001get started. It is December 2nd, 2025. This is our 700 p.m. board meeting. We're going to begin by indicating who's here. Julie, will you start? >> Julie Jackson, Kim Chandler, >> Connie Bruce, >> Chris, Karen Winder, >> Clark Nelson, Todd Huber, Ben Worley, >> Nicole McDerman. Like to recognize um anybody visiting from our PTA today. If you'll stand and introduce yourselves council president, >> thanks for being here you guys. G8, >> thanks for being here. Granite office professionals, >> thank you for being here. middle managers, um, GESPA, Granite Education Foundation, I don't think I saw anybody, and elected officials and any administrators. Thank you for being here, you guys. [laughter] We appreciate all you do. All right, we're going to go ahead and invite up Daryl Kirby, who is going to lead us in the
002pledge. Okay. Ready? Okay. Begin. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the rep which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you so much. Um, we are going to have turn the time. Who do I turn the time over to for the Principal? Oh, John Paul, sorry. Principal Sorenson, will you please come up and introduce your your amazing Rocketeers? [snorts] >> And I think we have a number of students joining with us tonight. Is that accurate? >> A fairly large number of students. >> We're going to go ahead and excuse ourselves off the the D here. >> That might be wise. Yeah. Give me a moment. Excellent. Well, I'll go ahead and talk while they're filing in. It'll take them
003just a moment to get set. I am super um proud and privileged to be able to introduce our Armstrong Rocketeers. Uh they are from Neil Armstrong Academy. The Rocketeers are our school choir. They are a volunteer organization and they meet um before and after school and put in a lot of time every year to prepare um these wonderful performances. Um our Rocketeers have changed shape a little bit this year in that we have added some of our younger students to the Rocketeers. We reconfigured and no longer have sixth graders at our school and so we've allowed some of our younger students to to join the Rocketeers and that's been fun to see some younger faces join our ranks. Um they'll be uh performing their wonderful holiday concert next Wednesday at Neil Armstrong Academy. If you're
004free in the evening, you're welcome to come. It's a it's a hot ticket though. You got to get there early um if you want a good seat. Um but everybody's welcome to enjoy that. Uh this is the fabulous Mrs. Debbie Kirby. She spends a huge amount of time directing the Rocketeers and selecting music and and she has put many many years into this. Now, I'm super excited to be here. As a little known fact, on the board meeting where I was appointed the principal of Neil Armstrong Academy 7 years ago, the Rocketeers also performed at that board meeting, uh, the Reverends. And so, it's always very special to me when they get a chance to come here. Um, and so we proudly present the Armstrong Rocketeers. [applause] I think only half of us here large
005groups and then zoom. >> [music] >> Call out [singing] the holly. Put up the tree before [music] my spirit [singing] falls again. Fill up the song. [music] I may be rushing things, but they're the [singing] now [music] for [singing] we need a little Christmas carol in the window. [music] Carol [singing] as we need a little Christmas [music and singing] a single fler in our bra [singing and music] down the chimney the brightest [music and singing] dream I've ever seen slice of the fruit [music] [singing] on the Every [music] [singing] we need a little music, need [music] a little laughter, need a little [singing] singing [music] after we need a little happy ever after a little Christmas [music and singing] now. [applause] >> [music] [music] >> Be a Santa. Come Santa. Happy Santa. Give the world
006a merry Christmas. Be so jolly. [singing and music] and my [music] everyone will love you if you'll be [singing] a Santa Claus [music] this way. Don't [music] you tell a single soul what [singing] I'm going to say. Christmas is coming soon. Now you [music and singing] dear old man whisper what you bring to me. Tell [singing] me if you can. [music] You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not. I'll tell [music and singing] you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. You'll [music] be here soon. Get ready. He's making a list. Checking it twice. [music] Got to find out who's [singing] not your night. Santa Claus is coming to town. [music] He saves you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. [singing and music] He knows if you good. So you
007got more bright every night. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better [music and singing] not count. I tell you why. Santa Claus is coming. [music and singing] Santa Claus is coming. Santa Claus is coming. [music and singing] [singing] [music] Christmas [singing and music] down the journey [music and singing] with St. Nick. [music and singing] Be a Santa. [singing and music] Happy Santa. Give the world a merry Christmas. Be so jolly. [singing and music] And I [music and singing] everyone will love you if you be a Santa Claus. [music and singing] Everyone will love you if you be a Santa [singing] [music] Claus. Be a Santa. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Heat. Heat. [applause] [cheering] >> [applause] >> Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well that's >> absolutely usually going home. Oh yeah, look at the
008lights. >> What a great way to start off the holiday season, right? The best. >> All right. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Armstrong Rocketeers. Anybody who's still going to go ahead and move on to our good news minute and we'll start with Julie. That's okay. Couple of nights ago, I got to speak to the Weeblows in my community about their communications bag badge as an elected official. And I walked in and um there were uh kids representing four of my different schools. And when I walked in, they all said, "Oh my gosh, IT'S THE HAT LADY." And they all knew who I was. And it was just this moment of feeling like this is very personal what we do and um that you you do all this stuff, you know, you sit in this board chair or
009whatever, but realizing and and these kids knew uh how I had voted on the pack study. They all knew and they thanked me for my vote. I thought it was just very interesting and also really good news to know that our kids have connections with all levels of our district. I also wanted to point to [snorts] um that I got to go to uh the final musical at Skylines old auditorium. And when I was a little kid, I got to perform there. And I was thinking back on that time and how um I feel like it looked old then and it looks old now. Like same [laughter] um but how excited I am for that community and also sad to say goodbye to the history of that place and how it served us so well
010and um thinking about how the money that we invest in these new facilities is going to create such new memories and traditions and opportunities for kids and I think that's really good news. Thanks, Julie. Kim, >> it's been a short turnaround from our last board meeting to this one with a holiday in between. So, I haven't been to a ton, but I did want to mention um PLC meeting at Westlake Junior High that the math teachers over there were gracious enough to let me join. I think it might maybe was a little weird for them just having me sitting in there quietly just listening to them talk. Um but I told them to pretend I wasn't there, ignore me. I just wanted to see how it worked. and um they are a great group who
011clearly collaborates really well. Um and so it was just a good experience to to see how that's being run and um I believe Westlake wants to be a model for other schools and so I think they were doing a good job there. So um just wanted to share that. So thank you. >> I agree. It was just a short time ago we had a board meeting and then that holiday hopefully everyone had a nice break. Um and reality hit yesterday for us but thank you to teachers um as semester ends. Um, thanks to all the employees and hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year's break that you can enjoy your families and enjoy that time and then be ready to come back all eager to um start another semester. >> All right, I
012have two things. Um, I want to thank Principal Lindsay Weaver. She invited me over to Hillside there. They had a BTS holiday performance and it showcased um each grade did a different tradition from a different culture um for their holiday and they did dance, they had singing, they had so many cute they made their own um props. Um, they did such a great job and it was just fun that they all participated and those kids were just grinning and so excited and you know getting the chance to perform is is hard even when you're in a first you know first grade classroom but yet even the the fifth graders they just they loved being up there and their it was well attended. It was packed by parents and um it was a lot of fun
013and I also attended the Hunter High School musical the Wizard of Oz. Um, Nicole and I sat together and wow, it was a great production. It was uh they worked so hard and it was it was just so well done and so well cast and um I just thought they did such a great job performing and um I love to go to Hunter Musical. They do such a great job. So, thanks. The best news of the night was that three of my piano students were in that choir. I looked and I was like, "Hey, I know you and I know you and I know you." And so I teach piano on the side. So, um, that was that was the good news minute for me tonight is to see him enjoying the music. Um, I
014was able to attend Granger Heist musical. Um, and they did, um, the Adams family and they did a really, really good job. A lot of hard work. I know it sounds cliche, but man, many hours and hundreds of hours into those productions. And so I was able to go with my daughter and have a little girls night out. And uh that was fun on Friday night. And then on Saturday we went to Hunter High's production of the Wizard of Oz. We did the 2:00 matinea um performance which is um for sensory needs. Um so they do one where they don't dim the lights. Um families can come. And my favorite was every time the lion came out three rows behind me, there was a roar from from a little kind of a little kid. And
015it was it was actually it made the whole show. So, um that was a lot of fun. And I love that families that otherwise maybe not might not be able to feel comfortable going with family or or maybe you know somebody with disability where they shout out. Um but I love that that um Chery Parks is the theater um teacher there and she's always she does that extra performance on Saturday matineese for that very purpose to include families that otherwise might not feel comfortable coming and it's wonderful. Um last but not least I was able to do thank you Thursday and uh we went to Benyan Elementary and Calvin Smith Elementary and it was fun to be able to stop into those and in one of those classes I turned and there's my next door
016neighbor. So, it was it was a a kind of a fun little surprise. I didn't realize I was going into that classroom with his teacher. So, anyway, lots of good fun things around the holidays. And I also wish everyone a happy holiday winter break. I think it would be appropriate to um acknowledge that winter sports have started at our high schools and are well underway um with basketball and cheer, drill, swimming, and wrestling. So, in my opinion, I'm a big sports guy. So, in my opinion, there is nothing greater than going to a high school for a sporting event um and being part of the community. The only thing perhaps that's better than that is going to the high school to be in a classroom or the junior high or the elementary school and actually
017being in the classroom with the students. But the sports is a close second to that. So, lots of fun and excitement um upcoming with all of those sports. Thanks. >> Thanks. I think um I think paramount to sports is also the the performing arts and I had the opportunity to go see Hunter High musical, the Wizard of Oz and also Cottonwoods High School Susical. Um they did a fantastic job and it was fun to see all the colors and the creativity that they had with that one. Um and also Hunter High School. They did a great job. I was really sad that they all kind of were at the same time and so you had to pick and choose which one you should go to. So um and I did I I had the opportunity
018to go to Thank You Thursday. I don't get to go to those all the time because they're a little far away and then I have to run to school. But um I did get to go to the one at Calvin Smith and at Van Elementary and it was a lot of fun to be able to see those teachers and the the kids that I know so well. Um and I did want to share with you I was going to bring it. I got a thank you thank you turkey from a kindergarten class I've been helping out this year. Um, I go on Monday mornings and go help them at their in their centers and they did these cute little things for Thanksgiving where they did their hand print on there and painted them different colors
019and and um made a little turkey and they gave me one um just the other day. And so I uh I appreciate that, but I I appreciate being in that classroom and being able to see um the great things that happen in our schools and and um the wonderful teaching that happens. So, thank you for all all that um our teachers do. With that, we'll go ahead and move on. We have our recognitions next, and we're going to invite Dr. Converse up to come and introduce our holiday card contest winners, which is always another favorite that we do this time of year. >> Yes. One of my very, very favorite um presentations of the year. So, thank you, President McDermott, uh Vice President W, board members, superintendent, and guests. Thanks for being here. Um, I
020just was counting backwards and this is actually our fifth year of the holiday card contest. So, I'll just give you a little bit of background. There are hundreds and hundreds of student um, submissions for this contest and um, they all come flooding in. We started at the very beginning of the year um, and challenge our BTS teachers and our art teachers at the secondary level um, to engage in um, this theme with us for a holiday card. And this time it was holiday uh it was winter sports theme and um so we get hundreds of submissions. We try to narrow it down a little bit and then finally our superintendent um uh is charged with the very very challenging task of bringing it down to just a very few and he always wants to include
021all of them but but he has to make a really really difficult choice. So, this year we have four um selections that were chosen as the holiday card winners. And so, I'm just going to um invite each one of you up, read uh your they they also have to write a a bit of a submission just to um talk a little bit about what they what their artwork represents. Um, I'll I'll invite you up and have you hold up um a framed version of your card that we've made and then you'll also receive a 20 um cards for you to share with family and friends and then you'll shake board members hands and then take a picture. Okay. So, I'm going to start with Alia, a third grade student. So, come on up, Aia. [applause]
022[applause] And if you can show the audience this what you wrote. Alia wrote, "Can you hold it up high?" Yeah. There you go. I love to make gingerbread. Mhm. >> Oh, shoot. Sorry. >> That's why that's why I need help [laughter] now. >> And turn around to the audience. She can see There we go. Thank you. Thanks for correcting that. That would have been bad. And uh what Aia wrote is, "I love to make gingerbread houses. It's fun to make and you can get the candy and can make it look like this. Happy holidays." So, thank you, Alia. That looks lovely. [applause] and those go to the family afterwards. >> Thanks for what school you >> friends. All right. One, two. [applause] Can we have Alia's support team stand up too and be recognized? THANKS
023[applause] FOR Principal Wells, we also have a little pack of cards for you, Principal Wells. So, okay, we'll we'll give those to you next. Okay, our next winner is Meline and she's a fifth grade student. [applause] >> And hold that up high so the audience can see. >> Can you include what school they're from, please? >> Yes. Yes. >> Um, Alao is from Elkrun Elementary. Meline is from Whittier. Okay. And Meline wrote, "I wanted my picture to show what my friends and I enjoy doing in the winter. The snowman represents us having fun together in the snow." Awesome. [applause] Great job. Nicely done. Done with markers. >> Is that a marker? Very nice. smile on two. [applause] >> Thanks, Maline. >> Can we have her team as well? teachers and teachers and and and parents
024and anybody who's here to support her. [applause] Okay, our next um winner is Milana and she's a 10th grade student at Olympus High School. [applause] And Milana writes, "Sking brings me back to the good old memories. It's good to remember fun parts of your life. Skiing may be risky, but it's worth taking the opportunity because you won't be able to ski all the time. And that's why I made this art piece. [applause] >> Gorgeous. >> Yeah, you're right. Congratulations. >> Uh, incredible. You got to take get your picture. >> Two. >> Congratulations, Milana. [applause] And finally, we have Yoseline. She's an 11th grade student at Granger High School. Now, Yelin is a secondyear winner in our fiveyear. So, I told her she might have a career ahead of her and she might want to start
025thinking about that. Okay. Okay. Yelin writes, "Winter sports and activities are a way for people to enjoy quality time with loved ones as well as find a connection with their surroundings." Thanks, Yoseline. [applause] That's me. That's so cute. >> Thank you. >> I just want you to know this is a really hard job. We I I've been into Ben's office when he's had those all laid out on the table and like, "Oh, that one's so cute. Oh, wait. No, that one's really cute. Oh, no. That one's cute." And I just say, "Can I have a copy of each one?" Because they're all really cute. So, they do an amazing job. >> Thanks again, [applause] parents. Joselyn's parents. [applause] We just appreciate all of you sharing your children with us um their talent and their skill
026and teachers and principles. Thank you so much for giving them um these opportunities to share their artwork and thank you board for honoring them in this really special way. Thank you. [applause] Great job. Um, we're going to go ahead and move on. We I didn't see any elected officials and we don't have any patron participation signed up. So, we are going to go ahead and go on to our consent agenda. We've had these items for a few days and uh have been able to ask any questions that we need. So, if there are no further questions, I will entertain a motion. >> I move we accept the consent agenda. All right, we have a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda. Are there any comments? >> Yeah, Ben, did we fix that one
027hire situation that said that it was hired under Twin Peaks? >> Yes, Patrick sent an email response on that right before the 5:00 hour. So, >> so has it been taken out of this consent agenda? >> Oh, I don't believe it has because it was coded uh [clears throat] incorrectly. So, it is a typo. So, we can make that adjustment. So, if we can adjust that there was one hire shown um to twin as a Twin Peaks parah. >> Yes, she's a volunteer >> is no longer. >> We'll make that that amendment. I'll send them the email to Stacy. >> So, I I guess I move to amend that we take that out >> of the consent to approve with the the amendment >> of the removal of that line item on the higher report.
028>> Okay. Is there a second on that? >> Second it. >> Okay. So, we have a motion, a second to approve the consent agenda with the amendment. Um, let's go ahead and vote on that one. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? So, that one carries. So, we don't need to worry about the first one. All right. We're going to move on to our action ite. No, just kidding. Our information. >> There's one more. Did we just pass her vote her the change on it and then the whole thing passed? >> No, she said I she she voted to approve the consent agenda with the amendment >> cuz I had a one on there too. I sorry I thought we were doing them separately. >> Oh, so there was another um
029typo on there that we read. We voted on our minutes and our minutes had Stacy was going to change it that reflected that it was a final vote at our last meeting and it said first vote on our um action item for the pack reading. >> So okay when I read it said final vote. >> Did you change it? >> Oh thank you. Never mind. It was changed. >> I think I read it. >> Thank you. Okay. So that's already been changed. Okay. So we're good to move on. >> Fukes. I wouldn't have known what to do with Robert's rule on that. >> Sorry. Thank you. I wouldn't either. Just kidding. Um, okay. All right. We're going to go ahead and move on to our information item. We have an update on our um, Cottonwood
030High School, our five period uh, model. So, we're going to invite up Dr. Pitcher and Dr. How to give us a an update on this. >> We're so excited. It's like a table of docks down there. >> Oh, that's exciting. >> I don't know. It looks It looks a little stuck up to me. >> Stuck up. That's right. Um, thank you to the members of the board. This is an exciting update that we're um thrilled to be able to give. This year at Cottonwood High School, there's been a pilot program that has looked to have five period slots during the day, which enables a couple of different options. Possibly students who are going to go from second period to fifth period, which means they'd actually have a 9:00 start and go longer into the afternoon,
031or potentially even doing all five periods during the day and earn more credits at a quicker rate. So, we're about halfway through the school year, getting close to that, and we want to be able to give an update of how that's going and possible next steps. Um, Dr. Pitcher's done a good job working with his staff to get feedback and perspective from everybody, and that's what we want to be able to share out. So, Dr. Pitcher, there we go. Thanks for letting us come tonight to be able to share this awesome experience for Cottonwood and uh for trusting us with the ability to take care of these wonderful students. We have nearly 125 students that are participating in the uh late start or fifth period uh combined whether they start late or they just go
032through the fifth period. And we're offering a a large cadre of classes if you will. Uh it's listed there as the AP English, the credit recovery that's taking place after school as well. Then we have uh film making, health 2, jazz ensemble, secondary math 3, seminary or ed release if you will. And then also we have stage crew study skills and world histories. uh they are taking place on both A days or B days. None of these are both Aday and B-day classes. So, it's important to see that we have some teachers that are on an A day teaching a fifth period and others that are teaching a bday on fifth period. We did a a cursory uh strengths, uh weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis or a SWAT analysis if you will. And so, these
033are uh summaries of what our teachers have actually put in. We also open it up to our support staff as well, our secretaries, etc. And so some of the responses that you see here uh reflect both student input, teacher input, and then I would also say our our support staff. [clears throat] Some of the strengths that we that we see is that we get a greater flexibility in the scheduling. Instead of just four periods a day, we can go on to five periods or we can start late and go to four period day, etc. or just take take a normal course load first, second, third, fourth period, both A days and B days. So you can have up between eight and 10 periods. Uh we talk about improved intendance, excuse me, [clears throat] and engagement
034opportunities for students. And so with this, the late start helps students who struggle to wake up early. They can opt to come later if they choose just as the the time uh indicates. But then we also understand that some students would rather be done at after their fourth period. And then there's others who are trying to get ahead and and they take in that fifth period slot. Uh benefits for students. We [clears throat] know that health and well-being is something we care a lot about for our students. And some of our adolescence need more sleep, the studies would say. And so this is a chance for those students that get extra sleep. They may be working late at night. We know many of our students, they work to help take care of their families. And
035so if they're working late into the night, sometimes it's easier for them to be able to come uh during that second period as their first period class of the day. Um, we also know that um that it expands the academic opportunities for our students and so students can take those additional classes. We've mentioned that a couple different times already. The thing that I really like is that we have students that are in need of credit recovery and the afterchool program uh provides for that, but also the fifth period provides for that as well. So some students that want to earn credit by taking a class with credit recovery can earn the credit for the class plus the additional credits to be recovered. We have a large number of students that do need credit recovery to
036be able to stand on the exit graduation and wave to mom and dad and say we did it. And so we can provide opportunities for them to do so. And then we have a select few that might choose to be able to graduate early. Those that can get all their credits in by the end of their junior year. If they were to continue to take all three years worth of five five periods all throughout the year, they'd be able to earn the credit necessary for early graduation. There are some potential school benefits as well. uh we can decrease class sizes during the school day. Uh those that take a fifth period class typically would take it during the first through fourth period and so that might help to decrease some of that class size and
037the the load that teachers uh face in that opportunity. We have the ability to recruit students to our school because we do have this fifth period option. So students from outside of our boundary that may want to attend Cottonwood High School to graduate early or to take a fifth period to start later, that might be a draw for some of them. and then we can have a better distribution of students just simply across all periods as a result of this fifth period opportunity. And so there's many strengths. Um there are some weaknesses that have been identified as well. Uh low access and in inequity that takes place. Many of our students at Comewood High School, as you know, they ride the bus. The buses come as early as nearly 6:45 in the morning and then
038they leave right after fourth period ends. And so it precludes them from being able to do a late start because that's their only transportation. It also creates a challenge for them. If they want to stay late, they have to find a ride home. We have uh started to create a solution for that with our after school program. Students that stay late, we have a bus that runs two different times after school. Uh one near about 4:30 is when it leaves and then the other one leaves at at 5:45. It's a bus route that we've had already uh for our after school program and they've agreed to help our students that are taking this fifth period. So, that's been helpful. Uh low enrollment and limited classes. As you saw there, there's only a few classes that
039are being taught each day and there's low enrollment in a lot of those classes. There might be as little as five or six students in one class and there might be upwards of 20 or 30 in another class depending on what day and what class it's being offered. So identifying which class uh to be able to offer has been a challenge and we're working through identifying what students want for that. And then of course there are some scheduling conflicts with the fifth period option. Um it conflicts with the afterchool program. it conflicts with sports and clubs and extracurriculars. It can uh affect tutoring um and opportunities after school that that exist. Uh one of the great challenges is the fact that many of our teachers that have served on many of our different committees and
040leadership teams uh during fifth period they've really struggled to be able to be a part of that because they're teaching during that fifth period time when those meetings have been uh typically held. And so there's a need to be able to identify how do we help these teachers who have been highly engaged in years and years of education and now they're teaching during that fifth period to provide supports for students and their programs but now they're not able to be on those leadership teams based on the time frames where when those are being held. Um those meetings could possibly be held earlier uh in the day or they could be held during the day or or elsewhere but we'd have to look at maybe providing substitutes and things like that for them. So there are
041some challengings there challenges there with the scheduling conflicts. Another challenge and weakness that happens is the the idea that our support staff who come to you know they welcome all of our teachers, our head secretaries, some of our finance people, etc. who are here to help support students. They're on a limited contractual opportunity to be in the school. And so being able to flex their schedule, it sounds like it's an easy process, but not everybody covers each other's opportunities the same. And so it's been very difficult to be able to provide um additional support after the majority of our students leave for those for those students that choose to stay in that fifth period opportunity. And then we have operational and staffing challenges that happen. Um sometimes there are some uneven class sizes that happen
042as a result of this and we talked about that in that fifth period class. Not every class is carrying a full load at this point. We think it will continue to grow as we provide uh the opportunity but we know that there are challenges there. Uh it's it complicates our our FTE um pushing teachers into that fifth period slot. Some of them, it's my understanding, were voluntary. Uh some of those were asked to do so and and they chose to do so because they knew it was right for kids. But it does reduce collaboration time. It does reduce the chance for some teachers to be there early enough for PLC work on the Friday just based on their scheduling. And so there's a need to be able to work some of those pieces out. And
043then the student experiences, there are longer stretches in the day. um that that the teachers reported the students were were talking about and then there's a potential for unstructured time for students that may want to come early or stay late and being able to have proper supervision for those that come is always a challenge for us. Um we do have a lot of opportunities that do exist and we'll continue with with some of these the flexible scheduling that we talked about the later start time that we talked about as well additional academic opportunities. I think this is really the pro of what we can provide here. Additional classes for our students, but then faster credit accumulation which ultimately leads to uh more students graduating more quickly which uh if they choose to do so, we
044want to make that an available opportunity for them. And then we have increased course uh course options and so we can offer a health course for example or or a credit recovery class or whatever it might be uh in that fifth period slot that normally wouldn't have been held during the school day. and then support for different student needs. We've talked about and the potential long-term benefits. And as you've read through these and seen these slides ahead of time, um there are there are um opportunities for us to be able to learn and to grow and to be able to to take the hand that we've been dealt, if you will, as we came to Cottonwood High School to be able to learn about uh this opportunity that that I think is a real benefit
045for us. But we have some challenges we get to work through. There are limited access and and in inequities. talked about there are low enrollment opportunities and numbers right now. Uh we have conflicts with sports and clubs and other activities and then ultimately planning scheduling and logistical issues uh that that really do pose a [clears throat] big challenge for us to be able to roll this out. One of the challenges that a lot of our teachers indicated is that they said there was very little time to be able to put this into place to be able to go forward and so they they've we have done our best to be able to put it out there. We think that with a really large uh marketing campaign that we might be able to do a better
046job with our te with our students because if our students and our parents understand the benefits of what the fifth period provides and the late start provides, we think we'll have more traction this upcoming school year and maybe we can double the numbers from 125 to 250 and and that would be nearly you know 10% of our students or 20% of our students to be able to participate and we know that there's a great need for that especially with credit recovery. We talk about the impact on teachers and I think the biggest impact that our teachers are feeling isn't necessarily teaching during that fifth period time but maybe more importantly is the camaraderie that they get when they're teaching they're not able to be in these these faculty meetings when they're teaching fifth period they're
047not able to be in their their other meetings where they would normally associate with their colleagues and I think that's probably one of the biggest challenges that we have to overcome as we look at this fifth period opportunity uh student behavior motivation concern we haven't had very much behavioral uh challenges from our students during the fifth period. Most of those that are there are choosing to be there and because they can choose to be there, they understand that it's a privilege at this point and we want to make it a little more standardized. And then overall uh there there possibly could be a limited benefit which is related to transportation for most of our students. And so with that being said, I'll turn the time back over to uh Tyler. So Justin um I think's
048been very effective at being able to get perspective the strengths the weaknesses on all facets of this. Um I want to emphasize something that he talked about of that there was you know a limited lead lead time for his team to move into this. Um, humorously as I was onboarding onto this position for me and the first time I met Justin, we actually sat down and we were giving him an overview of Cottonwood High School and some of the cool things that were were coming and this part was shared out and that was the first time I'd heard about it as well. So, we feel like we got to start that conversation together um right from the beginning of the journey. I know that when I worked immediately um in my first few weeks in
049in this role with Ashley Snar over there at Kwood as she was involved in the master scheduling there the the view of this first year we we likened to a a a soft start for a restaurant and I think they've done a good job at taking it an approach that way to say hey we we want to be able to see this model work and we can build and grow it as we move forward and not be terribly overwhelmed um by it right from the get-go From my perspective as a little bit of an outsider watching what you guys have done, that's been very successful in that regard that a lot of the concerns haven't materialized terribly and those who have been involved with it are finding a lot of the strengths. But I think
050what you've shared really acknowledges the strengths and weaknesses that go along with this. This slide here I want to talk about because as this was first talked about at Kwood High School, it was originally planned that would be the only location for it. One of the reasons to do something like this is that this is a way to market your school and attract students to the school as a a very special program. Um, Cottonwood High School is a good place for that as we want to see those numbers increase. Um, that being said, Granger High School is um, currently our high school boost school. It's a school that does have plenty of needs for um credit recovery or more flexibility for students to also be able to get um a different schedule or credits faster
051during the same time period. Um, in that regard, we are considering and wanting and [clears throat] talking with with Jared right over there and and beginning the conversations with that leadership team to say, could this be a model that could support other locations like Granger High School as our booth school with wanting to be very careful that we would not pull students away from Cottonwood High School. And the thought and the hope would be Conwood High School and Granger High School are located far enough apart that geographically they don't seem to really be in competition for the same students. Um so that is in the early phases but there's enough excitement on the strengths and the opportunities that have been seen and shared from Cottonwood High School that it's it's in discussion with with Jared
052and Granger High School as well. Um that's our overview of where we're at on this this pilot. uh we'd welcome questions and feedback. It's it's exciting thing going on. >> Could I add to the the presentation really briefly? Uh we asked them to provide this presentation. When we originally conceived of this idea, it was prior to uh Dr. Pitcher's hiring and uh he's been wonderful to and gracious to come in and take this on in the midst of of being a new principal at that location. Um, and we're grateful for all the efforts that were were put into this initiative uh, from the get-go and including the efforts from the staff. I I think we are seeing and and feel free to disagree with me. I I'm I'm asking to some degree enough of the
053strengths and opportunities as being a benefit that we would like to continue to extend this pilot. Um, the reason why we felt like this was a good option is we continue and have received an an inordinate amount of of pressure from the communities at large um, and across uh, the United States to move back start times for our high schools and uh, in in particular in granite because our funding is stretched and our resource of transportation is so finite and is it is a little bit of a tail wagging the situation where in order to maximize the efficiency of those routes uh with the limited amount the limited amount of funding drivers that we have, we have to line up those school start times in such a fashion that it makes it impossible to put
054all of our start times after 8 a.m. without a significant cost increase um across the board. So, this was given as a potential way to evaluate the viability of a late start option to see how many of our families would be interested in this. Again, it was more of a soft roll out. We we've not been as aggressive. Um, again, we we rolled it out a little bit late last spring and I'm I'm interested in what the numbers look like potentially and what you think it will look like for next year. But I am also eager to try it in a different location because one of the greater strengths that we found, again this is more of a question, is the benefit for some of our students to uh to receive credit recovery or to
055catch up or to increase uh the speed of of which they're able to obtain credits uh to graduate sooner. Could you speak to that a little bit more? Do you anticipate uh more participation next year? Um, what do you see are some of the benefits for Gringanger in particular? >> Granger. >> So, I'd love to speak to the Granger end of it. This excited me immediately when I'd heard it at Kwood and that's when I was as the principal at Granger High School. Um, we are very Granger High School's got a pattern going of being really intentional at looking at where kids are at every single quarter for the 16 quarter marks that they have over their four years in high school and saying, "All right, here's a 10th grader at the end of second
056quarter. Where should they be at with their credits and and where are they?" And having those kinds of conversations that we can support them, not just late in the game that often is is the case. Um, so when I heard about this and I was currently the principal of Granger High School, it did excite me a lot to say, hey, this is a wonderful avenue that's not just, hey, you're not making it here, let's get you over to Granite Connections, where similarly at Granite Connections, they have a model where they can get through credits at an accelerated rate, which is what this is offering. So to have that opportunity at a school like Granger and keep our students at our own site, um I think really opens up the door for supporting more kids in
057a place that they're not as likely to fall through the cracks. Not that they would at another location, but sometimes the transition from one location to another is where we lose them through the cracks. So I think there's some great potentiality for that location. And already Jared's been mulling this over and and and looking at ways that it could work there at Granger High School. And it's very early in those discussions, but it definitely intrigues both of us. in conversation with our school counselors, with our administrative team, with some of the teachers as well, our afterchool program, the promised partnerships that we have with with Greater South Salt Lake and then also with uh the Mil Creek partnerships. The partnerships that are supporting our students are saying we need to have 100% graduation rate. It's
058an audacious goal. It's fantastic. It's brave. It's brazen, but we believe that we can achieve 100% graduation. But if we don't provide good quality tier one instruction to begin with, then then that's that's all a moot point. But when we have quality tier one instruction and students are still falling behind and not receiving the credits that they need, then we have to have provide the opportunity for them to be able to recover their credits. And doing that during the normal school day isn't always the greatest of options. Though we know we can graduate with more credits than necessary to be able to graduate. Providing the fifth period opportunity allows for a counselor to say, "Look, you want to graduate? Let's take care of your normal daily processes first and let's go back and recover credit
059second. And we can recover credit during the school day, but we can do it after school as well in that fifth period, which becomes a part of the regular school day. And so now the student is engaging in opportunities to be with a teacher that cares, a teacher that helps them to feel like they belong. Even though they may have made mistakes early on in their educational careers or they may have pushed off a class, they have a chance to be able to graduate. And they still have the chance to graduate. they still have the chance to graduate and they still have the chance to graduate. Our end product is students walking standing on the exit graduation waving to our parents and their parents and saying hey we did this and we're moving on to
060the next option. If we do not provide high levels of credit recovery opportunities for our students beyond just simply saying get on egenuity and try it on your own. If we don't have a supportive adult with them, the likelihood of them participating in graduation is far less than if they have a caring adult to be able to help them along the way. Keeping them at at the high school where they have earned credit already, they have relationships already that have been built. Those relationships are paramount for all students to be successful. And so this fifth period opportunity allows for credit recovery. I was talking to our counselors about two months ago and I said, "If we pull all of the data that says how many students have FG grades in um their core classes, the
061number is astounding." There was nearly 4,000 F-grades uh just amongst the the 10th and 11th and 12th grade students that we currently have in our school. And so with that many F-grades, there's nearly that many credits that need to be recovered. And so we have to do a better job of in ensuring our kids have a chance to be able to do that rather than just sitting in the counselor's office where they might be engaged. They can have a teacher walking around having proximity with them, encouraging them, give them a high five when they pass off the different modules and just letting them know they can do this. Teachers that care about kids move kids and we know that to be the case and having a fifth period opportunity for them to recover credit I
062think is absolutely essential for the situation that we're in currently at Conwood High School. I would like to get to the point to where the fifth period option is more robust in the class offerings that we're providing. I'd like it to not be the credit recovery factory for for our school. But we know there's some schools that that are providing the same kind of resources for credit recovery. So maybe that becomes a draw to come to Cottonwood High School. Maybe there's some partnership opportunities for students that attend close by elsewhere. They could come to our school to be able to earn the credit recovery. But we want to be known as the school that graduates kids. And if that's who we become and that's who we are, then we have to provide those systems and
063have them in place to be successful in that. And the transportation piece, it's always going to be a challenge, but I think that there are ways through some of these promised partnerships that we're talking about to be able to encourage additional transportational opportunities for our students. There are donors out there that want kids to graduate from high school that are willing to support, and we know that to be true. And uh I I think that these are challenges that we can overcome when it relates to students. It's it's absolutely a great opportunity for them to receive the support that they need. >> Questions, Clark? >> Yeah, question and a comment, I guess. Uh so this, you know, Superintendent Horesley alluded to this um theme that's even been a national theme of that it is better
064for high school students to start later. And all of us who've had a teenager have that painful realization that all of a sudden they hit their stride at like 10, 11, 12:00 at night, right? And so I mean this has been an issue clear back when Julie and I were on the district community council together. Um that there's been a a desire to have a late start high school model. I think to to offer that and to have it to be the robust model that you're suggesting that it can and should be, Dr. picture is we've got to find a way to allow our students who are involved in athletics and extracurriculars um to be able to tap into that model as well. I know that's not a wave the wand kind of thing that
065we can figure out, but I I that's the that is the biggest uh component of feedback that I receive from the Cottonwood community is man, we so badly want to be part of that late start model, but we're involved in athletics or we're we're involved in uh drama or jazz band or whatever the the extracurricular might be and we're being told we can't do it under those circumstances. We can't do both. So, um, again, recognizing and absolutely acknowledging that we can't just wave the wand and figure that out. I think we have to find a way to to figure that out. And I know that involves other schools and regions and and and all that comes with that. Um, but I would love to see us make a run at that. And I think if
066we do all of a sudden you'll see that class offering opportunity go from a dozen or so classes to three dozen, right? Or four dozen. Um and it'll become just like a regular period of the day. And I think with the Ames charter that is now under the purview of Granite School District, we have a real opportunity to be able to make that a reality. The Ames students uh compete on behalf of Cottonwood athletic teams and their academic model is a a nine o'clock start time at a fifth peri you know the equivalent of that fifth period. Their fourth period is is Cottonwood's fifth period. So I think there's a way to make it happen. Um and I think it will grow the numbers tremendously if we can put all our heads together and figure
067it out so to speak. I may have some other comments, too, but I I don't want to. Yeah, I know Julie's timing me. >> Yes, I am. Um I I think Jared is exactly the the right guy to do the next step of this. Um he was there when they uh moved a late start at West High and saw some of the complications surrounding that. I think he he really has some good insights and can piggy back off the work you've done. Um Justin, which fantastic work by the way. Um I'm really excited about this. I was very thrilled about this pilot. I really wanted one of my three high schools that I represent to be able to have some, you know, entry into the late start world. and I've really appreci I really appreciate
068that you guys are willing to go through the struggles of being the early adopters of that. So, thank you and thanks to your staff for that as well. Um I think uh I I would love to see if we can put our heads together to fix the busing problem. Um because you know if we see that students coming fifth period again is going to move the needle, it might be worth investing in. And I also see that, you know, this is completely to me under the purview of the promise program. Like if they are serious and and they are letting us drive what we believe as experts is going to help our kids, we should tell them this is what we need. I I I think that they would respond to that. They are incredible
069people who understand these kinds of I I think they'd be excited about being a part of it. I don't know what other conversations you've already had with them. probably you have just um uh or can we utilize UTA passes more or something like that that we get from our foundation. But um I I would I feel like you're you're right. I I'm just on board. I want to support that where you're saying the busing is an issue. I I agree. I think that that's a major barrier. Um where you were talking about the the extracurriculars. Um, see that's an opportunity for me where you could could we consider giving um credit for extracurricular classes, opening up the schedule earlier. If you don't have to take PE earlier, you can put a math class in there
070and your fifth period can be baseball or whatever. And I know we already have classes for a lot of our sports, but can we be creative about things like that? Um, and can you remind me, Dr. Pitcher, [snorts] do we have currently support for kids who need transportation but who want to pro uh participate in after school? >> We do. There's a bus that we have one bus that runs two routes. He goes out and back out and back and so it leaves at 4:30 and then another one at 5:45 after dinner is is served at the school. So, we're we're serving um if we include athletics and things on that, we're transporting close to 45 to 50 students right now. >> Okay. I think I was um confused because you said after school programs,
071but you meant our afterchool programs. >> Our after school program. >> So, it's our bus. >> Yeah, it is our bus. >> Okay. >> In elementary usually it's a different group. So, I was confused with that. Okay. Um, I'm wondering also, have our teachers generally who are taking fifth period, have they taken an extra period in order to do this or have we adjusted teachers schedules? >> For the most part, we adjusted the schedule to match the four period day, but there are a couple that are in this I think the fifth period opportunity. >> Okay. That's just interesting. And I I love the idea of doing this at Cottonwood and at Granger and the way that you're looking at that in terms of um especially competition and a way to attract students. But I
072I feel obligated for my community to make sure to mention that the only board member here who isounded by their community for late start is me. You're not the only. >> Okay. And and so um I'm it's just uh I'm kind of asking myself, well, has anyone from Gringanger asked for this? And I see the academic reasons to do it. So I don't oppose Granger. I'm just saying to myself, if this community is asking for it, how come we're my community is going to say, why you putting it over there? They're telling me that we can't do this districtwide because all the board members aren't hearing from it. The whole community doesn't want it. Only ours does. So, I I I think we need to respond to that and be honest that that is what
073feedback we're hearing. Go ahead, Mr. Superintendent. [laughter] >> Okay. I I want to remind everybody that uh this is in fact a pilot and we are trying to work through some of the challenges uh and figure out exactly how we can make this as successful as possible before we push it to some other locations. So it's it's not that uh this is a lowcost and frankly no new cost alternative to uh a late start schedule. Right. So, previously the the the methodology that Salt Lake District used cost them more money, right? The the methodology that we've looked at in terms of just reversing schedules and having our elementary starter, it's a no net cost, but at the same time, do we really want uh elementary age kids walking to school at 7:30 in the morning,
074right, when it's dark outside? So, there's there's other pros and cons. We're still trying to figure out the pros and cons of simply adding this additional fifth period. I think there are some things that we'd like we'd like to to evaluate further. We're far enough along that I think we could plug in some things potentially for second semester, but I don't want to put too much on our brand new principal um at the same time. So again, looking for other opportunities. Uh I don't think when we initiated this that we saw the benefit of to our atrisisk kids that we've seen and that's the only reason we're looking at at Granger now. >> It it might give us the population >> data shows that the atrisisk community is the community that benefits the most from
075a late start. So I I I mean we've read the data. We do know that, right? >> Yes. Absolutely. Maybe we didn't internalize it, but we didn't know that. >> We didn't. >> And there's there's there's other factors we still don't know either. >> Yes, I would agree with that. >> I I want to just say also where where it comes to me advocating for my community, sometimes I feel like it's a very hard thing to advocate for those three high schools at the same time because sometimes it feels like by advocating for one, you're somehow not advocating for another. and and I always feel pulled. Um, so I I would love to figure out how to advocate for all three at the same time where this is concerned. Um, uh, and [clears throat] another
076piece I want to say to that is my other two schools that don't have this that I represent, I mean, while they come and ask me for late start, I'm not sure that they realistically understand what that means because fifth period is during all of the extracurricular. So, uh, they have a very high percentage of kids who are involved in after school activities. Would they actually are they realistic about what this means? I'm not sure. Um, and mostly I think sometimes that there are our kids are so overscheduled that they need that because they're overscheduled over here anyway, you know. So, I I'm not sure that it's a realistic want. Um, but I I just I felt like it was important to talk about here. I I want to be clear too that one of
077the reasons we we approached the Cottonwood community about this in the first place is because we wanted to provide um that school in particular with a little bit of a unique opportunity and perspective um that would draw uh families to to come and support the wonderful opportunities that are available. Um we can continue to tout that they have more per capita AP and concurrent enrollment classes. we can talk about some of their other academic successes, but there is a perception challenge that we're faced with and we wanted to give them a leg up uh to draw more families. Not and and it's it's uniquely situated right next to a competing district as well. Um and so there were other rationale for for placing it there. I I don't know what this looks like long term
078either. it if if we could get uh universal support I I think uh and overcome some of these other challenges that have been expressed um we're going to have to do that by getting more kids to participate. So, is that providing an early morning a late start bus option uh and funding that transportation oursel? These are all things that are on the table and and up for consideration. Go ahead. >> I have some big concerns. So, here we go. Number one, I feel like Kim and I have a pretty good grasp of things happening at Granger. I'm super confused why a phone call wasn't made bringing us into the circle of this conversation before board meeting. I I was flabbergasted as I opened up the agenda report yesterday and read this and this is the
079first I've heard of it and it's being presented and so I was like, "Oh, they didn't reach out and ask us for our opinions even though we were elected to represent that very network." I also have concerns because I feel like Granger's in a whiplash zone right now and I'm looking at Miss Funk back there and she's nodding her head cuz we all feel it. They just lost their principal, Dr. How. And so I feel like Jared is still trying to get his feet underneath him. At the same time, now we're bringing on the boost program. So now we have all the ramifications of the boost program and that's brand new. And now we're looking to totally jack up their schedule. And so I'm just like I'm over here going, who at Granger asked for
080this? And where are we with bringing them on? Have we talked to the faculty to get their opinion? I know we haven't talked to my constituents to get their opinion, the families. I mentioned this to a couple over the last two days after reading the agenda and they're like, "What? How would that even work?" And so I don't know. I know Granger needs credit recovery and I'm not up here saying for the record that we shouldn't provide those avenues. I want kids to graduate at Granger High. I want 100% of kids to graduate at Granger High. I'm just surprised that we're to this point and how we got here. I'm wondering how much can how much change can one school handle in a short amount of time. I'm here to tell you I have a
081senior at Granger and I hear all sorts all sorts of things and it feels like every 3 weeks she's coming home saying guess what the new policy is now we only have this many bathroom passes for the year. 3 weeks later now they're locking the bathrooms at Granger Dur because of vaping. And then three weeks later, now you can't be excused for a tardy in first period, but you can be excused for an absence, which just makes kids want to skip a dip on the first period if they can't be excused for a tardy. It's all these things. And I feel like it's because Granger doesn't have the time yet to get the ground underneath their feet. So, I just I have some big concerns. >> Um I I want to really >> Sorry, that
082was a mouthful. I I don't want to diminish your concerns in any way, shape, or form, but I want to own the fact that you weren't given a heads up. This was simply uh some speculation on our part about what might be a good fit at this point in time. We have not talked to the community because we haven't made a decision on that. We haven't even made a decision whether um [clears throat] we're going to to pursue the pilot further. So, I'll own the fact that you weren't given a heads up on that. We speculated this might be a good secondary option um a location to expand the pilot to and your your feedback is noted and appreciated. I do want to also emphasize the fact that um I do believe that this has
083been extremely popular with our with our families at Cottonwood when we first discussed this and bringing it out there and when we go out and discuss this if we get that far um with with our Granger uh families I think once they understand what this isn't an adjustment to the schedule. You can continue to go to the regular schedule that you're currently participating in. this would simply be an enhancement and an additional opportunity. And I certainly believe that every board member up here wants to provide as many opportunities as we can for for our students. So, we'll take that feedback as appropriate and uh work through those challenges. >> Well, and I appreciate that. And here's my deal. If the Grains are high community supports this and we get buy in, then I'm all for
084it. What I don't want to do is go and tell them we're doing this. I want that community buyin before we jump into something as big as this. That's what I'm saying. >> I feel the same. And I I mean to validate what Karen has said and to go right along with what superintendent's talking about is this really would need to be a conversation that builds from just where we're at right now and looking at, hey, a booth school is meant to be able to ask the school, what do you need? How can we support you? and they've done a really good job of that so far in the sense that here you have a high school that's um the booth school and unlike all the other levels there's at least two junior high boo
085schools or six elementaryaries they get to compare notes with each other quite a bit the high school the fact that we've identified one booth school means that they're helping to write this playbook along with us and saying this is the area that we need some additional support so what Karen's saying I think she's right on that this would be I think a very valuable thing to be able to offer and consider, but it's going to require how will the faculty feel about it? How will the the community feel about it? I I I do recognize and what I've watched at Cottonwood that those who don't want to participate don't need to. And that's what's been powerful about it. So, it's kind of nice to offer something that doesn't supplant something else. And that's what I
086have seen in this five period model so far that hey there's some people who have no interest in being involved in any part of this and they can go about their school just like they did before it was added on. So there is something from my perspective about offerings that aren't supplanting but only adding on to to what's already there. >> Um just thank you Karen for raising those concerns. I appreciate that. Um just I think we're trying to say the right thing. I just want to make sure it's clear because perhaps a slip of the tongue, but one of the things you just said a minute ago was that we haven't engaged the community because we haven't made a decision yet and it has to be before a decision is made. So that's just
087want to make sure I think that was just a slip of of words there. But um another one of my concerns which you kind of have answered I just want to confirm was was cost and you said it was minimal cost or no cost. So just want to confirm is it no cost or is it minimal cost and if it's minimal what is that cost >> to us for whatever extra buses we have to bring in or if any teachers are extending their workday anything like that. >> The intent is that uh teachers already can sell their prep period uh for additional income. So it's it's comparable to that. They're just adding an additional period that we would compensate them for otherwise. We're not giving the school additional FTE. So the school gets its a
088FTE aotment and then if a teacher works five periods then they would get their FT. It would all come out of the same FTE bucket. >> Additionally, we were already paying for an activities bus in the afternoon. So uh to Dr. Pitcher's point, we have not paid for an additional late bus uh to come for those kids who are on that late schedule. um which has probably diminished uh the amount of participation that some kids can have um and why so many kids are probably utilizing it as a credit recovery or an additional fifth period as opposed to uh simply coming later if they don't have a car to get themselves there um at the 9:00 hour instead of 7:30. They're going to have to get on that bus. Well, to that point, if we
089are trying to expand the program and and increase enrollment, because we're saying it's popular on the one hand, on the other hand, we're also saying very few students sign up. If we're trying to increase enrollment by providing a bus or by doing these other things that are going to then increase the cost, I would like to know that and what that is. So, >> could I just add on to that piece as well? I think you bring up an excellent point. And I think one of the reasons we liked the the consideration of taking this to a school like Granger is uh many of those students are either walking or have the ability to come at a later start time um as a neighborhood walkable school as opposed to Gringers Boundary, I'm sorry, Cottonwood's boundary
090which extends all the way to South Salt Lake. So there have been some barriers as it were uh to participation as a result of that. So, we're looking for something that has a good mix of all these opportunities. And when I spoke to that earlier, I'm saying when I said we had not made a decision, I meant to extend that to we have not made a decision whether to expand the pilot or not. Not in a respective community. So, I apologize for misspeaking. >> All right. I have two questions. One is um you said that transportation's the issue. is this students who wanted to participate but like expressed that they didn't have transportation and so that's why that you know that's an issue. Um so that's my first question is how do you know how
091many want to participate and maybe didn't because of transportation and then my other question is about the course offerings. Were these decided by need or just maybe student interest or tell me how you came up with these course offerings. So the offerings were uh created before I came. I don't know the I don't know the storyline behind that but we do have counselors that have reported that students said I would like to do this fifth period but I don't have a way to stay late. And so through the the counselors who are working on credit recovery opportunities they've reported back on a weekly we we meet weekly with them and they've reported back saying we have some students that would like to do it. they just need to go home because their only transportation to
092South Salt Lake is on a on a school bus. >> The periods that are listed here, the reason those were chosen is because those are the classes kids signed up for and when it would fit best for kids, it's always a balance. Building a master schedule in high school always begins with this is what the kids want. Now, let's put it on the the calendar or on the schedule when we can fit it in and and the variable here is well, these are the the kids that want these classes and and we have to match them with the kids that want this fifth period. So, it it was all about student >> more student wanting instead of like this is the teachers that say they want to do the teach at this time frame or
093whatever. It it it might be a component of that, but it's all about >> well, this is the best way to fit all the kids schedules in that want this. >> Okay. Thank you. I know I'll just cuz I know one of the teachers, a couple of teachers, um like they mentioned that it fits really well with the Ames and so some of those programs that draw some of the Ames kids that because it's after the Ames or it's their fifth period for the Ames, it fits really well with that schedule. And so it's actually become a better opportunity for them to be able to participate in some of these classes. I'm speaking specifically to the jazz ensemble. I know that was a big one. Um but also even maybe film making and some of
094the other ones that are in there. Um because the AIM schedule is later. So, I know that's a bonus that Cottonwood has that Granger, you know, that they don't have that automatic, you know, filling there, but um I know that at least was part of that reason for some of those. Is there any other comments, questions? All right. Thank you for their presentation. Um certainly did give us something to think about and we'll continue to look at this. Thank you. >> We're going to move on to our calendar general survey. This is an action item. Um going to invite Luke up. He is brand new with this. And Jen, are you joining us? And Jen's coming up, too. I would like to make note that she's not wearing pink, she's wearing red because she's a
095huge Utah fan. Is that right? >> I love Christmas. [laughter] >> Damn it. On the calendar. >> All right. Good evening board. As has been noted, this is a new responsibility for our communications and community outreach department. So Jen and I are very excited to be here to present our uh survey results from our general calendar preference survey and present the two draft proposed calendar options that were put together by the calendar committee. So as as we do every fall, we sent out a our calendar preference survey to all of our district patrons. It was available in English and Spanish. The survey was open from September 25th until October 14th. We advertised the survey through uh several direct emails, through website content, and through several social media posts. And we were excited that we were
096able to get just over 7,000 responses this year. Um, which was about 3,000 more than last year, which was great to see. Um, and then Jen and I presented uh the same data that I'll present over the next few slides. We presented it to our calendar committee uh to develop the draft calendars that Jen will be speaking about later. But in that [clears throat] calendar committee meeting, we had Excuse me. We had three district parents, the region 5 PTA representative, two school level district administrators, two district level administrators, one school counselor, one secretary, and three represent representatives from GA and teachers. >> What do I What am I considered on there? >> We we counted you as a parent on this one. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> All right. the response rate by connection
097to granite. Uh we had just under a thousand students take the survey, around 3,600 parents, 1600 employees, and um 669 people who were both a parent and an employee of the district. Here's our response rate by network. You can see that Olympus Skyline and Taylorville led the way with each one having over a thousand respondents. the rest of the networks um averaged between 6 and 700 and the other at the bottom that's primarily district employees who don't necessarily correspond represent any particular network. So uh one of the first questions we asked in the survey was if people prefer a type of calendar that has longer breaks during the school year which would mean they would have a shorter summer vacation versus a a schedule that would have shorter breaks during the school year which would
098mean a longer summer break. Um you'll so you'll see that it was about 4200 to 2,800 in favor of the having shorter breaks during the school year and a longer summer. This slide is the same question. It's just broken down by our different uh respondent groups. So you'll see that in in each of the four types of respondents we had, they all preferred that um shorter breaks during the school year versus longer summer break. Uh in the last few years, we've also been asking folks if they prefer ending second term before uh winter break. Um you'll see that that's about shows about 60% of respondents were in favor of that. Um and I didn't include a slide that breaks it down by respondent group, but that it was the same as the previous question. Every
099group of respondents prefers uh when possible ending that second term before winter break. So we then asked respondents to weigh these six options. um from 1 to six, six being their most favored, one being their least favored. Um so you'll see that the the longer winter break was the top range choice based on that. And then we for second place we had a tie between starting later into August or ending earlier around Memorial Day. And then the the longer spring break, 3-day Thanksgiving, and longer fall recess were the the bottom three there. And here is the same information just broken down by the different respondent groups. Um so that the longer winter break the the blue the purple and the green there students employees and the parents employees they all preferred the the longer winter
100break as their top choice and parents prefer that later start as their top choice. >> I just want to point out that the students their top choice was long winter break followed by end end earlier and followed by long spring break start later was not their priority. >> Interesting. All right. Now, this is a chart that's been shown every year. It's kind of our his historic weighted average. So, you'll see that the longer winter break for the last five years has always been the top choice. The darker orange there is uh the second ranked and this year, as noted, we have a tie there. And then the longer spring break was um the third place there. And the the year at the top represents the year the survey was administered. So, 20 2025 was this
101year. And I'll turn it over to Jen now to talk about our draft calendar options. >> Can I just interject? Can you go back to the slide? This is the funny part of the This is the hard part of the calendar is people want to really what they're saying is they want to start after Labor Day, end before Memorial Day. They want a twoe winter break. They want a week long spring break plus all those other breaks. And so I think that's what we're up against here is one of those a few of those, you know, you just can't put in the same bucket. And I want to point out too that this has fallen off of this chart, but we did take fall recess away one year and that became the following year the
102number one thing that they wanted. And so it it's always it's never a priority until it goes away and then all of a sudden it's like, whoa, we need And I I will say though, I I'm just going to offer this that the three-day Thanksgiving, I don't think we're ever going to take away 3-day Thanksgiving. And I I think we need to just take it off the survey because unless we're really going to entertain taking away a 3-day Thanksgiving and making it two day or making it a two-day, it needs to just be off. So, just my personal opinion. Thanks. >> I felt like we added to this chart uh the priority of um ending the semester before Christmas. Am I dreaming that >> we added it as an extra question? We didn't ask we
103didn't add it to the weighted average, but maybe that needs to be added next year to the weighted average. >> I think I would love to see that up there because I think that is one of the questions that's driving the calendar and so I think it ought to be looked at in comparison with these other priorities >> and especially if that is a bigger priority than starting later in August that needs we need to weigh that. >> Agreed. Okay. So the calendaring committee got together and looked over and these are the two options that the committee came up with. So we will look at option A first and option A. So teachers would return this is a later start. So teachers would return on Monday, August 16th and students would return on August 23rd.
104School would end because of the later start on June 2nd, but that is the same week of Memorial Day. So not too late. There would be a fall break October 14th and 15th. And winter break is a good long winter break, a couple weeks. Then the semester because of the later start would end semester 1 would end January 21st. So not before the break. And then spring break would be short with April 6th and 7th. And then you can see that the number of days per term and they're all pretty similar. So that was option A. Option B, we still did a little bit of a later start, but not as late as option A. Teachers returning August 9th, school beginning on August 16th, which is a Monday as well. School would end before Memorial
105Day. It's actually the Thursday before Memorial Day. Fall break, the same amount of days but on different days. So October 21st and 22nd. Winter break. This one is a little bit shorter. It is 8 days for for students and two full weekends though. But with this plan, semester 1 would end on December 22nd, so before winter break. And then spring break is a week long. Then you can see the number of days per quarter. And semesterwise there with option B, semester 1 has 85 days and semester 2 has 94. So there's a little bit of a difference there. So, >> and I was going to say, can we I don't know if you were going to explain this, but we grappled with that. Just so you know, um trying to figure out where we could
106take some days from the second semester and put it to the first semester and we just could not come up with a good solution in calendar B, just so you know. Um we did look at it and so it we have to figure that out if that's the one that we're going to go with. Dr. How, could you remind me? It seems like um as we've been tracking Fgrades um our biggest challenge has always been second semester historically. Is that accurate? >> Our biggest challenge on failure rate actually happened second quarter. >> Yeah. Um it >> sorry meant second quarter >> second quarter it did do a significant improvement the year that we we did mark line up the semesters and some of that we hypothesized because otherwise you end up with three little breaks
107right [music] leading up to the end of the quarter and it's just really hard to get kids to believe hey you only have 12 days left in this quarter because it feels like a month and a half away. All right, that's all the the slides we had. We have the calendars up here on these slides if you'd like us to put them up on the screen, but other than that, we're just ready for question. >> Uh if certainly feel free to ask your questions. The just to let you know, our next step would be to administer a community survey um with these potential options. In the past, the board has altered these options before they go out. Sometimes they've left them the same. Uh some it it's entirely up to you. The next step is
108just simply to go get additional feedback. We don't call it voting. Uh we we really want people to tell us what they like and what they dislike about both calendars and then tell us what their preference would be. So with that, we can turn it over to your questions. >> I have a question. Um, I feel like in the past and even this year, we've approved calendars or had a calendar that's approved that has had two weeks winter break. It's had a full week spring break. It's had the two days plus another day off for the kids for fall break. These neither of these seem to accomplish that and I'm trying to understand why. Like what's changed? Um, in calendar A, we're still not ending by Memorial Day. It still goes into June. So, where
109have we lost days somewhere? Like, well, what's the difference this time around? >> Yeah, I think with calendar A, we really wanted to implement that community feedback to start really, really late. At least the three years I've been with Granite, this is by far the latest we would start August 23rd. So, we we lost uh it's I think it's it's usually been the second Wednesday of August. the last couple years it's been the start date. So, we're pushing it back almost well um basically 6 days. Um but in order to do that and still end the the week of Memorial Day, that Friday, June 2nd, we had to sacrifice those three uh days of spring break. So, that goes in line with what we interpreted the data as saying shorter breaks during the school year
110and the uh starting later. I don't know if that answer your question. >> I think it does. So we're saying because in calendar A we start later and in calendar B we end sooner and those two reasons on either end are affecting >> right >> breaks. >> Thank you. My question is both of these um start school days are a Monday. Is that correct? Because normally I've I've heard a lot of feedback that they like a lot of teachers like starting Wednesday, Tuesday or Wednesday because it's a shorter week they can do you know. So, I'm just wondering why you guys what was the committee's decision on starting on a Monday both options? >> I think in that calendar committee meeting, we did look at that, but we just couldn't make the numbers work in
111a way that wouldn't cause perhaps more of an imbalance between the semesters, especially with option B. That was really Yeah, that was really a key part of it is that just the way that the breaks are this year, this this calendar year and just where the semesterers were and everything. It was really hard to get that if we took those two days away from the beginning of the year, where did we put them? We had no place to put them unless we shortened the winter break and then they started looking like the same calendar. So, we're like, okay, if we want two different calendars, we kind of have to leave those two days there. We can't because the only other option would be to put them at the end of the year, which then would
112make semester 2 even even bigger than it already is. >> So, does that make sense? >> Yeah. So, you're saying the winter break kind of outruled the starting on a Wednesday for one of the calendar options because then that made that winter break. So, I'm looking at >> a it made that winter break start like on the 22nd like the other calendars, right? You're saying it was too similar of a winter break. >> Too similar. Yeah, too similar in that way. And either that or we took away fall break, which I mean I guess it's always an option. >> Yeah, >> it's the lowest on the priorities. >> I think I would prefer I mean just to have just start a Wednesday. So I'm looking at if calendar A started the 18th and then took
113off that Monday, Tuesday for I mean Christmas, winter break, that whole week. That's a long week anyway. So students are really leaving the 17th as early day on December and then that's a long winter break which I think is the priority. So I get that but anyway I don't know if that will come out where you know they don't have the option to start on a Wednesday so or Tuesdays. >> I think the you've you've indicated what the broader challenge is we do when we get to this stage in the process want to provide the community with two distinct calendar options. So, um, sometimes when you're trying to address when you're trying to get a calendar to be everything to everyone, um, then they look too much alike and then we're really not getting good
114feedback and, uh, getting a distinct option for our our families to to provide feedback on. I was going to say that's one thing that really struck um stood out to me as I looked these is these are two different options which I appreciate because we've had we've had some that are just a day or two here and then you get a 48 52 vote which is hard cuz then you know that half the people out there they're going to hate you for whatever calendar you vote for and so it gets a little tricky. So one thing I do appreciate is there are some stark differences in this and I think it gives the community parents teachers or faculties students I think it gives them a little bit you know kind of as they sift through
115the different options you know what are they going to value more and and it makes them think and then they can put their thoughts into th those you know survey responses and then we'll take it from there but I I do appreciate thanks calendar I know this is not a fun topic But thanks for your work on this and I do appreciate that they're very different. >> Right. I think to that end just remind the board once we get through that survey work at the first part of January the board gets to come back and finalize the calendar and at that point in time you can take all consideration of the feedback that we've received and alter this in any way that you seem and deem appropriate. >> Thank you. >> Julie did you have
116something? >> Yeah. So, you're telling me that every year I've had that Wednesday before Thanksgiving off? Because I looked at that and was like, "Why are we doing that off all of a sudden?" >> No, we haven't. Because when I No, because when I worked at Church Hill, we did not. >> I worked that day. >> So, it feels like >> for a while, >> but we have for the last 10 years. >> We've had that most the time when I >> years. >> Yeah, it's been a while. >> It's been quite a while. I was just surprised to hear you talk about it as if like Yeah, that's a default. We're not never getting that off. >> I don't know. Do you feel that way? >> I don't know that any other district does
117not give that Wednesday off. >> Oh, really? >> I could be incorrect, but I think I'm pretty sure every district has that Wednesday off. >> I think it's hard. I will tell you as somebody who worked that day and had the latest schedule because I was the junior high teacher. >> Um it was hard. >> It's hard. Um because I just feel like if there [snorts] is a priority in our community and it with our teachers to finish the semester at Christmas, that's just a great day to help cushion our first semester. Um and uh I I see I see what you're saying. I don't know that I want to teach that day either, but I [laughter] I'm just saying that I >> it becomes very difficult too when you only have half your class
118show up. >> But >> thank you math teachers by the way for giving a math test on that Tuesday. >> But if I if I give Wednesday off, then guess what? Monday and Tuesday, it's like a wash. It feels like nobody shows up anyway. Like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that's a three-day week. But a two-day week is like h, you know, I I just see I'm talking about my feeling as a teacher and how I would respond in a moment of weakness, which I never did have. [laughter] >> I will tell you, I look cuz I went to help that little kindergarten class that week and she only had half of her kids there and I was dreading going to school cuz I'm like, we have a quick turnaround for our concert. I've got to get
119stuff done. And almost all of my kids were there that Monday and Tuesday. And I will tell you it was because the math teacher scheduled a math test. So I'm going to talk to them and say, "You need to do this every single year, please." Because it was very effective in getting kids to school. And I think Michelle said the math department at Cypress did the same thing. So I think there are ways to get kids there and for them to but when you have that Wednesday, I know there were some that were like we we're leaving. It's a travel day for a lot of kids. And so Wednesday I think would be a wash, but Monday and Tuesday I think are are still okay. But that's just my personal. >> Do we add math
120tests on that Tuesday on the calendar? >> I think so. On the calendar, >> put it on. [laughter] >> I also was looking at calendar B and the the first thing that I noticed was this uh disparity between second term and first term. And of course, I also saw the semester um disparity, but uh I I thought I couldn't see a way to fix the the semester disparity, but between the second and first term, it looked like you could possibly just move end of term from the 20th to the 13th and have fall break the 14th and 15th and then the uh professional development or whatever day that is on the 18th and then start term two on the 19th. So, I'm just wondering if the calendaring committee looked at that um because that would
121balance out those two terms. >> I think we did and just wanted two very different options because that's the same option. That's well similar to fall break on option A. >> Oh, it gives fall it the fall break lands on the same weekend. Mhm. >> And honestly, quarters, maybe I'm wrong, you teachers can tell me, but quarters don't matter quite as much as a like a semester classes where it's really hard. The quarter break >> and I the quarters this year, the first quarter this year was only nine weeks long and it felt really really fast. So moving that quarter up to me I I would prefer not to because that first the first day or two you are doing procedure with your kids anyway. >> They're not even instruction. That's true. >> But I
122mean, it was something that we definitely could, especially if that's feedback from the community. >> Well, I think it will be interesting to I'm I think I would support sending this calendar out and the I mean, Chris had some really great thoughts as well about the other calendar. And then the goal is to get feedback and if there are ways to incorporate some of that feedback into the final calendar then we could do that. >> Yeah. But I I like the idea. I'm with you. Two different calendars is really >> in the past we've had an option where before the semester break became more of an overriding popular notion. [clears throat] I do feel like we've had an option where the semester ends um after in January. Um we certainly could adjust that and make
123these calendars even more distinct. That being said, um I think we would be able to predict how people would vote. Our parents would love that because we could start later and our teachers would and our students would not like that. So, it's it's kind of I don't know. I'm not saying I know how people feel about this, but I've done this calendaring committee job for a decade and I have a pretty good sense of I have to work the day before Thanksgiving either way. So, it doesn't matter to me, I guess, is my point. I can verify he does. >> So, are you guys okay with both of these calendar options being sent out? I I do have a question, Luke. Did they on this survey was there comment a for people to comment on
124it? >> Yes. Um and I today I didn't include I added this today so you didn't get it beforehand. I did add this um summary of what those comments were and later this week I will go through and redact any personal like names or addresses from those comments. We'll publish that on our board report so everyone can review those. But here's just a quick summary. I did use chat GBT for this but it is kind of the high level overview of what those free response comments were. >> So again to be clear we'll publish the the full comments with names redacted uh when we publish this full presentation for the board >> by the end of the week. >> Thank you. >> I like that in other and miscellaneous we have off-topic remarks. >> I'm
125interested to see what those are. Okay. Um, yeah, just as we get this next survey, um, I know those comments have been valuable in the past, at least for me to see. So, I think we we'd appreciate those as you guys get those next surveys. All right, this is an action item. Um, so we need an action to approve these to send them out as a survey to our our constituents, our what are they called? >> Stakeholders. Thank you. I move that we approve calendar A and calendar B to be distributed to our stakeholders and constituents for their feedback. >> I'll second it. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve calendars A and B to uh send out for feedback to our constituents and stakeholders. Are there any further comments? All
126in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. Good job, you guys. >> Thank you. >> The next time won't be as easy. >> It'll be worse. >> All right, we're going to invite uh Mr. Doug Larson up. He has um several first readings for us and a second reading to approve. >> Hi board members. Thank you for having me. Um we You wanted to start with first readings or second readings? Sorry. First readings. >> Yeah, first readings. Um, we have three first readings um to go over tonight. The first one is students with disabilities. It's article uh 10F6. Um, I think your your agenda said special education, but policy is actually entitled students with disabilities. Um, this policy was created kind of uh out of whole cloth for the purpose of
127providing uh an overall framework for our special education um our special education programming here in Granite School District. We've had a special education handbook for years and that's been presented to you by special education directors in the past, but we felt like it was uh important to have a policy that laid out basics of our special education program and incorporated that handbook into um board policy. And so that's why we created this um uh this policy. Um, I wanted to mention that in law and policy, it was requested that we add um some definitions to the policy to make it more clear. We've done so. Um, if you have any questions about the policy, I'd be happy to respond and I'll submit that to you. >> Any questions? Just real quick, there was another item
128we had talked about about um providing guardians that wasn't clear enough. >> Um the guardian question. No, I thought we did resolve that in law and policy. We talked about um are you talking about the this circumstance where we have individuals that have >> Yeah. We have to provide a guardian or provide somebody >> Yeah. to make decisions on their behalf. And it just the way that it was written at the time >> seemed like we could just do that whenever we wanted. >> Oh, I do recall that conversation. Yeah. >> Definition of parent. >> Mhm. >> Uh number four, B4. I would have to pull up my notes, but I think it was somewhere else. >> So, it says now means a biological or adoptive parent, legal guardian person acting as a parent or
129surrogate parent appointed. I think it's surrogate parent that you were concerned about. appointed in accordance and so we had added in accordance with state and federal law as the qualifier there. It it previously it just said surrogate um parent appointed. >> It's also under I >> I parents of student parent of students eligible under no just kidding. Surrogate parent shall be appointed as required by law and the district shall provide training and support for surrogate parents in accordance with state rules. Does that adequately address it? Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Any other questions? Okay. Can I entertain? >> I move that we accept as a first reading article 10F6 students with disabilities. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion in a second to approve article 10 F6 students with disabilities as a
130first reading. Is there any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Bless you, Cubby. All right. >> Excellent. Uh, this next policy is article um 3B12. This is the student code of conduct policy. This is a policy. >> It's I'm sorry, 8B12. I I misread that. Um, this is a policy that we've we've brought to the um board a few times as we've um kind of updated it over uh over the years. Um this particular policy we added some definitions um principally around um Utah administrative code R2778 and 609. There were some new um administrative rules that came out governing um seclusion and restraint in particular uh and use of force. Um anytime that we use seclusion and restraint um it has always been um um required under special
131education law that we engage in what's called an emergency safety intervention that's documented and then reviewed. We've done that for regular education for many years because it was part of what's [clears throat] called the LRBI manual or the least restrictive behavior interventions manual. Um now that that became codified in R2778 and 609, we updated our policy to reflect that. So, this is a practice that we've been engaging in for for several years, but it's now uh included as as um as a requirement in our in our policy. If you look at subsection D, that outlines the the emergency safety interventions process there. Um, we also added some additional language related to um some concerns that were that were raised during uh law and policy, particularly with respect to students who are um being um questioned
132uh as part of an investigation and students who um receive discipline um including suspension and whether or not we were contacting parents um sufficiently. And so we've added some requirements along those lines as well. So with that, I'll submit the policy to you and answer any questions that you might have. >> I'll just add real quick that I did ask a question by email. So for Nicole and Julia's benefit, um that was addressed and I think I just missed it because it's not in red, but the language that I was looking for is in F5. >> Yeah, F5. about specifically. >> Will you accept a motion? >> Okay. >> Yeah. Sorry. I just want to make sure you're right. It's not in red. >> I move that we approve 8B12 student code of cond C
133conduct and discipline of students 2025. >> The first reading. >> For our first reading. >> All right. We have a motion and a second to approve article 8 B12 student code of conduct and discipline of students 2025 as a first reading. Is there any further comments on this? >> All in favor please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Right. Motion car. >> Excellent. Um our next policy uh on first reading our last policy is article 10 A6. Um this might require some uh explanation. Um we wrote this policy a few years ago relying on a reading of the statute related to uh sensitive materials. Um in that um uh in that new section it exempts from sensitive materials um analysis specifically um uh the content of a concurrent enrollment course. there is another portion of
134or there's another section of the law that defines uh learning materials um and in that it it exempts all three AP classes, IB classes and CE classes. And so our reading of the statute at the time was that um that sensitive materials should also exempt all three. However, um and there was some reason for that. There was discussion about this in um uh in some of the committee hearings and that sort of thing and we felt like that was a reasonable um uh uh reading of the statute. However, we have received uh additional information from the from the state uh um in particular the uh AGS the assistant AGs that work for USB. um they have uh um indicated to us that their that their reading of the statute is uh more conservative that that
135that there was um uh that this that the legislature intentionally left AP and IB out of the exemptions for sensitive materials and therefore um the school districts ought to do the same. I believe and I recommend to you that we take that approach as it is a more conservative approach and uh Granite School District is an outlier with respect to our past reading of the of the statute with a couple of other school districts. But um with that, I would I would recommend that we that that we modify the policy in that way. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer and I'll submit that to you. >> Any questions? I don't have a question, but I just want to go on record of that. >> Do you want to wait till
136we have a motion and then make a comment? >> Yes, I would. >> I'll make it. There you go. Everybody ready? >> Uh, I move that we approve article 10 A6, learning materials, as a first reading. I'll second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve article 10 A6, learning materials, as a first reading. All right. Now, comments. Julie, go ahead. I fundamentally disagree with this with this change. I feel like the the law is vague and we have two laws that disagree with one another. Um I I also do not think that we ought to be putting an advanced placement and IB programs under the same I I think that those are college level classes and we should treat them as such. Um and I I personally since I was very invested
137in this discussion did not feel that this was the intention of those discussions. I want to go on record as that that I do not think this was the the intention, but it does sound at this point that USB is taking a position that this is the intent and that as such if we do not take these words out that we put our teachers at risk for some sort of criminal charges. And that is the only reason that I am going to vote for this is because I would want to protect our teachers even though I am protecting my teachers from a law that I think is ridiculous. So I just want to go on record as saying that I disagree with the law but I prioritize taking care of our teachers more. Thanks >>
138Julie. Any other comments? >> I guess I just have a question. Does anybody know? Do any of you know um if is there any effort to correct this conflict ongoing or what's the status of that? >> I've actually been in in touch with and had uh um had some questions um posed to me by um Representative Moss and she is um actually running a bill. Um uh I don't think there's any way we can predict how successful that will be. Uh, and so I do still recommend that we move ahead with this change. Um, however, if there is a change to the law, we would I would be right back here again and we would probably do a fix to the to the policy once again, but I think it's worth it. And then Julie,
139just to follow up on your comment about USB's position, is that a public position or is that something you came to understand from reaching out to a representative or where does that understanding come from? >> That understanding is coming from Mr. Doug Larson and also um from an understanding that we are one of two school districts that is still allowing this policy in the state >> and I will mention that um it was uh conversations among um legal representatives of the districts and the assistant AGs at USB um where this essentially this this um interpretation of the law was discussed and um and it was represented to us that that is the intent or excuse me that that is the position of USB at the time. >> Thank you. >> Also, actually I misspoke. We're
140one of two along the Wasatch front >> who still have this. >> I don't know about the rest of >> there is draft legislation to address this from repres. We we've had opportunity to provide feedback on that. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Okay. If there's no further comment, all in favor please say I. I. >> Any opposed? >> Right. Motion carries. >> Okay. Thank you very much. That's all for the first readings. The second reading that we have tonight is uh article 5C9 vehicle use standards. Um we have some um fairly benign um um provisions that we fixed in this policy. uh while it was open, we also um uh went about discussing uh another fix that I'll that that I'll describe in just a moment. But let me just describe the first two
141um the first two changes to the policy. The first is that we have added um GPS tracking mechanisms in our vehicles. Um as you can imagine, that's um uh uh good practice for the district. And also we've asked and we we now require that all individuals who use district facilities or excuse me use district vehicles uh take and pass the annual defensive driving course. Uh that is actually a requirement by risk management as well. So those are the two kind of fairly obvious uh updates that we made to the policy. Um, we also have discussed the idea of broadening, if you'll look at the policy, section A6, um, to allow for more travel, uh, or excuse me, uh, use of district vehicles for, um, commuting, um, with respect to certain individuals who travel to the
142work site. Um, we have had a fair amount of discussion on that subject in law and policy. Uh at this time I would make a recommendation that we actually table that provision of this policy and do some additional research and some additional study um before we make a decision. Um that shouldn't keep us from being able to um uh to pass the other provisions that I think are needed in this policy. Um but by doing so with that with that um with that amendment uh I think that we could put this policy in place and then continue to do some additional study on uh the subject of A6. So that would be my recommendation coming out of law and policy and on those bases I would submit it to you and answer any questions that
143you might have. So you're saying your suggestion is to go ahead and pass this as a second reading with the exception of six completely or with just the the exception to the the changes in six? >> Just the changes to six. That's correct. I left the um I I left the the the red line underlining in the policy so that you would be able to see the direction in which we were headed. But I would um again recommend that we halt moving in that direction at least for the time being until some additional study could be made. So it would just uh the amendment would just be that we would not go ahead with the changes to uh to paragraph 6. Um but we would go ahead with the changes to the other paragraphs. And
144again that's just my recommendation coming from law and policy board. You can do what you'd like with your policy >> questions. I'll entertain a motion. >> I move that we approve article 5C9 vehicle use standards as a second and final reading with the exception of the changes made to section A6. >> I'll second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve article 5 C9 vehicle use standards um as a second and final reading with the exception of the changes made to A6. Is there any further discussion on this? All right. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> All right. >> Thanks, board members. >> We're going to turn the time over to Superintendent. >> It's the end of our musical season. I did have a chance to
145go visit uh a few of our musicals, including uh a nice visit with Representative Moss and uh board member Jackson to Hades Town. I don't know if I understood it, but the singing was excellent and uh the production values were amazing. and an enjoyable time we always had by all the costumes were fantastic. So, great job to all of our schools and their efforts and Cypress's production will be in the next few weeks, so look forward to that as well. >> All right. Um, let's go ahead and do board reports, Julie. >> Um, I got nothing. >> Okay, Kim, I too have nothing. All right. >> Okay. So JLC meets next on the 11th um Thursday the 11th from 10:00 a.m. to 1 if they want to go. It's out at the USBA offices. The
146annual conference again is January 10 8th through the 10th and Day on the Hill is January 30th and then there will be another doesn't tell me when they're going to do a public education day sometime in January too and I will get that to you around the the 20th or something. I'll have something there. But that's from USBA Chris. Okay. I um budget and finance committee. We met today. Um Chris Lar Chris Lewis presented to us. Normally we get the thick you guys remember every year the annual financial report for the end of the year. It is not printed right now with the government shutdown. They didn't have the numbers [clears throat] until the last second basically. Um so they got that inputed and we have it. It's on the district website. It's just we
147don't have a printed copy yet which is fine. So if you go on the um talk remind me where how we get to it. It's the >> if you go on to the main page of the district then go under uh district departments under accounting you'll see on the blue ribbon financial statements. You can find it there. >> Yeah. >> It's very disappointing that you didn't know that already, Chris. >> I know. I just learned I just learned it today. So, if you want to go and look at that, it's that we'll we'll be getting a copy in January sometime. Um but if you want to go look at that, it kind of has a good comprehensive look at our our budget from last year. And um Chris gave us a couple pointers. If you
148want to just read like the non the up the quick version, it's in the front. So, you could just read the first couple pages. It's called the management discussion and analysis. >> Well, thank you, Clark. >> FDNA. >> I don't know the proper >> I know. So, I shouldn't keep butting myself. Right. Come on, Clark. No. Thank you. That's perfect. That's what it is. So, if you want to just read the just that page, you can kind of see where we're at until you get your big thick book that you can read all during January when it's cold outside. So, that's it. >> So, we can cuddle up. Oh, and Whittier, one of my schools invited all of you to come read with students next week. It's really fun. If you haven't done it, I
149encourage you to do that. Also, did you notice on the Heart Vixen card, they invited us to uh I wrote it down. Winter holiday across the world since Heart Vixen's Heart Vixen is kind of all of our schools. It's December 7 17th at 9:00 a.m. >> Yeah. So, that's it. Okay. Sure. Benefits committee hasn't met. They meet uh I believe Monday um because it was postponed from November. But um Julie, you didn't speak of the evaluation committee. So I just want to say um evaluation committee met. We sent out a a board evaluation to evaluate our superintendent. That discussion was held in our executive session at 6:00 today. Um obviously that's um a closed session, so we can't discuss that. But I want to just be clear that as a board we only hire two
150two employees. So, we only oversee two employees and then they oversee everybody else and that would be Todd, our our RBA and he had his uh review a while ago. And then um of course our superintendent is the other one and we just evaluated him and we fill it out individually as board um individual board members and then we crunch those numbers and the metrics and then we go over those results with him um which was done earlier today and and we just I want to I want to mention this for two reasons. Number one is first and foremost we appreciate Ben and his absolute commitment to this district and it's very evident in the results is that he believes that every student can learn and he is trying his darnest to make sure that
151every single faculty staff member everybody also believes that every child can learn. We're going to work towards that and work towards you know improving student outcomes. And so that's very evident. Um, the second reason I want to mention it is to make sure that people know that we hold our superintendent and our BA accountable and we make goals with them and we want to see results and and part of that is obviously the data that comes in also part of that is how they're managing their teams. Um, and so uh we had some great discussions, good feedback session. Um so I just wanted to mention that that happens so people realize we are the accountability is also right at the top. >> Thanks Karen. >> Um I would just add that the audit committee continues
152to meet regularly and in con connection with the publication of our annual report uh our annual audit report and audit letter from our external auditors will also be the subject of uh some of our uh agenda items in our January meeting. So we have that to look forward to as well after you all have read the management discussion and analysis and report >> which we will. >> That's all I have. Madame President, thank you. It's been a great night. >> Um I did not you guys didn't give a an update of the legislative advocacy discussion. I thought it was canceled because >> I missed all my actual >> So I I'm not sure what that I I don't know what happened there. You'll have to ask Julie after. Um I'm not giving her the microphone
153back. Um the last one is the 8h hour workday task force. Uh we met um we are meeting every Monday just so you know and we met this week for the first focus group meetings. We had one group of admin and then we had we were supposed to have two groups of teachers but I think because of the Thanksgiving break some of the teachers forgot. Totally understandable. Um, so we combined it into one, but it was we got some really good feedback and I loved the discussions that we had. I I saw teachers who didn't understand and know that we have employees who are on a 9-h hour workday contract as opposed to a 7-hour contract. And so it's been fascinating to just see our our employees kind of come together and go, "Oh, I
154didn't understand this and I didn't understand how you did it." So, we're looking forward to doing two more of those next two weeks. and um kind of getting their feedback and then going from there. I just want to be clear, we have not made any decisions. That is not the purpose of the task force. Ours is a factf finding mission. Um and it is something that we're going to just take all of these this information and put it together so that as we come to this, we can make some good decisions about where we need to go as a district. So, um we'll definitely keep you guys in the loop. um if you want specifics as far as what I observed in there. Um it was really good discussion and I think and Michelle was
155in the other room and she said that was a really good discussion in there too. She was with Patrick. So um just some really good things coming out of this I think and it will be I think it will be for our benefit. So that's all I have. Um so with no objection we are at the end of our agenda and so I will we will stand adjourned. What? >> He already did. >> He did. >> Oh, yeah. >> I didn't really understand.