001I see like All right, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to get started. >> Welcome tonight. We're glad to have everybody here. If we could have our board members make their way up to the stand. and everybody find their seat. Thank you. It is March 31st, 2026. This is our 7:00 board of education meeting. We are going to start by indicating who's here. Julie, >> Julie Jackson, Kim Chandler, >> Connie Burgess, >> Chris Win, Karen Winder, >> Clark Nelson, >> Todd Hubber, Ben Worsley, >> and Nicole McDermott. Um we'd like to first um welcome anybody who's here visiting. We have anybody with PTA. I know I see our PTA people. Please introduce yourselves for >> Amy Warren Council President Holly Mesa Council President Kylie Jones >> and the baby that is not >> the PTA baby.
002Thank you for being here you guys. GA president. Thank you for being here. Granite office professionals. I know I saw Gana earlier. There you are. >> Gana Breeze, president. Sher Anderson, hourly representative, secretary. Amanda Pennington, high school representative. Diana Pennington, executive representative. >> Thank you for being here. Uh, middle managers, uh, GESPA. Do we have any GSPA representatives? uh GRE Education Foundation. I didn't see any folks, but just in case. Um and we have several elected officials here today. Will you all stand to be recognized and introduce I I know we're recognizing you later, but go ahead and stand up and and introduce yourselves. >> My name is Lauren Colby. I u represent the city of Karns in District 4. Hi, I'm Carol Spect Moss. I represent district 34 Holiday Park and I taught at
003High. >> Thank you, >> Senator Blake Harper. I represent Sailorsville and West in the Utah State. >> Thank you for being here, you guys. And um any principles, any administrators that we have in the audience, will you please stand and be recognized as well? >> Thank you. YAY. >> All right. Welcome. Um we are going to invite Jen Johnson up here to lead us in our pledge of allegiance. >> Thank you, Madam President. If everyone will please stand and remove your hats. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Principal Johnson. Um, we're going to turn the time over to Who do we turn it over to? Brooke. All
004right, you're up to introduce our reverence. We have the open elementary dancers. >> Good evening, members of the board, district leaders, families, and guests. My name is Angelie Luther, and I am the proud principal of Oakwood Elementary. It is truly an honor to represent our school tonight. At Oakwood, we have a rich tradition of focusing on student success. And one of our programs that we are especially proud of is our dual language immersion or DLI program. While DLI is one part of Oakwood, it reflects our broader values as we hold as a school, preparing students to be globally minded, culturally aware, and connected to one another and the world around them. This evening, our Chinese DI students are excited to share a special performance with you. They will be dancing to our song Peach Blossom
005Smile. It celebrates the joy of spring, the beauty of peach blossoms, and the happiness that comes from nature and friendship. It expresses a warm, uplifting feeling like smiling together under blooming trees and enjoying life's simple beauties. Through their performance, our students hope to share that same sense of joy, harmony, and bright spirit with all of you. Thank you for your continued support of our students and programs. We are proud to be Oakwood. Please enjoy the performance. Here the Now Now right now you And I won't let you down to town and the jump Oh yeah. Y there are right now into town and the ocean Where my motion? into town and the ocean La. want to recognize the parents and and teachers. You guys can be recognized as well. Thank you FOR Thank you so
006much, Oka Dancers. You guys were amazing. So much fun to watch. We're going to go ahead and go on to our good news minute. Um, Clark, will you start? >> I guess >> let's let's mix it up and start with with >> Oh, okay. >> Karen, we'll start with Karen. >> Go ahead, Karen. >> All right. My good news minute. I'm mainly going to focus on um attending Aladdin at Hunter High. And this was the uh um this is with the special ed kids. That's not the unified that's the word. The unified um production. And let me tell you, they did a wonderful job, Chery Parks out there, the drama director at Hunter High is phenomenal. Absolutely amazing. And Hunter High in general has such a great unified program. Sports, drama, you name it, they
007incorporate those kids. and to see Aladdin. Some of the leads had little um they're buddies. They call them buddies and they just become really lifelong friends. But so as they go and forget a line, yeah, you know, you would see them turning and then they would provide the line, but they really didn't miss it without a beat. It was just so rehearsed and so well done. And so that was definitely the highlight of the last month for me and my good news minute to to spotlight. I also have appreciated going around to different community councils and it's fun to see how creative parents and faculties when working together can be. So, a particular thing at Valley Junior High is they're really working on attendance. Attendance across our district, actually across the nation really, is down
008and it's a struggle to get kids to school and um and so you're seeing schools come up with different programs and and incentives and basically motives to come to school. So, at for the third quarter, the big prize at Valley Junior High was to go see the new Mario movie during school hours. And uh but it was just it, you know, it was phenomenally attended. And so kids were like, "Okay, here's the rules. Here's, you know, I can't have any unexcused absences. I can't be late more than twice in this whole quarter. I can't, you know," and they knew the rules and they worked towards it. And so it's just fun to go around to these different schools and see what different schools are coming up with of they they know their school the best
009and so every school's different. You got to pull the right levers to what means the most um for kids there. So those are my two highlights. >> Thanks Karen. >> Go ahead, Clark. I was invited last night to attend uh a PTA uh awards night for the Cottonwood Network. Um and it was really a pleasure to listen to uh the various recognitions uh that were provided and that were presented. Um and more than anything I walked away impressed with both the the unity uh amongst these network schools and really the contribution that so many uh parents uh provide to our schools that we could not operate our schools without them. um and they are such an important part of our community um and uh such an important part of our our neighborhoods that make our
010schools really the focal point of our neighborhoods and our community. So it's really grateful to um be a part of that and and witness their their great contributions last night. Thanks. >> Go ahead. >> All right. I just want to highlight two things. Um the first one is we've had we had last night um and this morning a Hunter Network community council meeting and um a Cypress Network community council meeting. Um Superintendent Horesley um asked for these and what I was really impressed with is the parents that showed up and came prepared to talk about issues that not just affect right at their school but also in the whole network and the community as a whole. And so I just appreciate the parents that were willing to come yesterday afternoon and this morning at 7:00
011a.m. That was our other one. So, um, I know it wasn't an ideal time for every parent to be there, but there was a good representation for most of the network schools. And, um, it was good to hear firsthand how certain things do affect the elementary still affect our high school and our high school and vice versa. So, I appreciated attending those. And then the highlight I had last week um I was leaving our ELT meeting and our communications um department Jen Bodell called and said hey you need to come to Magna Senior Center right now if you can. I'm like sure okay. So um I went and Brockbank STEM had had a class that had put on a senior ball a senior prom for our seniors at the Magna Rec Center and it was
012so fun. So, it was just um these great seniors in our community that had these junior high kids come out and dance with them and take pictures and they it was just so fun. And the more I dug into it, I was shocked because this was actually um done by a math class. So the math eight this is this is a project from the K through8 K through2 math specialist Heather Riddle put this together and um with the with Mrs. Gardner, one of the math teachers there, they came up with this curriculum based prom. And I was like, "Tell me how this worked." And Heather sent it to me. But they had to do they had to do the budget. They had to plan the space and how many people they could have. They had
013to plan how to pay. They had a budget and how to plan refreshments, decorations. Um, they made all of the seniors a rose that they could have. and they had to use their skills to put this together. Um, I thought it was one of the best things I've ever attended with a junior high. I I've been to a lot of schools where we have our um, groups come in and tutor kids and but I've never seen this happen this way with a math class and the kids that participated loved it. They were asking to request songs and they were grabbing seniors and seniors were grabbing the kids and they were dancing and it was so much fun. So, thank you to our math department. Thank you for Brockbank for allowing students to do something different
014in in math class. You don't think you're going to be planning a prom. So, I thought it was fantastic. >> Thanks, Connie. I was able to attend Eisenhower's um play, the junior high. was just a junior um the mean girls junior play which I was very impressed how they put it together. Um of course the students did wonderful work and um so grateful to teachers and everyone that gets involved to do this on a junior high level. many many students were involved and I always appreciate the more uh students they can get involved the better it is. So I wanted to thank um Ben and so many of the leaders of the district who are willing to go out and meet with the community and meet with the teachers also. I think it's a a
015wonderful um a wonderful thing that they will talk with everyone so that they can get a well-rounded um how the district should be work and how it should um include all of us community teachers everyone. Thanks. >> Thanks Connie Kim. >> Thank you. I know a lot of things have been going on recently. I've been invited to some some STEM nights. We've had plays. We've had the the community council um meetings that have been mentioned already, the network community councils. Unfortunately, I've been out of town for much of the month, so I haven't been able to attend these things. Um but just want to acknowledge that I know that they're happening and I'm appreciative of those putting in their time and effort for those things to to go on. I do want to comment on
016our cute Oakwood announcers who were just here. When I was that age, I don't think you could have bribed me with a million dollars to stand in front of a room full of adults like this and perform anything. And so, I just want them and all other student performers that we've had before us over time to to know that they're doing a great job and that I admire their willingness to be here and to share their talents with us. Thank you. >> Thanks, Kim. Julie, um I just want to highlight that uh two things from this month. Uh, I got to sit in on, it's not my first time sitting in on a principal meeting. That's network meeting, but I want to talk about this when I sat in on a Cottonwood High, a Cottonwood
017High network. So what that means is the high school, the junior high and the elementary principles that all feed into the same high school get together and they talk about the families that are in their school um network and geography and also about the ways that they are coordinating with each other to take care of those students from kindergarten to 12th grade. And what really struck me is first of all the way that these principles tended to understand what was going on in each other's schools so well. And the other thing that was interesting to me was to see the just serious advocacy that each principal had for their students when when there was a decision made or something that was going to happen and it wasn't going to work for that principal students. I
018mean, they were right in there with, "Well, let me tell you, that's not going to work, and this is why, and we better figure that out." And they were not budging on making sure that their students needs were cared for. And you could tell how much they care about their students. I The second thing I wanted to say is I really wanted to just highlight that we had we have a secretary in our in my neighborhood who is retiring who I think has been there 30 years at Morningside Elementary. Her name is Miss Lisa. I don't know her last name cuz I just call her Miss Lisa. >> Lisa Turner. Thank you, Danielle. Um, Lisa Turner. And she has been such a remarkable part of our school community at Morningside for 30 years. And I
019stood in line that felt a little bit like a wedding reception um to see her and get my picture taken with Miss Lisa. And there was a group of maybe sixth or seventh grade boys in front of me who were just so excited to talk to her. And they each gave up went up to her and gave her a hug. And I was so touched that those boys who that's not the age when you really usually care about your secretary, you know, but there they are like they showed up specifically for this. And so, you know, every person in our school makes a big difference and can impact a kid. and Miss Lisa has. >> Thanks, Julie. Um I've had the opportunity, this has been a busy month, to go to um several school community
020councils um and and have really enjoyed uh visiting with those communities. Um I do want to also echo what Karen said. I I don't know how you can go to the Hunter High School production with the unified drama class and see those kids perform and walk away with your eyes dry. It's just incredible. Um those kids do an amazing job. I admire the kids who are there to help out. Um but and also Miss Parks, Miss Chery Parks is is incredible to do that and I know she it's a labor of love for her. It's often not um recognized as that. Um I have also had the opportunity to go to both Benyan Junior High and Bonavville Junior High's musicals. Benyons is still going if anybody wants to see uh Descendants that they do a
021fantastic job. one more night. Um, and then Peter and the Starcat shirt at Taylor'sville, which if you don't know the story, Peter and the Starcat shirt is kind of the background of Peter Pan and it's hilarious and they did an amazing job and they I know a lot of our drama kids are going to state and to competitions. So, um, just hats off to those teachers. I did have the opportunity to judge. It was kind of fun um to judge one of our junior high orchestra festivals. I I can't get paid for it, but I said I'll just do it because I love to do it. And um so I had the opportunity to listen to four of our orchestras from the from the junior highs. And I just want to gush for a moment
022because for you know we I think we get this we have we have some um bad reputation as far as well you know they don't have as good of kids or whatever. Oh my gosh they blew me away. They blew me away. those four orchestras that I heard did a phenomenal job and I just want to applaud them and their teachers and the schools that are supporting them. Um just the orchestras, anything like that, any of the fine arts being being able to be involved in that. Uh it gives a place for our kids to be involved and a reason for the kids to be there at school and you could see just how much they enjoyed it and how much they loved it and they also got to go to lunch after which I
023think is a bonus. But um it was just a fantastic thing. And then last, um, we're starting to recognize our 30-year teachers and and, um, amazing staff members that we have working for the district. And I I made them reschedu Janet Vorweller, who is um, works over at the cafe. It's her 30 years. And I said, will you please schedule it for this week because this is my spring break, and so I can come. And so they did, and so I got to go do that today. But we just want to recognize we have some amazing, incredible teachers, educators here in this district who have worked for us for um quite a while and the impact that they have on students here. We appreciate all that they do. So that's my good news minute and
024we're going to go ahead and move on to our recognitions. Um we're first going to I'm going to turn the time over to Todd even though Chris isn't here and as an audit committee I think we need to embarrass him when he is at the audit committee because he isn't here. >> Great. Uh so uh Grant School District received the Asbo International's certificate of excellence for financial reporting. So if you remember back in January, we had the audit report. That financial document is what we received the recognition. So we wanted to recognize Chris and his accounting team for all the hard work and hours that went into accomplishing that task. >> So maybe we'll get together and figure out a way that we can go in and recognize them some other time. >> Have to
025sneak in on audit committee. we'll we'll bring some cookies or something for him. Um, and I'm going to turn the time over to Superintendent Horsley. We have our legislative champions to recognize today. Thank you, board president and board members. I'd like to invite Senator Wayne Harper and Representative Carol Moss to join me up here. As they're doing so, I'm going to take we take a few minutes after our uh most recent legislative session to recognize legislators who've had a powerful impact and and supported Granite School District in our effort to um support our children and uh our core mission. I'm recognizing these two legislators. Neither of them ran any legislation for us this year and we were so very grateful. In fact, uh, Senator Harper was very responsive on a couple of bills that, uh,
026we hope to, uh, alter and amend and, uh, was just always very, um, helpful in, uh, assisting us and, and again, it's always nice to have responsive individuals who are are trying to understand the issues. One thing that outside of the legislative session that Senator Harper was part of was uh in his old in his old job, his old career, he helped uh through the county um identify some some unspent funds that should have come back to the school district to help with our our capital needs that we should have received and uh with his due diligence and work, we were able to get some additional funding um that was that should have come our way in the first place. So, we're very grateful to Senator Harper, not only as an outstanding legislator, but also
027a good citizen and a supporter from Taylor'sville. So, let's give him a round of applause. And then to my right here, I have Representative Carol Moss. Now, um I always know when I do something wrong up on the hill because Representative Moss will let me know. And uh she is always in constant. We probably text each other endlessly uh throughout the session. And in fact, uh the the House committee chair last year texted me and said, "Stop texting Representative Moss. She's making our meeting go longer." And I said, "No, she is helping us. She is standing up for public education. She's helping with our kids and she does an outstanding job." this is her last legislative session and uh she has not only been a valuable asset on the hill but an outstanding member of
028our our general community in Granite School District and a valuable teacher at Olympus High School. Um you are the longest tenur uh member of the house. Is that correct? >> Well, right now in the House. >> In the House. Yes. In the House. >> In the House. >> Don't worry about the Senate. Nobody cares about the Senate. >> One year ahead of Jim Dunigan. No, very good. Very good. So, uh, not only did you have a distinguished career as a legislator, but more importantly as as one of our teachers here in Granite School District, and we're ever so very grateful. Can we give her a huge round of applause? Just one, I would I would just like to acknowledge my daughter Jill Fer who's over here. She has taught English A and IB English at
029Skyline for 30 this her >> 26 years plus a a few years at Valley. So 34 years of teaching and she's also been department chair and she learned nothing from watching her mother grade essays night after night, weekends and holidays cuz she went into English. But I'm very proud of her. Thank you. There's a microphone, therefore we take it. >> I know. >> Um, it's been my privilege to work with Granite District and Jordan District for many, many years. Um, I've served, uh, believe it or not, I served for eight years on the PTA council on the school and council level. That was way back in the days when we lived in Karns. served on the West Orange City Council and also um in the House and the Senate and I love education and all
030that you do. These wonderful students from Oakidge doing their uh dance here. I do happen to have Calvin Smith and Ben Junior High in my district and they're always doing the lion dance. We bring them up every year. >> Yep. Back there to go through and do it. And I just love it. And I'm glad that I could help Todd find nearly a million dollars that should have come to the district that had did not. And it was wisely invested around the around the district, but especially in Taylor'sville High School to get the seating and sound and everything done. So, thank you for your hard work on on doing so many good things. Thank you so much for >> Thank you so much. a picture in the middle >> and you're always answer when we're
031sitting in those meetings and the risky people that are saying I can text. >> It's always nice to have somebody to bend too. >> All right. One, two, three. >> Let's give him another one. Um, I'm going to turn the time over for the next presentation to Dr. renewal Converse. >> Thank you. Board President, board members, and guests. I'd like to invite Isabelle Miller up. Board Isabelle Miller is being honored tonight for a very special award. Um she's a Hunter High School Sterling scholar in forensic all academic allstate for Utah first place national speech and debate association national qualifier in original oratory so I wouldn't want to debate her um academic all-American from the NSDA and she also received the seal of premier distinction from the NSDA so I just want to explain a little
032bit in order to be academic all-American um only 2% of the NSDA are awarded this honor. So, it's very distinguished. And what it means is she's completed at least five semesters of high school, demonstrated outstanding character and leadership, and earned a GPA of 3.7 on a 4.0 scale at least or its equivalent. Um so, it's just really really um special and um uh dedicated student. The premier distinction is the highest degree in National Speech and Debate Association Honors Society and less than 3% of the NSDA members earn the premier distinction prior to graduation. So this milestone is a celebration of the hundreds of hours that Isabelle has spent preparing, practicing, and competing to hone her communication and leadership skills. So we're just very, very excited to have her here. And I'm going to go ahead
033and invite up her leadership team as well. And you're welcome to go the hands of the board members. And then you'll take a picture. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Hey, >> Hunter. Hi. Come on up. >> Squish in. We don't want to be seen. >> One, two, three. And then I think you have parents in the audience if you'll also stand and be recognized. Thank you Isabelle. Okay, I have one more uh award to announce and so if Yaseline Zavala, are you here? Yaseline, come on up. And then anyone who's here to represent or come on up to you because you'll be in the picture. So don't be shy. >> Yeah. Okay. So Granger High School administration's also here and staff. So Yaselin. So this is a really exciting one as well. This is our
034first ever Granite School District state win for 2D best of show at the Utah State High School competition hosted by Springville Art Museum. Of the 200 high schools across Utah State, over 1,000 pieces were submitted and of those only 339 were accepted and 89 of those artworks received awards of various. Yaselines was was awarded the top award in the 2D category. And so basically this is the visual arts equivalent of winning state for football. So if you want to put it in perspective, that's what she's done. And I believe Yaselin, remind me, but you've been our our Christmas card winner before as well. So um we just want to really recognize the amazing artwork and dedication that Yaselin has given and thank you Granger team for coming. So you can uh go ahead and take
035>> Did you bring a copy of her artwork? >> You know what? >> I wish we had a copy of her artwork. Do you guys have a copy of her? Do you have a copy of her artwork here? I >> think we've Yeah, we don't have it. That's silly. Let me see if I can find it though. >> Will you send it to us? Send it to me and I'll >> be center. >> Get closer. >> Behind you. >> All right. One, two, >> and any par. Yes. Parents. One more. One more for parents. >> Don't clap yet. >> Bring it up. Bring it up. Oh, you just texted it to me. Okay, >> THERE WE GO. WILL YASLYN'S PARENTS PLEASE STAND to be recognized also? Are your parents here? Wave. She's in the middle.
036WAVE. >> Can I just say go West Valley? Because both of those we have one from Hunter and one from Granger. So West Valley is in the house. >> Sorry. That's okay. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Um, yeah, well represented. Great job, you guys. >> We have up next, um, we do have, sorry, I got to get to that, please. Um, elected officials participation. We already invited our elected officials and I think and we do have our Kern's city council. Would you like to do you want to say anything or are you just here for the ride? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you for being here. We appreciate we appreciate currents being represented too. So um all right, we're going to go ahead and move on to patron participation. Um just
037as a reminder um patron participation will be three minutes. Do you have your timer? Okay, Miss Michelle will uh make make sure that you guys know when your three minutes is up. Um, please make sure that you remember that I didn't pull up my my usual thing. Um, that uh your remarks are appropriate for those who might be listening as we do also have um young children that that might be listening. um if it is something about personnel, personnel issues are not allowed to be um brought up here in this setting. Um but we are happy to talk about those outside of this and um please keep your remarks to the to appropriate for the for for what we have. So, first we're gonna invite up Reed Taylor. And if you will state your name,
038please in the microphone just so that we have it for the record and then um begin your remarks. >> I'll get you. Oh man, this is made made for short people. >> Yes, it is. >> And you kind of have to speak right into the mic. >> I know. Like down like got to do some squatting. All right. >> Uh my name's Reed Taylor from West Valley City. Uh good evening members of the board and Superintendent Warsley. As I said, my name is Reed Taylor. On March 18th, I sent an email to Miss McDermott offering a private meeting on a six-month governance review of administrative memorandum 130 and electronic device policy implementation across the Granite School District Junior High campuses. Unfortunately, I did not receive a response. I provided 13 copies of this review for
039the board and the superintendent and one for the official record. You guys will have it right here. It's not a list of grievances. It's a documented examination of what I'm calling the boardroom to classroom gap. The distance between what this board has published and what families actually encounter. To measure that gap, I developed a descriptive tool called the escalation compression index or the ECI. It scores each granite campus published electronic device policy based solely on when guardian contact is triggered in the published escalation sequence. Among 12 junior high campuses with scorable published policies, the ECI range is 1 to5, a four-point spread across schools governed by the same AM130 signed by the superintendent. At one campus, a student receives a warning and AM130 designates as its first events. At another, mandatory parent inerson pickup is
040required for the same first offense. A student's disciplinary experience in Granite is determined by their campus attendance or their zip code or their boundary. Four of 16 campuses or 25% had no publicly accessible policy at all despite AM130 section A2 requiring website publication. What concerns me most for this board's oversight role is documented in appendix F finding one. I have submitted multiple grammar requests for records of administrative actions that district officials had explicitly described to me in writing. Each was certified searched and no records found even when I had a responsive record. On March 14th, a narrow request for law policy committee records submitted through general counsel Larson produced responsive records in 47 minutes. Those records include three the records officer's own meeting notes from a committee meeting he personally attended on October 20th 25.
041Records that were directly responsive to four prior requests each certified no records found. The board cannot have a reliable view of administrative performance if the transparency mechanism it depends on does not produce consistent results. This review documents a complete absence of records reflecting the administrative training the superintendent directed in that October meeting. 6 months later, the variance that initiated this review remains observable at the campuses where it was first identified and was checked again earlier today across all 16 junior high campuses. I'm asking this board to place three questions before the administration and report back to the board in in their April meeting. What documentation standard governs district-wide policy decisions? What search methodology governs grammar responses? And what actions followed the superintendent's referral of this matter to the law and policy committee meeting in October
042of 25. Policy without oversight is a published intention, not a practice standard. I invite the board and the law and policy committee to review these findings and ask the administration to account for them. Thank you, >> Mr. Taylor. Appreciate you being here. Um, we're going to invite up Daniel Houseman next. >> Likewise. Will you please state your name just for the record in the microphone? Good evening. Danielle Hman speaking only for myself. I'm here tonight out of deep concern about the planned reduction of special education teacher FTEE in Granite Elementary Schools. When a school is just one or two students away from qualifying for a full-time special education teacher and the district doesn't account for incoming kindergarteners, it creates a predictable problem. It is very likely that at least one kindergartner will arrive needing services.
043And when that happens, that school will then qualify for a full-time teacher. But the other half of that FTE may already be assigned elsewhere, leaving the school to juggle two half-time teachers instead of providing one consistent educator. This is an unnecessary disruption for students and families. I'm also concerned about how these decisions are being made. Changes of this magnitude should not happen without meaningful stakeholder input. Have principles, special education teachers, the board, and parents been consulted? These cuts ignore the fact that short-term investment leads to long-term stability and reduced costs. My son is proof of that. He began receiving services in kindergarten and was recently exited from special education in sixth grade because he was so well supported early on. Utah's special education rules require services in accordance with the unique needs of the student.
044Sta staffing must be based on actual needs, not fixed ratios or backwardlooking counts. To meet these legal obligations, districts must consider service intensity and frequency, disability categories, push-in versus pullout needs, total IEP minutes, and the indirect work special ed educators do to support the whole school. Under IDA, districts must have enough personnel to implement every IEP as written. If these cuts prevent timely and appropriate services, the district risks risks non-compliance with federal law. My request is that you slow down, engage with stakeholders, and carefully consider all angles before making any cuts to special education. At the very least, please include the needs of incoming kindergarteners in your ratio formula. These are the same students who will be directly affected by the mandatory third grade retention legislation. If Utah will require students to repeat third grade
045for not reading on grade level, shouldn't we be giving them more supports and not less? Reducing resources in the early grades will only increase academic and financial costs later. I urge you to choose a path that honors both the law and our shared values by protecting elementary special education staffing now so that our youngest learners have every chance to thrive. Thank you. >> Thank you. And we're going to invite Jessica Lee up. All right. My name is Jessica Winder Lee. Good evening, board members and district leadership staff. My name is Jessica. I am the social worker at West Kern's Elementary School. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share some thoughts regarding the options for rebuilding West Kern's Elementary. It is critical to rec to recognize that many of our students at West Kerns are trauma
046impacted and already face significant challenges outside of school. While having a new school built in the field is a little stressful, relocating students to a new environment would be worse. About 10% of our students are classified with a disability and need specialized support. Many of these students have behavioral health support on their IEPs and behavior intervention plans that include supervised breaks outside of the classroom and access to a sensory room. Moving to a school such as Ochre Hills does not have the space for students with disabilities, including our essential elements unit. We have an essential elements unit classroom where students with intellectual and physical disabilities need specialized bathrooms, including a changing table in order for staff to provide basic hygiene needs, which is a human right. Additionally, the kindergarteners and students in essential elements need
047a fenced playground where students cannot run away and put themselves in unsafe situations. For these students, stability, routine, and a sense of safety are essential for learning. Relocating them to an undersized, more crowded facility that is farther from their community introduces instability at every level. Longer commutes can heighten stress and anxiety, making it more difficult for students to regulate, engage, and succeed academically. Disrupting established support systems and safe places can have a disproportionate and lasting impact. Maintaining full staffing and adding relocatables does not solve these issues. I understand that the budget is an issue. However, it is it is important to remember that schools are for students and their overall success, including their academic, social, and emotional success. Overall, we are grateful we are getting a new school. Please consider these concerns as you go
048forward with your decision. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Lee. Mrs. Lee, um we're going to invite Michelle Jones to come up. We do have another person signed up, but it's for school fees. So Nate Woodward, if you're here, we're going to actually hold off your comment if that's okay until we have the school fees discussion as it pertains to that. >> Good evening, uh, President McDermott, Vice President Wyn, members of the board, and Superintendent Horesley. I feel like my comments tonight are unexpectedly well timed because of the amazing recognition of the legislative superstars. So, my name's Michelle Jones. I'm a nth grade math teacher and the proud president of GA. I'm here tonight to express my gratitude for the strong collaboration between GA and Granite School District during the 2026 legislative session. Our weekly
049jam sessions as named by the PTA. Thanks Liz. Um kept us connected, strengthened our shared messaging, and created space to better understand one another's perspectives, especially when we didn't necessarily disagree. That spirit of collaboration reflects our shared commitment to students. As educators, district leaders, parents, we are united in our goal to provide a highquality education for every single student in Granite School District. This session, that shared purpose guided our work on several key issues that I am excited to have success on. First, the failure of HB70, the school board referendum amendments. This bill would have allowed petitions to challenge school board decisions. Its failure ensures that the school board can make timely student- centered budget decisions without the uncertainty of potential reversals. Second, the failure of HB241, charter school amendments. This bill, yeah, yay. You're
050not kidding. Um, this bill would have given charter schools preferential access to district-owned property. Through our collective advocacy, the bill ultimately failed in the Senate. This outcome allows the district to work toward right-siz schools without fear of losing property to competing charter schools. In a time of increasing polarization, I am especially grateful to be part of a district and to lead a union that prioritize respectful collaborative relationships. By working together, listening to one another, and leading with professionalism and dignity, we achieve stronger outcomes for our educators, for the district, and most importantly for our students. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to our continued collaboration. Thank you, Michelle. Okay, we're going to move go ahead and move on to um agenda item number eight, which is our consent items. We've had these
051items for the last few days and been able to look over them and ask questions. So, if there are no further questions, I will entertain a motion on that. >> I move that we approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Is there any further discussion on it? All in favor, please say I. I >> I any opposed. Right. Motion carries. We're going to move on to um item number nine, which are action items. The first one that we have is our administrative appointments and transfers. This is number 9A. Um and again, we've had these also for a few days and been able to look over them and had any questions. If there's no further questions, I will entertain a motion about that.
052I move to accept as an action item the approval of the administrative appointments and transfers. I'll second that. We have a motion and a second to approve the administrative appointments and transfers as has been outlined. Is there any further discussion other than I might cry over one of them, but okay. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Right. Motion carries. We're going to have Tyler take it over. Dr. How, go ahead. >> Thank you, uh, board president and to members of the board. This is easily one of the greatest honors I get to, um, be able to recognize our new appointments. And I'll also, um, review our transfer so you're aware of all of those. First, like to ask Elie Moto Catalan to stand up for us. Give her a round
053of applause. We're going to embarrass her for just a minute. So, you got to stand there. Elie is being appointed the assistant principal at Hunter and South Kern's elementary school. Elely brings a rich and diverse background in education with international teaching experience in South Korea and Spain and a strong foundation as a Spanish dual immersion teacher at Monroe Elementary. Currently serving as an administrative team um sorry administrative intern at Benyan Junior High. She has demonstrated a strong transition to school leadership. Those who have worked directly with Elely in her administrative role emphasize that she combines an outstanding instructional skill set with a genuine ability to build strong relationships with faculty, making her an effective and trusted instructional leader. They also note her extensive experience supporting English language learners and students most impacted by systemic challenges.
054Colleagues further describe her as tough and unwavering in her commitment to the success of every student. These strengths position Elely well as she steps into her new role as the assistant principal at Hunter and South Kern Elementary School. One more round of applause. Elie, now you get to embarrass other people. Can you intro introduce who you brought with you? >> Congratulations. Can we ask Becca Bagot to stand? Oh, we have one more recognition. Jake Brown needs to be embarrassed, too. Becca Bagot, can we have you stand up and give her a round of applause? Becca brings 16 years of experience teaching in a variety of elementary schools within Granite School District along with 10 years serving as a technology coach. She is currently an administrative intern at Lincoln Elementary School where she has continued to
055grow her leadership capacity. Those who have worked directly with Becca in her administrative role share that she is highly skilled at helping others feel seen and heard and that she approaches even difficult conversations with kindness and compassion. They also describe her as someone who is continually seeking opportunities to learn and grow. Colleagues further note that she has been exceptional this school year, smart, caring, and deeply passionate about education. Her love for students, positive attitude, and ability to build strong relationships with all stakeholders have made her a valued member of the school community. These strengths position Becca well as she steps into her new role as assistant principal at Beehive Elementary School. Congratulations, Becca. Can you introduce who you brought with you? >> Yes, this is my son Mike and my son Scott. >> Thanks for
056coming along and congratulations. Can I ask Francesca Hall to stand up and give her a round of applause? Francesca brings a strong and varied background in education, having served as a secondary math teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, and in Canyon School District. She later completed her administrative internship at Granite Park Junior High and currently serves as assistant principal at Hunter and Pleasant Green Elementary Schools. Those who have worked directly with Franchesca in her administrative role describe her as an excellent administrator and express strong enthusiasm for her leadership, they highlight her commitment to prioritizing the whole child, noting that while she maintains a clear focus on academics, she equally values developing students as positive, well-rounded individuals. Colleagues also emphasize her dedication to personal growth and continuous development as well as her ability to meet staff, parents, and
057students where they are and thoughtfully support them in improving. These strengths position Franchesca well as she becomes the 13th principal of Vista Elementary School. Congratulations, Francesca. Can you introduce who you have with you? about my husband Kevin and my principal Stewart. >> Congratulations. We're thrilled for each of those appointments. By way of information, I'd love to just review some of the um transfers that are also associated with the changes this year. Um in elementary school, Lindseay Adams, the principal of Moss Elementary, will be the new principal at Elcrron Elementary. Heidi Draper, the principal at Academy Park, will be the principal at Moss Elementary. Monica theer, the principal at Hillsdale Elementary, will be the principal at Walker Elementary. Annayia Ulig, principal of Walker Elementary, will be the principal of West Valley Elementary. Jeff Walton, the principal
058at West Valley Elementary, will be the principal of Hillsdale Elementary. Lisa Wells, the principal at Elkrron Elementary, will become the principal at Silver Hills Elementary. And Julie Wilson, the principal at Vista Elementary, will become the principal at Academy Park Elementary. our transfers amongst our assistant principles or deans of students. Rachel Bartholomew who's currently the uh dean of students at Driggs and Oakidge will become the dean of students at Driggs and Upland Terrace. Prima Trueod uh the assistant principal at Walker will become the assistant principal at Pleasant Green and Silver Hills Elementary. Kimberly Hill, the assistant principal at Silver Hills and Upland Terrace, will become the assistant principal at Lidge Elementary. Alisa Jennings, assistant principal at South Karns and West Karns, will become the assistant principal at Walker. Brent Nelson, currently assistant principal at Viston Whittier,
059will become the assistant principal at Lincoln and Vista. Annie Orton, assistant principal at Jaclyn Elementary, will become the assistant principal at West Kerns and Whittier Elementary. Ricky Renlessbacher, the assistant principal at Lorage Elementary, will become the assistant principal at Jaclyn Elementary. Uh Melanie Royal, the assistant principal at Rolling Meadows. And Wilson Elementary will become the assistant principal at Armstrong and Rolling Meadows. Um secondary, John Anderson, the principal of Olympus Junior High School, become the principal of Benyan Junior High School. Jake Brown, the principal of Benyan Junior High School, will become the principal of Bonavville Junior High School. He's here with us today. Mike Douglas, the interim principal at Bonavville Junior High, will become the principal of Olympus Junior High School. And in high school, our assistant principles, Josh Adams, the assistant principal at Granger High,
060will become the assistant principal at Olympus High School. And Aaron Tanner, the assistant principal Olympus High School, will become the assistant principal at Granger High School. That's a lot. Thank you everybody. Can I just This is a really good crop of uh appointees. this evening. We interviewed over a hundred individuals and could have interviewed more and we only had three retirements this year. So, um, these are the best of the best of the best. So, we're so very grateful to have them. You guys don't stick around for the rest of this meeting. It's called board meeting for a reason. Go celebrate and have a good night. Thanks for being part of our team. >> I think it's thrilling. You guys are welcome to stay. All right, we're going to invite Dr. How backup, aren't we?
061And Steve Pashawn, for our student fees scheduled. >> Second reading. >> How exciting. Thanks, L. >> Well, board, we are back. Um, this is our second reading of the school fees. Um, as discussed before, these are the objectives, but just as a reminder of this process that we've gone through. We have a very robust um fee committee that meets on a monthly basis and they're also soliciting input from our practitioners and the schools and asking um how those things are balancing out um as far as what the current fees are. We're also utilizing input from curriculum specialists right here in the district to be able to vet those and and to evaluate them. But um we'd like to be able to recap those from our first reading and be able to um answer any follow-up
062questions. As we mentioned on the first time we read this um last year's changes, there were more significant legislative changes with fees and fee schedules last time, but um this one is an important one to highlight that um due to the changes from last year. The current year we have a general fee um no longer being charged and that equates to $65 for each high school and $40 for each junior high school. Um the class fees cannot be charged for English, health, math, social studies, and science. So, the district this year has deployed a fee replacement allocation and provided schools for the following. $55 for each junior high and $90 for the high schools. From the recent legislative session, House Bill 121 was not adopted. So, that failed. So, that one didn't actually even get
063off committee. So, that one would have changed. It said it would have allowed for science fees, but again, that one did not pass. >> Down. Thank you. There you go. >> Okay. Uh, one bill that did change in regard to fees is House Bill 142 by Representative Doug Welton school fee waiver amendment to pass amendment provisions related to school fee wavers and defines terms. It limits the number of fee wavers the student may receive and it requires the local LEA so grant will have to establish a cap on fee wavers. What this basically does, it allows a student to request a fee waiver for a second trip by meeting with the principal or a designate and developing an action plan that includes school related contributions. So they could come up with a contract to provide
064custodial work, service, tutoring, other type of things they could do in the community as well and make some tech technical and conforming changes. So that'll be something that we'll have to tackle as an LEA is how that's going to look for the district. These are all linked in your agenda, but those are the actual updated U maximum uh school fees for each of our levels. Um, as we discussed last time, we'll just hit some highlights. We'll we'll hit the anything that was a change from previously. Um, as we discussed last time, the school club dues have changed. Also, our driver's education um due to the fact that prices have have increased and and the the program right now is is losing money and not sustainable. the recommendation to increase that from $195 to $250. >>
065And for school sponsored admission fees, we're adding an athletic sports passes. Other school districts around us have adopted this and also without the basic fee. We use we used to use the basic fee as kind of that admission for their games. We're creating two different types of passes and athletic sports pass which allow entry for athletic events for the entire school year. That'd be a $40 pass. And for individual sports, they could go to typically either a football or basketball season would be $20 for the season. and then dances with increase costs for uh decorations, vendors, DJs, administration, security, raising that from $15 to $20 per student. Changes to career and technical education. Uh fire science, we're changing that from 35 to 40 and also al also we're adding a new class wildlife firefighter. So
066making those fees the same amount of money, so $40 for each of those. Food and nutrition, raising that from 20 to $30 just with the increased cost of food for this for the students to be able to can to do the food labs. Hospitality and tourism is a new class that some of our high schools are offering. So offering a $25 fee for that class where they can do uh different activities there. Medical interpreting, that's mainly a fee for the cost of items needed for that class. Sports and outdoor design. This class is an interesting name. This is more of a sewing class. It's more of the sports marketing and doing athletic gear for that. So that's a a sewing class raising that for the feed to 30 from 35 to 40. And again we
067mentioned the wildlife fire and then two changes to PE uh lifetime sports and bowling changing that from 80 to 100 and lifetime activities recreation from 80 to 100. Also just increase cost for those activities for them to participate in. >> To be clear, you said bowling, not bowling. >> Yes. >> We don't charge. We try to avoid that proposed junior high fees. There's no changes for the first or second reading there. So no changes of the junior high fee schedule for this year. For elementary, no changes the fee schedule itself, just for verbiage. And that verbiage is highlighted in green here. Green here. All fees for elementary school activities are for those that occur either before or after the regular school day. We cannot charge a fee inside the school day. And then for our
068non-waveable fees, changing one thing on that one, which is just adding a line for certification and licenses. It's not needed for the grade in the class. It's just an extra item that kids could actually have the opportunity earn. So if they're in a foods class, they could get their food handlers permit, a pharmacy tech, they get the certification, EMT, lots of different opportunities for kids to actually earn that which they can use for um jobs or for the future. This is um a significant part of the legislation. Um beginning this um upcoming school year, an LEA must offer at least one pathway for the 27 credits that fulfills graduation requirements and does not require a payment of waiver of any fees. As we mentioned in our first reading, Grant School District already fulfills this requirement
069in conjunction with our online program. um meaning that there's certain classes that if fulfilled online will will allow a path forward to get all the way to the 27 credits without paying any fees. I'm doing a little extra homework and and really kudos to Steve on this because he's been able to um analyze and and talk with counselors and registars at each of our high schools. Each of our high schools also have an um an at school path to get to the 27 credits. Now, those paths may vary a little bit by which which school is is charging for which different course, but every one of the high schools would have a path forward without the online program to also get to the 27 credits. So, we were pleased with that and thanks to Steve
070for doing so much leg work on that. um to our questions. One question that came up last time, I thought I'd start there and then of course open it up to any other questions is um the the request to investigate and explore how um communication is on the front end of course selection. Um we have taken that and had a very robust conversation with our high school principal guiding coalition and discussed the communication mechanisms. There is variation from high school to high school on what the cards look like whether they're physical cards or digital cards. Um, but everyone absolut everyone in no matter what the system is is on board to make sure that the estimated fee and I emphasize that because it's a little bit backwards on the the order of these things is
071listed on the course selection communication piece that the the student and the family would have. Um, I say it's a little bit backwards because obviously the course selection is taking place in January and February and here we are um finalizing fees and the fee schedule in the end of March and the beginning of April. So, it's going to have to be the best estimate they can to have that upfront to say this is what we anticipate it being and we want to make it clear for our patrons that it's an it's an estimate. Um, additionally, I know Rick Anthony with the feedback from our last meeting is is working with his folks and exploring also having that built into the focus system. Obviously, that's a increased price and and a special work order for focus,
072but he thinks it's it's feasible and I would expect more information from his folks in the upcoming weeks and months on what that could look like and what the price would go with it. Um, so that was a significant question we had asked last time and I want to report back on the um, what we found out for each of those. Can I open it up in general for any new questions for our second reading? >> Any questions? >> Yeah, I do have >> We want to be Amazon. >> I have some questions. Um, so my question and I don't know if this might be a a policy issue but um with those estimates is there I just I would like to know that those are not going to be a significant difference between what
073a parent sees on a fee card or on a registration card and what is what it ends up to be. Do we need to place some parameters maybe through policy or procedurally um that it you know please make your best estimate but it cannot exceed $50 from what your estimate is or tell me can you do you understand what I'm saying? >> Yes I do and um I I would anticipate we don't want that either. We we don't want the awkward conversation of we printed something and the family comes back and says hey you said this and now it's that. So, I'm positive that's there's going to be some consensus from all of our our high school administrators and and counselors to get as close as possible. Most often, I'm anticipating it's going to be
074what it was previously. I mean, even going through this change of the fees fee salary or the fee schedule, I should say, was looking through anywhere there are changes. So, I think that the areas that will be the most problematic is if we can see significant changes, but I would anticipate most are going to be going with what it was last year, unless there's been something on those spend plans that indicate we need to change that and that would be included in the estimate. >> The nice part about this too is the board approves the maximum fee schedule. So, we already we already have a maximum. So, we just have to work with them on best practice of keeping that close to that estimate. >> Sure. I just don't want parents to sign up for
075something and think, "Okay, I can do a $50 fee and then it ends up being a $200 fee because that's a big difference." >> So, >> and and to Steve's point, I think the the maximum would catch that by itself. But, but in general, I don't think there's anyone involved in this that would want that either, but because that's a hard conversation to have to defend, you know. >> Yeah. >> Sorry that hit my drink. Um, that was loud. Um, yeah. on the on that cap I would hope that is it simply a communication so let's say okay the fee for the class is ant estimated to be 50 but the cap cannot exceed 100 I mean couldn't that just be communicated all in one >> definitely it could and maybe a way to do
076that is is the cap is actually set for the whole district on that fee fee schedule I could see it having the link right there with it saying and here is the maximum fee schedule and and hopefully that that not for both the parents but also the the um administrator and the counselors helps everyone be on the same page of that is the cap. It can't go beyond that. >> Yeah, that that's what I'm saying. I think you can maybe I don't know that we need this in policy but I think maybe communication wise maybe there can be a lot of groundwork laid that it's hey this is the estimated cost for this class but here is where you can find the absolute max. It will not and cannot exceed X amount. >> I like
077that. >> And I Yeah, I appreciate at least some some parameters around there just cuz I don't want any gotchas for parents. I want them to have that upfront and know um and I I just think because I mean there are some that there's some of our schools that that charge the maximum fee and then there's some schools that try to keep it as minimum as possible. So, sure, they could charge, you know, 17 $1,700 for an activity, but they're trying to charge $200, but I don't want that to be a gotcha where they sign up thinking, okay, it's going to be $200, maybe $250, and then it's all of a sudden $1,000. That's a big difference. So, >> absolutely agree. That's very important. >> I I appreciate, okay, estimated cost will be, you know,
078our best guess is, you know, $200. the cap for the for the activity the district cap would be if that can be communicated on the card that would be >> not to exceed. >> That's very doable. We'll take that back. >> Okay. Thank you. >> One of the great things about our getting the fee to pass now is the the teachers have to go and create a spend plan too. So they can't just say the fee is $50. They have to go down and then break it down saying X is for these supplies, X dollars is for staffing or some other activities. So there's a breakdown of what those fees actually go to. you can just say we're charging 50 bucks and this forever whatever we want to use. It has to be defined on
079what they're using those fees for. >> Yeah. And I like I say, I appreciate that and I think I think it will help that they're a little bit more forward facing in the future as we get to those spend plans because I I feel like sometimes teachers just are like, "Okay, I can charge 250. All right. Well, I'm going to spend this on this that no, instead we're like very thoughtful about that. Okay, I I could use new folders or I could use new blah blah blah whatever it is and that it's very delineated and purposeful in the way that we we do charge a fee because it can be especially some of our communities it can be a very a big hardship on parents who don't qualify for a fee waiver but still want
080to have their kids have an opportunity. So I'm just going to put that out there. Um, and I do want to say I I appreciate um you guys looking into fees included in focus. And I can't remember if I said this last time, so forgive me. I would like to see that happen. I I would really ideally love to see it happen when we're doing registration. Did I say that last time? >> You did. >> Okay. I'm just going to reiterate that then. >> It's a good one to reiterate. >> When we're registering our kids, I don't want to have to then go back and have to read that and pay another fee and then, oh, did I buy a yearbook? I don't remember. I would really love to just and maybe some people like
081it because then they don't have to pay it all at the same time and they they can spread it out over a couple months, but I I forget. And so it would be nice to have that up front. Anyway, >> the focus the focus I'm very encouraged by what um Rick's reporting to me. I'm I'm not as knowledgeable about it, but from what you request and what I understand from my conversation with him, that's that is distinctly possible and that's what he's investigating. >> Okay. That would be great if we could find out if that is possible. So, okay. Um, we have is Nate Woodward here? Nate. Okay. I guess Nate is not here. Um, as this is a um second reading, it it is also a public hearing though if there's anybody who would
082like to talk about the fees, you're welcome to come up and speak right now. Otherwise, we'll go ahead and move on. Okay. So, we'll go ahead and close that part. Um, if there are no further questions, I will entertain a motion. This is a second reading and final reading. >> I move to approve the 2026 27 2027 student fee schedule as a final reading. >> I'll second it. >> Right. We have a motion and a second to approve the 2026 2027 students fee schedule as a final reading. A second final reading. Any further discussion on this? >> Yes, I have a quick comment. I'll just reiterate my comments from a month ago from our prior meeting about my displeasure for this process. In general, I won't repeat them and just reference them in the record
083um back to the minutes from the last meeting and or the recording. Thanks. >> And we'll recognize that and also concur that we don't like charging fees, but recognize that if we don't, then we'd have to raise property taxes by a significant amount to cover that. >> Sure. But my comments were a little different than that a month ago. So, thanks though for that. >> I'm saying my comments on that. >> All right. No further comment. Although >> I have one sorry, just one quick comment. I just want to reiterate that um I think Nicole, you were speaking of this either just as teachers do these spend plans to keep these students in mind. And so it's not how much can I charge, it's how much do I need to charge for the operation of
084whatever club or sport or team you're doing because where I hear the absolute most about the displeasure of fees are what I call families on the bubble, right? They're just they make just enough to not qualify for the fee waiver, but definitely not enough to cover hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And so I hear that a lot in my community. It's it's those families that I that that I want to protect by having these caps and hopefully having leaders of the teachers and leaders of these clubs that that they are very sensitive when they're filling out those spending plans to to keep to keep those families in mind. Stacy, if you could just reference that in the record, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Any other comment? All right. All in favor, please say I.
085>> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. >> This is why the kids are going to start dropping. Just know I'm taking it back to the community. >> All right, we have um up next we have population analysis. And we'll invite Steve up. As Steve is making his way forward, I I want to clarify something just really quick. This is listed as an action item, and that's just in the spring. Historically, this item has been an action item, but you probably noticed there is actually in the presentation no um recommendation. And so uh which just given the the current state of pack studies wanted to be flexible with the board in terms of what they hope to accomplish but we do not and as you will see in the presentation have any formal recommendations just traditionally where
086that's been found on the the agenda. So I apologize if there was any confusion. Thank you superintendent. Actually, I think that last comment was just to make me feel more comfortable returning tonight. So, I'll go as quickly as possible. It has been a few months, I think about four months since uh since I've seen you all. So, it is good to see everyone again, all in the same place at the same time. Contrary to uh rumors out there, I've not been under house arrest or banned from any Granite District public meetings. Um, we have been busy in our department the last several months playing catch-up a bit and we still have a lot of that to go. Um, tonight I want to I'll briefly recap. As painful as that might be for just a moment,
087I want to recap and summarize talk about consultant cost estimates, enrollment trends, and even possible next steps. So, when um again, I won't rehearse every detail, but I did because I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment sometimes, I did go back today and watch part of the board meeting from last November uh to to refresh my memory on a few things. And the one motion of course that was made then was that uh the area 5 study was suspended indefinitely. But I also want to make mention of um just to remind everyone and remind the board members. There were several if not most people on the board had said also that hey let me remind you and definitely does not mean forever. Um it means till further notice until it's brought up or until
088uh the board decides to revisit. And so um that that was in essence at the end of the board meeting. I won't rehearse all of the reasons and rationale for that decision. And anyone can go back and watch that uh board meeting if you like but that is where we left off in November. Further, the board asked in that same meeting near the end of the AOC and DLI issue uh that was so prevalent be studied by the curriculum department and that is I'll tell you ongoing that's a current study by the it's not the pack necessarily but the curriculum instruction department has had several meetings and um I'd estimate they're probably halfway through at those meetings trying to collect data and and feedback to decide um what what to do um with AOC and
089DLI I don't think just in that area but I think throughout the district and that the pack would study the enrollment patterns from past studies for instance the comment was made hey Steve where did these students go after studies you know if a building was clo if a school was closed or a boundary was changed do we know for sure did all of the students end up weared over time um and if we lost students are we able to get them back or what do we need need to do to get them back and So that portion um in fact we'll begin at some point next month. We hope later in the summer, early fall to have that data complete and so a report on that um that um information as soon as we can.
090But I anticip anticipate August to September on that part of the uh board request. >> But to be clear, that portion has not been started yet. the enrollment study. I know I I know I understand ALC and DLI have been studied, but as of right now, there's been nothing done on that third bullet point blank. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> I have anecdotal stuff I know from histories and things like that, but nothing officially. No. >> And Steve, I wanted to clarify on the AC alci work that's already been done. Has that been mostly done in area 5 or has there been effort across the district? >> I'll speak to that. Uh the intent was because the Morningside community as part of the the pack study process last year is actually the ones who requested
091that original study and then the board reiterated a desire to look at that wholesale. So we did start uh with focus groups and and I think those are actually still ongoing. I don't think they've completed yet, but the intent is to to broaden that out to other programs across the district as well. >> Yeah. Um I I knew that that started at Morningside and I I just wanted to be sure that the intention was clear that that needed to be a district-wide discussion, not just an area 5 discussion. So, thank you. It sounds like we're on the same page. >> I would like to take the opportunity to also reiterate that that is not associated with any future pack studies. That is a standalone uh request from the community and the board of education and
092we'll provide that information as appropriate down the road. >> And the reason that it's in this presentation is because the need for that came up and like it became apparent during the pack study. >> Correct. And we also at that time said, but this actually isn't a pack study issue, but it did arise during that time and that's why it's in the presentation. >> And thank you for the clarification, but that's exactly right. >> So, okay, shifting gears. Um, you'll notice I'm shifting gears a couple of times. All of these things are related and I will bring them all together near the end of this uh presentation, but uh related to the indefinite suspension of the study. And uh I was asked to also begin gathering info on cost estimates for a boundary closure study
093consulting. That was also part of the conversation in that last board meeting in November. Um was a consideration um or an approach should we consider we the district not me but the board and the district overall uh to hire a consultant to run boundary andor uh closure studies. So, as part of that initial process, I've been reaching out to consultants, consulting firms. And so, I want to be very clear about what this information is and is not. This was a verbal request for information. Um, I went to the what I consider some of the leading uh consultants in the country in K12 demographics. And again, this is generalized information. It's not a formal written request, not an RFP or anything like that. Um it is it was just that. Now the advantage of doing it
094this way is um these consultants can be pretty honest and sometimes brutally honest in in a verbal conversation over a phone or um uh video conferences and sometimes even email but uh when they know this is not an official uh request. So that part was very good and very informative. You'll see that the price ranges that I'll show you in just a moment and and the services that are offered by these consulting companies. And again, no consultant is identified by name um on purpose. Again, that allows them to speak more freely and openly. And I wouldn't do that unless there was this was an official written request. And so the parameters that I started with and I use the same parameters and the same kind of like an interview uh for a an employee. If
095you if you're interviewing a bunch of people, you want to use the same questions and parameters every time I did this with the folks that I talked to. Uh we were looking for three things. Do you do enrollment forecasting, community engagement, and and building assessments? This does not mean that we have to do those things that we um absolutely need to do those things, but we were trying to understand what their capabilities were and what their experience is and has been. So this simple comparison overview gives us some idea of of where we could start. And I'll stress again these are ranges. You'll see on the left side the first column is the consultant again ABCDE not names. The next one is um first time enrollment forecasting. And I want to emphasize first time here.
096Most companies just like we did with uh um MGT that did our last consulting for us and gave us enrollment forecasting uh the first time is more expensive uh because that's where they they get the most data. Often times they will like and they prefer to come back and do updates annually. So, but this is a firsttime enrollment forecast average. Again, I I just it's an estimate. It's not a written quote. um those can be $80 to $100,000. You'll find some less, some more, but on average, at least with these, this seems to be fairly industry standard. And also emphasize for a district our size. If you talk to other districts and they say, "Well, geez, we didn't pay nearly that much." Um you know, how large is their district and what were the parameters?
097There there are parameters even for enrollment forecasting. Also, community engagement. This is largely depends on the size and scope of the community engagement and and for instance is this a um in this case would this just be an area five study or another one area study? Would it be a district-wide study? Would it last for 6 months? Would it last for one year? Could it last for two years? How many meetings uh would would Granite School District want this consulting company to hold? Are they public meetings? are they um video conference or they there are all sorts of ways to do the community engagement. There's some really good and effective companies out there and consultants that do a nice job of this but it really varies. And so when I say 300 to 350 to
098500,000 could it be a lot lower than that? It could be. Um but again, if you're talking a districtwide for a district our size and and one that's um as detailed as we've done in the past, it's going to be significantly more than that. Um finally, building assessments. Again, this is not necessarily required for any study. I will say, um this is just my opinion for a second. My experience is we're about 10 years from our last building assessment. If we're looking at one area, perhaps a building assessment, uh, a redo is not needed. Um, for a district district-wide study, it would perhaps be needed, but this one is a little more optional than some of the others. You can see there are the two at the bottom that contract that out. It's not too
099uncommon. They don't have the personnel themselves. They hire, which would probably be a local engineering company like we did 10 years ago to run a building assessment. And again, building assessments kind of run the gamut also between just capacity and educational functionality to the building facility, the property, you name it. There's a wide range of building assessments also. So, you can see there are some some basic estimates. It it um they were great conversations and very informative, but um it's not inexpensive. I just had a question about um building assessments. I guess I guess I was looking at it differently because if we're asking for a population analysis and a kind of a consultant to come in and give us some recommendations, does this also include kind of the recognizing where the hotspots are, where
100our kids are concentrated and maybe giving us a recommendation, not necessarily the building, the FCI, but the the location, the central most the the best location which right which schools. Does that make sense? >> It does. And again, each of these is a little different, but when I visited with um some of my counterparts from around the country, what I found is most districts do studies based on what they call their master plan. And their master plan really is focused on the building and um and what happens from there. They'll consider like you talk about the heat map and where students are coming from, but they just bake they they just take which building is next on the rebuild or remodel. That's their area and they build boundaries around that and and I've explained that
101we're more nuanced and have been more much more nuanced than that and we look at other things other than just the building and many factors. our FCI that we talk about a lot is what we focused on but again they can do different um different uh parameters altogether. >> Can I speak to that a little bit? So as we as I look at this chart we've we've already invested a tremendous amount of money in the enrollment forecasting. Uh MGT has has done that data forecasting for us the last few uh cycles. their data has been pretty spot-on and in fact is I would say is even conservative this this go around we're actually seeing a sharper decline um than even they anticipated. We'll discuss that a little bit further. So I'm looking at these costs
102as I discussed this with Steve. I'm a little bit reluctant to to pay somebody to go out and do the exact same thing that we already had done. Um and it would probably be the same company to do it um because we would bid it out um and they've won the bid previously. So that might be um ownorous and repetitive. The building assessments I also have concerns about. Originally back in uh 2017 when we did uh the FCIS on our schools um and the seismic uh standard ratings um that cost upwards of a4 million to to do that wholesale across the board. Um another goound would be probably closer to 3/4 of a million dollars. Um my reluctance there is those scores haven't changed. Um we're not seeing dramatic improvements made to our buildings that
103would alter those scores or suddenly change um with the exception of Lake West Lake which is a brand new building, right? Um, so I I'm just reluctant to spend um additional funds unless it was perhaps on a comparison between two facilities um in a neighboring area um where it was we could get a deeper analysis and the and the cost would be a little bit cheaper if that makes sense if we were looking at a consolidation uh perhaps and so it's that center part uh managing the data uh working through community engagement uh building consensus gaining feedback I think is where we would get the biggest bang for our buck and I'll speak to that a little bit more later on in the presentation. >> Okay, any questions about these estimates before I pivot to
104the next part? Um, I think the thing that I really wanted uh an independent consultant for was for a recommendation >> and none of these services seem to point to recommendation. So, can you speak to that? >> I could have been more clear about that, but that that is part of their community that would be considered in my opinion part of their community engagement andor enrollment forecasting. They they certainly would do that and again understanding that it is just that a recommendation because the board always has to make that tough call. But that is that is what these consultants specialize in. They come in from out of town and give their recommendations and then here you go. Um, it seems to me that if I wanted someone to get a give me a recommendation, I
105would need them to look at the enrollment, do some community engagement, look at the building assessment, and then from there they could come up with a plan, right? It sounds like what you guys are talking about is that three different people would be doing those things possibly because we'd send out an RFP for enrollment forecasting and one for community engagement. Can you fix the holes in my understanding here? >> I I I I will say superintendent and I talked about this a little bit because it came up in a previous meeting. My experience with consultants is they would be hesitant to do community engagement on something that data that's not theirs. They would likely can't promise but likely insist on the enrollment forecasting being in their data before they will go out and discuss it
106and defend it or have get feedback on it. So it's most likely not impossible but most likely that those would be the same too. And we did pull the I I was trying to speak to that in in my comment just a minute ago. So I apologize. I was not more clear. It's a little frustrating that as we did discuss this last fall about the potential option of hiring a consultant that uh they were going to want to take that overall approach. They might contract out portions of that, but some of the data might be redundant or data we've already collected. So unless we can find a vendor who's willing to just come in and provide recommendations based on the MGT data we've already uh paid for and using the FCI scores um and the
107seismic safety ratings that we've already produced which have not changed um that that's where the challenge falls. One of the things about that though is that while while we're saying while we got this data, remember that the data was really um questioned um by our public. And so while while maybe we have confidence in the data whether we do or don't, our public didn't. So maybe there is some benefit to going out and getting a second opinion on that data anyway, especially if it's going to be a requirement if we want them to be involved at all. I would say maybe it isn't a waste of money, you know, could be because it's >> done twice now, you know. >> Absolutely. I think uh you're right. There was a perception challenge. Although every patron that
108I talked to that read the 80page report seemed to have confidence in in what the information was sharing, I think the the perception challenge was in how we were interpreting the data and other data sets uh such as one facility was in uh better condition than the other. Uh for instance, uh we didn't get a lot of push back. We did get some push back. I don't want to deny that. But with respect to the MGT data in specific um because I think when people did read th those reports and and recognized how much in-depth um research went into that >> I especially agree that I didn't feel like people were questioning the MGP or what is it called MGT >> MG yeah yeah that data >> to Julie's point though am I understanding this
109right so let's say we want a company to go out for enrollment forecasting community engagement but can we hand them our FC CI scores that and save money on that >> on that arm. Would they trust that data enough? Because I'm looking at the cost of that and that by far >> Sure. >> is it I mean it would keep our cost closer to a half a millionish. >> Sure. >> Than than pushing it over the million, but I don't know if would they in your experience would they be willing to accept those scores? >> I believe so. That that that would be the parameters we would set as a district and and uh when we send out the RFP is, hey, we already have our FCI scores. we're comfortable with that you'll use and
110they then they can say hey your own district's FCI score is based is this and then community feedback from there >> going to say I think that data was less questioned >> than any of the other data and while you're right people who did read that 80page report probably didn't question it how many people read the 80page report >> so that >> we had a few >> yes we did but we needed more >> right So, but to Julie's point too I I agree Karen I think this could I mean even if we get a second that because that's the lower one that's the lower cost on this the first time enrollment forecasting if we have that done again and it shows the exact same thing then we say we've got two um two you
111know two >> and then we can have confidence in >> we have confidence in it and then and when they question that look we've got two companies separately that have said this is this is our enrollment forecast. And >> I I want to emphasis emphasis emphasize though that the the goal is quite honestly not to make everybody feel good about it because there are going to be people who don't be people who are going to not feel good about it no matter what. The goal is to get to the best outcome for students and we didn't think we had that last fall. And so what the goal is is do are would we be paying for a process that could get us to the best outcome? That's really what we need to be making sure
112that we're asking cuz yes, there was a lot of community, you know, consternation and and discussion, which we want to uh fix this time and do better if we were to go back out to any community, right? But the goal is that is getting the better outcome. That's the reason to hire, right? >> Yeah. I I mean, at the same time though, I want the I want the recommendation to include >> not just because I we need to take the other things into consideration as well. >> Where have the kids gone from the the school closed? >> Where is the best place for this school to be located so that we have, you know, we don't lose kids. We don't those are all things that we have to discuss not just have an analytical you
113need to close three schools these are the three lowest schools those are the three what we can't have that we have to have a little bit more of a strategic plan with that to me and I I want to know that the consultants would do that >> that's what I was going to say too >> we need to make sure that they're understanding our strategy and and that the things that we're up against. Does that make sense? >> Right. Do you think they would? >> I believe so. Um, >> again, it doesn't exist fully until you see it in writing, of course, but I believe so. And in fact, they they say all the time, you tell us what you want. What are your parameters? What are your expectations? What is the scope? And and
114and and they would tell us at that point before they begin and whether they could fulfill that obligation or not. >> Okay. Any other questions or should we move on? You good? Okay. Go ahead. >> Okay, the next slide you've seen something similar. This is just simply another bar chart with our enrollment trend. Um, this one is a little different in that it does go again for another 5 years. It shows a similar trend line that you've seen before. Unfortunately, uh, 2025, um, October 2025 is that last blue column, if you will, or or bar that was at about it was 52,745. If you can't see that small writing there, um the first yellow line next to that is next year's projection. And I'll show you more in detail what that looks like in just
115a moment. Um but finally all the way at the end is 2030 is is our I say our granite school districts, the states, uh MGTs, everything every data piece of data we have. This is the projection based on all of those that I'll show you in just a minute. That is a decrease over the next 5 years of about 8,000 students. That's approximately 1,600 a year. This is one time I hope I'm wrong and I hope I am we are being too conservative. I would be happy to be wrong. Um but I'm not sure we are. We did not yet take this and extrapolate this out further to um to say uh 2035. But if you look at simply birth rates, the current kindergarten, knowing what we know and carry that out over the next
116full generation of K12 students, this trend does tend to continue that way. Let me show you what I mean. Let's look at a few other So again, this is these are next year's projections. I I keep emphasizing that word. I wish we had the crystal ball and we knew for sure. But these are the current projections for each elementary school. All that red of course indicates projected decrease at each of those schools. Um I I will say there are about four or five schools with some minor changes that are not reflected here. Since we published these, we have uh a process where a principal in a school can appeal this. They provide data. Uh we made some very minor changes, but really doesn't change what we're talking about here in the overall percentage. Uh but
117there are four elementary schools that could potentially have um a slight increase. That leaves about 50 with a decrease. If you look at that for secondary schools, junior highs on the left, high schools on the right, again, two junior junior highs with a a tiny tiny projected increase. the rest are decreasing. Same with the high schools. This is not too surprising as we've begun when we began this process seven or eight years ago, we could see what was happening with birth rates. And now that is catching up and or is being reflected in the uh secondary numbers. And finally, if you're looking at overall numbers per grade throughout the the district totals, the projection of just over 2,000 fewer students next year, that's a 4.1% projected decrease. This is more in line with what the
118state has said Granite District would uh be decreasing by this next year. Um um MGT has it a little less than that. Theirs is three something but um um but the state and our current projection is right at 4%. Which is a big number. Can you go back up to the uh the elementary slide to reiterate one of the points you already made? If you look at that kindergarten class of 3200 students, the total of incoming projected and carry that through the full 13 years, it's 41,000 kids. if we retained every single one of those kindergarteners, which we know we don't. And so, uh, this is not this not great news, but it's not I I think we need to change our perspective a little bit on this cuz it's not unexpected either. Uh, communities
119do not retain large amounts of students over periods of time. Neighborhoods mature. uh f young families cannot afford to move into the average home price in Granite School District, which is $565,000. Um so it it it stands to reason that we are we're trying to help our administrators as they develop their staffing plans to embrace these figures and then if if if it comes in a little bit higher, great. But don't reserve those funds to try to preserve FTE that isn't going to be there in a few years. Um, and so we do need our community to understand this is this is not nobody's at fault here. This there's nobody to point blame at. This is just a a significant reduction in the birth rate and these rates are going down at a higher rate
120than we even anticipated even just 2 years ago. We have gone off a enrollment cliff as it were. We were holding steady and now we're in the 4% range and we expect that to continue to increase. So, let me put that into numbers. In the past, we have talked about school closures and consolidations as being a way to enhance instruction and improve outcomes for kids. We have said very specifically that it's not a huge cost savings. Looking at these numbers now, it is a $10 million cost savings. When you talk about some of these schools, um, and you can see on the next c couple of slides here, how many schools have less than 300 kids, have less than 250 kids, and we're talking about a full-time administrator, full-time um, custodian and secretary, and roughly
121600,000 to a million dollar worth of utility operational costs annually. If we close 10 schools, that's $10 million. and we could easily do that and still have sufficient square footage to meet our students needs. So again, those buildings aren't exactly where we want them every moment in every study. Uh but this is now a fiscal challenge. It's not just about improving outcomes for kids. This is about is this the best use of resources for our for our taxpaying public and can we get better outcomes um for a better price. This is that slide you were referring to, superintendent. Again, you can see the different colors reflecting different uh enrollment ranges. We have five schools projected. The these are based on projections for next fall. Five schools from 200 to 250. Eight in that 250 to
122300 range. That's 25% of our schools right there. Um at the top 17% 500 to 600 plus is where we prefer would like to have most of our schools. Everything else is kind of in that middle. And again, this is based on next year's projection, not not 2030. This is the same information reflected by individual school. Just looking at the overall enrollment. Let me review quickly the statewide trend. Many of you have seen this slide or a similar slide. You might think it's the same slide. have used something similar in the last couple of years. In 2022, the chemistry gardener policy institute up at the U did a did a I think a pretty significant um demographic study of the state. And this is something that uh I've used, but you'll notice if you look
123at the old slide, the the the study was updated this past fall. I think it was November, just a few months ago. And they there were some slight changes. unfortunately not to everyone's liking. Um it's simply um when I called and talked to Mallalerie Baitman, she's the director of the institute and I I've called and talked to her a few times uh to try to get her interpretation or their interpretation to make sure I'm reading these things correctly. She basically said that uh they they had talked to um other experts, demographic experts around the country and that was part of the reason they uh consumed a slower decline in in total fertility rate statewide over the next 40 years than they originally said in 2022. And then um you'll notice in this next slide, but
124if you look at this, it's a it can be a little deceiving because you look at that and think, "Oh, great. Look at us in uh around 2035, we're going to zoom back up and we're going to be um huge and we'll need all these new buildings and and everything." But that's not really what that's reflecting. Statewide trend. Even that is not as rosy as that graph may make it look, but this is a statewide trend. So consider this. This is the that. Sorry, Steve. >> You bet. >> To to emphasize your point, the peak would be 2 to 3%. >> Yes. >> Um of an increase statewide. >> Yes. >> So now you're going to show us what that looks like for Salt Lake County. The top red line is the state. The bottom
125line is Salt Lake County, which reflects generally flat with a slight decrease over the next 10 years, 10 to 15 years. Now, another very very important fact here that this is the total projected 5 to 17 year old population. That doesn't mean every one of those students show up in our schools. There are all those other factors. How many more, if any, charters and private schools are out there that that um may open? Um what does the real estate market do? What's our overall capture rate of these five to 17 year olds? That alone could be a gamecher and and totally make this uh um look completely different. But this is quite frankly probably closer to best case scenario cuz this is based on birth rate. Not none of these other factors that can have
126a huge huge impact on us. Whether that's state or federal policies, uh real estate, the economy, um educational trends, there are many many factors that can influence this chart. This is a a good starting point. >> Can I ask I I know we're looking at state, but as you sit in this position, have you talked to colleagues even in other states? Are other states seeing this dramatic of a change? >> I mean, not every state's the same, right? In some some parts of the country, you're more than others, but um I I belong to a um a group that that myself and a colleague or a person from Reno, Wo County, we began a couple years ago. We call it districts of a feather. But uh that's the idea. We created this group to talk
127to people around the country to see uh is it just us? Sometimes you when you work almost in a silo and in in my position, you wonder is it just us? Is it just our district? Just our state, what's happening? And it's not. It's not. And uh when I go to these uh I go to this conference every summer, school planning conference, I'll go again this in June and we get a chance to talk to the folks around the country and it it's pretty pretty similar. Pretty similar. Again, there whether you're in a a city, an urban area, a rural area, a high growth area or not, even the so-called high growth areas, they're impacted by birth rate decline. And so, um generally speaking, this is everywhere. Can I speak to that too? Yes. >>
128Um, when I went to Washington DC in January for Utah Schoolboards Association and we got together as schoolboard members from across the nation to just say, "What are your pain points?" One of the pain points was low enrollment and school closures. And that was east, Midwest, West, everywhere. And um I also just wanted to say that just today on I have a group chat with a bunch of board members from other districts and somebody put on the chat who's looking at closing schools around here and everybody rose their hand. I everybody and a few people are closing schools tonight. I was surprised that they were saying they were closing schools tonight. Um, and then the other thing I just want to point out is that in my neighborhood, a private school closed recently and I
129also know of two charter schools in our district that have closed. So, >> it's not just a public school area. >> Us, right? We're all feeling it. And um, yeah, I guess that's all. The reason why I ask is I just because I think there's so many people that would contribute this to well they're going to a charter they're going to homeschool they're going to but so if this is everywhere and if you're hearing and I'm glad to hear that not not that I'm glad that anybody closes but I'm glad to hear that it is affecting it. It is a a nationwide thing and I think that has that's significant that people need to hear. So anyway, >> it is my last meeting um it was similar in I remember De Moine, Chicago area, Austin,
130Texas, and there was one other western city, but uh it it was we're all talking the same issues. So >> I actually interesting that um at Alpine school district somebody from there and I don't know because now they're three so I don't know what how that all plays into this but they were talking about how they closed a school that had 117 kids in it but now they're over on their their other side of their district they got to build 17 in the next 10 years >> because of the growth. So I mean I think districts are also dealing with kind of both issues at the same time >> along the Wasatch front generally on the east bench it's contracting west side of the valley west side of the Wasanch front is the growth area
131so in that area you're right you're still going to see Canyons district us Davis Alpine or whatever district it is down there um the further east you go the more mature if you will those populations are the growth is largely on the east side. So, so patrons get confused. You talk about as a district we need to we need to close one or two schools over here and we're opening 10 over there. They they that feels like a disconnect to a lot of people and it's just simply shifting populations. >> Both things can be true at the same time. >> Can I also point out Oh, go ahead. Julie, >> I was just going to ask questions about the >> Oh, and I was just going to point out that when you look at those
132projections of the schools in red, they're not just in one area of our district. They're I mean, there's one in mine. And so I think that's something that >> all across >> that's more interesting this time than before because I think sometimes we thought, oh, it's only on our really east side of our district. And that's not true. So, I know Karen has two schools on here, too. for our district. Unfortunately, uh the the the boundaries of our district from approximately 21st south to 62 south is one of the oldest parts of the valley in the state. >> So that's where we pointing that out. >> Um I just had a question. So, um, when we look at these projections of the secondary, um, I kind of was always hearing the narrative that part of
133the problem in elementary is that we have these high housing costs and that by the time families have secondary, they can often afford to move in and so we feel it less there. Can you just speak to how that philosophy is interjected into these numbers? Is it or is it not? I I think because I also heard Ben say, you know, if you take every kindergartener >> and follow them through to high school, it's this number. So, how are we looking at that? Um, if I understand you correctly, let me just say that for decades, we could look at the um, highdensity, so-called highdensity housing, typically apartments and town homes, and say, "Yes, we know that those are those are largely young marrieds or early elementary age." By the time they get to mid-ele at
134the latest, uh, they're in single family homes. So we could take an area, count out the single family homes versus the high density, know what our student yield is from those types of homes to make a good accurate forecast. That's becoming a problem because people cannot afford to get into homes. They are remaining in their quote highdensity/ apartment town homes longer and they are raising families in in these in these highdensity homes. So that's getting harder to predict. Um, so that that that's it's a trend until it's not or it's not a trend until it is. And that is the latest trend that we're starting to see is they can't afford to go into homes. So they're remaining in in these largely apartments. So it and but because the apartments are more mobile, more mobile,
135people come and go for them more often than they do a single family home. that that frustrates just because it's harder to track um how many are coming and going with our mobility every year. >> I also just wanted to just kind of point out that based on these projections, one thing that I'm seeing that is a little bit disturbing me in my schools, you know, we have this we do have a problem, we have a compet competition and that is real. We have vouchers and we also have private schools and charter schools. And I see in some cases just an exorbitant amount of effort being put into marketing the school and um knowing that there's only a finite amount of kids out there. You're not going to solve your problem with this marketing plan.
136and we're putting a lot of energy and effort into it as if this were a problem that we could really control. And I think it helps us feel better to focus on the part we can control. So I don't want to say that it's a totally bad idea. I I just um I worry sometimes when people are acting like we're going to do this and it's going to solve our problems and I'm like it's not going to because they don't exist. No amount of marketing creates more children. Um, not not not like that. Jim Bodell and I had a conversation, a hallway conversation a few weeks ago where she said, "Steve, could we compare notes and and based on enrollment and I know the marketing that I'm doing at certain schools and see if they're
137increasing their um um enrollment." And I said, "Well, maybe, but best case scenario, maybe they're only decreasing by so much. Maybe that is what's happening that they only decreased by 1% instead of 5%. Um, and and that's due to excellent marketing and but that that's hard to to show and and prove in a in a math equation, but I suspect that's often the case. I I just think that we as district leaders and school leaders need to be careful how we're talking about that uh marketing piece because um and and I'm seeing principles spending an exorbitant amount of time on that rather than on instruction and uh so I I I just think we need to be very cognizant about >> balance. So given all of that that we've talked about and seen, I I'm
138not necessarily coming up with a recommendation from the pack like I often do, but but it's a question of next steps. So based on the overall enrollment trends that we've seen and talked about given our area 5 remaining unresolved and under indefinite suspension, um, and the West Karns Elementary, which we haven't talked about a lot, but that's that's a that's planned. The West Karns Elementary rebuild scheduled to begin later this year. or early next year. I think it's hopefully by the end of this calendar year. Um and which which will likely initiate uh a boundary change consideration at the very least if not a an additional closure. So um with that in mind, um that's what I wanted to talk about was next steps. >> I'll ask uh I'll take it a step further. We
139know for sure with the the anticipated timeline for the West Kerns rebuild, which will start this summer hopefully and and move into the fall um with this pestous mitigation whatnot. Uh we know that that is anticipated to open uh within a 2-year period. And so we would want to be able to study that area and region to see if there's uh perhaps consolidations and/or boundary adjustments that could maximize the use of those taxpayer dollars. Uh, West Kerns is at 470 something. Um, I should go look at the slide since it's right there. There you go. Uh, we have been building schools roughly to accommodate 6 to 700, but upwards of 800. We have some designs that could facilitate that. is we need to have the the earnest conversation about what size of a school we're
140going to build and and look at uh uh if we want to consolidate and adjust boundaries and families into a new school location. That's not just a conversation we need to have in West Karns, but the year after that um in for 2027, but in 2028 um in the Arcadia, Frost, and Truman area, Arcadia slated for for rebuild as well. Um and you can see that what the numbers look like there. So those are uh conversations that need to be facilitated uh by virtue of the fact that there's a rebuild slated and so we need some guidance and direction from the board. Um I I don't know if I sound desperate enough um when I say that these numbers are not going to improve. We could spend a ton of money on marketing. We could
141marketing does not uh increase the birth rate. Um hopefully it does retain and attract uh families back to our district. Uh but at the end of the day, those numbers will continue to decline uh regardless. Did you want to add to that? >> If that's okay. Um with Ben's thoughtfulness about our current kindergarteners, if if when they're seniors only 12 years from now, if we're at 35 to 41,000, it's going to have a much bigger impact than just elementary. We've got to be forward thinking about how does that look. >> You think about a network and its entirety is roughly 5 to 7,000 students and and we've lost that amount in just the last few years. So, um yeah, we have some big decisions to make and we need this this board's best thinking on
142how they would like to direct us um uh to pursue studies in the future. Are we hiring a consultant? When would you like us to hire a consultant? Is that a district-wide study? Is that tell us every part and and parcel um in conjunction with our FCI scores um and updated um enrollment projections? um should that guide and direct our our construction plans and um how I I I think we embrace what's coming and and build up our schools and our capital facilities to meet the best needs of our kids and uh ensure that they're getting the the best quality opportunities and experiences uh within our school locations. And that means that we can't shy away from uh additional closures and consolidations at this time. Can I ask a question? Um, as we do some
143of these closures, inevitably we're going to need to bust students because they're going to get further and further away from their their location. Um, I know in the past when we've talked about some of these other closures and the the ability to bus kids, it's been said that we can't we we'd have to acquire either a new location for buses and or more buses in order to accommodate this. Does that still remain true? And have we looked at that cost analysis? I know I know we will get paid if it is over the >> we get reimbured. >> We get reimbursed from the state, but what does that look like also as an ongoing cost? What do we have to cover if that's something that we have to do in order to compensate for that?
144>> I'm not completely sure that it would require more buses or drivers because remember the overall number of students is going down. So, you're right. As the the boundaries of a school area get bigger, um you would okay, that means more students uh need busing, but there are fewer students than in that larger boundary. What that looks like over the next 5 years. Um that would be part of this enrollment forecasting and kind of the heat maps to help us determine um do we need another bus lot or bus drivers or fewer than now? And to reiterate that example, in last year's proposal, we actually I think we're we're holding steady at the same amount. We had a no net loss or increase of bus routes with the adjustments and that's what the recommendation was
145based on is so we wouldn't have to >> we could streamline our services. >> I can see that. But I can also see like talking to somebody who works at South or at um West Karns, she said that's a non-busting school right now. And if we change that to be a busing school to somewhere that's an that's a you know I'm not think >> let me make this clear. I'm not saying we're closing west curts. Please understand that. But I'm just saying that's just an example of if we're going to take a school that currently is not a busing school and combine it with another school that would then become a busing a busing school because certainly >> Sure. >> Not all of the kids but some of those kids would be outside of that
146one and a half miles. >> Correct. For sure. What you would likely see is not sure again about the number of students bust but longer routes. that that's seems >> adjusting of school times, things of that nature. The so that would be something we would absolutely want in the parameters of a a consultant to analyze as part of formal recommendations. >> That's I guess yeah, I guess that's why I'm asking because I feel like that needs to be part of that that recommendation that we ask for. >> So, I'd like to um just have everybody have a chance to Ben pose some questions. Um, we we are at a at a point where we've said we're not going to open up we said this in board meeting in an open board meeting. We're not going
147to open up the area 5 um study again. We asked for the DLI study to happen. We asked for the um a >> I want to say ACL every time. ALC study to happen. Those it sounds like they are started but they're ongoing. Correct. Okay. So, we'd like to hear I think as a board we'd like to hear that data. We'd like to hear the the conclusions of those studies. Do you have an estimation of when those happen? When those will happen. >> I'll have to give with Noel and uh Dr. Converse and see for sure ALCDI portion. >> I expect that will go through to the fall. >> Okay. So we can expect then a report in the fall as to what the recommendations are on >> for both both programs and also you
148know we talked about the data tracking students where they are now getting data those kinds of things. >> I think that data is important but I also I I know we've done some analysis of it uh because of previous studies so we know for instance what some school locations look like in terms of retention after boundary adjustments. I don't want to diminish the importance that the board requests that information. We're happy to provide it, but at the end of the day, it doesn't change our projection numbers either. And so, >> no, it doesn't change the projection, but I think the reason why we asked for it was because it does affect our future decisions because if we're going to lose kids depending on where we place that school, you know, like we're looking at West
149Karns Elementary and is it best to rebuild it there? Is it it best to rebuild it somewhere else or whatever? We need to know that data because we don't want to re we don't want to lose those kids. We want to retain the kids that we have at least. >> Yeah, that Thank you, Nicole. Amen to everything you just said. That's my So, kind of the edge of Well, it's not going to change our numbers. Let me push back cuz that gets under my skin. We know numbers are declining. We 100% know that. But we also asked four months ago for data to be collected on where these kids have gone. Now, the reason is Western Hills, I represented it for years. Ochre Hills, I closed that school. It was in Karns in my precinct.
150And I've yet to see one data point that shows me how many kids we retained, where they went, did we get them back, are they going to charters, did they go to homeschool, did they just move and not come back? And I don't feel like I can make any decision tonight because I don't have the data I asked for. And it does affect how I look at the recommendations. It does affect my vote because if we continue closing schools and the decisions we make with the onboarding and where we put the schools and how we're doing all everything from busing to where we're rebuild, then we're shooting ourselves in the foot. We have to figure out how to retain the kids if we close schools. And I don't have that information. So, I'm not making
151any decision tonight until I get some data. I'm not committing to anything tonight for that reason. >> And to be honest, we're not asking for any action item tonight. Again, to clarify, I apologize. I'm not trying to suggest that we're not going to provide that data or information. I know we provided some single off um reports in the past. We are happy to put that. It is complex data to gather, especially for uh for some of these schools that were closed upwards of seven years ago. Um but we're happy to do it. We just have to pull some resources together and some personnel who have the expertise to do that. They do have other responsibilities and and frankly I I feel like they are working on the things that are most important and prevailent but
152we anticipate getting that information to you by ne uh by this fall or late summer is what the the last report I heard. So with respect to that my point was is it does not change the declining enrollment situation and the fact that we do need guidance on a consultant if that's a direction you would like to go we need to start making some of those decisions now. That's all I'm saying. So, I apologize if that was um if I miscommunicated that. >> Clark, what are your thoughts >> for for now? >> Okay, >> I have thoughts. Can I share my thoughts? >> Karen, did you have anything? >> I shared my piece. >> Okay, Chris. >> Um, I'd just like to add that I've been kind of been feeling this way the whole time
153we've been closing schools is we have to have a better plan for what the needs are in the communities that we're closing these schools. when we close a school and we don't retain those students, we we are not doing what we are should be doing for our students. Um I know we've had success at some of our schools. Our last closure in my area, we did retain fairly well. Um but that took a lot of effort and I think we need to make sure that happens at every single closure. We can't have not good plans set in place before we make recommendations. I think the last area when we were studying it was so frustrating because we we had programs we didn't even know where we were going to place them. That's a frustration that
154I can't vote on something that I don't know what's going to happen and if I can if I know what it's going to happen with the program then I know we how to help support that area or that school or whatever it is. So I think and it's not information I think that's I think a consultant would help get that right information but I also think internally in our district we have capable people who can give us this good information of what programs and the parameters they need to be successful. So that's my ask. >> Connie, what are your thoughts? My thoughts are I think we need to have um a consultant. I think that um time is getting shorter for me to even help with this. And um I definitely would like to understand
155more about what a consultant would say. Um these other things, you know, if they can be included. Um but I I think timewise I definitely would like to have more information from a consultant. Kim, your thoughts? >> I agree with some of the statements that have already been made. Um, particularly just I don't think we have enough data and the right kinds of data and that's why we're in this position that that we're in trying to find a better way to do it, right? And as it's gone on for years, I I don't see that we've been able to produce the necessary data that we're asking for. So, I feel like yeah, we need a consultant. I I don't like that $1.2 million potential cost tag at all. Um I feel like, you know, you
156could hire 20 people internally or pay 20 people internally to focus on that for a year. Would you get similar results? I don't know. Is there a way we can have that resource be our own that costs us less? Um and I it sounds silly for me to say that. I know we have a whole group who's been working on that and Steve's done a lot of work, but I mean like that's all they do is gather that data >> with that same money. >> I I'm right there with you. I think the challenge uh if you go back to the slides from November, we faced a perception challenge that somehow the information that Steve was was presenting was not independent and unbiased. And because we were the ones providing the recommendation internally, um I
157I felt like there was a lack of of trust from the community that we were doing so uh with the the right intent and desire. And so I as much as I would love to not spend that money and that resource, um it felt like the the board uh understood and was inclined to pursue a more independent recommendation even though the cost is more significant. So I'm open to that. I I feel like Steve I want to say that I think Steve did an amazing job last year and I recognize there are shortfalls in any recommendation. There's never going to be a silver bullet that fully encompasses um and meets the needs of every school community as part of that study. It was not going to fix all the challenges that we had in area
1585. Um but it was a start to uh trying to to bring those communities together. So, I I guess you're you're hitting hard on the the exact challenge and concern that I have, which is how do we do that in a way that builds confidence in the community? >> Yeah, and that's a valid point. Thanks for that reminder. I just know when we talked about it, the cost tag that was thrown out was a lot lower than that one that I'm seeing tonight. Um, I mean, I do think it's necessary. I think it's essential that we get data on all these points that we've been pushing on. I think you know for everything for where we put a new school for whether that new school is going to collapse other schools into it um how
159that's handled to properly engage the community to make sure that they are all on board and feel ownership of that new school um you know all of those points that the transition process how it's gone well and not gone well in the past how we can fix that where everybody's going like all of that data is essential and I I agree with that for Julie. >> Um, I would like to I mean I'm kind of throwing out just where I'm at right now. Um, I'm very flexible, but I just would like to get an I an idea or a place out on the table of what, you know, how to move forward. Um, I think that a a starting place is to get our vision around ALC and DLI figured out. get the data that
160we are asking for about how effective our past studies have been so we can know where we've, you know, done well and where we haven't and where we can clean up our process. And um I think that we could get that together. I I think that that is reasonable to ask for that to be done by summer's end and then in the fall begin an RFP for a a consultant who would come out and look at our entire district and give them one year and ask for recommendations in fall of 2027. And I think that it would be a worthwhile investment considering if we are losing 10 million a year. It's a worthwhile investment for a one-time even 1.5 or two million if we need it. If it's bigger because we are a bigger scope
161which I would assume it would be more than the 1.5. I would assume it >> a lot depends on the facility, >> right? I don't think we need the facility, just FYI. But I I would like to see that. And I would also So information I would like is what would that cost? Also, I I feel like they could do it in one year. These are professional people. We're paying them a million and a half. Get it done in a year. We don't have time to waste. We got 10 million a year at stake here, you know. Um, and let's take care of it. I I mean, my big question is, do you also look at the junior highs and high schools? I mean, honestly, I'm like, let's Are we doing this or aren't we?
162I mean, I don't know that I want to. I'm just saying I think we need to make sure we're asking ourselves that question, too, and that we have a plan for what we want to do, you know? Um, but I would throw that out as kind of an idea to to me that seems like a good starting place where we can proceed from. But is that too long of a turnaround to to say well not to because we we generally start our pack studies at the beginning of the year, beginning of the the year year, not the school year. So >> yeah. So we could >> You're saying have them bring it back next fall? >> I'm saying get an RFP, start to figure out who we want. >> So >> let them start working
163on it in January. Have them in place by January, February, and then we're following our process from there on out. >> Well, as long as we're kind of thinking out of the box here a bit, the landscape has changed from where we were at two years ago, four years ago, six years ago. Is our process has that landscape perhaps changed? Does that need to be updated for the situation that we're in? It's a question, not >> not an inference that it is. >> It's a question that I think has to be addressed as part of this process is >> is that year-long process while involving an outside consultant, does that take on a different dynamic and would adjust that process and timeline of that process? Can I speak to that? Uh uh if I if
164we were going to go out to an area or if we were going to go to a group of schools, not even an area, a group of three or four schools. I mean, the law is 90 days. And I have felt that this that our process is exhausting and harmful to communities because not every community is going to be considered, but we just put fear in them like no other for no reason and got everybody all upset for no reason. When we could have come out as experts and said, you know, this is our recommendation and now we're going to get some community feedback and we're going to make we can make adjustments. But I I I think that that year-long process is I think it's hurtful and and I think that um it I
165mean not just hurtful to the community, but I think that it it is caused for people to get a a bad taste in their mouth about our district and choose to leave. I the reason why I ask if that's too long is because I feel like I've already had principles ask me in my area and I'm not excuse me Karns and Taylorville are not as hurting as some of the others but we still have some of those schools on that list and um it's I think if we wait a year and a half to take any action it's going to be we're going to have especially if we're dropping 4% every year. That's too long for us to wait. We're going to have this problem. >> I say we go as fast as we can.
166To me, that is that's a fast rate. So, if you think we can go faster, I support faster. >> I'm not and I'm not saying bring it back this year because we promised that we would study this and we would make sure. But I'm saying that maybe we bring it back in January and we examine this. I'm just throwing this out since we're since we're throwing things out. Maybe we bring it back in January and it happens by the end of next Can I just Nicole, I don't remember us promising that we weren't going to bring this back. >> We said we would we would look at it for a year this next for this next year. >> We said that we would suspend indefinitely the study, >> right? But but we said this next
167instead of doing a pack study where we would close something this year, this year >> that we would look at all of this stuff. >> Well, I never voted on that. Like I never said that or committed to that. I I don't know that I feel necessarily like that was the will of the board. And and so starting something right now to me is not breaking my word in any shape or form. And in fact, I think a lot of people in would say to me, no, get on it. >> Well, I don't but I don't think we have enough data. That's what I that's what I'm hearing from everybody. Well, I do agree with that enough information and that's part of my idea of the plan. ALC data has to be over. >> I'm
168just saying this this next for this next year that I'm going to acknowledge that that could put an almost brand new board up here making those decisions. I have to acknowledge that. But I think we're not setting them up for success if we don't if we don't get this done first and we don't shorten that timeline because we're going to end up with schools that are desperate that have seven teachers that have six teachers because that's where we're going. >> So I'm not sure what you're proposing. I'm just saying that we shorten our timeline and that it's not >> instead of starting in February and having the votes in November and December, >> our only legal obligation in the process is the 90-day notice. >> Yeah, >> correct, Doug. And so, >> I would add
169to that, sorry, I don't mean to cut you off, we have to make the recommendation before the end of the calendar year for it to take effect the following year. So, we actually do need to make a recommendation by December 31st if it's going to have effect in the following year. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> My point is is let's say you do the consultant and we have them in place them in place in January. If we shorten it instead of they they may need >> time to gather I >> Yeah. >> Would they have to make the recommendation in December? They would typically need several months, three to four on average to do the enrollment forecasting alone. And that comes before community engagement, of course. >> We could put a committee together after spring
170break uh to evaluate and start putting an RFP together. We could certainly put that together and determine if that's even feasible uh to get some recommendations by the end of the year. In my mind, >> by the end of this 2026. >> Yes. And I'm saying I don't think that's what you want to do. Let me finish. you talking about for the whole district? Are you talking about for >> I think to do a comprehensive study, we would want to take the full entirety of 2027, uh the springtime to evaluate um data, uh do some community engagement, and the fall to hone in on some actual recommendations. >> So, a decision could be made u by the fall of next year. I think that's too long. But I mean >> if if we're looking at
171a comprehensive approach where we're evaluating the whole district >> really that I mean an east to west that consultant's going to need a long time and if you want good data this is a catch 22 cuz I want good data and I'm willing to wait and be patient even if it means schools get a little little smaller but that's just going to incorporate to the data they're collecting and coming back to us with well but also remember the statute Nicole is that if I want close a school for next year. Like if I close a school in February, am I correct? It still can't take place that fall. >> Correct. It would have to wait >> to be the next year. So you either need to close schools by December of this year or by
172December of next year. And it doesn't matter where you close them in the year, they still close the same school year. >> There might be a consultant who can do that. Um I'm we've never delved into this realm. So >> I don't feel comfortable closing like having a comprehensive study and closing schools by the end of this calendar year. >> We don't have the data. >> Yeah. >> So to your point though I mean when we talk about this process being too long at the same time I think a lot of people would feel like that process was too short especially a comprehensive study. That's my own person. >> That's true. I I'll admit it. There's cuz we've heard it. You guys are rushing things. this is this is rushed and and it doesn't matter
173if it was a two-year study cuz I sat through that and the two-year study and people said it's too you're not taking long enough and the one-year study you're not taking long enough it so I mean >> that's so true >> I think getting the d it sounds like to me that we have a pretty good consensus that we would like to see a consultant we'd like to see a comprehensive study we'd like to see continued we want we want the reports from the DLI, the ALC and the um >> DLI >> closure >> yeah the closure the >> retention data >> those are the things that I think we are in agreement on am I am I hearing that correctly from the board >> can we have a timeline of when those should be
174when we want to hear those in board meeting >> when I'm hearing and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong retention data uh by August late summer. >> Um ALC DLI by I'm I'm hoping by November. >> They're making really good progress. So we get it early. >> We just don't want to do those during the summertime >> um to capture the other networks. So we'll discuss that tomorrow >> um and get a better timeline on that. I just think it would be very difficult to get all the rest of the um the data that we're hoping to collect by by the end of the school year, the current school year. um a comprehensive study and approach districtwide that analyzes facilities uh consolidations, boundary adjustments along with uh uh m any sort of enrollment
175data um as presented either by a consultant themselves um or using um other other data sources that would be valid. Um, that would be a a comprehensive study in the 2027 calendar year, but we wouldn't actually see some recommendations until about a probably a little over a year from now is what I'm hearing. >> Is that still That's my question. Is that still just pulling out the timeline >> on that? Yeah, I think that's good. On that recommendation, are if we're looking at it districtwide, it could be many school closures at the same time. So we could So I know it seems like a longer process, but we could actually make it. >> In my mind, it's we're closing the schools. Yeah. >> And we're going to be done with this. We're going to let
176it settle for a few years or however whoever the board is. Then we're going to let it settle and then if we need to do some things, we can, but we are going to do it. >> Okay. And that's what I'm just trying to looking at a master plan is basically what I'm saying. like are we doing a master closure plan >> and that's been trying to jump in for a few minutes. Sorry, but that's one of the things I was going to say. Yes, it might take till end of 2027, but we're going to hit more at once, right? >> It's going to be a more effective I think process. That's what we're going for, right? >> I'm just waiting for somebody to use the word comprehensive again. That's because that's that's the word
177that >> comprehensive study. >> It needs to be comprehensive, >> right? Um, at the same time though, I just want to add I'm fine with that approach on a timeline. I just I also would like updates on the consultant more frequently because >> yeah, >> I don't want us to come January next year and say, "Okay, we've this is the consultant option and it's now $5 million." There's not an unlimited ceiling on what I would be willing to support. Um, and so I am hoping we can be updated on that more frequently, what those options are and if it's actually something we can, you know, we would be willing to pay for. >> So, if we're if we're wanting the consultant, it sounds like we want it sooner rather than later. So, can we >>
178we'll get the RFQ committee together after spring break, >> right? So, we'll get >> I just want to define comprehensive >> and we'll do a thorough, exhaustive, all-inclusive, complete, extensive district. >> Steve just told you. >> I mean it. I I want you to define comprehensive >> the entire district. >> Secondary schools. >> The entire district. >> So, are we all understanding that is what comprehensive means? >> Yes. I mean because that could mean a closure of a secondary school even if they recommended that and that has not been on our radar >> and it may mean the closure of a secondary school that is newer that because of the strategic outlay of where students are. We're just going to have to we have to deal with that. We have to be honest about that.
179>> Well, and just because they recommend something doesn't mean the board has to do it. But it may be what they recommend. Yeah, >> you're right. But they might be right. It'll be interesting to see what they recommend. >> Okay. Do you have your marching orders? Do you have what you need? >> Comprehensively, >> completely. >> Thank you board members. That was a much needed conversation. We appreciate the the direction and feedback. >> One one last thing. I think that if people know this is going to be solved come this school year that it will help them make it through these next hard two years. Like they are some of these people in small schools they're holding a very heavy burden and they're looking at this going can I do this for my whole career?
180No, I can't. What am I going to do? But if they're like two more years I think it's going to be helpful to them. I'm not saying it's going to make it all better by any means, but I I think it's helpful to be like I can stick it out, you know. Just one last remind me how long a rebuild is on a elementary. >> 2 and 1/2 years to three years depending if we build on site breaking ground to >> if we have a fresh site. >> Okay. Okay. Thanks, Steve. >> Thank you. All right, Ben and Todd, you've got 10 minutes. >> You got it. >> Ben and Todd, you have five minutes. >> And Mary, I understand you're helping. >> Is that true? Did you see how many times things >> I'd
181like to uh >> she does. Go ahead, Mary. You got this. Just kidding. >> If you don't know Mary, um she is our legislative intern. She goes to Utah State, but she is a proud alumni alumnus of Olympus High School. I tried to put those two words together. That was kind of embarrassing. Um, so she's going to be helping us present this evening. She was um, she helped us out with our legislative tracker. She was on the hill every single day. She helped us arrange meetings with legislators. She was very effective um, and advocating for for Granite School District. So, we'll also be recognizing her as a legislative champion. So, we're going to start off our presentation um, with uh, some funding questions. Is that right? >> So, you want to go through the calendar?
182>> Yep. Well, we're just going to highlight at the very right end of this calendar, we are now out of the session. We're past the governor's veto period that ended Thursday last week and the normal effective date for many bills will be May 6th. So, this is the busy season at the state board of education and will be busy for us. We we have to start putting policies in place based on legislation that passed. Our legislative committee uh meets weekly uh for about 30 minutes just to review things that need to be done and taken care of in terms of compliance and getting up to speed with uh more regulation and less resources cuz that's what we do, right? >> We can skip this one because we just spent an hour on that. >> Okay.
183Population is declining. This is looking at the state budget. Overall uh often we're asked how much is education receiving out of the state budget. When you look at it from all funding sources, education both public and higher ed is the largest piece. But if you break them out, social services receives the most. That's mainly because of federal funds. Go to the next slide. Uh the these are the state resources and when you look at that, if you look on the left hand side, you'll see that public education receives about 49%. That's in the average range. It's between 48 and 52% in any given year is where that will land of the new monies. So that next uh pie over is that public education received the lion share of the new uh revenues that came in
184this year. Uh I pulled this off right of the uh legislative website. Uh the things that they're touting that they're proud of. Uh the first item is they were able to rearrange or reallocate 3.2% of the state's budget uh by going through different budget uh cuts and budget transfers. Uh so they they're proud of that as well as the ability or the opportunity to reduce income taxes. So that's the the next several bullets there. So those are their two big talking points right now. If you go to the next page, we have uh the education pieces that they're uh proud of and that is that there is a 4.2% on the value of the WPU. Uh that they provided money for early success and early literacy programs and also funded the next year for the
185atrisisk student uh weights. Uh so that's again this is just coming from their perspective. What are the things that they accomplish as a legislature? translate that into what does that mean for the school district. Uh the first item is the 4.2% increase. Uh this number is different than what you saw last week. Last week I talked to you about the unrestricted reserves that come in through the WPU. But when you look at all of the money that comes to the WPU, both for restricted and unrestricted, it's 13.5 million. Uh we're expecting about 4.5 million from the at risk program. Uh we will we're already in the process of looking what the matching grant process will be for early literacy. Uh there's also the API centers received the $100 million out of the economic stabilization account
186and there was an adjustment to the educator salary increase uh which was changed so it's now tied to the prior year CPI as opposed to the prior year WPU value increase. >> Really quick question. the Apex Center. We There were some board members that had the question, why did we only get 5 million and Murray got 13 million? >> Um, if I'll take that one. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> It says formerly called Catalyst Centers and it should be called formerly called Granite Technical Institute. We already do this. We are the model for the entire state. Davis figured it out a few years ago and he happens the speaker of the house happens to reside in Davis. Discovered what was happening there. We've had the governor, we have had multiple governors come into our facility.
187People know what's happening here. Um, so this is a new program, but we were we're not eligible for a lot of that funding. We did we did get some funding to expand some of our programs, but most of those programs are already in place. >> So the the funding that other districts got were because it is new to them. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And their kids were coming to our district like Marie. >> We paid for our own. >> Yeah. So we got rewarded for for being innovative. So congratulations. >> Okay. Thanks. >> The next slide just goes through the areas that were reallocated or decreases in programs. We talked about this a little bit last week with regards to early literacy software. Uh translating that, that's about an $800,000 loss to the district
188on the digital teaching and learning. That translates into about a $ 1.5 million loss to the district. and the elimination of the last pieces of money for school fees is about a $ 1.5 million loss to the district. Um, so that's where things are standing now as we get into the budget season. >> All yours. >> All right, that is a celebration there on that last bullet of a revised loss of only 3.1 million instead of $7 million. And so, um, as we look at different types of bills and legislation passed, I think this was, uh, probably one of our more successful sessions in recent history. I think when this session started, I was demoralized and depressed and thinking this was going to be the worst session ever. And in fact, it was one of
189the better ones because not as many bad things happened as could have happened. So, um, to that extent, um, yeah, let me explain. Um, you can see our running bill total. Uh there was fewer bills this year, just slightly. Um so they didn't uh break any records this year. Um I'm not going to go through this uh slide except to tout the bottom portion which will break out a little bit. You can see the total amount roughly 21% of bills and resolutions education related um with the 50 roughly 50% pass rate. Um so uh those are getting through and getting through fast. Uh first bill we're going to uh speak to U Mary's going to take >> 69 >> 218. >> Oh, I'm on the wrong one. Um this one essentially is so there's already
190a digital literacy class for students, but this bill changes that class. It was already up for revision for the Utah State Board of Education, so it was pretty popular because they're already going to revise the curriculum for it. Um and essentially what it does is it changes the curriculum requirements to establish specific standards for digital literacy like AI literacy, social media, mental health impacts, all of that. And this was unanimously popular in all the committees and also the joint legislative committee supported it. So it'll be a good thing. >> So to be clear, they do still want to have digital literacy. They just want to >> Yes. They're just changing the curriculum of it. So right now it's kind of just like learning how to use Google Doc, Excel forms, all that. And it'll be
191more like research based on social media, AI, things like that. >> The the other piece of this changes, it was actually supposed to be the original version of this bill. We evaluated uh with Noel Converse helped me evaluate this with her team. Um and this last summer we got with Representative Tusher to get it amended so that the state board could declare what those standards should be and go through the normal um curriculum adoption and standards process. And so uh we were able to successfully amend this bill and support it and uh we think it's a good piece of legislation that embeds digital literacy in in many other facets of um our curriculum and standards. uh HP299. We hope to recognize Representative Matthews tonight. She'll be joining us another evening. This was a bill that
192she ran in our behalf. Um it extends uh some uh opportunities for us to take action uh in terms of safety plans for um sexual related offenses on school campuses. So, somebody's accused of of something wrongdoing, we don't have to wait for the outcome um adjudication of a case. we can immediately start to to act to ensure safety plans are in place and protect victims in those situations. So grateful for Representative Matthews for running uh this piece of legislation for us. SB69 is the the expansion of the cell phone bill. Uh and so we'll we'll be talking a lot more about that in the coming weeks as we uh modify our policy. Uh school construction amendments. Uh this was a bill we originally opposed. JLC was opposed to it. Um Todd was able to uh
193maneuver with the sponsor, although he thought he was talking to me, didn't he? >> Yep. >> Cuz I reached out to him originally and then Todd went and did the dirty work and we got some some things amended in there. So, go teams. >> Yeah. So, he was swearing at Todd. So, I was grateful that he thought I was Todd or Todd whatever. Um but either way, we got our amendments into that bill and it was acceptable to to Granite School District. Um, even though I think JL Sue was still opposed to it in the the end there. Uh, this SP 165 is the uh the community backbone bill. This is kind of the United Way bill, the promise partnership piece. It did not come with funding that uh we had hoped. Um but it
194does allow for structures and organizations to um organize themselves uh to provide support mechanisms in schools um so that we can focus on um education and we don't have to worry about some of these other um challenges that our our students and families might be faced with. So um we appreciate those partnerships and and believe that this will be a benefit to our students and families. Um 167 this was another bill that we worked heavily on. There was actually two bills combined into to one. Um, and Representative Romero originally ran that legislation for us. That bill did not go through, but the language was was placed into this one and it allows for expansion of the reintegration timing um to 7 days. It gives us a few extra days uh to work through reintegration uh
195for a student who might have some um challenges with the law, might be a safe school challenge uh for us to find the right placement and and collaboration. So, it gives us more time and it's a good it's a good piece of legislation. We're grateful for Senator McCay and Representative Romero uh for the all the feedback and help that they gave us on that bill. This is the early literacy bill. We'll be discussing this a lot more in the coming weeks uh as we need to look at how we're allocating our resources with respect to early literacy. So, we'll come back to you on this one. Uh which was the other one? 273. I'll speak I'll I'll turn that over to you in a second. Um so I'm not going to go through these ones.
196These are the ones we supported that passed and failed unless you have a specific question about any of these. Um yeah, not going to go through any of those. Do you want to speak to uh to this bill? It says we're opposed, but in the end we liked it. >> Originally we were opposed. This is the classroom technology amendments. She was calling it the balanced act, I believe. Um and essentially it's just puts a lot of technology restrict restrictions um especially from K to 3. Um there's just a technology ban um on classroom screen time for specific except for specific computer science standards or assessments and then just goes through grades four to six and middle school high school and there's certain standards for each of those. Um the biggest ones being 4 to6 prohibits
197a 1:1 device to student ratio and bans sending devices home with students. But yeah, originally JLC was opposed, but in the ended up supporting it. And I would say again that Mary got us a meeting with the sponsors and we were able to get that bill amended to make it acceptable and and even uh support the bill. And so again uh some heavy lifting on the part of Grant School District to get that bill uh where it needed to be in in a good place. Um, this is the bill that reduced our tax or >> Can I Can I interrupt you, Ben? >> Sure. >> On that last one. So, are we in a our law and policy committee going to need to Yes. >> take that technology and like decide what we're going to
198do? >> You're already going to see that reflected. Our our board is kind of already on top of this. We've been discussing in law and policy for for the past year the use of technology and um its abundance and what is good use of technology, what is bad use of technology, what we'd like to see. Um we're already looking uh our leadership team has been looking at some revisions to our our memorandum um and and tying into what we expected in this bill uh to pass. So yeah, there are some additional, as Mary mentioned, restrictions that we'll need to uh place into policy as well. >> Okay. So, but the things that we had been working on are not the same as what this bill says. So, not this one, but the other one. And
199so, uh, my question has been, um, are are we planning on continuing on with what we're doing or are we going to now say, well, okay, this is what we're I think this allows for local control. >> It does. Uh, there's going to be a need to align those. I think they're going to the same goal. Um, I think we would like conversation in law policy. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. >> Didn't we have that conversation? >> No, only on cell phones. This is now about Chromebooks. Oh, okay. I thought it was all-encompassing, I guess, in my brain. >> Two separate bills. Okay. >> Uh, this was a bill that changed the hold harmless provision that impacted us uh last year and this year and next year. >> Yes. >> And next year. >> Uh, so it
200was a good bad bill or a bad good bill. >> It it made it less impactful in an impactful way. So, this is the one that changes us our loss from 7 million to 3.1. So, we still lose money, but not as much. Uh, SP 312. Uh, this is actually the one that uh I think was did this get vetoed this last week? I can't remember. This was the controversial one surrounding um non-issues around uh the UPUPAC process um and allowed us to uh required us to allow teachers back into classroom spaces or licensed individuals. I shouldn't just single out teachers um back in classroom spaces for technical issues or nonsafe safety issues. Um, so I if I recall correctly, this uh potentially was going to be vetoed if I I don't remember the conversation
201now. It's too late at night. I don't know. I'll I'll follow up with you on that one. Uh, so here's all the bills that uh we opposed that failed. There's some of these that I just want to highlight because I think they'll be back. Um HB241 is our uh the bill that was mentioned by Michelle earlier. We already talked about uh school district election amendments. That's a bill that would make um uh school board elections partisan. Uh HP 170 was the referendum bill. We've already discussed that. Uh again, great teamwork on the part of a couple of the districts to get a couple of these bills defeated. HP440 I'm going to take personal credit for. Um, sometimes you just try to amend a bill to death and and that's what happened there. SP 169 on
202the second to last day of the legislature, I was sitting with Senator Todd Wiler on the floor of the Senate and this bill came up and he looked at me as it was getting voted on and I knew we hated this bill. Um, and he says, "What do you think about this bill?" And I said, "Well, I think if this the good senator wanted to change graduation requirements, she should run for the school board." and he voted no and then suddenly all these other Republicans popped in when they saw him voting no and changed their vote to no and the bill died about 30 seconds later so it was going to pass. You never know is what my point is that the the calls and the text messages um sometimes they don't realize what they're
203voting on and uh it's impact unless you tell them. And so I was grateful that I was in the right spot at the right time and we got sometimes better be lucky to be good, right? So um that was that was kind of fun. And then for that reason, I actually went and sat with them on the last day of the legislative session waiting for HB170 to come up just in case I needed to be there again. Uh so uh just check my email on the last day of the session there. Here's a couple bills we did not take positions on. Um we did have uh some uh input and worked with um on SP 181 and HB 312 and HB 145 we should have opposed. It's already it's a redundant law. It's it's not
204a great bill, but somebody passed a bill. Yay. that one that was amended though right at the very like at the end. >> Yeah. >> And the amendment was not I think a lot of people didn't know the amendment was in there. >> Oh, that was actually >> or was that a different one? 16. >> That was a different one. >> I don't remember which one it is now. I'd have to go back and look. >> Never mind. Then erase what I just said. >> And that is your your legislative session. Again, a huge shout out to Mary for all of her help with our legislative tracker. She came to all the JLC meetings. She was on the hill. I only bought her Chick-fil-A like once or twice and she wouldn't let me buy her
205lunch otherwise. So, uh, woefully underpaid intern. Did an amazing job. We're grateful for her and her efforts. So, >> yay, Mary. Great job. Seriously. >> Also, shout out to Ben and Todd. I as I go around to community councils, um, sometimes we'll just I don't know if other board I'm sure this happens. They'll ask like, "Hey, what are the hot topics going on at the legislature right now?" and we'll explain a little bit of them and and I said but don't worry we have a lot of advocacy up on the hill but it it's not only being there but it's the relationships that these two have formed with our legislators and that's not just a one phone call or a one text that is a persistent constant building of the relationship and that's how it's
206done that's how a lot of the work gets done on the hill and so um grateful for people who can not only be present but actually advocate in every sense of the what that word means. >> Well, and I want to huge shout out to everybody who advocated. I think we had a lot of voices that were heard this year. And as we looked at it at our um at our meeting, our our USBA meeting just a couple weeks ago, um the ones that USBA and and the districts and we had advocacy for the ones that we supported by and large they passed and the ones that we opposed by and large they failed. So, it really did work and we need to make sure that we have that voice consistently up at the legislature.
207And that means I know there's not many, but hopefully some people will listen to this, but that we that we have parents who are concerned and that who who speak up as well because sometimes they don't listen to the people in the education community as much as they listen to our parents who are very involved. So, we appreciate the parents who've also stepped out and and done a great job in communicating that. So, thank you. I want to point out too that this year um Ben and Todd, you guys did an incredible job of collaborating with like leaders in other school districts and it was powerful and I I really appreciated those relationships. I think it seemed like that was really a good move and we should continue that, you know, or figure out how
208to really capitalize on that. >> I just wanted to say thanks again also to GA and PTA. they were regulars on the hill and um our friend in the back there with the computer, she was up on the hill all the time as well. So I'd run into her in committee meetings. I'm like, "You're still here?" So, um, a lot of great people advocating and thanks for your presence on the hill. >> Keep going. Keep going because it happens all year long. So, we need to keep those voices going. All right, we're going to go ahead and ask um Doug Larson to come up and join us in the front. Uh we have one first reading and two second readings. >> Good evening board members. Um it's pretty close to my bedtime so I'll uh
209I'll uh cut right to it. Uh first reading, we've got an audit committee and internal auditing policy. This policy is established uh to provide for internal auditing responsibilities as overseen by the audit committee uh of the board of education. We uh have a a functioning audit committee. We have for some time. This policy um essentially just describes what that audit committee does. The audit committee establishes an internal audit program and objectively um evaluates the effectiveness of the district administration, governance, internal controls and the efficacy of operations as defined in RT77113. That is the uh state uh rule that um governs what our audit committee does. Um that is a brand new policy um kind of created from scratch but also uh created directly from R277113. Um it is intended to be in line with that
210uh with that state rule. So if you have any other questions I'd be happy to respond. >> Our board president is not here but >> I just realized that >> vice chair could I offer >> Yes. Go ahead Julie. >> Okay. I move that we approve article 6B5 audit committee and internal auditing as a first reading. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a first and on article where am I? Hold on. 6B5 audit committee and internal auditing as a first reading. Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay, next one. On that last policy, I do want to just mention thank you to the members of the audit committee, to Todd and others who had some uh significant input. So, thank you very much on that one. Uh moving on
211to second readings, we had two policies that we did on first reading last month and we brought them back for second readings. Um the first one is article 6B1, payroll and accounting. Uh this was a consolidation of a few policies regarding payroll and accounting. Um we got a lot of help on this policy um from Rich Welch. Policies were combined and edited to clarify and to streamline policy regarding paychecks and pay periods. Policy also authorizes payroll and payday procedures in administrative memo 155 payrolls and paydays. I will mention that uh we are working through the final um uh working through finalizing uh memo 155. We've been in touch with GA. Uh Todd has been helpful in that respect as well and that should be finalized soon hereafter. Um but the policy article 6B1 is what
212we are here uh to present tonight and I'd be happy to answer any further questions. >> Any questions? >> I'll take a motion. >> A motion. I move that we approve article 6B1 payroll and accounting policy as a second and final reading. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a first and second motion to approve article 6B1 payroll and accounting as a second and final reading. Any other discussion board? Okay. All in favor? >> I >> for your benefit. Um Nicole, I did mention that 150 memo 155 will be uh sent out as soon as we've got some further consensus with GA and you'll be able to distribute that to the board. Okay. >> Thank you. I also want to point out though um because you guys passed this and that's totally fine. But on the
213audit committee, it was interesting to find out that uh the um board leadership does not have to be on it. >> So >> there you go. >> We thought it did because that's what Yeah. So >> you can't get off that easy. Uh last and final Oh, sorry. >> There was a celebration. We have been on there for four years. Been on there for six years. Just kidding. >> Okay. Final policy of the evening is uh policy from our fiscal policy manual. This is section 12. You'll recall from last month, this policy is collection of accounts receivable and other debts. This uh section of the fiscal policy is being updated to establish uh procedure on the collection of student debt. Uh it clarifies which debts are sent to collections and which ones should be taken
214um with students and parents who have a negative uh lunch balance. Uh once again this was um uh worked on and um uh developed by our foods um department um uh Dana Canino. Dana, what's Dana's last name now? >> Yeah, Canina. Yes, sir. Okay. Uh Dana uh was the one who who helped me uh uh draft this one. Uh and it also had um significant input from Todd as well. Um if you have any further questions about that policy, I'd be happy to respond. >> Any questions? Not. I'll entertain a motion. >> I move to approve fiscal policy manual section 12 collection of accounts receivable receivable and other debts as a second reading >> and final reading. and final reading. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second to approve the
215fiscal policy manual section 12 collection of accounts removable and other debts is the second and final reading. Is there any further discussion on it? >> All right. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Right. Motion passes. >> Thank you, board. >> Thank you. Superintendent report. >> All right. See if I can do this fast. Do Mundo's family night. Awesome time. Hunter High Unified Play was incredible. I cried. Um, Cozy and Reed at Fremont, they had a volunteer donate 3,000 books. They hosted a breakfast and every kid got to come in and read with an adult and get a free book and some donuts. So, I got to read with some kids. Magnus team um got to spend some time at their reading event as well. Um, the last week of
216session was a hurry. I know bustle. Um and again just a huge shout out for all those who helped make that successful and uh accomplish the things that we were able to. We had uh the Mil Creek State of the youth address that was presented by the Mil Creek Youth City Council which is composed mainly of students from Skyline Olympus and Cottonwood and some other schools that we won't mention. Uh but uh the um the the mayor is a student at Skyline. She did an incredible job. Um, and uh, it was just a great event with Mil Creek City. >> Just, you know, she's my niece, too. >> Yeah, >> I was bragging. Sorry. >> Yeah, >> that's her niece, by the way, in case anybody Okay. Um, there was the spring dance concert at
217Karns High School. Uh, this second year I've been able to attend. It was amazing. Those, uh, girls did a great job. Those kids did a great job. There were some boys who were dancing, too. They did a good job, too. Not just the girls. Um, there's a kid, a third grade kid named Joe at um, Wright Elementary and he got my business card and he sent me an email and he invited me to his STEM night and so I was like, "Okay, well, I'd love to come." So, I went out there and I went around the whole night. He showed me around his whole STEM night. We did some activities together and uh, we filmed a little video together. So, shout out to Joe. Um, yes, if you're a student and you email the superintendent,
218I will respond and if you invite me, I will come and visit you. So, uh, we had a great time and that was a great event at Wright. And then, uh, as already been mentioned, we've we're having some good, uh, success in collaborating with our parents who are on school community councils and those network meetings will continue uh, through the the coming weeks. That's all I have. >> Thanks, Clerk. >> I have two quick things. Uh, it's been widely reported that Chick-fil-A sales within our district were down significantly between January 20th and March the 5th, which is the legislative session that Ben was attending so regularly. Um, and secondarily, um, Chick-fil-A plans to open a branch or a satellite franchise up on the capital for next year just to accommodate Ben. Um, lastly, >> that's
219three. I think all of you are aware, but I want to remind you that we have a an anonymous hotline or tip line for um for any kind of fraud or malfeasants. Um there has been historically a little bit of confusion between we have kind of an anti-bullying and and harassment uh reporting mechanism as well. Um that's been cleared up as of recently. Um, so I think um that's a good thing uh on our website and you can get to our um from a financial standpoint. You can get to our fraud hotline um a couple of different ways or multiple different ways through our website. But the audit committee does receive a report on those regularly as they come in um immediately and then we have a a follow-up mechanism so that we run the
220ground in any kind of report that we receive um as they come in. Some of them we are unable to follow further because there's a limited amount of information. Uh some of them are quite detailed and we run those to ground through our internal audit department uh and the audit committee. So just keeping you aware in that regard. >> Karen, the benefits committee kind of had a quick um interim meeting. This was not uh on the normal schedule, but it's um I mentioned last time that our health costs are high. And so the benefits committee met this afternoon. In years past, they don't like me to go to that one because I'm on the other side of negotiations and so I didn't go, but I know it happened. So hopefully we hear that they came
221up with some good solutions. So that's my report on the benefits committee. Thanks, Karen. Chris, um just a reminder, the budget and finance committee was our March study session. So we all got to participate in that and get that information. So we do not have one coming up this month. And then um district community council Julie asked me to just you know basically kind of facilitate which was just introducing it. But um it was I just want to I just think those are so valuable meetings if you can attend and I know we always have different parents there which I love. Um and I just I heard feedback from the last one that they just really appreciated the information they got. So thank you Todd and Mitch. And here we go. >> And am I
222right? They talked about um parent teacher conferences, right? >> Yeah. They like got feedback and how to Yes. Thank you, JD, too. It was really good. Yeah. >> Yeah. We got some feedback about that and some really good some I think some good ideas. Did we get some good ideas? >> Tacos. A taco truck. >> Oh, that was brought up. >> Idea for sure. >> That's all I have. >> Connie, go ahead. So just um tomorrow USBA has a policy webinar and if you're interested I'll tell you what they're talking about different policies and also the delegate pre-delegate assembly is June 5th in the evening and the delegate assembly is June 6th. So all of us are invited to go. It's at USBA offices. So if you can go, it will be setting goals for
223next this next legislative session. So some interesting things go on. And that's all other than USBA. If we were going, we'd go to the Sunday Sunday. >> That's a fantastic idea. >> Great idea, too. >> Todd's house. We're going to go have Sundays. >> I think it's not a Sunday. It's a full lunch if you recall. >> But the important part is the Sundays. >> I'm just saying Todd's hosting. Sorry. Go ahead, Kim. >> All right. Salt Lake County Parks and Rec Advisory Committee did meet this month. Um, they did not complete any real business, but discussed a lot of information items such as new point of sales system. Um, that's rolling out upcoming events and things like that. So, on that note, for us, I think the takeaway for me was anyone who's interested,
224there will be a ribbon cutting event. Yeah. the Big Cottonwood Regional Park East playground on Thursday, April 16th at 10:30 a.m. So, if anyone wants to attend that, I think they rebuilt the playground. It's apparently safer and more engaging. Has five different slide options, >> some climbing and balancing features, right? >> Wow. Um, also like renovating their surrounding area, revitalizing things, including the parking lot and benches and trees and things. >> Have they ever entertained what we talked about as far as the busing issue at all? Have they talked about that at all? >> Yeah, that's the separate committee they organized to discuss >> the PAL, which I've only met once with them. They've canceled some meetings. So, um, hopefully that picks up again here in the next month. But yes, it's come up, but
225it has not haven't gotten into any real discussion yet on >> All right. Just wonder >> solutions, but yeah, it's still out there. >> Okay, thanks. >> That's all. >> Thanks, Kim. Julie >> Chris did all my jobs this month, but also I got a lecture from the USBA people that I wasn't informing my board about what I'm doing in leadership on USBA. So, I'm going to start talking about that here this month. um traveled around the state and met with different boards and found out talked about the legislative session and um also talked about how uh what pain points they have that they think if if you went to your USBA regional meeting which I missed um the same the same things and man I'm learning so much from those rural areas in particular
226about the tricky things that they go through but you know what they're always like this is so hard that and I've got I'm like, "Well, you don't have this or this or this or this." And so, everybody has their heart. It's very interesting how varied we are, you know. And also, Connie and I are going to spend a weekend at the end of this month in St. George um doing a retreat to organize USBA for the year. >> Thanks, Julie. So, we did um the eight hour task force. you all got a report just so I can let the public know we reported to the board but that since that is part of negotiations it is not something that we're going to speak about yet in public um but we I think I feel like
227we have um we it was something that we worked well with GA on and um got to a good place and got to got some good recommendations out of that um and we look forward to the negotiations and how they go lawn policy excuse me you guys saw the board audit policy which is a new policy And that's great. Uh we did also discuss, just so you're aware, the senior high school graduation standards and requirements. And we did also talk about the electronic devices, an acceptable use of technology that um SB69 that passed and and what that potentially could mean for us. And we are looking at some of the other bills and how they have affected our policy and what we need to change for that. Um, I think that's all of my is
228that all that my committees? Um, I want to I do want to say USBA. Um, it was really good to be able to talk about since Julie missed it, but but um, Connie and I talked about it and I think it would be valuable for all of us to maybe even just talk to Julie and Connie and if there's any priorities that we have. Um, one of the things in talking to Ben strategically is that maybe we need to be more proactive in running a bill that instead of those other ones that we that we disagreed with that we need to run a bill that would that would take care of it but in a way that would be good for us. So, um, just some thoughts that maybe we need to be a little
229bit more proactive on that that end and it would be really good for us to do that. Um >> is that something to even put on a board information like study session agenda to discuss you know maybe because we never get we can't discuss it together only individually and maybe together we could have some thoughts. Well, and that's that's kind of >> yeah, that's what that's what this the spring I mean >> regional meeting is supposed to be for that. But if we aren't all going to that, >> we have a chance to talk about that and say this is what our priorities should be. This is what we want to see happen. And so >> if you guys are interested, um I have a list. They've taken what all the boards said are their
230priorities and now they've ranked all those issues by like, oh, this was mentioned 10 times. This was mentioned nine times. And then we'll take that list in April to J or sometime soon to JLC who will then start to whittle that down to a rough draft of what our priorities could be that they will present at the delegate assembly in June. So if if anybody wants to see that list, I have it and would be happy to share it. >> Let's talk about that because that might be a good something to bring up at study session. Anyway, um I think we are unless there's any objection, we've reached the end of our agenda.