001located at 9361 South 300 East in Sandy Utah. The first item on our agenda is item A and that's the final 2025 legislative update by Charlie Evans, director of external link and Susan Edwards, public engagement. I will turn the time over to you. Thank you. We also have Kayla here with us. Kayla Kmore. Thank you, Kayla. Thank you. Um, we don't have a lot of new information from our last uh time we reported, but maybe a little bit more in-depth information and want to invite you guys to stop us anywhere along the way with any questions uh that you might have. We're going to go we'll go quickly and and so if you don't ask questions, we we feel like you're comfortable with the information that you already have. So, we're going to move quickly.
002But if you have information, you have questions, don't hesitate to slow us down and ask questions. Okay. Thanks. This is uh then we do this every year to show number of bills that deal with and u the number continues to go up although there has you're slightly slightly slow. Uh there were a total of 962 bills in our legislature this year. And um we've had we had bill numbers in the House get up into the 600s, which I'd never seen before, and Senate bills get up into 300. Very high. Impacted school district 197 down by 13 or something from last year or something. But the first time we've seen it go down. Yes, sir. That's the first time we've ever seen that number go down in the number of years we've been doing this. And
0035 and 82 of the 962 bills were passed into the law. Okay. Um this is a list of bills that passed that we supported. And by we, I mean Canyons School District. And um I don't feel a need to discuss any of those in particular. uh with the are we is this the only place we have the cosmetology building? Uh probably. So I didn't want to call special attendee that um and to say that every school district in the state that has a cosmetology department owes Susan a huge debt of gratitude. She did some amazing work on that. I want to also thank Doug Halenback. We took a lot of Doug's time. He was very helpful. And Shelley Ivy who came up and testified on that bill. She did a wonderful job and she for
004those of you who don't know Shelley and I didn't before this. She's over the cosmopoly department at the CTE and she did an excellent job uh testifying uh at the legislature and so I wanted to to thank them. But before this bill, and it has not been signed yet by the governor's office or by the governor, but before this bill uh passed, uh Susan uncovered in in working on this bill that there was no uh authority, statutory authority for us to be running a costology uh program in our schools. So, Susan was able to negotiate that language into the bill and assuming the governor signs it that that authority will be there going forward. So Doug respected our radio silence on that so well that even even they his own people didn't know that that
005was an issue. I was like you do not tell us soul this because if you do once we discovered that was the case and and that that was actual the actual goal of some of the people behind this bill was to uh neuter our programs. We were very careful not to talk about it publicly, but since the bill is passed and I did want to point that out and to point out the excellent work that uh Susan did on that bill on behalf of not only our CTE program, but that those all over the state. So, I really felt like some great work done there. So, this is a list of bills that passed that we supported. You can go to the next one, Susan. All right. This is a list of of bills that
006failed which we opposed. I don't see anything on there that we haven't already discussed or needs to be discussed. Were tedious. The first one, the public school diretory chairing was tedious. Um, some of them just deserve to die and uh, some of them are tricky. But I can I say something about those bills that passed. I do want to say we supported them, but that's only after you guys worked on them and got amendments and got them to a place where we could support. That was true on a lot of that was true on virtually all of those bills. Yes, for sure. And then and some of them too in all fairness we didn't lend support to. We just stood down on once we got them to a place where we stopped stopped opposing them
007I guess would be the best way to you send this presentation to the board. Yes. Because I would love to meet you. All right. This these are the bills that passed weeds. I think we've discussed all of the other happy to discuss them further if there's any we are uh curriculum bills that you know they don't they don't like to be micromanaged but they're very happy to micromanage manage us. Rick and I were just talking about that before. And I would say on this one in particular on these bills, they're in and of themselves not bad ideas. I think everybody in this room would probably agree that kids need to learn firearm safety and if somebody's a gun owner, they should be teaching that to their kids. if somebody uh kids need to learn swimming
008skills. Now, that bill is a little misleading because it's more about providing lifeguards to our programs and it was definitely ran by a couple of uh private swim schools was were the vendors behind it. But, uh but like the civics education things, some would agree, some would disagree that we just really approached these with the you know, you're you're putting a lot into our curriculum. If all these pass you're and and they all started very prescriptive you will teach this many hours this many days this many times and we got many of them down to May the permissive language permiss not all of them but and once once they get to where they're permissive then we just stop caring whether they pass or fail for the most part but we did try to make that
009point to our legislators is you know you tell us all the time you want us out of the parenting business, but you're passing bills that put us in the parenting business. And the this is the list of bills that failed uh that we supported. And um I do uh I didn't want to draw attention to the artificial intelligence and education. Not that they not that this was a huge deal, but JLC did take position of oppose that bill. We he supported tonight and knowing representative Debay and obviously Senator imagine we will see that again uh next year and I think we've talked about Senator Representative Stoddard's bill and u representative Hayes's chronicism those are obviously important bills that would have been either one of those bills would have been wonderful if we could have gotten
010them passed there is just not an appetite in our legislature at this point to pass them. And as important as that's been to us, chronic absenteeism, those were the only two bills ran on it. And both of them were ran by Democrats and both of them did not get very far. You tell them, you better get ready to jack up your prison budget. But they are these kids are not in school. Yeah. But they tried. They gave both of those G sponsors gave a very good effort in trying to get the conversation started. Yes. Do you think they'll come back? I have hope that they on these two particular bills. I don't know. I think it will depend on if we can get an appetite someplace in the Republican party if we expect it to
011actually run. As Representative Stoddard took that bill over from a Republican who I can't somebody that basically was told your bill is dead. So they dropped it and Stodd took it up and actually took it quite through the process. He did a really good job and I thought for a while there we were going to get it. coming out of committees, he was getting he was getting unanimous votes, but and he had taken it all the way down. He started with some really good points and structure and he had taken it all the way down to just study this just study chronic and still couldn't get it for I don't spend a lot of time because I didn't talk about most of these bills with you guys, but these are the bills that passed that
012had fiscal impact on us. I think between Leon and us, we've discussed most of them and um I think you guys are aware the effect those are going to have on our budget going forward. And this this is a lot. So this is where you'll appreciate having it sent to you. These are all bills that are mostly just information for you all and for for us for cabinet and for legal and for other people that need to study a policy. Um, but these are different bills that passed um that we likely and I will give a big shout out to Nancy Tiny, our former board member that she went through and she kind of said all of these would have impact somewhere. We need to do something and so there may be others that we
013missed but I think she was pretty thorough because there's shock few pages of them that we need to at least give it a look and say how does this impact us? What do we need to do? Do we need to change practice anywhere in what we're doing? So, there's a lot of things. So, I wanted to pause here. Every year we get asked this question and so this year we just made a slide out of it and I just wanted to say I don't think I need to tell anybody in this room, but just for the sake of clarity, we don't expect anybody to vote with us 100% of the time. If any one of you guys was in the legislature, you guys wouldn't vote with us 100% of the time. And uh we don't
014expect that of our legislators. We don't ask them to do that and they understand that. Um and so the we only put it up here because you guys ask and it does get an indication. U we have an excellent Susan and I and Caleb make a point to have a good relationship with every every legislator especially those legislators that represent Canyon School District. We love we have a great delegation of legislators and and uh at the legislature and some very powerful ones. Some of them have sometimes use that power in ways that we don't really like. Uh but when they use it to our advantage, it's so nice. And so I don't want this to come across as we're trying to point the finger at anybody because even the people that you see at the
015bottom of that list were instrumental in some of the successes uh that we had this year. And I want to make sure that everybody here understands that I don't see representative Roberts on here. Yeah. Okay, there he is. Okay. And you'll notice our couple of asterisks on this. Oh, yeah. If you'll explain Senator Rey and Senator Colmore, Senator Colmore in particular, but in their leadership positions have to be off the floor a fair amount working on especially Kirk. Especially Kirk. So they did miss votes. We went back and reviewed some of of the votes they missed that were counting, you know, against them basically in their percentages. And in both cases, they probably likely would have voted with us in their percentages would have raised some. Would have voted for us at least voted with
016us at least five more times. I think Kathleen would have voted with us at least three more times. But you know, they have leadership positions are often off the floor when they vote. And so want to especially draw attention to that. Well, and the other thing Kathleen sitting in Senate Ed, she's always a positive voice for public education and always brings up the problems with things, but in two particular uh bills that we worked really hard on, um they were uh held in committee and she was instrumental in those. And then same with Senator Colmore, there's two bills that he particularly uh did not see through. one that you guys were very concerned about in the last days. I can't remember the number, but it was 3 SP 337. It was his bill. Um it
017was the Beehive Authority bill or whatever. Um but it it was actually the governor's bill and um he was able to look at it when it came in his possession and be like not running not really running this. But it took a little few days to work through. Um well and he was he was instrumental in that and a couple other things in killing things that we did not like and we appreciate and that's why I want to point out you know just simply voting especially when you're in a position like uh Senator Vie and especially Senator Cullenmore there are a lot of things you can do other than voting to help us and both of them have been very willing uh to do that where they can and have been very very helpful to
018us and as you know from there's We hand selected bills that we had a position on that were very important to us. This is certainly not representative all bills and all because they as a legislature they agree about 80 some odd percent of the time but these are the ones that were important to us that we could kind of measure where how they were with things we had told them. We had given them our positions on these and so we could say they knew how we felt and how they impacted us and how they felt. Right. Uh these are just uh the other things we did other than dealing directly with legislative bills. This was USBA day on the hill. We had a lot of great participation. We hosted we hosted 560 students people up
019on the hill this year. Uh the top one is one of our ALA students that came and testified to a bill that had nothing to do with us, but we love that she was there. You did a great job. She did a great job. She did a really good job. She was there testifying about devices um in our schools. And so uh but just some of the some of the people who were up there at different days and times and we just appreciated being able to host them and help make their experience the best we could do, especially for all of our school kids at field trips. And we even got Andrew to come on a field trip with us. That's it. That's it. Any questions for him? Um this is So, um, all the
020board members, I know I've had a chance to talk to you guys individually about this and I brought it up with Susan and Charlie as well, but the idea doing something similar to what Mary school district did and sending a letter to the governor and all of the legislature about how things shook out financially. There's been a lot of spin and a lot of narrative that's been, you know, pushed by the legislature and the governor's office. But I thought it was wise of Murray School District to say now that the dust is settled, this is how things are actually going to work for us financially based off of how things happen in the legislative session. We want you to understand when the rubber hits the road, this is what it looks like. I I personally
021think it's a great idea. We don't have to do the same one that they did. Of course, we can make it our own. But I don't think it's u it would hurt for our legislators in particular in our area to understand like how their schools are being impacted in part because we're going to be having a discussion here in the next month about enrollment and how our local schools are being impacted. And I think it's only fair to give legislators fair warning that when they start hearing from their constituents about it, there's a reason why. I Amanda and I talked about this before the meeting started and I suggested I thought this was a good idea. And one of the reasons I think this is a good idea is um it's easy for us to
022assume that they realize they know more than they do about everything that's coming out of that WPU. there very few people that really understand all the stuff that Leon has explained and that we've shown here and and including those people who don't understand it are most of the legislators legislators that that represent us. I think they have a general idea but having it spelled out for them uh I I think would be helpful. Um because you know they they say, "Well, we gave you 4% WPU. Why weren't the the raises?" We're like, "We would love to give these raises, but you also gave us these unfunded mandates." Yeah. And that has to come from the WPU. And often they don't think they don't stop and think about that. and they don't know how it it
023affects the WPU that you guys receive the specific dollar amounts. So, are we fine doing a letter? And I think we would look at I know did one. Didn't someone else? Not that I'm aware. I've heard people talk about it, but Murray is the only one I've had seen a physical copy of So, are you okay if like me and Amanda work with Leon? We can take a first draft and then get it to center, however you guys want to do it. Okay. And then I think Holly and I really love that idea. I think also we need to recognize that these legislators that have been elected, they had 962 bills to navigate. Like who what human can do that and do that effectively? and the fact that they passed 580 something and you know
024they're they're they're elected and and they find work uh meaning in what they're doing right with the work and the service they're providing in various ways but they also have pages upon pages of bills that they're hit with every session and and how how big a percentage of those bills are they an expert in that area that's why I think it's so crucial and and one thing I just want to say along with this is, you know, when we went to that USBA regional meeting, I I suggested something. I would love for us to do an event for our legislators where their spouses can come and that's a great idea and we entertain them and it's in the summer and and I I think we need to help our legislators see all that we're accomplishing
025in our schools because every legislator even the ones that represent us and we have great relationships and they respect us and we have a great uh relationship even still when they go into that session and they're hit with that volume of bills and they're trying to sort sort through it all. I just think whatever we can do and and one other little thing I think one message that's very clear is public ed bills are extremely popular. Everyone wants to run one and so what we need to do is we need to captivate audience including our legislators to help them help us run a bill that works for us and I think we need to start working on that immediately. So I think the letter's good but I think there's other outreaches that we need to
026start doing. I I agree with that completely. I think Susan agrees with that too that you know I think we should not take for granted you guys the board over the years has spent a lot of effort and resources and develop a relationship with legislators and we have a great relationship with legislators. Those legislators come off the floor all the time ask Susan and I about bills and a hundred times a session somebody from school how do you get your legislators to do that and say a lot of work went into that two second conversation a lot of work went into it and that's a tribute to the priority that you guys have placed on that uh going all the way back to the beginning of the school district and continue to place on it
027and we appreciate appreciate it. Thank you very much. Well, and you guys are amazing at it. So, that's another thing. Much credit to you. So, thank you. Okay, Katie. And just remember, anytime we're taking now, we're eating up our time of board technolog just real thank you for all the work you your team has done. Amazing. We're It's been a rough session and so we appreciate that. But and then also I think as we write this letter just showing our gratitude to our legislators but seeing the emails I got from the ones that represent my area I just don't understand you know how all of those little bills impact filter down to the local level. So I think it's a great idea. Yes. Okay. Everyone else is in favor. Thank you. So you guys will
028work on a draft. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for your word. Really you guys are you guys appreciate it. Okay, now we are going to end the meeting in here and go into the superintendent um for table and let's try to hurry. Okay. Okay, welcome everyone to the business meeting of the Canyon's Board of Education. Today is March 18th, 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 tonight. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda for tonight, March 17th, 18th, excuse me. Okay. Thank you. Um, is there a second to that motion? I'll second that. Okay. Thank you. There's a motion and a second.
029Is there any discussion to that 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 that will be given by Mid Valley Elementary Principal Margaret Swani and then after that she will give us school highlights. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, board, for providing me the opportunity to talk about Mid Valley. To better organize my thoughts, I'm bringing back David Letterman top 10. Why life is good to be a junior husky at Mid Valley. Number 10, we set clear goals and we achieved
030them. In 2022, we earned a B for our school report card. In 2023, Mid Valley exited from TSI school status. We continue to be near the top on comparing like school reports for RISE in ELA and math and are at the top for MGP and science in 2024. Number nine, we maintain a positive and collaborative culture with strong teamwork amongst all adults with a shared commitment to student achievement. All adults are supported with their professional growth in continuous improvement through ongoing professional learning and reflection. Number eight, we have a safe and supportive environment that emphasizes emotional and physical safety. My favorite Valentine this year. I brought it to Principal Swani. Thank you for keeping us safe. We foster a welcoming atmosphere where Huskys are valued and supported. Our Huskys build genuine friendships while they develop
031their students skill. This work could not be done without the leadership and expertise of our wellness team. Number seven, we have a model Spanish dual language immersion program. This fall, we were visited by Secretary Cardona's team as we were told that we are a bright spot of the nation. Our school had done an exemplary job in having heritage and native Spanish speakers be in Mid Valley's dual language immersion program. We also were told that our Spanish teachers are the best of the best with high quality instruction and student engagement. Number six, we have the best teams. Our custodial team is extremely responsive to our many requests and are committed to keeping our 94,500 square f foot building in pristine condition. Our lunch team provides a safe and welcoming lunchroom experience. Our office team sets the
032tone for when anyone enters our building. They are welcoming, helpful, caring, empathetic, kind, and willing to do anything to help our Huskys. Our tier 2 team is a machine. They know reading and math interventions inside and out. They celebrate just as much, if not more, when our Huskys master skills. Our recess team loves to play outside with our Huskys. Together they provide a safe environment where huskys socialize, have unstructured time to run, play, and climb. Our brain booster team creates engaging lessons. All Huskys get to explore creativity, movement, constructing new things, and more. Reason number five, Mid Valley has the best celebrations and events. All of our grades get to go on at least three to four field trips. We have pause days once per month with engaging activities including Veterans Day program, Thanks and
033Giving week, Grinch service week, sing around the tree, kindness week, college week, kindergarten celebration, and fifth grade celebration. Reason number four, Huskys are regularly recognized for being successful. Student recognitions include pause points, portrait of a husky, reverse office discipline referrals, which we call positivity awards, where huskys are sent to the office for academic and behavior accomplishments, and a Husky success board where families join us weekly to hear of their children's accomplishments. Reason number three, we have a very strong parental guardian community involvement. Mid Valley PTA is inclusive, supports the school's vision, spoils our teachers, and actively works to make Mid Valley special for all of our Huskys. Mid Valley's SEC makes all decisions in support of our students, families, faculty, and staff. Families come to all of our family events, Moms Matter, Daring Dads, STEM
034Night, Literacy Night, and Math Night. Reason number two, Mid Valley teachers are the best. They are enthusiastic, caring, creative educators who bring positive energy and encouragement to our Huskys every day. They create engaging, hands-on learning experiences where everyone does everything. The number one reason why life is good to be a junior Husky at Mid Valley is because our Huskys are the best. They are enthusiastic, curious, have a strong work ethic. They are eager to explore new ideas, ask questions, and seek understanding. They speak 13 languages. They thrive in our many student centered activities including read across America, book blitz, junior coaches, science fair, spelling bee, orchestra, and more. We even have a yearly event where our Hillrest High School former junior custies come back to Mid Valley and their graduation gear and share their wisdom
035on what it takes to graduate from high school. All stakeholders work hard to keep up with our Huskys and to ensure they experience success. Because at Mid Valley, as we say, junior husky success. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay, the next item on our agenda is our Canyon Strong student recognitions and Jeff Haney, director and Kirsten Stewart, associate director of comm communications will present this. Thank you, President Schill, for this time to recognize the achievements of students and employees in Canyon's district who have gone above and beyond in their pursuit of excellence. and those who are mentioned tonight will receive letters of commendation from both the board and the superintendent. I also want to note that I am again wearing my CSDTV pin. The board meeting tonight is being broadcast on CSDTV. It's being
036produced with the help of students. I believe one James Edel board member Edel, you may know him little bit. every once in a while you may see him in your house and Van Chavez. Those are the two students who are here tonight learning how to produce these types of meetings so we can broadcast them to our community. Now before we list our honores, I want to note the fun-filled celebrations being held all across canyons to announce our school teachers of the year. Here are a few of the photos that have been captured of these events. We've been featuring these on our social media pages. So, please check those out and like and comment on all of those photos of the teachers of the year that are being announced in the schools in the Canyon School
037District. Now, Canyons is a unique among school districts in Utah. And then we start our process to pick an overall teacher of the year with a public nomination process. And then all of those nominations are forwarded to the schools and programs and a selection committee made up of the school's principal, an SEC representative, a PTA representative, and a building ESP member sit down, take a look at all the nominations, and take into consideration other factors. and choose one school teacher of the year for all of our schools and programs. The Canyons Education Foundation provides gifts and prizes, including a banner to uh herald these wins at all of our schools. From all of those teachers, we then winnow it down to one overall elementary, middle, and high school teacher of the year. And from those
038three, we select our overall teacher of the year in Canyon's district's representative in the state teacher of the year selection process. We invite our community to an April 15th ceremony where we'll celebrate all of our teachers of the year from the 50 schools and programs in the Canyon School District and then honor our overall teacher of the year. That event will be at Midville Middle School. A reception to honor our teachers of the year is at 6:15 and the ceremony in the auditorium will start at 7:00. We would love to see the entire community there to cheer all of our teachers. Now, our first honores tonight are the Canyon Strong teams who competed last Saturday at the Maverick Center at the Utah First Robotics Regional Competition. to talk about wired for success in science, technology,
039engineering, and mathematics. A lot of the topics that we were focusing on just a few moments ago when we were talking about our new innovation center, which will be housed at the former regional headquarters of eBay. Now, congratulations to Hillrest High Husky Robot Robotics Program. They snagged the impact award. That's the most prestigious award given at the competition. Now, with the win, they secured a spot at the World Championships in Houston in April. Congratulations to the Husky Huskys at Ala High School. Their team, Icarus Innovated, won the team sustainability award, and they are gearing up to compete again this month for their shot at Worlds. Teams from Jordan and Corner Canyon also competed on Saturday. Congratulations to all of our teams who were there to compete. And congratulations again to Hillrest and Alta for winning
040those awards at the end of the competition. We also want to congratulate Brighton High teacher Kristen Reutder who is the Utah finalist for the 2025 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. This is a prestigious award. It recognizes her contributions as a teacher of math. The National Selection Committee is the next group to review her application and the results of the next round of judging will be announced by the White House. Now, congratulations to Miss Reutder and we wish her much luck in the next round of judging and the consideration process. Our next honores are the students who make up Brighton High School's Model UN team. The Bengals have once again brought home top honors from the International High School Model United Nations Conference that's held in New York. In all, 20 Brighton
041students attended the conference and this conference is regularly attended by about 3,500 students from 72 countries. Model UN students step into the shoes of delegates at the UN. They simulate UN committees. They learn about diplomacy, international relations, and current world issues. Brighton's team representing Costa Rica took first place in preparation and research. They beat a lot of elite prep schools and private schools from around the country and even around the world to earn that recognition. So, congratulations to the Bengals. Two Brighton students represented Somalia on the Security Council. And this is an opportunity reserved for top competitors and they took first place in this specialized committee. Now this conference was headlined by former President Joe Biden who took questions from our students and a Brighton student and the team's advisor Mr. Hodes were invited to
042a private meeting and a photo opportunity with the former president. So congratulations to the Bengals and we are so glad they got this opportunity. Next up, we wrap up our Canyon Strong recognitions by celebrating a recent major award won by Corner Canyon High School's wrestling and baseball coach Jeff Yur. At the recent Utah Society of Health and Physical Educators, or SHAPE, this is a conference for PE and health educators uh and coaches. Coach Yur was named the Shape Utah Teacher of the Year for athletics and coaching. Coach has led the Corner Canyon boys wrestling team since the school opened in 2013 and has coached Charger baseball since 2018. He's a former professional athlete himself. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1998. So, congratulations to Coach Yur for winning the Utah Shape Teacher of
043the Year award. And as we wrap up today's recognitions, we want to bid much luck to Andy Marcus. He's the AFM at Draper Park Middle School. He is one of five finalists for the National Education Support Professional of the Year award, which is given each year by the NEA. It will be announced this weekend. So, we have a one in5 shot of having the national ESP of the year. Much luck to Andy and uh we will keep the whole entire community app prized when they do announce the winner. So, good luck to him and we hope that he brings home the national honor to Canyons and to Draper Park Middle. So, President Schill, it's no secret that the board and the administration think the very best in public education can be found here in Canyon's
044district. We thank our Canyon strong students in our employees for all they do to make Canyons a district of champions, a district of future diplomats and ambassadors, a district of scientists, inventors, and educators of the next generation of thinkers, leaders, and innovators. And hopefully in just a few days we'll have a national national winner among our ranks as well. So thank you so much for the time for recognitions. Let me turn the time back to you. Okay. Thank you Mr. Haney. So we have now come to the patron comment portion of 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 Canyon's district, students and parents of students, and current employees of the district. Patrons may provide board
045members with written documents. These documents must be submitted to the board secretary, she's right over there, at the meeting or emailed to the office of public communications by noon of the day following the board meeting. Tonight, individuals will be given three minutes and those representing groups will be given five minutes. Comments made during patron comment time are part of the public record. It is the board's practice to listen and take notes during patron comments. The board of education does not discuss matters that are not on the meeting's agenda, nor engage in public comment on individual students to protect their privacy or employee issues. If a patron wants to comment on a district's employees character, professional competence, or mental or physical health, the board requests that those comments be submitted to the board in writing. However,
046if the patron determines to verbally comment on those personal issues, the comments need to be civil and refrain from personal attacks, insults, and defamatory or slanderous comments about an individual. The board of education values input on all sides of issues. To ma 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. Comments must be age appropriate considering children who may be present or viewing online. And please no speaking out of order. Okay. So, I'm going to read um two names at at a time and if um the second person can come sit just right on in front right here on this chair so they're ready to come up and make sure it looks like the green
047light is on. Then also the secretary has a timer and a buzzer will go off. Sometimes when you're speaking it's hard to hear, so just just kind of be aware of that. Um, okay. The first person we have is Bin Witurch and then Liz Jenkins. So, if Liz can come up here and then also if I say your name wrong, please correct me when you come up to the microphone. Didn't expect to be first. Um, okay. My name is Brun Witurch and I have three children in the Canyon School District. one in high school, one in middle school, and one in elementary school. Um, I'm here to speak tonight on my feelings with Chromebooks and Chromebook safety. My children have had many issues with Chromebooks over the last few years, and I have expressed those
048concerns both to my children's schools and to the district leaders as well. Um, I do appreciate over the last couple years that the district has implemented the family connections technology portal and given us as parents an opportunity to choose the restriction level on my kids Chromebooks. Um, so for my high schooler and middle schooler, both of their Chromebooks are set to the highest restriction level possible. And unfortunately, um, I'm here to tell you tonight that even with that highest restriction level, they have been able to access very questionable material on their Chromebooks. Um, in our home, my husband and I have made the decision to limit the number of screen time hours that our kids are allowed to have. We limit their websites and the apps that they have access to. It is a constant
049battle to keep our kids away from all the dangers that exist online. uh the bullying, gaming, online predators, pornography, etc. We can go on and on and on. So, we do this at home by restricting their access on the computers, our televisions, their phones, even our Wi-Fi network. And I realize it does sound very extreme, but it's just what we've decided to do in our home to keep our kids safe. So, unfortunately, it's frustrating to do all of that work at home and then send the kids to school with their Chromebook and they're able to access those materials online on the Chromebook. And like I mentioned before, we have it set to the highest restriction level. And even with those with that level of restriction, my children have accessed gaming websites, uh, social sites, search
050engines, and yes, even pornography, even with the highest restriction level. So, unfortunately, when I've expressed my concerns to the schools, the response I get is that Chromebooks are just part of the curriculum and there's nothing that we can do. Um, I don't love that we put a Chromebook in front of their eyes all day. we make them put their cell phones in the backpack and yet we give them the Chromebook. Um, so my hope tonight is just the district will take these concerns into consideration and that a reasonable solution can be reached. I believe the Chromebooks need more restrictions and better restrictions and then I'm hoping we can decrease the amount of hours that the kids have the Chromebooks in front of their faces. Thank you for your time. Okay, thank you. So now Liz
051is up with our microphone and then Courtney Wimberly, if you could come up right up here. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you board members and Dr. Robbins for bringing the issue of school device safety to agenda today. I know that that was something that you did on purpose and we're really really grateful for that. Um many parents in this room have been trying for years to make improvements to Chromebooks and how they're used in school. So, I'm hopeful that this is the beginning of real change. With that in mind, I ask that you consider the four following things as you discuss a solution to this problem. Number one, better filtering is needed at all age groups. I know in preliminary discussions, I heard elementary was really the focus, and that's great, but whether you're seven
052or you're 17, you're a child, and we need to protect all of those students. Number two, allowed only or sometimes people call this whitelist filtering really needs to be implemented. I think what Bin said um really needs to be considered because I know that there was some reference to maybe giving parents the option of the highest restriction level, but that is not adequate. Um I was in a meeting where we sat with the director of IT and were able to bring up pornography in seconds. So this really needs to be addressed in a more robust way and um limiting access more than what is there. Number three, a parent monitoring tool. So many school districts provide monitoring software for parents. There's Bark Securely, GoG Guardian, many others. I don't know how well those work to
053be honest, but these programs will alert parents directly and immediately rather than the current system in our district, which I understand alerts administration and then they're tasked with a really heavy job that really shouldn't, in my opinion, be theirs. Um, what happens is principles don't have time to review all of those flagged content. They may not do it. Parents are then unaware. And um I don't know if you're familiar, but parents cannot singularly monitor those devices either because they're part of the Canyon's system. They're part of their organization. And so even though I pay for a private monitoring system, it does not work on a Canyon's login or a Canyons device. Number four, until devices are safe, parents need alternative options for their child's education in Canyons. Opting out of devices sort of works at
054an elementary level. I'm currently doing that for my son and it has bumps in the road. It's difficult for his teacher. It's kind of difficult for him, but I'm willing to do it. But I also have three teenagers and opting them out of a Chromebook is not really a reasonable option. I feel very stuck as a parent because I would like to send my kids to a CSD school, but I feel like their only choice for education within our district would compromise my child's online safety and that needs to be changed. The parents you see here today are involved. We're the parents on the PTA. We're the parents in the SEC's. We're the parents helping. That's why we're here because we care about this. And I'm afraid that you may lose some of us. We're
055the parents who are helping and involved. And we really want to stay here. Please do what you can to make this a safer environment for our students. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Next is Courtney Wimberly. She is representing a group. And then the next person on deck is Carly Dent. Hopefully that's the right name. Sorry. Hi, my name is Courtney. I am a current teacher here in Canyon School District. And I will be presenting for a group of employees in the school district who are concerned with our current maternity leave policy. I'm here to present the reasons why this policy needs to change to better support the district's female employees, which make up an astonishing 80% of all teaching staff, and to share some of the real world experiences of women who have been impacted
056by the current inadequate policy. The existing policy neglects the unique physical and emotional challenges of childirth and postpartum recovery. It also creates significant financial hardship for many women employees. Without comprehensive leave, women face career disruptions, increased stress, and a higher likelihood of leaving the teaching profession altogether. Given the vital role that women play in the district, a stronger maternity leave policy would not only be a fairer approach, but a smart investment in the district's long-term success. It is critical for Canyon School District to recognize the essential contribution of its female employees and implement a more supportive maternity leave policy. This should include extending the amount of paid leave, offering flexible work arrangements, ensuring adequate time for nursing or pumping, funding better long-term subs, and providing the support needed for mothers to thrive both professionally and
057personally. Additionally, the issue of child safety must be addressed. Teachers work in environments with high exposure to illness, putting their newborns at higher risk of infections. As a kindergarten teacher, I can tell you these kids need to wash their hands a little bit better. Um, as I researched the currency current policy, compared it to others and spoke with women who have experienced the policy themselves, um, I was shocked by how many had negative encounters with the current policy. Many teachers reached out to me after hearing about my efforts to open a dialogue on the issue. And in fact, over 90% of the people I talked to, men and women included, experienced negative situations regarding the current policy. Many women have been unfairly denied maternity leave due to unclear policies, forced to split leave between multiple
058children, or even denied leave for adopted children. Some face harsh criticism from administrators for taking time to pump or asking for extra time to recover after childirth. Others have been expected to work through their six weeks or of leave or face uncomfortable consequences from admin at a time meant for healing and bonding with their new child. Countless women share that six weeks is simply not enough time to heal and the pressure to return too soon makes breastfeeding even more difficult. Many women feel that they are forced to choose between their careers and their families because the very system they work for fails to prioritize parenthood. This is especially heartbreaking given that our entire careers are dedicated to supporting and nurturing the youngest members of families. The disconnect is painful. How can we be expected to
059care for others children's yet be denied the support to care for our own during a vulnerable time of postpartum recovery and the overwhelming consensus consensus among the female employees is that the current policy does not meet their needs. If Canyon School District seeks to attract families to its school, it should also strengthen policies that support and empower its female employees to have families of their own. By offering better maternity leave, the district can ensure that women are supported as they raise children who will eventually attend the very same schools that their mothers work at. As a district that claims to be the top in Utah, you have the resources and the ability to provide better support for your female workforce. Now, it's time to move beyond the minimum. We urge Canyon School District to lead
060by example and enhance its maternity leave policies, setting a standard for other districts to follow. A petition is currently circulating within the school district advocating for a change to the existing policy and this petition will be presented to the leadership of Canyon School District in the near future for their consideration. Thank you so much for your time. Okay, thank you. Now Carly is up with a microphone and then Lindsay Canudson if you could come up and she is representing herself. Yes. Hi, my name is Kari Dent. I am both a parent of children in CSD and a CSD employee. Today I want to address a serious issue, Chromebooks in the classroom. While technology has the potential to enhance education, it also introduces significant risks that we cannot ignore. First, the availability of inappropriate content. Despite
061filters CSD has in place, students can easily access inappropriate harmful material that can have lasting effects. Just recently, a parent demonstrated how her child's schoolisssued Chromebook connected to CSD's Wi-Fi while on school campus provided access to explicit pornography. I have tested my own child's device as well, and with a simple search of anime girl, found disturbing content, including images of nudity and bondage. Children are naturally curious and while parents do their best to educate them, the reality is that young minds are vulnerable. The current CSD filtering system is failing and students are just a few clicks away from exposure to material that has no place in a school setting. Second, the inadequacy of content filtering. While CSD claims to have safeguards in place, they are clearly ineffective and cannot always differentiate between a search that
062is harmless but also carries underlying sexual connotations. Innocent searches like beaver or taco can quickly lead to inappropriate images of women's underwear that say I love beavers or eat my taco. I have searched those. At the same time, necessary educational resources are sometimes blocked, creating a frustrating and ineffective system. Students looking for actual information or images can access inappropriate content. And students looking for distractions can easily bypass weak filters. and those who join gen genuinely want to learn are hindered. Third, the issue of distraction. Chromebooks are not just being used for education. They have become a hub for video games, social media, and streaming services. I have personally seen students playing firstperson shooter games at school given the concerns about school violence. Why is this even possible? I also hear about students watching sporting events
063during class like the MLB draft or a BYU basketball game. This is not why we send our kids to school. Students are losing valuable class time because these devices offer endless digital distractions. We must ask, are Chromebooks truly enhancing education or are they simply an unchecked source of entertainment? We must act Canyon's district. We must implement stronger filtering systems like a whitelist or an allow list that effectively protect our students. We must implement better parent monitoring tools like securely or bark so parents can rest assured that the district is keeping children safe on Chromebooks. Technology should be a tool, not a distraction. Let's create a learning environment that prioritizes education over entertainment where students can focus on their studies without unnecessary digital temptations. Chromebooks and similar devices are not inherently bad, but they can be
064detrimental to students education if they are misused, underregulated, or used as a distraction. Chromebooks in Canyon's district are misused and they are underregulated and they are a distraction. We owe it to our students to create an environment that fosters genuine learning free from the dangers of inappropriate content, inadequate filtering, and constant distraction. Thanks. Okay, thank you. The next person then is Lindsay Kudson and then Shandra Brown if you want to come up. Ready? Um, yes. And Lindsay is representing a group. Okay. Good evening. I'm Lindsay Kudson and I began teaching third grade in 2009, the very year that Canyon School District began operating. Very exciting. I loved teaching. I loved being in the classroom. I loved my students, especially the energetic boys, which is good because now I have boys of my own. I stopped
065teaching so that I could focus on my own young children, but continued to do private tutoring for years after, specifically or in Gillingham based methods for kids with dyslexia and also study skills and homework help through secondary. By the time my oldest went to kindergarten in two uh sorry, 2017, I didn't even think twice about sending him to our neighborhood school in Canyon School District. After all, I had been in the thick of teaching just several years prior and believed it was a great place for learning and exploration for these young kids. Also, all of the teachers I knew, every single one, gave their heart and soul to teaching and I believed my son would be well taken care of. I started doing more research in the meantime of not teaching. Um during that time
066having two young boys at the time, I read books upon books and did lots of research about boys in particular and screens and felt very strongly that I wanted them to grow up in the most organic way possible in this tech world without the influence and dopamine imbalance from screens. Uh when I found out that my son was spending a significant amount of his kindergarten time doing Lexia on the iPads, I was frankly shocked. I couldn't believe that the district I left several years before transitioned to something that I didn't even recognize. In fact, I would not have been okay with the implementation of those programs if I was a teacher. I would have been willing to lose my job over it because of the research I've done. Um, Lexia caused a significant sorry significant
067anxiety for him. So, I respectfully asked him to be exempt from the iPad. His young, cute, excited kindergarten teacher was baffled. She had been promised that this was the latest and greatest program that would teach these kids how to read. Um, it's hard enough keeping this technology away from my kids at home, the gaming in particular, and then we send them to school to game. Um, and I was told, well, it's educational. It doesn't matter. The dopamine's the same. They're getting their dopamine hits from this educational tech, these apps, and it's causing a lot of problems. Um, I ended up pulling my kids out of the district and sending them to a charter school, uh, a low tech charter school for a few years. We're now back at Canyon's district. We wanted them to be
068able to go to school with their friends and, uh, people in their community. Um, what I saw immediately in my children was concerning. Their shift and attitude towards learning changed. They went from loving to learn to merely tolerating it. This is deeply sad. Education in Canyon School District has gotten less engaging and less exciting. It's harder and harder for teachers to keep kids on track. And I realize teachers are competing with the way kids are being raised as well. As someone who spent countless hours uh researching curriculum content and the use of Chromebooks in schools, I can tell you that the research is clear. These devices are not helping our kids long term. I've spoken with teachers, principles, and district administrators. And while I know that the intention is good, the reality is that the
069tech heavy approach is not working. It creates more behavioral problems, distractions, and even exposure to inappropriate content. Scores are not rising. Our kids are floundering. They're not okay. Anxietyy's through the roof. Um, sorry. I stand here today as a concerned parent and I know I'm not alone in saying that I do not want my young children to learn from screens. While technology has its place and there are certainly benefits to its integration, I believe the classroom should remain a space for real human interaction, critical thinking, and hands-on learning. Um, with limited appropriate screen time, children need face-to-face connections with their teachers, their peers, and the material that they are engaging with. I don't want my kids gaming at school, period. especially elementary aged. Uh we want our children to experience the rich well-rounded education that
070has worked for generations. An education that fosters creativity, curiosity, and deep understanding, not one driven by screens and apps. Technology should be a tool, not the foundation of their learning. As a group of concerned parents, we're urging the district to listen. We've never opted into this tech heavy approach. We want to be able to remove our children from this tech heavy approach. Um, we're not seeing evidence that these devices are making our children smarter, healthier, and happier. Families are leaving the district. I know personally many families that would love to send their kids to the neighborhood schools, but can't morally send their kids to the neighborhood schools because of this issue. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Now, Shandra Brown and then Jessica Smith will be next. And Shandra, hopefully I'm saying that right, is talking
071for herself. Yes. Hi. Yeah, Shandra Brown. Um, so obviously we're all here because we want the best education for our children. And we know that this takes all of us. It takes our teachers, the students, the parents, the administration, you guys on on the district level. Um, I know that sometimes these kind of things tend to pull seem like we're on different sides, right? But we need everyone's different perspectives coming together. Uh, I think it's so important that we are working together with as parents with teachers because we know that as we're working together, that's what's going to be best for our children. Um, and sometimes it seems that it's pitting us against each other. I am in a unique situation where I have um, six kids from kindergarten to a senior. So, I get
072to see the way that Chromebooks are implemented in all of those age groups. I'm seeing elementary school, middle school, and high school. Um, I also have very different personalities within those six kids. And I have some that honestly use their Chromebooks for what it is meant for and don't care to look at it beyond that. I have other ones that I think we all know this personality. When a screen is turned on, they're fixated on it and like you can't like take them off of it, right? Um, and those ones I it is a little more concerning and it's hard because it is so easy to to get distracted. Um, I know that I have sat on school community councils and I've watched timeless hours being spent on the concern of Chromebooks. I've observed this
073one more and I sit and listen. I see parents come in and say and I've seen parents cry saying like, "I want my kids writing on paper. I want my kids being able to um access their information on paper. I want my kids doing math on paper. I want my kids reading from books. And it's actually been really difficult to implement. I've been surprised how difficult that is. Um, and so with that perspective, I think I've watched as it's been implemented for about five years. We've had these Chromebooks, we've been able to see the benefits and the risks that come with it. When it was implemented, it was just dropped in our laps, right? And I think it was it was new to all of us. But um now we've had enough time to see
074what's happening and we're seeing a lot of great benefits like quick access to scores and how the kids are doing. But we're also seeing and honestly I saw a program my kid was working on that was phenomenal on how it pulled protons and neutrons and created different elements. I wished I had that in college. Um so obviously we know Chromebooks are amazing when they're used appropriately. With that being said, there is so many risks that we need to address because this is a new frontier and we've never seen this before. This is new for all of us. Um risks such as the extreme things that we've been seeing like access to pornography and honestly just like very concerning to me that's on a daily basis is the ability to jump to gaming. I know that
075the younger kids probably aren't as good as it at it, but my older kids like they know and I know this is a hard one for all of us because they know how to get around those filters like it's crazy, but they can jump to gaming in a split second. And the I think the hardest thing Oh, I didn't time this. But the hardest thing is that um that when they get bored or distracted or something's a little bit difficult, they can jump to that game in a split second. And so I just hope that we can use this as a tool but implement protections for our children that help um to protect our kids and create the best education possible that we all want for our kids. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Now Jessica
076Smith and then on deck we have Emily Ord. Good evening. If I had wanted a Chromebook ccentric curriculum for my children, I would have enrolled them in Canyon's virtual academy. I deeply value our teachers and hold them in the highest regard. I want my children to learn from them because teachers should always come before technology. Despite my children being on the highest level of restrictions, they remain vulnerable to pornography and are unable to complete their schoolwork. In my view, the highest restriction is not a viable solution. For years, the district has acknowledged that the issue of pornography being accessed on schoolisssued devices is very concerning. Yet, despite this repeated acknowledgement, it's clear that the district is unable to effectively manage these devices. How many children how many children have to be innocently innocently exposed to
077sexual content? And even worse, how many are now struggling with addiction to it? I often use the analogy of someone being on fire. You don't just walk by and say, "Oh, that's concerning." You act. You help get that person out of danger, even if it's just one person. But the as a district, you are literally walking by our children, watching them burn, and saying that's concerning. You have known about this issue for years, yet nothing has changed. It is time for the district to stop merely stating that it's concerning and start taking a real decisive action to protect our children. It's clear that we need a major upgrade to our filtering system. An allowed list would be more far more effective. We also need to ensure that our younger children, grades K through 5, use
078paper and pencils with age appropriate computer classes. There is absolutely no reason why they should have access to the internet at such a young age. How is it that my third grader has more access to the internet than my 40-year-old husband does at work? Shouldn't happen. Middle school should have Chromebooks available only as a classroom set, used only when necessary, and certainly not for math. I've sat with two of my children now and attempted to create a parallelogram on that teeny tiny screen on the teeny tiny graph paper. It is absolutely absurd. High school students should have more responsibility to manage their own devices, but this needs to be a progression that's appropriate for their age. Again, K through five students do not need Chromebooks. This is about using best practices, granting access only when
079necessary, and continually evaluating and improving the system. Let's not forget that we didn't always have onetoone devices in our schools. Since their introduction, Chromebooks have shown no measurable positive impact on learning. Test scores have not improved, and continued commitment to them just isn't just justified by the data. Studies have shown that children who spend more time on screens exhibit higher rates of poor behavior. At my child's elementary school, we've seen this firsthand. Behaviors have worsened significantly. Students have thrown rocks through windows, stabbed their Chromebooks with scissors, run away from school, and engaged in violent behaviors such as kicking, hitting, strangling, and harming both students and staff. We've even had to clear classrooms because of these outbursts. This is not an environment conducive to learning. Furthermore, let's not overlook the fact that enrollment in our district
080has declined. It is both naive and irresponsible to believe that none of this is connected to the Chromebook ccentric curriculum. It's time to reconsider the impact these devices h are having on our children and one and of the on the quality of their education. It seems like common sense to re-evaluate the effectiveness of Chromebooks. If they are not yielding positive results, it's time to change course. I ask that you take immediate and meaningful action to protect our children and improve their education experience. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Now, Emily Or is up and then the next person is Angela Bdon. In 2022, our superintendent wrote in the CSD newsletter that he was looking forward to quote supporting all students in their diverse learning pathways. I was so excited when I read this. To me, the
081diverse learning pathway that my kids needed was a low tech pathway. Learning with paper, pencils, and real books. I had learned from research that excessive screen time for my children was not healthy. In fact, it was rewiring their brains. I gave Canyons the benefit of the doubt during CO and complied with the onetoone Chromebook implementation. However, CO was over and I was excited for Canyons to adjust accordingly. In the summer of 2022, I met with the superintendent several times. We discussed the effects of excessive screen time and I gave him a copy of Glow Kids. We discussed solutions such as having at least one class per grade in elementary schools where children would use traditional learning me materials and have limited computer use. The families who wanted this quote low tech learning pathway would be
082served and the teachers could plan accordingly. At this time, I started serving on the SEC at Draper Park Middle School and served there for four years. We had multiple discussions of what the proper Chromebook usage was for a middle schooler. What if we had carols to store the computers at school, how they were initially intended to be used? What if there was one team that was low tech computers only used for learning computer skills, no internet access? What if we sent out a survey to parents asking them what they thought was appropriate Chromebook usage? None of these solutions were accepted at this time. I personally had requested that my sixth grader be given paper homework, especially for math class. This would have this would have been so beneficial, allowing less distractions, would have caused him
083to show his work rather than resubmitting assignments and guessing the correct answers multiple times. a much better learning pathway for our family. This request was rejected. In the fall of 2023, I was made aware that the filters at the middle school were inadequate. I made a presentation to the SEC where the principal, a member of the school board, and an a district IT employee were present. As Kari already referenced, I explained that a simple search of girl anime could retrieve explicit pictures of naked women and two men undressing each other in less than 10 clicks. As I displayed the images on the table, the council uncomfortably asked me to remove them. After this meeting, nothing was changed with the filters. I along with many other parents have brought concerns regarding appropriate Chromebook usage to the
084administrators and district members for several years now and we've also presented solutions. I believe that you the board members understand there are problems that need to be solved. However, I also understand the district gets funding for using certain software programs, certain state funding for certain software programs and the district has filtering contracts. Perhaps it's time to rep prioritize our children's health and safety and opt out of these increasing amounts of programs and get out of these contracts. Perhaps consider them a sunk cost similar to second steps. Our superintendent's goal was to support all learning pathways. What if my child's best pathway is with a pencil and paper? My sixth grader is now a six- foot tall 9th grader. The simple request for paper and pencil accommodation was never made. The time is now for Canyons
085to be bold. Make bold moves. Do what is best for our children, for all types of learners. Canyons has a big opportunity here to be a leader in Utah. Please keep the quality of our children's education high. And please keep our children safe. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, next we have Angela at the microphone and then Nancy Nichols will be the next speaker. Is she here? Oh, okay. Great. Hi, I have a degree in biology, a master's in education, and I taught in the public schools for close to 10 years. First and foremost, we are here for the kids. I taught for the kids. I'm a parent 100% for my kids. Let's help the children get the best quality and the safest education because we can. Let's all agree we are here for the
086kids. The virtual world is a very different and dare I say unexplored scary world. Teaching our children to enter this world must be approached similarly as you would to give a child to food. Just as you feed a child liquids before solids, we must correctly and slowly introduce the students into the virtual world, educating them to the appropriate material at the appropriate time. Now tell me, why do we have Chromebooks assigned to each child when the National Center on Sexual Exploitation included Chromebooks on its dirty dozen list as lacking adequate safety measures, claiming its deficiency allowed children to access explicit content on schoolisssued devices. We are quickly learning this content even on the highest restriction to which I would argue most parents are unaware they must request. Even on the highest Chromebook restriction, students can
087find explicit material in three clicks and and they can share it to anyone. So while you may be saying, "Oh, that's not my child. My child wouldn't do that." They may get it from someone else who does. I ask you, do parents know? Have we adequately informed them? Have they consented to this form of education? And I am just learning today as I've spoken to some educators, they don't even know that this is an issue. Screens trigger different areas of the brain and many argue less areas of the brain, whereas doing work on paper or reading a book triggers more areas and has proven to uh to endure a longer term memory base. Math on screens is now gamified, spiking dopamine, weakening emotional regulation and impulse control. While some may say we love the quick
088test results the program gives us, that is exactly the problem. We are taking away any opportunity for the students to be patient, self-regulate, mole over answers and wait for results or possibly look to others for methods of solving. readressing the math problems, discussing with a peer how they approach the math problem, talking with the teacher through the problem. We just took all those learning opportunities away with these screens. This usage is for a later time in the student's life, but not at age seven and in some cases earlier. While I personally would advocate to get screens out of the kindergarten through third grade, I will settle for simple filter improvements. But until then, I have essential I have an essential responsibility to keep my kids safe from the dangers Chromebooks are presenting them at this
089time. I have children from the ages of 26 down to eight. And I have had all experiences from paper and pencil down to Chromebook usage, which now I've opted my youngers out of. We can all advocate for a safer and higher quality on this team that we all are a part of. Thank you. Okay. Okay, thank you. Now, Nancy Nichols and then Jess Jessica Anderson will be the next one. I am Nancy Nichols. I am the mother of 10 children, my youngest three who are in the district right now. I'm grateful for the amazing teachers my children have had and currently have in the district. Aside from the access of inappropriate things on a Chromebook, which the district denies responsibility for in their registration materials, in and of itself alone is reason not to have
090students on them. I have never been pleased with students being forced onto Chromebooks at the time of COVID. We were told by the district that they would only be on them during the time of COVID. As far as I know, we are not still dealing with this. Correct. If not, you can have someone from the district contact me to tell me otherwise. My children have been in the public schools for 29 years, nine and a half in the Canyons district, and I will say that education has declined during that time. My older children received a much better education and learned so much more than my younger children have. My older children did better in school than my younger children are doing now. One of my children has requested that I ask that their assignments be
091on paper instead of Chromebooks. We as parents have talked to administrators asking that children who desire to receive paper assignments received them only to be told that it was would cost too much or be too much work. How many years previous to co were students taught that way without those complaints? I have documented statistics for my child on the difference Chromebooks have made. One of my children had the blessing of having an amazing fifth grade teacher during COVID who was retiring that year and refused to put her students on Chromebooks, but instead had them do packets and read books. My child's reading score increased by 300 points during that time. When that child entered middle school and was forced onto a Chromebook, their reading scores dropped and continued to drop at the beginning of each
092school year after the summers we had them reading books. My younger children who are forced to be on Chromebooks have much more difficulty focusing than my older children did. I am open to questions from members of um of the school board who would like to speak I'm sorry speak to me about my experiences. Holly Nybar is my representative and she can give you my contact information. I've been told my experience alone doesn't count unless I can find others like mine to be pres to present to the board. Many of them are here today. Thank you. The next person, Jessica Anderson, she is representing a group and then Amberlye Jeepson is next. Hello. I'm grateful for this opportunity to address you tonight. Um, in recent years, I have been an advocate for children in raising awareness
093at schoolboard meetings on issues with social emotional learning and pornography and other harmful material and library books in our school libraries. When I was alerted to this extremely important issue that we are facing with Chromebooks, Chromebook use in schools, I committed to doing all I can to help ensure the safety and well-being of the innocent children of our community. I honest was honestly shocked by how quickly and easily our children can access explicit images and videos despite claims of filtering systems that should ensure that it would be very difficult to access such things. It is anything but difficult to find pornographic content on Chromebooks distributed by canyons. My hope is that as parents, teachers, and administrators, we can agree that we want to do everything in our power to prevent our precious children from being
094exposed to pornography. I had a religious leader who is a professor of marriage and family studies relate to me an opportunity he would be having of giving a presentation to a group of professional athletes regarding the harms of pornography. I was somewhat surprised by this as I had always considered the use of pornography to be mainly a spiritual or moral issue. He proceeded to discuss with me the devastating impacts that viewing pornography has on one's ability to maintain healthy relationships and a career. I plead with you as board members to do everything in your power to help prevent our children from suffering from the debilitating effects of pornography. As far as I understand, our children are not outperforming previous generations in terms of academics. Are these Chromebooks leading to smarter, healthier, happier, more successful individuals?
095Could screen use be attributed to some of the mental health issues that we are seeing plague our children of all ages? I would encourage you to read the book, The Anxious Generation. I wonder if it could be safe to say that there may potentially be more risk than reward for the use of Chromebooks in schools. As a mother, I've had the privilege and honor of teaching my children in our home. We have focused on studies our studies mostly on beautiful literature, art, and music. We use traditional paper and pencil for math and copy work. I have read more classical literature with my children in the past three years than I was exposed to in all my years in primary and secondary education in the in the system. Works such as Tale of Two Cities, Little
096Lord Font Laoy, and Robinson Crusoe have expanded my mind and changed my heart and hopefully the minds and hearts of my children. I can confidently say that I truly believe that our children will be better off off the screens and out in nature reading beautiful books with tangible pages and writing stories, poems, and notes in neat cursive. What evidence do we have that all of the money we are spending on these devices in schools is resulting in more intelligent, well-rounded contributing members of our communities? Please consider it that it may be possible that our children would thrive being off Chromebooks in school. Please ensure that at least those who want to opt out of Chromebooks and opt for what we have been doing for generations have the ability to do so. If Jonah Varc didn't
097need a Chromebook to change the world, neither do we. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Now, Amberlye Jeepson and then Len Larson. Wait, is that right or did I Are you Amber? I'm Amberly. Okay, I just jumped up. Okay, perfect. I I'm here to speak um to this digital safety like lots of people have have um before me. um my creative mind this past week as thinking about this topic and how my world converges on lots of different things um just just had this idea and I just wanted to kind of go with it. Um today I I have kids that range from age 21 years old to to six years old. Um, so I have raised two almost I guess Gen Z kids and um these are the kids that have been highly affected by
098the iPhone that came out in 2007 and the screens that started um being transported everywhere with our kids whether they were on laptops or or phones. Um I struggled with so many things um starting off with when that first happened with those two kids and and kind of watched and did the best I could as a parent. We're all doing the best we can when new things, right, are coming out. Um, so I I now have I now have 13 to six years old, seventh, fifth, 3rd, first grade, and I'm watching all of this research kind of get compiled. It's been years and years now. Um, I I I have had, you know, conversations with my 21-year-old who has actually come face to face with um a pretty pretty severe anxiety at at some for
099some years in his life. I've dealt with anxiety and I know how that feels. So, my heart aches achd for him dealing with it. and and now we are seeing that this is like a a thing that's that's happening when these kids are being raised as a phone-based generation instead of a play-based generation. Um I I have had conversations with my 13-year-old daughter who chose a topic in her ELA class of speaking about how how screens affect um your emotional, mental, psychological health. And I helped her do some research about that. And at the same time as um a group of good friends were all reading this book together um the anxious generation that Jessica actually just cited. We had no I didn't know she was going to prep that for me right now. Um
100um and and so this daughter as she did this research has like her she's a seventh grader right I eyeopening as far as her realizing well yeah like when I sit in math and I can't do my math on the screen and I get frustrated that's like a real thing and look mom the people the researchers are saying that's actually not the best way to do it anyways so she has like like opted out of taking her phone with her anywhere she goes like like like all of a sudden I'm seeing an own child make her own choice, which is awesome when children are educated, when they get to that age and they can make their own decisions. Um, I picked her up from a sporting event just this afternoon and I said, "I am
101running to a district meeting really quick." And she's like, "Oh, mom. Oh my gosh." And and she said, "This is what you're going to say." And I'm like, "Are you asking me something or telling me something?" She said, "You are going to tell them that we do not need to be on our Chromebooks as much as we're on our Chromebooks." And I she had no idea what I was what what I was doing. So, this was my idea. I have purchased five copies of this book. If you have not read it or listened to it on Audible, it is I I highly recommend it. I I know a lot of people are saying that right now. Um, the other book that I will give a little insight into is this darling book about Mary who
102does five good deeds and then those five people all do five good deeds and it just happens to be that I have five books today to share and at the end in 16 days 30 billion517 million50 578,25 people have been touched from the impact of sharing information that we believe strongly in the end. Okay. So, thank you. Um, is Len Larson here? Oh, great. And she is representing herself. I'm representing Well, just friends. We're all in this together. But, um, sadly, these are my notes. I didn't prepare like a formal. Um, I'm going to start off with just this one quote from one of my favorite books. um an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior that is written by Victor Frankle who wrote Man's Search for Meaning which he was a Holocaust
103survivor and his entire book was about basically the nature of good and evil. And so I told my kids I've got five um my oldest is on a mission and I've got two that I took out of canyons and put over at APA which I sub I I really just am doing this to see the contrast which I can talk for hours just about that. Um, there's a lot I could talk about, but um, back up. When my my oldest son was 13, um, we caved in to give him his first iPhone. And lucky for me, I was able to attend Colin Ker seminar about six months after I was watching my son get sucked into this thing. And I started putting filters on and giving him, it became a real problem because I saw
104my brighteyed little boy get trapped in this little box of a a phone. And so I went to Colin Kartner's seminar and it was an eye openener. Um I took his phone away and I'm like I didn't realize how much our kids are under attack and this was back in 2017. Um per his suggestion I went and bought this book. I've read it probably five times now. Um, but I'm going to just open up to the one section where it talks about follow the money. And this one this one thing he says the story of technology in the classroom is a fascinating one. As the story, it has all the elements of a real page turner. Greed, corruption, betrayal. However, it's more than just a story. It's the real life betrayal of our children by
105a combination of greed, incompetence, and ego. Um, and I prepared a document. If anyone wants it, just email me. how the money train works because I've spent the last since 2020 I've read so many books and the money train and it's really we're fighting something that's so much bigger than this because the corporations own our government and it trickles down. So as parents, we come to you, we pour our hearts out. I've been here many times before. I've written all of you so many emails. I I feel like we're begging to stop abusing our children. That's how I feel. I'm begging you to stop abusing our children because these books tell us through and through the Chromebooks, the screen time, it creates addictions, rewires their brains. It's a dopamine loop. It It's hacking into their
106brains. It's a permanent I'd rather my kids smoke and drink all through high school because I know their bodies can heal. Brains don't heal the same way. It's permanent brain damage. They've done so much testing on this. Blue lights, the blue light damage. um putting our kids into a hypnotic state where they're not engaging anymore. Um I know I don't have a lot of time, but um I just want to read to you something that happened to my son. So 2020, we got these new shiny Chromebooks and I had a really awful feeling about it because I know they've been trying to push these things. This book was written in 2016 and he was already talking about the Chromebooks. They needed a way to get them in all the kids. So this was an ongoing
107thing. It wasn't like 2020 suddenly there's a need for Chromebooks. They've been trying to get them in schools. These are the technology companies. So, it was a perfect opportunity. So, um my son came home, this was 2022, with these words on his Chromebook. There was a little funky um anime icon and he's like, "Mom, I don't know what this is. Can I open my screen and have you click on it with me?" And I don't know how many kids have seen these same images without a mom or dad sitting next to them, but um are there kids in the room? Yeah, your time is up too, but I will I'll allow you to Okay. And I have images, too. Um I won't say all the words, but they're so disturbing. I had to go look.
108I have never I'm a very happy married woman, and I know a lot of things, but these words, I've never heard these words before. and the images attached to the words and the links went on and on and on. So, I went to Chip Watts at Draper Park Middle. This was in 2022. And I spent over an hour with him. And the tech guy, Matt, they were so nice, but they basically told me after an hour, there's really no way around this. It's going to happen. My kids don't have technology. We don't have Netflix. We don't have any of that. Um, I send my kids to school so that they get an education, not introduced to pornographic material. And by saying there's we need to get better filters. I'm saying no to that because I
109know from above that the corporations, they keep it's like a snake with many heads. You cut off one head, there's another. It's like the problem is go back to old school at APA. We don't have Chromebooks. They we we we follow words with our fingers. They cursive write. The kids love school. The teachers, there's two teachers in every classroom. I would love to get all of you in touch with Carolyn Sheret because going back to old school, the kids are thriving there. I don't know why Chromebooks were even introduced, but it's not helping our kids and it's destroying their um ability to think and imagine and be creative and be independent thinkers. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Okay, that um concludes our patron comment and I just want to thank all of you
110for being here and we appreciate hearing from you guys today. Okay, the next item on our agenda is um approving the consent agenda for today. So, I will now take a motion and please read each item individually. I move that we approve the consent agenda with items A, approval of minutes for March 4, 2025. B approval of hire and termination reports. Item C, approval of student overnight travel. Item D, approval of purchasing bids. Item E, approval of February financial reports. And item F, approval of administrative appointments. Okay. Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second it. Speak me to it. You're good. Uh, have Mrs. Dolly do that. Um, okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion to that motion? Okay, seeing none,
111I'll call for a vote. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes unanimously. Okay, we're now on to the new business and item A is information technology security update and Superintendent Rick Robbins will be presenting this. Thank you, President Schill. I don't know if I'm more nervous tonight than I was in my first college football start. So, um, it tells you, uh, just about where I'm at in thinking about this, uh, very serious, uh, issue that's been, uh, brought to us. And um I just appreciate uh all of the feedback and and I've met with many uh parents that are here with us tonight um uh over the years and just and thinking back and reflecting uh about uh this very issue and and the many different voices uh and opinions
112and perspectives uh that that are involved. Um, and uh, I I think one thing that I really, and I've been in many different school districts over my career, but uh, the one thing that that really uh, stands out in Canyon School District is this great partnership that that we have. And I I truly appreciate the fact and I I go back to our pandemic days, not trying to create more um PTSD for us all, but but um the fact that parents and constituents uh feel safe enough to come to board meeting and express uh their opinions and to and and and it it really is a team effort that this is not uh anything that's going to be solved in in isolation. And I appreciate the comments about uh working together and collaborating uh together.
113And um over the 5 years that I've been here, there's been many charged issues that we've had uh very very intense uh disagreements from all walks of life um and different uh places. uh but uh I really respect and appreciate that uh this is a place that we can gather uh that we can we can talk through these issues and that we can uh find solutions. So just want to say thank you to all of our parents that that are here and sharing their uh thoughts on this. So um there there's no uh there there's no secret that um filtering systems uh with technology have their issues. There is no infallible uh system. And so I'm just going to call out the issue in my opinion for for what it is. And that is uh
114one uh keeping our students as safe as possible. to uh protecting uh our students access and opportunity uh to learn and uh technology really, you know, when it comes down to the why uh thinking about the size of our classrooms uh in Utah and really trying to empower our teachers with tools uh to leverage the best possible learning uh I think you know all things uh are to be considered including uh non technology solution. solutions and as I'm out in schools uh I see many many times daily our teachers uh using consumables and instructing without uh technology. Having said that uh it is part of our technology is part of our ecosystem. It is used uh for certain uh strategies to help improve learning. So um again just talking about the importance of partnering with
115uh with our parents and and a little bit of a history uh over the last five years and there's we'll talk about this a little bit later and I appreciate the mention about uh our uh technology connection portal uh it really does in my opinion empower individual parents uh to to be in control of the level of filter. Now, the debate about whether or not uh you know we we look at an uh allowable only list. Um that's that's why, you know, we're here to talk about that, what that might look like and is it tiered, is it by level, is it uh for all levels. Uh but there are still ways that I think we can continue to to improve. But you can see on this slide um the ways that parents are able
116to uh have control uh and autonomy in making those decisions. And I just pulled a little bit of data from our TCP uh connection um portal. In the last 6 months, we've had 178 uh parents request uh a group change. So they've meaning some of them have requested more access and some of them have have requested uh stricter filtering over the last six months. Also uh 164 parents have requested to receive the inappropriate uh search report. So a student makes an inappropriate search uh that will kick a report to a parents and they're able to to uh view that. Um and that's also reported to our administrators in our in our schools to uh discipline or work with our students. U in that time we've had 134 uh requests from parents to review uh several
117uh websites and uh just to that point I I I want to give a shout out and a thank you to our IT team. uh this is a very thankless uh job and um a very difficult job and what we're asking them to do basically right now when it comes to as far as the the choices we have uh the two that I'm aware of that that are available to us that we feel like are the best option is content filter and iboss I've heard that maybe there are other filters out there I'm certainly open and interested uh if there are platforms that are better. Um, email them to me. Uh, if we if we need to make a change, we certainly can do that. But, um, just in the last few weeks, the list
118of, uh, websites and searches that our IT engineers, which by the way, uh, it it's many people, we're talking probably 10 engineers working on this basically around the clock. I don't know that you can go down to Best Buy and buy a platform or a box filter uh for your private system that would match the amount of manpower and hours dedicated uh to this very issue. Uh not only are they uh looking at that uh by the hour, but they meet weekly uh under the direction of Assistant Superintendent Robinson uh to review all these requests that come in from parents. So we we need that feedback. we need that help. If you come across something that's inappropriate, please uh send it our way. Uh and then one other aspect uh to the uh portal that's
119been very helpful is well two things. Uh one is is that you're able to actually see uh log in and use time. Now is that a perfect metric? No. It records the minute that Chromebook is even slightly open. So um you know it it may not be uh as much in that report as it actually is occurring but at least it you know it gives us and parents a a viewpoint to to see exactly how much uh time our students are on Chromebooks which coming out of the the pandemic those of you that remember um I I think we did get reliant on Chromebooks and technology uh probably uh too much you know too much reliance in during the pandemic. I I don't think that's any uh secret. Uh we you know we had to
120shut down schools and provide some level of education right or wrong. We can always you know we can look back at that and and maybe we would do things different but uh that that was our our best uh approach at at delivery at that time. Since that time, uh, we've really moved away from, uh, or encouraging and supporting, uh, using Canvas as an original platform for content creation. During the pandemic, I I think, you know, frankly, we got very good at building Canvas shells uh, for students to engage while they they weren't in school. And uh I think since that time we've really pulled that back and directed teachers to only use Canvas as a as a reference or a resource but not to use it as uh an original source of content. And and
121I think to the point that was made uh by one of our parents is that that you know what we do want our students engaging with teachers. It's it is that relationship. All of us remember uh the relationships we had with our teachers and great coaches and people that affected our our lives and that that was not uh through technology. Uh but in this day uh the way that our students learn and engage uh there there is a place uh for that in that ecosystem. Uh lastly I just want to u mention so in the last six months along that report we've had 45 requests uh from parents to uh log in to look at use time as well as another feature uh to our uh canyons our our uh technology portal. It does report
122any searches of self harm. So, if we have students that maybe are searching anything about suicide or violence or anything of the sort, uh we had,449 of those uh reports um that that were uh reported to parents so that they could act in a timely manner. So, these are just a few uh additional steps that we've we've kind of talked about already. Won't go through all those. uh it was u mentioned uh by uh comments tonight with our parents and and I think it's a great idea. We are looking into a uh implementation of Bark or something similar uh that would help us continue to monitor Google accounts and emails and files uh for this type of behavior that we can um you know add an additional uh layer to that. again mentioning just the
123uh technology connect portal that started in 2023. Um you can see there we're up to over 500 sites have been uh reviewed. Um and just for me I don't want to speak for the team that makes those reviews. I think virtually we've blocked all of those um accounts that have that have come to us. And then um just on the the time that's spent on Chromebooks, uh we asked our administration to go out and this was part of our high quality uh um uh group or committee, but to go out and really, you know, just hands-on look at what's happening in the classrooms. um because we wanted to make sure that you know was there alignment with what we're actually seeing uh in our data report and our usage report is that aligning to what's
124actually happening uh in in the classroom and you know when you look at our report this is as of yesterday currently right now the average minutes per day in our elementary schools which we all know um that we don't send Chromebooks home so this is you know during that space of time during the day but the average use is 39 minutes. The median is 31 minutes. Um, and that that ramps up in our uh high school and middle schools. Um, which this is over a 24-hour period. So, where Chromebooks go home with our students in the junior high and the uh or middle schools and high schools. Uh in our uh middle schools, it ramps up to uh 96 minutes uh average daily over 24 hours, 86 minutes median. Our high schools actually drop down
125to 76 minutes uh average use daily and 57 uh minutes median. So, and that's what I see uh when I'm out in our classrooms. Uh I see teachers working hard to move away from technology use uh and more uh direct instruction uh and engagement. Um so thinking about a few options and what we can do, right? And I I I really appreciate the point made tonight that we are all here for our students. we're we're united in that purpose and trying to find the very best solutions we can to support our students. Um, a couple of things that I would recommend uh as immediate uh action by the board or this could be administrative. One is to really hone in on this um concept of free time or free use. Now, what that looks like
126um you know people have asked is that lunchtime, is that before school? Is that you know um before class? Is it you know uh fast finishers? They they get done with an assignment. But uh I I think there are spaces and places for us to say um when those opportunities arise that Chromebooks are put away that it's an opportunity to read a book, to write a note, to talk to your neighbor, um to do something other than uh you know opening a Chromebook. and how that's determined. You know, that's something maybe the board we can talk about that. Uh, one of the one of the issues that we have found in a weakness in the system that I would recommend as an immediate uh change is to look at blocking the media file share filtering
127category. Um, this is a place where there are websites that are sophisticated that appear as as media fileshare to the uh filter that are not that you once you get into a site like this, then there's an an additional uh search engine uh that that you can pull up inappropriate material. So the challenge with that is uh obviously if we're blocking uh media files uh fil or media share uh filtering category then you're also looking at canvas you're looking at Google docs um uh you're looking at drive so those would have to be added back uh but at least to start for sure at the elementary level uh I think if we put a block on on that category that would greatly reduce some of the access to inappropriate materials and we can talk more
128long-term uh solutions in the process that that I'm sharing with you tonight that you may maybe we come back in April to look at that as well. And then um just continuing to provide you know more education and and uh regular updates on digital citizenship. uh we we need all of us to engage this and you know I appreciate uh all the work that's done at the district level. You know we can certainly do more and and we will uh could we do more at the SEC level? Uh certainly um part of the SEC uh charge and responsibility is to help develop uh uh digital citizenship plan and you know maybe there's some room there to talk about autonomy for some sitebased decisions. So, uh, these are three immediate, uh, things that I think we
129could take action on, um, that that would I think would really, uh, help this issue. Um, and then a little bit about content keeper. Um, you know, uh, these are just some of the the features, uh, that work. And I'm not I know enough to be dangerous, so I don't want to get too deep in the weeds about what Content Keeper uh, won't or will do. I'm I'm learning by the day and trying to be more of an expert in this area. Uh and I really appreciate Scott and his team and in what they do. I think, you know, going forward and long term, uh the question around potentially that's been brought up about an allowable list uh is a is a real option. and you know, do we do we shut down uh elementary
130student accounts um you know, from maybe 400 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and then parents opt in? So, it would kind of change the the model uh of how we do things, but that that still gives parents autonomy, but it also would be uh much more restrictive in what uh apps or websites that that students can access. So, um the process and I I I just want to talk about uh why and I know for some people um this is frustrating and it feels like it's you know that it's slow that these gears aren't going fast enough. But I also think we do have to consider all voices and um when you're thinking about you know the why why is it important that we get voices from all uh corners of the district uh one is
131is that the a chrome a chromebook for a student can be a window to the world and uh I I was looking at some data and I don't I don't know how updated this is but we have nearly 80,000 ebooks checked out on sora and destiny every year uh to students and uh for a lot of students that is their window uh into the world to to read and to learn. Um when you think about the projects that our students are doing um it it's f it's just amazing the the great things that that are that are out there. So there there is you know there is a place uh for uh technology to be present and for our students to to learn from it. how we find that sweet spot and that balance uh
132is is important. And so having said that, I think it's important that that all uh voices in the district are heard. And I'm I'm recommending we've already talked with our principles that uh this go out to these questions go out to our SEC's, they go out to our building leadership teams. Um and I think it's fully transparent uh that there are issues with our filtering system. there's there's nothing here that's to hide or to to hold back. Um I as has been said, we we want to do the right thing uh for our students. And so getting that feedback uh back to the board um within the next couple of weeks so that we have um you know, everyone has that opportunity to weigh in. But you can see there kind of going back to
133what I was suggesting before uh really you know how do people feel about no change? So right now it's currently uh the option for parents uh to go to a more restrictive setting. Uh second, we could look at as I mentioned uh putting on the highest restrictive level all day uh for for our elementary students and if you wanted to consider beyond that, you certainly have that prerogative to do so. And then third, uh, looking at, uh, being put on the highest restrictive level or even an allowable list, uh, where, uh, parents would be able to opt in. I know, sorry, I'm losing my voice. Where parents would be able to opt in um, to whatever uh, level they want. So, that would be flipped from what our current practice is, but that may be
134something to consider. So, and then you can see that questions posed there uh on the side. So, that's the information that we have out. Uh that's the process that we're following and then we'll get that feedback back and then we can have more discussion. And you can see here uh just what I just explained. This is the process uh that that we're we're collecting that uh information on right now as we speak. Okay. Um Lord, just for your information, so this is not something we would vote on, but if we want to take those immediate actions, um we I mean I can just we can give the administration direction. So we can just say we want to take um those immediate steps. So um we can discuss that and Mrs. Nybar, we'll start with Mrs.
135Nyar. Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation and thank you for listening and and your efforts, Dr. Robinson. And I know that uh as our superintendent and your administrative power, you're looking at trying not to get ahead of the board with these slides and looking at what we are determining. I I want to read to you in our policy that we adopted on March 4th about board governance. It is the policy of Canyon School District Board of Education to establish, protect, and promote student learning and school success. exercise all its statutory powers, obey all relevant laws and regulations, and conform to the highest ethical standards. Just as I believe that it is our duty and our responsibility as board members to make sure that our schools are safe for our kids and a
136safe learning environment, we don't send out to the SEC's what our policies should be about keeping our doors locked during school hours, how people need to enter and be signed in, background checks, all those things. Those are things that we have established in our policies. I I really appreciate parent input and I absolutely believe we need to get parent input, but I also think we we need to think about as as our duty and our responsibility as board of education members that we're looking at how best to protect our students. Having said that, when I look back at one of those slides and it says um could we go back to the slide about um responsible governance, I just want to talk to my fellow board members for a minute here about responsive governance. If
137we're looking at our responsive governance is to begin a process of reviewing whether or not we should have a district-wide restriction of websites in the elementary school. If I'm a concerned parent here today whose child stumbled onto pornography, that would be very disappointing and discouraging to me. Are we looking at beginning the process of reviewing whether or not we should do a change in elementary school or not? If you look at the slide previous, it says our estimated Chromebook time in elementary school is 39 minutes. I actually uh went to a faculty meeting of one of the elementary schools I represent and said,"I want to know teachers, how would you feel if we had um only certain websites allowable and everything else off?" And does anyone have a problem with that? And not one of
138the teachers did in the whole elementary school. In fact, I had four teachers come up to me afterwards and say, "I would love that. I would really appreciate that. I don't use very many websites." I think that when we're I think that A possible thing to consider would be immediate action to just go ahead and say, "Hey, at elementary school, let's just have allowable." Now, we can look and see at what the teachers are using for websites, but I don't know why we wouldn't consider that when the average screen time is 39 minutes. That shouldn't be affecting their day very much. And clearly, we all know the foundational principle. It's not elementary school kids that are on Destiny. they're being they they're learning how to read and and books on audio really shouldn't be too
139much a part of their world yet at that time. Hopefully, it's mom and dad reading to them. So, I think that's something we really need to consider and I think that's responsible governance as we're looking at how to keep our elementary school students safe. Um, I also think any elementary school teachers, we're we're focusing right on on hands-on learning, fine motor skills, foundational teaching blocks with reading and writing and math. And just like our our kids aren't allowed to have their Chromebooks sent home with them at elementary school. I we all have elementary school kids. I have two of them, right? We their homework is paper. I think we also need to look about why don't we just go ahead and say student accounts are turned off after school hours because we're never giving them
140homework that's on a screen in the elementary school age level and if parents want it they could opt into it. But I love the idea of saying, "Hey, all student accounts are shut down after school hours because that's not how their homework's coming anyways." I think it just makes common sense. That's a approach that we could do immediately to help an elementary school. Um, one thing um that I wanted to talk about is is when we are talking about the reports of how many parents are asking about filter levels. We had 45 parents um asking about screen time usage. I think I know personally more than 45 parents who were concerned about how often their kids are on screen times. So, I think that reporting mechanism tells me that we need to do more as
141far as um partnering with parents to let them know what's out there and what options there are for them to to look at what their kids are doing. I love the idea of the filters that parents can access. Do you want me to I'll just wait once you guys are done? I don't want to be speaking and you're not listening, so I'll just wait. Are you guys done? Okay. Um, I think that I think that um I'll I'll just repeat just in case you didn't hear. There were there were only 45 parents that were asking about um how much screen time their kids had. And I I think that tells me because I personally know more than 45 parents that worry about how much their kids are on screens at home. I think that that
142tells us what more can we do to partner with parents. And I think one of those things that that Rick mentioned and a parent did to get a filter system that parents can monitor from home. Um, one experience that I obviously um the devastating effects of pornography have been mentioned a lot tonight and I appreciate all the parents that came out. That's a real danger. I've sat in I've sat here at Canyoneering Night where we had some great presenters that were um talking about um predators and all of the things that happen online and on screens. And I think that's something we need to we need to look at. Um I what was I I had something else I wanted to say about um oh the filtering. So, with parents knowing what's going on, one
143thing we haven't discussed is the ability for kids to cheat during testing, that's something that was mentioned to us a few years ago in board meeting. I was just talking to a parent just the other day. She was logged into her student account. He's at Draper Elementary, um, fifth grader, and and on the student account came, "Hey, what's the answer to number three on the test?" And she was like, I was just watching it like, "I hope my my son doesn't answer this." He didn't, but then it kept coming o from other students requesting answers to questions part of the DI program and um the Chinese DI program there. So, she immediately emailed the teacher. So, I think we've got to I I love the idea for the share file to be blocked, but I
144think that we need to have I mean, that's a a a very um engaged mom that has time and resource and knowledge to be aware of what's happening on her students account. But again, I think that that parent piece that all parents can have that access. Um, when you talk about um listening to the voices that aren't here and aren't speaking, I think there's a lot of a lot of um a lot of families that that you know are maybe unaware of some of these issues and don't maybe have the bandwidth or time um to dedicate to this. And so I think um allowing better access for parents to filter should be a step we really consider immediately. Third thing is I think we need to form a subcommittee and not a subcommittee that means
145put it out to pasture but means really dive deep and look and say what is the statistical evidence? Are we helping or harming our kids? Should we should we is is screen usage is it that imperative to learning in in grades K through three? Obviously, we just had this amazing um meeting just barely a round table discussion about the innovation center. We know we want to create pathways for technology and AI and all these things, but then we would need to backwards map. Obviously, technology it's ubiquitous. this is the world they live in, but are we using it to its best um its best usage and when do we need to introduce it? I think a subcommittee to really look at that. I know when we were at a a meeting just two years ago
146at Draper Park Middle School, we had a a parent who's in the tech industry and he said, "Hey, actually, as far as introducing tech, I would do it a different way. I would implement it differently. There's all these skills that the kids could be learning at the middle school level." So, I'm not I'm not um trying to be a proponent of eliminating everything alto together, but I think we need to look at backwards mapping and make sure we're being we're doing the best practice as far as when to implement it. And I'd be really interested in having a subcommittee um where we have parent input and board members and ISD and other chairs to really look at at what we can do there. Um, I know that we have other districts and other competing school
147systems, charter schools and private schools that are doing it entirely differently and I think we really need to look at it in a in a deeper dive. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Nymar. Mr. Edel, so I appreciate everyone's dedication. It's obviously past bedtime and you're still here. Uh, so that says something. Uh, speaking of the voices that aren't here, I did want to bring one up. Uh, I had a great conversation this afternoon about Chromebooks with middle schools. So, I know tonight focused a lot on elementary, but I wanted to bring up uh, middle school for just a second and the concept of a potentially tiered approach as we go through um, devices, right? where you've got most restrictive in elementary and then kind of like a lot of middle children or middle school
148in general. Middle school is often forgotten and lumped in with secondary school. Um and then we've got high school uh where we're really preparing the kids to be adults but middle schoolers are not high schoolers. And so, uh, I just wanted to highlight that difference, um, and to bring to all of our attention, um, that concept to think about, um, and to bring into discussions with our committees, um, as we have continuous discussions on technology. Obviously, um, the discussions tonight, the discussions tomorrow aren't going to be it. Um, our discussions on technology are going to are going to go on indefinitely, forever and ever as the technology evolves, as we continue to evolve with the technology. Um, but, uh, I just wanted to to bring that up uh, with the tiered approach and, uh, to
149bring that into our discussions. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Oaks. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, I appreciate your presentation and a lot of the ideas. I agree a lot with what's been said. I especially appreciate Miss Nyber's comments. Um I have some and also Mr. Edles, I think you're right, a tiered approach is critically important for middle schoolers. So in the last couple of weeks since this um our last board meeting, I've um learned even more about the situation with tech here. Um asked a lot of questions. I've been doing a deeper dive on a lot of things and um and a a couple things I I want to point out and ask about. One of my questions is when we follow the minutes or the number of minutes that kids are logged in,
150does that apply if kids are using a hotspot or a VPN at all? I mean, is that the same kind of data that we're getting? I I don't Yeah, I know. enough to be dangerous, but maybe Scott can help us with that one. So, so, uh, a hotspot or a VPN, if it's used at school, um, it's going to act just as if it was on a home network. And so, that time does count the the time that the device was logged into any network, whether it's a hotspot, VPN, home network, or hours. Okay. So, the data that we're getting would include if they're actually routing onto their own cell phone hotspot. Okay, that's helpful for me to know. Um, another piece that I learned is that students are using CSD off as like as
151their Wi-Fi. Is it possible for us to do a complete reset on that password and only allow it to faculty? I I I'm just wondering. I mean clearly over time the kids have gotten access to that password and being able to figure out or maybe some sort of a regular pattern where that has changed so they don't have access to it I think would be useful. I don't know if that's a possibility. So CSD O is actually the network we want students and oh that you want them on. Okay. The O stands for authenticated which means that we know who they are and we can filter them appropriately. Okay. So, we actually force the Chromebooks if they're at school to be on CSD off. That's the one they should be on. That's the one that
152they should be on. We also have uh Canyon Air and Guest, which are are uh not where we want students or staff. Those are not authenticated. We don't know who they are. But a student at the district uh at the school will be forced to off. they can go in and mimic as if they were at home with a hotspot or a a a phone. Um, and one of the recommendations that I would make long term would be to stop a student from doing that at the elementary school. Force them to CSD off when they're on our site. Okay. Um, just one other point with that, Amanda, real quick, Scott, and I if I get this wrong, but um, part of the issue with guest network is a private device logging in with a student
153account on guest network is not filtered as much as O. Correct. That is correct. Okay. So, so I think there are some misconceptions that the Chromebooks, the district Chromebooks are always filtered. A district account. If I log in as a a student account on a private device at home, that gives access. I'm sorry. Speak into the microphone. So, we'll get that on the record. I apologize. I'll I'll backtrack. So, um let me let me think where I was at. So, some confusion about access and filtering. So that the district account, if a student logs in to a private computer on a private network using the district account, that is not going to be filtered. We we don't have access to that private computer. We don't have access to that private network. We are not filtering
154that. We are giving access through that account. And that access could be things like uh read 180 or or uh the different applications CSD docs would be accessed and that will come on a private device on a private network. Uh but the filtering will happen on a district network or on a district device or on a private Chromebook logged in with a district login. Okay. And I think that's something that a lot of parents might not know that when they are at home, even though their child didn't bring home a Chromebook, but they say they have to go in and check Canvas or Skyward. Um which I have kids that miss a lot of details. We got ADHD in our house. So, we quite often have to go to Canvas and Skyward. But that at
155that point, it's not it's not filtered. If it's on my private computer, if it's on your private computer, it's up to my filtering system. If it's on on your private computer, on your private network, uh we can't we can't filter that. Okay. But we can grant access to the software to the different applications that a student may need which I think is useful for more parents maybe to be aware of. I think um that's that's one piece. Another thing is that I have learned recently from my son's friends is that with land school it is possible for them to pull up more than one website at a time. and sometimes that's what they're doing in order to avoid eyes from the teacher and getting in trouble. Um, so you know that there's there's a lot
156of these bits and pieces. This is one place where I'm getting to like I fully support the idea of us having a subcommittee. And yes, this is not setting out to pasture. I actually would really like to have a subcommittee not just of district admin board members but parents parents who have some of the most profound concerns here and um teachers. Now the teacher voice is a piece of this that I think we have to be considerate of. I know that there might be some teachers who are really okay with this. I've been hearing from others who aren't. Um I had a first grade teacher who reached out to me in great alarm lots of concern. Um, her comments were actually quite heart-wrenching because she said, "It feels like parents are so suspicious of us
157and we're trying really hard and this is how we're trying to figure out how to help these kids individually. We've got to get some teacher feedback." Now, I'm not saying that that doesn't mean we whitelist because maybe they do need to use certain um pieces of technology in the classroom for small pieces of time and maybe those are the things that are whitelisted. But we do need some more information, I think, before we do something extreme. Um, but by way of background and and I think it's important for me to share this, my background, I have five children. My eldest is 21 and my youngest is 12. And like some of you have expressed, when um smartphones came out, I had a gut feeling that this could be a really problematic thing. I didn't allow
158my kids to have access to video games, any social media, and um I would tell my kids all the time, you keep looking at screens, your brain's going to turn to mush. We had this conversation a lot. Um before I ever became a board member, I started to work a lot with Dr. Christy Kane. Um she was kind of a a contemporary of um of Kchner and Colin Kartchner. and she was a a clinical psychologist that had done a deep dive on research about the brain and technology and um worked with the district to bring her to come and present to some of our schools. Um now safety is absolutely an important issue and consideration in all of this and I understand this very much from a parents perspective. There's also other pieces at play
159and that and it comes down in part to some of what we we got feedback from with the community when we were building our strategic plan. Now the strategic plan was developed what year was that superintendent? 202122. Yeah. Right in the middle of the pandemic. So we put out um feelers to the entire community, parents, students, teachers, faculty, admin and also members of um industry and so much great information came back and one of the biggest pieces was that we have to personalize education and ability. So whether that's kids that are extremely advanced or gifted or those that are special education or have disabilities which now comprise about 15% of our population. Um how does a teacher do that? Especially in recent years when we've had a lot of multilanguage level learners move into the
160district and teachers are trying to figure out how to differentiate and address all of those respective levels. So, um the other thing is the high quality learning um portion of our strategic plan. This is actually my favorite part. And when we were developing this, I got so excited. I love so much of what these parents had to say about doing hands-on learning, joyful learning, outside learning. If you go and you look at their strategic plan for the district, this is something that it addresses a lot. the importance of having hands-on learning with STEAM, not just with STEM, but incorporating the arts. So, arts integration, this has been a huge priority for me as a board member because children absorb learning through the arts faster than practically anything else out there. It it takes it deep
161into them in ways that just blow your mind. Um, being able to do learning outside, being do hands-on. I personally am a huge proponent of having an more recess. I think every elementary school child should have at least three recesses today, but that's I'm just one of seven. Um there's there's a lot to this. Now, with that said, I also recognize some of the things like Miss Nar mentioned that are coming. Artificial intelligence is already here and all of the information that we are receiving from industry leaders and from educational leaders that are on the forefront are warning us that if we do not prepare children in understanding how to meaningfully use AI, they will not be prepared for the workforce. I'm going to give you an example of that. So I come I'm a
162lawyer. I come from the legal profession and what they are seeing is that the law firms that are incorporating AI in their use of their preparation of legal work are able to let go of 75% of their parallegal staff and the 25% that they are keeping are the ones who understand how to write a meaningful prompt or what to look for and understand how to edit 80% of work in that just that's one example of many many that I'm hearing about can be done by AI, but the 20% that will distinguish a worker from being able to hold on to that job is whether or not they understand how to use it. So, if we walk away from that completely, we are sending your kids out into a a world where they're going to be
163illprepared to know how to navigate it. So, that's there's also these pieces that we are aware of that we're watching on the horizon or at our front doorstep, right? Um, with that said, I want to make like something one of the parents said earlier, I I underlined this and I I totally agree with it. Technology should be a tool, not a foundation for learning. There is a profound difference of using technology as a meaningful tool. Example, when we were talking about our robotics teams, right, that competed over the weekend, those teams are amazing. I had two of my children participated in private robotics teams, Lego League teams, and they had to have technology in order to be able to program the robots to move and and accomplish certain tasks. But it was an extremely meaningful
164use of technology, and there was no zoning out at all. In fact, they were using it creatively. So when we use it as a creator rather than as a consumer, that is where the distinguishing characteristic takes over. Now there is a lot I've done lots of deep dives on this. There are education models that do this really well and then there are others that don't. Um, just as the superintendent mentioned, I'm on the high quality learning committee was on it with Miss Neyber and Miss Schill last year. And when we got feedback from parents about Chromebook use, that was we came to the administration and we said, "We need you to get these kids off of Chromebooks, get them more hands-on learning. Let's please see what's happening." Okay. They really did a big push with
165the high schools, middle, and elementaryaries. And the principles were tasked with going past the classrooms on a regular basis and actually telling what they were seeing. I had principles that asked me to come anytime I wanted to come and observe myself. And what I saw I was really pleased with. There was huge improvement being made. Similar to the improvements and tightening of restrictions and trying to give parents different options. we really have actually been trying some things parents may not be aware of but there's been a lot going on behind the scenes and where I'm getting to with that is um we do have some meaningful technologies I'll give you one example like if we're looking at dual language immersion for instance all five of my children have done Chinese immersion there is an app
166called Mandar Matrix that actually helps kids record themselves and speak Chinese and get direct direct feedback immediately in a way that one single teacher cannot in a classroom. That to me is a meaningful use of technology and but that's not the same as a child zoning out on something without teacher supervision. Right? So this is where me personally, I think that this could be a wonderful opportunity for Canyons to really lead out on how to utilize technology more meaningfully with input and feedback from the community as a whole and our teachers. It has to be a group effort and it can't ignore any one particular voice. Um, but I think we can do better and I think it can prepare us better for the advancements that are coming. So, I apologize for how long-winded that
167is. This is something I actually have been passionate about for a very, very long time. And I appreciate the parents that have come and shared your perspectives. Um, your kids are lucky that you care so much about them and their education and we are here to partner with you and make this better. So, thank you for being here and thank you, Superintendent and Scott, for all of the work you're doing. I know this is not easy. It's not easy to be raising kids in this era and we recognize that you're trying to support as best you can. We can always improve. Okay, Mrs. Patterson, I so appreciate the information that has been shared. I mean h knowing that background and having that additional understanding of what what's been going on behind the scenes I think
168is so helpful because no one knows the full picture. There's two sides, three sides, 10 sides to every story. So I really appreciate the information that you have shared with us. Um I just wanted to add really quickly because I am a former teacher of the district. Um, it's true the teacher voice has not really truly been heard and I have been getting some emails from from those folks and they're not necessarily disagreeing with you at all, but they want you to be concerned. I have one little piece of an email I would like to share. Um, teachers already face significant demands in the classroom providing multiple methods of instruction to accommodate both digital and non-digital learners and it's simply not feasible with our current time and resources. Managing different modes of instruction for students
169who opt out of Chromebook use use creates an additional burden making classroom management and lesson planning even more challenging. Furthermore, technology is an integral part of education, the workforce, and daily life. Rather than focusing solely on restrictions, I believe we should be prioritizing teaching students how to use technology responsibly and what to do if they encounter inappropriate content. Additionally, it is important for parents to recognize that Chromebooks are not replacing teacher-led instruction, but are instead a tool that supports and enhances learning. I appreciate the time and effort the board is dedicating to this issue, and I hope we can find a solution that addresses parents concerns without placing additional strain on already bur overburdened teachers. Um, I just wanted to point out they agree with you and I agree with you. But I do think
170we need to really look at what's reality and what's realistic and come to a compromise that keeps our kids safe but also gives them the opportunities that they they need exposure to and to also support those people that you want direct instruction from in our classrooms. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Dolly. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Robbins, and your administration and Scott because I know there's been hours upon hours put into every week keeping our kids safe online. And so, we appreciate the the effort and understand that it's a work in progress that there's not going to be one answer that's going to be the solution that fixes everything here. Thank you parents for coming tonight and sharing your concerns. We appreciate hearing from you and we are working. We are parents. We are grandparents. We
171have the same concerns that you have and we we want to keep our kids safe online and we have a responsibility to keep our kids safe online. Your solution may not be the solution that that ends up being the final solution because we have to balance lots of different needs here. But we want to give you the options to be able to manage that as you you see fit. I want to uh respectively disagree. I think we do need to survey our SEC's and our BLT teams. Our SEC's have the responsibility for digital safety. That's one of their assigned tasks and duties in the schools. And so I know it does delay things a bit, but we need to get the teacher voice and we need to hear for those that have this assigned responsibility
172from our state legislature. Uh, another concern is with this filtering. I think it's tricky to just all this tomorrow turn it off because any immediate action on filtering is a huge burden on our teachers. We need to be able to give them lead time to be able to get that set up with the websites and things that they need because it it's a lot of work for them to all of a sudden lose access when they've planned out things or for weeks and months ahead of time and provide them that space to be able to do that. Our teachers have said, you know, it is a tool. Technology helps them work more efficiently in the classroom and actually be able to spend more face to face time with their kids when they're not sitting there
173trying to grade papers. They get a lot more quicker feedback on needs of kids. in their assessments that would take hours upon hours to figure out by by collating all the graded papers and so it's important for them to be able to have those tools that are help them to actually be better teachers and to provide better learning opportunities for your children. Now the couple concerns I know with right now are highly restricted filter there's some workarounds and some of that is Google and so we really need to look at that that it is truly sort of a lockdown situation and make sure that that is a truly highly restricted filtering for th those that choose that on your uh suggestions for immediate actions I believe we need to we should change that from to
174all free time blocked that anytime on Chromebook should be teacherled instruction I would also So, um, we talked about media file sharing. Is there a way to also block videos and then teachers be able to embed those back into Canva Canvas as they need those? Because that seems to be as people are kids are finding YouTube alternative options. That's where we're running into some of our problems there. And then a suggestion, I know it would take some time, but potentially if teachers would like to have a separate screen for LAN school because sometimes it's hard when they're on their laptop and they're trying to get get stuff ready for the next lesson, they're jumping back and forth to land school. So, if they could have a a dedicated screen for LAN school, so they could
175always have that um up. And whenever kids are on Chromebooks, their land school should be should be on, no questions asked. this administrator comes in, they see kids on Chromebooks, that land school should be up and being monitored. And so there's some professional development we need to probably provide to our teachers to make sure they really understand how to effectively use our Chromebooks in classrooms and safely for our kids. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Lewis. All right. Uh, so I would like to preface my statement um just with the fact that I was handed a Chromebook in beginning in middle school all the way through when I graduated high school. Um, I as I've been listening to these parents, I am struck with a strange feeling of deja vu of some so many of these parents
176stories are literally experiences I have experienced in my classrooms uh uh since I've been in middle school. There was experiences of uh students playing games when um they shouldn't be. And do you know what? There was a one specific moment uh that a parent mentioned that I related to that there was there would there would be moments that students would find complication with their work. They would find frustration. They would get distracted and they would click to a different tab. And I cannot tell you how many times I did that and how permanently damaging that was to my attention span to this day. Um so I would what I would like to see done I would like to see a committee subcommittee that would just meet every once in a while to discuss this this
177problem as well as I would like to see teachers on this teachers administrators as well as parents on this uh committee. Um, and do you know what something that also struck me for what Amanda said, uh, how many students are with your legal team, right? How many students are going to be replaced by AI because they were left behind during COVID? I would like to see um what we can do, especially with our techn our new uh innovation center to train our kids in AI so they don't get replaced by AI. They're the ones that are managing the AI. Um, that's that's what I have written. But I mean, I I I two last things. I don't like LAN school. Land school I was really really it was super super easy to get around it
178and there was too many times when teachers were not monitoring land school. I like IBOSS a lot. I boss is awesome. I had a really monumentally hard time getting around IBOS. Uh me and my friends would joke about how much we hated IBS. It was notorious. land school was weak and I boss was the boss. That's that's all I have to add. But yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um I just want to thank each one of my board members. I think um I agree with majority of what has been said here. Um I do have a question for the superintendent because this was brought up. Um do we get money from apps? Do we get money from like a set number of time that a student's on a program? So, I I've heard that same question
179uh years ago, and I don't I can't tell you the year. Uh this would be an ISD question. Maybe Scott would know, but uh many years ago before I actually came to Canyons. Uh during that time, there were grants uh that were based on fidelity use by students. So districts did receive funds uh for students that were uh showing fidelity so many hours or minutes on X app, but that's long that's been gone for at least since I've been here. I don't know, you know, I I know we're not right now that's not the case. There's no prescription of how many minutes or Okay. So we do not get money for not aware of unless I don't know Scott or program. I I agree. There's no money coming in for use of apps or use
180of Chromebooks. Okay. Then I see um Dr. Roderick Lanward is Oh, Amber, will you come up? I'm sorry, but we need this on the recording. We need to be able and people who are listening online that money that um Dr. Robbins was talking about that previously was allocated through a grant application process and you would only qualify for additional funding if you met fidelity requirements that has been shifted when a lot of the early learning for early literacy um bills were put in place over the last couple of years. Now they allocate money for early intervention software to every district based on the number of students you have in the district. We um don't use all of that money for early intervention software because we don't have um a big enough need for it happening
181in our schools at the moment. So, it's not based on fidelity. It's not based on the time. We get the money. We can use it if we have a need or we lose it. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to finish my comments and then I'll I'll let I'll let you talk. Okay. Um, okay. Go a go ahead Mrs. Nmer. Just one other thing we should mention. We did get esser funds and it was through that esser fund act with co where we were able to use that money to buy personal devices so that there could be learning during co. So I just wanted to mention that that there was that but that was a one-time thing and we it cost the district money for the Chromebooks to continue use. Okay. Thank you. How much
182Leon? Do you I don't remember what the amount was. We got about 21 million ESR funds total but uh 20% maybe on Chromebooks but most of that went to personnel supporting personnel nurses counselors psyches class size reduction that was early on okay thank you um so board I want to start with um the immediate actions if you could go to that slide at slide four. So, are we all in favor? Let's just start with this. Are we all in favor of the district taking these immediate actions right now? So, can I clarify? Um, so one is I think to Katie's point, uh, defining free use time. I heard uh teacher directed free time. So if a teacher, for example, says, "Hey, we've got this activity we're going to do that's independent of regular class time."
183The teacher, if that if the teacher directs it, then is that Katie what you're getting at or what? I was just saying no free time at all on the computers, only teacher directive learning activities. Okay. So yeah, that that's essentially what I'm saying. If the teacher directs it, it's fine. Otherwise, it's out. Okay. And then what about Sorry, video. That was the other So, one of the things my kids love to do is if they have free time that they're allowed to actually get their homework done. Would that cut that out as an option? I just curious. It'd be I think that would be eliminated. I I don't know how we manage who's doing what. I mean, to me, it's just the Chromebooks are closed. So, you're thinking just elementary at this point, Katie? That's
184what I was Let's clarify. Are all three of these actions just for elementary school? At this point, this is elementary. Okay. Okay. Mrs. Nyar, I I understand and I and I apologize. I I meant to say teachers on the committee too with parents and district administration board members. But um why would we not also at least consider I know Dr. Robbins, you and I discussed this, the idea of having the student account just turned off once school's out simply because our elementary school kids don't take Chromebooks home anyways and there should be no reason they wouldn't have any homework um to do. So, I'm wondering why because I know when we talked that was something we were considering. Yeah. Where parents could opt into it but it wouldn't be automatic. It's in that slide in
185the longer term. I and I it's certainly your prerogative to direct administration to go there tonight. I I worry kind of to Katie's point, the impact on instruction of teachers. I mean, I just don't know what's out there with what teachers assign or don't assign and turning it off, the impact it may have on other systems. I mean, I I don't know. I just know enough to be dangerous. But I think certainly I mean you can give me that direction tonight or we can get that feedback and then that may be a an option long term. But I'm I it's your call. I can do whatever you want to do. One one other thought too. I mean kind of to the the land school issue. Um, and this is probably a little bit bold, but
186I have seen situations where there is an open screen in the classroom where everyone can view what I mean if the teacher misses it. It's up there, you know, everyone in the class can see what each other's doing. Now, I don't know how that affects cheating or other, but you put a screen up that land school has all the monitors up. Uh, I' I've seen that model before. That might be something to think about. Okay, let's go back. kind of expensive, but thank you. Let's go back to first we're going to consider immediate actions, then we can talk about that if that's okay. Okay. Um Okay. So, Superintendent, do you want to just go through the second and third item to make sure we're all clear? So, the the the first one was the free
187use. I think we addressed that. Then the second is to block media file sharing uh filter category. So, um this is the one that we would add back the apps that our our students use like Canvas, uh Drive, uh Docs. Um but all of these websites that appear like media file sharehites that are not those would all be blocked, right, Scott? Okay. Okay. Okay. And then just the last item we'll provide regular. So the last would be ramping up our dig digital citizenship uh with our schools and from a district level. On the district level we can start that tomorrow. We can we can do more updates to provide you know information about these options that our parents have that are in these other slides. I do think we need to push that out like
188several times. So okay. So board. not voting, but I'm just going to ask you. Um, are we all okay to start with this? Um, I'm just going to look down the row, but okay. Um, Mrs. Dolly, just adding to that second point, the video um option along with that media sharing. What does that mean exactly? Blocking the video category. So, you can't get on any YouTube alternative website. That's what you guys mean by that. Okay, perfect. Mrs. Nightmare, just two questions. The first being the recent um incident we had at an elementary school. It was students getting onto their student account and doing that share file. And I see how what um Katie is asking for to have that some of that blocked. But also, we currently don't have any elementary school kids that take
189Chromebooks home. Correct. So, I don't understand why we're holding off that that would impact teachers because we already did the study how some we know that there's some children in homes that don't have devices and so though and that's why we do it at middle school, but already in our instructional the way we roll out our our instructional uh curriculum is that we don't require elementary school kids to do anything on their Chromebook. book. So, I don't see why we would need to delay that because we already know that like we already have the statistics of those households that don't have devices and how we need to provide access and opportunity and we opted not to have any elementary school kids take Chromebooks home because they don't have homework assignments outside of class where they
190need a device at all. So, I'm I'm I'm confused why we're saying that would impact teachers. I'm just trying to get us to vote on these three things first. Yeah. I I'm just we can discuss that like that's another item that's not even on here right now. Right. Yeah. I'm just asking why we would want to include it. And then the the other question I have is the digital citizenship updates and information to families. Um you know maybe this is something for that committee but you know with digital citizenship I would love for us to beef that up especially at the elementary school level where kids are taught just like their times tables. If you see something, you crash down your screen, you go talk to a teacher, that type of digital citizenship stuff. Okay.
191Thank you, Mr. Edeto. Uh, so I just wanted to comment on the first item that I think it's important that we think of words instead of eliminate as pause. So, it was brought up that there's a lot better tools out there. Um, and I don't want to eliminate things that could be beneficial in the future, right? Um so at the moment it's been identified that we need a pause because we don't have the technological safeguards or practices in place that we want. Um uh like for students who complete their classwork early um but to say and we all say eliminate completely I think removes that potential in the future when we have appropriate safeguards in place. Okay. Right. But remember, we're not making a motion. I mean, this is an administrative thing, so I think
192there is leeway for that. But great point. Okay, Mrs. Oaks, just a bit of feedback. And to Miss Never's point about why don't we just block access, there are students that have to go home and figure out how to complete extra math or Lexia homework. Like, I don't think it's a completely plausible idea that their elementary kids never have to go home and work on stuff. I had kids that had to do that quite often and they did it under my supervision and with my filters. But um for kids, especially ones who struggle that need additional time, you don't we have to at least provide an opportunity whether it's a parent opt-in or something else that allows them to do that. Just one thing, I have two elementary school kids. Lexia is separate though. It's
193not part of you can just log into Lexia. You don't have to log into your student account to get on to Lexia. That's how I do it with my kids at home. So, okay. Superintendent, I know you told me you recently spoke to elementary principles about this and what was their feedback? Um, elementary principles were overwhelmingly supportive of some level of restriction or increasing restriction. Uh however, there was probably a third of our principles that are in mostly our highly impacted communities that were very opposed to anything like this that they worry about the very point Amanda just made that that many of their students rely on that technology during the day and after school for support, but overwhelmingly they were supportive of a more restrictive uh uh filter. I I I think I mean
194to yeah to get at um a complete you know allowable list you'd have to go with blocking student accounts would be my is that accurate Scott um if that's the direction that the board chose to go and but then you know that's going to be a task also trying to add back what's what's necessary or what you know we're not going to know all the ramifications of what we're what we're locking down until we actually do it if we do it. Okay. Okay. So, board, are we ready? I'm I'm just going to kind of um look down the row and you guys can each nod your head yes or no if you Yes. If you are supportive of doing these three immediate actions. So, Karen, Katie, yes. Amanda, Andrew, Jackson, Holly, and Amber. Yes. Okay.
195So, superintendent, you have direction on those three items. So, another thing that several people brought up was this idea of a subcommittee. So, I I think let's just go down and say if we're all in favor of that and this administration can work on that over the next month or so. Um Karen subcommittee. Yes. Katie. Um Andrew Jackson Holly. Yes. But I have a question. We've had two different ideas. One is parents, um, teachers, uh, administrators, and the other one was board members too, like our other committees. Are we all thinking board members as well, or what are we thinking that way? Because I would like board members on that. Is everyone good with that? Is everyone okay with that? Yes, Mrs. Oaks. Um the suggestion was wisely made to me by a parent that
196we look for some of the younger teachers that are coming in that were pretty tech-savvy that a lot of them have some great ideas and also to include some upper classmen responsible students that can also give us some feedback because I've learned more from the students over the last two weeks than I have anyone else about what's really going on. It's just my thought. Yeah, that's great. Is everyone okay with that? I think we could model it. I mean, when we went through the second steps issue, you know, that group that we pulled together that that Dr. McIll managed, I I thought that was very comprehensive. It touched lots of different diverse groups um across the district and it was very effective in getting us that feedback. Okay. So, great. So, we're doing these three
197immediate actions. We will start a subcommittee made up of teachers, parents, students, principles, and a few board members. Do you do you not to add anything to your plate, president, but do you want to select board members or do you want me to handle that part for the comm? Why don't the board members text me if they are interested? They're interested. Okay. Yes. And then I will let you know. Okay. Um and then is there anything else? kind of we had some discussion on the shutting down. Are we all okay with just those actions for now and then you will move forward with surveying all SEC's and getting more feedback? I do think I agree with Andrew and I don't know if everyone else does, but I think we do need to look at it
198for middle school as well. Are we all in favor of that? I think we need to look at it at every level. At every level. Yes. But we're starting with elementary. And also I just wanted to be clear. I hope when I was saying I would love for our student accounts to be turned off. It isn't that parents couldn't opt into it. It's just they would automatically turn off at the end of the school, but parents can opt in. I'm not in for like eliminating it all together so parents can't log in. So okay, we can talk about it at the committee. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about it at the committee. Okay. I think we finished this agenda item then. Thank you, Superintendent and Scott and it because I know it has spent hours on
199this and we we do appreciate all your work. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next item on the agenda is the middle school honors class offerings and Mindy Robinson, director of middle schools will present this Um, thank you parents. We appreciate you guys. Thanks for being here. this to us. Oh, there it is. The brighter green. Good very late evening, board members. It's past my bedtime. My watch just reminded me. So, thank you for having me tonight. I handed out to you um a middle school brochure. I have the opportunity to serve on both access and opportunity and high quality learning. And this year, one of our great focuses is to really be to support the parents and to let people know what is going on. A lot of this information is in the
200brochure for the community. They can also click on that resource. And so I will be going through fairly quickly the first couple of um items which are all found in the brochure. And then I'll go through some of the big issues that are impacting the middle schools right now. Um, in here it talks about middle school philosophy, which I think we are very fortunate to have middle schools that are based on the philosophy of intellectual, social, emotional, and physical growth. And really thinking through the models in our schools to support those sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. We know in middle schools lots is going on that we know their brains developing. They're developing physically, emotionally, discovering. I've had the opportunity to be in middle school since 1995 and it is never ever a boring day.
201Those of you who have been in those schools or had kids that age, you know that it is an exciting time. Um it's also a time of lot of learning as they are our students are working in organization advocacy stu um these study habits and social skills. We're also seeing huge changes from elementary school. Um, we in all the prior conversations, we've actually talked already about some of these, but we're seeing new courses available. Cell phones, more students have access and I'm very happy to report that every middle school does not allow cell phones during class time. And so that's been a really exciting thing to see. Today we were at Eastmont, for example, I never saw one phone out. And to me, that is so exciting to see that when you're in the middle
202schools. Now, obviously grades and assignments are changing. Um, coming from the elementary school, the report card looks a little bit different. They have school fees, school lunch, and we've talked about technology. So, I won't talk too much more. I feel like we've had a healthy discussion. Um, this is some things that have been brought up this year that I just wanted to make sure it's really clear. In June of 204, um, the state became much more clear with their rules regarding what was required in the middle schools. Every year in the middle schools, it's English language arts, math, science, social studies. And by the end of middle school, our students have to have at least and notice the lease there, one art course, one PE course, health course, digital literacy, and college and career awareness.
203Um, there is through both state rule as well as district policy, our students and parents, if these courses are not the very best for them, they do have an opportunity to do a substitution course. Now, for these prior ones, you cannot opt out. That's been we've learned a lot and thank you for those board members that have spent significant time with me as we've really dug into the policies here. They can substitute and here I have linked everything for you of the substitution courses and we worked with a couple communities this year really solidifying and understand that. And it also is all linked to board policy. But basically, if there's a similar course or it's consistent with the students plan, there's a form they fill out and administrators can accept those recognizing that not everything's
204possible. We wish in middle school lots of things are possible, but not everything is possible. So, we just want to make sure that they're aware and our parents can also request educational release. And those are the two policies that are associated with that. So, some exciting things. We're going to go to the exciting things because I think this really helps with the conversation that was prior. Um, a huge thank you to Dr. Amber Rodick Lanward who has really helped me as we have been thinking through this and a lot of the ISD team that helped put all of this material that we're seeing together as well as a big thank you to the student wellness service. Um, Dr. Brian McIll and Melissa Baker have been instrumental in putting all of this to information. It's been
205a really nice collaboration for the three departments. Um, the proposal we're making, one of them is to change college and career awareness is currently taught in our sixth grade. And I know I've talked a little bit of committees to this and digital literacy is taught in eighth grade. Our proposal is to switch those two that college and career awareness would be taught in eighth grade and digital literacy would be taught in sixth grade. Um Katie Gart and um Patty Larkin have done a phenomenal job. They put together all of this. But the two main ideas and reasons and I think this is really pertinent to what our parents came and talked to us about. In sixth grade, we are handing students a Chromebook. And by moving that to um digital literacy to sixth grade, what
206we would do is really work with ISD and CTE. And the very first thing is how do you learn the skills? Our goal in middle schools is to teach. We want these kids to know how to use it. I love the conversation about we want them to use we want I liked it what you said. We want them to be directing AI. We don't want them to be the ones that being replaced. And so we really see that the digital citizenship would make a lot of sense for our sixth graders as we're handing them the chrome wreck and a lot of the education. The other exciting part by moving the college and career strand to 8th grade would be as we were moving into our innovation center. This would allow the eighth grade course to
207be really about college and careers which you wouldn't have the two years between that. But as students we want them to know all these pathways. And we really think of an equity lens. How exciting would it be that in eighth grade they actually have a field trip to the innovation center. They can see the different strands and then they're making those um choices for high school right there. So that's there's a lot more rationale but I think those are the most pertinent to go over Amber if at any time or there's um lots of considerations were made very in-depth studies to make sure how this would impact teachers to make sure we have the proper licensing and we do feel like we can do this. It's going to be a little bumpy to start at
208the beginning, but um we can also help teachers with the endorsements. The thing to be aware of just because this is going to look a little bit strange when we begin it is that our proposal would be this upcoming year as we've been doing it in the past, the college and career awareness, those courses they don't have to take in seventh grade in digital literacy. Then we would like to move it forward in 2026, but since our students had sixth grade, it's going to take two years of those two years of digital literacy. But the exciting part about that is that really With the innovation center, we would have that college and career. We have the most time to put that together because that's going to be more new. And then the digital literacy, we
209would just make sure that was appropriate for sixth graders. So that's that. If you do you have any questions before I move on. Go ahead, Holly. Thank you so much for all the work with this. Um, so with the college and career awareness coming in 2028 and 2029, I I recognize what you're saying with the timeline with kids and the grades. So what about our college and queer awareness teachers? So that's what we've been working through. We've actually that's what um CT has gone through and those teachers will just teach digital literacy those years. Okay. So there will be a period of two school years where college and career awareness won't be taught. Correct. At all. Yeah. Okay. Now they'd be building I mean they're going to be a part of all of the groups
210putting it together. So there's going to be still work because we know that some people they love that curriculum. So the good news is is through that timeline those teachers will be working on those small committee groups to help make sure that that makes the most sense for eighth grade. But you are correct for the two years it's not going to be in the schools because the the students would have already had it. And have you sorry so the students will have both. It's just the way the roll out is it's the grade level change. Yeah. So they will all students because we do have to with the state rule we have to make sure that students have both of those and really as they're looking at some of these CTA pathways. These are the
211beginning courses to make sure that they are looking as they're looking at what they might want to go into CT they need to have both and that's why those two years it looks a little bit interesting with that. Yeah. So I'm just thinking about students that go through during those years if they would have a chance to take that class. So they've already taken it right. So our sixth graders will take it and then when they are in eighth grade they take digital literacy and then our group that comes in 2026 they'll take digital literacy in college and curse. So we'll make sure that every student has those. Right. But wouldn't it with this schedule wouldn't it mean that only when they were in 8th grade would they be able to if they came in
212to middle school in 2026 because we're doubling up on digital literacy. The only option they would have if they were going to take that class would be in eighth grade. But because of the way it works with um signing up for electives it could very easily fill. So there probably could be a a good portion of kids that wouldn't be able to take it, right? No, because we would take two teachers then. So we would because this is a required course, we would ensure that the two teachers be any required course as a school administrator. That's the first thing I have to do is look at numbers and I have to hire accordingly. So that because you'll have really the double the number. Great question, Holly. Okay, thanks. Go ahead, Katie. Just a quick comment.
213I appreciate you looking at this, especially now that we're having kids take Chromebooks home in sixth grade. I think it's critical that we're doing this full uh session of digital literacy with them at that time. I think it will really and I think too just personally watching that with the Chromebooks. This is an opportunity and I think too to really develop both the teachers, the parents and I even like from that subcommittee you talked about this is something I think that as you're talking about the middle schools, Andrew, as you were bringing up some things too, this would be a really good time to add some of those. The nice thing about um the standards and Amber could speak more to this, but they give us some flexibility. I mean, the goal is that they
214understand what it is to be digitally literate, but it allows us a lot of opportunities and also kind of going what you said, Amanda, also some hand-on um projects. This doesn't just have to be there on the computer. It's what does this look like and how do we research from a book? Like, you know, all those different things we could do as well. Go ahead. I'm so glad you mentioned that. That was my next question. The college career awareness class at Draper Park is is is pretty amazing what they do with the Shark Tank and all those things. So, I love the idea that digital literacy they're also going to be doing have an opportunity to do collaborative projects. So, we're going to really beef that up in the in the course work as well.
215Awesome. That was um Amber and I when she met with the teachers on Friday too and kind of said, you know, these are some of the things that we're looking at just because we didn't want to completely blindside them, but there was some excitement to really rethink this and make it in a way and like I said, I just love this match with the innovation center that this would seem to align more closely. So then um as you're aware, we've really been focused on our middle schools of how can we really have this high quality teaching and learning and really thinking about the instructional design, our priorities, but really thinking of the unique needs that our students have. Um on this one, I think it was really important all students get tier one and that
216I think it's really important to remember that we have two sets of students that are needing two-tier services. We have students who need additional support and students who want more and they're ready for more. And then when we go to tier three, we have that in both areas too. Students who really have for whatever reasons trauma or behavior are significantly um in need of individualized supports. And then we also have students that are gifted students who also need those individualized supports. And so when we're thinking about the continuum, I think it's really important to remember we have them both directions. I did provide just some data and thank you again to ISD for um just to make you aware of how many of our students are enrolled in some of these intervention programs. And so
217we have been currently doing read 180 and math 180. I've had an experience the last seven years as they've been rolling out to really watch those in action and they're powerful programs and we're seeing really good data. But you can see in the last three years a range on the reading from 17 to 23% and then in math 9 to about 13% of our students that are receiving that additional um at a tier 2 intervention. On the other side we also know we have lots of high achieving and gifting gifted students. We took this straight from the Salta handbook. And I think this is really important to remember. We have students who have exceptional abilities who have been tested into a program. That's always a parent and student right if they want to choose to
218use that program, but it's available for them. But we also have high achieving students who although they don't have in the gifted area, but they have these amazing abilities. They perform at or above grade level, they have strong commitment like we've seen. These are just the hard workers. They show up every day and they give everything there. And so as we differentiate that thinking on the tier 2 and tier three lens, this is just a a quick snapshot of honors and salted trends that we've seen the last three years. Um the yellow I did is yellow because that would be tier 2 supports and so again hasn't varied tons. 13 to about 16% of our students who are enrolled in that. And then salta is around 2% which is actually a little bit higher this
219upcoming year. Just one caveat, we did not include secondary one math because of the challenge to actually do that number. I love math. I taught math and that was harder than one would might think to find. So that that does have that exclusion through all these conversations and I appreciate both um teachers um we've seen this in the superintendent listening tours. Many of you I've talked to like we really want to create more robust honors courses specifically seventh and eighth grade in our English language arts and math. We had an opportunity to meet with some parents who are really insightful that were really appreciative of some work. I know some of you were there. And so the goal with honors courses, it's very interesting. I've linked the state code. The state code says that all
220students have to have access to honors code. This is classes, excuse me. Unlike our salto ones that can be a test in honors has to be available to all. But one really nice thing that they actually have outlined in our state rule is what an honors course should be. And I liked this because it talks about and I highlight just a couple find multiple possible solutions and pathways when we think about some of the project-based learning and the other things that we're seeing our state come up and our strategic plan. This has a really nice blend and really thinking about deep understanding. It's not just more but it's going deeper. It's also interesting. I love this part. What it is not and I love this. It should not be teacher lecture which is fantastic. We
221want kids to be involved with their learning. We actually know for students who are honors like I taught honors, I taught salted and I'd always smile and they're like that's too hard. I'm like you can do it. They're like tell me not going to do that. And so I think to rethinking those modes. So what we're doing what our proposal is is for example we took those three areas and we just showed what this could an example thank you to Scott Christensen in ISD. He spent some time he studied throughout the United States. He and Rachel Marshall what do honors courses look like? What really made them unique and successful? And so looking at three of those areas, we just showed what it could be. So I'll just read the curriculum depth. Students engage in
222in-depth study of complex texts, themes, and topics, emphasizing higher order thinking, analysis, and connection across disciplines. Learning is student driven. And so you can keep going there, but that would be our proposal is when we look at these honors courses, they have to have key features that are required in every one of these honors courses. And I think it aligns so nicely with our portrait of a scholar, but also really our understanding of students who have these higher needs. Our proposal would be that this upcoming school year from 20 to 25 we would develop those key features. That was just a shorter list. Um how had eight 10 we we had a few. We realize we can't get too over ambitious. We tend to do that sometimes but um then what we would do is
223in seventh and eighth grade for those two courses we'd revise the scope and sequence. We develop instructional guides and we would do the initial professional learning for our seventh and eighth grade ELA and math teachers. And we would do it for all of them because we don't know for sure who will be teaching the honors or not. And we think this is good instruction for all students, but this is required in the honors courses. This would obviously be very a heavy lift for our teachers in ISD, but everyone's we feel very committed to it and we feel like all it does is keep reminding us of what good instruction and high quality learning is. And then in 2026 would be our implementation year. We would implement those revised um instructional guides. the ongoing professional learning
224we know has to keep occurring because this is if you go back to this slide a lot of teachers are doing great with this but some of them are going to have to really they're going to need supports like all of us like how do we keep learning as educators and we don't want to overwhelm our teachers but we also are seeing a need for this and it's really coming through and then then we would continue support and then two notice that we also said professional learning for administrators and instructional coaches we know that's important if I'm being coached on teaching honors I got to make sure that the people that are coaching me also have the same vision of that. Any questions on the honors piece? You're like, it's tired. Come on, keep going,
225M. The really the final thing that I wanted to make sure um I know there's been some question this year. Rachel Marshall did um extensive work looking at a pathway more for students who really are ready for more of a challenge in math which is a little bit easier to do because of the way the standards I know there's a lot of numbers so I just will briefly explain what this is before in the last 2018 is it 2018 the last seven years um students were able to take a seventh grade online intensive math course so I'm just going to use Albian to make sure you understand the numbers Last year, 82 students enrolled in that math course. 33 completed that math course. Um, so of the ones that the 33 out of 80, that
226was 40% completion rate, but that was only 10% total of the number of sixth graders that were at Albian Middle School. So, as Rachel really dug into this, we found that it was an access point, but and I think a couple of you had an experience with it. It wasn't the what we do know which I think has actually been brought out tonight is instruction through a computer is not the best type of instruction. It absolutely isn't especially in math and I look at what we're doing with thinking classrooms who were able to see the Alvid classrooms today. The goal is these kids are really thinking. So the proposal that was made and being implemented for next year is that first full column after um which by the way kindergarteners know what columns and rows
227I watched that today and I was mind blown. Sorry. We watched AVID and I watched a kindergarten class and the the kindergarters knew columns and rows. It was very exciting. So the proposal is well first of all I think it's kind of important to go backwards. In ninth grade all of these proposals get students to be at secondary to honors but the proposal is we really looked into the math standards is to move that the eighth and ninth grade ninth grade is secondary one is combined as a course at the school because those standards so closely align. This isn't here's eighth grade a semester secondary one a semester. this is a here's the standards of for example equations and here's the full way it's going to go and so it we know for some parents
228we did learn a lot about how we can better communicate and Amber and I and Dr. Robins, we had great conversations of how we can make that better, but the reality is this really allows more students access and more quality instruction in those courses. And I think the thing that really came out when Rachel was working with us, if we were just to say tomorrow, if we just based an eighth and ninth grade compacted on the students who had um a MAP score, that's our new one that we did. Instead of um RAR and the MI, we changed to MAP. and a rise score of four. This is the number of students that would that could take it. Now, again, other kids, you know, we can do it, but just right there. And that far
229right, I think, is important. What the least amount we're anticipating is a 5 to 6% increase of the number of kids that have access, but up to as high as 13%. And we just want more kids to have more robust access, especially when we're talking about this higher level of math as they're going into the secondary one and honors. So, we've been working through it. the families that were impacted. There were 11 families. We have now contacted Amber, right? All of them. We've got some additional plans. There's a few different pathways that families could take, but we really like the idea of the students in the classroom doing higher order thinking there. And believe it or not, I'm almost done. I tried really hard for you, Amber, because um when you look at entry points,
230I think one thing's important to remember with students in honors or gifted, there's lots of places they can choose to enter. for everyone. They are not ready in seventh grade. You probably have all seen the student. They were like, "Oh, wait. Seventh grade." And then I saw them. I used to teach at a junior high and then like ninth grade. I'm like, "What happened to you? You did so well, but you had to develop what those prior skills I talked about. We didn't always see that." But there are a lot of entry points in high school. So even if students don't choose honors in the middle school, there are very few courses in the high school that require the honors. There are a few, for example, like if you don't do secondary one, math and
231two, three honors, you have to take pre-capus. So there are some, but there are so many entry points for our students to take concurrent for them to take AP, which I also think is an important thing to remember. We don't want to preclude kids by doing this. We want to give more students options, but be more prepared for those courses. And then just a reminder of some fun things. We have tons of fun elective courses that the kids are doing fantastic with. So we have those required courses and then these are just a sampling of some of the electives that we're seeing around the schools. I also just want to remind you some of the special programs that we have. We've got Salta, we've got three DLIS at different schools. We also have AVID and
232we really are working in the middle schools. We want them to be there. I think it's the most fun age ever. I mean, they don't always think that, but I sure do. And so when they come in, we want to provide whatever we can. And so we've really seen a lot more robust after school programs. Like just when you look at these, not every school has everyone, but last night I had the opportunity to go to inter murals. If you want to see sixth graders play threeon-ree basketball, that might be the cutest thing. I did see one team that lost 0 to 38 and they never gave up. Like, so when we're talking about Portrait Scholar, there was grit. We had another team that one of their team members didn't show up. They're like, "We're
233willing to play two on three and and they got more than zero." Like, they did a great job. So, I just think it's fun to see this is an age where we're really trying to meet very diverse needs, but I'm really proud of the work that's happening in our middle schools and that the things moving forward. And really our goal is to systematically communicate with parents. We're excited. We feel like this year we did a better job. We had it all on the same day. We even sent parent squares districtwide. We had pamphlets. So thank you acts as an opportunity. I did talk to Cindy the other day and she's like, "Oh, that was good. You got to finish that off. We started that." I'm like, "Thanks, Cindy." So anyway, we had a great conversation.
234We've already planned next year's date. We've already told the schools so that we can plan accordingly. And then the two big things we'll be working on is a CCA and digital literacy change. and then really working with ISD to make sure that we have those rigorous honors courses in seventh and eighth grade and ELA and math. Okay, thank you Mindy. This is great. I know we have been kind of asking for this for a long time. So, thank you so much for your work on this. Um, do we have some comments? Um, Mrs. Oaks then Mrs. Nyar. So, I've had constituents who are really concerned about this change. just they're really nervous about making sure that their kids have opportunities to advance and and be challenged. So, one of the questions asked is um why
235can't they have advanced math in person all three years? And if the problem is that the entry course was online, why was it online? Because is it possible to do it in person? Well, I I think there's I'm going to go back to the slide just I think a couple things. They do have seventh grade and eighth grade honors. So, and I I would say in fairness to the parents, we have not made our seventh grade and eighth grade math honors course as robust as we're about to do. Like we're in the process of that. So, I think that's fair. Um, you know, we do have the Salta pathway where we know the kids are gifted, but I think you hit on it, Amber, with this new seventh and eighth grade robust, they do have
236three years of, you know, we don't do it in sixth grade, and there's a lot of reasons we don't do it in sixth grade. If you look at the sixth grade math scores, and you also see the development from fifth grade math to sixth grade math, we don't have sixth grade honors math. But that would mean that they can have the seventh grade and then they would have the other one. But you're right and again I used to do Rachel's job. I was in ISD is that and we've tried lots of things and part of it was trying to find the access in the best way but also you have to still run a board. So if there were only five kids and that's kind of what some of these pathways have led to ended
237up with 10 kids in secondary one and those families got put in really tight situations where this new pathway I think will create more robust and the parents have been I know the biggest concern I've received and I don't know if it's different is a couple of the parents are just so used to this pathway that just wanted they were so sure that they're going to skip a grade and what we're seeing is that's not been long term it's not been the best for them. That's a great question. Okay, Mrs. Number first off, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, when I ran for the school board, actually back in 2020, this is one of the things I really wanted to see happen is to have a a more um, you know, a true honors
238option for middle school. So, I'm thrilled. Thank you. I'm so excited about it. Um, a couple of things. Uh when Wendy Dao was still in the district and hadn't moved over to Provo City School District um as she was chairing the high quality learning, she did do some research that I would love for us to look into. One is pre-AP classes that is providing that scaffolding and that foundation for students to be prepared to then take the AP classes in high school and there's a slew of them and there are other school districts that are offering them. Another one was um there was some grants with uh there's an engineering and technology advanced class. There was a a few things I took a lot of notes on, but I would love if we could just
239reach out to her and see because there was some note takingaking and and grants and money that we could access to help us provide to beef up maybe that um pathway for advanced learners in the middle school. And um I had a great opportunity to meet with Melissa Baker and Amber and I did. We actually contacted AP and they do have pre-AP courses but they can't be taught till 9th grade. So we could create something but anything that's actually coming from AP am I remembering this like we had we we talked to them quite a bit. Okay. So we can't now one thing that we've talked about if it's access or high quality is that we could though for example in eighth grade create a course looking more at the portrait of a scholar you
240know and do some things or even think of that CCA where you're kind of combining those ideas of what does it actually mean to be a great student like we get it in sixth grade but by eighth grade the demands are a little bit harder then and so that is something we've talked about and then I'll find out about the engineering okay I love that and then just lastly I actually would be a proponent for looking at doing um and honors for ELA and math and sixth grade. Other neighboring districts have that as an offering. We used to have it as an offering. There are still I think um Albian maybe is there we have there's Indian Hills still Indian Hills has it. Um we've actually Jesse did a great job. We actually talked to
241the local districts and we actually went to all of them. We talked to Granet. We found out a lot of information and I think there's a lot more to the sixth grade discussion because you are an elementary curriculum. I mean, even though we put it in the middle school, it is different. So, I think I think those are things that we should talk about. But I also what we're really seeing is the math test scores in particular in sixth grade, even our high achieving students are not performing at sixth grade math like we would anticipate them to. And I think it's developmental and I think it's actually because the math becomes more abstract. So we can talk through it, but what we've seen through all these years as we've talked to elementaryaries and other schools,
242even though some have that, many of our districts that we talked to, it's an H only. There's no there's no differentiation. Like when we talked to a couple, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it was multiple districts we talked to and like, oh, we put the honors because it was making parents happy in sixth grade. And we're like, what we really don't want to do is we really want to focus on if we're saying honors that we've got to do that. And I think and I think maybe Holly, we could see how the seventh and eighth grade goes and if we really feel I think a lot of things we're doing with seventh eighth grade if we can get that in all classes that's going to be really powerful. So we'll keep looking and I
243do appreciate Jesse and Amber like they've been talking to lots of districts and all actually throughout the country too. That's super great. I would love looking at the sixth grade even as an ELA honors for the future. I will say um you know when we're looking at strategic enrollment I definitely hear from a lot of parents I would say that is probably the number one reason why they're making alternative school choices is they're saying I've got an advanced learner and there just wasn't a good pathway for them at the neighborhood school and I and I talked to you know I mean with my job we're mainly we do braces for adults but mainly it's kids so basically I just see tons of families in the Salt Lake Valley every day and I have to Hey,
244I anyone who's homeschooling, private school or charter, I have yet to hear one that that wasn't the reason why they pulled them out. And it is. And they're saying when I I have I talked to people say I even had them tested for Salta and they got in, but I was I didn't want them to be moved away from their friends and neighborhood. So then I thought, well, if I'm going to have to drive them anyways and they're moved away from their friends and neighborhood, I may as well open the door and look at what other schooling options I have. And I think that's something that hurts us. So, I love this for seventh and eighth and I would love to see us explore more for sixth grade as well. Thank you, Holly. Thank you
245so much for your work. Yes, we're we're excited. Okay. Well, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. And we will keep moving on the agenda. Um Okay. So, Leon, can you do this in 30 seconds? And um remember me me and Mont had an agreement we would leave at 10 and it's past 10. So, we're just going to try to hurry through this. It is past 10 and it should be noted Jeff Rick and I were up pretty early this morning. So, yes. Uh, have to just comment on Meny's. I have a seventh grader as you most of you know. Extracurriculars are awesome. I didn't He's joined the choir this semester. I never heard him sing until his choir concert last week. It was awesome. Uh uh just going to hit the highlights. Third time through
246this. Again, the bill that's passed uh last year can't charge a general fee. The bill that's passed this year, the governor hasn't signed it, but it's even veto proof. Uh we have to there's now a fee course, non-fee course, and starting next year, I mean the 26 27 year, we have to allow a pathway with no fees. Again, we're proposing to move the fee increase the total aggregate for high schools up to 6,000 rather than 5,000. Middle schools would say the same. Some of the fee changes we've gone over these main things removing the general fee, but we are asking to increase the class fees and the uh mainly the class fees to help cover the the credit card charge there. Uh some of the other things that we're looking at is again moving travel
247from 1500 up to 2,000 and also adding a $15 participate to the participation fee for transportation. Okay, that gives us about we 400,000 plus on UHSA and other activities. That covers not even a quarter of it, but gives us a little bit of it back. Uh we've gone over these proposed fee schedules mainly just to even up the CTSOs and the new program at Jordan High and also at CEK. It was asked that we bring some maybe some life examples. I'm not going to go through these uh but these are actual students this year and we assume they would take the same class next year. It will go up or down to varying on what the student takes. It should be noted on B though I want to point out it's always important to go
248see what is expected of the activity or troop I mean uh the activity or or sport again travel is always the big key most teams it should be noted don't travel okay very few do they may go to a competition in St. George or Logan. But as far, you know, this student B, you know, he or she was on the cross country golf team, uh, as well as drama and on the ballroom dance, they don't all travel. So, it's important to realize that as we look at, you know, the total fees this year was 1,500. If he tra if she he or she traveled every which every activity, it would have been 13,000. So, uh, you can see the cost there. Uh again, won't be this upcoming year, but in 26 27 looking at increases
249to these events, mainly to pay officiating costs because there's just not a whole lot of kids on the team and that has to be spread, you know, to pay the officials and that's a that's a tough thing now that we don't have the registration fee. There's where the fee schedules are. We send out comments. We've done that twice to all all parents. So, as a parent of a high schooler and a middle schooler, I've got these notifications. Probably some of you as well. We sent the last one out on March 10th. Put the responses back. I think we had six as of uh we checked at one o'clock today and those were still the only six that we've gotten back. And there's a possible board motion. So, we'll leave it at that. Okay. Thank you,
250Mr. Wilcox. Uh Mr. Mr. Edo, I move that we approve the 202526 proposed elementary, middle, high school, and CEK master fee schedules as found on board docs and approve the spend plans as found on each school's website. I'll second that motion. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Great. I'll second. Any discussion to the motion? One tiny Yes. M. real fast. Last meeting I pointed out one of the parent um responses was that they had two students that would exceed the the if you remember over the 6,000 actually point of clarification with Kirsten they were looking at what the cap amount was and so it wasn't actually what they would be charged. I just wanted to point that out because in our last meeting it kind of sounded like that would be the
251case and it wouldn't. That's the cap. So okay that's good to know. Thank yeah thank you. Okay. Um, all in favor of the motion to approve the school fee schedule, say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes unanimously. Um, because of the late night, unless the superintendent or Leon need to say anything. Okay. And board members, um, we're going to suspend comments and just because some of our administrators have been up since 4 in the morning. So, um, thank you all. I really appreciate each board member and our administration and I will now call this meeting to a close. Thank you.