August 5, 2025 Board of Education Meeting

001and she will be here very shortly. But I think we'll go ahead and start our board of education meeting. Um, welcome. I know we have some I'm going to not name this correctly, but um, since we're starting without our normal 5:00, this is actually our board meeting. So, um, we'd like to recognize a few people here. Um, we'll start with our Tell me who's here. >> GA, >> thank you. Um, we'll start. Is anyone here from GA? >> Thank you. Um, PTA, >> I'm Liz. I'm the region five chair. >> Great. >> I council am right now. >> Okay. And then I think we have another association here. >> Um, I'm Greezy. I'm the president of the Education Support Professionals Association. Yes. >> Thank you. And Is that everybody? >> Okay. And then we'll go

002with the who's here on the board. We'll start with Clark, >> Clark Nelson, >> Karen Wonder, >> Connie Burgess, >> Kim Chandler, Julie Jackson, >> Todd Hopper, Ben Worsley, >> and I'm Chris Wyn, board vice president. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance by Tyler How. [Music] Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Tyler. Okay, we will forego our reverence for now and we will go to our good news minute. Um we will start with Clark. Do you have anything? >> Yeah, I'll just mention two quick things if I may. Um first had a great uh meet the new administration event. A new principal at Cottonwood

003High School this fall and they hosted a a great event where Justin Pitcher and Michelle Farmer in particular were uh there to introduce themselves and great conversations with parents and students alike uh all throughout the evening. So grateful to them for their willingness to do that and then allow the uh patrons and students to come and and and meet them and get to know them. And if you'll allow me a personal privilege um um how can I say this the best and most appropriate way following in a long line of of teachers. My own personal daughter is starting her first second grade class as a teacher this fall. Um well tomorrow. So t tomorrow. So congratulations to her and um I could not be more proud of her. Um so thank you for that opportunity.

004>> That's great. Okay, Karen. Um I wanted to speak on two things real quick. The first being um thank you for um the positive emails we've gotten from a handful of teachers. um it is totally within the board's purview to step up and do above and beyond things um beyond the negotiated agreement. And so I have received a lot of thank yous to covering that premium that um the premium and the extra day. And so I'm sure board members, you've received some of those as well, but it always warms my heart to um to receive some thank yous because we don't get those very often um in in this job. And so for teachers to take time out of their day and recognize that we're trying to find small and simple ways to go above

005and beyond and provide extra for our teachers. So it just warms my heart that um a few of them would take the time to send a thank you email. My second thing is um making sure that it's noted that we had a board retreat over this last month and um and that is because it's important for board members to receive their training as well. you know, we go through so much training in each and every different capa, you know, capacity of the job that we work in. And so, just so you know, we have board retreat to go over our board handbook and make sure that we're we're staying in our lanes and we're doing the proper work, but not only we're doing the work, that we can do it with a mo with a

006high the highest efficiency that we can be impactful, effective board members and represent our constituents and also move forward um the work of the district. And so that takes training as it does everything. And so I just wanted to make sure that people knew that we were able to have a good almost full day together and go over several several items to help us become a better board. Thanks Karen. Connie, >> we have new chairs. I can't move it. Um I just want to say thanks to the new principles. My area has um probably five four brand new principles and one's a second year and I'm so pleased with their attitude and how they are welcoming their students. Um I it just thrills me. I think we're in for a real good year. >> Thanks

007Connie Kim. I wanted to also mention the board retreat. So thanks Karen for bringing that up. Um, you know, as she said, we we need time to make sure we're trained. I think that's always a helpful endeavor where we were out there basically, you know, trying to clean up our handbook and trying to clean up our committees, make sure we're using our committees as effectively as we can. Um, you know, evaluating ourselves and our performance. And so, we spent a large part of a day doing that together as a board. So, just wanted to like Karen said, make sure people are aware of that effort that that goes in and um that I appreciate that effort from my fellow board members as well. Thank you. Thanks, Cam. Julie, I'm really excited that this week I

008get to attend um a new training at Church Hill Junior High to uh help the staff learn how to integrate the middle years program of the IB program. It's going to be a very exciting thing for them to be able to extend the IB program into the junior high and hopefully we'll be able to do that into the elementary in coming years. Um, and I cannot wait to go and learn and see how that's going to work. I also just wanted to point out that um I was really excited that one of the goals that we set as a board is that when we go into schools, we're going to ask our principles, what are you doing to help and what's your school doing to help your kids um reach the goal of improving by

0091% in their achievement. And I think that's really exciting because I think it's going to bring us some really changed conversations with the people in our buildings. And I bet we're going to get some really great feedback ideas. I bet we'll have a lot of good news to share from here that comes from those uh conversations, too. Thanks, Julie. I'll go ahead and do mine and then pass the meeting back over to Nicole. Um uh I want to just thank our superintendent for um doing our PLC conference with Dr. Muhammad at uh this last week and um all our schools were represented there and that was pretty amazing to see everybody um they're learning and growing together and getting new ideas to how to implement our PLC's and it was a great event. Um all

010my schools are on track to open on time. I'm so excited. We're we're we're down to the very last wire and you know what? It's going to happen and it's and it's because of all the hard work of all our employees and um Justin and his team and so I'm I'm super excited. I'm I am a little stressed. My husband says I'm talking in my sleep, but I'm really trying to be super positive and be positive because our community is ready for it and we and we'll be ready that first day. We have such professionals who do such a good job to make sure they're ready for those kids to walk in that those doors. So, I'm super excited to open those new schools. Um yeah, that's mine. Thanks. And I apologize you guys. I

011turned down the wrong street that was closed and so had to detour. But um I just wanted to to recognize I walked into the counseling center at Taylor'sville yesterday to change my daughter's schedule because there was a mistake and they were clearly inundated. And I just want to give a huge thanks to those counselors and everybody who's working so hard this summer to try to correct some of those schedule problems. And I I went up to him and I said, um, I can come back. I have time later this week to schedule me later. Um, so, uh, but thank you to those counselors and for all of the principles. I also have a lot of new principles and I know some of them have done some really great things in the the schools already to

012invite the students over to be able to um, see, you know, what's going on and be comfortable with the new principal and see all the fun things that are happening. Um, I did want to also recognize uh the new teacher meeting that we were able to attend uh and the great work that they did for those those new teachers either new to our district or new to teaching period or coming back from uh teaching from a hiatus. It was good to see some familiar faces that I knew as well as um just some brand new teachers and I love the excitement that's always there. And then also our admin meeting. I appreciate the hard work that has gone into um now moving on to training our our admin in coaching and making this a a

013model that we're are going to to do throughout the district. And I love that. I love the the model that we have and that we're really pushing that and that we're we're stressing achievement in our district over anything else and and um academics. And I think that's something that's so important and significant. So that's my good news minute and we'll wrap that up. Thank you so much. Um, we're going to go ahead and move on. We have recognitions next on our agenda, but we are actually going to move that because of some misunderstanding. So, we're going to move that till 6:30 um when those people who are being recognized get here. So, we're going to move on to um we have granted elected officials participation, patron participation. We don't have anybody signed up. We do

014have citizens signed up for later. So, I want to clarify if you're here for the the public hearing um unless you would like to address the board now. and we misunderstood that, we're going to wait until the public hearing portion for the truth and taxation. So, if that's okay, we're going to go ahead and move on to our consent items. We've had these for um a few days to be able to ask questions and ask any information that we need to on that. If there's no further questions, I'll entertain a motion. >> I move that we approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Is there any further discussion on this? >> I have one thing. In the minutes, Stacy, I would just like

015a clarification. There's a in the minutes it talks about the app and how excited we are for the app, but it didn't capture my comment about how I've asked for the app for a while now and how excited I am. So, because I'm on public record years ago asking for the app, I would like it to just be amended a little bit to say how grateful I am that the app is here. That makes sense. >> Okay. So, can I would just like to >> the motion to amend to include my gratitude for the forthcoming app um that I've asked for for years. Something to that effect. Anyway, so amended a motion. There you go. >> We have a motion to amend. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> All right. We have

016a motion and a second to amend. So uh that would be an approval of the consent agenda with the amended item as requested. Is there any further discussion? All in favor please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. All right. We are going to move on to our action item which is the naming of the dual language immersion. We're going to invite up Principal Nick Blight. Sorry, you guys are second. I apologize. >> You can stay there if you want. >> This is for Valley Crest for those of you who are wondering, the Spanish our new Spanish DLI school. and um we had apparently a a presentation to the the community and so we're excited to hear what they thought. >> Okay. Thank you first um to all of you gathered

017here. So I just want to talk to you a little bit about process uh with the reboundary study the boundary study that was done and we decided to move forward with the magnet option. Valley Crest as a name was lost uh but we maintained the building for our school and so we were left with a need for a new name and we wanted that name to reflect who we were going to be um without up and down. Thank you. Okay. So we came to this is with an approach of looking for a new school brand uh with the directive we've been given to promote the school in a wider range to bring in people who are currently leaving the district people who are within the current dual immersion programs in the schools affected maintaining them

018in the program. So what we did was a series of community surveys. Some of you may have participated in some of them. Uh some of them were online some of them were in person. and we went out to Granger Network night. We went out to Hunter Network night. We got kids involved. Uh we had the kids design their own school mascot, which was a hugely popular activity. Uh one of those multiple of those ended up in our final candidates for the vote that we ended up having. Um and so we wanted to do something that was school-based and that would reflect that it was a dual immersion school to first person at first glance. Um, and that was not anything that could be mistaken for any other school. One of the requisites we put on

019there was just if you hear it one time, you should remember that's the dual immersion school. Um, the three finalists that we had from our community outreach were Alas, which stands for academic language academy for Spanish, uh, Soul Academy and Dos Mundos Academy. Uh there were a clear two front runners in our first preliminary surveys which were Soul Academy and Dos Mundos Academy. We had our final when we did our registration event last week. We did an in-person ballot and Dos Mundos Academy was our top choice by a lot. It was a 72.5% of the vote came back. Do Mundo means two worlds. If you don't know Spanish, uh we will teach you that far at least. Uh but a big part of bilingualism is that you get to operate in two different contexts and

020two different registers and two different languages. So we felt like that was a really good um promotion of what we do at our school and just an introduction that kids were really excited about as well. Um you can see here with the dose Mundos branding we've already workshopped a couple of these through district um and we're continuing to iterate and look for something that would work well for us. Um, but the axelottle combined with the idea of the spirit animals. Have you ever seen uh Coco uh where we talk about we're moving between these two spheres, kids are really into that idea. And I really love the space it opens up for design and making the school really distinct so that it stands out when people are driving by or taking their kids to baseball

021across the street. >> Great. Do we have any questions? >> Okay. So the the recommendation is for the naming of the school to be dos menos academy >> do mundos not many sorry >> big difference >> that is a very not quite >> this is this you can tell what I'm studying on my duallingingo right now dos mundo sorry dos mundos academy um and if there's no other questions I will entertain a motion >> I just have a question. Um, you said it was overwhelmingly was it mostly students that like this name or >> students are patrons >> compelling parents >> to the students love it the most. >> Yeah, the parents like it as well. Um, there were quite a few people who liked the soul academy for the branding also. Uh, but when

022we got the whole community so when we did online surveys it was closer but do mundo won every time. Uh, so once we got in person we got the whole demographic of the whole school. It was a well attended event. Um, kids may have been compelling their parents, but I I think we want both groups on board. >> Thanks for that clarification. >> I just maybe I should I'll save it for after a motion because it's a comment, not a question. >> Okay. All right. Do we have a motion? >> I move that we I don't know what the motion should be. that we accept the name change of Valley Crest Elementary to Dos Mundo Academy. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to change the name of Valley Crest Elementary to

023do Mundos Academy. >> Go ahead. Comment. >> Just comment just for the sake of any of those who were diehold diehard Soul Academy fans. I like that one too. I think the branding was pretty cool. It was a nice nice idea, but I will go in favor of what the community wants over there. So, >> if we want to use it for another school in the future, I'm free. >> All right. >> We still need a second. >> Julie. >> Oh, did you second? >> Yeah. >> Good job, Julie. >> All right. Um, if there are no further comments, then we'll go ahead. Um, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you so much. >> We are looking forward to this. >> It's exciting. Hey Nick, real quick. What's

024your enrollment at? >> So we're currently the projections at 5:50 in focus as of right now. It's about 490. So we're getting all the paperwork done. Uh registration event already happened. Parents are coming by constantly. The doors don't open yet, so we have to pop them open. That's the other thing with the security doors. We're working on getting them tomorrow. >> Thank you. >> Nice. Nice. >> Awesome. Okay, now we are going to move on to our information items, our capital and construction update. Justin and Chris, we're going to invite you guys back up. Thank you so much for being patient. >> Sorry, we're literally still getting updates. We still have a lot of people working tonight. >> Good. Thank you. >> Good. Yes. Good. We're getting real time updates. Good evening, uh, board members

025and and district leadership. We'll be quick. I know we really want to focus on a couple of projects that are causing us all a great deal of angst. So, we'll we'll get there. Um, as far as security, we uh we do have three projects we're wrapping up that will get us. Valley Crest will be our last elementary that's uh finishing up. Uh, they had a punch list today and uh hopefully everything will get butt up either tomorrow or very quickly here. Cypress and Brockbank are also going to have the security component which will be great to move those from in progress to completed. So, very very close which we're excited about. Um >> just nice guy got to interrupt. So that's the last elementary >> that we have to do security. >> I mean I

026just think that's worth some celebration that has been a work. We've been working on that for so long. Am I correct? It's like 54 schools. >> Maybe not that many because um >> does anybody know the total just off hand? >> You can count it. It's a lot of schools and that's a huge accomplishment and like whoever needs to celebrate, can we make sure they get celebrated? >> Those include the elementaryaries, but it also includes two high schools, Skyllin and Cyprus and five junior highs are also have been caught up in that as well. So, we're trying to take those those off as well, but all the elementaryaries would be will be done as soon as we get Valley Crest button up this week. So, thank you Cottonwood flooring. I know my team was there.

027They just I saw him walk in as I was here. So, I haven't heard the update, but we're uh hoping to get that all buttoned up for uh the start of school. There's some couple of odds and ends going on with the different flooring. Um the the contractor, they're getting that taken care of. Um Hunter Junior classroom is on here, but it's all buttoned up um for the the remodel this last summer uh that the Grand Builders did. They did a great job there. The Hunter High Track expans expansion is 98% complete. The remaining portion is the ADA seating in the bleachers and uh it should be it should be buttoned up. Uh this says early August. We wrote this 2 weeks ago or whatever it was, but I think we're there. So, we're real

028real close if we're not. Hunter High Preschoolyard is done and that took longer than we'd like, but it's finally done. So, that's a huge milestone for us. Um the site drainage project we have in the past every August with our monsoon rain seem to flood Hunter uh off the back of the new addition and so we've uh had a project to tie some drainage together that should solve that and we can be done with that. And so he is almost there. It'll be finished early August. So we're excited about hopefully beating the monsoon rains this this year. And then Church Hill, there was a partial uh undone piece that had to be buttoned up this summer once we could get the roof back open. And they it's the it's the drainage and the the down

029spouts and they they uh uh are all finished there. So that's good news. Magn Elementary, we are done with the abatement. Uh that was great. And I was there this morning. Um the teachers have moved in. Um it feels and looks great. Um, I I know Chris has been out. I walked with Chris last week. Um, it it feels good. Ben is not stressed right now. Huge props to uh to um Christy, the custodian. Um he she's uh been great working with our team getting that school into shape. Mike has sent a bunch of custodians over yesterday and today I believe. So um it just feels good if you walk in there. It doesn't feel stressed. There's the metal on the outside will go on through August and a little bit of September. Um the

030panels, the PV panels, the solar panels are are uh complete in the front. They're not complete on top, but that will continue to happen. Um but the kiddos can can move in. It's been newly painted, newly carpeted, and again, I said it smells and feels good. So, we're feeling good about Magnum Brock Bank. Uh we're also uh feeling good about um we're telling ourselves that um the classrooms, they are actually moving in. We've got lights going in. Uh we're really excited about that. The front office is what's uh taken the longest amount of time because of the abatement that had to happen in the old front office. Unfortunately, Brock Bank is probably our worst building in the district as far as everything you touch there is hot with asbestous. And so we we didn't actually

031uh see the abatement contractor go until about 2 weeks ago. They were they've been there the whole time. And so now that they're gone, we can back go back and and get uh all the work that needs to be buttoned up. So I just talked to Tim a few minutes ago. He is planning on maybe I shouldn't say that, but they want to have a a walk and learn like Cypress next Tuesday and they're going to talk about it tomorrow with their staff and figure out when that will be what time. But uh we'll have kids in there learning and um and they just they painted the other set of doors today blue so it's really looking good on the outside. Um anyway, question. I I just have a comment. Yeah. Um when we walked

032through it did feel I mean it's still a construction zone feeling, but I think what um you pointed out is it's it's the teachers can move in their classrooms. Like we're ready for kids. It's just going to look different maybe the first week or two um until that new, you know, area is done. And um but Tim is doing such a great job getting that ready for the students. So >> yes, Tim is you're right. And I'm going to continue to shout out to custodians. Jared, who's the custodian there, has been phenomenal as well. And his crew have been working. Micah is going to have more custodians come tomorrow to really help Tim tomorrow and Friday and get that ready to go. The hallways have not been clean this this summer because of all the

033construction. And so once we get those swept and and cleaned up, again, those classrooms are carpeted. Uh most of them now have the lights in there and the furniture have been put back. So it does feel like a classroom again. And um the teachers are welcome tomorrow to get things set up the way they want. and the front office. We'll get the the front portion of the office open. The counseling portion will probably start the first of the year, the first week or two over in the science building and and Tim's on board with that. And so uh as soon as we get the counseling portion done, they can move over and and then take their new offices. So we are moving. It's uh that's been our scariest one uh all year and >> and

034I think it's our oldest school in the district now. Oldest building. >> I've heard that as well >> for one of our as one of our schools go. So it's just >> yeah just add to that the I'm really excited about Magna Elementary uh Magnus Team Academy. I apologize. It's looking really great and I was able to walk through the Brockbank building a few days ago as well and that's progressing as well. These are going to be nice facilities for our kids once they're all done. I think some people don't realize how much stress is on you during. So sometimes Justin comes into my office and cries in fetal position about some of the challenges that are but they him and his crew do a great job of trying to stay on top of all

035these projects trying to get them done in a short window and these are these are going to be some great treasures for this community. >> Thank you. Yes, we are excited. Thank you. Spring Lane demolition. Um the building is down. They've hauled it off. We're just working on a few uh back fil items. I think I mentioned in the last board meeting the city is not going to take it until next year. So, we had to fill you approved a change order I think last month to uh bring the level of fill up so we wouldn't have standing water. But we'll leave that site clean and then um next year when holiday takes it, they can start their park construction. >> And by next year, do you mean January 1 or do you mean later

036than that? January 1. >> Thank you. Sounds like January one. Great. Uh Taylorville High Auditorium. The um I'm not sure if I have it on here, so I'll speak about it now. This the floor is done. The brand new stage floor, which is great. And I've heard uh already glowing reviews about the new stage floor. So, that's exciting. And the lighting is progressing. The house lighting. We won't be 100% done until a couple weeks into the school year. Uh there's some parts that still haven't arrived, materials haven't arrived. So, we're waiting on those for the contractor to finish up, but we have been in contact with Mark and his staff and so I think they're aware of that and um should not be a surprise, but we are hoping to get the house lights done

037quickly. >> Just to clarify, when it says stage lighting, you're talking about like the house lights that are on the stage, not >> correct. We we have not delved into the theatrical lighting. This is just the house lighting. >> I just want to make sure people understand that, right, >> and are not confused. >> Thank you. We are working on the other with budgeting and and figuring that out, but that hasn't started yet as far as the theatrical lighting, transportation uh and uh I'll just combine these two real quickly. Transportation and the maintenance both had fuel tank upgrades this year required by the state. Uh our tanks were very very old and they required that we needed to re to pull out the old tanks and replace them. That's been um a painful uh project,

038but we are there. I know uh Dr. Gatty's excited about having his transportation open again for buses and I actually fueled up there the other day uh on flame or I was in on fumes and so I pulled in there and got fuel and it it worked. So I was excited about that. So those were two good projects to have done that the state uh required us to get done and so we're excited to have those um all but a few minor touches while we're there. uh Valley Crest Security. I mentioned just a minute ago with the office is in the new space and we're just trying to finish up the last uh remaining um counseling or uh uh uh conference room slash itinerant spaces across the hall where the old office was. And so

039just wrapping that up. I know we want to get that front door open. And uh I know I've talked to Rex today from our maintenance department and the painting is almost all done in the parking lot. We will have a fence in front, but that won't be for a couple more weeks because of the lead time on the materials and uh so there'll be a new busing loop uh for the and new parent and drop as well. So, we're excited about uh the rebrand of uh of what was Valley Crest. So, there's an update on on that building. And here's a a photo that's a little bit older, but uh couple weeks of old, but there's looking out the front office there in the main doors. And then the one on the right is where

040the old front office was and it will now be a conference room. I believe that's how it's going to be used. Good. Thank you. Um carbon monoxide projects. We did we are required by the state to get these done. We did bid them. We had no takers. So we have to rebid them. Um we have been running our department. So we will try to get them out this month and see if we can get uh uh people interested in bidding on those projects. Um there's a tree project going on. We got some money from the state to do this Mountain View corridor air quality project and they're planting uh trees at uh 1 2 3 4 5 six locations which we're excited about and uh that's uh going nicely. It probably be another couple of

041weeks or so before we get that all all buttoned up. Uh this slide is just talking about the projects that we had going on. Um I mentioned most of those Karns High Counseling uh we're very close. That's a Granon Builders project. Those guys have been great out there. Um, they will finish up the painting. I was supposed to be either yesterday or today. And then carpet goes down. Um, and we can then move find some desks, move them in, and they can have their the counselors can have those four offices that have been being built all summer. I think we've talked about all these other ones on here. There was some flooring projects that were buttoning up, which is great. Rolling metals was one of those. And then if it's okay, we want to jump

042and talk about Skyline first and then come back and talk about um talk about uh Cypress at the end. So members of the board staff, thank you for the opportunity to give you an update on the on the two high school rebuilds. Um Skyline is going very very well right now. Um, we just completed the one-year warranty and so we've accumulated a list of all of those one-year warranty items and the contractor is currently working on those right now. On the performing arts, a tremendous amount of work is uh being completed. And when I say performing arts, it's also the HIJ portions of the academic. So, uh, those are actually moving very fast at the moment and they're really starting to look like, uh, classrooms really look like educational spaces. All the framing, the drywall,

043the lights, um, all of the different things are going in. The clouds have been going on in the auditorium area, which is really neat. Um, and then a significant amount of site work was done this summer. uh the upper west parking lot portions have been completed um with the asphalt and um landscaping and different things along those lines. So the upper west parking lots are now also complete and then everything is being done in preparation for the last semester of the existing auditorium building. Uh the district completed uh some abatement this summer in order to try to shorten the amount of abatement that needs to be done at the end of the semester in order to turn over the building for demolition as soon as possible in order to complete the last the last major

044exterior portion of the site work which is the long drop off loop that's that goes clear to the uh to the academic building. So, this is a good um aerial that we took a few weeks ago just showing the progress on the academic building. And you can see the uh the H-wing in particular is is you know complete from the exterior portion and then all we're just needing the storefront along the front of the auditorium. put the stairways in. There's lots of uh great progress being done on the inside of the building. And it this is the view from the west. It's not showing the the parking lot there done yet, but uh all of the things from the west view. Um the end of the classrooms in H&J. So you can see the clouds

045in the auditorium building for for Skyline are have been installed and the uh classroom on this is on the upper floors uh and H and J in the in the tile in the hallways. It's really starting to look complete. So, this is the very last of the rear seating um in the auditorium piece that will be formed and poured. Those are all the the foam blocks that go underneath those uh concrete stairs. And then we completely redid the entire frontage like we mentioned at the last board meeting along Upland Drive. So all of that has been completed and as is those pieces and then there's the uh landscaping along those portions along the west side. I don't have any changes. I I don't have any changes to bring before the board for skyline. I just

046want to can you remind me so our students are going to be getting into that in January for the second semester. >> Correct. >> The students will be we will be taking down the old auditorium in January it >> and students will not be in the new theater building until >> until the fall of 26. >> I knew that. And then um so then >> I'm nodding to that to that. fall of 26 >> and a a year from now construction should be complete >> on the building that that front driveway will complete next fall. >> When will we say we're done with Skyline? >> Fall of next year. >> Fall 2026. >> Fall of 2026. We will be done except for the warranty and punch stuff. Yes. >> Okay. Thanks. >> That's That's correct

047because we're actually what we're doing is we're >> Yes. So So thank you. I appreciate that clarification. So at West Parking, while they will be driving and dropping off through that area, that West parking is not occupiable. We're actually relocating the contractor's trailers cuz right now they're right next to the old auditorium building and that whole area where they're at right now is new parking lot that we're doing next spring summer and completing in the fall. >> And I will say, >> thank you. I appreciate the clarification. >> I will say I'm calling all my guys heroes. One of our heroes, Ashton, uh, worked with the state fire marshal. I don't know if there was an arm wrestle or what, but we were able to convince him that we needed to keep the west side

048as a secondary drop off loop until we can get the one on the front east side open. So, they made we made some accommodations to make that happen so that no safety was jeopardized, but it was a huge milestone to uh to get uh pull off. So, that's going to be huge for the school >> 100%. We don't ask how he did it, we just know it happened. So, it was an excellent job by Ashton and and Rich and the rest of the team to pull that off. >> And to clarify, just so people know, when you say fall, fall technically goes to December 20th. Technically, right? So, I could just hear your hesitation in promising fall of 26. So, everybody's expectations. It might not be August. It could be a little bit later. That's

049all I'm saying. Right. Right now the schedules are September October for completion of the site work. >> There you go. I just want to make sure people aren't assuming it's August 31st and everything is locked up and tidy and all construction vehicles are gone. I just want to manage expectations >> and and to expound on that, we've had punch list going on this last year. Even though we open next year, we'll have punch list for probably another year as well. So even though the construction will be done, they'll still be there buttoning up things and punch list and those kind of things. >> Right. That's and and and and as was mentioned before, you know, the school sacrifice and and the district sacrificing getting that auditorium down so that we can be complete with all

050of that work next fall. >> That was going to carry into 27. And so by as was mentioned, the sacrifice of the school end uh to to take it down a little bit earlier helps everything get wrapped up in the fall of 26. Okay. So, um as was mentioned, there's just a considerable amount of work going on um at Cyprus still. We'll continue to go on. I wasn't kidding when I said we're still getting updates from all of the crews and work forces that are still on site right now. So, the soccer field saw is down has been down for for quite some time. Uh the sod outside the kindergarten classroom area, the play area there is complete been completed. The exterior metal panels on the front of the school have been completed. There's a

051few little tiny touch-up things that they were working on the last few days on that. And the main entrance landscaping is being completed. They actually had the sod that they installed in the last couple days in the courtyard in between the uh H academic wing and the and the and the commons area was completed. Um the indoor track was completed the last couple days in the athletics area. Post scoreboards been installed. Um there's quite a bit of work that's completing in the uh commons area right now. So, and then the classrooms are being completed mostly from a technology standpoint. Our are our our good long-term friends um from certain companies who I won't mention in a public meeting uh are continuing to work to complete all the technology aspects of it. and the the very

052large CTE component that we have at Cyprus in in their building has had their equipment being installed and the all the classroom chairs and furniture are there and the teachers supplies are on site and are being carried to their various classrooms. So, this is a soccer field saw. It it actually is knitting together really, really well right now. And uh this was a saw that was once again that was put down in the kindergarten classroom play area. And the exterior metal panels that are shown in the picture on the left have been completed. And all of that main vestibule is also completed and the flooring is in. So, you know, I I could bring you pictures on my phone from today, but these were the board presentation things. And uh the the pool school board,

053like I said, has been complete. The pool's filled and ready to go. The indoor running track has actually been completed. I was walking around on it about two hours ago, and all of the storefront is all completed. Josh and his team have been working there for the last week. Been doing registration and uh it was it was good to to talk and visit with them this afternoon. Their their spirits are high. There's lots there's lots and lots and lots of work that they're doing right now. And these areas are actually completed that are shown in these photos as progress. Uh if you want to go ahead and go on to the next one. um all all of the the flooring and this is on the upper floor outside uh the media center and then the

054appliances and the serving floor. We're completing our inspections with the health service department this week as well. And then this is what your classrooms look like except there's a lot of uh teacher supplies in a lot of the classrooms now and that will continue all through tomorrow when the teachers are on site. And uh a lot of those p giant pallets of equipment are moving into the classrooms right now. The stage rigging and the stage floor is was being in was being installed when I left. So and then this is the upper floor of the auditorium. And uh it's a lovely lovely site from the aerial. I believe that the football inner squad scrimmage is this Friday evening. So that will be a fun event to have on the brand field. And I do not

055have any changes to bring before the board for Cypress this evening. I believe Justin has some further commentary. >> Just uh again uh to not let the custodians not be recognized. Scott and his team have been fabulous at Cypress. In fact, today I bumped into them and they were very uh pleased with their efforts to get all the floors, all the stuff that you saw some pictures of of of pallets of stuff that for teachers had been moved into the classrooms by the three of them minus one floor because the elevator did not pass today that we had hoped and they'll be back tomorrow. Uh our contractors committed to have either someone to run the elevator tomorrow or they will have 15 people to carry all that stuff up the stairs. I understand there's an

056email that went out asking for people in our office here to help. Um it might be more to help the teachers set the room up because we'll get or the contractor will get the uh the merchandise to the classroom so that they don't have to carry up the stairs. Um that's still being on uh as we're as we're sitting here there's updates coming. So that's the latest. But uh Josh and his team are there working very hard. um they've had registration the last week and I know on Monday they're going to have a walk and learn to have the kids see their classrooms and understand where um they'll be spending their day uh going forward this next year. Any questions about any of our projects or um >> just thank you. Thank you for doing

057all that hard work. Um I I was talking to my cousin who went to a brand new high school in St. George and she said they couldn't use the whole second floor the first year of school because it they they just couldn't get it done and they needed somewhere for the kids to go. So, the fact that we might have little minor things here and there in a huge school um is really heartwarming that we can actually we'll be able to use this whole school eventually this whole year. So, thanks so much for all your hard work. >> You're welcome. It it is our job and we recognize that. But I would say that there is no other district that's pulling off what we're pulling off with these projects. We had Westlake last year at

058Skyline, now Skyline and Cypress. And the list continues. We know we have more coming and we're excited about that. But I do feel like our team is outstanding and they do a great job. And that that extends to Rex's maintenance department to Rick Anony's AB people that have been great to help us uh in a pinch uh with hardware. Right now with internet, we're we're borrowing the internet because the the infrastructure is not there. Uh the district has been awesome to jump in and and everyone has been willing to to to uh lift. I even saw Tyler lift in a box the other day which was outstanding. >> So just one >> and only for the photo or was that >> No, actually it's been a huge lift by all of the district departments to

059even get as far as we are right now. So, I know Don from Justin's staff, he I would say he lives nearby, but that's not fair because he probably spends more time at the school now currently than he does at his residence. >> He does. >> And so, I just it's been a huge lift by all the all the district departments to get as far as we are. And I think it's good to recognize also we appreciate that you have Magnus STEM Brock Bank Cyprus Skyline um you know our our um Dos Mundo Academy all of these projects. I don't know that we've ever had anything this intense ever before. So we appreciate the hard work that you guys have done. This has been I hope you get some rest later Justin >> after. Yeah,

060after we start. >> I hear the senatorum is very restful. Thank you so much. Thank you for all you guys do. >> All right, we are going to um move on. We just an update um just for time purposes, we're actually going to um we asked Patrick to put off the teacher merit award plan until next month um just so we have enough time to do our salt presentation. Um so we're going to invite Dr. Nerden and Lesie Bell and Dr. How to come up for the presentation. We're going to try and wrap up this presentation a little after 6. So, sorry. >> Can we be quick? >> Yes, we'll go. >> We need to go to executive session and be back by 6:30. >> Okay, we'll go super fast. Um, >> pardon. There's a

061lot of whispering, so I'm just going to say on record what they're talking about. They're talking about what time we need to be back here for the next part of our meeting with the Truth and Taxation listed at 7:30, but we have invited our National History Day winners to be here at 6:30. So to not make those families wait, um the goal is to get back here by 6:30 and honor the time that we told them to be here, which makes our executive session short. That's as much as I know. I'll let Ben clarify the rest. Go ahead. >> Okay, we're going to go ahead and do our salt presentation and that should take us to about 6:30. will do our recognition and then we will move into executive session very quickly after that. >>

062Okay. Our we hope to be about 20 minutes, so we'll go quick. >> We apologize. She's right. We have time-sensitive items tonight and we're trying to get all this scheduled at the exact time so that we can start our tax hearing as publicized in in in accordance with state law. So, we apologize and appreciate everybody's flexibility on our schedule tonight. And part of the reason why is because we per the state law, they have asked us not to take care of any any items of business after our truth and taxation. We should just be done with business. So that's why we're trying to get done with it. So anyway, go ahead. >> Great. Uh in the Granite School District, there is a leadership that is intended to help guide and lead the school district. And

063for years, um a committee called the district improvement steering committee has existed. And as we met at the beginning of this year, um we talked about what we were hoping to accomplish and and the focus and energy we wanted to to have towards um our students and we decided that we're going to rename our committee so that it represents what our focus is. And so our committee is called the student achievement leadership team because our focus is on improving student achievement. In fact, our our phrase is improving student achievement by improving instruction. We are closing the achievement gap for every student. Salt membership is made up of all members of the executive leadership team. Um, in addition to those folks, we've got all of the school leadership and improvement directors. We call those SLIDs. Um,

064but they are the people that oversee schools. We've got uh representatives from every department in our district, usually the directors and maybe some of their um associate directors. Um, additionally this year we added some principles. Got four elementary. >> When you say this year, we really started this last school year. So when you say this year, it sounds like a start year. We just finished, but you're right. This this last year um we've added principles. We think that the voice of principles really needs to be part of the vision and creation of any type of effort to to help our schools. So we've invited a representative portion of our principles to be part of it. We've invited four princ um elementary principles, three junior high principles, and one senior high principal. The charge of our

065salt committee is four-fold. First foremost, it's improving student academic outcomes. Um one way we're going to do that is we're we we've set a floor. This floor establishes a minimum level of achievement that we expect every school to get to. Obviously, we're always trying to get better, but we are not going to um rest if a school is below that floor. We're going to do more and more to ensure that all of the schools are at least above that floor. We'll talk more about that in a moment. Um this is Granite School District's guiding coalition. It is the group that is driving all of the the efforts to make improvements and to guide um the efforts of our school district. Um there therefore every member of that committee is important. Power dynamics need to be

066such that people's voices are heard and that no one uh has more power or more voice than someone else. We we we talked about that a lot because it's important that we get everybody engaged. I think it's important uh we use those phraseology and uh these semantics guiding coalition you probably remember if you were with the Dr. Muhammad presentation about what the purpose and the intent of a guiding coalition is and so uh this is built in and this is something that we had adopted uh prior to his presentation. So you can kind of see that work being implemented um in this process and many of our schools were highly successful with their PLC's. >> Thank you. Um, Professor Bondora in 1977 coined the phrase um, self-efficacy. Um, it has been adopted by um, educational

067leaders and turned into collective efficacy and we we review this statement every meeting and it is a group's shared belief in its conjoin capability to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainment. If we believe we can get this done, we can get this done. And that is what drives us. That we have high expectations and we are not going to stop until we get it done. I just reiterate that when we say this, we say this a lot, but collective advocacy is actually a pretty powerful principle when you think about it. And it's simply put, it's the notion that every child can succeed and that we actually believe that. and really the highest on Hadtie's uh ratings of effectiveness. So um my role is with school leadership and

068improvement and so I'm specifically and we love acronyms getting to work and consider myself one of the slid the school leadership improvement directors. Um, and a conversation that we've had that I think really sets the stage for our philosophical approach to this is there are a lot of things we're juggling in in our profession in schools that are important, but they can be kind of categorized into drawing from that Eisenhower matrix matrix, the important urgent things that are really time-sensitive and the important not urgent things that aren't as time-sensitive. And the challenge we have in schools is there are so many balls being juggled and a lot of those have this time sensitivity or at least the perception of this time sensitivity that things that are extremely important but don't necessarily have the same kind

069of due dates to them, you know, some of the instruction and the observations, the PLC um discussions that go on often can fall by the wayside because there are emergency things or fires to put out or or immediate responses that are needed that will trump the other and they're all important but there needs to be some intentionality to how to address those. So some of my work with the school leadership and improvement is really that we are trying to be very supportive of principles in that important and not urgent and sometimes often forgotten category which is in the Eisenhower matrix called that values quadrant. Specifically, we're really trying to focus on these five areas of instructional leadership. Um, specifically shared leadership. Superintendent Horseley just talked about that and Dr. Muhammad made such a great emphasis

070on that of the importance of of councils within your school, these guiding coalitions and and leaning into that because it's more than just a one person. It's more than just one principal, but having those groups in a shared leadership fashion really can move the needle for a long term. Um, school culture can't be emphasized enough. And just as Superintendent Horsey said a moment ago, there's there's this notion and and wanting to make sure that culture believes that all students can learn, number one. And number two, that we as educators believe that we can help all students learn. Those might sound like the one and the same, but there is a difference between them. Um, knowing that they can learn and that we have the capacity to to support them and actually get them there. Um,

071instructional effectiveness is is enormous and that comes as as SLIDS are coming into the the schools and working directly with principles and teachers and observations, gathering data and saying, "Hey, we are about a resultsoriented process here. It's not just good enough that I taught it all. I went through it all. I checked all the boxes and and my students didn't get there. It's it's got to be really zeroed in on what were the results. Did our students actually arrive and did they did they learn? Um the structures facilitate that heavily. Um it was wonderful to get to have not just Dr. Dr. Muhammad, but everybody in these leadership teams from across our entire district in the same room hearing the same thing and having similar conversations, although they vary from table to table because every

072school's got a little bit of a different need or or um location along that journey, but to be focused on what are our structures to facilitate this? How are we addressing the fundamental PLC questions? And those structures need to be yes, we're meeting systematically these PLC's to unpack these standards and say how are we going to make sure students have learned, but they've also got to have those next questions of how are we going to respond when they inevitably some inevitably don't learn at the same rate as others. There's got to be a systematic response to it and that as SLIDs is what we're trying to help facilitate with our with our principles and our leadership teams at the schools. Finally, the last one there is family engagement and really looking at a dual capacity

073framework, knowing that this this is pulling jointly um families and educators alike, knowing what our common goals are and and and making sure we're clear about those and and utilizing all the the leverage we can to pull all at once. Um that that captures the bulk of this just by sake of time. Let me go to the next one. Mitch, if you could advance the slide. As I mentioned before, one of the challenges to doing what I just described is the important urgent things that will will sidetrack um a lot of the conversations that need to happen around instructional leadership and student learning. and to to help facilitate or support that Grant School District is staffed a parent advocate specifically a district on budsman. Um, that's ta Taylor Kedar who's who's come into that role

074already and and really done an effective job in the early goings of this job to be able to help support these important needs that often are what took the school leadership improvement directors and the principles on all their attention so that they never could quite get to the important but not urged in that values quadrant kind of thing. So what is an onbudsman specifically? It's someone that is going to be able to be a facilitator for our our our parents, our students, our families. Um they this person really fills a you know a neutral niche but helps families navigate what can be really difficult. um to be able to have if there's a concern to reach out and to have someone that's connecting both that family, the the the parent, the student with the right

075people whether that is within the district um administration, a school administration, but trying to find ways to really help support that. The core principles I like that are listed there talk about independence, impartiality, neutrality, confidentiality, and informality. Now, it's new and for some I think it's a little bit on both ends of this. parent side of it, educator side of this, how does this fit? Um, and already I've heard comments back from principles that I'm helping to support saying, hey, this this has been really nice to be able to find how seamless this was to get this parent meeting set up because Taylor was able to facilitate that. I've heard that from my Slids as well. So, there is some power to that and and these are the things that he's really targeting. Um, just

076to clarify, what is a district ombbudsman and what is it not? Um, I think I've already hit these first ones pretty well, but really listening to concerns and clarifying policies, rights, and options. Sometimes that's just some education that's needed from a family. What what a school and a school district can do and what it can't do. Coaches parents and staff on the productive next steps and communication facilitates problem solving. This one's really delicate. That fourth bullet of making referrals to the right office. um whether it's you know school admin special ed title 9 504 there are there are roles that the district on bbudzman does not take on and that's where that person more than than maybe the the the families that are asking the questions our district on bbudsman Taylor is going to know

077hey this is one that really needs to be handled by our title n office and be able to facilitate that process finally identifies trends and provides systematic feedback what a district on bbudsman isn't is a person that's taking sides or acting as a champion or attorney. Um overturning decisions either at a district or a school level. Um as I mentioned a moment ago is not replacing the actual departments and processes with processes that we have that are so critical or title 9 special education or this isn't a person that's serving as the district's official notice channel for for legal claims. And I think that would really undermine what he's trying to accomplish and and and the the relationship of trust that he's able to facilitate with families. So this this position is powerful in the

078sense that it's going to whether it's 10 20 30 50 80% of the the important urgent things that we're maybe pulling our school leadership improvement directors on to putting out these kind of fires are going to free up some of that time to be that much more dialed into being at the school doing observations with principles bringing data to unpack where our students at and and how well is it being facilitated and to unpack what steps and how what's the progress like on your action steps for your continual improvement plan. So, that's the real focus. We've got a great group for it. We're excited about it in our our slides. I mentioned uh before uh this concept of a floor and and what that has created is something that we call boost schools. Um we

079establish this floor and any school that is has student achievement below that floor is going to get some additional support. Um, we've been through this quite a bit uh because the state through the federal government has mandated some sort of programs like this and it sort of feels like we're always being pulled around by our nose um to this new program and we're trying to say we're going to be done with that. We're going to we're going to get above that so that our schools never get involved in that kind of accountability. um instead we're going to provide the supports early um so that they achieve at a level that gets them way above whatever federal or state program might exist. Um things that we are considering is mostly Utah's accountability model, but in addition

080to that, we're going to look at things like grades and credits and ACT scores and weed to proficiency and literacy scores and other formative assessments to help ensure that we are picking the right schools that need additional support. um we set that minimum floor and we are probably going to have only the capacity I'll get into that to to serve a certain number of schools initially. We're going to adopt a cohort model and and so our first cohort has nine schools. I'll get to that in a moment. Um every 3 years we'll reassess. We'll look at three-year trends data and then we'll we'll make some adjustments. Um and hopefully schools will be getting out in that threeyear cycle. Our goal is to ensure that student achievement rises to a level that is above the floor

081and that we make sure that we provide not just an equal amount of support to schools, but an equitable amount to ensure that schools that have the most need get the most resources. Um, in that cohort number one, we've got six elementaryaries, two junior highs, and a high school. And here are those listed. Um, I'm going to give you quickly some things that we've been doing already in those boost schools. We've gone around with district um, directors and principles and done instructional rounds and identified a baseline of instructional needs. We've helped those schools develop continuous improvement plans that articulate addressing needs and targeting high lever strategies during instruction. We're beginning to provide or we've had we've provided and will continue to provide professional development that's targeted to those school improvement plans and to instruction. Um

082we're we're offering teachers additional planning time to ensure that they can implement the new skills that they've learned in their instruction. We're building out um more ways for teachers to be leaders and to build their capacity as teacher leaders. That's the surefire way to to improve a school is is help build their capacity to be leaders. We've also added additional administration. Every single one of our boost school elementaryaries has a full-time instru uh assistant principal, which is thanks to the board. Um, additionally, we've uh we've activated our slides and we've said, "Hey, your job is to help give the boost and make sure that you come and get support from us at the district level if you need more." Um, in addition to that, we've created guiding coalitions at each of the school levels. Um,

083we wanted to make sure that we didn't just create plans for disparit groups and think, well, that plan will just work. Elementaryaries have specific needs and let's make sure that we understand those needs. So at every single level, elementary, junior high, and high school, we've got some guiding coalitions. They're made up of principles, district directors, and superintendency members to ensure that we are focusing our school improvement efforts or our district supports on the things that make a big difference that are identified as needs. So, for example, this year in elementary schools, we really focused in on ensuring that they all have to Tyler's point about structures a really good master schedule that that master schedule has built into it times and sufficient to meet the requirements around ELA to make sure that uh math gets

084the the right amount of time that there are interventions. We focused in on a math mast's program um that is going to ensure that more um is given to math instruction so that we can improve in that area. Um that's kind of been what we've been doing at the elementary level at junior high. This guiding coalition helped to inform that we've got sixth graders coming up in a lot of our schools, sixth grade teachers, and they need some additional support. So, we've built out a completely separate and unique professional development program that is concluded today um at least for the summer. It'll go ongoing throughout the year um to help our new sixth grade teachers. We've had over 50 teachers participate in that PD, somebody from every single school. Um I'm beginning, we have not

085uh formed our high school guiding coalition, but we are beginning to do that this this school year. um additional supports. Every single school is going to have more administrative support. >> Can I just speak to something? I think you you hit on something. It's going to bother me if we don't mention it. I think what's important about this guiding coalition is for I mean I've been with the district now for 17 years and been in the room where we make a lot of those decisions. And it's not like they're bad decisions, but it would be we would be remiss if we did not engage and collaborate with our local school leaders in terms of how we implement policies and make decisions. And it does feel like to some degree we felt like we have a

086monopoly in that room on all good ideas and suggestions. And so part of this guiding coalition concept is that we're uh collaborating directly with principles on the local level to know and understand how our policies and our practices and our programs will impact them. and they're expected to speak up and advocate for their schools and help us to know how our decision-m will impact them so that we are actually moving the needle and and working together in collaboration. >> Thank you. I I uh I'm inspired by I can't remember the the author of this, but it was in one of my courses at BYU and it it was uh if policy implementers are not part of policy making, it probably won't happen. and and that's our our effort is to ensure that we've got policy

087implementers informing us as we make policy as we develop our plans. Um, so, uh, I was just saying that we've increased administrative support so that every single elementary school in the Granite School District now has some level of additional support beyond the principal, which will enable the principal to have more focus on instructional leadership um, rather than all those emergencies that pull them away. That doesn't mean it's a fix solved, but it is. >> Yeah, it's done. But we are getting uh we're getting there. We've we've created additional time for planning and PLC's. Um we've created uh not created we've aligned our professional learning. So the professional learning we're providing to principles to coaches um our principal PLC's all of that is becoming more aligned and geared specifically toward improving student achievement by improving instruction.

088And I was talking to a brand new principal in Granite School District. He he wasn't brand new to to the job, but he was new to us. And he said, "Man, I love Granite. Granite's focus is on student achievement every meeting I'm in." I said, "That is right. That is exciting." Um, we have a new I don't want to say new, we just have a new commitment to coaching. Everybody's going to be coached. It is an expectation in the Granite School District that you will participate in coaching. Principles are going to get coached. Teachers are going to get coached. The superintendent's going to get coached. We're all being coached. >> All right. To in um wrapping this presentation up, I get to be the cheerleader. That's my favorite part. So, I'd like to I proudly

089report that we've had over 2,000 site visits by district directors out at schools. So, yay. That's so exciting. And that's on average each school has received about 25 visits. So really um and I can tell you that we can do way better than that because I know a lot of directors and even an assistant superintendent herself that missed some of the visits on the chart. So honestly I think we're having way more touches than 2,00 at each school. >> Very exciting. >> She means that we haven't documented it. We've made the visits. >> Yes. And I think we can count more than than the 2,00 really. Okay. So what happens in these salt meetings? We have monthly meetings where we review the measures of the strategic plan and we look at leading and lagging indicators

090to make sure that we're on track and then in real time we're adjusting our action plans. So the the strategic plan is fluid in that as we look at the measures and the indicators that would say are we on track or are we not on track um how are we adjusting what we're doing in real time and we're also um including that type of thinking into our boost schools and other school data. So across the district, we're aligning the strategic plan with the school um continual improvement goals in that way and then adjusting if if schools need additional support in a continual improvement goal, then we're adjusting our strategic plan goals in order to fit that need if we see trends across the district. And then we're specifically for boost schools, we're we're having a

091real- time discussion about what's happening on the front lines. So, as they're doing these instructional rounds out at the booth schools, the directors are bringing that information back and we're adjusting different things and they're also for the first time in real time ever asking for support or materials that are needed. And then we're able to allocate and deploy those resources out to the school side, which is very exciting. And then like like the last bullet says, assignments are made to bring about to ensure that action and student achievement is increasing on the front level. So, we're looking at all these indicators at the data really carefully and then people are also attending these schools at at the frontline level and bringing back what um supports and additional materials or or um personnel or things like

092that. And we're making the adjustments here at the school level to help support that need. >> Final slide. Success will be determined by how effective student achievement increases. It won't be about we did all these cool things. it will be did student achievement rise and that is our goal and we will we will find that success um and we'll celebrate it with you often. I just want to uh thank the these folks for this presentation and all the members of our salt team. The uh this is exciting um to see uh kind of the magic happening and and it all ties back to this notion of collective efficacy that we all believe every child uh in Granite School District can learn at high levels. And so, uh, the real time notion of being able to

093assess data and provide real-time supports to schools, um, because their SLIDs are in their schools, they know what's happening. Um, every district director knows that they're not just responsible for this aspect of policy or programmatic implementation, but they're responsible for student outcomes. And uh this is the emphasis of of not just the the district uh but the the whole concept that the district exists to support our schools and we're going to try to improve how we do that. And so that's our our primary philosophy behind all this because we believe that will in turn uh change the world. So thank you guys. You guys are doing I'm really excited about this team as well. So thank you for putting this together. Do >> any questions or comments from the board members? We got a little

094bit of time. Go ahead. >> I just had a real quick comment hopefully just about the guiding coalitions. I'm curious how we got the numbers for each one. Notice the high school we have eight principles participating. Elementary only four though. And when we have 54 schools, it feels almost maybe not as representative as it could be. I'm just curious why we have four there and not more. Is it just trying to balance total number of people or what? What is that? >> It it is balancing. Um if you notice on salt, we've took into consideration what you've said and said there are four from elementary and only one from high school. Um if you also notice in that um slide, sorry. Um elementary schools do have some additional supports from slids and from district directors

095where high schools, it's just the high school principles. There's only eight of them and and we I I haven't had all the conversations with them, but I've begun to have them. And as I've asked, what's the membership of of the of this guiding coalition? It's like the Adabus. They're they're they're the ultimate leader of their network of and of our district. And we're trying to really empower their voice. That doesn't diminish the role of junior high principles or high or elementary principles. Um but but each level is a little unique. That's all I had. Thanks. >> Thanks, Julie. Did you have anything? >> I just want to clarify with the um the parent advocate who you were talking about, Tyler. Um so, if I'm a parent and I have a concern, I first go to

096the teacher and if I don't get my resolve concerned, I go to the principal and if I don't get my resolve my concern resolved there, I go to Mr. Kater. Is this correct? just making sure people don't skip and go >> correct. And and that's kind of the first thing he's going to ask as well. Have you had a chance to talk to the teacher? Have you had a chance to talk to the principal? And not so much to say, hey, don't bother me until you've done that. You know, he's he's very sincerely um approachable and you know, the next part of that conversation is going to be you haven't. Well, let's see if I can help facilitate. Let me help you get connected with them. because the bottom line is that's the goal of

097this is to be able to get a good solution for all parties at the lowest level possible and and he's quite skilled at being able to help facilitate that. Now, at the same time, sometimes someone who's a little nervous about a concern they've got just needs someone to walk them through who do I talk to first and how do I get a hold of them and how do I have this discussion and that's that's what he's going to help facilitate. And when I receive a question or concern, um, then I would where I used to say, "Oh, you already talked to the principal. Should we connect you with the SLID?" I now know Slid, I go to the parent advocate. Right. >> Yeah. And that would be a a great referral to make because I

098know a lot come your direction. That'd be very appropriate. At the same time, I'm coaching my SLID team to to to make sure that we're very receptive. The last thing we want to do is have anyone contact us and say, "You're contacting the wrong person." >> Yeah. So we would do the same and we would make sure that we're connecting people the right person at Taylor's going to be a >> really excited about this this concept and it's something we've never tried here but we've never fully embraced the the Bush Institute coaching model um that we have talked long about. Bill Kenley did an excellent job building our talent development pipeline with our principles and we're trying to expand on that, but our slits have been so consumed um with being able to address adequately

099uh customer service complaints and concerns and they're not focused as much as we need them to be on actual school leadership and improvement. And so, uh, the the intent here is to build some consistency in the responses to our parents and make sure they're getting taken care of at an at an appropriate level of service and response, but also primarily this will free up our slides to be able to do the thing that they want to do the most, which is actually be with their principles in classroom spaces, making observations and providing supports to teachers. >> Thanks. >> Can I go back and address Kim's question a little bit more? Um, we we're we've done this for a year and we we begin doing it and we're going to reassess and if we need more

100voices, we'll include more voices. >> I personally Sorry, I was going to say I I love that we have principles on there, but I also worry that we load a little bit too much on principles. So, that's a I think that's a fine balance that you have to find. And I know I've talked to some principles, especially at the high school. I think high school principles have a ton on their plate. So kind of balancing that I think is part of that too is that how you know taking a principal out of a building for a meeting is always always difficult. So >> and on that note is that committee going to like rotate who's on it from your tier so that it's not overburdening >> for sure. >> My question is um so you

101said you have nine schools in the first cohort but you could have had more. Um, do those schools know that they're considered for, you know what I mean? Cuz we have nine, but I mean a few of them are my schools. So, I'm just wondering how this works with deciding who needs the services first, second, you know, and how many were in that original. Is there nine more schools? Is there 20 more schools? >> My spreadsheet is 10, sorry, 10 elementary schools. So, about four more of the elementary schools. >> Um, one of them was Valley Crest, which of course is in a different model at this point. those mundo. So, it's a it's a whole different thing to consider. Um, the short answer to your question is I think a lot of what's going

102on with with with what the SLIDs are doing with their their principles is is helping them to understand all aspects of that state accountability system and those metrics that actually are are putting them in that tier right now. And it's over a three-year average. So, there's some unpacking to do. So, do they know loosely? They do. Do they know specifically, hey, this is how how close to that line we are right now if we have we're able to do more co more on this cohort? Probably not. And that'll come more in our coaching conversations in this upcoming next couple months. >> Okay. Thank you. I >> I think too it's important to understand that the notion is that we're bringing up all boats in the harbor. The goal here is to not come in and

103micromanage these schools. it's to come in to provide a tremendous boost of supports and lift and build their capacity and then we move on to other places and continue to boost um the capacity of all of our schools and hopefully you know 10 15 years down the road we're we're boosting the boost of the best of the boosting that can happen >> if that makes any sense whatsoever said I' I've been involved multiple times in whatever the label was turn around school improvement. Um, and and often it feels like a label and a sanction and and hoops to jump through that aren't helping. And I was so thrilled watching as they brought the elementary schools together first cuz elementary a little more specific of what they're tackling the junior high and high school. And had

104those groups during the summertime coming together with their leadership teams and the vibe from those groups was so positive. they're feeding off of each other. Thi things like having that added admin support went a long way or the instructional coaches there. Um, so far from my perspect perspective comparing it to where I've been, this is feeling literally like a boost. It's feeling like this is awesome. It's inhouse and we're saying we can see there's a need for some added support here. Let's provide it. >> I appreciate that. I'm I'm hopeful this is what our schools need. So, thank you. Board President, is there time for another question? >> Sure. Real quick. >> I um the two questions I have actually, one is um understanding that our teachers are overloaded, but they're also the ones to

105integrate and implement, you know, how do you see them being involved in this? And then the second question maybe I'm going to need to talk about more offline, but that's I'd like to understand um the financial implications of this plan. And you know, um, there's a discussion about, you know, really pushing resources into these schools. Where are they coming from? Um, so I'd like to have that discussion at some point, which I think is longer than we have here to do. But >> I will say I will say, um, we have prioritized them. We've we've created some, uh, resources um, with this tax increase to, uh, provide coaching. um these schools are getting the first brand new coaches, they're all going to get coaches. We provided additional resources around administration and we said in the

106booth schools, they don't just get a half, they're going to get a full and and that's kind of built into our district budget. Additionally, we've sought for and got some additional resources from outside of the Granite School District, and we're using that to employ um in the professional development and the um opportunities for teachers to pre plan and prepare um because they are overwhelmed. And we're providing a mechanism whereby they they don't necessarily have to feel that overwhelmed because they've got this additional help and compensation for it. Well, and and along those same lines, in additionally, um we were speaking in ELT this morning. Maybe we assign an ELT member to one each of the booth schools so that not only are you doing your regular job, but you also can shine the light. You

107know what I'm saying? Do an extra visit out to these schools because you're assigned to it. And we've talked that same thing about district directors, pairing them with a slid so that you have a slid and a district director going side by side into the school. So, that's how we're maximizing our resources. It's not that we're assigning them directly to the school, but they go out about their regular duties, but then they also have an emphasis at the school. And when they have extra time, that's where they're headed is the school. >> I remember being out at a school, I don't even remember which school, and there was a brand new kindergarten teacher there doing the best she could, but she had a struggling kindergarten class. And we were able in that very moment to

108contact uh the instruction and curriculum department. I said that very intentionally. um and get the Jen Mallette to come out and actually do some work with that teacher and build to kind of do a classroom reset. So I I want to think of Salt and this uh real time services and support of it's not ignoring our other schools. It's simply going, okay, there's a real need here in this particular boost location. Let's get some math uh resources out there to help uh these teachers with their lesson plans. Let's let's build in that real-time action and support and and I hope all of our schools feel like they can get that type of support through their slid. The slid's now there in the room actively uh engaging and promoting the needs of those respective boo schools

109if that makes sense. >> I think too I kind of got the impression of like okay here are the people who are going to put together all these ideas and this plan but really here are the people who are going to support the implementers. This really boost thing is about boosting the instruction for our teachers. It's actually more about them and then the structure around how to make them the focus and the center. So I understand why they would not be on the support team because they are the supported. Right. I just want to say thanks for making the district people that are here on the same team. You know, for how long has it been that we haven't been narrowly focused or something? So, thank you for using everybody. That's cool. >> All right.

110Thank you so much. We appreciate we appreciate this presentation and understand >> just one last piece to this as they're exiting. Uh we do every other month a construction report. So we are going to be building in kind of a you'll get the same updates and reports on our strategic plan um every other month uh from uh Mitch and his team um with respect to updates and real-time activities that are occurring to boost those schools and provide support. So the idea is that we're more accountable um through transparency of those efforts as well. >> Okay, we're going to move on. We It was my understanding that we had four people that we were waiting for. I'm only seeing two here. Am I Are we still waiting for two more? >> Okay, then let's do really

111fast because we're going to wait for them and see if they come. Um our just our board reports um because I think they're going to be short. if I'm not if I'm not mistaken. So, Julie, go ahead. >> I don't think I have anything to report from my committees. >> I do. We did meet last month, the Salt Lake County Parks and Rec Advisory Committee. Um, so just the quick update, the committee's pretty heavily focused on the my county rec right now. They talked about um investigating a point of sale system that tracks or ties the house to activities that are being used. Um I provide the feedback you shared, Nicole. Apparently Salt Lake District already does busous um but it's not like with the county so it's separate. Just a lot of discussion around

112that different things that are already happening in other places. And so now they want to do a subcommittee that's specifically going to focus on that and how to enhance that house and I will be on that. So that's a we'll be meeting monthly until we get through that process. So that's my update. >> Thanks Kim Connie. >> I don't have anything from my committees but I do I did forget to mention that Cypress High and Hunter High has a summer graduation tomorrow. both of those schools and I believe there's four at one school and eight at the other I want to say. So I have 12 more graduates from my area. So I'm really proud of them. >> I'll piggy back on that and say that uh Cottonwood is also having a graduation on Friday

113in that regard. >> And that's all I have. >> I don't have anything to report from Bennett's benefits committee because we have not met since our last meeting but I will be joining Chris tomorrow at the Hunter High graduation. Um, we have not had any lawn policy. I have asked Doug to follow up with principles as well as coaches and teachers who are affected by the travel policy because that's I think our main focus. So, looking forward to having a a robust discussion about that the next time we meet. And Tville does have their graduation, too. We're having a lot of summer graduations, so we're thrilled with that. Um, superintendent, do you want to give us a quick report while we I still don't see the two others. If not, we'll just go ahead and

114that. >> Yes. And I will talk really slowly until people arrive. Just kidding. Um, I just have a few items to report out on. Um, I wanted to make mention of the opportunity I had to visit with the Mount Olympus Community Council um, last evening to update them within Mil Creek City. Uh there's actually four um cityrun um or sponsored or supported uh community councils. So they're they're called community councils, but they're not attached to our schools. Uh but had a good opportunity to talk through the pack study and provide them some updates. And Steve Hogan will be back up there um after we narrow the study and the scope of our study uh at next month's board meeting. So, just as an update in terms of where PAC is at, um they've had a

115long summer to analyze uh a number of options. Uh we do have our community committee that is continuing to meet. There is two more meetings uh I think planned with that group. As a reminder, that's two parents and a teacher from each of the schools in the in the population analysis study area as well as some of our city elected officials who are participating in that committee. So, they'll meet two more times and I believe PAC will meet at least one to two more times before a final narrowing of the scope of that study will happen in um September. And I just want to give a a huge shout out to this community and this committee. We've gotten some sound feedback and I think we're going to be able to put together some some good

116options um with that feedback uh for the board to to take into consideration. I wanted to give a shout out to Dr. Anthony Muhammad. I thought that was an incredible event. I'm very excited about doing something midyear as a follow-up with um that group of administrators and teachers to kind of keep the momentum going. Um we do see a high correlation between strong PLC's um and strong student outcomes. And uh we need to make sure that our schools, again, the district exists to support our schools have the resources and the training necessary to be able to be successful in their PLC's. And uh hopefully there's an understanding and expectation that uh Granite is going that's just going to be part of our culture. Um is that we're a district that collaborates and that we work

117together and so uh grateful for all those who came and participated in that. We have >> Will you explain who he is? I don't think many of my listeners. >> Sure. Dr. Anthony Muhammad is from uh G >> Solution Tree. >> Thank you. Solution Tree which is a pre-minent uh professional development organization surrounding uh a culture of PLC's. Um he's written many books about half of them are sitting on my desk right now. Uh but >> and PLC stands for >> PLC is a professional learning community but it's essentially the way that our teachers work together and collaborate and usually grade level or subject area teams. Um and they review data. There are certain questions they're supposed to be asking themselves on a a respective basis. They talk about assessments and a variety of other

118topics that are intended to help drive um student outcomes. So, we want our uh our teachers to be able to collaborate and to have uh strong PLC's with their administration and of course the district. So, thank you for reminding me to clarify. So, uh if you want to Google Anthony Muhammad, then you'll know who my educational crush is. I didn't know what that was until he I got to hear him speak. So, he's amazing and uh love some of of his content there. So, we also have a number of summer graduations. It was brought up, I think there's two tomorrow, uh Hunter High School in Cypress, and we will have representation from the district and hopefully the board to be able to support those graduation ceremonies. I wanted to give a shout out to the

119Cypress community. Um their their first football game will be had this Friday. It's the blue and gold game and we're going to do a mini ribbon cutting on the field. Um, I unfortunately will not be able to be there, but uh encourage uh we're going to have some local community leaders and uh our student body helping us with that ribbon cutting and it should be a fun event and invite the entire community to come out and support the game. We will have a more formal grand opening and open house a little bit later on in September once we've gotten through our punch list on the the remaining items. Uh give our ch our teachers a chance to get moved in and school started. Last but not least, I wanted to make mention of our administrative

120kickoff last week um and just share what my message was to our administrators. And I shared an example of uh in my teaching and instruction. Um I worked with two different uh coaches, instructional coaches, Marica at Skyline and Summer at Granger High School. And uh each of those environments was a little bit unique and different and required me to adapt my teaching style and approach uh to the needs of my kids. And uh I was very grateful to have a coaching cycle with with each of those respective coaches. And I I like to think that it made a difference in and improve my instruction and support of those kids and their learning. Uh but the point of sharing that message was that uh I continue to be coached in my role. I encourage other people

121to coach me in my new responsibilities. Um I still call Dr. Nye probably at least two or three times a month just to see if he's sitting by a pool or golfing or something. Um cuz I know he's got a cushy new job. But um that being said, uh we want to emphasize that everybody in Granite School District is amazing, but we can all be better and we can all improve. And so if I can model that, uh, that's my goal and intention is to continue to be coached. And I appreciate even the people who emailed me today with some suggestions and help and support. So that's the model and the hope and the message of this year is that and I appreciate this team for putting together an incredible administrative kickoff. I felt we

122were very focused on that message and uh, again tying that back to student outcomes and how we can make a difference for kids. >> Thank you, Superintendent. All right. Um, we are going to now jump to our recognitions. So, we're going to invite Dr. Noel Converse to come on up and present the recognitions. Thank you very much, board president and board and everyone here tonight. Um, we want to give a heartfelt congratulations to 2024 2025 Granite School District National History Day National Qualifiers. These students have excelled in the National History Day competition. And so let me tell you a little bit about what that means. It's a rigorous academic competition where students conduct in-depth historical research on a theme and are then judged on historical quality. I think that makes up about 80% of what

123they're judged on, but also the clarity of the presentation. So there's quite a bit of research, there's bibliography, there's lots of things that go into making this a very very academic process. Um so these are our students who have um become national qualifiers. Now this is really important because they represent the top students in our state. And just to put that in perspective, Granite School District alone had upwards of 100 participants who um were working in this competition toward this achievement. Um of those 100 students, we had 13 individual or group projects receiving the national qualifier honor. Um, we do have some things in the works at the state level because our district with the support of the parents here and the students interest um and our teacher support really are one of the very

124top districts in the state um participating in the national history competition. So, we've got some things in the works about some some upcoming uh um new opportunities just for Granite School District. So, what I would like to do is um bring each one of the students up and when you come up, I think we're going to do a picture, right? And you'll shake each one of the board members hands um and then there'll be a group picture at the end. Correct. Okay. So, we're going to start with Grace Winder of Granger High School. So, come on up, Grace. [Applause] Good work, man. Then next we have Daniela Armstrong of Granger High School [Music] and I think this is a relation Darby Armstrong of Granger High School. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] We also have Wesley Candelera of

125Skyline High School. [Music] [Applause] [Music] And finally, we have Jonathan Nielsen of Eisenhower Junior High School. So, come on up, Jonathan. [Music] [Applause] Again, this is a very academically rigorous honor and we are just very proud of our GSD students who represent us so well in the state. So, thank you. >> You guys have to stand closer so they can't see me in the back. >> Scoot over here a little. >> Yeah. If you two just scoot over that way, then we can still see the granite right there. >> And it's blocking the Okay, that was on me, not on [Music] [Applause] [Music] your [Music] >> Congratulations. We are super impressed and super proud of you. Thank you so much. and parents also stand and be recognized. We appreciate you supporting [Music] Nicole. I have

126to say that Granger High and Skyline, those two high schools have really wrapped their arms around this National History Day and their history teachers that are in those schools have really encouraged and taken it to a new level. So hopefully other high schools are listening and they can maybe have their interest peak to push their kiddos to to get involved in this because it is quite rigorous, but it's also rewarding and I think they learn a lot through the process. >> Thank you. All right. Um thank you for coming and being recognized. We do have need of an executive session. So um if there's no other discussion or questions, we'll entertain a motion for the purpose of safety and security. Sorry. >> And move executive session for the purpose of safety and security. Second. Right.

127We have a motion and a second to move to executive session for the purpose of safety and security. All in favor, please say, actually, this is a roll call vote. Sorry. Um, Julie, please state your name. >> Julie Jackson, yes. Kim Chandler, yes. >> Connie Burgess, yes. >> Chris Win, yes. Karen Winder, yes. >> Clark Nelson, yes. >> And Nicole McDermott, yes. All right, you are welcome to stay here. We're actually going to go upstairs and do our executive session. So if you all want to hang out,