Okay. from Hillrest. The previous line was this right here, but now it would go up this Siesta Drive. We want to emphasize a couple things. We had had a proposal where this Silver Mesa section would also
036would now go into Hillrest. We are recommending that still be further studied. That is the second bullet down and that that still will go into Brighton for at least next school year as we study that out more on a longer term basis. Okay. So that is all the proposals that we are recommending for a second reading that would then go into a possible third reading and action at next board meeting. So these are now what we're going to call first ratings for this east central region. Uh first of all, we want to again thank everyone for their input at the public hearings. We want to emphasize that Granite, Park Lane, Quail Hollow, Willow Canyon, and Lone Peak will all maintain will all be in their current school with their current boundaries for the next school
037year. Okay. So for the 26 27th school year, there will be no changes to these schools is our recommendation. We are going to open up a another 90-day notice window starting today. Now, the 90-day notice is a minimum. It can go 150, it can go 200 days, right? But that is the minimum. We're going to we're going to show you the couple proposals upcoming. And then we're going to have more public hearings. Uh we will schedule those in January or February. We will not have those in December or November. And then one of the things we'll look at is keeping communities together and the feeder pathways and again strengthening enrolling strengthening enrollment and preserving access to all our kids because that's what we really want is for all our kids to succeed both emotionally and
038academically. So here are these proposals I'm we've broken that in proposal A and B. We're going to go over A right now. So that portion south of the southern portion of Granite Elementary, so that's on the other side of the goalie, if you will, will still go, we're proposing that still go to Lone Peak Elementary. That was part of the original proposal. The remainder of granite would consolidate with Quell Hollow in the Quail Hollow building. We estimate when that consolidation occurs in if we go through with it in the 20 fall of 27 that there'd be about 555 students there. 515 from the gened and the EEC would go would stay with Granite and go to that building and then of course the EEC goes on would continue on to Albian. You can see the
039FCI scores of the buildings there. A couple things that we wanted again we heard keeping communities together uh again that full grade level staffing and and and the FCI score at Quel Hollow and Lone Peak. We know these some of these schools do need improvement and we are going to try to have a long range plan to make sure that happens. Uh Quell Hollow does have 28 classrooms. We are estimating we will need 23 for this gened population and three for the EEC. Then there'd be a couple left over for boosters or whatever the the principal wants at that time. We're estimating a class size of 22. You know, it wouldn't all be 22, but from K to 5 all 22. Uh the Quell hollow and preschool classes, I mean, excuse me, the Qual preschool
040and ABS classes would have to be relocated. We do not have those a plan for those right yet, but we will work be working on that through the rest of this calendar year and have that in January. [clears throat] So that is our proposal A. Again, that is A. We're now going to move on to our proposal B. This is to [clears throat] combine Park Lane and Willow Canyon at the Willow Canyon building. That would be in for the 2728 school year. again both of them stay next school year with their current boundaries. Okay. Uh we are estimating a combined enrollment there of about 580 students 535 Janed and 45 in the ACC. The Park Lane ACC would stay with that feeder. You can see the FCI scores of the two buildings right there. uh
041the benefits again keeping both schools together. One of the things that the that the committee heavily values is preserving that that second bullet point there the Eastmont and Jordan feeder pattern keeping that keeping that pattern strong. Uh [clears throat] there we do estimate based on our early map mapping that about a 100 Park Lane students would be within that mile and a half walking distance to the Willow Canyon B building. Okay. And a couple other things. Willow Canyon has 27 classrooms. Looking to occupy about 23 of those than three for the ACC. uh average class size there would be about 23 between K and fifth grade. The two uh Will Canyon does have two preschools. They would need to relocate and we'll continue to look at parking I mean traffic close and busing. But that
042is our proposal B for that area. Okay. So those are our two main proposals. Now, we had a couple other boundary areas that we were looking at and we want to just briefly address those. All those will remain in place for the next school year. So, for next year for 2627, they will remain in place as we continue to study those out longer. Uh again, I would say I'm going to point out the third bullet down. strengthening the feeder systems, making sure we're aligned long term. Okay. And also, I'm going to point out the last bullet about uh long-term solutions for our sped units. We know how we learned, we know, we've always known how important they're they're best students. We need to make sure they're supported moving forward and with the long-term plan. So,
043these we had proposals. Again, they will stay we'll continue to study them. We were looking to combine all of Silver Mesa into Union. So everything uh uh between everyone we were looking to move everyone between Highland and 17th East into Union. They will still remain with Albian for this next school year. Okay. You can see the numbers who permit in and out. Also, we were looking at moving a the west section of Sprucewood into uh Indian Hills. We're going to hold on that and we study that out more as well. We're also going to study the impacts of other we've had other communities come to us about this area and we're going to look at that as well. And then oops we just want to note about our uh about our school permit process. Again
044we've shown this at every at every uh all the open houses but we are looking but again our permit window opens up on the 15th. 15th correct. So, uh, but so please make sure you apply for those permits in all these areas that we have pointed out, especially the ones that we are going to continue to study. And then we will not be uh processing or accepting any permits until the permit window closes after at on February 6. So, please make sure you apply for those permits. Here's the public input. I'm not going to go through all those dates. I just go down all that that timeline, but just stop there at again January, February, we will look at we're going to continue to study these proposals, particularly AMB that we went over and then
045schedule public hearings sometime in January and February under the code we have to give 30 days notice when that hearing will be. So, uh, just know that they will be upcoming. So with that, President Shill, that is just want to thank all the committee members for all their work and the board for all their work uh especially over the last couple months. So with that, I'll take any questions or you can take comment here. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Wilcox. Uh board, do we have any comments or questions? That is just want to thank all the committee members. Um who who wants to go first? Okay, Mrs. Zimbar and then Mr. Okay, first off, thank you so very much for the all the work that went into this. Um there's a lot for consideration [clears throat]
046here. Uh I'm really happy about the idea of of pushing a pause and looking to keep the communities together and that was something that came across very strongly in all of our community input meetings. So, I really like how this new proposal does that. a couple of of things that um stand out in my mind. Um I'm glad that we'll be able to continue to have community input since this is a variation from the proposal as was previously um determined. I am interested to hear and hope that the Granite community, those that would be um in this new proposal moving to Lone Peak and not staying with the rest of Granite, I'd really like to hear from them. That's a small number of students, so we can hear if they would rather be with with
047um the rest of their granite community. Um a couple of other things that I have here and questions. Um let's see. The ABS and the preschools that we are relocating in the proposal. Um Leon, will you go over that? I know there's there's more than one. So I know there's there's three preschools in Willow Canyon that was in the slides and an ABS program but I think at the very beginning with Ridgerest there's also right go back to that slide. So yeah Ridgerest does not have a unit right now. Bella Vista someone Bella Vista does Vista we want to emphasize we've only confirmed two placements that is with this recommendation. Yes. And that is for the 2728 year. That would be the EEC stained with granite in the Quill Hollow building. Yes. And the ACC.
048That's currently a park lane. Yes. And I love I love that we're securing the ACC and the EEC. But can we go back to the slide with Ridgerest and Bella Vista because that one caught my eye. We do not have placements for the the ABS units. Okay. So we are looking at those holistically looking to add those to ABS units to other schools to some other schools but we don't have determined yet at this time. Yeah. Okay. And that's the same with the preschools. Yeah. Okay. Uh that is my one concern with moving forward with the Bella Vista Ridgerest is I really like to know what's going to happen and I know that it's not for this year, it's for next year, but I just um I'm concerned with knowing what that plan is for
049the kids. So I I just wanted to make note of that. Um, okay. Another question I have is, um, I really like to know and I know, um, okay, uh, with our proposal with the Quill Hollow, the three preschools and ABS, that's another something that we will be looking through and study. So, I would really love to have Terry Mitchell come and present to the full board what uh what her plans are and some thoughts as far as a good five-year plan for special ed in general. I think that would be really helpful for us to hear from her and see um what you know and maybe she has two or three options, but I would really encourage that to happen and maybe some of my other board members would like that too, but I
050really would like that. I would really like to have a little more special attention on the special ed and just as you said so that we're making sure we're having a secure pathway for them and that we have a good plan in place. So, um that's some a recommendation I have if we could have that an upcoming meeting. Um that demographic study in 2023, can you remind me which company did we have do that attention? The company was uh applied economics. They've done a couple studies for Salt Lake School District. Yeah. uh when they were going through their boundary. So we we had them come here since they were familiar with their area. They are out of the Phoenix Mesa area. Uh yeah. So we we could have someone come back. We do know our
051enrollments are going to decrease. We there is no doubt about that because you know the state's Yes. projecting those terms, but if you'd like to do a refresh on that, we could look at that. But, uh, I I would be interested in possibly getting a different another independent company, um, to revisit that simply because as we're looking at what we're going to do in the future, we're also looking at feeder patterns with middle schools and high schools. And I think there's a few little layers of complexity there. Um, as well as I I I know, um, just driving around, we have some new developments since 2023 quite a bit. you know, we have a a a huge section just coming up. What is that? The Murray Midville area with the new Anyways. Yes. Yes. So,
052so I would be interested and and you know, maybe we get the same group or maybe we get a different one, but I would be interested in getting a a new study done. Um, other question I have is um Yes. Yes. be interested. Oh, uh when we are looking at the traffic walking study and civil engineer that we had go through and look at the safe walking routes and everything like that. Um where is that information that the public could go to to see? We have we're going to share that. We haven't shared that with the long range planning committee. So once we do we can make that okay and then we'll put it somewhere and announce where it is so everyone can look at that. Okay. Um that's it for now. Thank you so
053much. Where is Okay. Thank you, Mr. Edel. Mr. Wilcox, thank you for your presentation. We've heard a lot of community feedback throughout this process. I'm glad that we've taken this feedback seriously and made adjustments where they were needed. Uh I know that I've paid close attention to the feedback and I'm confident that all of my colleagues have as well. Um, it's been a major uh major discussion point as we've continued to move through this process. I believe that the proposal for the northeast region combining Bella Vista and Rididgerest continues to be appropriate. I appreciate the thoughtful input we've received from that community and remain confident in the strength of that proposal. I also support the secondary boundary changes and the minor elementary boundary changes moving forward to a second reading. Uh while I do believe
054that our previously proposed secondary boundary adjustments were appropriate, I do agree that extending the study is the right step to ensure we've addressed the items brought up during the public comment. So again, for everyone who's who's taken the time to provide us with public comment, um I just want to reemphasize that we all really do appreciate um all of the public comment that we've received throughout this process. Turning to the east central region, I have more reservations. I believe that the new proposals for the east for this area are short-sighted and limit our ability to realign boundaries from the east side of the district into the East Jordan feeder system. While there have been various background discussions about realigning uh various boundaries to strengthen Eastmont, I haven't seen any actual plan to do so. I
055believe that the Eastmont doesn't have a quality issue. It has a population issue. If we're not going to take meaningful steps to strengthen Eastmon's enrollment, we need to be honest about what the alternative looks like. A future without Eastmont would mean redistributing its 524 students, most of whom would move into Mount Jordan. Just want to add Mount Jordan's a wonderful school. While Mount Jordan could likely absorb these students, families living further east would be even more inclined to seek permits into the Albian Brighton feeder system, which is already at capacity. To prevent overcrowding and avoid further weakening Jordan High's enrollment, the district would need to restrict permits based on capacity limits, effectively closing off flexibility and choice for many families. In short, doing nothing now forces a more disruptive choice later. If we're serious about
056maintaining a healthy Eastmon Jordan feeder, we need to be intentional about supporting it because the cost of inaction will eventually reach well beyond this region. And if we're not willing to take those steps, then we need to be honest that the alternative is moving toward closing Eastmont and redistributing students. However, if the primary goal is to maintain the current feeder patterns as they are, then this proposal accomplishes that. It preserves the existing structure of the Eastmont Jordan feeder system uh as well as the Albian Brighton feeder system and provides a sense of continuity for families even though it does not address the underlying enrollment challenges. It also creates balanced enrollment at both consolidated elementary sites and offers stability for programs and staffing. From that standpoint, it is a sound and measured approach that reflects community
057feedback while minimizing disruption. Overall, this proposal addresses immediate needs and creates stability, but it also narrows our options for future boundary realignment and broader feeder balance. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Edel. Um, are there other comments board? U Mrs. Dolly, thank you. And thank you to everybody for participating in this process, for the feedback you've given us, and for the patience that you've had with us as we all go through this together. And you know, the as the proposals adjust based on the feedback and the further studies we continue to do on these areas as we try to provide the best learning environment for our students and the best working environment for our teachers. in relation to our um is you know there one of the things brought up in the process was the Eastmont Jordan
058feeder system and know that we are still looking at that we need to look at that our secondary feeders holistically across the district and try to solve the problem together instead of just looking at one area of that uh right now and so that will be something we'll continue to look at in the future one of the things even looking at right now is yes Albian and Brighton are close to capacity that all of our elementary schools that were identified, almost all of them that were identified in this initial study feed into many to Albian and Brighton. And so those small school elementary schools are eventually going to be in a couple years feeding into Brighton and we're to Albian and Brighton. We'll see those numbers start to decrease within that feeder. So that's why
059we have to look holistically with our demographic studies at our secondary feeder systems across the district in uh adjusting that. U Mrs. Nibbar know that the sped placements are have are being discussed in the long range planning committee and but we also want to overlay that with our long range planning committee because we want this continuity for our sped programs and so as we better flesh out our long range plan across the district then we can also overlay that those sped but that is of high priority to the long range planning committee in this process. So as you can see with the demographics that we're seeing from both the state and that we have seen from our own internal studies is that there'll continue to be adjustments that are going to be needing to be
060made across you know in the coming years as we see these this drop off in students as these kindergarteners start to move through and our big secondary classes move out that there's going to have to be adjustments to adapt to this declining school enrollment. Okay. Thank you. Uh, Mrs. Penderson, a lot of the points have been made and I just want to, um, thank everyone for the hours and hour and hours that you have put into this process and that we have truly listened to. Um, many of our choices did change due to the input that was given and it helped us balance out and make better proposals. I feel like uh we aren't finished. Um this is only phase one unfortunately because this is a process that we're going to have to continue looking
061down the road. I strongly feel um pleased with the fact that we're slowing down um part of the process right now so that we truly can make sure that we're making the best decision not only for our feeders but for the individual schools. and we want the communities and the teachers to have their opportunity to speak to this. Um it also gives us a better opportunity to provide transition teams um with the community and with the school. That's not necessarily a dis well district will support it but that the transition teams will be able to get the two communities working together. This is meant to build bridges not walls and we're just trying to do the very best we can. We don't have any bad schools. They all test well. They all do well. So,
062this is really hard to do, but just think, you take two stellar groups, put them together, what can they accomplish if they have better choices and if teachers have a more balanced workload? Um, I think giving it a a good chance and being positive about it will long be a long-term benefit for not only our students but our communities as well. I think the adjustments that we have made fit our communities a little better than the original proposal and that's been um amply pointed out for us and so we appreciate that that input. Um as far as having another study, Holly, it's really expensive and they're just going to say the same thing that we're declining. I don't know that having an outside um group come in and say yes, we're declining. that won't tell
063us who's moving into what housing really. I know what they project, but we don't know for sure. And we also have no way to know what permits are going to happen. And we also don't know about our pre-reschoolers, all the little babies. There are babies out there. I know. I've seen them. I know they're out there. Um we're not really sure if they're going to stay in the area, if they can afford to stay in our area. There's just a lot of unknowns that we can't qualify, but we're trying to make the very best um prediction and the best wish for people to um support each other and to help keep our feeder system strong and to have balance within our buildings. Um some of our lower um populated schools have struggled to really do
064everything that they would like to for their students. It's not because they don't try. It's just sometimes you just really have to have more people there to spread the love to be able to to offer more more possibilities. So, I'm excited that we have an opportunity to continue to work with our our communities and that I'm hoping that this will be more a not a we're not asking groups to fight against other groups. We're not pitting one one community against another, but asking, can we have communities get together and see if what we're proposing will be successful. How can you help us make sure that what we're doing will be the very best and if there's something else that we need to consider, I know you'll let us you'll help us understand what that might
065be. But that's why it's not a decision for this coming school year. We have time. We slowed it down, but we um but at some point we have to move on it as well. So, let's do our hearings again and see where we stand at that point. Maybe the community will be ready for a change a little sooner. Maybe maybe not. We'll we don't know. It's it's kind of a we need to get some more information and we have to be fair to all of our communities. So, I appreciate all of the support that you've had so far and I'm hoping that we'll have continue to have this kind of support and that our communities will build bridges and not walls. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Oaks. Thank you. I just want to clarify the
066part A would be happening would indeed be happening next school year. Part B would be held off, right? So, just want to clarify that. No, you're I got to clarify the second reading will be happening on December 2nd. Yes. If it were to be approved, proposals are A and B. Right. Thank you. Third reading. Thank you. This is second reading. Third reading. Yeah, it takes it takes all of us to get it right. Um, so I I can appreciate where um, board member Nyar is coming from with regard to the demographic study. I will say that aside from the demographic study, we are also constantly [clears throat] keeping track of demographic shifts um, with Davis demographics and um, I also and at least that's my understanding. Is that correct? So, it is something we're constantly
067wa watching with professional assistance. Um, beyond that, I just came across an article yesterday from Newsweek um [clears throat] from October 12th of this year and the article is entitled how the birth rate plunged in one of us's most fertile states. And it's talking specifically about Utah. So, I would encourage any of you who have questions about that to go take a look at it. um specifically talks about how in the last 50 years while the America the the United States in general declined in birth rate by 36% Utah plunged by 45.5%. So we are catching up with the rest of the nation with regard to our birth rate. It's we have seen a much more significant decline than the rest of the country and I know we have a lot of people moving here
068but whether or not that um equates as children that are K12 age is a different question and so I promise you we want solid information as much as anybody else and we really are trying to keep close track of this and from the time I got on the board seven years ago this was something that um Mr. Wilcox was keeping us surprised of. And so the numbers that have happened have come right in accordance with what he has forewarned based off of the data we've been collecting. So I wish we weren't here. I wish this was not um the thing that we have to face, but we do have to face it. And and I recognize it's super painful and it's it's really hard. believe it will provide better outcomes educationally for our kids long
069term and that these school communities I I will say one of the things that has come out of this whole experience is I have been blown away by the degree of quality in so many different corners of our district um in areas that I didn't realize I I think someone needs to do some sort of a documentary at some point on the EC unit at Granite Elementary and and also what has happened with our ACC kids at Parklane And it's incredibly inspiring and I hope that at some point some of you will be willing to come and communicate with our legislators about the importance of supporting special ed. We can talk till we're blue in the face and sometimes we do and they just look at us like you're just another board member. All you
070want is money and that's not it at all. We really are trying to advocate for these kids. Nothing replaces a voice of someone who lives it every day and sees it every day. both from the perspective of a parent who has a child with special needs and also from the perspective of a parent whose child is blessed as a result of interacting with them meaningfully. So again, we we are grateful for the community. We hope that you know that we are hearing you like so much of this proposal has been influenced by specific comments and suggestions and insights that we've heard from your community and we are very committed as a board to try and continue to do that with you. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Uh, I just wanted to thank
071everyone for their perseverance. Uh, this has been a long process thus far and it's going to it looks like it's going to keep going for a little bit. So, thank you for all for your perseverance. Uh, your input has been heard. This board, uh, this administration has taken your input into consideration and we have changed our proposal a couple of times. We really really want you to keep bringing your opinion, your insight, your experience to us. That's going to help us make the best decision. Uh I do want to just raise my concern about the East Mont Jordan feeder system. Maybe this is uh needs to be a discussion for our upcoming roundt. What is the future for this feeder? It is one of the biggest glaring data problems in our district. Its enrollment is
072a massive problem and it's becoming a programmatic problem for our administration at Eastmont uh at Jordan. uh it's becoming a problem for our ability for students to you know take all the classes they want to and I'm sure I'm not I'm speaking to a choir here so that's something that um I just wanted to raise my concern on okay thank you Mr. um Lewis Mrs. Nibbar, you have another comment. Thank you. Um, one thing that's really great that came out of this new proposal, um, is that we are addressing Willow Canyon, which I'm so grateful for because when we look at, you know, that was something that was a concern to me is when we look at this first wave of changes, we really need to be addressing the schools that have the least population.
073So, I think that's really great thing. I want wanted to give a little point of clarification. I'm not interested in a demographic study because I'm thinking that all of a sudden our birth rate's going to change or that our enrollment isn't going to be in decline. Those are absolute facts. Those aren't changing. The reason why I'm interested in a demographic study is actually some of the things that Mrs. Person was saying was saying, demographic studies can actually tell us some of those things when we're looking at more of a global um fix, especially with our middle school feeder patterns. What's happening with our demographic shift is we're having a lot in the last seven years. Our highdensity housing is housing families. So there's something up um at the state capital called tiffs where these property
074taxes are diverted from highdensity housing because the it's under the assumption that there aren't children in those highdensity houses. But that's incorrect. And we've seen a huge influx of highdensity housing with families in them. And a lot of times those families that are coming to us that um are harboring in in high density housing may be from other countries. Their English is not their first language. They're multil- language learners. Sometimes they need other accommodations. I think that actually um with what we can see has happened to the increase of multil- language learners by percentage per every single neighborhood school in this school district. It actually might be wise for us to have another demographic study. The housing market is different than in 2023. I think it it might be wise because I also think we
075need to come up with some good long-term plans of how to best support how our demographic shift is happening. It's something that in my neighborhood school is a huge topic um amongst parents and I think we the very best thing we can do for our state. The very best thing we can do for our economy is to strengthen our public schools and sustain them. And I want to make sure that our families are still choosing public school that it's the first school of choice. And I think that we need to look at ways that we can integrate um demographs together in our neighborhood schools and make sure we're preserving um highquality learning. I also think when we're looking globally at middle school and high schools, it it would be wonderful for us to see a
076little bit more um have a little more fine-tuned study. um a a demographic group can tell us, okay, you know, we can look we can pinpoint at um at things like that, like okay, let's look at the adolescent population and and what's upcoming and all the different housing developments that have just been developed in the last two to three years. Uh one thing I think all of us know as residents of Utah is that we are used to a lot of construction here and there's a lot of building. we are probuild Utah and so I think that um we're looking at at doing more changes and more shifts that actually it it may well be worth our investment. So I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. Um tonight I want to start
077my comments by thanking all the people who have sent emails um who have come to speak at public hearings and also board meetings. And I was unable to attend some of the hearings because of family obligations, but I do want the public to know that I've listened to every single comment at all the public hearings. There were 205 and you have to hit each one individually, just so you know, if you've looked on board. So, this took me a few days. Anyway, um, but I really do appreciate that that you guys are really invested and love your schools. Um, at the Granite hearing, I loved hearing how students love their school and love their buddies. An overriding message was to keep the EEC with the students wherever they go, the majority. [snorts] I heard don't
078split the schools between feeders and that Granite is not just four walls, but a home. At the Bella Vista hearing, I heard how it is is an excellent blue ribbon school and it has a STEM program. How it's a walkable school. People were worried about transportation and they were also worried about what would happen to the school property if it were to close. One parent's son shouts when they drive by my beautiful Bella Vista. [snorts] Sadi and Rachel talked about how they loved small classes and their teachers. At the Parklane hearing, I heard from multiple Jordan students about their positive experiences and how they are proud to be beat diggers. Um, Parklane loves having a walkable school and they are concerned about busing. A school counselor suggested starting an emotional support group to help through
079the transition and it's very important to keep the ACC with the school community. At the boundary hearing, we heard many of the same themes. Um, I learned about the history of Granite Elementary and the easement to the cemetery. The Cranberry Hill neighborhood was vocal asking to align feeder schools. Rainree neighborhood wants to stay with the rest of Granite and align with the feeder schools through high school to Brighton. So this is a process and the recommendations have changed based on public input. We've listened to hours of feedback and read hundreds of emails. I know that many may be shocked by these new proposals, but it became clear to me through the public hearings and board meeting comments that we did not have the correct proposal for Park Lane and Granite. and we are leaving out
080Willow Canyon. These new proposals came about because the board listened to you. We continue to welcome your input on these new proposals and this will kick off a new 90 days for the new proposals and we will hold hearings in January and February and we are now starting the new process and we welcome your input and we want you guys to be involved again. [snorts] Um, and I just want to state that I respect the opinion of Mr. Edel and also Mr. Lewis and I am committed to further studying Eastmont and Jordan feeder schools and bolstering their enrollment. Um I just want to say I appreciate the work of the long range planning committee. They spent many hours working and um I also want to say I'm committed to seeing Ridgerest rebuilt in the future
081in the near future. Um so going back to Mrs. Nyar's comments um about the demographic study. I'm just wondering, Mr. Wilcox, if you can look into like how long that would take, how much it would cost, and maybe bring that to the long range planning committee and then possibly to the full board because that would be a decision I think we should all make together. Okay. And I think I think that's all. So anyway, thank you, Mr. Wilcox for this um presentation and we'll just look forward to hearing more in the future. I do feel like one thing is left off of this slide which I didn't see this slide before like we need to add December 2nd as the um third reading because that will be the vote on the the well it's not
082on here. It's not right there. It should be December second. Okay. Okay. But this is just the timeline and it's missing from [laughter] there. So anyway, thank you so much. We appreciate you. Okay. So, you may have noticed um the public may notice that we changed um the agenda tonight to accommodate the issue that we know you're all here for. So, we moved patron comments to after this proposal so that we could hear input immediately because we only have one board meeting in November and it's because of election day and because of Thanksgiving. So, but there will be many opportunities in the future to hear your input. So, we are going to go to patron comments right now. Okay, I have to read my script now. We have now come to the patron comment portion
083of our meeting. The board often designates time in meetings to listen to the patrons of the district. Patron comment time is limited to residents and taxpayers of Kenyan's district, students and parents of students and current employees of the district. Patrons may provide board members with written documents. These documents must be submitted to the board secretary at the meeting. She's right over there. are emailed to the Office of Public Communications by noon of the day following the board meeting. Tonight, individuals, we only had three sign up. So, can we change this to three minutes? Is that possible or is that too hard? Oh, perfect. Perfect. [laughter and gasps] Okay. So, good job. Good job, Derek over there. [laughter] Um, what do you guys think? I think it's fine. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, um I was just
084made aware that some people would like to sign up to speak that maybe didn't have a chance and we will allow that. So, Susan, where should they go? Over there. If anyone would like to speak, you can go sign up over there or you can wait till our next meeting too. Um okay, let me let me keep going. Okay. Those representing a group will be given five minutes. Maybe we better say three. We better just stick with three. Everyone gets three because now I don't know how many are going to sign up over there. [laughter] Um, okay. It's 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
085privacy 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 a patron determines to verbally comment on 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. So, um we have Amber Spazetto first and then Ryan Skully will be second and then Tyler Robinson and then we'll get we'll get those other names as we get them. So,
086yeah, come on up. We'll get Thank you. Hi, my name is Amber Fisetto. Um, for my elementary people here, you'll know what this means, but I am currently in the yellow zone and the red zone in terms of the zones of regulation. Man, that made me angry, you guys. Members of the board, I am a teacher at Rich Crest Elementary. I'm here tonight because I cannot stay quiet when [snorts] the district moves forward with a plan that does not reflect the reality of Ridgerest Bellista. You claim to listen to us, but obviously you have not. Ridgerest is home to a thriving dual immersion program, a program our families and community are deeply proud of, but the current plan tells me the district does not fully understand how our school is structured. So, let me enlighten
087you, please. At Ridgerest, each grade has two general education classrooms and two dual immersion classrooms. These group cannot be combined. They cannot be meshed in any way, shape, or form. Yet, the proposed plan treats them as if they can. You say this combination will reduce class sizes, but that is not true. On paper, it looks really nice and neat for you. You can have 112 students divided by four teachers, and that equals about 28 per class. That's perfect. But in reality, what that could look like is two classes of 22 in your dual immersion classroom and two classes of 34 in your gened classrooms. That is possible and that probably will happen. This is math that is being used to mask inequality. If this plan moves forward as is, only our general education classrooms will
088bear the weight of overcrowding. Our Jenna teachers will be given unsustainable class sizes when the district calls that balance. But that is not balanced. It is inequitable. Our dual immersion program is one of the best things about our school and it should not be ignored and it should not be treated as a loophole to make numbers work and that is what is happening. It feels like the district is overlooking the real school structures of Ridgerest and Bella Vista just to make your spreadsheet look right. I'm asking you to pause this plan, not only the Park Lane and Granite one. I'm asking you to look at the impact this will have on students and teachers and really truly look at it for Ridgerest. I love being an educator and I love my students. I love to
089brag about my job. They deserve class sizes that support their learning in the best way possible, not whatever happens to fit a formula. I look forward to your response via email and to seeing a plan that actually reflects the real needs of Richest and Bella Vista. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Ryan Skully, then Tyler Robinson. I look forward to your response via email. Hey there, how's it going? Um, my name is Ryan Scully. I live in Cottonwood Heights. My children go to Richest. My daughter had gone to Bella Vista as well for preschool. Um, we moved to this skitt to this city because the school quality was high. That's why we chose to move here. The class sizes, the reputation, many of the homeowners who live in Bella Vista chose to purchase homes because the
090school was there. decisions. This decision directly impacts their home value and the entire city's home values when the schools are degraded and overcrowded. If you want to increase attendance, make the schools better, not worse. There are people in our neighborhood who choose to send their kids to schools outside of the boundaries, charter schools, etc. They're doing that because they don't trust that school system. So, anything you can do to ensure that that school is better will only encourage more attendance. Our home prices and property taxes have ballooned outside. Why isn't this enough to cover the cost of the increases? We're doing that because were there any other any other steps taken to acquire the budget needed to keep these schools open, seeing as they directly affect communities regardless of having children? Why isn't we have
091not had an opportunity to fix the problem. It just was given to us and the only solution was to kill Bella Vista. Are there any other steps? It seems the agenda is to give more sorry. It seems the agenda is to give more credit and resources to private schools and charter schools. When you close a school and degrade a second school, people without children in the school were not notified. None of my neighbors who don't have children yet weren't notified. Um, this is unfair to them. It's unfair to the people whose property taxes are going to be affected. It's unfair to them who they may be planning to have children. They may have purchased a home there in the last few years because, hey, this is a great school system. Now, it's not going to
092be a great school system. This is unfair to one of the uh one of the reasons for the the reduction in in budget was the voucher system and people pulling money out of the system. Correct. No, it's not. But that's still up in the courts. It hasn't been decided yet. It was turned down in April and it's up in uh it's uh still being decided now. It's it's uh One thing I do want to make sure I mention is the school budget has increased 40% over 10 years and the attendance has only dropped 4% in that same amount of time. It doesn't seem like there's a budget problem. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Tyler Robinson. And [clears throat] then Aubrey Evans. I do want to make sure I mention Hello, I'm Tyler Robinson. [clears throat]
093I'm a father of two children who go to Bella Vista. One of them is in the preschool program and the other is in second grade. Um and they have been greatly benefited by the wonderful faculty that is at that school. Um I am also a husband of a teacher at Bella Vista um who was teaching fourth grade and this year is now teaching first grade. um and have watched her over the course of 10 years go through a lot of challenges given to her through changes in administration. They've averaged a change of administration every 2 years in the 10 years that she's worked there. Um but that being said has risen to the challenge. The school itself has risen to the challenge and has had wonderful um has I mean blue ribbon school has been
094represented na nationally for its its uh education value. Um and uh so that faculty is amazing and has been able to rise above the challenges presented to them. Um [snorts] I've also been a community member. I went to uh Mount View before it closed back uh what 20 30 years ago. Um and um my sister so I went to Mount View before it closed and then my sister got moved to Ridgerest of all places because it closed. So this feels like Dja Vu in some ways. Um, I also am having been grew up growing up in the area. I was in one of the first years of the Jordan Tech Center back when that was introduced. To me, the Jordan Tech Center is one of the most innovative things that I have seen in my
095lifetime given to uh school programs. Um, in my time there, you know, I had a great time while I was there, but um, 6 years later, I found myself working alongside my teacher from Georgia Tech Center at Microsoft. It was an incredible experience and I just think of how wonderful of a program that was and how incredible that um, that impact has had on me and what I expect from the board. um in terms of when we see declining numbers and things like that, I expect innovation similar to the tech center that brings opportunities to these students that um gives them incredible reason to want to go to the district and to not, you know, choose to be homeschooled or choose to be charter schooled. This is what I I think what I believe this
096board should be I mean all these many years should have should be working towards. Um and um uh um just as like final statement uh I I just believe that we can do better and that closing Bella Vista is a lazy decision in terms of this problem and I think we can do better by making innovative programs that help students. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Aubrey Evans. And then Kim Adams. Hi there. Thank you for letting us add on as speakers. That's um really has a great perception in my mind to be able to say, "Hey, we know that we've had more information tonight. Let's hear from you." So, I appreciate that. Um I'm [clears throat] Aubrey. I'm a mom, a Bella Vista Tiger, and also um a neighborhood community member and a special educator.
097Um my concerns about this proposal um is that there's discrimination with not knowing where the ABS units would go and the preschool. There's about three classes of ABS and four preschool classes. And these four preschool classes um do include special needs students who have IEPs. Um so about approximately 70 um preschoolers. So with 20ish AB ABS and 70-ish preschoolers, we've got about 90 students unaccounted for. Um and that what that seems a little bit um worrisome to me to push this proposal through um to take effect in 2026. Um, I do I love what was being said about um the special education students at other schools in proposal B really being taken in to consideration and allowed to stay with their community schools. I hope that we would also take the same action for the
098students at Bella Vista who are also in special need classes. It does seem slightly targeted to consider special needs students at some schools but not others. So, I would hope to to look at that. Um, while I'm not necessarily saying that we should keep Bella Vista open forever, of course, we'd like that. I do want to acknowledge it's a difficult decision to make as a board. I get that. I get that there's declining enrollment and, you know, want to come together as a community to to figure out those answers. Um, but I would ask to consider um giving the same opportunity to proposal A schools as proposal B schools and maybe delaying the decision a little bit more, giving it a year to look at where those students would go. Um, and and how that
099would affect the combining of the schools. I loved the idea of having a transition team for the proposal B. Um, I think the same opportunity should also give to be given to those schools in proposal A. Um, that we can consider all of the the implications going on in this merger and know that as a community we can come through and come together, but we want to make sure that we do account for those most vulnerable students. Um, uh, and then I just wanted to to thank you for your time and hope to give fair support to everybody involved in this. hoping to continue having our comments listened to and to continue to discuss and work together for these solutions. Thanks. Okay, thank you. Now, we have Kim Adams and then Juliana Jackson. I'll just
100start by saying thank you for listening to us and hearing what we were um what we've been saying. I am speaking for the Rainree area. We've always been in a tricky area and felt overlooked with your first proposal. We would like to thank you for taking this our specific community and our kids into consideration. We would like to thank you for allowing us to stay with our community. We would like you to we'd like to thank you for making the effort to keep the EEC program with our community and our elementary school kids and our middle school kids and our high school kids. Thank you as well. Okay. Thank you, Juliana Jackson. And then Kinley Garfield. All right. I'm Juliana Jackson. I'm the Bella Vista Elementary PTA president. And I'm going to read a statement
101representing Bella Vista Elementary PTA um for a quorum vote that was held on November 4th. Bella Vista Elementary PTA voted unanimously on November 4th, 2025 to stand against Canyon School District's current proposal to close Bella Vista Elementary and merge with Richest Elementary for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Our PTA opposes the proposal for the following reasons. Number one, student safety. A primary objective of the PTA is promoting and ensuring student safety. We have three main concerns regarding safety. The closure of Bella Vista would require students to cross a busy state route and connecting street Highland Drive and Fort Union Boulevard. This equates to 10 lanes of traffic. The intersection at 7205 South and Highland Drive is narrow and misaligned, creating an unsafe route to both drive and walk. In addition, traffic rarely backs up
102on Highland Drive at the intersection during rush hour. Bella Vista's building FCI score is 38.28% while Ridgerest building is northward of the 90th percentile. Relocating students is a in a to a deteriorating facility with unusable bathrooms and a failing HVAC system compromises their safety and learning environment. According to the Utah State Sex Offender Registry, there are six registered sex offenders along walking routes between the Bell Vista and Redest communities. Current walking routes to Bella Vista facility do not put students in danger of sexual predators. Fiscal responsibility. PTA values fiscal responsibility and public education funding. Taxpayers have already invested in both Anzac Park and the upgraded facility at Bella Vista. So that would be a detriment at the current student population to go to a worse facility with funds already invested in current newer facilities in
103place. PTA values collaboration, accountability, rushing the decision, silences community voices, erodess trust, and it destabilizes the learning environment students need to thrive. Extending the timeline until adequate facilities and a thorough plan are in place for all students all students is essential to protect student success and responsible transition. Special education diversity and socioeconomic discrimination. One of the core values of PTA is to advocate for all youth in schools protecting children regardless of ethnicity, social demographics, language and mental ability. Bella Vista serves a diverse socioeconomic and cultural population. This proposal has not taken into consideration the impact the closure has on our minority population, second language learners, and sociographically disadvantaged students who may require additional support in this class in the classroom. Current proposal does not take into consideration placement of our ABS special needs unit. This
104group of students is a key part of Bella Vista school community and we do not support excluding their placement from this proposal. The current proposal grants Sandy schools an extended timeline and further in-depth analysis for transitioning, but not Comptonwood Heights schools. Those schools also are able to keep their special needs units within their school community, while ours is excluded. We are concerned this shows the district's bias towards the Bella Vista and Richest communities. Canyon's district proposal to close Bella Vista does not align with our PTA values and disadvantages our students. Therefore, we cannot support this proposal as it currently stands. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Kinley Garfield. and then Sarah Shore. Hi board. Um so first of all, thank you for taking so much time to listen to us. I know that was a lot
105of comments that you've had to listen to at the hearings. Um and happy to see that you're trying to accommodate where you can. Um and I love the idea of combining with Willow Canyon. love that my kids will get to befriend other kids that they'll see at Eastmont instead of having to part ways and go to different schools. Um, however, I do still have concerns that this doesn't help Eastmont and Jordan. Uh, Miss Dolly mentioned that decreasing enrollment around the state will eventually um resolve the overcrowding at Brighton and Albian, but I think that's also a problem because we're also going to see that at Eastmont and Jordan. And as Brighton decreases in crowding, that's going to open up more permits for Eastmont and Jordan students to then go over there. So then we have
106Eastmont and Jordan students not only facing decreasing enrollment all over, but they're going to have even more kids permitting to Albian and Brighton because those permits are now available. Right now Brighton, a lot of people can't get into Brighton because there's not enough permits. If they decrease in enrollment, there they'll go. Um especially when you're not doing anything to build up those schools. I'm not seeing any plans. Um, I know it would have been unpopular, but we could have pulled a little bit of granite into that. Um, and maybe given them a grandfathering where people that are currently in granite in seven years they have to go there, but for now they have priority permitting to go to Albian and Brighton to help kind of buffer that. Just a thought I had. Um, I really
107want to see more put into East Mott and Jordan. We before all of this were going to send our kids most likely to Albian and Brighton because we were looking at Eastmont and thinking they can't take an honors class. There's a lot of extracurriculars that aren't available because there aren't enough students and there's not enough funding. I'm not seeing any investment into that. I really want to send my kids there, but help me out. Make it more appealing. Um, also on the slides, I was a little um disappointed that it only acknowledged our FCIS against Willow Canyon, making it look like Willow Canyon's the obvious fit. You didn't acknowledge the enrollment trends. So, the um [clears throat] demographics analysis that was done showed that in the last seven years, Willow Canyon has decreased by 33%.
108Park Lane has only decreased by 16%. It also showed that from 2020 to 2030, Willow Canyon is expected to decrease by 13%. Park Lane is supposed to decrease by 1%. So if most of the kids, if it's more stable around Park Lane, if more kids are going to be living there, why is it automatically assumed that we're going to go to Willow Canyon because their FCI is slightly better? Because Park Lane, frankly, has been ignored when it comes to renovations. Um, so I hope that these things will be fully addressed and it won't just be pointed at as FCI. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Sarah Shore. Um, my name is Sarah Shore. Thank you for the opportunity to to speak. I am a mother. I have four children from Jordan and East and Willow Canyon.
109And I'm grateful to hear from these meetings that you're listening, that you're taking different things into consideration. I appreciate that you're communicating the things that you're trying to prioritize and consider. I appreciate the pause taken and the the one that would affect Willow Canyon. I feel like that will help us get to a decision that everyone can support. um like has been voiced by several of the board members though I am concerned that none of these changes really address a long-term concern about declining population at Eastmont and Jordan um it you're right it's not a program yet right but it will be with the trends that we have and these are really great schools these are kids that need to have a great education I feel like some of the comments that I've heard um
110speak to more like individual families and individual students, but really as a board, we need to make decisions based on all students receiving quality education. And while that might mean some discomfort or some adjustments in convenience for families, we really need to make decisions that are best overall for all of the students that live in the district. So, I would appreciate um you know, further consideration. And it sounds like that's something you're going to be considering is how to boost that enrollment and I would support any measures to do so. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, thank you everyone for your comments and we really do do appreciate you being here. I know it's a lot to sit here and I know those chairs are not very comfortable. So, I'm sorry. I've sat in those
111before for a long time. Anyway, thank you so much. Like this this is really good input for us to just continue to consider. Okay. The next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. And I will now take a motion to approve that. And please read um every item on that. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda for November 11th. Item A, approval of minutes for October 15th. Item B, approval of minutes for October 16th. Item C, approval of minutes for October 21st. D, approval of minutes for October 28th. E, approval of minutes for October 30th. F, approval of higher and termination reports. G, approval of October financial reports, and H, approval of land trust TSSP amendment for Brookwood Elementary. Okay, thank you. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second. Okay,
112thank you. Is there any discussion board to that motion? Okay, seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes unanimously. The next item is item 9A on new business and it's the proposed calendars for 26 2026 2027 school calendar and tentative approval of the 202728 and 2028 2029 school calendars and this is a second reading and Steve Diamond director of human resources will present this. Do I have to do it in the three minutes that's sitting here? I will give it my best shot. Let's go for You got three minutes. Got it. Uh, pursuant to district policy, we do need to bring three different calendars to you. Um, the final proposed for the 2627, a proposed calendar for 2728, as well as the tenative
113calendar for 28-29. As mentioned in our previous presentation, there are three variances to the guidelines. the first for the 2829 calendar. We begin uh the second Monday in August just because of where the calendar falls. Kindergarten uh is now starting the third day of the school year versus the 4th which was a change in code. And then also uh we have the two uh professional development days that are allowed in the the guidelines but last year we moved that to four. So those are the variances to the calendars. Um Mr. Dolly had asked for some additional information about the attendance before or after a no student day or professional development. Uh typical days about 89% attendance. The day before or after is about 1% difference a little less than that. So not statistically that different
114uh for those days. So the calendars uh we have not made any changes based upon any feedback. Those continue similar to the format that we have with the four professional development days. The professional development days tend to either go against a or towards a day that's already a holiday or something to that nature providing a longer um break for families as parents found that to be very beneficial for family time. So Brighton, same thing for the 26 27. We do have four days that are varied between the two calendars. They're highlighted in red on the Brighton calendar. The 2728 calendar uh has the similar format as we did Brighton the same four days as then as well as the 2829 calendar. That's where the variance is where we start on the uh second Monday versus
115the 3. And that's just because of the calendar, how it falls, and to make certain that uh we can get as long as a winter recess as possible as well as still get out of school uh before the 28th of May. Some of the things that we're requesting and that I need your guidance on, and that's a slide a little bit later, is there has been discussion about having a fixed Aday Bday schedule in the future. There's positive and negatives to each of those and thinking that a survey would be appropriate to get input from parents, teachers, students to see to get their opinion. Another issue was ending uh the first semester prior to winter recess. that's been effective in Alpine District, Davis, as well as Granite, but it does necessitate starting school uh for
116those districts about 3 days earlier, and then it just means a shorter first semester. Also, scheduling of professional development days. There's been uh concern by some individuals not wanting against a holiday or compensatory day, as well as the need to update calendars. The first one just talks briefly about the Aday rotation of how that would work. Mondays, Wednesdays, A days. Uh B days, Tuesday, Thursdays rotating between A days and B days. Sometimes that creates a disparity. There could be three days where you have three A days in a row and vice versa. So, positive and negatives. The other piece is ending uh the first semester prior to. There's positive and negatives to that, too. Uh chatting with one of my neighborhood kids. I live in Alpine District. They love having it end before winter recess
117because it's like I'm done. I can actually have a break. And several of our teachers felt that. On the flip side, some of our teachers said, "We have children who are trying to get every ounce of their homework done to get kind of their credit recovery time for that period." So, something to discuss or to survey. Scheduling and professional development, seeking input from that. the calendar guidelines. Should we adjust those three or do we continue to do what we do and just bring it as part of a variance? So, seeking direction from you folks, does the board agree or approve that a school calendar uh survey should be conducted? Is the survey from the board of education or the board operations subcommittee or the school's calendar committee? Um, and if so, when should the survey
118be conducted? We're at the point where this if a survey were to be conducted, it would be in my opinion to make changes to the 2728 calendar to make adjustments versus not for the 2627. The calendar guidelines, who would you like to revise those? Would the subcommittee, the board look at that, or would you like the calendar committee to put together some proposals? But I would almost wait for if the survey is done to use that to address any of those concerns. So that's really hopefully if you do you have have a question mark there. Do you have any questions about any of the calendars or do you have any guidance for me the school calendar committee or the subcommittee? Okay. Can you go back to the last slide and then I will ask the
119board about it. [laughter] Okay. So just in the past the calendar committee has made recommendations [clears throat] to change the guidelines and then the board has voted on that. So, I would kind of say I think that should probably be the same process. Um, as far as the school calendar survey, what I mean board, I don't know. Do you Yeah, Mrs. Nymar, I like the idea of the survey. I would like for it to be done in February before we get into spring break or summer break or crazy Mayber. Okay, so that's what I would like. And um to be very clear with communication, we got to have it everywhere that it's not for this coming school year because that we'll probably get more feedback about the concern of it being for this coming feed
120school year than anything else. So I know sometimes that's just how surveys work, but just have a lot of communication on that. I think nice bold red. Yes. Yeah. Multiple places like before they click on doing the survey. This is not affecting this coming school year and have a couple reminders throughout. Great idea. Okay. I do like that idea. January, February. I mean, did you say February? I said February. Yeah, February. Maybe beginning of February. Um, does anyone have a strong opinion about who it comes from? I mean, I guess maybe it should be from the board since we actually approve the calendars. Um, but maybe Steve, you can I mean, I've seen the survey because I'm on calendar committee, but maybe you can send that um survey to the board just before it goes
121out to Let me go through and tweak it. I sent you kind of a draft here at the last board meeting, but let's we'll go through and then send it to you for final approval and then I'd work with communications to make certain and Laura Tuesday Heathfield to make certain the questions are really getting what we want. Okay, does that sound good, Bo? Yep. Okay, awesome. Okay, that was pretty easy. Any other questions, board, are we uh Mrs. Dolly? Just a quick comment. um having had kids attend in Granite District, they actually do a calendar survey every year because a lot of times there's little things like this that it's like well do we start earlier to be done by Christmas or you know when we want to finish and so it's really enlightening and
122then they actually look at it you know by schools and so when people come back to the board and say well I don't like that and you're like well you were in the minority in the vote as far as what calendar people app you know uh preferred and so I do love this idea of asking these questions and getting feed feedback from both our our teaching teacher community and our student community to see what people pre prefer and so we can be um guided by that. Okay. Okay. Um well, we can talk about that board if we want to do one every year. It has been several years since we we did one. I don't Steve, do you remember when the last one? I want to say it was three years ago, maybe four. Yeah.
123But I think it's time. But yeah, for sure it's time. And then we can decide if we want to do one every year. Yeah. Cuz because every year it does just change a little bit depending really it's like Christmas break that kind of decides the calendar. So and it it does change every year. So well anywhere from 8 to 11 days. [laughter] Okay. Well, thank you. Sorry I couldn't keep it under three. No, that's great. Thank you, Steve. Thanks so much. Okay. Now we have a really exciting part of our meeting. Um, it's the policy update. [laughter] Sorry. Sorry, Jeff. You te it up that way. It's hard to [laughter] I know. I'm sorry. That's great. I'll try to make I'm not going to read all those policies. There's a lot exciting is a fiveyear
124status update and it's second reading possible action. So, we can possibly vote on this board. Even a fiveyear status update. So, what could be more thrilling? So, I'll try to move through this. Uh, I don't know if I can beat Steve Diamond three minutes, but I'll give it a best shot. So, uh, fiveyear status. Just a quick housekeeping. We looked at this in our first reading. Uh, the board's been working in the first three sections. We've, um, basically approved over 31 policies last year and just this year. So, that's a lot of work in our policies updating it. The board does a few things but primarily by vote the budget and their policies and then uh other voting issues. So that's a lot of good work uh by the board. Um this is just noting
125as you can see uh sometimes a policy may not require revision but if we review it in our policy committee we um just know that it's been reviewed and we've done that with some of our um board policies and uh our financial and some of our general policies. Um, since those are the first three sections, we're moving into uh human resources. And tonight, I think we have about 10 that we've reviewed that are are here for second reading possible action. Um, let me just note with employee conduct and professionalism, because of the school guardian act, we've updated um provisions that deal with uh weapons in our schools. Um Utah is a state where um you may obtain a concealed weapons permit provided it's maintained concealed. Um we just note in our policy that anyone that
126chooses to do so does solely in their personal capacity and it's not within the scope of their employment. Um we've also updated some language to just address relationships between employees should also be professional and appropriate. And then on occasions when we have employees that have multiple roles, for instance, if they're driving their own student or driving a carpool, they may do that in a parent or volunteer capacity and then be an employee. And those are some exceptions to our policy. Uh our criminal background check policy, um we've just added language that any felony conviction will render an individual ineligible for volunteer um prospective employment or result in employee termination. And then that we've also added language that um when we either are hired or rehired, we'll do an FBI criminal background check. And then we
127did some restructuring of the definitions, location, and the policy. Uh employee health and information. Um here we're just aligning with the Salt Lake City health regulation that each employee is responsible to maintain their own personal record of immunization. In the event of an outbreak, the department of health would address and come to the district and each employee would be provide required to provide their uh immunization records and then the health department would make a determination on um which individuals to exclude based on that information. In our hiring personnel policy, we've just noted that uh we've added some design language and removed exceptions that were applicable during the time of COVID for part-time employees. Uh in our substitute staff employment policy, we've maintained the language that um addresses teachers and their responsibility to acquire substitutes. Some
128of the guidelines that were listed in the policy are more appropriate for procedures in our HR department. Uh in our technology resources policy, we removed language that uh implies the false notion of a contractual agreement. Any employee that is hired by Kangas is subject to our policies including our network acceptable use um agreement. And then at our professional development conferences, we've just aligned that with um practice where they're reviewed by our assistant superintendent and business administrator. And uh jury duty. Uh we've had language in a policy for years that uh doesn't make economic sense. Um we have at one point required the employee that goes to jury duty to um reduce their um salary by the amount deducted and we're no longer going to have that provision. Um they'll be entitled to their jury duty
129fee as well which is I think $1850. So um we won't deduct that. And then uh we have a new policy for salary supplement for highly needed educators. This is required by uh the state to develop a new policy for um the shine program. Uh the policy in statute must include those um needed elements. So we have a draft there for review. Um it is where they identify high needs areas in the district and determine whether a teacher is eligible for that supplement. Typically these are in our math and science and special education areas. And then immunization of students. Um the board rule was changed where um if a student um is enrolling in school, we have an obligation within a 30-day period. If they don't have their immunizations, they may enroll conditionally. And that
130timeline was shifted. It used to be 21 days, now it's 30. There's some additional time. And then there's a periodic requirement for schools to reach out and um address that and obtain notice. And there's some changes to the notice that is um to be provided. No longer has to be written, but can be in other forms. Most of those are clean up and will just help us align in our um human resource section. I can answer any questions. Okay, board. Are there any questions? Oh, Mr. Edel. Uh I was asked fairly recently, how do we make policy updates? a teacher asked me when I was visiting um student body officers at Hillrest. Uh so I wanted to point out some of these come from people like jury duty came from a teacher. She thought that
131was dumb. It was. Uh so if you have something that you think that's kind of a dumb policy or this should be amended because it needs to change. Let's say that it's just old, right? And we haven't caught it yet. You know what's the process for that? shoot me an email. I mean, that's it. Uh, I'm not the only one, but that's an easy way. Just just shoot me an email. Uh, then with that, I'd like to move that we adopt policy 400.01, employee conduct and professionalism. Policy 400.04, criminal background checks. Policy 400.05, 5 employee health and information policy 400.06 hiring personnel policy 400.07 substitute staff employment policy 400.08 technology resources network acceptable use employees policy 400.13 professional development conferences policy 400.29 29 jury duty new policy 400.17 supplemental salary supplement for highly needed educators
132shine policy 500.34 immunization of students. Okay, thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second to that? I'll second that. Okay. Are there any is there any discussion to that motion? Okay, seeing none, I will call for a vote to approve these policies. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, [snorts] that passes unanimously. And I do want to thank the policy committee and you Jeff that that represents I know a lot of work and a lot of discussion. So thank you for that. Thanks. Okay. So the next item on our agenda is staff comments and we will start with Superintendent Robbins. Thank you, President. just echo uh everything that's been said and I thank the public for their comments tonight again and wish everybody a very happy Veterans Day and and thank
133all those that have served our great nation. Okay, thank you um business administrator Mr. Wilcox comments. Thank you, President Chill. Just want to give a big thank you to everyone who helped with our Q rollover. We've been talking about that. uh went all in all pretty smooth but still challenges but appreciate everybody working through that. Uh the big one will come next summer as we convert our student system which will in fact impact all teachers and families as we move that one over but lot be a lot more coming on that. Just want to also mention that next uh week, next Wednesday the 19th is national e education ESP day. appreciate our ESP leadership here, Angie from Butler Middle, the uh lunch manager, and Paul from our facilities department, the vice president. So, appreciate all
134our ESPs do to keep our schools going. So, thank you very much. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you. We're going to start board comments with Mrs. Person tonight. Okay. Let me second that. We love our ESPs. [laughter] Without ESPs, the world wouldn't go around. I mean, they really do keep us moving. The facilities, the food, everything. Um, so thank you so, so much. This is a prequel to your Thank you. [laughter] Um, I just have a couple of comments. I have enjoyed immensely participating in the Veterans Day assemblies. Particularly, I had the I did have the opportunity to go to Alta. It is so touching to see our students and the stars in their eyes. these students eyes when they look at these citizens, these servicemen, these service women who have given their their
135all, whether it was during war or not, they were willing to step up and to be part of our volunteer army. And we we have what we have because of the service of our our U military. So, I wanted to say thank you to that and I appreciate how seriously our schools take our our request as a board that they help install citizenship with our students by holding these events. And so, if you haven't had a chance to um participate, drop by or contact your school. You may have seen it in Parent Square. Find out next year since it's over. Um, find out what the schools are doing to celebrate those students. And though not those students, I always say students, celebrate our veterans. And if you in the community have someone that you'd like
136to see honored, get them involved. I think it means the world to them. And it means even more so to our students. They need to see those that have given their given their lives, given their their freedom, given their time to keep our freedom. [snorts] Um, I also would like to do a shout out to um, Willow Canyon students, the Herszog twins. And you may have seen this. Um, for their 10th birthday, the Herszog twins decided to ask their party guests to not bring them presents, but asked if they would bring cereal, boxes of cereal, and things for the pantry. And then they and they had a party and they brought it down and they presented it to um our district foundation so that they could distribute those out to um our various pantries in
137our schools. That is the kind of students that we have in our schools. This is a wonderful family, but I don't think they're unique in the fact that I know lots of families and lots of kids that have big big hearts and that they would do whatever they can to help those around them. But I love to see them initiating on their own. This wasn't a school project. It was a birthday request. So, I'm just so proud that they represented themselves, their school, and the district so well. Um, I've been impressed how well our Navy, even our Navy um corps, as they've been running around the district today, have presented themselves and our military as they do our flag presentations. Again, I think that that's an important part of citizenship and it's awesome that we
138have that opportunity to support that program in our district. The only other school in the state with this program, the ROC, this particular Navy program, is West High School. That's it in all of Utah. And I don't even know how many are in United States, but not so many. It's it's an amazing program. and they get to do a lot of service and they learn how to be better than they would have been had they not had this support and these opportunities. So, I'm appreciative of that. And the last I would like to say is no matter where I go in the schools and especially as I've been listening to comments as we've been going around the districts from different people, it is so impressive the quality of instruction that our students are are getting
139everywhere. We have teachers that give their all. Teachers who um spend hours and hours and hours wondering and caring and loving those students and helping them to be become the best they can. Then they turn it over to the parents who also love their students and try to really make sure that we have quality instruction. So, I I am just so pleased that when we're looking at different schools and I'm going into different schools and going into classrooms, um I went into a drone classroom today, a classroom where they were flying drones at the high school at Alta and it's just amazing the quality and the um advanced kinds of things that they're learning to do now. It what we had in high school is not what high school is now like now as far
140as curriculum goes and opportunities. My husband always said, gosh, he wished he was in high school now because then he would have probably gone into the crime, you know, been been a police officer or something, you know, uh, uh, SC, you know, NCSI kind of um, situation. We didn't have that when I was in high school, when we were in high school. Our kids have great opportunities and we appreciate the fact that we're we as a district can offer those kinds of things. And last of all, since this is our only meeting in Thanksgiving, I want to say how much I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to be on this board and for the board members that I work with. We we can be an amazing team. Um we don't
141always agree, but we agree to work it out. We talk about things. We come to a consensus and I think you really get true representation. We don't rubber stamp anything. [laughter] there's true discussions about um the decisions that we make and we truly want to represent our schools and our communities. So, I'd like to wish you a happy Thanksgiving and I hope that you have um a wonderful time um celebrating all the blessings that you may have. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Dolly. Thank you. Uh thank you to our schools for our teachers, administrators that put on excellent Veteran Day programs today. I was able to attend the one this morning at Granite Elementary. I come I want to also thank Vice President Edel and our other employees in the district that have served or
142are currently serving in the military uh in the reserves or or whatnot. Thank you for your service and and the sacrifice that you have made to do that. I come from a strong heritage of military service with both my grandfathers. My father was served 26 years in the Air Force. Uh my husband served in the Air Force and I have four brothers that are currently serving in various branches of the military. So grateful for their service and also especially grateful for the unsung unsung heroes which are the military families that sort of sit in the background but provide so much support. The sacrifices that they go through as their military member is deployed across the world sometimes on very short notice. Um, thank you to to you for all that you do in supporting the
143mission of our armed forces and your family members that are serving. Um, we want you to know that I know Eastmont Jordan is a concern that has come up with this boundary study. It's important to remember that that this boundary study was first announced to look at elementary schools. This is a byproduct that's come up and so we have to really do a secondary study looking at our secondary feeders to really look at this holistically to address the problem. Um looking at all areas of that feeder and how we can better support that. So know that that is on our mind. We haven't forgotten that. As we've done these studies, our number one priority is strengthening our student learning environment and our teachers working environment. Finances are a piece of that, but that's not the
144number one priority. That it is about the learning and education of our students. That is our number one priority in this process. We understand it's not easy, that it's hard, change is hard, but we're really trying to do what is best for our students and teachers. As uh Karen said, we're, you know, grateful for this this month of Thanksgiving and wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. I'm been really grateful for the opportunity to this year to work with our amazing district personnel and the other members of the board of education that they're awesome people. So, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Oaks. So, I want to congratulate Ela High School's marching band again um for their third place win. There is an insane amount of work and effort that goes into making one of those work and
145I'm super excited about how well they're doing. I also um had a chance last week to go to the 47g zeroravity summit. This was a very interesting summit and I'm grateful that we had students from each of our high schools attend because it looked very deeply at um and it was a very elite summit. There were people from all over the country who came to this. It looked at the cross-section between um artificial intelligence, cyber security, energy, manufacturing, aeronautics, the space program, um our space industry actually, and how it cross-sections with national security. Fascinating. And it was so interesting to see what kind of industries and um new companies are being formed in the state of Utah that are focused on this. um former presidential candidate Nikki Haley and she used to be um the
146ambassador to the UN came and spoke. It was mindboggling and very eye openening and I was grateful for the chance to be there to look ahead to what kind of industries we need to be preparing our students for. Um very sobering. We have a long ways to go but it's important that we have that on our radar and that we're looking at it um very seriously. Um, the other thing I I just today was so such an amazing um program again at Alta High School's um Veterans Day assembly. I've gone each year since I've become a board member and each year I'm so amazed at what it does for that school community and the sense of reverence that it instills in our youth. I I told some of our staff today how much I wish
147that every one of our legislators could be in attendance to see what is possible when a school community comes together and promotes patriotism. Um there was a a World War II veteran there, Rex Stallings, who um he's about to turn 99 years old. There's not very many of them left. And um there were one of the teachers there, Rob Murphy, spoke and he encouraged the students to come and meet this man because he said, "You're the last generation who will know them and have the opportunity to thank them for fighting back fascism." That really struck me. And I I had a chance to speak with Mr. Stallings and to talk to him about his honor tour when he went back to Washington DC. and his comment was interesting. He said, "There is still a lot
148of patriotism in this country." He said, "Everywhere I went, people came up and personally thanked me for my sacrifice, and I'm so grateful." Um, it was especially meaningful for me because over fall break, I had the chance to go visit at at his invitation a nephew of mine who is currently serving as an F-16 pilot in South Korea. His name's Lieutenant Colonel McKay McLaren. He's on his second um second or third hardship tour away from his family. He has a pregnant wife and three very young children that are here for a year without him. And um while I conceptually understood um what that might mean, it wasn't until I was there and I saw his day in dayout existence and understood how lonely that experiences and what his family is sacrificing that I felt like
149I got part of it at least. McKay has been an incredible servant of the United States for many years. He's had many close calls where he's come close to losing his life. He apparently, as he's serving in South Korea, has a couple Chinese jets that consistently follow him and track him. while he seeks to preserve the liberties of not only South Korea but much of the region. Um, and it was fascinating for me to consider we went to um museum and and memorial there regarding the Korean War, the contrast of how the South Koreans have been able to flourish and live and have remarkable freedoms and contribute to this world technologically and otherwise. There's 56 million of them. And then you compare it to the their North Korean counterparts. It was extraordinarily humbling and to
150consider what part our US servicemen and women have in that. I am so grateful for our veterans and for what they have done for me personally and for my family. I know there are millions of sacrifices and things that you've done behind the scenes I'll never know about, but I am so grateful for their willingness. And I just hope that every parent has the chance to talk to their kids at some point this week about the meaning of Veterans Day and why it's important to remember. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Edel. Uh so happy Veterans Day to my fellow brothers and sisters at arms. Um for all those who came before us and for all those that'll follow. Uh and I may as well add a plug. Uh like so it's
151been it's been a a really great time. Like so I've served in the the military now 21 years. Um and it's been a blast. So I just want to put a plug out there for the Air National Guard. Um, you know, especially, I mean, there's no young people listening right now, but maybe maybe there's a parent who is, right, who can tell their child about it. Um, I've been able to travel the world. Uh, the educational benefits are second to none. I mean, there's a tuition waiver, so they'll just pay the full tuition for an instate school. Um, but just you also get to work with some of the most amazing people you will ever meet uh in your entire life. and it has just been absolutely fantastic and I I hope to have realistically
152another 15 to 20 years left to go um because I have loved it so much. But back to school, I do want to mention that I was able to visit with student councils at Jordan High School, Hillrest High School, and Mount Jordan Middle School, as well as our district student advisory council. So, it was really fun to talk to the students um and to hear what they're thinking, what their concerns are, answer questions that they have. Um, and then special thanks to the teachers who support those programs as well. Again, thank you to everyone who is engaged with our boundary study. Um, thanks to everyone who like has like suffered out tonight as well. It's really hot in here this whole night. Um, my phone was saying it's somewhere between 75 and uh 78 degrees
153tonight. And then happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Um, we're kind of preparing, but maybe prepared turkeys instead of ourselves um as we go into Thanksgiving. So, okay. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. All right. Uh, I also want to start by saying thank you to those who have signed up and served this country throughout our our long history. we've had uh quite a few tests and I feel like over the last couple of years at least in my lifetime there's been a lot of peace at home and I want to thank a veteran for that. Um uh to the school to more school related issues uh just from a personal standpoint I would support a fixed schedule for A and B uh days. Uh I had the opportunity to attend Skyline High School during their transition. they uh
154during my time at that school I started uh it was not fixed then they switched to fixed uh and I will say despite the obvious trade-off of not having both A and B day classes having a short day on Friday which there was a lot of kids who appreciated that uh the consistency that that created um was invaluable and even as I talk to friends who are still in hill still at Hillrest they als also would appreciate that change. Um, on to school boundary stuff. Uh, I would just love to see some clarity on how many students are actually bounded for to each school. And this is probably just more for our patrons specifically. Uh, just to provide some clarity on whether or not the Jordan and East enrollment problem is a boundary problem. Uh,
155just an issue of how many students are actually boundaried into the schools versus if it's a self-feeding low enrollment loop. The kids are staying out and then you lose programming and then more kids get out, you know, that kind of issue. Um, I would also just love to see some clarity uh for patrons on consolidated on the class band size on the consolidated schools. Um, what are the class sizes going to be at each of the schools? How large are each of the bands going to be uh for each of the grades at the new potential Willow Canyon, the new potential Quell Hollow, the new potential Ridgerest? think that would be helpful for our patrons to see to kind of alleviate some of that confusion. Um because I feel like we're getting a lot of
156questions on class size and would this really affect the enrollment of East Men Jordan because that's an issue that I'm hearing a lot of. Uh and then just on to finally uh we we won't see most of you before Thanksgiving. Um earlier this year I retired the word great uh grateful from my vocabulary because I became very dependent on it. Um, but I feel like this is an opport a great opportunity to say that I'm extremely grateful to serve on this board. I'm extremely grateful to have had this opportunity to serve at a such a young point in my life and to serve such an incredible school district and such an incredible community. I am extremely grateful. Um, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Nybar. Well, you learn a lot of things when you get
157on to YouTube. First off, I took the time to get on to one of the word meeting YouTubetubes, which actually have never done that before. I'm really I I I'm a good learner of when people talk, I listen. It's that human connection. I remember it better if someone says it than if I read it. So, I don't really find occasion to go back and review our meetings. But I did for a specific patron comment. And somehow the mouse landed on me and I learned two things. I need to talk a lot quicker. I'm very sorry. I'm a slow talker. I noticed that when I was watching YouTube and I need to smile more, so I'm working on that. Um, I'm really grateful that the room has been warm. I came from a room where it
158was highly airond conditioned and super freezing for 10 hours. So, it's great for me. Um, okay. Uh, congrats to the Alta Marching Band. Super excited and proud for them. Congrats to Corner Canyon Volleyball. That was amazing. Got such a great program there. I failed to recognize last time when we were talking about Apex award winners. I'm grateful for Kathy Hilton over Corner Canyon. Fantastic financial secretary. She was recognized. Mayor Troy Walker, he's a great community partner and he actually has has a few sons that work in the military. Um Kristen Stewart and Denise Hok. So grateful for them and all they do for for Canyons. Uh I've had this school year I've been able to go into the schools two to three times a week to volunteer with reading and math groups. I love being
159in the classroom, having um been a teacher and and going um you know, that's what I got my degree in was education. It's a passion of mine and I love getting into the classrooms and seeing the sense of community there, the classroom culture, how the teachers are building that and and how how how how just the class system works with the kids and the peers and how they help each other. It's pretty amazing. If you want to to go home and feel so grateful for the rising generation, get in the classroom and volunteer. The amazing kids um and amazing teachers. Uh Oak Hollow always does an amazing veterans breakfast and program. It's it's a a singing performance. Unfortunately, I had a conflict this morning, so I wasn't able to go. Sometimes the news has been
160there. It is fantastic. One of the best veterans programs I've ever been to, and I'm so grateful for them for doing that. I really appreciated the um teacher that got up and talked about the Ridge Ridgerest Bella Vista with the dual language immersion. I think that's something we need to look into. Um I had already mentioned I was worried about the impact on special ed. So I look forward to that further discussion. As far as Eastmont and Jordan High School, thank you for that comment. I very much want to look at that and how to fix that. But I believe that we can um draw lines as best we can and try to do as best we can with what we want to do boundary-wise, but at the end of the day, it's the programs
161at the school and the culture that can really drive up the enrollment. And I want to take a very dedicated and focused look, and I am committed. I would like and in fact I think it would um impact other other things we're looking at doing right now but I'd really like to see some really good programming at Jordan High School where people are wanting to even open enroll into that school for specific programs and we we need to build it from the inside out and not to say that I don't want to look at the boundary study I do I very much agree with what Mrs. Dolly said this this uh first study was to the problem was elementary schools and how to fix our lower enrollment. We do need to look at middle schools.
162Absolutely. Um secondary u middle and high and that needs to be a full study in and of itself. I think whenever we're looking at closing an elementary school, that has been the spotlight. And so that's why families are coming out and speaking. And we even had in that first proposal some little things about a few little uh middle school realignments and I was uncomfortable with that because I felt like it didn't give the proper attention and even a proper attention for the community to bring input. So I am very committed to that. I just don't think we should mix it with this. Um but I I I also think we really got to look at at building programs. So that's so so so important. We saw that with Alta High School. Alta High School had
163a low population. We brought in step to the U. Brian McIll was the principal there. He did a few different things and that enrollment boosted up and and we have we have so many students actually that even come from different districts for ELA for that program. We added step to the U to Jordan High School. I don't think that really works when there's another high school so close that has an established program. I think we need to look at new things. We had the Navy ROC come in and do the, you know, present the flag and we started that program there. Awesome. It we need we need more students in it though. Um we need to be looking at other things. Um I was able to participate in a a meeting with the Oak Hollow
164logo refresh. Jeff Olsson's amazing. I loved meeting with that community this week. Uh as far as our veterans go, I just want to thank all of our veterans out there. No matter your assignment or your duration, your sacrifice is worth all our praise. So thank you to all the veterans out there. As far as Thanksgiving goes, uh I'm so very grateful for so many people here at the district uh that have helped me. Um and I'm in a a situation of life circumstances where I I actually uh require a lot more help than I have in the past, which is difficult for me. I'd rather be the giving on the giving end and the receiving. But a special shout out to Derek and it he's helped me countless hours. Thank you so much Cindy, Kirsten,
165Jeff, Susan, Leon, Rick, and all my fellow board members who have more have provided um a lot of strength, understanding, support, and picked up the slack when I needed the most. I work with amazing people and I'm so very grateful for the support and their dedication and their patience with me right now at this time in my life. Uh we have an amazing amazing community, amazing canyons and amazing schools and so that is definitely the top of my list with gratitude. So that's it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um I have watched myself as well on YouTube before and I also talk slowly and I look down too much and I need to smile more. I I learned that. Anyway, I'm working on all [laughter] those things. Um I was able to attend the Health
166in the Heights Coalition dinner. We had a dinner and it's in Cottonwood Heights and it's a group that's works together to try to like bring healthy things to our city and there's a whole list of things. I'm not going to bore you with reading them all that they've been doing this year, but it's really great. It's a great group of people. Um I was able to attend the Bell Vista Elementary Veterans Day assembly. It was really cute. There were um family members that were veterans and the kids had some really fun songs they sang and it was just a really nice event. Um, I want to say congrats to the Brighton marching band and [snorts] for they got fifth in their competition. Yeah. And um, also just congrats to the Brighton football team for making
167it semi-finals and they they had a byee and so I just wanted to highlight something they did. They always do a couple service projects. So there were 80 football players that went to East Midville and they they went into like six different little groups and they organized monthly food backpacks. They built desks. They deep cleaned tables. They weeded. They washed m mural walls, moved furniture, cleared out closets, hung 13 banners around the gym, repainted the gaga pits, I don't know what that is, and activity goods for our community garden. and um their their um community person said, "We were made canyons stronger with their service." So, I thought that was really cute. And she sent me some pictures of the team. And um I just really appreciate coaches and our teachers that teach life lessons
168to our kids. I think that's really important. It's more than just it's more than just about the sports or the band or whatever it is. It's about life lessons for our students. So, anyway, thank you board. Um thank you to our veterans. My dad and my father-in-law were veterans and also my brother is in the Air Force reserve. So I do appreciate all their service and sacrifice for our freedom. So and now I will call this meeting to a close and we will now adjourn. Thank you.