001sh you are now muted good evening we're all right I think we're ready to begin I'd like to welcome everyone to the study session portion of the meeting of the Canyon's Board of Education today is January 4th 2022 I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and thank you to those that are have joined us first item on the study session is update on strategic planning I will turn time over to superintendent Rick Robbins thank you president Tey um first off just want to welcome everybody back from the break and I hope everybody had a great holiday season and um it's exciting to to be back so um this is this is kind of a an emotional uh deal thinking about uh the last two years and where we've been and and uh where
002we're at now in the uh strategic planning process and um what's occurred I I thought first off I just I wanted to share a little bit about kind of revisiting the why and tonight because of time constraint I I think this is more important that this is your opportunity to react and reflect on on all the great work that's been done but I think it's important uh to just share a little bit of context around strategic visioning and and uh why you know we go through this process um but strategic Vision really is our North Star and it not only guides our decisions but more importantly it holds the keys to our students goals dreams and aspirations through our elected board members the Strategic Vision reflects the purpose values and beliefs of our entire School
003Community our strategic Vision compels us to unify behind a coherent and sustainable vision of Student Success and in Canyons uh that's been established as in the mission statement that every student is College and Career ready and just from a historical perspective and thinking about the great work that you're uh taking on in this process um as I went back and read about the beginning of Canyon school district words that routinely appear uh from that time are like Community courage passion Innovation and Excellence so um uh it's it's very apparent just how important this great work is that the board uh takes on and it really will set the tone and the direction of the district over the next 10 to 15 years um Steve Jobs said if you are working on something exciting if you
004are working on something that's exciting that you really care about you don't have to be pushed the vision pulls you and Roy Disney said it's it's not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are and in 2009 uh the board uh put forward those foundational tenants of student achievement Community engagement customer service Innovation and fiscal accountability and you and you think about all that's taking place during that time uh Canyon school district is a lighthouse district for student achievement academically in the Arts Athletics and programs um in community Eng engagement very strong Partnerships have been established uh in our neighborhood schools and their culture hundreds of thousands of hours put in by our foundation our ptas sec's our volunteers elected officials in that relationship a customer service approach where the attitude is
005grounded in positive relationships service and Trust Innovation at a time at that time when the district uh essentially uh created uh itself a strong commitment to meet students needs where they're at not only academically but but socially emotionally and and mental health um we've we've made a strong commitment to 21st century Blended learning environment responding to the pandemic and accelerating and utilizing technology to close the digital divide fiscal accountability um has has been kept a to upgrade and provide world class buildings and learning environments to our students that the board set out uh in their bonds um record compensation packages honoring uh high quality teachers and staff and many many recognition and awards for fiscal accountability uh for our uh business uh Administration so um tonight uh just I think it's important to think about
006objective this is really a first run at this and so I wanted to provide a little bit of context and talk about the process we've been through and then turn it over to president Tei to lead uh the discussion and reflection that you uh all uh might have so um really as you're thinking about the process and the proposed uh plan which is very much in draft uh uh form there's still a lot of work to be done um but really do these Focus various strategic initiatives impact statements Al together paint the picture of the district that we all wish to see in 10 to 15 years uh what's missing from the plan or what needs to be potentially removed from the plan and so um uh going forward you can see uh this is
007a word cloud from some of the work that's been done it's great to see students at the center of the wordcloud highlighting all of that great great work um the tenants as mentioned uh that the district has been established on I think it's important to to as a reminder that this is more of a yes and question um strategic plans uh uh are built on a position of strength and it doesn't necessarily mean that the language or those foundational elements are removed that uh it's more of a a build upon and you can see the the current vision statement that was established at the beginning of the district that as I mentioned reflects in the great work that's taken place and the core value and belief statements that are also uh there uh to support
008that mission and vision just a few of the snapshot of the Milestones as I mentioned um in all of those different areas that have occurred over the years in the district that have have been notable um so really we're at this place where uh it's a time for reflection um I think some of the things that we've we've learned over the last two years in the pandemic that have brought uh sharp focus into view is continuous Improvement it's reflection on change there's lot has been lots of stress um there's been lots of Hope flexibility um technology acceleration communication uh thinking about the future thinking about Innovation and all being really relationship driven so um you can see some of the areas uh in this drive for continuous Improvement that uh have come into Focus that
009I've I've mentioned shifting demographics uh as we know changes to social and political Landscapes um examination of what College and Career ready uh means and we've talked about that uh as in equity and action in The District and how um that's uh equal opportunity but our it's up to our students to fulfill those goals and and their potential advancement in technology and Innovation and then also uh reevaluation of our resources to meet those demands that have been changing so uh real brief then uh we've been in four phases of this project beginning last year in the spring the first phase uh was an opportunity to plan and align so there was a lot of self- assessment uh we began the accreditation process uh to self assess and do an inventory of current performance in the
010district so a lot of um data input uh on that we also began uh uh preparing for our superintendent listening tour many of you sat on U have sat on board committees um whether it's long-term planning or other committees that have helped facilitate that beginning uh phase then we moved into building a foundation so this was really starting to develop those areas of focus and that involved uh heavily involved Community engagement and so you can see um Gathering perspectives this um list of community engagement um activities that have taken place to really solicit The View uh and uh tone of our community and I I have to say just thinking back about how that's gone even in the midst of the crisis what an honor it's been uh to go out and to engage our
011public and our employees and our students um we've really triangulated that input um through lots of different molds of of uh sharing and stewardship and so it really is a reflection of our of our community so you can see uh some of those groups that have engaged us at this time it also uh brought about our steering committee our focus groups um our board student advisory Council continued as it has in the past uh we engaged our superintendent listening tour Full Throttle and then also uh started to begin our popcorn Fridays to engage our public and then recently we've moved into the design phase and this is where we're currently at and I think at this point where uh these things start to really gel and and come together and start to um emerge this
012is really an opportunity to refine and to continue to really look at those places that uh reflect uh our our school community's um uh vision and in that uh we've worked on impact statements uh success criteria to measure what those outcomes might look like uh We've also discussed a strategic mission and vision uh plan fra and framework so as you've seen in some of the um emails there's different templates for this so there 's an opportunity to reconfigure or to look at how the Strategic Vision actually plays out in its Aesthetics um which is also uh very important um this also has involved uh developing uh our action items and looking at continuing to look at indicators and this has been done through planning teams the steering committee as well as full board uh and
013cabinet uh discussion and lastly uh once we refine this we'll be in an implement ation uh stage which will uh really in my mind develop a living document and one that um will move forward in guiding the district and hold us accountable to that promise we have to our students and this will involve a Communications plan to reach all stakeholders as well as uh indicators measuring progress and a process for review and revisement on a ongoing basis so that is a really brief um summary of what's happened over the last almost a year now so with that um kind of ready to turn it over to president tingy for some discussion thank you superintendent it is amazing what what has been accomplished in this process and so um board it's as he described the process
014that we've gone through and it's now in our on our table there's been a lot of committees a lot of advisory work done a lot of gathering of input and it's now on our table so tonight I thought we'd take a few minutes and you could share some of your initial thoughts about this draft document that is a summary of all the work that's happened the last eight or so months um but then we also want to talk about next steps so I think to really get roll up our sleeves and go to work on this document we're going to need a solid chunk of time in more of a workshop fashion and so um I'd like to also talk about when that could happen and I'll put out there that we could schedule an
015additional meeting to do that or we could work within our already adopted board meeting schedule and and just plan to have a workshop session on either January 18th or February 1 um or both if if we feel like we need it after after the one but um so and and I just think it's also important to to um realize like superintendent said we have a solid foundation here at Canyon's district and we're not looking to rebuild the foundation but we're looking to build a framework or a plan to help meet that Vision that strategic Vision that's in place and has been since the district was created and and it's also important to to recognize that the plan is not is is the is a framework and it's not really intended to be the detail or
016the action items that action items are another phase of this that then the action items help us to um accomplish what's in the plan which is built around our foundational pieces of our vision and our tenants and our values so um with that little bit of introduction um I'll just turn it over to the board for some of your initial thoughts and then after after um we've had each had a chance to share some of our initial thoughts on this draft that has been given us and let's um take a few minutes and determine when we would like to hold our Workshop session so yeah well U Mrs Oaks and then did I see another hand Amber and then Mont no Amber okay so thank you so much for all of this this is a
017lot of work it's a lot of work on the part of Ed elements I recognize it's a gargantuan task to take everything that we've gathered in terms of information and the Committees and everything that we've put together together and try and consolidate it down I do have a couple of concerns and specifically with regard to um the steering team feedback that came back um I know that the last meeting that we had we had I think was it three board members that were present and um they had the opportunity to respond to um some of what had been gathered or collected with um phrases I like I wish I wonder and then also provide additional feedback and so when I looked at it I thought oh I actually would have really liked to as a
018board member to be able to respond to those same questions and and so I do have a concern that it represents a little bit of imbalanced feedback because it's not represented by all members of the board since we canceled that that second meeting so I want I just want to make sure all of us have that chance to do that um no we weren't all invited yeah so so this is our opportunity to so so that's that's one one thing I would I just want to make sure that we would have that formal opportunity of be able to do that and then um you know Rick you and I had a conversation today because I had a question about the very first page of the email that you sent us this week with regard to
019kind of the draft of Canyon school district will provide equ Equitable opportunities for all students for representation belonging and psychological safety and then has a a subsequent phrase saying to that end we will focus our strategies and resources on learning experiences access and opportunity human centered supports and our operating system so my question was and you answered this for me I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page as the board is whether or not that was a proposed mission statement and and go ahead and at the steering committee um that was a statement that the discussion was should uh that be a standalone tenant should it be a standalone belief statement the the the temperature of the group was is that that should be embedded throughout so it was not
020that was not I don't think Drew meant that as a as a mission statement but rather that that's something that's embedded throughout the the plan the question is and I think it kind of goes back to Nancy's point about getting into the granular level of defining those terms would not be tonight but when you have an opportunity to really dig into that and Kevin may be able to shed you know some uh advice or some counsel on on what that might looks like some of you have sat on the on the equity committee yourself so you have some idea of where that you know where that lies but yeah that that that I it does the way just the template was set up it looks like that's a mission statement yeah I appreciate that clarification
021that's helpful because one of the big um concerns I had in looking at it I said oh what happened to the you know all the discussion we had about creativity for instance you know I know that was something that was even addressed in our accreditation report and the need to increase that and that was something that was um a large Focus that came out of high quality learning experiences and and I also didn't see as much reflection of the committee that I worked on about secondary path postsecondary Pathways so it was just some of that that I thought oh boy we really a I think we need to make sure that every member of the board has an equal chance to weigh in on some of those questions and B I do agree with um
022presting that I think we really need to have some additional working time together as a board to get this right so okay so Amanda I want to explain what you just said so our last meeting we were divided into three groups so clarine was actually the only person who answered those three questions so Steve and I were in different groups doing different things so we ourselves didn't answer that I wish yeah so Claren was the only one who answered those correct I was the only one who answered those yeah so the rest of you are not left out because we didn't either we were doing different things um so I I mean I too just want to thank everyone for the process and I I think it's just really important that we have time to
023discuss because like Amanda some of the key points that were in my committee are not in that final document so I'm a little I mean even though yeah there some key points are there but one of the main focuses is not in there so I just want to make sure we at least have a conversation about some of those things are taken out and I know that we have to pair it down right we can't have everything but if like one of the key points of my committee is not in there I think that's concerning one one thing I might add to is that if the board uh so chooses to go the direction um you notice the language around portrait of a graduate so in my mind that really that really focuses in on
024three areas achievement skills and dispositions and so when we get to if if that's the direction that you choose to go that you utilize a portrait of a graduate that you know may look different from the state or maybe you adopt most of those that that you know many of those attributes and those skills and those strategies can come through the portrait of a graduate that that's where it's supported but um you know that's a whole template question about how that fits if if the board chooses to keep the tenants and then fit portrait of a graduate or embed those within or if it's separate and then you have those action items below and indicators so that sounds good um clarine and then Holly so um I had the same concerns that you two had
025about the first two sentences on the top of this book about the Canyons provide um so as I got thinking about it probably um as we work probably the best way to work is go to a backward model look through all the stuff that we're needing and wanting in it and then taking that from that information and building those first two sentences but once again that can be discussed and decided at a meeting so I think we need to have another meeting too it's easier for me if I can and I'm just going to tell you personally that everybody can tell me what they personally think to but it's easier for me if I have a meeting that that's just the meeting and I'm not thinking about having to be here until midnight and trying
026to to do two things at one time and it's also easier for me if it's just always done on Tuesdays because I literally have things almost every night except Tuesday nights that are connected to my job so um so as we discussed this it would just be that I'm just letting you know and and everybody can tell what's easier for them also but um Tuesday nights are best and if we're just doing that so we can just focus on that would be best thank you Holly I appre apprciate the opportunity to do some Workshop uh work as a board on a Tuesday evening as well because that's what my schedule allows for also uh the one question I did have is I believe everyone December 17th did get the email from Drew where we could
027all go in and fill out the I wish I wonder I like uh it was all the cabinet members all of us board members and I did go in and do that and there was a deadline for December 21st so I had asked in our last board meeting if all board members would have the opportunity to do that because we had talked about next steps that they were going to be doing that and they did honor that and we did get the email on December 17th and I I did go through and do all the notes for all of that so I do think we did have the opportunity and there's a link with the you know with the document that you can put everything in and I did notice that on the final one
028all of my notes are in there so I think we can do that before the workshop too if we want to to save time and gather our thoughts because I felt that was exercise was very helpful but it was extended to all of us and I just wanted to thank them for doing that I was grateful they gave us that opportunity Steve yeah appreciate that uh first off I just want to thank everybody involved in this process this last year could have been a year we could easily excused ourself from doing anything but we pushed through it and had opportunities to go out me meet people when a lot of other people were hiding um and get input from a lot of other people and I think that speaks a lot for our district and
029the administrators and people that that did that uh I look forward to in fact it's one of my goals this year to complete the Strategic plan so if we don't get it completed my goal for the year it's on my list um so I'm looking forward to actually getting something and moving forward with this I think Nancy was very clear it's that's I do annual goals and I do quarterly goals then monthly goals and each one's refined more and more and more so it's the the real where the rubber reachs the road is on a monthly basis so a weekly basis not at the overall what's going to happen for the year so this is a real good start for that um as far as that last meeting we had I don't think the board
030members Miss very much it was an interesting meeting was a consolidation of about we took three two full tables and try to mix together and said okay this said this this statement's been made three different times in three different areas and we combine those to garia so that's pretty much what we did the last time is in the different committees we were in so we didn't really do much brainstorming it was just going through and saying you know we we don't need 50 objectives we can't do 50 objectives let's get it down and we don't need success criteria 25 success criteria and we found very commonalities between a lot of them that different groups did and so be able to combine that together so that's pretty much what that last meeting was and I think
031it's reflected here and I do look forward to having a chance to sit down with our fellow board members and and go over this and see if there's some stuff out and you know I was looking over I'm going now we could have added something but to make sure that all the groups were represented in stuff but not three or four times that's what we saw we saw this oh it's here it's here it's here it's so it was anytime you have that many different groups to get together you could get all kinds of stuff and and sometimes it was said in a different way it was the same thing and so people say well you didn't include I I said maybe not specifically the language but the thought was there mentioned multiple times so
032we just to be sure that the thought of the principles in the document so uh yeah I'm I'm fine on Tuesday nights um my life revolves around the board anyway thank you um clarine so my question is who's facilitating this part of it are you facilitating it at elements wood they would facilitate it yes the next meeting okay yeah they I was just wondering so that I know what I was getting myself into thank you okay any other thoughts or comments or should we tackle a finding a date talking about the next meeting um Mrs oats did you have something I want to thank Mrs neow for pointing that out that email completely missed my attention especially with Christmas break and I had a son that broke his arm that day so that's that's helpful
033to know um and I do think it would be good for us to have an extended opportunity for us to be able to do that before we meet next Tuesday work great for me so anyway okay thank you so we have um so it sounds like it's going to be a Tuesday so our options would be uh the board is scheduled right now for meeting on the 18th and February 1st um we could add an extra meeting on well the other Tuesdays would be or possibilities would be next Tuesday the 11th or January 25th and okay so January 25th doesn't work sounds like three of us aren't available I I would much rather schedule it in conjunction with an already scheduled board meeting okay we can certainly do that you know I get the schedule
034I get the schedule for board meetings for the year I put those on my calendar and my calendar fills in fairly quickly after that I don't want to do it on the same day as a board meeting it's way too much it's too much to think too much to do too much to talk um I think it to really be effective we need about three hours each for for a workshop time um if we if we did it on the night of a board meeting we would keep the rest of the agenda very very light um so that it would be majority of the meeting would just be be this um does Mrs Arnold are you okay with that I don't think that really ever [Music] happens to tell you the truth to be honest
035and so when you're blocking three hours we have to be here by four I can't always get here by four because of the the fact I work and then we have to be done by 7 and so then we start the board meeting so that would be the only thing that could be on the agenda period is that that specific thing and we have other things on our agenda that we're already got on the agenda for discussing and doing so I'd prefer to do it on a Tuesday that we're not having a board meeting and do three hours and then we're home at 7:30 is Mr Wrigley so are there time limits I mean add elements and stuff we working with is there I mean we just can't go on forever on this is there
036a time limit that we've been trying to work with that we need to fall within the Board needs to do they have set um a suggested parameter for time um I my thought on this Steve is that at this point where we're kind of at that critical Junction and nature of this discussion where you're you are making you're going to make decisions is that I I would a on the side of taking your time to get it right um and I've expressed that to add elements that you know um I think at this point it's it's really important even if it spills into the first part of March that that you take the time to really you know discuss what needs to be discussed and determine what it looks like so I I think they're
037flexible to that I mean I know that they're suggesting sort of a timeline that wraps it up by the end of February but I think you know considering everybody's schedules and just the where it's at that take the time that you need yeah I was just wondering about their schedule I mean they have other districts you're dealing with they set a contract with us I'm wondering how much longer they would extend it out and still be within contract well I'm thinking about I mean just the nature of workflow and preparing for for next year I would you know just for cabinet and administration to begin to you know Implement and really develop a Communications plan that's effective I think March would you know that would that's kind of that coincides with registration and other things
038that we're in preparation for next year so I think anything beyond that would become problematic to do any work next year but um okay and just quickly on that point if we chose a meeting when there was a regular board meeting we we could adjust the start time of business meeting and like I said we would keep the rest of the agenda as light as possible um Holly and then clarine I really like that idea um if we have it really light I think normally when we have like a Clos session at 4:30 it's not like we're here and done it in 3 hours anyways um I think it makes sense that we would probably want to do this within the next couple of weeks because we are going to need to revisit it again
039kind of let it simmer and come back and have more group work I'm sure my suggestion is to have the first one February 1 because I think it is really helpful to go through the document and do the note taking that they've suggest I wish I wonder what I like what I question I appreciated U Mr Wrigley's comment about what happened at the last meeting I do think in the process as we were in these small groups we started with ideas and then we kind of had to generalize them and bring them up to like 5,000 fet so sometimes the intention of the original impact statement may look like a duplicity somewhere else but maybe it's actually different and so I think that's part of the discussion probably that Amanda and Amber bringing up like
040in their small groups oh I saw something that was lost because in the in the process of bringing it up 5,000 F feet up maybe the actual intention is lost and it looks like it's duplicate but it's not so I do think we have a lot of work I think it would be a good idea to have some time to go through everything and even go back to our past notes with our original meetings so my vote would be to go ahead and do it February 1 I have a a kind of a tricky schedule here just in February and March um I have a senior he's on the varsity basketball team he's graduating I'm going to try really hard to make his games he doesn't have very many of them left so February 1st
041works for me if it works for others um clarine and then mon I was just going to say it would be better to if we kind of put these back to back because if you do one one month and one the next month for all maybe you have better memories than I do but I'll forget what we did and then I'll be regoing back to figured out out to we go back to figure it out again so I'll do whatever dates yall want but can we do them a little closer than further [Music] apart okay thank you uh Mont yeah I just wanted to say that I feel like the idea of a study session uh what we're trying to accomplish there would uh meet the def my definition of what a study session should
042be so that just makes sense and if you started at 4:30 and you move your uh start time for the business meeting back I think that's perfect okay thanks any any other thoughts and then we'll start talking specific dates uh Mr rley Question hopefully that if we need to get this done by March we're gonna have to at least have two or three readings on it in public so we're GNA have to get this done probably by the first or the second at the most meeting in the month of of February so that we have time to get it done by March so they can implement it so we may need to move it meeting to meeting so we have three readings I suspect something this this complicated and stuff we want to have at
043least three readings for the public on okay thank you all right so January 18th does that work with the idea that we would keep the rest of the agenda as light as possible I can't I can't be here for the three hours on January 18th February 1 are you saying early like 3:30 or no it would be 4:30 to 7 7:30 yeah I can't I can February 1 but I can't January 18th okay February 1st everyone okay okay with the that the February 1 date okay and then um is there a possibility if we if needed then on the 15th for a followup one February February 15 yes next meeting yes it is a regularly scheduled meeting okay um we will plan on that and it sounds like in the meantime um board let's really
044review this document and and all of the pieces that led up to this document so that we are prepared and I'm not sure if the link that was referred to about the answering those questions is still open but we could talk to Ed elements and have them open that it is it is still open I clicked on it okay yes and it was sent to Cabinet too I'll just forward it okay okay yeah December 17th from Drew February 1 have a workshop so superintendent will you check with Ed elements and make sure that they're available can we set that second meeting date after the February 1 once we've yeah I mean we're at this point we're not scheduling an extra meeting so the 15th is a regularly scheduled board meeting but yeah we'll see we'll
045see how much gets accomplished on the first and then what we all feel we need to do from there okay thank you okay thank you all very much and um so our next item on this study session agenda is an update from sunlight works again I will turn time over to superintendent Rick Robbins thank you pres and we have Kevin giddens here with us from sunlight works to update us on this work so Kevin I'll turn it over to you for de brief oh I just hit it hello I am Kevin Jones giddens co-founder of sunlight works and I'm so grateful that the board Andor whatever Powers it be have invited my organization to take part in this districtwide diversity Equity inclusion initiative I've loved my association with very smart passionate caring people in this
046District I can truly say I've not worked with the organization that I felt that they are doing it not to check a box but they're all doing it you all are doing it for the right reasons so I thank you so much for that I just want to take a brief moment to share with you an overview of what our work has been thus far uh really quickly we've been focused on making sure that all the work we did is based on data based on an assessment so as you're aware we issued an assessment and then we took that assessment to decide what areas we should focus on I really believe you should never engage in diversion inclusion and Equity work without knowing what are those areas that you should be focusing on after the
047assessment then started focusing on working with the superintendent and the cabinet to make sure we can support and give counsel to them regarding the practices and D diversity inclusion to make sure proper principles are initiated we've been focusing on also looking at creating a development plan a professional development plan for the district and it coincides with the Strategic plan we wanted to make sure that we did not get ahead of the cart by producing this professional development plan after the Strategic plan was approved and created and so uh we've been working alongside and very grateful to being part of several meetings to make sure that this professional development program that we create is aligned to the Strategic plan and then we're also working with making sure that we are training and educating the cabinet and
048principles and vice principles that they are aware of what's going on we have their mindset their heart sh their heart and their passion behind what we're doing to make sure they're included in this effort uh let me very quickly speak on each of those issues one the assessment as you're aware we did three different assessment one on diversity inclusion one on diversity one dealing with inclusion and safety and the other dealing with operational effectiveness as it relates to diversity inclusion each of these assessments gave us some information the first assessment which is the four lenses help us to realize the perspectives in the district and we found out from that assessment that you have a lot of similar leaders and that's a good thing but it also relates to your learning capacity standards from your
049accreditation review in that review it's stated on point 1.3 that systems need to be engaged in continuous Improvement dealing with change and as you look at the profiles of the people in your District only the the profile that is about change is orange and it has the lowest amount of orange in the district it's not about hiring more people it's about helping the people who are already in the district realize the capacity for Change and continual Improvement also a part of your accreditation review it stated very clearly importance of equ Equitable opportunities and creating Equitable opportunities for everyone well it would be very difficult to create those Equitable opportunities for everyone when you have a district that's very dominant on one side than the other so it helped us to know we just need to
050help the dominant understand The Importance of Being Equitable for all and then finally according to your accreditation review it shows that 2.2 the learning culture promotes creativity Innovation collaboration and problem solving well that is a direct link to the orange perspective which you have a very small orange perspective so the great thing about the results of this assessment it says that it's not only aligned to your credit not only align to the work you've done with Ed elements but it gives us direction as we move forward of what to do to move forward diversity inclusion uh with the district our second assessment which deals with psychological safety it showed us that your district is not low but it's not extremely high but there's some room to grow and so with that data we're now able
051to work and create professional development that aligns with making it safe to learn safe to contribute safe to question sta quo safe to provide respect and lead a pathway towards inclusion and Innovation our last assessment that we did showed us that we assessed organizational alignment culture identifying processes how this District confronts reality and the input of organizational priorities and as we did that assessment we learned that our assessment was directly aligned to the work that Ed element's doing and we were very pleased to know that the work that we're going to do with DN is coinciding with your strategic plan so we're very happy about that I was also very pleased that you allowed you applied the principles of inclusion with sunlight works that I was included in Ed element meetings because it then allows
052the right hand to know what the left hand's doing I was very pleased that I was invited to some of the cabinet meetings and strategic meetings because one of the things that it reveals to us is that we need to create a common language for us to speak and without that common language which it's very difficult to be able to move forward um actually these are the wrong slides but um one of the things in creating a Common Language you have this phrase of of Equitable opportunities well if we don't Define equity as a board as a district it's very hard to move forward in Equitable strategies so to Define what that means which is fairness and what it means to the district looking at the definition of psychological safety and what that means how
053to provides safety in the classrooms uh the reason why that's very significant is is to educate all Educators in being intentional regarding psychological safety for example uh we know that there are four to one times men in stem careers than females and the language of a teacher to say to a female uh there are more men in math or more men in stem and we just need to get you more involved that language does not make safety versus we need you and it's just educating people to use common language to make it safe my daughter in the school was told by a teacher just because you're African-American does not mean you can't do math that instantly put into her head that some reason it took her from third grade to college to make it safe
054for her to learn math and teachers aren't doing this important they're just unconsciously making statements that make it not safe for students to learn so understand the importance of psychological safety and how do we create safety for students to learn is critical I'm grateful to had the opportunity to go to town hall meetings because one of the things that I learn by going to town hall meetings there's a lot of charged topics in this district from critical race Theory to wearing masks to curriculum debates to whether we stay in school not stay in school and one of the things that I notice is that people are coming to these Town Hall meetings let's say in their sharing whether it's political views uh liberal views versus cons views conservative views and I know everyone wants the
055same thing the same outcome they're focused on students so why don't we at Town Hall meetings instead of focusing on the issues focus on the outcome I've been very impressed with Rick your superintendent because he goes to these meetings with the idea of understanding and he asked the right questions to understand he listens to diverse perspectives to create the third alternative and I really believe with all these big issues we should listen to them and focus on what is the third alternative which is principle based and so instead of focusing on the issues let's first start with what's the outcome we want and the outcome should be obviously the interest of the students listen to views but focus on solutions that are principal based meaning we understand the definition of the terms we understand what
056the principles are involved we create Solutions about learning behaviors and and we avoid them and us whether it's parents teachers Board District we get rid of those languages and we talk about our community so for me those are some the observations I've come across by attending these meetings and again I thank you for letting me be involved in that one of the things that we've discovered is from our assessments we found that the district should focus our recommendations on four areas strategic plan as it relates to diversity inclusion diversity inclusion and Prof profal development those four areas directly align with what Ed element came up with and the steering committee came up with those four areas under strategy would be operational systems under diversity it would be human centered support under inclusion it would be
057access and opportunities and under professional development it would be centered around this idea of learning experiences learning experiences for not only students but for teachers and Educators as well so for us we are hopefully looking at creating and working with the District working with the cabinet members with your approval to create some type of professional development around diversity equity and inclusion this training would meet the criteria that the state board has come up with it would be aligned to your mission value Mission your vision your values it would be aligned to your strategic plan it also would be aligned to standards of principles in the industry and meet your objectives and so our hope is to take this time in conjunction with your strategy to start developing that plan and what that looks like it's
058working with the cabinet and then coming back and getting your approval working with stakeholders including parents in this initiative to create what type of training do we need to have with that our Focus would be creating training around these areas it's very important to look at what diversity inclusion really is and focus on the principles and the competencies like collaboration Trust conflict resolution problem solving psychological safety inclusion valuing diversity emotional intelligence accountability building networks effective communication uh etc etc etc so our Focus would be Unity equity and belonging that's should be the focus of the professional development finally our hope is to educate from the top down culture is created by leaders and what leaders allow Our Hope is to First work with the cabinet members principles and assistant principles educate them and get their
059mind share around three topics diversity inclusion psychological safety and building trust and collaboration and it's through these trainings with the cabinet and the principles that eventually we will evolve the professional training that would go to teachers Educators uh throughout the district we're proposing that we meet monthly with the cabinet in principles and assistant principles to start getting their mind share around this so that when we're ready to roll out professional development we have on board principles and vice principles who can act as coaches and mentors for rolling out professional development again if the leaders are the ones that dictate or control cultures how can we roll out a professional development to teachers and Educators if the principal cabinet board is not on board so our suggestion is to work with them first and then roll
060down training from there finally um our hope is to make sure that we're staying in compliance with state board regulations also that we are coming back and getting permission from this board to say here's what we're doing but also to make sure parents and the community is much aware of what we're doing as well if we don't have a common language that the community understands diversity inclusion still is a very charged word so our hope is to make sure we're establishing first definitions and a com common language for us all to understand then we can move forward that's what we've been doing that's my observations any questions statements concerns super intendent yeah just one clarification and Kevin referenced this the the state rule that he's referencing is uh 2773 28 so um that was uh
061I believe passed in August by the state board and uh it's really a great foundational tool to set out those definitions um my understanding is that the State Board is also in uh planning or preparing to release some type of uh model policy and Guidance with that so it I think it aligns nicely with what Kevin is proposing along with our strategic visioning plan that those things uh come together so just make note of that for the public that that's rule 328 yeah thank you and then also the the training or the professional development when that's finalized and that needs to come before the board for approval before it's actually implemented correct that's the why it's also important for us to work with the cabinet and principles and assistance in establishing languages that we all
062understand so that when we eventually rule it out we not only have your approval but it's been socialized within the schools and it's been socialized as well other comments Mrs nbow thank you for being with us Kevin a few questions and thank you for all this preparation as well um slide six talks about psychological safety results and as I recall you had all of us in internally fill out these surveys and in your presentation a few board meetings ago uh it was Illustrated that many people within the district maybe do not feel psychologically Al safe to think outside of the box create new things so I just wanted to clarify that this that slide on slide six talking about psychological safety is actually within the governance and within the leadership of the district that's where
063we got those results from correct with your survey that is correct okay just wanted to clarify that and then slide eight you mentioned a software uh s works is introducing the district project management software to align vering inclusion efforts with Canyons tenants and strategies can you talk a little bit more about that yes one of one of the things that we're hoping to introduce and of course once we share with the cabinet come back and get your approval it's a software that would connect all your diversity inclusion initiatives with your strategic objectives so that they're aligned the problem that many organizations fall is they create this diversity inclusion initiative but it's separate from your strategic plan and this software connects them so that everyone knows what's going on so so as we're working on diversity
064inclusion initiatives there we can all see how it aligns to each strategic objective so you have four areas and so this the the system that we would like to introduce or share with you allows every member on the board every principal every teacher will see that as the diversity Community is working in its real time what work they're doing that's associated with teacher Excellence or associate with uh governance or associated with uh student test scores so it just is a software that aligns dni strategies or dni work with your strategic objective once that's complete well this software would be operated by District administrators would it be teachers as well what what's the vision for that the vision is it would be operated by the cabinet okay and then the cabinet you would have users that
065the principls would would be a user that they can go on and see how what they're doing as schools associate with the district you all would be users so everyone would one of the problem that we have is communication and being transparent It software allows for everyone in the system that you say should have authorization would see what's going on and how it's aligned to the strategy so you determine who the users are but we're recommending that the principles and assistant administrators administrators would be definitely have access to it but you determine who has access to it okay and then so in a further meeting you'd be showing us this correct okay I I think I have two more questions I wrote down um okay slide 12 mentions moving away from traditional diversity and inclusion
066training to a transformative process that leads to impactful behavior change empathy um inclusive Equitable practices uh just a question on that how would that be measured or what would be the metrics what would what could we anticipate for that measurement how we're going to see that thank you so much for asking that question I appreciate that yeah traditional methods focus on oppressed versus oppressor it focus on shame guilt uh we want to move away from that and when you when you're going into a room and talking even with youth about this idea of what racism is or what um how do we all belong you want to use statements that don't isolate people I was in a classroom when my teacher was talking simple history class the teacher says say we're now going to talk
067about black history Kevin do you want to share anything instantly when she said my name I became different than everyone else uh even when you're talking about the idea of slavery uh you don't have to use the terms white versus black uh and I and what it is is getting away from those traditional ways of teaching so it's more inclusive so that people don't feel as if you don't ever want a student to feel as if because I'm white I'm the reason I'm the problem or I'm creating racism so you use terms that are are more inclusive and make it safe for people to learn and so when I say get away from traditional ways I mean get away from those traditional ways of causing blame guilt shame we want to deal with reality because
068that's one of the things that the survey says that we're not dealing with real you want to deal with reality but you deal with it in a way that's inclusive and inviting and allows us to come together and not alienate us okay and so perhaps like a measurement would be then another survey as far as people psychological safety and feeling that everyone feels a part of exactly so we have a a standard right now from the leadership uh it's introducing to the teachers possibly if you're teaching a lesson on anything how do I gauge whether I'm I'm teaching it correctly so it is given assessment there's several assessments that very simple assessments that people can use to gauge am I creating safety for others and it's introducing those resources to two Educators so they can
069choose which one's appropriate and which one's not appropriate but yet it is through assessments of how safe do I feel thank you so much for that explanation one last thing on slide three we talk about your slide says um the system implements a process to continuously assess its programs and organizational conditions to improve student learning and then talks about three ways to improve student learning which is Diversity Awareness and understanding inclusion and safety and organiz organization systems impacting um diversity and inclusion standards so um just a thought is when we're talking about continually assessing our programs to make sure we're improving student learning it might be th those three uh bullet points that you provided are very important but are not the full picture there's other ways to assess our programs and make sure we're
070boosting our student learning so just a thought I thought oh it would be good to say these are three ways yes but that's not a comprehensive list so that was just a side comment but thank you for your explanations and I think we that was very provided a lot of clarity and and I'm excited about no I appreciate your questions that means in my I'm taking it as you value the information you're listening and I appreciate that thank you thank you thank you Mr Wrigley first off I I'm am concerned I'm more blue than orange so I don't know if we I don't know if we could take an assessment I don't know what color I as this B but can I say one thing Stephen you have orange in you it's just bringing it
071out so you have it in bring it out the the other thing I just want to say how I impressed I am with and I think I may have said this a while back just with your your philosophy and your method of going out there about this a lot of school districts the country are being torn apart right now and I think the major issue is is because they're focusing on issues and issues need to come forth to the board but they need to transform themselves after issues and I really liked and if we could as a district actually use this philosophy uh focus on the outcomes not just the issues so when people bring forth issues then we need to s what's the outcomes we need to do I really like this alternative and
072perhaps we should send you back to Washington on seeking a third alternative that is principle based and focused on Solutions so I think we spend a lot of time if the this District's going to move forward and we're not going to get caught up with all the current issues and additional issues going on across the country that I think if we follow these principles you're talking about I think we're going to be a much better district and I think a much better board because we'll get something done productively other than having us and and PE and our constituents arguing against each other that we actually try to get Solutions and not ignore the issues but address the issues in a manner that you're saying so I really appreciate this move and I think some of
073the stuff I'd really love to see this foundationally put within the district uh as issu come forth on other stuff that were solution focused and that we actually are able to move forward in a Time rather than tearing us apart to bring the district together which has been the hard Poore of this last year I just felt this being torn apart and I think you're giving us a solution that might work well with this whole issue on equity and how to address it but also this whole issue on how to move forward on some very serious issues that are coming against our country and even our area here here thank you Stephen we're like-minded individuals and that's why I think it's important for us to work with the principles and even work with schools before
074we roll out a major things so that we have teachers and principles everyone thinking in these terms so thank you very much thank you Mrs Oaks so I am fascinated by the four lenses and where we come out as a district and I'm just curious um from your professional opinion do organizations function most ideally when those um four types are balanced yes they do okay they do it but here's the key when they're balanced it's obvious when they're not balanced it requires the majority to understand the importance of empathy and understand the importance and value the other perspectives because they can lean because everyone has all perspective in you it's a matter of bringing it out so either it needs to be balanced or we need to get the majority understand the importance of listening
075to the minority so I'm curious if part of the work that we might be engaging with a district with you by the way I am very impressed also and um I love seeing how your findings aligned with what came out of our accreditation and also what's come out of strategic planning I find that to be F say is that we're focusing on principles yeah we're not focusing on what we think needs to be happening we're focusing on what data is telling us applaud you for that well and and so for that reason I'm very excited to see how to be able to bring this all together to have a common language to have a common resource um of of being able to get everyone on the same page and have that transparency there I'm just
076curious and when we're talking about the four lenses whether or not conversations and maybe this is a question for the superintendent um will be had with administrators or with HR about making sure that we're doing a better job of gathering a a balance of perspectives I'd love to see more orange Amber was teasing me she said I think you might be orange a little bit because I care a lot about creativity but that is s extremely important in an organization so I I think it's just food for thought for yeah and I appreciate I appreciate um I don't know if I should throw this out there but the principal of cascade no Crescent reached out to us and asked us what we provide that training for her her school so they can understand the different
077perspectives and how to work together and we're hoping that'll be a model for other schools that we can go and help them because as you said once they have a Common Language and understand oh we're dominant in this area maybe that's why we're not thinking outside the box and being creative and so I hope we have an opportunity to go around per school and introduce this concept to them so they all can see uh that perspective because it's a difference between telling someone and letting them discover themselves and especially in diversion inclusion instead of telling someone and letting them discover themselves it goes a long way when they discover it themselves thank you this is exciting this is is really great and we appreciate your work and your willingness to to merge your work with
078the work that we've been doing with accreditation and our strategic planning and I think that the outcome of all of this will be more successful and stronger for the districts so we have to make it work the alternative is worse yeah yes so thank you so we will look forward to a report back in a in a couple of months I guess when you have an outline for the professional development for us to review we'll also report back on how it's going cabinet and principles and schools as well okay thank you sounds great thank you okay next item is um a look at 2022 legislative priorities um so I will turn the time over to Mr Charlie Evans director of external relations I've asked Susan to come up with me too I hope that's okay
079okay she's going to pass out our updated tracker I just want to say as she's doing that how much I have personally enjoyed uh the sunlight training every time is this on is this catching me every time I listen to Kevin and Al I learned something and it's been very helpful I really appreciate their involvement with our district um this is not the first version but probably the first version all of you guys are seeing of our 2022 legislative tracker um and we waited and printed it out and hand it up to you so that it would be up to date and they published at least two bills since we printed that about an hour ago so they're coming at us um they started slow but they're coming at us Fast and Furious I think
080everybody here understands and has used our tracker before um and so uh be happy to answer any questions about that as far as our legislative priorities um you know we've been doing this every year and our legislators have come to expect it from us I've had a number of legislators ask me for it this year and so we're um excited to get those handed out uh I believe that we have Incorporated all of the suggestions from the different board members if we haven't uh if this current version that you see on board docs does not reflect something that you've tried to communicate to us if you'll let us know we will certainly um attempt to to incorporate it uh before we print it but we would like to print this as soon as tomorrow we're
081meeting with our legislative delegation on the 11th which is next Tuesday next Tuesday uh and we would you know like to hand this out to them at that time and so without laboring the point anymore I'd be happy to take any questions thank you um Mrs Oaks hi thank you so much I really really like it I think it looks great I just have one suggestion um with regard to the section on School grading um it says we support an accountability system that measures how well individual schools are meeting the needs of students based on multiple indicators of Student Success I think it actually needs to be spelled out other than um standardized testing because correct me if I'm wrong I mean currently the school grading system is completely based off of the rise test
082is that correct I don't know if it's accurate to say completely but it is does have an outsized impact for sure did you repeat the wording you said so I'm just reading this se you say other than or an addition well I'm just thinking um if if we say that they are meeting the needs of students um based on multiple indicators of Student Success other than standardized testing so other than yes okay did you get that okay I think it'll help just spell it out because I think it could easily be misinterpreted oh they're fine with it the way it is that's a good point we'll make that change other thoughts um let's see I I think everyone has thoughts so so let's uh we'll start with M okay we'll go this direction yeah mine's
083pretty simple um if I look at these legislative uh priorities and I look at the usba legislative priorities they match up pretty well without being identical but I think that sends a strong message that what Canyons is asking for is in line with what other school districts in the state are looking to have happen as well and so I think I find that a big positive I I I think it's when we're all have the same message we are much more effective and um our I don't want to use the word enemies but people that that we often find oursel and opposition have learned in recent years that the way to run us over is to divide us up and you beat us in detail um and so I I I agree with you uh
084the one area the one area where we don't necessarily disagree with usba but we are going to have a conflict with some of our other school districts as with in the idea of with um Equity funding and you know uh this I think we've talked about it in these meetings before we have a really concerted effort both from our from not only the speaker and the president but now our governor who campaigned on that issue um is hot on that too and so that is going to be a very important thing that um will will divide the education Community to some degree if I could interject something here that I meant to say at the very beginning um which um you guys guys will want to know I had I was at a breakfast this
085morning with the Republican Senate um leadership and as you would have expect uh the state budget came up and because they are going to be a wash and a surplus and um the question came up how they intend to use that Surplus and one thing they said which I think we should all remember and be cognizant of is that their view is and their fiscal analyst view is that a large part of that Surplus is due to federal spending uh with checks that gone directly you know Co checks that have gone directly to people and other types of Federal Aid that have propped up the economy and so a lot of this money that would normally be treated as ongoing money they are going to look at it as one-time money for a couple years
086until this Federal money dries up and so um I I I say that um I I do believe that they mean that and that they intend to do that that will obviously affect us directly um you know you know the things that they specifically mentioned or that they were planning to use the money for one-time expenses or buildings and transportation and so those are two things that we don't necessarily benefit from um as a district obviously as citizen we would benefit from it so how much of that they're going to you know slice off and say and treat it as onetime money I don't know they wouldn't put number numers to it but I I do think the their rationale for doing it does make some sense the question is just going to be how
087much and so I meant to share that as I came up and I wanted to share so that in case Charlie one other thing before it moves on down the line from me I really appreciate the part in the Equity Fund equity and funding where we are looking for an inflationary increase on the certified tax rate uh I think we're finally getting to the point where we're starting to get some attention on that we've been pushing that for many years now and you know we I don't want to overpromise here because we're not about to get that in this legislative session I don't think but we are beginning to get some traction as you're pointing out there are legislators um and uh that up there who recognize the need for that um I will and
088I'm he's not the only one but I'm going to mention him because he was going to be representing a part of our district he doesn't now as Senator Ander from Over the Mountain he's going to have a once uh the next election occurs he will have just a small sliver our district he's one that has advocated for that and said so on the senate floor on a number of occasions and so we are beginning to get some traction on that point I still think we're a number of years away but we are making progress thank you Mr shill okay um I think it looks really great there there is one thing um that is in usba usbe and the governor's budget that is not on here and that is the 50 million in funding to
089reduce the cost of curricular fees and I know um I know you don't have a ton of space but I kind of wanted to just talk about it as a board so that you know that whether we support that or we don't because that is something that is out there being I got I got your check today and I didn't quite understand it I meant to ask but yeah that's what it's about that would be good information to have because it is something we will be asked about okay so um so I don't know if there's space but there's that and um do you want to describe a little bit more about what that is so well Leon can help me but we're asking for um 50 million in curricular fees to offset all the
090fee waivers that we have but it will just only cover curricular fees and that's the um the different Financial administrators that's what they figured is about average for the whole state for all the districts so we're asking for that and that would just come in the wpu they would just dump that in that's my understanding the current thinking anyway yeah Leon I don't know if you have any more to explain about that but um and superintendent also has I'll just I'll turn it over to Leon too one thing with that too remember they moved um devices from uh equipment to curriculum so that would also be involved in that but I I think from the beginning they' we've really underestimated the loss in fee waiver I mean that and that's been an issue that go
091runs deep so I think any help with with that would be awesome but go ahead Leon I just want to make that yeah we could throw you those numbers we went over those when we went over our school fees back in November but that would be that'd be a big help 5050 55 million a percent and a halfish roughly of the wpu is what I think they're calculating there uh it would there yeah that would be a benefit it's also administrative burden for our office staffs to track all these fees so would there's cost to us collec there's yes there's there's costs to us to administer all these fees as well so that's challenging that would free up some of our office staff to do other things that our principles are really struggling with with
092in other areas so it's a it's a big ask and it's you know it has to be ongoing of course right we just can't do it this year it has to be ongoing so uh interesting how it plays out yeah how how it's received okay and then um one other item was and we have it on there it's just the capital the capital piece because that is also in usbe and usba and the governor so I just kind of want to make sure that we know what we would want to spend it on it doesn't need to be listed on there but we need to be able to talk about that as okay if we got money for Capital this is what our district would use it for and I think Leon has a plan
093for that also yeah when we went over our uh just quickly don't want to take too much time because we'll have to meet more on this but uh you know went over our small Capital few months or a couple meetings ago we always have far more needs than we have dollars and so this will help I think part of what we're going going to see at the legislature too is an effort to uh to help districts who have schools with unreinforced masonry uh which certainly we support uh but our taxpayers have already paid to reinforce ours and it's not would not be fair for them having done that to also pay to have it done in other districts too and so we'll be uh fighting for Equity you know for districts who have taken the
094initiative to do that I don't know how that's going to go but that is one of the priorities I have anyway okay that sounds great thank you thank you uh Mr Wrigley yeah I appreciate first off this is right on especially with the comments that we have this is not only just be the legislative priorties from the district and the board but it would be nice if they'd be legislative priorities of our constituents and our patrons um and so I'm going to talk about that in a second because I think we've have 129 educational bills right now I just and we haven't even got into the session what do you think we'll have before the session ends as far as filing on educational bills 250 250 different regulations from that and of that how many
095of these are message bills and super Schoolboard bills about 245 of them so I mean there's a real issue that we all we're moving towards local control I think we have a lot of bills I don't think the the public understands the amount of bills that are are pushed every year through this the legislature session and some are very good some are super Schoolboard bills which actually go beyond what they should be doing um is there this document is really important is there a way that we can get this out to people we will share that with anybody who wants well I'm I'm thinking like the AARP and the other organizations frequently have a way to push stuff to people so that people how many subscribe to that do you know Susan a lot we
096have we have over a thousand so maybe if we just put out an email message under PE jar or something to tell people that there are ways that they can get involved because we have a lot of parents that are very politically involved involved in the school district and it would be very helpful to have their support on this process rather than just the board meeting with their legislators and stuff yeah we uh have always had an RSS feed that we ask people to sign up before we send that messaging out to all of our ptas uh and train their legislative VIP on how to know our roles and so then they pass on to theirs as well as their PTA uh priorities which are different um and then we send out the message to
097our sec's we put it out in our newsletters Kirsten and Jeff always share that and then we have the link on the website that says this is how you share then whenever we go to community meeting such as the South Valley Chamber or some of the other meetings we always share this and have okay I just just if there's some way we can just in general get it out to absolutely all of our individuals and I noticed like ARP and others organizations have um text messages because nobody reads emails nowadays uh but text messages that go out because I'm ass sure it's typically what happens on the board we get the stuff said this is what happening they're changing it tonight tomorrow morning you have to give your comments in because they're going to make
098it so we need to have an organizational structure sort of like they have on some of the ARP and other groups in the area that would be helpful to get this out to our parents who help advocate for us because a lot of times we're seen as as being a conflict of interest when we are advocating for we do our call to action separate from that and the reason we do the call to action separate is we want everybody to feel comfortable using this and and um I think it it is get it gets used far and wide outside of our district now it has so much information on it I think it really is the best source of Education only let legislation that there is yeah I think a lot of our parents follow
099a lot of stuff but I don't know if they're aware of this stuff that could affect their children even more than any of the other issues that they may be concerned about some of these issues are fundamental and once they get into law it's almost too late to do anything so yeah if we can sort of focus and move that direction involve our our constituent patrons I think this is a good time to do that as much as we possibly can thank you're bet thank you thank you Mrs sow thank you thank you for the spreadsheet I saddened by some of the things on here um you know we just talked about 250 bills attached to leas and I I know we we struggle a little bit with too much overregulation when some things we've
100already gotten place and it's just Overkill a little bit but anyone who's talked to me at some length probably knows what I'm going to bring up I have talked to a few senators and representatives who are also interested in this and I've debated back and forth whether I want to put this out there because of the timing but I'd really be interested when we look at our legislative priorities and we look at school safety and wellness supports and curriculum I can't help but think can't we Lobby for a little stronger resolution than the one in 2019 regarding school safety and digital citizenship responsibilities for leas and school community councils and Charter trustland councils especially in light of all that we've gone through in this last year with the tick tock devious tricks and licks December
10114th when that was a nationwide problem you know we're traveling and other states having the exact same issues sending messaging and kids not going to school bring a gun to school day bring a gun to school day and I think what better time than now maybe now's the time that we need a Lobby for you know why not have a digital citizenship class that's a semester long and help these kids have some tools in their toolboxes to understand what it looks like if there's a pedophile online what it looks like if they take a picture and they shouldn't be and what's the long-term ramifications how to stop and even a priority to to hold some of these social platforms accountable and say this is a huge disturbance to education Nationwide so that would be something
102I'd be really really interested in something we can make the cut certainly great yes thank you you know can I just interject here this the stuff we do is not limited to what is on this card yes these are the things that um once we leave here tonight that we would portray to legislators are our priorities but they're not the only things that we will prioritize great during the legislative session great and I think that that actually goes into three of your priorities that are on that card and I and I think I've garnered some good support with other legislators that would be interested in pushing that forward I think something pretty significant is going to happen with that this year great thank you thank you Mrs Arnold I just want to thank both of
103you for all the work you do because there's no way I could keep up with this without you it's just impossible and because I can look at it and then I can key in on the things that I need to key in and and I have that opportunity to have that open door to you I just really really appreciate that I can't tell you how much it means to me thanks and we love to receive Communications from board members especially during U the legislature and I hope that none of you guys will hesit take to contact us or to ask us questions or if you're afraid that we're not aware of something because things happen up there all the time that we're not aware of uh to let us know um we love to hear
104from you guys and more often than not I have I shouldn't say more often than not but it has happened regularly that I've heard stuff from board members about things that are happening at the capital that I had not heard of before so if you have information or you think you have information or you wonder if I've or Susan have heard about something please let us know we'd rather find out from you guys and not know at all we always try to act like we know call thank you and and I just want to remind the board too that um during the session we invite uh Charlie and Susan to come to each board meeting and give us an update and if there are specific issues or bills that are being worked on there that
105you need feedback from the board that that's an opportunity as well for for us to give you some feedback and Direction on things uh throughout the session and um yes and as as Charlie said if if you want to go up there and hang out with them for for the day they will keep you busy yeah we'd love to have any of you guys and it is a good a really great experience um okay any any other thoughts or I just want to summarize so on on the uh curricular fees were we going to add that to this document or is it just um some direction that they have now to respond to any conversations on that I thought we would Mo I thought we' modify the document to include that more specifically okay okay
106if there's space that would be great and and then about the digital citizenship as well we can do that if you guys want us to I mean that is going to be something we work on and there's no reason not to include it if you want that want it there thought thoughts on that mrss so I think digital citizenship is definitely very important the question is do we need to provide any sort of specific guidance on what kind of a bill we're looking for whether it's it's particular funding to support those efforts requirements that the schools or the sec's have follow certain guidelines or expectations I'm just curious what Miss Nar was thinking along those lines well if you look at the 2019 resolution I just think it needs to be a lot stronger I
107think there's too much it's it's very general it's left up to you know a lot of schools it's it's the librarian putting together a few things in newsletters and I think I think having a class and saying our state's going to lead the nation and we recognize this is a large problem and probably a tier one support for social emotional health for all of our students and and have a semester long class so that these kids have have these tools and can recognize I think you know we've had the research for decades Wall Street Journal has been running this expose for the last six months of the dangers of Tik Tock for all negative teen behaviors and Facebook and and now it's going to be the metaverse I just think it's forward thinking too and
108especially with the threats to school safety and violence so that I mean that's what I'm kind of thinking of but so to clarify you're you're thinking of a specific resolution from the legislature to anour pass one in 2019 they did and and if I understand what you're saying Holly is that you think that that should be uh strengthened and and uh have more robust uh language behind it requiring more of school districts to teach that maybe in a semester long course is that what you're saying yes so it can I yeah um just just a thought on this as far as in here just maybe try and add a phrase just recognizing the value of digital CI citizenship and then and then as bills come up then we can respond and address to what is
109being proposed rather than us trying to find the solution for the whole state excuse me I didn't mean to talk over here I think that's a good approach because there's going to be a number of these bills and I suspect that there will be some that we like and some that we don't like and um we can talk about those it would be my intention and plan to talk about those as I meet with you guys on a Susan I meet with you guys on a weekly or every time you meet won't be weekly but as we meet together during the session and of course you know anything that would come up along our priorities uh we would make you guys aware of it uh outside a board meeting especially if we needed guide guidance
110from it on it and so this is something we were planning to watch and of course we will continue to to watch and but I do think it's going to be a big issue and I I like the idea of not saying specifically what it is but I like including in that language not only do we support but we would ask an advocate for a strengthening of that resolution that we recognize that there's a greater need than what we currently have if that's something everyone's comfortable with um thoughts go ahead I don't like the idea of having a semester long class on digital citizenship for many reasons and pro you know right off the top I don't know that there's enough information out there to teach a class on dig digital citizenship for an entire
111semester number two we've had the uh debate so many times out in your area about what happens when we put another class in and take an elective away uh and that's where you go with that one and so I would be totally supportive of picking a class where digital citizenship is taught and maybe they get a couple of days of that but an entire semester I'm just really struggling getting there on on that well and I think that courses and especially if they're required courses are in the realm of the State Board of Education and so I think our our advocacy should be along the lines of the value of digital citizenship and working together as a state to promote those qualities and those I would expect any requirement that uh would it would be
112that specific as you guys are talking about would come in through rulemaking out of the C board as a result of legislation um and you know so that's something that we would have to watch and pay attention to after the after a bill pass as the State Board would take it up in Ru making would be my expectation okay U Mrs shill and then Mrs Oaks okay so um I totally agree that it's really important that we emphasize it but I think that's something we can do as a district and we have to be really careful about anything we ask from usbe or even from the legislature because that just means more work more money more reports and so I just I think we need to be careful I'm I'm fine seeing how we feel
113is important but I don't think we should ask for a class so Charlie I know we had a previous conversation when a ver board leadership meanings it was not long after one of these Tik tock incidents and um the conversation was about whether or not the state legislature is having the conversation about Tik Tock and some of these other social media Outlets that are promoting these types of behaviors um you know one of the things that you mentioned is that's going to have to really come probably from a federal level in order to be able to make a real difference I'm curious though if any of those if you're hearing of any of those conversations up on the hill or from any state legislature at all well there will be legislators that try to take
114measures like you're describing there but they will be told by their Council that they can't do it in terms of prohibiting it or regulating it if I understood what you were saying and you were alluding to the fact that anything like that would have to come at the federal level and that's what they will be told by their attorneys as well and so what I would expect from them is um language guidance and possibly even some money uh on how to deal with what is happening on social media rather than any attempts to regulate social media itself because I they they will be strongly discouraged from doing that by their Council if I if I understood your yeah well I know part of the conversation we had was the unbelievable waste of public resources with
115that whole thing especially when some of our schools had to close down because the threats of gun violence or you know not knowing what would happen there I'm just curious and maybe this is a question for our attorney Dan but um whether or not any discussion has ever be had whe whether or not there would ever be a lawsuit or that something that you know a company like tiktock could be sued because of how inflammatory some of what they've done in the causation I think would be hard to establish but I'm curious whether or not any discussion would ever happen in a resolution where you could actually put figure of any kind to express how much waste of public resources there's been as a result of that that's a good question I think Dan probably
116better person to answer that but I have not heard any conversation about any potential lawsuit at the legislature or from the legislature doesn't mean it hasn't occurred or that it won't occur during the session I just haven't heard it yet okay um Mrs Arnold um just reflecting what everybody was saying I think there's things we can do as a school board ourselves um too about digital learning and I really think that the superintendent did a great job on um December 17th of communicating out to parents what would happen to those students if they chose to do that and I think that that's probably something we need to take back um as a board and take a look at in our um committees and then also as a board to say what do we want to
117do because there are ways to add that to our curriculum right now that we can do that we're free to do and um and no not make mandates to the to state but take it into our own hands too okay thank you all right so we appreciate you so much and all the work that you've done so far and that you will do in the session we know we know what that's like and we appreciate it well thanks we're all beginning to drink from the fire hose as we speak I think I mentioned earlier I want to make sure you guys all know that you're invited we're having a lunch in here with our legislative delegation next Tuesday we usually have very good attendance a couple times we've had every one of them there I
118don't know if we'll have everyone this time but we usually have very good attendance because I think they see it as valuable we get out a lot of valuable information to them we'll hand them this for one thing and so any of you guys that want to come or interested to come we'd love to have you this next Tuesday great thank you so much all right um so board we have kind of run overtime a little bit so I will propose that we move items 2D and 2E into new business could I just ask one question I'm sorry me interrupt do you guys want to see this again before we go to print is that all right we can we'll make the change that was suggested here and then go to print with it okay
119thank you thank you okay so item two d and e will now become or I'm proposing that they become item8 C and D is everyone okay with that okay we we will take a very short three minute break thank you back I'm good good evening everyone I'd like to welcome those of you here in the boardroom with us and those of you that are joining online to the business meeting of the Canyon's Board of Education today is January 4th 2022 and we are meeting at the district office located at 9361 South 300 East in Sandy Utah so um our first item is to approve the agenda for tonight's business meeting and I will ask for motion and please in making that motion um indicate the adjustment to the agenda I'd like to make that motion
120I'd like to make motion that we approve the January 4th 2022 agenda but with slight modifications under the study session item D will be moved down to 8 and become C and item D in study session will be moved down to eight uh B new business number a to become number D I think I said that right okay I yeah just I'll just reiterate item 2D and 2E will become items 8 C and 8 d d yes okay that's correct all right thank you for the motion is there a second to the motion I'll second it thank you any discussion to this motion all right seeing none we'll call for a vote all in favor say i i i any opposed okay that motion passes thank you uh we will now be led in the
121Pledge of Allegiance um and then here's some school highlights from Park Lane Elementary principal Justin Jeffrey thanks will the audience please arise please repeat the Pledge of Allegiance with me 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 please be seated I have to tell you something random and funny my daughter when she would come to the school and volunteer she learned the pledge she memorized it and it always included please be seated at the end so it's part of the Pledge now to me um greetings from Park Lan Elementary the gy at the heart of Canyon school district at least that's my opinion um I love and appreciate my opportunity to be
122the principal of such a special school um I hope you'll allow me to deviate from my originally prepared notes to tell a story from just yesterday um our school Community was tried and tested a bit as we experienced multiple setbacks with the start of the school of the 2022 school year it began over the weekend actually our little building began showing some signs of its age and uh a water man or a water line broke um sending water spewing him to the ceiling and down all over in a maintenance room um luckily due to an alarm the security was involved and uh with my custodian happened to be there on Saturday removing snow and he was able to turn off the water and uh prevent any further damage going on from that that would have
123been fine if there that was my only emergency phone call over the weekend as it was it was just the beginning um to the crazy weekend that involved finding out that I had a few staff members out with covid others that were sick and another that wasn't going to make it back on time due to it delayed or cancelled flight it seemed like every other text on my phone was another teacher or staff member letting me know that they weren't going to make it on Monday it was setting up to be a disaster Monday morning came and sure enough we were without water but another shock came when our heat wasn't working ding due to the system being offline without heat water and multiple staff members you might think we'd have sunk I'm happy to
124report that we most certainly did not we were able to fill positions with substitutes student teachers and interventionist we had HVAC workers and plumbers come early and work steadily to get our heat and water flowing we had a team of District support providing communication getting supplies for students figuring out an alternative lunch choice and moving forward getting portable potties for students to use it was stressful but really cool to see the response and the team pulled together but you know what my absolute favorite thing was that it was surreal because I would go down the hallways and I would check on the classrooms and learning was still going on it was almost like they didn't know the whole chaos that was going on in my life wasn't in the classroom it was wonderful learning continued
125as normal and it it was just it was wonderful to walk into these classrooms and see uh things that were just continuing on students were learning and at the end of the day I ended up speaking with multiple teachers who said that their room just continued um like nothing else was wrong sure the coats and jackets were worn a little bit longer and some kids had to hold use in the restroom for just a little bit but we survived and we survived without any accidents we survived without any parents having to come and pick up their students early and I think we even survived without anybody using any of those Honey Buckets because the water got back on it was great um it was a cool day that really demonstrated how well we can pull
126together in these crazy times um I don't imagine that Park Lane is entirely unique with pulling together through crisis um as we all have through covid but this is such an amazing place and it's uh complete with the best student population I've ever seen a wonderful neighborhood community and fantastic Traditions as evidenced by the recent uh District article Park Lane is a school with special Roots where we love and care for every student that that enters into our doors and we work to together for the betterment of all children thank you so much principal Jeffrey we just appreciate and thank you for telling us about that Adventure you all had yesterday we were made aware of of that and so grateful it got resolved and that it didn't cause too much disruption to the day
127and and I know that many of the things that are happening are because of you and your staff and your leadership there so will you please extend our appreciation to all of them of course of course thank you thanks okay next is um we will turn time over to Jeff Haney and Kirsten Stewart from the Communications Department for some recognitions president tingy thank you for this time to recognize the achievements of students faculty and staff in the canyons District tonight for our recognitions we are recognizing a lot of people who have a lot to do with Athletics and academics it was uh interesting to me as I put together the list just the the link to academics and Athletics and how we are supporting our students however they choose to achieve and then of course
128we have folks like this our East Midville principal Matt Nelson he is our first Honore now he is a star whether in his office the hallways or the soccer field we wish him congratulations he's been named by Major League Soccer as one of just 27 Community MVPs from across the country only one hore was chosen per major league soccer team and that means that Mr Nelson above every other Real Salt Lake supporter was chosen to represent the values of the soccer club the headquarters of which is located within Canyon's District boundaries the nominees for these awards were considered for their efforts to make make their communities resilient and safe and the nominees ranged from Health Care Professionals Co coaches teachers principales truck drivers grocery store employees First Responders and many more now Mr Nelson knows
129the passion his students and his neighbors have for soccer and he's done a lot of work in his community to bridge the gap and make soccer accessible to many of his students he's worked with many local Youth Soccer Clubs to host fundraising drives clothing drives and skills clinics for Refugee and immigrant students now Mr Nelson is Relentless in making sure that his students have access to every resource they need to succeed in and out of theclass room now every Nationwide Community MVP as identified by Major League Soccer including Mr Nelson will receive a $2500 donation to a charity of their choice a customized MLS Jersey and an official match ball from MLS so congratulations to Mr Matt Nelson East Midel Elementary's principal for being just one of 27 Community MVPs by Major League Soccer from
130across the country also the Utah Jazz has selected one uh an East Midel elementary school as one of the mves as the most valuable educator congratulations to second grade teacher Rachel Teasley she is the second to educator in the canyons District to receive that mve award from the Utah Jazz it's it's also an award that's co-sponsored by instructure the company that creates canvas which is our online common Learning manag System that's used by Canyon's district schools now the mve award program celebrates teachers who make a difference in the lives of their students the recognition comes with an $1,000 classroom Grant it gets six tickets to a suite at a jazz game recognition during the game and a personalized Utah Jazz Jersey so congratulations to miss Teasley from East Midville Elementary the Utah Jazz most valuable
131educator our next honores are Mr Football and the sixa player of the year as named by the Deseret News they are Corner Canyon highs Cody Hagen and Devin Brown in the 25th anniversary of the award given by the newspaper Corner Canyon High student athlete Cody Hagen who also is the Utah Gatorade player of the year was named Mr Football in the past season he finished with 89 catches for 1,85 yards and 23 touchdowns the 1800 yards ranks third all time in a single season and his 23 TDs is tied for fifth in the state record list now on his career list he finishes second in state history with 51 total touchdowns fourth with nearly 4,000 career yards and 10th with 2011 career receptions the Deseret new is also honored to Devin Brown he's the quarterback
132at Corner Canyon High School he's the sixa player of the year and he finished the year with a single season state record of 4,881 yards with a nearly 70% accuracy rate that's 57 touchdowns and 14 intercep receptions The Versatile playmaker also ran for 430 yards as a reminder if you're watching TV this Saturday two of The 100 prep athletes chosen for the 22nd annual All-American Bowl come from Canyon school district Devin is one of those players and Lander Barton from Brighton High School is the other only two players from Utah were selected to play for the West team both of them are from Canyon School District the game is this Saturday at 11 o'cl on NBC or the streaming service peacock so crossing our fingers and giving three cheers to Lander and Devon hoping that
133they do an amazing job at the 22nd annual All-American bow also the Deseret News launched an award this year for all of their Sports they're giving humanitarian of the Year award and this year the very first award award given by the Deseret News for 5A girl soccer is soccer player mallerie Goodfellow from Alta High School now in addition to celebrating the achievements on the field this newspaper the newspaper has started a series of stories that cheer student athletes who give back to their communities and the world now ala's uh mallerie Goodfellow has won this inaugural humanitarian award among her contributions she helped plan and run events for the Make A Wish Foundation she oversaw events for the Utah Food Bank helped set up flags for the 911 healing Fields Memorial in Sandy and last summer
134she helped organized a toy and clothing drive for families in Guatemala and then while delivering the items she helped build houses and bunk beds she also donated her time at local schools has made blankets for Hospital newborns writes letters to soldiers on active duty and has planned a Halloween event at a family homeless shelter at Alta High School she's involved in peer tutoring peer leadership and she's the National Honor Society president and now she's the 5A girl soccer State humanitarian of the year so congratulations to Mard ala high school again uh is being honored tonight Gary Schneider who is the Utah girls golf coach of the year as named by the national Federation of State High School associations uh he was specifically nominated by the Utah high school Activities Association as a deserving recipient of
135this honor this year's honores were selected based on their coaching performance in the 2021 school year lifetime community involvement School involvement and philosophy of coaching so congratulations to coach Snider the Utah girls golf coach of the year who coaches the alah high Hawks we also want to remind everyone that yesterday was the day that you could start submitting nominations for the 2022 teacher of the year there is an online tool that our community can use to quickly submit any nominee of Any teacher who has more than one year of experience and we want to honor these teachers for the hard work and the dedication that they put in every single day to help our students rise to high levels of achievement if you just go to canyonsdistrict.org you find that little teacher of the year
136logo click on it you can then access the online nomination tool and really quickly send in any name of Any teacher you would like to see as the canyon District teacher of the year per tradition every teacher every school in Canyon's District chooses one teacher of the year from that field we winnow it down to three finalists a teacher of the year the elementary level the middle level and the high school level from those three finalists we select one overall teacher of the year and that person is then Canyon's District's nominee for the state and hopefully national teacher of the year honors the window closes February 4th but then we will uh recognize our overall teacher of the year on April 19th also we have expanded our testing protocols and the times that we have
137made available for our community uh to take advantage of our testing Center here at the district office we have a drive-thru testing previously it was on Mondays and Thursdays we'll now have it on monds Monday Wednesday and Friday this week next week and then the week of January 18th through the 21st we'll have testing on Wednesday and Friday from 6:30 in the morning to 8:30 we won't have testing on Monday that day because the district office will be closed in commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr holiday so if our community would like to take advantage of that extra day for us to um engage with them with the covid-19 testing we invite them to participate in this free service so president tingy thank you for the time to celebrate the achievements of Canyon's District
138we turn the time back to you thank you so much we really enjoy and appreciate the time that you take to share with us all these great achievements okay um we're now com to the patron comment portion of our meeting while not required to do by law the board often designates time in meetings to listen to the patrons of the district Please be aware that Patron comment time is limited to Residents and taxpayers of Canyon's District students and parents of students and current employees of the district patrons May provide board members with written documents these documents must be submitted to the board secretary at the meeting we here Cindy or email to the office of public Communications at communications canyonsdistrict.org by noon of the day following the board meeting time allotted for public comment is
139at the discretion of the board president tonight individuals will be given three minutes and those representing groups will be given four minutes comments made during Patron comment time are part of the public record it is the board 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 employes character professional competence or mental or physical health the board requests that those comments be submitted to the board in writing however if the patron determines to verbally comment on those Personnel issues the comments need to be civil and refrain from personal attacks insults defamatory or slanderous comments about an individual
140the Board of Education would like to make it clear that critical race theory is not part of the curriculum being used by Canyon school district there are no plans to incorporate it into the curriculum or instruction in Canyon schools the Board of Education values input on all sides of issues to maintain decorum and respect we ask that those in attendance refrain from Applause or other types of demonstrations during the patron comment time as well as throughout the meeting so thank you um this evening we've had we have six individuals that have signed up to address us um and I my understanding is they all are here in person that no one is planning to join us by telephone so we'll begin with Suzanne riches representing a group and then Maria Jones also representing a group
141and then Tamara Carlson representing a group Suzanne um I'm Suzanne riches I've been the teacher librarian at Hillcrest High School for about eight years um it's just been a wonderful time for me and I've really enjoyed working with those students tonight um I'm happy to represent the Utah library association with a statement um in support of school libraries and Librarians the Utah Library Association founded in 1912 and representing thousands of librarians and Library workers across state stands with parents teachers and school librarians and advocate ating for the health well-being and safety of all students we strongly support local school boards in the creation and following of policies that ensure School libraries have materials that support the Utah course standards for Education the Utah course standards identify a number of roles for school libraries including helping
142students one read to pursue intellectual personal and emotional growth for life and to make personal connections while respecting the right to read seek information and speak freely the core standards for grades 6 through 12 specify that libraries support independent readers by providing a variety of materials for informational and Leisure reading and that reading extensively strengthens stamina and broaden students Global Perspective the goal is to recognize individual students interests and needs and provide materials in a variety of formats genres and languages at various reading levels the standards further state that students need the lifelong skills of selecting information from a wide variety of resources preparing them for Learning and doing problem solving in college career and throughout life to ensure that school libraries support the inquiry based learning that Statewide standards call for it is imperative
143that school library collections continue to provide access to materials that reflect a variety of thoughts perspectives and experiences the targeted elimination of materials that reflect the authorship of experiences of anyone based on their race gender or sexual orientation is not only illegal but it puts Utah State students at a disadvantage academically and in the job market by failing to provide an education that provides them for success in an increasingly diverse and global economy we support policies that provide reasonable opportunities for parents to speak with teachers and Librarians about what is appropriate for their child and we Champion we Champion prudent procedures that allow for requests for reconsideration when there is concern that a book may not be AG appropriate most libraries have had these time- tested policies in place for a century and Librarians have
144strong records of listening and working with parents in taking appropriate actions in a respectful and responsive manner following the rules when library books are questioned rules which are passed by a board in an open public transparent and consultative manner protects the Constitutional freedoms of all parents and students and it also safeguards due process ensuring that no one parent group of parents or administrator can substitute their personal preferences biases or political agenda for the legitimate policies that exist to support official Statewide School standards and the success of all students school librarians are literary Arbiters that curate their col collections based on such legitimate policies and professional reviews and award lists this includes literature that reflects painful parts of Human Experience including violence abuse and discrimination to be clear pornographic material is not reviewed for selection as
145the these items only appeal to the prent interest of readers they lack serious literary scientific or artistic value labeling literature that addresses issues of race abuse gender or sexual orientations pornographic or scene fails to meet any state or federal standards and harms our students and helping students prepare for success in the world is what school librarians do there is a great deal of research that shows that students Thrive academically in the presence of well staffed and professionally run School libraries and that the effect is strongest for vulnerable and at risk students school librarians help stud develop a love of reading your time is up okay okay thank you I appreciate being able to do this tonight thank you very much uh Maria Jones Tamara Carl and then Tamara Carlson and then Jennifer Ben hofton hi
146my name is Maria Jones I'm the teacher librarian at Corner Canyon High School I'm representing all high school teacher Librarians in Canyon school district tonight we live in the information age this period of history is defined by the almost universal access to information provided by technology and the internet unfortunately our students lives include access to misinformation shared accidentally and disinformation shared with the intent to distract and deceive the proliferation of false information fueled by social media occurs at a rate six times faster than facts as information Specialists High School teacher Librarians teach students how to identify myths and disinformation and how to differentiate between facts and opinions we teach students to question the sources and motivations of messages they see and hear looking for verifiable Reliable and factual sources rather than unreliable inflammatory and often
147anonymous sources by teaching high school students how to safely navigate media messages teacher Librarians support the district's goal of preparing students to be productive and for members of their community and to be College and Career ready in addition to honing college readiness and critical thinking skills High School teacher Librarians teach inquiry and research skills useful in students everyday lives the ability to confidently research analyze organize and present information is an essential 21st century Collegiate and career skill in collaboration with classroom teachers these skills are taught reviewed and reinforced by teacher Librarians the discernment necessary to evaluate the volume of information at their disposal is a sign of a high school students maturity high school students Express discernment in their ability to self- select books with the school libraries collection High School library collections are curated
148with the intention of meeting the academic and social emotional needs of every student a book that may be of no interest to one student may be life-saving to another with over 10,000 books in each High School libraries collection we as teacher Librarians attempt to serve students who are preparing to graduate attend college or other educational opportunities work serve in the military travel to foreign countries and make a positive difference in the lives of others we hope that Canyon's graduates are more literate more empathetic more Discerning and more of everything their communities need because they had opportunities to access stories that acted metaphorically as mirrors Windows sliding doors overcoats anchors springboards Escape hatches and flying carpets we invite adults who hope the same thing for our high school students to join us in this great work
149having read the books of ered we know that the inflammatory language being used to describe these books has often been misapplied the Miss and disinformation spread on social media about these books and about our work are blatantly false and out of context the public dialogue around these nine books of concern shows little evidence that others have read all of these books in their entirety if at all had the district leadership expressed its concern directly to the teacher Librarians we could have worked together to determine the appropriateness of the content instead these books were censored violating the First Amendment rights of our high school students as Educators we try to practice what we teach we teach students to make decisions based on the best information available and as new information becomes available better informed decisions can
150be made a book on the Shelf holds no power the power always rests with a reader who has the ability to choose to read it or not helping students use their power of discernment to select a book that is just right for them is what we do every day teaching students how to use the best information available to make informed and sometimes life changing and life-saving decisions is a college and careity skill every Canyon student should have teaching these skills is what teacher Librarians do every day thank you thank you Tamara Carlson Jennifer van hofton and then Heather Erikson and let's see Tamara's representing a group I represent many of the par professionals who work as Library instructional technicians in Canyon's elementary schools as Canyon's Library staff who regularly serve the district's 20,000 ele elementary
151students we welcome the opportunity to work alongside parents and caregivers in developing their family of readers we encourage parents and caregivers to read to their children children who are read to at least three times a week by a family member are almost twice as likely to score in the top 25% in Reading compared to children who are read to less than three times a week the national Center for Education statistics found that children who were read too frequently are also more likely to count to 20 or higher than those who were not 60 versus 44% write their own names 54 versus 40% read or pretend to read if you as a parent or caregiver do not know what to read to your children or have limited access to books we can help identify titles of
152books that are popular with other children and families at your home school we encourage parents and caregivers to read with their children benefits of shared reading including fac facil facilitating enriched language exposure fostering the development of listening skills spelling reading comprehension and vocabulary and establishing essential foundational literal literacy skills shared reading is an invaluable social opportunity between parents and their children that Fosters POS positive attitudes toward reading if a parent or caregiver needs assistance obtaining books they want to read with their families we can help we regularly receive requests and recommendations from parents students and classroom teachers for titles of interest that they would like to be considered as new additions to their school libraries collections we encourage parents and caregivers to help their children find books they can read on their own and we
153can help each of the district's Elementary libraries houses approximately 10,000 books and their cataloges are now available through links on each of the school's websites we encourage parents to use atome access to the catalogs to identify books that their children would like to read how exciting it would be if each student arrived dur during their Library brain booster time enthusiastic about a book they had found with their family that is just best right for them as stated in a report from kids count uh quote reading proficiently by the end of third grade as measured by NA at the beginning of fourth grade can be a make or break Benchmark in a child's educational development up until the end of third grade most children are learning to read beginning in fourth grade however they are reading
154to learn using their skills to gain more information in subject such as Math and Science to solve problems to think critically about what they are learning and to act upon and share that knowledge in the world around them end quote during these critical early years of a child's education having access to books is essential for students and Paramount for families the Canyon's Elementary School libraries provide every student with access to a wide range of reading materials covering a myriad of topics we encourage parents to challenge their energy into creating their own family of readers and we are here to help thank you thank you Jennifer van hafton is representing a group and then Heather Erikson representing sou good evening my name is Jen van hafton and I represent the middle school teacher Librarians of the
155Canyon school district as Middle School school teacher Librarians Utah course standards dictate one of the primary focuses of our work which is to promote reading engagement by developing and providing access to representative collections our Middle School library collections support independent readers by providing a variety of materials for informational and Leisure reading our goal as Educators is to recognize individual students interests and needs and provide materials in a variety of formats genres and languages at varied reading levels in the middle school students reading levels can range from struggling to Soaring reading is the most important academic skill a student can learn while at Canyons yet according to data aggregated by niche.com 44% of Canyon students are still below proficient in Reading as a learning community our focus should be to put more books of Interest into
156the hands of more of our struggling students so that they can soar a student who can read confidently has the power to pursue intellectual personal and emotional growth throughout their entire life while a student may learn to read in the classroom a student practices reading in the school library and just like with athletic or musical Pursuits a student who practices reading is more proficient than their peers who do not research shows that students who read extensively at Young ages are cognitively stronger than their peers who do not read in a 2013 study on brain connectivity the researchers found that the reading of novels increase brain activity throughout the reading period and for days afterwards this reading induced activity involves a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain as the students reading ability improves
157those networks also get stronger and more sophisticated reading extensively builds stamina focus and other desirable academic skills such as vocabulary while we can all agree on the academic power of reading we must realize that for most of our middle school students access to reading materials occurs consistently and equitably in school libraries managed by teacher Librarians as those teacher Librarians we want to partner with our admin ad ministrators and fellow fellow Educators to support students as they cope with the effects of the pandemic research shows that reading for pleasure for as little as 30 minutes can reduce stress improve sleep and alleviate depression we invite adults concerned about the mental health of our teens and pre-teens in their lives to partner with us in finding books to help them find relief from the pressure of Social
158and electronic media and find the stories and information that will provide comfort and support in difficult times lastly readers are leaders reading builds empathy and broaden students perspective of the world around them we invite adults who Aspire for the students in their lives to work and serve in their communities and around the world to partner with us in developing the future's best hope local author Brandon mole once said during a recent interview I think if we get kids reading for fun it cures a lot of the literacy problems and it cures a lot of ignorance problems in the world if you make people into readers it exposes us to a lot of ideas M said I'm also trying to push them toward things that build imagination I think our greatest resource we have as a
159country is our imagination as Middle School teacher Librarians we agree that reading builds students imaginations allowing them to Envision the answers to many of society's problems working together we can change the false narrative about school librarians and libraries and promote the more accurate data supported reality that teacher Librarians and their work supporting and engaging student readers are essential to students academic Suess and emotional well-being thank thank you thank you heather Erikson and then um Senator Kathleen Rey my name is do I need no it's on my name is Heather Ericson I am a media technician at East Midville Elementary in the district I have worked in the library for 12 years and I would like to share with the board today the care that goes into building our Elementary School library colle ction I want
160our students to find a library full of Windows and mirrors in the books on our shelves the library is a place of Freedom where you can study and learn about a topic you desire as well as what you read in your free time I first and foremost look for books that are appropriate content and reading level for elementary age students flet Title Wave the vendor we buy most of our books from has in information regarding interest level and reading level for each Title tital Wave breaks interest level into grades K through3 3 3 through six and 5 through 8 as well as young adult and adult my primary focus is on the books that are in the K3 and 36 interest levels occasionally we will request a title in the 58 interest level but only
161if it is a title or author I am familiar with and feel adds to our collection and is appropriate for our students to find books for our library I listen to student and teacher recommendations I read blogs and book reviews I follow authors and Publishers on various forms of social media and I read to keep up on what is new and engaging our students speak 16 different languages in their homes one of the ways I work to have an inclusive collection is finding picture books and dictionaries in those 15 non-english languages when a student finds out we have a book in Arabic or Dinka or kin Rwanda their face lights up and they know they have a place in our library and in our school they know we were expecting them the same applies to
162ethnic backgrounds poverty disabilities and so on a student's teacher changes from year to year but the library stays with them while they attend the school and can be a place of security and consistency for a student I had one student that had been in and out of the road home shelter over several years and on one of his I am back again visits to the library he was touching the bookshelves and commenting on the books that we still had everything was not exactly as it had been but I learned how important any stability can can be and I make sure that we have books that help students dealing with these insecurities know that they are not alone I know there is a great deal of scrutiny about what is offered in school libraries but I
163am very comfortable with the care that goes into our collection and the mirrors Windows sliding doors skylights Etc that we have for our students to find themselves and others in as we learn about those that appear to be different from us the more we see what we have in common learning about others breeds kindness understanding and compassion thank you Senator [Music] Reby thank you my name is Kathleen Reby I am a teacher in Granite School District but my home district is granite uh Canyon school district um over the break I traveled all around the world because I read a great book about NATO and uh how it has been created and it a bu book and so I traveled all around the world I went to different countries and it was suggested to me by
164a librarian so I feel I should share that story with you um I want to thank you for your service uh I feel like that principal gave a great story about his experience the first day back in school but that is kind of metaphorical for our whole year and we've been pulling out po porta-potties and doing whatever we can to keep our schools running I also want to thank you because uh our schools are our largest employers in almost every County and we have single-handedly kept the economy going so I think that that has a lot to do with how great we've responded to all of these things that have happened in our communities um lastly I'd like to share with you that we have a couple of audits coming out in our education committees
165and there are some great recommendations that we'll be making from the state and I would love it if you could respond to me and tell me what kind of things you think are necessary for us to do to improve our schools from this audit once again thank you for your service I know you guys a lot of time doing a lot of work that you're not really compensated for um this is my lastly thing I was at the Sandy swearing in and it was so great to see so many of you there uh it's nice that we're leaving our silos and we're joining our communities and our communities are recognizing the value of having a fluid relationship these fluid relationships have helped with our homeless shelter and with our police departments and you know training
166our kids what to do on a fire so I think it's really exciting that we've kind kind of broken down these silos and we're working to work with all of our community um organizations to be as effective as possible so thank you for your service thank you for all the great work you're doing and it always makes me feel so good to see all the great things and that are happening in this school district so thank you so much thank you Senator Reby and and we appreciate all the work that you do to represent our area and thank you to all who have addressed the board this evening we appreciate the time you've taken and the thoughtful messages that you've shared with us uh that concludes our Patron comments for this evening so next on
167the agenda is the consent agenda items and I will ask for a motion on that and please in making that motion please list each of the items I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes item a approval of minutes for December 14th 2021 Item B approval of higher and termination reports item C approval of purchasing bids item D approval of student overnight travel and item e approval of amended interlocal agreement for school resource officers with Sandy City thank you oh and yeah I going to ask for a second so thank you for that second any discussion to this motion okay um seeing no discussion we will I will call for a vote we'll take a vote on this all in favor say I I any opposed right that motion passes
168and um no so I just want to make make mention that in within the consent agenda there was approval of hire and termination reports and on the hire report um we just wanted to acknowledge that um a new assistant principal has been hired and the administration will make that assignment is that okay so thank you okay we are now on the new business item 8A which is policy 600 um .02 curriculum adoption and policy 600.0 6 School library media selection and review this is a third reading with action requested and I will turn time over to Mr Jeff Christensen assistant legal counsel and um Amber Rodrick landward ISD director Mr Christensen thank you president tingy I'd like to just wish the board and superintendent Mr Wilcox a happy New Year uh I've been in a
169lot of meetings in the month of December and November regarding these issues as well so I appreciate all your work um this uh two agenda items come to you after substantial work in both the curriculum and reviewing the school library media selection and review policy um we've heard from a number of our Librarians um I love libraries I spend a lot of time in a law school library so uh there's a their place of Adventure and and a place of learning so um appreciate their work and and their support on these issues uh what I'd like to do is just review the the policies and their update since our last reading and then um respond to any questions may have and again these are for Action requested uh from our last reading to this evening
170with the curriculum adoption policy I'm not aware of any substantive um changes to the documents as you will note on bardocks there's a new policy um with multiple exhibits that really outline the process of the curriculum or um our instructional department and this policy will be titled instructional materials how they systematically review materials internally and then bring them before the board and ultimately have public review um along a schedule and each exhibit outlines how those materials we be adopted um in that process uh we have had a number of meetings on on these issues and and currently I'm not aware of any updates from our last from our last meeting um I can respond to questions on this policy and or actually Dr landward could respond more elegantly than I could to questions regarding this
171policy if there are any questions anyone comments yeah uh Mrs nbow I just wanted to make a a point here that in this curriculum adoption policy that the list of the criteria for how we're selecting the the curriculum has been strengthened from what it has been in the past and that will be kind of The Guiding Light as far as the standards go and I wanted to highlight that because I have had parents asking questions about you know when the Schoolboard gets involved in the process and things like that so I just wanted to instill some confidence in the actual selection process so could you pull up that one and maybe go through that yeah I don't know if I can pull it up on my end but if you can click on the exhibit
172one or is ity yeah so let's go to I don't know if I have access to that for my from my on that one pull up exhibit three if you can so as Dr lward is is setting forth in each of the uh exhibits is a review criteria Matrix that substantively outlines the criteria for curriculum adoption and I'll let you speak to it further yes just to reiterate what Miss nbow mentioned these I believe there are 11 can't use that can I there are 11 or 12 somewhere around there uh criteria that really are the kind of background of the or the backbone of the entire policy so they're outlined in the philosophy section as what every instructional material should uh be considering before it's put into place in a classroom at a school level
173or at a district level for a primary adoption and then we've embedded those criteria in every single level of instructional material selection um as Jeff mentioned in some sort of matrics where we're checking off the criteria to ensure that it's been [Music] met thank you so much I have one other question with age appropriate I know in the exhibit there's a definition of age appropriate could we go to that it's in the actual policy under the definitions so can we go to the redline policy for instructional materials the actual policy for instructional materials policy 600.020 no it would be on board docs oh okay do you want us to pull that up get that pull up I can read it if that while we're perfect let's do that copy here so the definition for age
174appropriateness means generally suitable for students of the same age or level of social emotional and cognitive development the context and prevalence of violence sex language and illegal substances as well as the social and cultural factors of the learning communities must be considered When selecting instructional materials thank you so much I appreciate the extra work on that I know that we had concerns about how subjective or objective it is and I know in the past with the curriculum where we had that hyperlink in there that there has been you know some concern raised with patrons about you know can we can we feel confident and and and trust that that this this measure has been taken so thank you so much for that appreciate it you're welcome other questions regarding the instructional materials policy or curriculum
175adoption um Mr Wrigley U I appreciate all your time you spent on this this is um this has been an important policy these two policies that we put out they're sort of going be the foundation for the future of what we teach and and what we read in our schools I've sat on the policy committees probably for eight to 10 years I don't think I've ever said on a policies that have been reviewed and gone through as much scrutiny and correction and adding and all kinds of me to make them better um I think we've had Parents uh that are concerned regarding what gets in our instruction uh and also the wanting to be sure that the things of the world may not be getting into our our instructional materials I think this gives a
176good uh guideline for that um that helps and guide teachers as to and specifically when you getting instructions as to protecting teachers in the classroom too as to what they can teach and when they can't teach we have concerned about that so we've tried really I hate policy I hate policy this long but I think sometimes policy and laws and stuff are actually protecting uh individuals uh and and and helping them if they're following the policy then they're doing well so um I'm feeling comfortable about both of these policies um I maybe talk about the other one we get to especially the instructure material I think we've got a good solid policy that's going to be guiding us in the future as to what we come into I the process is extensive I can't believe
177the process that we have within our district um to make sure that we're getting in information and stuff and the CT critical race Theory and stuff is not put in there and this is how we how we do it so thank you so much thank you any other comments or questions Mrs nbow because this is a third reading I would like to make a motion and I I'd like to separate it because I'd like further discussion with the school library media selection but I'd like to make a motion to approve policy 600- O2 for curriculum adoption instructional materials I'll okay a motion is in order so a motion has been made and did I hear a second I second and made and seconded so we have a motion and a second and is there any
178discussion to the motion um I'll I'll just make a comment um since I I didn't get a chance to before the motion but it is it is in I will speak in favor of the motion I've I do agree that this policy a tremendous amount of work has um happened on it and but you know we had a really good policy to start out with and now it's just even better and I feel like our um instructional supports Department had a really great vision when they when they came to the board a few years ago with an idea to have a very thorough process in place that that is some something that not only the board but the public can be a part of um selecting the curriculum so I'm I'm really grateful for their
179vision and for the work that's been done to even further strengthen this this policy any other comments Mrs Oaks my one hope and I agree with everything that has been said thus far my one hope is that this is not the last time parents are aware of what the curriculum policy is I mean because I agree with Nancy I think there was a lot of excellent pieces to the previous policy it was very Innovative of ISD to come to us proactively the way that you did um it's just been so interesting to me through the last year or even last several months it feels a lot longer than that of how many parents have said I don't I wasn't aware that I could ever look at the curriculum that you know that you involve the
180public inia process like there's just been kind of like a lack of awareness on that and it's not anybody's fault I don't think I fully understood it before I got on the board but I do hope and you know um Communications has put out a flyer that talks not only about how to effectively engage with teachers principles and and um faculty and staff but also how the public can engage with the district and this is absolutely one of those ways and we hope my hope is my arent hope is that this isn't just um go away from the public awareness that something that was you know hammered through and there was a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears that went into this thing that that will be appreciated and used and utilized by parents in
181the district because it's it's an opportunity for them to be a part of their kids education which is critically important thank you any other discussion to the motion seeing none I'll call for a vote all in favor say I I I any opposed that motion passes thank you U Mr Christensen let's turn our attention now to the the other policy listed this evening the school library media selection and review uh let me begin just by outlining some of the elements of this policy and then draw some distinctions from our previous readings um initially when it was brought to the board um in our review as the policy committee we did not see what we're going to refer to as a district level challenge or a district review in our policy we've always had a request
182for reconsideration of materials in the policy but what we didn't have is if a administrator or a uh superintendent or a district administrator had a concern regarding uh a text or title in the library how would they address that issue and our policy at that time was silent so what we've done in this revision is we've set out the process for um Library title acquisition which has some additional criteria that was not there previously to make that selection more robust and at the same time also added some process and procedure which really focuses on The Reader through the library policy um you'll begin if a if there is a concern regarding uh a title then a parent can speak with the teacher librarian and come to the library and and review that um if there
183are additional concerns they can go through the process of of a school review which is really where a librarian has an opportunity to review the selection and look at the criteria again as we've done in the curriculum policy we've set up criteria that will be reviewed by the librarian then we've incorporated into the policy as I I mentioned a district review which is not a challenge but is just a review where it can be brought the administration can request uh additional Librarians to review a Tex en title as we had in the previous policy we have the challenge process that um has been maintained some of the edits from our previous reading to this evening is um we added some definitions and just as we continue to refine and look at the the ideas we've
184made a few adjustments to the board policy statement where we felt that was appropriate and now I'm going to refer to the slide specifically following a school level review which again is that kind of initial layer um if a title remains in the school library meaning we find it meets the criteria that's when the next step for a parent or legal guarding would be to initiate the school level challenge and that process is outlined in the policy as we've had it previously following a school level challenge a deselected title will be moved or subject to to a district level challenge if it's unsuitable at one level then we may determine to review it um at a districtwide level and then the policy committee reviewed the other of the policy and drafted proposed exhibits um for
185review and then what we did let me speak to feedback from our previous meeting there were some questions at our last meeting regarding um the the issue of Community Values and also about committee makeup when reviewing titles let me speak to Community Values first that wasn't referring to a particular set but it's looking at the community at large in in our district kind of broad um review of what we feel is um representative as we look at diverse cultures um societies um um ethnicities and just a variety of factors in looking at Community uh then in terms of looking at the membership of each of the challenge committees we did a review in the policy Committee of all of the policies across the wasach front and even out of state at looking at who is
186on a Review Committee and we felt comfortable with the current membership considering most committees across the state have generally several District members and parent representation we didn't feel it was appropriate as the committee met to increase that parent representation to maintain it as currently constituted and so um I believe that captures most of the concerns or at least questions that were represented in our previous iteration of the policy um again additional cosmetic changes were made for consistency um and just readability in sections um I'm happy to respond to questions regarding the draft of the policy and I can take questions at this point um I just want to make a a one clarification on the composition of the district level challenge we did remove one one educator position so instead of being five from the
187district and three parents it's now four from the district and three parents so it more evenly balances between Educators and parents but it also creates a a group of an odd number which prior to that it was eight was was an even number was an even number which you know maybe wouldn't always cause a problem but there was potential for um in a decision-making body for to be a tie so just just a clarification okay um let's see Mrs nbar and then Mr millerberg okay I just would also like to draw attention to the fact one thing we did talk about in our last board meeting was the definition of age appropriateness in the selection of Library materials we also talked about in our policy committee meeting and that we were working on those definitions
188I have found it now in the final on two in two different places although I have to say it wasn't exactly what I I had thought we' discussed the first is the selection criteria used for Library material SE selection exhibit and it reads age appropriateness for the emotional development ability level learning styles and intellectual development and the second place is when we we talk about age appropriateness emotional development appropriate quantitative text appropriate qualitative text and appropriate reader and task complexity and I was looking for the age appropriateness definition like what we have in the approved curriculum and I don't see that that has changed in this please tell me I'm wrong and it's in there because we did talk about it in policy meeting and in board meeting but I don't believe we've changed that
189so I have it only and I'm going to look at the document I'm going to refer to the policy document not to any exhibits I only have the factors of age appropriate listed in the selection criteria and the deselection of Library materials in the policy documents now in our policy discussions um the department which um gret and our library media specialist Works in she's going to be developing the procedures that go along with the um process the forms we have some draft exhibits that are included with the policy and there will be some additional guidelines that is where we intended to unfold the age appropriate definition with our guidance in terms of review so there's factors both in the selection criteria where there will be additional guidance provided to library media Specialists as well as
190additional criteria for deselection and weeding we didn't include those broad Concepts in the policy but left that for the guidance um what you just read to me sounds like it may have come from something in our curriculum policy and I'm it's it's in the what well one is in the instructional materials exhibit and one is in the library materials what I'm looking for is just like we have the definition of age appropriateness in the in the curriculum policy is that definition of age appropriateness in the selection of Library materials that's something that was asked for and then we discussed it in the policy committee meeting after the board meeting and I'm just not seeing that change there in the in the actual policy and I do appreciate the processes and Gretchen's been amazing as has
191been Dr Rodrick landward in the policy um in in all our revisions and and writing but I'm still looking for an objective definition of age appropri regarding Library material selection which I do not see and and I don't I don't believe it's currently in the policy is drafted in our discussions that feedback was received during the committee meeting and our thinking at that time when I met with Gretchen is that would fold into the document she will develop as part of the additional processes that are worked through we're happy to add it currently as the document is drafted there is not a definition it's not currently right so I think we had some miscommunication because I asked for it in policy committee meeting before our last board meeting and then I asked for it in
192our last board meeting and then I asked for it in the policy committee meeting afterwards and I was under the impression with our last policy committee meeting that it was going to be included and then it's not so that's what I am asking for is for that definition I think it removes subjectivity I think it helps everyone feel reassured that we all understand that that's standard that we're bringing to it as far as what is age appropriate and we already have a a fantastic definition in our basic curriculum and I think it would be a simple addition and was asked for by multiple patrons in our last public meeting that had concerns on both sides of the aisle on that wanted more books included and ones who wanted less so I think I think it
193helps um helps us publish transparency and removes some subjectiveness to the process and and the only point I guess I would reply in response is with the other definitions that we have in our criteria I'm looking for consistency in our document we haven't taken our other criteria to that level of specificity which we were going to defer to our committee and our Librarians to address so I don't see that there is a concern as far as adding it to the document but we didn't specify with any other criteria that same level of specificity and so um I think we in in my estimation we heard that that should be added we just didn't take the step to add it to the policy document we can do so but I'm just letting the board know that
194we haven't yet added any other level of specificity to our other criteria and again we'll take the direction of the board on that issue we had deferred that with our other criteria to their committee work and and that is how I recall the conversation went as well in our committee meeting must I I thought we're were doing the same thing as we were with the the other curriculum where we have the definition in there so and and I think we can clarify I'm just pointing out that it was intended to go into those materials it is not currently in the policy and we can amend as as as suggested yeah Library materials aren't instructional materials but we can include a definition within the policy if that's the direction the board would like to take um
195okay maybe maybe we'll come back to that and Mr millerberg yeah I find it interesting that uh you're looking for the definition of age appropriate it takes me back to uh 2001 when Utah appointed the first and last porn are in the nation paully Houston and she was asked a question to Define pornography and her response was I can't Define it but I'll know it when I see it it makes me think of of age appropriate we can't Define it but we'll know it when we see it I hope uh just a couple of questions um I do appreciate the fact that you eliminated one District level employee from the group that still gives a school uh District employees a one vote uh preference on that and I still go back to my B basic
196premise that these are known as public schools and I don't know that three to four constitutes uh really being concerned about the public and so that's that's uh concern number one um concern number two is I don't see the process on how uh people are selected who is who is making the selection because if uh you know if it's a principal at the school level that makes the selection and he finds parents that are sympathetic to his SL her uh point of view I think it would be very easy to skew that so I need more information on how the Committees are selected in terms of our discussions with the policy committee and feel free Amber AG Gretchen as I recall our discussions we talked about setting up a process for that and help me
197if you recall but I don't recall us um making that definitive we felt that we would allow those that were on either an secc or a PTSA rather than hone in and make get specified how they'd be selected that it would be under the direction of of the administrator who knows their Community well my concern is that a bias May slip in um I I and I also don't see you know we were talking about before that parents would be limited to the number of challenges they could make has that been eliminated so how many how many challenges can can be made by one parent two two two two per school school building so I I mean if you had you know if a parent had a student in elementary or middle and high they
198they would yeah they could you know and I guess if they had more that they want to wanted to challenge they could find a trusted friend and convince them to make the challenge as well so I think we've eliminated in terms of challenge that goes through the parent or legal guardian in order to bring it up for a challenge so a friend or a Community member no they can't bring It Forward if my nextdoor neighbor has a child in that school and I go over and convince them that the book should be uh challenged my nextdoor neighbor is then totally capable of going and submitting that challenge no they would have to go through the parent or legal guardian is the one that brings forward initial challenge saying I said they are a parent they
199have a child in that same school oh yes sorry forgive me Bo you're getting confused well you're a formidable group no so yeah I I appreciate that and Gretchen or Amber can join me to address how we address the committee I don't think we made any changes other than to indicate that too much openness there's an exhibit that outlines the selection of the committee right yeah and Gretchen was just directing me to that um the district appeal committee includes the district level challenge and it's outlines who then is selected um from a list of PTA and then the SEC but I don't think we actually went any further in addressing who how that membership is selected so you raise a valid concern that PTA and SEC takes in quite a few people more than three
200I hope right and I think the other thing that was raised and now I'm recalling our discussion is we have situations where we may request PTA or SEC involvement on a variety of issues and Gretchen raised the concern that at times you may not get anyone volunteering to participate and so we felt it appropriate to you know have leave the language as is and take it on a case-by casee basis so is there any way that the parent making the challenge could challenge those being appointed we have an included language as such yeah I'm just trying to get any bias eliminated from the system and I I completely understand the focus on wanting to ensure that there's no biases I think part of the discussion during our last board meeting and ongoing discussions are that
201we want this process to run smooth and be pretty expedited and the more barriers that we put in place the longer it's going to take for us to make decisions and one of the things that has been in discussion quite a bit and you continue to hear about is the implementation of this policy is going to take a significant amount of work in terms of organizing all of the details to be able to support the Librarians and the schools and following the the policy hence the idea of a a handbook and ongoing Guidance with ongoing work of a committee so within the process of any challenge as well as the review that's going to have a very detailed process and criteria so there won't be room for just because I like the book and you
202don't like the book we're going to vote for it we're going to follow a very specified routinized process for making the decision together as a committee so that hopefully will be the part of the due diligence to remove that but IES regardless of the makeup of the committee and as Jeff mentioned earlier we did review the Committees across the wasach front and other states and we do have more parents than any other District right now on this committee and you and I both know that you can put whatever criteria you want out there to judge a book by and a skilled debater can argue either side of that and come up with totally different uh interpretations of of what that would mean understand but this is not a debate this is actually a very um
203outlined routine process so it's a little bit different situation I guess I'll know it when I see it okay fair enough Gretchen was just reminding me that when we looked at the selection across the other policies that we saw that their selection of their committees was similar to the language we have in terms of deferring to an administrator or the school lead leadership to select those committees and representation from um Community related groups that are supporting schools okay Mrs shill and then Mrs Arnold um so I I want to say that I I mean I agree like there could be biases but at the same time there's been a ton of work on this policy and we know it's not perfect and there's been lots of times where we've had to come back and make
204changes so I think if there is a situation that comes up we could review it and possibly make a change um I do think there's lot I mean there's also the district challenge that parents could do if they're not happy so I do think the policy is good and maybe it's not perfect but I think we can try it and possibly make changes if we find there's problems Mrs Arnold then Mr brigley okay so there seems to be a lot of openness to this policy even now because even though we have it we're saying other people are going to make these decisions and other people are going to make these decisions and other people are going to make these decisions and so that doesn't make me feel really comfortable about how our policy is going
205to stand up when there's all these other decisions and writings and doings after we write the policy so I think I need to interject and just clarify that all that I was referring to and is that when it is deferred to a committee to review the title that will go to procedures that are um based on the criteria that's outlined in the policy so there are no other decision makers other than those that are outlined in the policy okay so that was one so the other one was I kind of agree with with Holly that our definition for um age appropriateness if we have definitions at the very beginning of this thing that says definitions teacher librarian median median whatever school committee District appeal committee surely we can just write a number 15 down there
206that says age appropriateness that backs what we said was age appropriateness for the curriculum I I'm I'm just thinking that's not a big additive to put that in there under 15 under definitions just to have the definition there for us um to make it a little more solid about what that looks like but um my other question is is so we pull okay one first I need to know is at what point does this book get pulled it's on the library shelves we know that it has inappropriate pictures and words and how I know it has inappropriate pictures or words is because people sent those to me I read them but I couldn't read them at school because if I did my computer would have been taken from me and I would have been fired
207if my computer gets taken from me and I get fired because I pulled up pictures that I shouldn't have been seeing as an employee and words that I shouldn't have been reading as an employee then there's a problem with that book for me on the shelf and so at what point is this book staying on the shelf and at what point is this book being put in a safe place for a minute while we go through this challenge is it staying on the Shelf the whole time we do the challenge or is it getting put someplace while we're doing a challenge currently is drafted in the review and challenge process the book remains on the Shelf during those processes it's proven Gilly a minute that I can't open my computer so as we drafted those
208sections the policy indicates that the title remains on the Shelf during the processes that are underway any particular reason we chose to go that way Gretchen why don't you come up and speak to that piece so there are a lot of reasons why a book might get challenged that does not include sexual content and so until the book is determined to be inappropriate um it's typical uh indust I I don't know if industry is the right word but it's typically the practice that the book is available so that other members of the community can like determine whether or not they're interested in the title um during the process and currently the state is also drafting language that includes that the book stays on the Shelf during reconsideration so our policy mirrors what the state is
209proposing and the states the law we're not the law because we are the Board of Education here I mean like I'm just saying this has to be a law it's the yeah and I don't know if this has been released I know the State Board is looking at this issue and currently in the drafts that we've reviewed I'm not certain if it's been released to the public but they at this point have have that in their policy that remains on the shelf and again those are just drafts of usbe at the current time period the rule has not yet been approved and they're looking at it but that is what our policy mirrors is that language okay so I do have a couple more questions just for clarification the other one is I have if
210we have a book at Alta High School and we find that it's not appropriate at ala that we gone through the challenge and decided that then does that book come off all the shelves at the high school or that means we can't take them off the other shelves in the other high schools that other parents have to go to those high schools and then make the challenge no So currently as as the policy is drafted you have initially which is a school review if after the school review a librarian were to determine this is not age appropriate or otherwise then it is moved to weeding process but after a district review um or a school review they could at that point if a challenge were to occur it would be at a there's a school
211level challenge which would be at that school and then a district level challenge which would be across the district so who who would make that the librarian who or the committee that was on the committee say they decide to pull the one off out to high school then do they then make the district challenge or does the parent have to then come and make the district challenge automatic it's automatic okay I I did read all this I'm I'm just making sure I'm clarifying okay so then let's see I'm just making sure I got my questions before I'm I have to come back to me I don't want you have to come back to me okay pull the books age appropri if I can't open my computer oh that's one how many books have been challenge
212this year we've never had a book challenge in our district how many books have I mean I know but okay so these parents brought books to us right they told us what was in those books right the there the books that and I can let Dr Robin speak to to to this issue but the books that are at issue that were temporarily um placed on I guess hold if you will for for for lack of a better term is they didn't go through any review process while this policy was under consideration so we have had in Canyon school district to my knowledge no book in our history has ever been challenged well I have a point to that point right when you when you talk to me about well if we have two books pulled
213and we have 10 parents that's 20 books and it's going to take all this time and all this energy and all this effort then I'm sitting here trying to think if we've never had anybody challenge any books or this sure I can't remember whether six books brought nine books brought to our attention and we have this review policy then you know I'm trying to calculate hours here that it would take to review those books to side and put them back because I'm hearing well this is going to take a lot of time so I'm just trying to compute that in my brain about how much time we really think that's going to take um I'm trying to figure out and the policy committee address that question and we felt it was appropriate at this point
214to establish a review process that can begin to unfold and then we will look to determine what is the bandwidth of Gretchen and her team what does their number of requests look like and then make adjustments as needed moving forward recognizing these books would then move through the adopted process okay so just to that point clearing I think I think for me there's a balance right and um being thoughtful and um respecting the Constitution First Amendment right to press and as we know in studying Pico uh the Supreme Court was clear that school boards do not have broad authority to just remove books right so there's that then the balance to that is is um in Justice Ban's uh comments that he talks about that material that's considered pervasive or vulgar also does not have
215first amendment protection so in my mind I feel like the balance to that equation rests in this policy is it perfect no um but I think it it protects the necessity that students have access access to the materials and the books that they need but at the same time it also allows for multiple Pathways uh either for challenge or review and I you know I think that's I think that's fair I think that that creates what we're seeking the the original issue uh for me um one is was focused primarily on the content itself right but two that at the district level it's silent as Jeff said on what the role of administration actually is and and so that's where you know I have qu I had questions about I think as superintendent it it
216is my role and as Administration to serve as that you know as as that body to look out for that but at the same time you know I think understanding um the policy and what the Constitution says about students rights um and access to that also has to enter into that so I see great balance in the policy and I recognize that it requires a significant amount of Trust on our part that our principles our Librarians work together in how they determine those needs um and I I think you know if there's any lesson that I've learned in this is uh Ling on our Librarians and and their expertise to enter into this is something that I look forward to uh improving on they no question about it but at the same time I think
217it also allows parents and administration and all of us together to you know when we see um material that we think is questionable um that we have an opportunity to review it and make sure that our students stay safe I don't know if that helps but no no I'm just trying to clarify because I'm just trying to think through the I wasn't sitting on the committee so I just have to read what they gave me so I don't have access to notes or discussions right and so I'm just trying to make sure that I have clarification um going forward on what I believe you're writing and what I understand will happen which goes back to the individual can a student in a high school also challenge a book or also ask that it gets reviewed
218when it says an individual that includes students correct also correct okay all right that's all my questions thank you um okay Mr Wrigley Mr millerberg and then Mrs nbow thank you um this is all way pretty hard on me we've had probably six hours to discussion on this particular thing first off I want to thank our library specialist District Library specialist aggression for her patience with us she was just hired she came on and took all this upon herself within a short period of time in fact I didn't even know we had a district librarian specialist so it was an opportunity to meet our librarian specialist uh so but thank you for your patience and you've been very professional in this and going about checking with all the other libraries and try to see where
219we're at and and making sure that we protect the rights of all the First Amendment rights but the rights of the parents were concerned on both issues I mean I've had as many emails from both sides regarding this issue um I also want to thank our Librarians that are here um I've learned something I knew this before but I'll point it out this is not a job this is a calling that our Librarians got into this as a librarian not because they're going a job most of them have master's degrees um and I I thank for your P patience and in this process as we tried to do that one of the things in this policy as I said before our Librarians of commanded criticism for some of the books who are on their shelves
220we have 440,000 books I'm not sure our Librarians knew every single book that's on their shelf and most Librarians that are here probably didn't even order the books that are on there they just happen to be there and I appreciate being that pointed out to us so we could take action and try to go through a process and run them through this process that we've done uh our Librarians are professionals they're educated in their fields I don't think they're liberal or conservative they're professionals no different than a judge on a jury I may be a conservative judge I may be a liberal judge but when a case comes before me especially if you have policy then I'm going to judge it based upon the law judge it based upon what the policy is my hope
221is is in this process of putting together a policy which sometimes is pretty extensive quite a bit but that it takes the criticism out of our Librarians they can say we are following policy and and that sort of puts a little bit of a cocoon around them to say this is what the policy is and I'm I'm following it um again I'm thankful for the parents that brought this these issues to our our attention we didn't know I don't think anybody in this District said we're going to buy these books and put them out from I've seen most of the process what happens is they did a good review someplace and didn't see what it was and it got on the Shelf not even knowing what the heck was in the content you know and
222we're seeing that more and more in movies we're taking PG-13 movies and show one scene in there and it becomes an R-rated movie to get that stuff I think what really concerns me over this last couple years is that this level of trust and faith in our staff and Administration has eroded over the last two years we would not be asking these questions questions two or three years ago the public wouldn't be asking those and we as a board wouldn't be asking those because we trusted and we had Faith at our Administration and so when we start getting into this issues on three administrative staff to two you know four administ staff and three parents or whatever I mean I trust the staff to do what's right I trust the parents to do what's right
223I mean it's not a jury we're not putting anybody on trial we're not going to have attorney come and cross-examine everybody that's could be on this committee I mean if the worst thing comes on this and the book is pulled you can go to your Public Library um so anyway I mean there it's it's not a trial so when we talk about how many parents and stuff I I have to have some level of trust and faith in our staff and in the parents and if especially if you've got we're very specific for jury instructions as far as what they can and can and go against it's is it there or is it not there it's not and I guess you could argue in debating that I could I dve that but I just have
224TS and trust and faith and and if we lose trust and faith as a district in our Administration and in our staff then we're on a slippery slope um so as we went to this policy I'm hoping that that this policy puts to rest this issue that as we said earlier today it focuses on outcomes not just on the issues and that we seek a third alternative that's a principle based and focused on Solutions and I think we've tried to do that in this policy we've tried to make sure that all parties involved in this policy and it and it's will it come back before us at some point it may it probably will if there's some things we find out that don't work in it we'll bring it back we could always have the
225right to change it but I think as it stands right now it's probably one of the strongest policies in the in the state and most clear policies that I've seen in the state uh and I'm I'm for moving it Forward uh and again thanking uh all parties for bringing this forth but also all the parties that we've had that has spent passionately coming up and testifying before us about their rights on their love of reading and their love of books I've never knew there was such a love of this and this was not I've never heard about this until this year uh so as I said now on these nine books that were pulled I believe only one of them was checked out ever I I think somebody heard that they most of them have
226not even been read so uh and I suspect of a lot of shift on the things but so I'm not too concerned about it being on the Shelf until that happens uh if a parent's concerned and they find that book we have in this policy the ability for the parent to say don't check it out to my child so that parent is f if they say okay this book is in the shelf and it's being reviewed the parent could say put a hold on this book my child not to see it so we can make sure that their child does not see that book um under our policy so anyway I I don't know maybe I said too much but sometimes I just get frustrated and I'm hoping that we spent a lot of time
227in that we have actually come to some conclusion that is that is a that it's principle based and we have a solution thank you Mr millerberg and then Mrs Oaks not where I was going to start but this is where I'm going to start and Steve I'm disagreeing with you I do not find this to be a loss of faith and trust uh in our uh parents in our librarian uh in the district I came from a home where we would vigorously debate issues and I believe that by so doing we came to better results kind of the motto in my home was trust everybody but cut the cards and I just feel like going through this process we will have a better product and both sides of the argument need to be represented and
228I will oftimes take the side that I feel is under represented uh the other question I have and this is once again probably getting down to cutting the card time and it's not a matter of not trusting anybody or having a lot a lack of faith in anybody but tell me once a challenge is written up and turned in is there anything in the policy that gives me a reasonable expectation as to when this is going to be addressed are we going to address this in 14 working days are we going to address this within 90 days or are we going to address this when will this be addressed because I can see again not saying anybody in our district would ever do this but I could see maybe in another District someplace else that
229a principal would take that and say okay thank you for doing that we'll get to that in about 10 years and I don't know if there's anything in the policy that says we have a right to a speedy resolution M can I add to that like even when we do a complain like if I complain against another teacher in my school there is a 10day time period so I I agree there should be a time period of some sort that it needs to follow that's reasonable so I can respond to that question we had those discussions during our policy committee and we determined rather than place a timeline on WE the number of requests that may come in for a school level review we didn't want to put constraints into the policy that at some
230point we might run a foul of a timeline we're going to address these in a reasonable manner we have those in the law where it's a number of 10 days and that's where the lawyers will will come forward and and address that and so in some ways we are leaving in Al cander some wiggle room so that in the event we have issues that arise we haven't tied our hands to a timeline that may be unrealistic to meet and so I'll know I'll know what realistic is when I see it I mean we can add a timeline in but we're also looking at timelines for employees where I don't as a lawyer I don't want to dictate a time period and then run a foul of burdensome employees that can't meet those expectations so we
231have a reasonable time frame for them to read the book and I'm not talking 24 or 48 hours no and what I'm looking at is I don't care if it's 90 days but I want something in there to protect both sides of the equation you know I think 90 days would be extreme I wouldn't like it but I want something in there that we can expect something to happen in that period of time are you finished no well I mean it's I just didn't know if it's someone else's turn not that we're not going to resolve this but I'm making a list of things that we Circle back around you want to do no no we'll I'm got a list of things we're gonna Circle back through no I'm quite finished okay Mrs Oaks okay
232so I have a few things um one is to First address the concern that Mt brought up earlier about any sort of of bias um on the part of a principal choosing a parent and that having it designated as an SEC parent or a PTSA parent would help with that I don't know if that necessarily makes a difference because I don't think specifying that they have to come from one of those two groups necessarily precludes any bias from happening in fact those are most likely the parents that principles work with most closely so I I don't know if that necessarily has to be in there that's just a thought um the other is a a question for Jeff so and I personally would like to see more specificity attached to um what is developmentally appropriate
233or age appropriate I'm just curious what you see as the disadvantages of that so that we can better understand perhaps the reasons why that's been veed away from so I think in developing these conversations with our Librarians as well as administrators we were trying to walk the fine line of allowing some of that language to be included but also not dictate if I can speak INR and you can come join me on these issues when we talk about age appropriate then it becomes age appropriate to whom age appropriate we we move into areas of subjectivity and right at the center of this argument and so in some respects what we were attempting to do is lay out the criteria and then allow those on a committee to come together and work through those issues without
234allowing all of the specificity to be set forth in the policy which I think and when we defer to committees that's how a lot of good work gets done as we're seeing in our board meeting so that was our rationale setting forth criteria that is specific and then we have a lot of resources we can look to we can look to the curriculum policy for those issues we can look at other definitions outside at looking at all of those to come forward with um a rationale for looking at those issues and gret and you can come speak to that issue um the age of prob because those were the can I can I I'm not done yet actually I have some followup questions so that was our rationale and drafting that and in our discussions
235in in moving forward where to place those when we listed the 15 criteria for selection and then also the the weeding uh as lawyers I'm I'm not a I don't have a librarianship degree that's what we've hired our Librarians to do to go through that process of selection and also the process of weeding and so we put the criteria in and allow them in their professional judgment to review that and the definitions we landed upon were the ones we felt appropriate to allow that process to proceed so just so I understand what what you're saying so your thought is and I relate to this from an attorney's perspective I mean I used to practice Estate Planning and quite often I would have clients who came to me that had very very specific ideas about what
236they wanted to do with a family trust and when push came to shev Generations or decades later when that trust was actually came to be tested sometimes the parameters of the trust were so narrow that they were no longer applicable and then they were in a real pickle trying to figure out what to do with the money or how to actually apply what was going on so if I'm understanding you correctly when I is the idea that if you have two tighty parameters attached to what is age appropriate the concern is that when you sit down in a committee you're blocked out from being able to bring in other considerations or discussions attached to that that may be more nuanced and needed is that correct with all of the criteria that are listed because we
237listed 15 in in in the library selection policy we listed age appropriate as being um the sort of the fundamental but you're going to have different set of criteria at a high school level right what is age appropriate which could consider on occasion an adult book whereas if you are at a first grade level of reading or a K3 you may have a different level of what age appropriate is in looking at those parameters not that we're trying to slip in but it tying it down on all of those criteria was not what we did in the policy what we had intended is that moving forward Gretchen and the Librarians can add additional examples to that through their work in the committee as they move forward that was our intent in the policy committee and
238with all of the definitions that's how we left it in both the weeding criteria and the selection criteria so the concern is that it might be too narrow if you're if we're not careful is that correct okay um one more point I wanted to make and I Just Want to Thank The Librarians that came and and spoke um one of the things this is actually a subject I feel extremely passionate about if you want to ask my kids if there's something I'm absolutely Draconian about in our family it's about reading and reading together and one of my hobbies as a parent for years and years and I think it's something I've gotten pretty good at is fiing out really great books for my kids and because of that I've come to really appreciate great Librarians
239one of my favorite books of all time is called the read aloud handbook which sounds like completely boring but is one of my favorite books and I've given it to many many teachers and it brings up the very points that some of you shared about what happens when a loving caregiver RS to their child and during this meeting I've been looking up how accessible our school libraries and our cataloges are and I'm actually thrilled I have been looking for this as a resource with my kids for years and so if there's anything that comes out of this that's positive my hope is just like some of you suggested that parents will become more engaged at at looking through books at looking at options that talking through that with their kids because that's really where it
240becomes alive and and so in my in my heart hard our hearts I hope that this is that opportunity and that maybe there's something that we can do with Communications to really get the word out more effectively to parents that's available and how to most effectively use that resource fin Mrs myow thank you and Miss Oaks just you know I was not trying to interrupt you actually the board president had recognized me afterm and then had forgotten so that's why I was trying to interject because was something specific to this so we've had a lot of discussion about making sure that we're not being too narrow but as we Define terms that helps us again provide transparency and more objectivity we have for decades had age appropriate ratings for movies and for books on Common
241Sense Media they rate books and literature and those those and as I as as our our presenter here um has has informed us that we had these discussions in the policy committee th that determination of not including a definition for age appropriateness although I'm on the policy committee does not reflect my opinion I do believe that by including the definition of age appropriateness obviously when we're looking at age appropriateness for high school it is different than Elementary School just like movies have g- ratings or PG-13 ratings or PG ratings it would be the same if we do not have a definition for age appropriateness I could see the patron that came to our last board meeting that was saying why don't we have Mondays not coming in our library I am concerned about the mention
242of age appropriateness without a definition she does not feel like her rights or opinion are respected or represented like on the other hand if we have a parent that is very concerned that we have pornography running rapid in our in our school libraries of which in in certain books there has been that issue then you know then their concern saying we don't know that this age appropriateness what this is can we rely on this what is the definition I think that in any any policy that holds up um when we talk about that fine balance Dr Robbins has been mentioning if we don't have a school review process with a committee that can look back and say what are we supposed to be looking at with criteria is this age appropriate these are the elements
243of age appropriate we're looking at How can any of us be confident in that process I don't see how we can be and so if we I think we remove again we remove subjectivity if we have a basic definition if it's good enough to have that definition in our general curriculum adoption policy then why would it not be in the library media what's different about that we should be able to have that definition in there it also provides transparency and it provides some guideline for all of those committees and when when Mt is saying and I agree that he wants to represent the underrepresented individuals if we don't have that definition clearly set forth then are we representing and will people feel like this process is biased are we removing the bias so that I
244believe that's very important and I also am in favor of the timeline that is something that I mentioned as a cons as [Music] well other comments um okay M Mr millerberg and then I'll then I have the chain if the Bulldog gets out of line again okay okay well then I'll then I'll take a turn and I don't think it's an easy thing to do to do age appropriate because when you talk about high school now that we have a freshman class you've got kids in high school from 14 to 18 many of those are almost 19 or even 19 when they graduate what age appropriate for a 14y old is not or is not age appropriate for a 14y old maybe for an 18y old and yet they they uh they go to the
245same library in the same high school and so I see that quite problematic my recommendation on this would be and I know it says action requested third reading M I would like to send this back to the policy committee one more time I would be happy if we got a definition of age appropriateness I would be happy if we put some kind of a time frame on it and then bring it back at our next meeting um did Mr Wrigley okay and then I'll make a comment just really quickly we've had some discussion on timelines um it really depends on how many books we have if we have never had one and we have one book it should be pretty quick but if we have one school that's got seven or eight books questioned by
246seven or eight different parents they're GNA have a lot of people reading books in that one school so I'm not sure how we can unless we did it two or three months I'm not sure how we can come up the timeline uh again it calls back to trust they're going to do it as as quickly as possible maybe you could put that in there you're going to be as expedient as possible but but I mean if there's a whole bunch of books in the school especially in a school that's going to really tax that school if they had three or four books questioned at the same time it'll be much longer as far as the timeline than if they had one book that was questioned and the same thing at this District level it depends
247on how many books are questioned and I think this list that we've had floating around was on it I don't think we how many those books we have but that's a lot of reading so anyway okay um I couple couple of thoughts I would like to get this policy in place so that we can start addressing the books and I would feel comfortable if we looked at adding that definition for age appropriate that is in the curriculum policy just adding it to the definitions I I've gone back and I've looked at it again I feel like it's very it is general and it it I don't think it would tie hands and then more specificity could be given to the committee when they're engaged to do their work I I feel like that would be
248um okay to do and as far as a timeline it is really tricky and we did talk about it and it's really tricky because sometimes if you say within 90 days then other things keep coming up keep coming up and and next thing you know at day 80 they say oh we got to take care of this but if you say within two weeks it might take you two weeks to assemble a committee so I you know I'm not quite sure that we should be super um definitive about a timeline but I think it is a reasonable expectation for a timeline um one one of the ideas I had was was that when the challenge form is submitted that we could say within five days the principal will get back to the Challenger with an
249estimated time frame and that we say it would be just as just as um that it would be um reasonable so in in policy you could say you know reason you know not or yeah not to exceed type of a thing yeah so so those those were a couple of things of thoughts I had on these on on these two items um I I feel like if we can get those figured out tonight then I I would like to be able to move this forward just because we've been this whole issue's been on hold for several months so um let's see Mrs shill and then Mrs Arnold um I I am great with those ideas I'm just wondering if we should have longer than five days though because I want to give you guys an
250example right here I received this letter in my packet um I just got it today so this January 4th this was addressed to it's to the board actually so I'm going to give it to Nancy to send to all of us but it was written on December 10th and I just received it so I mean I'm just saying we have some periods of time within the calendar that are like two weeks of vacation so what if a parent requests that like the day before our two week Break um you know what I mean something may not happen so I'm just wondering if we should make it a little longer than within 10 school days I don't know yeah 10 business days for the principal to be I would say school days 10 school days because
251for the principal to respond and then no more than 90 days for the review or something or even if it's five school days that's better because if it came right before the break our longest break is two weeks and so that's the type of decision we were hoping to kind of leave within Gretchen's team to add add and our exhibits that are associated with each policy we can bring back as informational information to the board but there have been occasions with our existing exhibits where we find something that just is not workable we adjust it as appropriate and then bring it back as needed so I would defer to Gretchen and her team to set those parameters as we get requests or that's my recommendation as we've drafted the policy to add those to the
252exhibits um it sounds like the board would like a little bit of protection for the parents that are initiating some of this that it will be addressed in a reasonable amount of time so if if we were to add add kind of that first layer of response and then a second layer of response could be more could be adjusted I wonder along those lines uh president tingy if the response or the recommendation is within those 10 school days notification of the status and then timeline for this reviewer challenge will be given so that at that point you could say your number 10 in the queue so we'll get to you in this amount of time versus it always being 90 days so we always will respond within those 10 days but it's about the status
253and then we can be more specific in that response okay is that too and and and and it's a little bit different whether it's a review process versus a challenge because a challenge you have to assemble the committee the review process it's um The Librarian does that right so if in policy we we put the yeah me I'm I have a comment too so of these nine books of these nine books that came from four different schools correct or not yes okay so of the nine schools then they came I mean nine books that came from four schools with what little data we have we can suppose that maybe two books came from one school right that people would have to review sorry the way the PO policy's currently written the RO the review of
254the book doesn't fall to the teacher librarian it falls to a teacher librarian so we have 13 teacher Librarians in the district and myself so that's 13 potential readers as opposed to one okay so that's like good knowledge for us because I was thinking you're counting like every librarian in ele every elementary school and then every Middle School yeah see that's that's good knowledge because then I'm thinking well we have all of these Librarians there's quite a few of you right I mean I don't know how many how many do we have in El well we have 13 teacher Librarians and um over 40 pair of professionals that work in our elementary schools okay so that's the part SE was missing because I I'm thinking that the pair of professionals or Librarians and could also
255do the review so that's the piece I'm missing of knowledge or background knowledge to know you know how many people could possibly which was my next question was is there one direct district office person that could manage the reviews and not the 13 of you um well that's my job and you don't really want to read all those books well so the way the policy is written um a parent who asks for a school level review fills out a form and submits it at their home school it so the book has to reside at the library where their child attended and then that form would come to my office and the review would be assigned to a teacher librarian as a reader and then that book would be read well for any challenge so at
256the district level then the books have to be read by three teacher Librarians and so those assignments would also be made by my office okay thank you I think we can add those elements that you're suggesting the the the the 10day for a response and then a not to exceed 90 days for when something should be resolved and capture that in our existing exhibits that are with you know amending the exhibits to include that t those time frames and then as needed we could bring it back if we have a concern with the existing time I think do that in the age appropri and then also add that definition from correct from the instructional materials to the definitions in the library materials policy yes I mean the exact same wording yes yep okay okay any
257any other discussion or comments and so I would like to thank the members of the board recognizing not all of you are part of of the policy committee and when we meet there are a variety of ideas that get raised and we do our best to capture all of those and go back to the room and reformat and bring it forward so I just want to I offer my respect to the board members and if in my response it's difficult to capture all of what has occurred in the background to you so um in our work on the policy committee we certainly defer to your judgment and and bringing something forward that you are um happy with and satisfied with so appreciate your feedback and and adjustments it's better policy as a result thank you
258thank you and so this is an item that's listed as third reading action requested so a motion would be in order and I would ask that if a motion is made to specify those two um those two additions that the board has discussed be included can you explain to me why we have to make a motion and why we can't do it the next reading or do we have to make a motion to do it the next reading we don't have to make a motion to do at the next reading I just it it's it's my recommendation that if we've got it resolved that it doesn't need to go back to the policy committee because the policy committee has done our work and we're reporting now to the board and it was my understanding that
259we've we've added in or we've discussed and come to an an agreement of a couple of things that can be added in and that everyone is clear on what we're adding in so but if there is no motion then it we'll bring it back I will make a motion I'll make a motion we approve policy 600- six the school librarian media uh selection that we uh insert the statement on what was that the statement definition of age appropriateness if found in policy 600 point2 and that your supplemental attachments will include 10 days review by the within 10 days the principal will notify the parents uh of that it's been received and give them some kind of idea maybe t school days and school days okay and give them some kind of idea when that might
260be read and that they will attempt to do this by 90 days no will not exceed 90 days will not exceed 90 days c0 calendar days will not exceed okay I think I've got that now 90 calendar days have I got everything in this motion that needed to be in the motion thank you that's that's why we have a board you know just a tribe here I'll second that motion okay so we have a motion and a second any discussion to this motion okay and rather than restating the motion I think we're all we all have it and it's recorded so so Cindy can get it correct in the minutes so so with that I will call for a vote on the motion all in favor say I I I any opposed okay that motion
261passes thank you and Jeff thank you for your work and Gretchen and Dr ruer lward we appreciate all of your hard work on this and the Librarians and their work and and attention to this and I you know I I'll just make a personal comment I think it's a solid policy and again as we as we live the policy a few things might come up but I think it's a really solid policy so okay next on the agenda is um new business Item B proposal for adoption of new districtwide instructional materials this is a second reading and I'll turn time over to Dr Amber Roder landward ISD director happy New Year it's been a productive night well done and it's only 9:22 we we we're we're on a roll we've got yes exactly we have
262hours for discussion well I am excited to be able to talk more about our annual curriculum adoption proposal to my knowledge it is not snowing tonight so oh it is is it oh well I'm a fast talker you all know that about me so um what I'm going to present you tonight is just some information we did not have a chance to address questions during our last meeting so some information has been brought up since that time that I was just going to review to give more background information so just a reminder in the annual curriculum proposal for this year proposing to implement next school year 22 23 school year we have three curricula up for proposal high school chemistry High School physics and Elementary English language arts and you can see listed there the
263specific curricula that we are proposing also as a reminder and was brought up during the curriculum policy review we do follow for district-wide primary adoption a 24-step process and it's the first 17 steps of those 24 that make up the proposal the following seven steps come after the board takes action in terms of um planning the communication the roll out the purchasing the profession Prof development and ongoing coaching and so on during this process it is during the time for Board review which is typically at least six weeks or three readings where we have the opportunity to collect more specific feedback from our stakeholders including parents and teachers that information was uh published during the last board meeting to date we have only received five um pieces of feedback and they've actually all been from
264employees four of them have been from from the elementary Ela and one has been from the physics so I would anticipate now with the holidays behind us we may be receiving more feedback so during the last reading I shared with you just a brief overview of each of the curricula that are being proposed during the second reading we typically address the questions that are brought up during the first reading and then during the third reading I will plan to bring back any other feedback that we get from stakeholders as well as any other questions that come up tonight we've been talking a lot um over the course of this entire school year actually about Equity it's come up and has been identified as one of our priorities in our strategic in our strategic planning process
265but also during our accreditation process so as we look closer at these curriculum proposals that are in front of you tonight I wanted to be really clear about what educational equity and inclusion is during this adoption process and that we are using the definitions from our guidance from the state board role uh r277 328 educational equity in schools to Define how we look at equity in the adoption process and you can see here those definitions printed educational Equity means acknowledging that all students are capable of learning and distributing resources to provide equal opportunities based on the needs of each individual student so really looking at that component and that includes means the practice of ensuring students feel a sense of belonging and support and one of the ways that we can put educational equity in
266practice is in the materials that we use to teach our state standards and as was mentioned during the policy review we took careful care in really identifying specific criteria to ensure that we are supporting our students and more importantly uh really setting the bar for accountability for all Educators and everybody involved in the process in terms of how we select materials that Encompass our responsibility to provide high quality instruction that is both Equitable and inclusive so while these criteria have not been were not in place at the time that the curriculum selection started for these proposals in front of you tonight many of the practices were already in place so we really looked carefully at the alignment to the Utah core standards and state and uh Canyon's District board policies we looked at the age
267appropriateness we looked at the accepted standards of evidence for teaching in the specific content areas as well as overall instruction we look to make sure that the information was accurate and factual reflects contributions from authors artists appropriate experts and so on is representative of diverse cultures to represent all of our students that our materials are free of bias and stereotypes they contribute to a balanced perspective in the whole that are aligned to personalized Competency Based learning and compatible District technology and compliance with sipa and Copa as well as accessible to all students with scaffolding so all of these components again contribute to how we can put educational equity and inclusion in action and uh you'll see evidence of that as we talk more today about the curricular programs that are in front of you so
268as I mentioned we ran out of time during our last meeting but I have uh been asked a number of questions mostly surrounding our elementary English Language Art so I wanted to provide you with a little bit more background in um the standards and some background with Ela so that you can see again that bigger picture of why we uh are selecting or proposing rather this particular program for you to review so our Ela standards have been in place for about 10 years and while usbe is currently in the process of revising the ELA standards the changes that they are making are not going to be significant so the ELA standards reflect the expectations for all of our students in Reading Writing speaking and listening as well as language they also reflect a strong evidence-based
269in how students come to read and develop their ongoing reading skills we've talked to you about the science of reading in the past and they're aligned to college and work expectations so they were back mapped from those expectations of college and work expectations all the way down to kindergarten and so they reflect a really high level of rigor so when we think about those standards being aligned to college and work expectations those standards are staircased um from kindergarten through 12th grade and I shared with you some data during our last reading about the status of where we are at the elementary level in terms of literacy but I wanted to to play that full circle and how that impacts um all of our students as they exit our system so what you're looking at here
270is our 2019 act data for the English um benchmarks this is the number or percent of students rather who met the English Benchmark on the ACT the English Benchmark really focuses on um word usage looking at grammar looking at um punctuation and those types of things and you can see that only 59% of our students met that Benchmark when you look at the reading which involves um extensive reading in informational text primarily social studies and science requires the students to um not only read informational text but have the stamina to get through a lot of text and you can see here that this has um remained about 50% uh pretty much for the last when did we start giving the AC is that about nine years ago it's been about nine or 10 years um
271we have not made a lot of Headway in this area so you can see again that those foundations in elementary school really play A Part all the way through our students experience in our system I also wanted to point out our state portrait of a graduate that highlights 13 ideal competencies for our Utah graduates the English language art standards are foundational to these competencies remember the portrait of a graduate is organized in three main domains Mastery autonomy and purpose the Mastery domain specifies academic Mastery and the knowledge in multiple subject areas to make informed decisions Ela is the foundation of that when we move into autonomy we're looking at communication critical thinking and problem solving creativity and Innovation collaboration and teamwork these are also um major components of the ELA standards uh across all grades
272and then finally of course purpose just wanting to again highlight um respect in that belonging piece that is not only part of our educational Equity but is a critical component of the ELA standards as well so given that critical lens when we look at English language arts and even though we're only looking at the elementary tonight in terms of proposal for curriculum I wanted to just highlight that long-term picture of how literacy impacts all of our students and how important it is to get it right at the elementary level to support all the other levels what you're looking at here on this slide is a quote from the introduction of the Utah Core State Standards for ELA and this just highlights again the foundation for College and Career Readiness and what students need to have
273in terms of that background with regards to reading and I highlight this specific quote because the text supporting the text and the supporting lessons be really become the Cornerstone of any English language arts curriculum and the text and the routines and wonders are some of the things that set it apart from the other programs that we reviewed so I thought it might be helpful if I shared a little bit of background into what those text sets look like within the program again since it makes up the majority of the actual curriculum so for the most part and this is General because it does vary a little bit with our younger grades but for the most part wonders units are organized um with three specific Tex sets and each Tex set encompasses about two weeks of
274instruction and they're organized around an essential question or a theme within those text sets they use four specific texts to teach those standards there's the interactive read aloud that the teacher reads to the students the shared read that the teacher and the student interact with together and then the anchor text which becomes um the foundation of that two weeks of lessons and where they spend the most time and then there's a shorter paired selection all of those texts um are connected with that essential question so again it gives students the opportunity to really uh develop the skills and the Mastery of the standards because they have the opportunity to critically think and compare multiple texts around the same theme these texts particularly these four also connect to the students daily right which um I mentioned
275in the feedback last time from teachers that the rigor overall but particularly with the writing was a component that they um both loved and also were nervous about because they know it's going to uh take some work in terms of building the routines up with the students and then there's also level text for small group instruction as well as independent reading text available so lots of text happening in wonders and I wanted to just give you an overview of uh how all of those pieces fit together because that seems to be where um we're getting questions on our end and I I know many of you are getting questions as well so hopefully that gives a little bit more background are there any questions I can answer about any of the proposals board questions um
276Mrs Arnold so this covers wonders right but it doesn't cover 95% tier two uh these text sets are just specific to wonders yes and 95 core phonics will be what it's used to teach the foundational standards right are you g to talk about that too or do you want me to ask you questions I was not if there are specific questions I can answer those I just brought up the text because that's the bulk of where we're getting questions and it's the bulk of teaching those standards so um trying to decide how to so I I looked at the 95% which is actually the tier one um part not the walk to read which is tier two right they divide up in small groups and the students are getting more individualized um education in phonics
277um so I talked to a few teachers about it because that was my one concern is that we're doing wonders and trying to bring that on board 95% tier one on board you just barely brought 95% tier two on board two years ago been a couple of years yeah two years ago and so I said to them like I know this is a lot you know because you're losing what you're used to and now we're putting one more thing you know a big thing not a little thing on their plate and the teachers said that if they had to learn the phonics and this was just a few I mean we could probably do a survey but they said if they had to learn phonics from wonders and then turn around next year and then
278learn 95% funic they would just as soon learn it all at the same time and not have them divided it up because then they have to create if we have wonders only their own spelling program for one more year and they have to figure out their own phonic I mean they can figure out that phonic program but then they just have to turn around and figure out another phonic program with letters next year five six seven and eight so I just bringing actually some information back to the board that I have learned that they would just rather have both of them at one time and know that they're not having to relearn a second thing again next next time um I did look through it it's really it looks like a really great program um
279I know it has a lot of the I do we do you do which is um part of the anchor of learning how to do um the language components and um I really did enjoy the the different stories that I did read through them and I thought they were child appropriate as well as the fact that they were child leveled um because sometimes you get the literature books or basil books and they're not on the students level they're two or three levels above and the kids struggle to read them and struggle to understand them I still do have a little concern about theal WP I'm still working on how much AAL is in there um most of it I think is character-based even though they're using um character trait based even though I know they're
280using a lot of the terminology you would find in Castle I I I I pretty sure it's not Castle but they're just hijacking the same kind of words to make sure that we have in there in their books the two questions I did have though is I was told Granite school district and now Pine School District both use this book I want to know if there's a way to see if they've had growth in their um data over the last couple of years that they have used them or no growth because right now I I'm not seeing the growth we're needing and I I really have these um I have this hard thing about this whole thing because rice just gets harder and harder it's more and more difficult it is not really testing what
281the kids know it is testing about how they can manage that computer the computer program and the Acadian it's a fluency read and if you're not fluent you can't then retell and if you can't retell you pretty well f it and I have I just have these little quirks about those kind of um tests that the district's coming I mean the states coming back and saying oh you know 38% of our kids can't read I don't really believe that that's really the percentage I can't read Because when I do my own class data it will be one or two that are struggling but they can still read and so I have my thing about that but if we're going to invest in another whole reading program i' kind of like to know what kind of
282growth granite and Alpine's getting out of it um because District that I know when we started a new reading program they go well we're fifth in the state in Reading when you look at the valley but we're fifth in the state of bottom at the Top If you're looking at the Valley fifth in the state at the bottom if you look at the state and that's why they chose their program because then they went to um another District literally see the growth per year over the last five years and decided to implement that program so that or not no they're they're doing wonders is my understanding I can talk with Hal I know that he does have access to aggregate data um so because if that's our big deal and we're wanting them to read
283then that's my one thing and then I did see that you have interactive reading that the teacher can read to the kids and I already asked you this since I'm I'm already prepared you I want to know how we get the kids to love reading and enjoy reading because I'm telling you that explicit reading sucks and the kids are losing interest in Reading they don't want that they they get their library books and they have no time in class to read their library books because because they have phonic phonics and more phonics and then the literature book or the basil or the explicit reading and I just feel like we're missing the boat like hadti Hattie not hati Hattie 's a whole another story um Haddie already said it's like I don't remember nine a
2840.97 if a child just reads a book for pleasure every day for 10 minutes it's like a N9 a97 we're missing that whole boat I the kids are not reading for pleasure I mean like when you're reading the literature book or the basil book how about yourself I mean with a class that isn't really learning reading for pleasure just believe me it's not anyway so how are we going to get back into the classroom that silent reading or reading for pleasure or time to read because their minutes are chocked up and there is no time so that's my other thing is how are we going to get that in there so I think I'm going to respond to your last question first I think one of the strengths of the Wonders program is the way
285that they use text throughout their lesson structure and one of the ways that we know students come to learn to love reading is how they get to interact with the text and that is built into letters so in the scope of two weeks um they might be reading with a partner they might be reading independently they might be reading whole group but there's a constant back and forth and interaction with the text text that gives them the opportunity to really think deeply and discuss the text and that's where they start to develop those skills and that love for reading so that's actually an area that I I think that wonders does very well having lots and lots of text and opportunities to read it but then the built-in opportunity to interact with it and be
286taught how to interact with it so that they become even better independent readers with regards to um the data from granite and Alpine or other school districts one thing to keep in mind is we are adopting the 2023 version of Wonders which is brand new so to our knowledge no other district has upgraded to that just yet so we will be the first um to do that and because we are adopting 95% or proposing to adopt 95% is the phonics what we will be doing is still going to be different than other districts because we have identified that component as being a little bit of a weakness of Wonders so that'll just be something to keep in mind um as we look at that data and then one final just response claring I want to
287just remind the board and everybody that um in The Proposal we have actually requested that we are not including the adoption of theal component of Wonders that will be something that you all can choose to bring back to the table to review when we get to that point in terms of deciding anal curriculum but is not something that we are planning to include in the adoption and in the expectation for this implementation so when we get to that point um happy to answer more of the specifics if that's something that you want on the table to review at that point okay um Mr millerberg and then my main question with with regards to the F component on it so thank you for doing that and the other only other question I have as you read
288you know the kids are going to be doing a lot of reading have you vetted it just just to make sure we have no political agendas going on in there I don't want to go through that okay so um very good question and I just want to come back again to these criteria so in looking at those key texts that I just mentioned uh all of the text sets we have started an extensive review of every piece of text with within those lessons because of the volume we are not through every single one so we have gotten through third fourth and fifth grade and the four key texts in every text set which is um I added it up last over the break and now I've forgotten the total number so we have gotten through
289quite a few every single text passage that we have read so far has met these criteria so we feel very confident um with the text that is included in wonders and the instructional guidance surrounding those texts we still have more to get through so I'll let you know if anything comes up and and I'm sure as our teachers and our uh patrons are reviewing they're going to let us know if they find something too and we can again review it against this criteria at that time we're not giving you a not to exceed not to exceed the deadline on it okay right okay Mrs Oaks so maybe this helps part of your question so on my flight home when I was out of town coming back in for from Christmas break I grabbed my Wonders
290book and this one is for third grade because that's the age of um my youngest in my household and I I went into it as a parent with M lenes as a parent what's what would my kid this year be learning and um I kind of geared up and thought it was going to be a really boring read and it turned out it was actually quite delightful um I'm not a huge fan of Reading Street just GNA put that out there and I can say it because it's being discontinued but um I will say that this Pro this particular curriculum has some really remarkable strengths that Reading Street does not agre one of the things that I feel like has been a weakness of reading street is the differentiation of learning for sure um the
291first year they implemented it my kids that were really great readers all of a sudden it felt like everything was dumbed down um two of them lost interest in second grade on reading on their own almost all together and it took a lot of effort for me as a parent to kind of catch that and kind of pick it up and keep running um I don't get the sense that this would be so much of a problem with wonders and there's a number of reasons for that and not only because it can challenge gifted Italian students it's e excellent when it comes to English language Learners I can't believe how much additional support it provides to teachers with that um but I also loved the content um I read this particular one that I read
292through included all sorts of wonderful Heroes it had a real focus on American Heroes and particularly in the space program they mentioned May jemson the Apollo 13 mission um they talked about Dr Franklin Chang Diaz who came to America speaking no English with very little money was rejected from the space program but kept applying himself and eventually succeeded um I gave an example of Maria Mitchell the first female astronomer and inducted to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences who was taught most meaningfully and promoted by her father it mentions families and how much um children were encouraged by their families to overcome obstacles and to um go back again and again and exhibit resilience which I would loved um some of the other things that I thought were really remarkable Oh Ellen Ooa who
293I didn't even know who she was but I thought she was fascinating it gives the kids more opportunities to do oral presentations presentations of their writing I will say the oil presentation thing is something I have really missed as a parent in the elementary level that's something I remember doing a lot of and for whatever reason my kids just have not been G given as many opportunities to do that I don't know why but this is definitely built into the curriculum from them to do that it includes um them chances to study biographies to study a national hero of their choice and to give oral presentations of that um it gives them opportunity to study poetry I can't even tell you how much I've miss seeing my kids learn poetry and believe me it doesn't
294mean nearly as much coming from a parent um it goes into this is in third grade elements literary elements of Rhythm and Rhymes and verse stanzas and event identification character perspective craft and structure personification figurative language I mean those are very advanc principles but things that can definitely be grasped by a child that age and I think are fantastic I also thought it was extremely interesting that they go into Greek and Latin roots which is considered very much um a part of classical you know traditional classical education I loved seeing that included and they also go into Greek and Roman methology which in many ways can be considered a a primary backbone of Western civilization and history and learning so it had a wide variety of different perspectives things that I learned I actually walked
295away with several notes of people I wanted to learn more about and I I thought it was great one of the quotes that I I wrote in here um wrote down from one of the lessons time with family is a treasure or something very Val valuable it can mean more than wealth or having a lot of money I thought that was awesome and with respect to kind of some of what clarine was saying about you know castle and some of the terms and stuff this is one of those things that I actually kind of bristle every time we say you know we've hijacked it from Castle in my mind Castle hijacked character education I mean the truth is when we think about it these ideas setting goals learning how to get along with other people
296showing kindness how to work together in society and what's the role of a citizen all of which are included in this third grade who said Castle invented those our grandparents our parents we received that growing up I mean just figured out how to put a name to certain things and put it in a curriculum but the things that I saw that were discussed here were not even remotely offensive to me as a parent and I thought were great actually so um anyway that's I will say I I wish that the the differentiation for um really high impact Learners was better I I'm a little bit nervous with that I think that those kids could still easily slip through the cracks based off of what I look through um so I would like to see some
297sort of reassurance in making sure that teachers are getting really well trained in that area to make sure it's Equitable across the board one of the other things is um there are certain sections in here that talk about um multimodalities of being able to teach um they read several plays and in my mind I was like oh my gosh please tell me that some of these teachers are going to have their kids act out of play or put on a play and do this as a group that's where the learning really comes alive and the way that this is written there are many many opportunities for teachers to be able to integrate the Arts and devet tail it beautifully in what the kids are learning and so and and just to give an example of
298that Lone Peak Elementary they have um a fantastic BTS teacher her name is Charlotte Arnold and she actually took some of the more advanced um kids well you know know some of the more struggling readers were working on other things she took the more advanced kids and actually had them put on a play of the Odyssey from The Odyssey and the story of Cyclops and I got to go over and watch it it was fantastic and the kids learned so much and I so when I was reading through this I thought there are many opportunities that these teachers could do this and it wouldn't have to compete it could be very very natural so anyway that's those are my Impressions I hope it's helpful thank you thank you Mr Wrigley and then Mrs nbow okay
299I'm going to start off with a complaint that gets me against uh mcra Hill their papers cheap uh I don't know if we could ask them for better quality paper but I know these books are going to fall apart pretty quickly because as I've used them in Subs to teaching they take a lot of problems uh I was very impressed by the book I went through it and looked at it it was very clear and from a substitute teachers view I thought this is pretty cool you're not going to lose a day that's pretty easy to understand and you can just pass it on your substit teacher and they'd be able to follow through the lesson for the day you get a good good lesson for it I also thought that there were some sections
300here that they send stuff home with the parents and but it's in multiple languages so it's very possible to send this home to what what 50 languages or whatever it there was a whole bunch of languages that now we can send parents home in their language and ask them to help the kids is that correct yeah and I'm I'm really glad you brought that up it it's another one of the strengths I think of the program is already built in for the teachers are the resources to send home a weekly communication with parents that outlines the U texts that are being read the weekly learning goals for the students and how they can monitor and that's already organized and so again that transparency and openness with our families uh will be very easy to accomplish
301with this particular curriculum yeah I was impressed by that not only did it involve parents in their child's education but also a parent does not speak English it could involve them in their child's education correct uh and and move them in that direction uh I also have the opportunity to check out the uh educational equality principles of Wonder the social emotional stuff they passed the smell test uh it was I just wanted to see where they were on the the level and it says uh education quality W with which is every learn learner receives high quality instruction and then quality can be considered the driving force behind ensuring that all students everywhere receive uh rigorous uh Rich educational experiences that are designed to meet their specific learning needs and it was pretty specific uh in
302regards to education and didn't seem to have much of it now there may be other things but the things that they were posting on there unlike some of their other cohorts so I'm I'm excited about this I think it's going to be a good curriculum um I'm also excited about if we move forward at some point on a social emotional thing we might be able to use this at the same time it'd be much easier on teachers if we did the same at the same time same program without implementing another one so we could have that at a different time in discussion but it looked like a pretty good social emotional program too when we take that into discussion and it might be something for teachers that we can give them pretty quickly and not
303have to reinvent the wheel so thank you thank you Mrs nbow and then Mrs shei thank you and thank you for the time you spent with me uh I'm going to first say this was really exciting to get into and to read and I went online and I think the cross-curriculum between the science and the social studies is pretty awesome and I think that all of a sudden we're really engaging our readers the stories are interesting it's colorful it's exciting you know you're learning how they used to tell time and and making those personal connections the questions are would you rather cook back in the day or now you know it's fantastic the the small groups the the um research and inquiry projects for those who need more um is great and then the the
304English language learner portion is also awesome I also loved the the home to school newsletter that they can do where the parents can see now I'm going to say a few things that I have concerns about so uh like Claren stated I do feel we do need to be sure because literacy is an issue and we are falling behind that this passed the test that we are going to help our readers this does a lot of things this this does some the social emotional learning again um does look very benign and it's more about you know listening and and part of part of the um inclusivity is hey we have a text from someone from China and you know exposure to different groups and things like that but this this program tries to do a
305lot of things and it's it that makes it beautiful I think because it keeps it interesting and it engages the kids that are excited to hear about science at the same time and maybe they don't like reading but that's exciting now because they're learning you know in the subject they're interested in however here is a few things I I've gone online and I've read a lot of reviews and a lot of teacher reviews one of the teacher reviews that stood out to me was the teacher said it took her two years to become familiar because it's so dense um because it's almost like Choose Your Own Adventure as a teacher with the resources and so one of the criticisms was that um that because it's so dense that it puts so so much onus on
306the teachers that some very crucial parts of of learning of reading acquisition could be skipped if the way the teacher is selecting you know it's not getting the reinforcement um because there're saying they're saying major developmental reading instruction could be not reinforced as significantly as it could be because we have when you open up the computer there's like 12 different tabs of different things the teacher can pull it's great because it can be customized but this is what it's saying um the shortcomings are too fast in some foundational skills instruction not enough time spent on each text and little guidance on on some elll supports and supplements um I the positives with this review said it has a coherent scope and sequence for letter feature instruction which I noticed includes direct and explicit IIT instruction
307and focuses on reading aloud with appropriate expression text selections are varied and complex which I noticed and there's lots of diversity with different passages and interesting um noteworthy you know social studies and history integration so um my question is I would also be curious to see what's happened in Alpine School District with their reading and their test scores with reading and and acquisition and then also another concern I have is if we do this it is so robust would we be able to say this isn't changing for a few years because I read a ton of teacher comments that said this gets better the longer you have it because it is a little overwhelming so that brings me to another question is teacher training how much teacher training is going to go into this because
308as I explored online there's so so much and then is this this curriculum Dynamic it's online I saw so many options for extended resources games and so how are we dealing with that because I know this board's had a lot of discussion with when we have a dynamic curriculum what can we do to protect um ourselves that we know what we've approved so if you can talk to me about that so first a couple of things again this is the 20 23 Edition and so a lot of the reviews that are on the mcra Hill website I'm assuming are for past editions and while there are some similarities there are some significant differences that actually address the feedback because most Publishers if they want to stay in business listen to the feedback of the people
309that are buying the product and make those adjustments so some of those adjustments have been made um a reminder again with some of the feedback that you mentioned from a reviewer online missing critical components of literacy instruction we found some pretty significant holes uh in the terms of the science of reading and those foundational skills which is why we will not be using wonders for those particular standards we'll be using 95% to address those our district also has had in place the practice of uh developing Curriculum maps which will now as part of the new policy be known as instructional guides that really uh narrow the F Focus from a comprehensive program into where they need to priori I ize their instructional time for especially when they're starting out and learning the curriculum so that
310will help address that but it does take time and with any comprehensive program the longer teachers have access and are using it the better they get and the more familiar the students get with the routines so everybody grows together so it is uh robust and comprehensive with regards to um how Dynamic it is in the past with uh vendors and we have been using McGrath Hill for other curricula as well they typically notify us when there are going to be updates to the curriculum but the updates to a curriculum like this different from what we experienced with second step is it's tied to standards and if they're changing anything significantly they want to charge us for it and develop a new addition and so they don't make many changes most of the changes are more
311like updates to your cell phone where they fix bugs based on feedback um usability uh different systems um with the digital platform and those types of things so there aren't going to be at least in our experience um with curriculum of this nature for the last 10 years there aren't going to be many updates that change from what you are seeing now that wouldn't require us to pay more and adopt a whole new version or upgrade a whole new version does that make sense and another question in the brochure of Wonders online it it states that wonders McGrath Hill are proud to collaborate with sesme Workshop a nonprofit educational organization to provide an integrated approach to social emotional learning competencies within the Wonders curriculum so um and then talks about providing Young Learners the critical
312competencies to experience success in school and life with understanding flexibility support resiliency you have talked about how we are not adopting the seal portion I saw where that was in the book but I didn't see any seal competencies so is that supposed to be embedded in some of the the feedback where where they're asking questions like what would you do if I don't know where those competencies are they have listed and um in the folder that I gave you at the last reading and I'm happy to email it to you electronically as well they have identified um competencies they call them more learning skills I believe um and a a cultural connection but because we're not adopting those they will not be in the lesson so in the K1 there's an explicit lesson and that's
313where they're addressed there in the two through five they're addressed through access to character lab if a teacher chooses to bring that in with a um skill highlight at the beginning of each unit so for clarification just for the public there is no social emotional learning competencies that are just embedded within the text with small group work or instruction no the and I'm just pulling up um what I gave last time so they have habits of learning and classroom culture and then the social emotional competencies or things like U they highlight curiosity um I I thought I had it with me again no they're they're not integrated into the English language arts curriculum but I I will again keep in mind that because they're Ela standards we're talking about communication we're talking about critical thinking
314we're talking about stories that um talk about belonging and what to do if you're faced with a problem and how you're going to solve it so we're still talking about life skills because that's part of literature that's part of science that's part of social studies that's part of History history so those things are embedded as part of the ELA standards but in terms of social emotional learning competencies those are not embedded in the English language arts curriculum okay they are separate components thank you and then you and I discussed and I just would like to to bring that back here that with all of the menu of choices that the Learners have the teacher actually would go in and unlock that and make that available for the student and there will be access for parents
315as well to be able to view that through student because this is such a huge Treasure Trove of texts so there will be a lot of teacher training as well that if perhaps in the thousands of of additional resources there's something that hasn't passed a smell test or no one's seen it yet the teachers will have that professional training and know we're going to stay within this curriculum map right so you can think about the training that's coming um down the pike pike pipe why do I always forget that Pike down the pike for our teachers is going to be uh twofold given some of the events of this evening so training on the curriculum or the instructional materials policy so that they get familiar and fluent with that checklist as they're selecting resources to
316be able to bring into their classroom and then also extensive training on wonders and 95 uh core phonics and that will occur beginning in the spring through the summer and we be ongoing through their coaches and we've uh been brainstorming a lot with teachers and principles about what that can look like because we know it's going to need to be ongoing and individualized and teachers the number one feedback that they gave us when we asked what kind of training they would like they just said give us choice we want to be able to choose whether we go in person we want to choose whether we go in June or July we want to choose whether we can do it online just give us Choice lots of choice so we can do that so that's what
317will be available great and I appreciate that especially after after they've had to go through all the letters training so this is very exting they deserve some choice this is yes and this is very exciting I have to say like those that have gone before me it was really fun reading and going through this and I think it it it's exciting and fun so thank you and I again just one other thing I would like to get those test scores as clarine mentioned as well great um I I think Mrs shill and then Mrs Arnold okay so I did have a few questions but they've already been asked and um my fellow board members had a lot of good comments so I'm not going to repeat anything but my question is have we gotten any
318input from parents and like when will we get that we'll just get it before the next reading I assume and I just don't know I have seen Sky alerts go out but I don't know if we don't have any input maybe we should send another one I don't know I I have not received any from parents I know that um there's been a blast just today on Facebook and I know that we'll continue to get that information out I would anticipate now that we're back from the holidays we'll hopefully be hearing from more parents and then whatever we do get I will bring back the next reading Mrs Arnold just a couple more things so help remind me but I think fourth through fifth grade we pulled the out of letters as far as doing
319the all day um PD right but they're still doing their I don't know what happened to my voice it just all of a sudden 109 that's what happened to your voice we pulled them out of doing all day PD but they've still been taking on canvas the the um unit tests right I mean the units and the unit tests right some of our schools who wanted to have that um common Lear so when we're talking I'm when we're talking about summer and those fourth through fifth grade teachers going to have to have those four days then that they're going to be doing those all day seminars right that'll be something that we work through with their principles um given this adoption of what they want to prioritize and how they want us to structure that
320and what that could look like so that will be something that again will the the the principles I think do a really great job of advocating for their teachers and um whether or not they'll want to continue with that will be I think our discussion okay so then with that in mind I don't know how to even say this because it's so late at night um and be nice I'm trying to be really really nice so and and be professional can we not like do Canvas courses and give teachers quizzes on the new adoption program that they can just like read the book and learn how to do it and just enjoy it and not have to do all of that do you know what I'm saying I think so instead of letters or we
321put it on canvas and the poor teachers had to you know do all the homework and then the poor coaches had to see that the teachers did do the homework and that it had to be done a specific way and added all this extra stress can we like make this a little less stressful I mean I there's a way there's got to be way to make it a little more fun have you been to one of our professional learnings clarine they are full of fun I regret to say I have not I will put that in my calendar for this summer when I'm off all summer to make sure I come to one of yours I will send you a personal invite thank you yes noted we can definitely um increase the fund factor and
322I I think having that choice of how they want to engage their learning is really going to help and when exactly okay I I think jokes I think that concludes the questions and comments for this second reading um I yeah most of my thoughts have already been expressed so I won't repeat that but I am going to just issue a little since we're going to have fun a challenge let's all look at the chemistry and physics ones for next time and maybe we'll learn something that is fun in the making right there so I I do have Luke's latest pun joke that he made up what did um one lamb say to the other lamb about his pants why are your pants so bad he's six he's you know working on a career in comedy
323so thank you so we'll bring this back and hopefully have a good robust report on the feedback that's been received yes so I just have um the feedback that I'm coming back with and then if we can get a hold of the granite and Alpine data any other pieces uh yes Mrs Oaks I remember there were several districts that actually had been using right we'll we'll look at all of them okay yeah I don't want to limit it only to so I have one other thing I'm sorry so speaking of fun right can we like make this instructional guide a little loose so that those teachers who want to integrate the art and the play or the dance have a little time in there to be able to do that kind of stuff with the
324kids because it doesn't do us any good when it's so tight and there's no time to do that can we can we loosen that just a little bit yes that's one of the other things that we also liked about wonders is while the instructional units are six weeks um it's really five weeks of instruction that we can spread across so there's there's already some flexibility and we will definitely look at that as well okay thank you we look forward to the report next board meeting on this so thank you so much next on the agenda is consideration for adoption of a resolution for the Board of Education of Canyon school district in Utah authorizing the issuance and sale of not more than $70 million principal amount of its refunding bonds series 2022 and related matters
325this is the first reading it's a longer time the the lawyers wrote that one first reading and um I'll turn time over to Mr Leon Wilcox business administrator speaking of fun fun Factor policies and curriculum now really comes a good time Bond refunding no pun intended there too uh well we going to try and get through this in just a couple minutes cell towers is just exciting the next one uh if you remember about a year ago well it was a year ago we refunded some bonds we can do that every 10 years as these bonds have what they call when we issue them previously they have a 10-year call date and so when that call date comes we can refund those we did that a year ago uh and now we issued Bonds in
3262012 so now in 2022 they are now eligible to re be refunded so we're looking to refund about 65 Million by issuing 56 million so one pays off the other if you will the biggest thing there is number two we are going to look to reduce the repayment time frame from 10 years on the existing bonds down to seven years and so that will save us in the neighborhood of 9.2 to 9.4 million then by not doing it again we won't know the exact amount until we go sell the bonds on on a specific date on the board docs there is a parameters resolution we we'll ask we request your approval at the next meeting if that's okay and then you could also you me Memo from uh stifle or financial advisers on the resolution
327here here's just an outstand uh quick snapshot of our outstanding bonds as of the end of June 30th we had about 458 million we're going to refund and then de fees those existing bonds and make payments this year bring us down to about 425 at the end of June 30th so it'll be about 450 once this transaction occurs here's a big number of all the issuances that we've done we've done lots of building issued lots of bonds the colored section there in the Orange tannish is what we are proposing to refund again that will kick in in the 23 year we still have to make the payment this year in 2022 but it kick in 2023 you can see that seven years there I like to look at this in more of a graphical form
328there uh speaking of fun and happy days and everything the red line is the old Jordan debt that goes off this year oh my happy happy happy day I think yeah we'll need to have some sort of a celebration then I uh yes and then you can see the blue line is from the 2010 Bond what we have there again pushing that forward somewhat as we can we still have a couple more issues that from that 20110 Bond we' like to push up when those bonds are eligible to be refunded and then the orange line is from the 2017 we are making some decent progress on on re on those you know the way we issu and structured those out so you can see our outstanding debt there uh just schedule of events we're again
329request your approval at the next meeting finalize the offering statements we're working on those now meet with Bond rating agencies later this month uh we're look to sell these bonds mid-February I think we have a schedule of events there on from the financial advisor we cannot close on those till March 20 March 17th has to be 90 days uh before June 15th before they're eligible and then uh a year from now we Lu to come back and do the same thing because we issued Bonds in 2013 would refund those in 2023 then in two years from now do the same thing from bonds we issued in 2015 eligible refunded in 2025 so with that that's all I have any questions but I think the main thing is we're refunding to take it from 10 years
330down to seven and then if if possible would' request your approval on the resolution at the next board meeting if there's any concern any questions board and and we're okay bringing it back for next board meeting with action requested everybody good with that okay thank you next item is um proposal for out ofie cell tower this is a first reading and I will turn the time over to Leon wilcox's business administrator just to give you an update whenever a sell company comes to us and request actually place a tower build a tower we always like to bring that you know to the school Community Council first then we also like to bring that to the board so you're aware of that you know if they make adjustments to an antenna or their equipment shed or
331something like that we do not but the actual Tower we like to do that so we've had an atlas Tower uh come to us with a to put one at at Al of view of course a newly constructed School of of a few years ago uh on board dos there you can see some renderings we'll just go through them here I kind of actually like the design you know we always have these trees that don't look like trees and the poles they actually have a clock tower now and so it's looks a little bit you know we'd have to reset it at daylight savings time I guess but uh we'll work that down now uh I I don't know there you can see some renderings just quickly so that's how it looks uh we'd want
332be if we get your this was reviewed by the alab SEC the minutes are on board dos here back in November and then once we always do we uh once we'll get the actual renderings and drawings from the company and we take those to the city and make sure they abide within the city ordinances white City's a little different because you know we're not they really don't have any ordinances but but we're going to at least make sure they comply with Sandy city ordinances which is you know as far as the setback in the height which is typically 165 feet I believe from the nearest property so we want to make sure that yeah and they can't climb up that thing can they no they won do okay just making sure just if they do
333they'll have to reset it but we yeah they'll have to reset the CL reset it back yeah other there any questions I can answer Mr millerberg yeah yeah yeah we get we get we'll make sure that deal we get between 12 to 15 annually in each Tower it's got you know what we we are gonna we thought about the old uh uh no the uh what's the old movie Michael J fox where he runs in the Clock Tower and Back to the Future it's 10 how dare how how that is sad I can't remember that but it's 10:30 you know Dr Brown uh if it's okay we'd probably bring this back on a s agenda I don't know if you want a second reading or not but we can discuss it for um any any
334other questions or comments on this um I I had one thing in the um SEC minutes the SEC asked several questions have their questions been we'll make sure are particularly where the lands you know uh I think it's going to have to be that's a a retention Pond there so we'll have to sit back on that there'll also have to be a small shed constructed there but we'll make sure all their questions are answered yet that was a good point okay okay thank you so Bard are we okay bringing this back on the consent agenda for next time yes okay thank you thank you Mr Wilcox okay that concludes our um business items and now we'll have staff comments uh superintendent Robbins and then Mr Willcox thank you president um so just in the essence
335of time uh one of the things that I wanted to discuss real quick is just the changes in covid guidance I I don't know if the board has questions on that um I I want to also recognize uh Jeff and Kirsten uh over the holiday the CDC changed their uh guidance and so on a very cold uh chilly uh morning in the office with our parkas and Eskimo gear on we worked on this but um I just appreciate their efforts and the way that we are able to get in front of it and get that all communicated out that doesn't just happen it takes a lot of effort so the real Crux of the change is uh the change from 10 days isolation to five um CDC there there's an article in KSL that just
336come out talking about some of the latest um research around um uh detecting uh that potentially um a case and then onset of symptoms that with alicron it is looking more like it's earlier uh in the incubation period I I don't you know I've heard different things about that um but the uh reality is that now under that guidance through County Health is that at five days if a person tests positive employee or student that they may return uh to school with the recommendation to wear a mask for five more days so that's kind of the heart of it but I don't know if you have any questions um one of the things that this morning in our our call with County Health that I think we should pay attention to one is the dashboard
337um we've put this communication out to make it clear that the dashboard is uh only related to the progression toward a potential test a stay event so as we get that information from the county we'll still provide that however we need to make it clear that everyone understands is that that is not a it may or may not be a clear depiction or or uh accurate case count for number of cases in the school uh that day because obviously students may be coming back at 5 days we wouldn't know that and the dashboard previous to this was running on the 10 and 14 day cycle So that obviously that's going to be problematic but I think we still you know want that information to be updated as best that we can so that parents can
338see that we're getting closer to a potential test to stay and those vigilance letters go out which I I think have been it's been very effective in our strategies and how we've targeted individual schools and dealt with it so the other thing this morning that came up is that the county health department is recommending that at three cases individual classrooms um initiate their own test ofate protocol uh I'm not sure how that looks in a high school uh with a student having you know five six seven eight courses um I think that would that would really be problematic and I I raised that issue um so it may end up just being a recommendation uh they're moving further and further away from uh individual contact tracing and essentially just sending a letter to parents when
339those numbers are reached and stating that you know you it's recommended that you test because there's been three cases in your classroom probably a little I guess more doable in our elementary schools but um still a challenge especially when you know we've really been locked in on 2% uh and 30 cases for under 1,500 enrollment so still to be determined but just wanted to that's the that's the latest oh and the last one is to for our employees as you know if our employees are fully vaccinated and they uh uh end up testing positive that we've offered them five days of leave um the question is uh what does fully vaccinated actually mean because we have now all these different stages so the way that so the way that that is heading is that it's
340it will be defined as updated so wherever you're add in that if it's your uh second dose and that's where you're at then you your vaccinations are updated you're fully updated if you have gone six months after that second dose then to be fully updated you would have to have your booster so I know working with Steve Diamond and HR will be transitioning to that language because it it just got too confusing there were so many different messages about what fully vaccinated actually means but we'll we'll move to being updated is the definition I think that probably is the most fair so questions thoughts nothing like talking co30 at night you do not want to hear my [Music] thoughts Mr millerberg superintendent Just one thought as I look at the dashboard and it comes back
341I think the last one I can't remember how many cases but we showed on breakthrough cases that we were at a 100% and it just seems to me that you know where we have such a high uh number of employees vaccinated we should logically expect a high number of breakthrough but I'm just afraid that number goes out and the public may not understand it and I don't want people starting to feel like it's not worth getting vaccinated when it really is worth being vaccinated yeah and to that point M makes a really good point one of the things that we're seeing is um and Leon can comment on this too I think he has the numbers better than I do but um a high high percentage of our breakthrough cases are those people that have
342received two vaccinations but not the booster um very very few that are fully boosted are um testing positive with breakthrough so one of the efforts that we want to make is is to work with CNS and potentially offer uh more booster opportunities employees can get it there's multiple places you can go but for whatever reason um you know it and we're going to get this data to understand it better but many employees are kind of in that window in between and not choosing to get to get their booster and so uh we really want to encourage that uh so and if we can offer our own clinics I mean we know last year how effective that was people we very willing to come to our own so that that's one option I think one thing
343too to mention uh in our call with County Health is that uh part of the you know the the Crux to this is that a stronger encouragement for masks on that fifth day that uh if you are symptomatic on that fifth day you you should not come to work or come to school uh and so I think and if you choose to uh which is only a recommendation if you choose to that we would encourage you uh under that guidance to wear a mask for those additional five days so there other questions for superintendent anything else superintendent no thank you okay thank you Mr Willcox yes really quickly to Rick point I believe we had around 25 uh test positive employees uh who were breakthrough cases but only of those only one had been boosted
344so uh that's that's evidence that the boosters seem to be quite effective uh just a quick up really quick update appreciate Floyd Kirsten mon attended several the of our Midville Elementary SEC meetings discussing the boundaries uh we've gone to all four we've met with all four sec's starting this week this Thursday we will have open houses we still want to have those in person because we think they're just going to be so much more beneficial the first one this Thursday is at Carper viw then the next three Thursdays uh Midville Mid Valley on the Midville on the uh what the 13th or whenever the I believe the 13th the 20th and then the 27th at East Midville open houses uh the SEC all coales around option three that seems to be the less impactful one
345that is just shifting The Avenues out of East Midville there and into Midville Elementary which seems to make a we thought made a lot of sense and also moving that portion we called it the com portion the portion east of State Street out of Carper viiew we want to keep Carper viiew smaller because of the building constraints and then into the new building there at Mid Valley they all seem to be supportive around that uh that option there so we'll be bringing that more back but again those open houses coming up here in January and that's all I have thank you okay thank you um board member reports uh let's start with Mrs Arnold since it's a new year I just want to tell everybody I'm really appreciative of everything they do and I if
346I haven't told you personally I'll try to get around to it more but other than that I'm just kind of tired tonight so I'm just going to end right there thank you Mrs Nar no comment thank you for the discussion tonight and for all those who presented thank you Mr Wigley not extremely not a things to report during the holiday which is nice other than we did several of us attend the uh swearing in for Sandy City and I thought it was an infomercial on Canyon school district they had so much stuff included with in their their their presentation I thought well this is sort of interesting so and it was pretty positive thank you Mrs Oaks yeah I know it's late I just uh I want to take a chance to thank Rick for
347and all of the accompany staff for all of his work that he did on those employee listening tours I got to attend the one at Ela and at crer Canyon and those aren't easy and they're not comfortable but I feel like they made a really big difference and helping teachers and staff to feel like they were heard and it taught us a lot and gave us a lot of insightful information um so I feel like you really put yourself out there but I think we'll be grateful for that for a long time um I wanted to just give a shout out to our student advisory Council they are the most impressive group of kids that I feel like we've worked with yet and um they've given a lot of valuable insight and perspective on things
348and I want to make sure we encourage ourselves to continue listening to them and taking some of what they have to say into account and I also really enjoyed um the Oaths of office yesterday I got to make both Sandy and Drapers and I um I just want to reiterate how grateful I am for every single person who is willing to step up to the plate in one of those offices of Public Service it's a lot of work and it's pretty thankless you're you're guaranteed that there will always be somebody who hates you for doing a lot of work so there's it's it's a kind of a lonely thing and um I find that those relationships with the city council members and the Mayors Prov to be so valuable and we appreciate each other in
349kind of a unique sort of way and recognize that all of us are serving our communities in different capacities and that we need each other and we need to support and help one another so that was a great day and um I want to thank everyone for everything that you do to contribute including my fellow board members it makes a big difference so thank you Mrs shill um I will make it short but I attended the s in for cwood Heights City and they have a new mayor and two um new city council members and I just really appreciate the city of Conwood Heights they are great partner ERS for us and always very positive and supportive um I also want to thank the policy committee I know you guys just put in many hours
350on that um policy and I'm sorry I said it wasn't perfect but anyway I do appreciate everyone who's on that committee um I also want to thank the teacher Librarians that were here and I just really love um their passion like you think of a librarian and I just love that they were all here for several meetings that they spoke and I could really feel their passion for students and I really appreciate them and the work they do um lastly I want to thank all you people that are sitting here that were making you sit here because I feel terrible I'm sorry but um I do think we have important discussions and I want to say thank you thank you for being here like I love to watch you and your little faces and I
351am jealous you get a stand up so thank you thank you Mr millerberg just a couple of things um I have found as Leon mentioned with the Midbell uh elementary schools uh boundary changes uh it was amazing to me that all four schools centered in on the same on Plan Three and every school could look at it and see how it would help and see how it would hinder but they were looking at the good of the group of all four schools and that that uh really gave me confidence in the patrons of the school they weren't just looking out for their own interest looking out for the entire Community um I would like to thank everybody for the discussion we had tonight um I don't know if fun is the right word but I
352really enjoyed having the discussion and Nancy would you do me a favor would you ask me if I'm finished just one more time are you finished thank thank you and and um I I'll just add my thanks and appreciation but I I do want to mention because I didn't get to at our last board meeting that I was able to attend the high school musicals at Hillcrest and Brighton High and they were so fantastic I I love High School Musical season I I wish however I wish they would scatter them throughout the year so because sometimes I just I can't do it when they're all within the same couple of weeks yeah can't get to all of them but just fantastic and and what lifelong memories and experiences those who participate in those um Productions
353will carry with them and um I too want to recognize the newly elected City officials throughout our district I was able to attend the Sandy City swearing in and and but appreciate all of our cities and the relationships that we have and and the the work that goes into um having them understand more what we do here because I think it helps and supports Us in in ways that are hard to calculate and then I just want to say I'm looking forward to the usba conference and and wish Amber um all the best that I hope the conference goes well I've I know it's it's a big deal when you're in your position and running the conference and I I'm sure it will go well and it's I'm excited for it so and is there
354anything else all right seeing nothing then I will declare the meeting adjourned and thank you for