001This is our 7 p.m. board meeting. We're going to begin by indicating we're going to begin with Julie. Billy Jackson, Chris, Todd Nicole Mc [Music] We're going to have John do the pledge of allegiance because this is his last. Will the audience please rise? Good afternoon 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. All right. Up next we have our reverence. And I get to introduce the reverence because I asked her to come. Um Austin Taran is a student at Taylorville High School and she uh was able to compete with the solut sanctioned activity for music uh this past year and she received a superior. She's going to be a senior next year and is
002I know and is part of the fantastic music program there at Taylor'sville. Taylorville has over 300 kids in the in the choir program alone. Um, and of course her mom happens to be the fantastic and wonderful Leah Tarant who is a choir director and she also has an amazing dad. And so these these parents are here to support her. But we're going to invite Austin up and have her come and sing for us for our reference and an awesome brother. Of course he's going to be a second or one. You're welcome to introduce what you're singing to. Okay. Um, hi, my name is Austin Tarant and I will be singing the light in the piaza from the light. [Music] I don't see a m shining from the sky. I'm no good at statues and stories.
003That's not what I think about. That's not what I see. The light sweet and then it grows and then it fills the air. [Music] [Applause] All I see is all I want is tearing from inside. That's all I see. The light in the pa. It's rushing up. It's pouring out. It's flying through the air. Who knows what you call it? But it's there. [Applause] It is there. [Applause] All I see is all I want is tearing inside. I see now I see everywhere. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. [Applause] [Music] The light in the pure My love [Music] [Applause] up. Thank you so much. I have something for you. But thank you. We appreciate you coming and absolutely gorgeous. We love that. So, you're welcome to stay. You don't have to. All right, we're going to go
004ahead and move on. We've got our good news minute coming up next. And we'll go ahead and do Julie since she's online first. Hi guys. My good news minute is um I I just wanted to recognize um I've been really excited to see that at our high schools there's like no break. Our high schools are still completely full of kids. And I'm really excited to see that we have all these like freshman and things like this that are starting in with all of our summer sports. Um like running and making friends with the cross country team um and things like this. I just think that there's such a great community that comes from all the choices that we have for our kids in our schools. And um I'm seeing that those opportunities for them are
005year round and that's pretty exciting though and though exhausting for what our principles I would think but when I talk to our principles they seem nothing but excited about it. So um that's my good news. Thanks Julie. Yeah I don't have a lot to report on that I've been able to be to this month and summer break but just want to take opportunity to recognize those people who are here every day still like several of those up here right now. Um just continuing to work and keep things going and preparing for the coming school year. So just thank you to all of you who are you know working so hard even though others are taking a break and appreciate all of your efforts. Thank you. I just want to mention um the Granite Youth Symphony
006and I was able to go to their performance at Valley Fair Mall. Uh what a beautiful night it was and the uh songs that were sung as well as played by the um the Granite Youth. Really, I was just so proud of them. The conductors did a wonderful job and um grateful that they even have more practicing time and more learning time in the summer. So um hopefully they'll come back to Valley Fair again. It was beautiful. Um I didn't I wasn't able to do the tour of Cypress Height with the rest of the board about a month ago and so I got to do that. um just recently and they are working so hard there to make sure our schools open on time and I just want to thank the work they're doing there
007and at Brock and at Magna um all three of those schools are just in high gear and so I just want to thank our um people the crews working on those schools to get them ready for the school year um and then I just want to thank I have a couple elementaryaries that are doing summer there's a library copper hills has their library open on Tuesdays which is so great for those students to go in and they can check out books and read and And um Woody Elementary has the lemonings out on Thursdays and just there's so many opportunities for our students even this summer with the lunch programs. And so I'm just grateful for everyone who's doing some hard things in the summer to give up some of their time for our students. So
008I appreciate that. Chris just took the two things I was going to tell. I have elementaryaries in my area that are uh keep their libraries open um at different times and so kids can come and continue to read throughout the summer to check out new books um in a school that's you know down the street from them even you know we have libraries but it's better to just pop into the school because it's easier for families and also the school lunch program we that's very popular out in our area um where kids can come and grab a sack lunch and it's a good program so thanks to all who make those things I don't want to repeat what's already been said. So, I will say that uh all of our school audits have been completed
009and the responses from principles are rolling in. They're awesome. And um I also got to enjoy the grant sympath. They did a great job. They got to play at Elish Gardens in Denver, Colorado. And um while we did not get to stop at BIES on the way um and then they played in Moab. So um and all the kids made it and we all survived and and they had a great time. And so it was a lot of fun and I think it's just a fun program for that for that school or for the for the school district. Um, and one of the directors I just wanted to mention who was actually my high school director um, a few years ago, uh, he, uh, retired this year and he's been doing Grand Eth 43 years
010and so he, uh, gave a little honor to him and and, um, sent him off on his very last concert, his very last tour. So, it was a lot of fun. So, all right. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and move on from our good news minute. First, we're going to do real quick. I forgot um to recognize we've got I know we have PTA people in the audience. Will you guys please stand to be recognized? Thank you for being here. You guys appreciate your work. Do we have any GAbody? Granite office professionals. uh middle managers granite education foundation elected officials and then I don't see any administrators but all right we're going to go ahead and go on to our national history day qualifiers we're going to recognize recognize them and invite up
011I apologize. We had a slight mix up with the person who's going to come and present this award tonight. But are you folks here for the National History Days? Come on up, will you? So, I'm going to take a moment just to read a little bit about the National History Day competition. So, the National History Day competition engages more than half a million students across the country in a historical research project. Students in grades six through 12 select their own topic and find evidence from primary and secondary documents to support their analysis. They then present their findings to papers, exhibits, performances, documentaries, or websites. Students have the option of working individually or in a group. At each level of a competition, a panel of judges score the projects and interview each student involved. For granted
012students, the competition begins in the Salt Lake regional contest where the top three projects in each category advance to state. At state, the top two projects for each category advanced to the national competition in Washington DC. Students who make it to the nationals are in the top 1% of all students who engage in the national history day competition and Utah fourth and fifth grade students can participate in the similar competition with their journey culminating at the state competition. So sir, could you just tell us your name and give us a quick summary of your project that you did that was recognized? Hello, my name is Evan and my project this year. I did an individual performance on DCIA experiments with LSD in the 1950s and60s and I did it from the perspective of Frank Olson
013who was one of the military scientists who worked on this project and eventually died from his alleged use of or misuse of this project. And so I got to compete in Washington DC was a lovely experience and the competition was amazing. And while I didn't place very high, I still got to enjoy and work on my project and make proud. I apologize. I'm grabb like a balloon. picture have you guys. I was trying to keep the balloons out of the picture. So many balloons like that. Yes. Ready? Awesome. Congratulations. What'd you do in DC? Sorry, it's my camera. I got to visit the National Mall and the spy museum. Oh, that's a fun Smithsonians. I saw the national or the n natural history museum. Did you see the George Mason statue? No. Okay. Thank you.
014Congratulations. Is this your family that you have with you? Yes. My wonderful mother, my wonderful grandmother and editor and my sister. Thank you for supporting and we really appreciate it. Good job. Congratulations. And I do have the names for the other national qualifiers. Let me just read those very quickly. We have also Jonathan Nielsen from Eisenhower Junior High. Evan Ducky from Westside STEM Junior High. Uh Claire Oliver and Jonah Burnley from Skyland High School. Grace Winder from Granger High School. Paige Mers from Granger High School. Alexiso and Sabrina Golden from Granger High School. Danella Armstrong and Darby Armstrong from Granger High School. Oliver Gibbons from Scotland High School. Sophia Ars Loretta from Skyland High School, Sarah Zane from Skyland High School, Kalu and Wesley Candaleria from Skyland High School and on KOA Lee Kyle Lynman
015Jessa Matine and Mindy Fawn from Skyland High School. Those were their other national qualifiers. So, I just have to give our records. Hey, and I failed as a parent because Grace should be here too, my daughter, but she's not. And I don't know where our wires got crossed, but she's like, "No, you told me." So, I don't and I didn't. Yeah, failed. Anyway, I apologize. We'll figure out what went wrong there. Anyway, congrats to all of those guys. I've seen the work. I went to the when they were in the setup and the judging. It's a tremendous amount of work. You should be very proud to get to the national level at that top 1% really is the top like cream. We're just right there. So, good job everyone. I mean, but I just texted
016her. Did you hear? All right, we're going to go ahead and go on. I don't have anybody um signed up for system participation in elected officials participation also asked for that. So we're going to go ahead and go on to our consent agenda. Um consent agenda we've had for a few days. We've been able to ask any questions. So if there are question further questions go ahead and enter a motion. [Music] I move we accept the consent agenda. A second. We have a motion, a second to accept the consent agenda. Is there any further discussion? Quick comment. I just see we're continuing our equal opportunity schools contract that I've raised concerns on in just for consistency. Um still don't feel like that's a great contract for us to be in. So, just pointing that out.
017Um, additionally, I do want to raise the item regarding the funding of mobile hotspots for internet access. And you may want to provide more detail about what that is. I'll leave that up to you. Nevertheless, I while I realize it's ground money we're taking advantage of for this offering and not something we are taxing for. Um, someone somewhere is taxing to pay for this service. And at the end of the day, I just feel the education system's role to provide free internet to homes in the community. limited though it may be and so I'd like to ask the board to consider winding that down in the coming years. So I appreciate board member Chandler bringing this concern to my attention. I did get some additional information. We are uh providing 1500 mobile hotspots to impoverished
018families who do not have um internet access in their homes. This is done and paid for through um state board of education dig a digital access grant I want to say is the name of it or it's something digital something grant through the states so the state's actually funding this um it was originally funded through um ESER funds during co and we found that there was somewhat of demand and so we uh gained access and continued that service through this this grant from the state. Um, it's important to note that these devices do have uh filtration and a 20 gig limit on the services. So, this isn't something that uh students could come and stream. um they can do some basic things and ident work through Canvas to be able to do homework and other
019items um uh through the school year. Uh the uh so not only the Chromebooks have filter but the the T-Mobile hotspots are also also come with u federally required um filtration uh content. So that uh that's what I know about that grant. If there was if board members have additional questions, I'm happy to respond. Um, and I I guess I have concerns just because I I was aware that you brought that concern up. Um, those digital hotspots, those mobile hotspots are critical to some kids. Um, and it's not just about um us providing a service or providing that for them and realize that yes, that could be, but it it creates a huge divide. It's something that we expect kids to check their grades online. We don't we no longer hand them a printed um
020grade sheet. We communicate through school and through teachers. That's the primary way that we communicate with our kids. They have to do research. They do research most, you know, by and large on the internet and that creates a huge disparity with those kids who do not have it. Um, not only that, but it's uh it's not just educational disparities, but economic hindrances. A lot of places require kids to even if the the kids are applying for a job, they have to do a a an application online for colleges for anything that's and I realize there's they have that ability to do that at school, but that's not always available to them. if we ever do have a a distance learning day for snow that that gets those secondary kids, our elementary kids are are primarily
021offline, but those secondary kids especially, that's a that's a huge disadvantage for them. So I um and I I've not heard from anybody of my constituency. I don't know about anybody else, but I feel like that's something that is important for us to um especially since it's a grant that we're not providing um that it's important for those kids to have that. I've had students who have not had internet access before them and it is very difficult for them to be able to keep up with their peers and everything that they're doing. So that's just my personal my personal opinion on it. So um all right we have a motion a second on the floor and if there's no further discussion all in favor please say I any oppos um we're going to go to
022our information items we first have invite There's a few changes to focus and I know as a parent I got the the email um we're excited for to see what's happening. So we invited Rick to come to share with us what's happening with focus and how the communication is going to change a little bit with this. Thank you just there board president, board member, superintendent, executive leadership. Thank you for the opportunity. Um this evening I have been asked to give a presentation. Um board president set me up there for our communication platform. If you're old like me, this was the calling for absences platform back in the day and now it's become much more sophisticated with a lot more options. We had another product uh prior that contract had ended. We took a look at
023a variety of different products, a variety of different needs and selected uh focuses solution. We currently use focus as our school student information system. So this is an added module that piggybacks on that that platform hearing a cool beat. up and down. Yeah, got it. Um, there's univers universal features. So, I teased a little bit about the calling machine back in the day, but now you have um some features that are important that we use quite often. Obviously, phone messages include text messages now, email messaging, and focus has an app as well that allows me to happen on that app back and forth. One technical thing that we look at too is with as many students and teachers we have the the ability to do rostering rostering is it type of work for being able
024to get everyone in and set up really easy and automated single sign on is another thing where someone wants to sign on to a lot of different things they use their regular username and password doesn't take a different password data privacy agreements factor in and then just student records as about the biggest reason we switched was two-way messaging. Two-way messaging is increasingly becoming more and more important. Uh you see that with teachers and students through different products. You'll see that with teams activities and different products. This product allows us to do that where our prior solution did not. Currently, it's only through the app, the two-way messaging. What everyone hopes to get to and no one has at this point is two-way texting through a through a platform solution. We've been told by Focus that
025that is something that they're working on. I think everyone's trying to get there to get market share and get everyone's business, but currently that app solution is our two-way messaging. And again, that's not something that we had before in our prior solution. I wanted to highlight as well, you have your mass messaging. So that's again the teasing about the phone call when your students absent. Get a phone call, get an email, get a text. Parent can go in and set that up inside their focus app. Turn whatever on and off however they want it. You can set up group messaging as well. So teacher can set up their parents in their class or uh coach in a sport can set up their team and then even individual messaging can happen student and teacher messaging back
026and forth. We like that done through an app through a platform that has official record rather than text. We discourage uh individual messaging via text or personal messaging via text. Let me talk two-way messaging for just a second. Um, we see some products that are really popular that are out there. Class Dojo, you may have heard. Group me is another project. Those offer two-way messaging. And so those were what we were trying to solve for with our focus solution and we're able to. So, we're happy to be able to bring that on um and hopefully limit the amount of products that both teachers and parents are having to download and use. Message translation feature that's in focus communication over 100 languages automatic based on the user's focus pref preferred language. So, when a parent signs
027up or reenrolls every year, they have an opportunity to pick the language in which they want to receive their communication. That's how they'll receive their communication both on the phone and text and email. Message templates is something that's uh was exciting to us. This is the idea of someone creating a message. Maybe a school has a standing message every month or every week that they're going to send out. You can create a template and it becomes a lot less busy work for the principal or even for the teacher. If the teacher has a message that they're going to send out every year, two, three times a year, they can create a template and it's set up to go. Those templates can be shared uh and I think I have that on another slide. Yeah, let
028me get there. Scheduled messages. That's what I was saying as well. So the template I can have and then I can just schedule it to go out ahead of time. So I'm not having to recreate the wheel or re get in there and do the busy work all the time. And again, this is mass. So at a district level, it's school, it's teacher, it's individual. Polls and signups is another feature that is new that we that we're excited about. This is something that school can send out and take a poll for all their constituents at at the school level. It could be done again teacher level, can be done at the district level. Signups I think will probably get leveraged a little more than polls. Um typically we've seen for parent teacher conferences or SCPs
029a sign up and kind of use a third product third party product. We use pick a timing in elementaryaries often. This can now be done in focus communication where u parents or anyone I can as a teacher I can set up signups within inside the app. Uh, one thing that we like to have, and I mentioned it earlier, is we like to be able to have reporting of what's being communicated or what's sent out or if someone comes back and asks us, did we did we communicate that out or what was the message that we sent, we're able to go back into that that storage and pull those out. Um, we can do that in email, phone, voice, etc. B basically recordkeeping of what's done. That's all the big features. I know somewhat exciting, but
030it it's it's interesting to watch how the cold calling machine now can do much much more. If I ask a clarify question, we have discussed and I know uh a certain board member up here has been trying to get a single app for our parents to be able to have access to everything um since I've been here since 2008. And we have tried a variety of different tools. This will now consolidate parents down to one app to be able to access student grades, information, and messaging. Is that correct? Grades, information, messaging. Yes. I I say that that way, superintendent, because we're going to need to evolve a little bit, and I'll I'll pick that pick a time example. Um, we need we had our first round of administrator professional learning on the app today, this
031morning, not the app on communications. So, as schools get comfortable and familiar with it, we're going to see them drop other platforms that they've used to just use this one. So, the answer is yes, but give us a little bit of time to get everyone brought up. So to your point, uh, some of our teachers will still use things like Class Dojo or Remind or some other additional resources and that we're not saying restricting that at this point in time. And certainly social media and some other tools uh to be able to enhance communication will still be something, but for parents who really just want to get information directly from the district and their school, this would be a one-stop shop. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. I was just gonna follow. You can go over.
032My question is, have we done a focus group yet with like some a school or some kind of teams or some kind of community to like try this out and see if we have teams yet or we literally just rolled it out to administrators. Administrators. Okay. And and Chris, your point's a good one. I mean, when it comes to technology, you always want to try and pilot and use things. This round we weren't able to to the extent that we would have liked only because of we didn't want to pay for two products at one time. The contract for a prior product ended June 30th. Contract for this new project began July 1. So in weighing that sometimes we've been we have doubled up just to cover. We had to sign on to a whole
033a whole additional year for the for the old product. Um so financially it just didn't make sense. We'll be um working with Luke and and some other individual schools on a smaller basis before everything hits in August to try and do as much of that as we can. Enhance that response. Not that you didn't do a good job, Rick, but just add on to that. I think our primary concern is being able to do have the same functionality of our previous tool and more. Yeah. And so we feel very confident that we're going to be able to provide the same level of communication service that we did before and now we're looking at evolving that and increasing the capacity and capabilities with this app. So I'm the one who has been asking for this like
034eight nine years ago back in the Linda Mariani days. And so for those who who you know who have been here a while, this has been a big request because so I I really I thought the same thing, Ben, as I was reading through this, I was like, "Oh my goodness, this is the app I've been asking for for almost n you know, nine plus years." So thanks for the time. I'm I'm a little sad that it took us this long to get here because with digital banking and one button this and what I I am a little frustrated it took that long. At the same time, you couldn't do well in the past or you can look to the future, right? So, I'm excited to see um that we have this now and excited
035to see even, you know, might take some time. Take Chris's point to work out a few keys, but that we have something that kind of is in the palm of your hand that can be a great information resource to not only our students, but to parents and to of course our teachers and our administrators. So, thanks for the work on this and I'm excited to see, you know, how how we can develop it and promote it and make sure that it does everything we're promising it does. And my question is, is it what I don't know the ease of it to as as we introduce it to teachers and to those within, you know, the Granite School District? Yes. speaking to that. I think from a teacher perspective, I don't I don't want to speak
036for all teachers, but I I know um when we switched, what what kind of held us back on the app that board member Winger speaks to is our student information system prior did not have an app solution. And so we were we were cobbling together a a quasi app, for lack of a better word, uh in switching to a new student information system uh is is a heavy lift. It's a heavy lift and some of that is because so many people use it. Teachers use it for grades and attendance etc. Everyone in the office. Uh I think we're now in a good rhythm and we're bringing on several things. We have uh focus communications coming on. We have a digital hall pass that we're piloting and expanding. We're we're seeing some fruits of our change
037labor if you will in in making that switch in SIS. Um, I I will say though too in in always wanting to underpromise and overd deliver that every SIS and and its features are a little bit different and sometimes it's what someone's used to and what they know. So when you talk to someone in another district or a parent in another district, the product that they're using, each one has its own nuances and its pluses and minuses. I will say personally I think um and I when I built and conducted and ran the RFP that focus was chosen on we waited uh usability uh board member or just just look and feel quite heavily in our selection. So I I'm quite confident you're not going to find another student information system that has the ease
038of use that that focus school software does. So, I'm gonna put you in the hospital. Yeah, there's some other things that obviously were requested. Part of the reason why we wanted to switch over was that we wanted a system that communicated with Canvas. And I understand there's still issues. There's still some other issues with this. Are we working those bugs out? I just I I love that we're going to put one app, you know, one app to remove them all. That's great. But can we we've got to have everything in line too. How are we doing at working those other bugs out? Yeah. And the bug you named that's probably been the the ugliest bug uh has been the the focus comm focus canvas communication or prior to focus the discovery canvas communication. This year
039we we came up with a solution and piloted with a test starting this time last year piloting with the test group. We then rolled it out to Granite Connection High and just use it at one location. This is a Canvas focus integration and the rub there board members was teachers having to enter both grades in in Canvas and then in focus. We scaled that to all high schools um in around February and all indicators is that's been going smooth. Uh, a bit of a challenge there is we just we run with proficiency based grading which is not something that that straight aligns with how Canvas does it. Um, and so we have to we have to finesse that a little bit but I'm confident in saying that's better than it's ever been as well. Any
040other questions? Julie, do you have any? Yeah, I do. Thank you. Um, Rick, I think this is really exciting news. I think this is just going to be huge um once people really once it gets rolled out. So I want to know what what can I tell my friends and neighbors about this? Do I tell them uh what's the timeline? When can they use this? Um do I tell them you go download the focus app and then you use your district username and password? What should I tell them? Yeah, many parents if they have kids in school already probably have the focus out. Maybe not elementary, but I know in secondary you're always watching your kids grades and so it's not focus though. Is that correct? See focus the app that we use. It's the
041same one that you've always had. So that's brand SD just messaging within there will now work will start pushing through. I just want to clarify that because you're not looking for something that says focus. It's not replacing what we already have. It's not an SD. Yeah. Yeah. So what they what parents currently already have messaging will won't pass through there. So we did have a Blackboard um what's the other name of the company? Blackboard. But uh something oh that was their Blackboard was a product and I remember there was an app that we've been utilizing for communication. It was just poorly implemented and because they looked at identical to the focus app most parents didn't realize they would need both in order to get communications on one and grades access in the other. Now it's
042all just in one. So we will communicate with parents to delete the other app. it's it's out of date, no longer being utilized, and make sure that they know to just download uh this current version. So, if I already have the GST app, am I going to notice is there's new capability? Yeah. So, it will push a the little red number like like apps will notifying you you have something big. Mhm. On your app. Oh, okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. I wish I had the technical word for that. That's okay. I don't need the technical word. And um it's like a notification that they'll send, right? Correct. And then um and then will it do that right now or once a Yep. Once the message is sent, again, administrators were just shown trained on
043this today. And and keep in mind as well, most people might not use use the app. Now, where that becomes helpful is is two-way messaging. But most people will receive I'm gonna I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they want it in a text. So, they want to know they want to receive their messages via the native SMS text messaging. But it you can receive it whatever you set. So, email, text, phone call, however you want. That's how it's going to come in the language that you choose. So, correct me if I'm wrong to clarify her question a little bit further and for the board's sake. um in an emergency situation when we've normally just sent out a text uh and a phone call. Now, we'll also push to that app. So, even
044if you're not familiar with that capabilities, if the app's already downloaded on your phone and your school's uh impacted by that shelter in place or uh whatever it might be, that emergency protocol, you're going to get that alert on your phone and you're going to be like you're going to open the app and be like, "Oh, I can I have this information now." Yes. And even when it comes to emergency, even if someone has opted out, I don't want to receive any messages from an emergency still comes through. Uh so that's a nice factor or something to note as well. Chris did point out that it's only as effective as you read your actual messages. Yeah, read your emails. But again, in an emergency situation, we're still going to text you and um call would
045normally do. So, this would just be another additional way. And once you figure that out, you're going to be like, "Oh, I need to text my teacher." And suddenly you'll see this button here and you be like, "I can just send a text. I don't have to send an email." And it's all through the app itself and it translates the language and does all these other cool things. I'm excited. Don't get me wrong. I optimistically I'm excited. ful. I'm hopeful. Yeah. No, I I really am excited that this is going to happen. Good looking forward to be able to have that ability. So, thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thanks so much. We're gonna go over We're gonna invite come up to the front and go over our strategic plan. This is just an
046update that we do every year. So, I'm going to mute her, share my screen, right? Y Can you hear me? Okay, Julie. Yes, I can. Sorry, I got to share my screen here. Yeah, I'm not sharing my screen. Sorry, Julie. Have to quit. I just upgraded my Zoom. Someone's going to give me grief. If it's only for me, don't worry about it. I' I've got it your presentation pulled up. Very good. Here we go. Okay. So, I'm going to be very brief. I'm going to fly through this. Feel free to stop me if you have specific questions or concerns, and I'm happy to speak to those. Um, there will be a better time for this presentation. Uh, Dr. I did it last July, so I thought that it would be appropriate that we do it
047this July. But as we look through our current accountability system and the way that data and information is coming through, by and large, this should really happen in January. So you can see the actual um applicable data from the previous school year, which we don't have a lot of that data yet, although the information and the tenative reports are very promising. So with respect to that, I'm happy to answer additional questions as we come to those slides. So, as you're aware, we have a vision and a mission. I'm not going to to go through those pieces. Um, we do have our graduate of granite characteristics. Uh, we pass out these t-shirts um to our respective incoming kindergarten classes um to remind uh not only these families and these students, but also our teachers at every
048grade level that this is ultimately our goal and our desires to help our students to graduate and uh to graduate successfully. So we do have our graduate grant characteristics. Uh we did a focus group with our district community council and with school community councils a few years ago to identify the characteristics that our families would like to see their students develop as a result of their educational experience in Granite School District. And these are the attributes that we came up with. Um and uh we obviously have included them as part of our strategic plan and our social skills and disposition section. Um, I'm not going to go into details on those, but uh, we see examples of those being played out in our schools. Um, sometimes this is referenced to as character education, but what
049we're teaching our students is uh, to be on time for class, to turn in your assignment, uh, when it's due. Um, it's those types of uh, attributes that help them to have a quality educational experience, to make sure that their educational outcomes are outstanding. So uh we have developed a strategic plan and and the goal today is to present updated information with respect to our goals on that. Some of that information is available to us at this point in time, but most of it is not. You'll see that reflected. So I'm not going to uh go into the strategic plan. Um there's a whole website uh dedicated to this where you can break down the different components and objectives and action items and I can certainly reference those if you do have questions. So, our
050priorities and objectives and actions are detailed on our website. I encourage people to look at that information. Um, obviously, we're looking uh as part of a strategic plan to have an impact on our outcomes. And so, we do have several goals that we're working through at this point in time. We don't have uh ELA or MAP data uh until the end of uh probably more likely until January. So our goal is to uh present this moving forward in the January time frame once that information is updated for the previous school year. So you see our ELA mask force from the uh two years ago, two two school years ago from spring of 2024 and again um you can see the trajectory we're holding fast on uh and expect that we'll surpass that 79% threshold for
051this current graduation year. that is data that we do have and it looks very promising, but until that's official, we don't want to to publish that outside um until we get that information confirmed. So, um I'm very optimistic about our graduation rate uh and our goal projection moving forward. So, uh the first academic priority and objectives, um you can see what those goals are. I'm again not going to spend time on those unless we have specific questions. Um you can see our measurements here. Our goal is to increase proficiency in ELA to 38% in math to 36%. Um as measured by the end of year rise and you can again we don't have this data as of yet. Uh we'll get updated 2025 data in uh December and we'll be able to share that publicly
052in January. Um I wanted to share this um we're trying to increase uh AP involvement and CTE pathways. You can see when we go to our graduation um reports and end of year meetings with our high schools that we ask how many of their students are participating in AP or advanced honors courses and CTE pathways and the goal is to encourage participation in those. So we do see a little bit of an a deflation in terms of the data from year to year and I actually expect it will go a little bit lower because actually the more pe more students we get involved um to get those students to a C or better is going to be a little bit more challenging. like when the ACT became required um it uh sank our statewide uh
053average by almost two points uh because more students were taking but the again as we get more and more students involved in this type of rigor and these types of pathways we expect better outcomes overall. So our weeder results is one thing we do have uh data on at this point in time and I'm very excited about some of this data. Some of our schools have taken on some new approaches to engaging um our students on goal setting and um participation. That's uh as you can see in particular our high school data uh is outstanding and you'll see in particular uh that relates to uh speaking is is the largest growth that we're seeing on that front. So um I'm just showing you this data uh from that previous year. Now we see uh speaking
054having the largest um change in district average um on on our secondary scores. So that's outstanding when you think about what this really means. Um I obviously taught at Granger this last semester and uh Granger has a model that a lot of our high schools have started to adopt and follow. Um where they set individual goals with students um and then they work to uh provide additional supports for those students and do all their lead testing on certain day and time frame and make sure the students show up and participate and then that obviously uh helps with the outcome in and of itself. I know as a as a classroom teacher um trying to encourage especially English language learners to speak and to participate engage is challenging and so utilizing um ESL strategies um is
055critical and so getting that ESL endorsement is actually pretty critical as well as it's not just teaching kids um good language skills but it's also just good tier one instructional practice and so uh we'll continue to focus on that but uh I know just encouraging, finding ways to find my have my English my multi- language learner students participate in class and use their language skills obviously is going to help enhance that as well. Hey, just a quick question on that. Um I mean that's a huge jump on the last slide from the high school. Do you think that part of that that is that strategy that they use this for sure to have it just be on one date and have the other kids gone and do you think that it does and I've not
056had chance to debrief um in salt. We usually review a lot of these data points in salt um but we've been kind of re refocusing and restructuring um our student achievement leadership team here at the district and so we did not have a chance to debrief on those strategies quite yet uh post school year. So, that's one thing that will be on our agenda coming up in Salt and you'll hear a report from Tyler Mitch and Lesie um about salt at boost and how we kind of uh take data month to month and review those things and then implement resources for and talk about individual schools and even individual grade level teams and needs um so that we make sure that we're supporting our schools as appropriate. So, we'll have an opportunity to debrief those
057strategies and look at the data a little more in depth and closely to be able to better answer that question if that makes sense. And now I just committed to do that, right Lesie? So, thanks. Uh so here's an example of Hunter High also instituted this strategy and you can see um that 2025 estimate of going from 5.1 to 12 uh% proficiency and that growth uh that percent of students meeting target is up to 65%. So um students moving along and and uh to their designated goal and target is is 65% of students meeting. That's pretty pretty spectacular. And again, you can see their individual speaking um average scores are through the roof. Um here's Karns High. That's another excellent example. Um again, utilizing those same strategies and uh the growth uh in their proficiency
058and also students meeting their targets uh are excellent. So, moving on to social skills and dispositions priority. Um there's a couple of things that we are able to measure with respect to the strategic plan that we'd like to share some of that data and some exciting things. We do obviously have um tiered interventions and supports and as a goal um you can see is stated there um is trying to get a sustainability score of 70% or above on our um our PBIS and those supports. So we can see from 2023 to 2024 74% of school had a 70 or above. This last school year that jumped to 85% had a 70 or above. So that's excellent growth in that area. And you can again as you walk through our schools see how different schools are
059implementing um those graduate granted characteristics in PBIS. Um and a lot of that has to do with communication and helping students understand. you probably see when you're out elementary schools in particular as we talk about PBIS and strategies is making sure the the rules as it were are posted. So kids can even see what the strategy and approach is. If there's a challenge I do this. If there's this I do this and then if uh the problem escalates I I then take it to an administrator and it's all planned and it's very communicated. It's very public for our parents, our teachers, and our students to all be on the same page on how we address uh behaviors and uh challenges that we might experience. Uh one of the social skills and disposition priority is attendance.
060Um we are struggling on this front and uh that's not a shocker. I know Julie uh had opportunity with uh JLC leadership from USBA to meet with leadership from the legislature and this was one of their key key areas of focus as well. Um we've obviously seen since uh co a challenge of trying to get our students back in schools as regular attenders and uh there's some challenges with um this being a non-referable offense unless you are unresponsive to u an intervention from the school itself. we found as we've kind of reviewed that process that we actually haven't been making any referrals to court even though we are trying to get students involved in currency interventions. So that's something we're collecting some data on and we'll be analyzing and so Lesie and Jared are working
061hard on that front. I appreciate their help. Um, we have uh spoken to legislators about some potential changes in legislation, but frankly, we want to analyze some more data on this front to see what would actually be appropriate along this line. And perhaps it just simply means changing the goal um and adjusting the goal and our strategies and approaches to improving and enhancing uh student attendance. The reality is if it's not a priority for the legislature, it's going to be very difficult for us uh to try to push families beyond what we've already done. Some of our schools have done some tremendous things with attendance related competitions. Um we we try not to do attendance awards anymore uh because we don't want sick kids coming to school. But at the same time, you can see
062those numbers, percents of students with 90% or better attendance by uh the end of the school year, we're at 55%. Um that's pretty rough. And uh if you if you think about some of the challenges some of our families, we still see in some school locations upwards of 30% um who are considered chronically absent. So, we'll continue to work on this goal and perhaps a realignment is appropriate, but we'll uh analyze the data and see how we would like to move forward and bring that information forward as appropriate. Ben, when when you speak to that, I I want to just clarify we're going to continue to seek for 90% attendance. The adjustments might be the way that we the the goal adjustment that you talk about might be the way that we get there. Am
063I correct? A little bit of both. I think I want to be very transparent and honest. If if the legislature is not going to support any potential appropriate changes to um state code, then perhaps this goal is not attainable. I mean, with all due respect, it I mean, in as much as we want to have 90% of attendance and we start making court referrals, um, at this point in time, we're not even sure how to be able to make that referral to court after an intervention has failed, right? And how much time and effort do we really want to spend uh trying to get kids to go to court who aren't who are chronically absent when we should be focused on other things? So perhaps improving tier one instruction um creating better engagement with our
064students, increasing sense of belonging might be better approaches to increasing attendance. Um so it all the above. We want to analyze everything. I I just want to say that I do not want to lower the bar. That's what I'm concerned about. I don't want to lower the bar. And um I also do feel like it's our job to um figure this out. The legislature can help us, but really this is our responsibility. Well, yes, but only in partnership with families. And if our families if we have families I mean if you're talking about a school that has 30% chronically absent students and administrators and teachers are trying to collaborate with parents to find out what the challenge and difficulty in getting to school is. Um and they're doing everything in their power including home visits
065or other uh types of interventions. And I I know some of our schools are working really hard on this and they'll get a percent increase. Um which really in a small elementary school could be 10 students, 15 students maybe. That's progress. Um but it's also a little deflating too. So again, I I think it's appropriate to look at the data and look at what we might be able to accomplish. So I'm open on all fronts on that. I don't like lowering the bar either, but if uh if I want I also want to do things that are actually going to enhance and improve student outcomes. I believe attendance will do that. But I also know that uh quality tier one instruction is a big a big thing at the secondary level. Um but mostly at
066the uh the elementary level and I'm looking at my team back here in case I say something that's not backed up by any data. I think mostly at the educ elementary level it's not for lack of effort or quality tier one instruction. I think it's families who experience we're seeing it improper stones and families support um our our parents struggle to help get their students to school. And without parental support in that front it's not really fair to hold our educators to a standard that we can't possibly uphold without parental support. Sometimes that's true secondary as well. Yeah. We've had students who have been pulled out of school so they can little brother or sister. Absolutely. So again, I'm not giving up the ghost on this one quite yet, but it is something we're we're
067struggling to meet our goals as a strategic plan. So it's time to analyze this a little deeper. Next time you show us this data or this slide, will you please stratify it by level by elementary school? That's a great suggestion. I just want to make a quick comment back to what you said with Julie. this is our responsibility but um attendance obviously did with co but especially alongside the juvenile justice reform bill it took teeth out of there there's really no consequence outside of you know the lack of educational growth and opportunity for those kids missing school but it didn't it we're basically powerless there's no consequence anymore for kids not attending school. So to to your point, Julie, yes, it is our yes it is our um responsibility and I wholeheartedly agree, but I
068do think we need to work with the legislature to I don't know what that looks like, but there's got to be some level of consequence. um you know for we need kids there and we all agree that's where they're going to learn if they have if they're in their chairs facing the front of the room and what the quality educator teaching whatever you know it's the lessons are for that day that's going to be successful. So, I think I don't know, I'm not necessarily advocating for this huge, you know, attendance bill, but I think that juvenile justice reform bill did, you know, kind of put a I don't know what the right word is, but it made our lives difficult in holding families feet to the fire to make sure that their kids are getting
069to school. It did exactly what we thought it would do. And if you go back and watch the testimony that Doug Larson and I provided on that bill, everything we said that would come to pass has come to pass. Raping violations are through the roof and we're seeing it vast in shorty. Now, I want to own our part of this problem because the bill does allow the current statute does allow us to make a court referral if an intervention is failed. The challenge has been until last year when there was a modification made in the court system. the court was still not allowing for those referrals to be made. They didn't know what to do with them. And I think we all agree that it's not an ideal situation to push a kid and their
070family to court for not showing up to school. Um I I don't think anybody loves that idea, right? But unless we get the $30 million that was promised us back in 2017 uh for the interventions and support, I'd rather focus our attention on other things that will be successful in helping us improve academic outcomes. Yeah. And to clarify, I don't I don't need to push families to court. I I just want to point out that that had a lot in it that was a little bit hard for us when consequences were taken away. Absolutely. And it's I really still an issue on the vaping side as well. I really do think that we're going to see some legislation being proposed. I'm in like several committees discussing this right now, but um and so I also
071agree that the legislaturator's got to get involved. I still just really oh my gosh, Ben, it's going to take a lot of convincing for me to ever want to lower that bar from 90%. because I already feel like frustrated when we say hooray that 69% of our kids are on benchmark. Like we're really nailing it. I'm like, well, there's a lot that's still 31% of our kids who are not. You know, I just So, I would rather say, "Nope, this is not where we want to be is here." And just continue to say, "Nope, we're not there yet. We're not there yet. We're not there. Look, legislature, we're still not there." then lower it and say, "Oh, yep. We are there." You know, I that's going to take a lot of convincing. We don't have
072to have that discussion right now. And I don't know that you're even actually proposing that. I think you're just saying you're open to a discussion about that. I think I'm not open to lowering the bar. I think I'm looking at alternative measures that could demonstrate that the school is doing its part to provide the appropriate supports and efforts to increase and improve attendance. Okay. That that feels better to me too. Okay. Is there any funding related to attendance rates? Is our funding affected if we have low attendance? Is it improved if we have high attendance in any way? Do you want to speak to that because I think we're going to talk about Yeah. So average daily membership is what the impact is on attendance. So they go back and look at the school year
073to see what was our attendance like that was converted into an average membership meaning how many days did you attend based on a 180 day school year and that's how RWP funding is provided to us. So we do advise funding and kids are in schools. Yes. I think my primary concern has less to do with the funding question and more that it's hard for our educators to do their job if kids aren't in seats. And so it's really hard to teach a kid the standards if they're not in front of you. And uh so again on our front, what does that look like? What's our responsibility? Providing quality tier one instruction that's engaging that our kids want to be in class in school and that school is a welcoming environment for both our students and
074their families where our families want to engage. And I and I don't disagree. I just would add a little bit tiny bit of caution because I think the reason that maybe the legislature went down the road it didn't in the first place is that there are a lot of people who would say it's it's up to the parent to decide um what their child needs and whether they're getting I'm not saying it the right way the way I'm trying to express myself here but there's plenty of kids who are in the situations you just you describe it here but there's also have kids who are frankly they don't actually need to be in school every day. They are doing just fine on their own and their parents know that and they are happy for them
075to be doing other things sometimes. Um and as long as we're following about the process where we are okay with excused absences and maybe not trying to punish those, I mean that would make me feel better about it. Um I also wanted to ask just on that note are we doing anything to address the issue that that I had personally in elementary for exampibility score because why as an elementary age kid because I failed to excuse an absence one too many and she got a one and that's like an automatic that's just the way it works and it doesn't make any sense. was really frustrating for me. Are we doing anything to address that kind of issue as well? I believe we did address that. Um I'm happy to follow up um offline on that
076piece. I would say um that I agree with you and uh but I'm going to provide another perspective on that as well because I have a 16-year-old son with an Epics ski pass and he is allowed as long as there's all A's in his um grade book uh for my DSD um to be able to skip a day of school. um not too often. Uh but his teachers would loathe me for indicating that I'm sure. Um the problem is he's never had Ace, so he's never gotten to miss school. He's never had all A's, I should say, at any given time. There's always a lone B or even sometimes a C and he would kill me for sharing that information here. So I won't bring up S's name at all. But uh with respect to
077that, I think we're talking, you and I are talking about a very small contingent of the problem. And the broader piece where we're seeing 30% chronic absenteeism is generally tied to higher poverty families whose um student outcomes are abysmal, frankly. And this isn't and if families are engaging with us then we should be excusing those absences. We shouldn't be punishing students. And if the students provide getting the help and support that they need from their family and their grades are not and their outcomes are not being impacted. But where we're seeing the bigger challenge that I I I want to make sure we're focusing our attention on is making sure kids who do need to be in class because they are missing the instruction that that's being addressed and supported appropriately. And the first and
078foremost intervention is to work with parents, right? And again, not saying I disagree. I just want to make sure we aren't sweeping in the way that small contingent should matter as well. Agreed. we have appropriate policies and in place that we're not punishing that group of people. And I think we'll still have oneoff situations that we need to address here and there and and we're prepared to do that. I believe I want you to know too that in the discussions that we're having on the legislative level. uh we've made sure that people who have that that kind of perspective and are advocating for those kinds of parents rights situations, they are at the table and so that we can make sure to take care of that concern and that contingency. I think you're bringing up
079the the primary challenge though because I think the message is convoluted as I've had this conversation with parent right groups directly. um they would abhore any sort of I mean they've indicated to me very frankly that they would oppose any such initiative and I think we want to focus on the students who were clearly seeing a correlation between absenteeism and student outcomes um and a lack of engagement with the families or our ability to engage with the families and how when we are assessed as a system um based on those outcomes and those families that's not fair to teachers and those those those rules are not fair. So that's where I would want to take that conversation with the legislature and with our parent rights group is change the rules or or provide us the
080help and support to make sure that we have the ability to provide that that education to those kids. I I I can appreciate what you're saying, Kim, and I thought about that because I have had I've had a few this year especially that are chronically absent and by and large, while they're good, I've got a couple that are just great kids and I love them pieces and they will eventually catch up, but they miss what I teach in class and it's not I mean, I can help them as much as I possibly can, but they miss a significant portion of what I teach and they're behind. And even if they're good kids and they're, you know, they they do eventually get it, it's that's a burden. That's an extra burden also on teachers that we
081now have to catch kids up to whatever it is that they have missed. And you know, I have a snowboarder who he has missed a lot of my class and I had to catch him up and I had to help him along and that was you know it's just it creates so much extra also and and I I can appreciate that that's a a parent choice in a lot of ways but sometime most of the time by and large just from my experience those kids are not the ones that are getting ace struggling. Sorry I didn't mean to cut you off. I think to your point uh for president the 45% of those students who were at less than 90% um the vast majority of those are tied to um they're not the situation we're
082talking about here. They're just not these are kids who are are missing a lot of instruction and it's not because the parent um is pulling them out for a mental health day here and there. This is missing 40 days in a in a semester. We're missing every single day. Yeah. So, it's a challenge and we'll keep working through it. Right. Absolutely. Because I I mean I've also heard stories from the other side, not in our district, just people I know around the country had happened to them and they're not this group that we're talking about, right? They're the other group that I'm trying to bring up. stories happen on both sides and I just want to make sure we're looking at both sides. I appreciate that and I would just emphasize too if a family's
083working and communicating with a teacher that that solves the problem that that shouldn't be included in this 45% in my mind, right? Because uh we're obviously engaged and we're we're working through that challenge or that difficulty if it becomes more problematic. So communication from families is preeminent and as long as we're having those conversations I think we're in a good place. Uh the other measure that we have on that is 100% of we're trying to get it to a perfection in terms of teachers taking role uh at daily attendance for every class period. And so we'll continue to work through that. We're at a little less than 80% right now. Um there's we're evaluating how that's being measured in focus. um and what tools and resources we need to do. We've been able to identify
084locations and um some other individuals that we just need to provide some additional support and training and help them understand why that goal is important um and what it will help us do. But that number actually might be a little deflated by virtue of the fact that we have some some teachers just not taking regular attendance. I mean when you're 20% on that front, you can see how that might impact the numbers. Okay. One of our other objectives is with respect to sense of belonging. We measure this through our Panorama student survey. Um so you can see uh by the end of uh next spring uh next school year uh in grades three through five, we're hoping to accomplish a sense of of belonging of 75%. As of this last spring, we're already at 87%.
085So, we're far surpassing that goal. More and more of our schools are engaging with again, this is about creating a welcoming environment, helping our students and our families to to feel excited about coming and being at school and engaging in school. You can see that number is at 79% uh for for our secondary schools. Uh we also have uh another positive change uh on one of our that sense of belonging. Actually, did I say that wrong? No, that is right. Okay. And I'll let you look at that data as well. Um we continue to see increases. Um that sense of belonging uh is up now to 67% on three through five and 46%. So we're surpassing that 2% increase. And I think as our uh as our our schools better understand this goal um and
086and are committing to the strategies that create a welcoming environment um and build uh engagement. Um a lot of this has to do with quality tier one instruction. You're going to keep hearing me say that because that addresses a number of challenges and problems. So uh last but not least, our talent development priority. We'll let you look at that data really quick. Um we have some retention measures and uh receiving um their educ their professional educator's license within three years of the hire date um and having um our contract positions be filled by the the end of the school year. We're just off on a few of those goals. We'll continue to work towards attaining those. Additionally, with our professional learning and evaluation, um we had 99% the last two years uh complete PG& um
087that's incredible. Um I I don't know how we do much better than that because there's always going to be a couple of instances where we struggle. So you're literally talking about a handful of folks who are not completing that. You can see our 98% factor compliance training uh rate. Uh that was achieved primarily by opening up uh good job to Doug and Joe who helped administer that in our legal and policy department um and in negotiation with Ga. We opened that up in July and allowed people to start knocking that out. And so I'm assuming because today is my birthday, it's also vector um open day that we have allowed our employees to start taking their vector trainings. So um if it hasn't happened yet, it will happen soon. Uh the last uh we saw
08883% of our schools met or partially met academic goals for the the 2023 2024 school year. We've not been able to do that measurement for this most recent uh time frame. So we'll hope to have an update on that report. I think uh you might think that 83% is insufficient or partially meaning we want our schools there's a lot of research that indicates that setting big hairy audacious goals actually helps you further your goal instead of setting something that's necessarily achievable and so we often synergize and psychologically surpass our own capa capacity in some instances as as local teams in beating goals by setting goals that are really hard and difficult and not necessarily meeting them, but making great strides. And so, um, I don't mind that 83% number and we'll continue to evaluate that.
089That means that our school our schools are setting high high bars and trying to achieve them. And that's good. We need to have high academic rigor and challenging uh challenging opportunities. Okay. Uh, PLC effectiveness survey. This is a trend that we'll continue to to monitor or measure to make sure that our PLC's are effective. Um this is uh goes to the heart of quality tier one instruction and collaboration and so we'll continue to measure that. Um this is the other uh portion of that measure and uh priority. Um we'll spend a little bit of time with our our student achievement leadership team, our self team to refine the methodology of all of our measures. um and adjust uh our actions as we've discussed on those measures. Um we continue to evaluate and have enhanced our
090AROI on an ongoing basis and that is the uh why we have uh engendered a new boost schools program that you're going to hear more a little more about from Mitch Lesley and Tyler and next month um when we go into a little more depth on Salted Boost. So look for that and uh we'll be able to tell you what schools have been identified as boo schools and where we'll be providing some additional supports to make sure all of our schools are achieving at high levels. So with that I'm open to any additional questions or concerns. Sorry Clark trying to be quick. It's your birthday, so I'm going to go get Do we have any indication at all in what our 2025 ELA and math proficiency scores will be or do we just not any
091idea until end year? We have some data that indicates uh growth in certain school locations um that we are monitoring closely, but as a general uh I don't have data districtwide. No. Okay. So, I'll save my followup to that. We do have data. Um, and I had a question on the PBIS sustainability score. What is that actually measuring? Maybe look at my notes here. Um, the sustainability score on PBIS is Do you want to help me with that, Lesie? I'm going to go back to the slide. Are you talking the TFI measure? So, I think it's here. Yes. Okay. So the tiered fidelity inventory is a self-evaluation that each school fills out according to the systems that they've established in their school. So um for example, one of them is setting expectations. That's when Ben
092talked about the different areas of the school with the different procedures and and how to act like in the hallway or in the cafeteria or at an assembly for example. Those um what the TFI is is basically a school self-reporting evaluation of where they were from the year before. So what they were on the from the year before their scoring is 70 or above that means they are what the percent of our schools using PBS uh sorry the inventory considers several factors including how well the team of the schools are functioning whether they have implemented things like schooling expectations so following those proced procedures with fidelity is a is a measurement, right? And so, uh, if a teacher or administrator, correct me if I'm wrong, Leslie, am I on the right track? Yep. Okay. Um,
093I don't mind being corrected. Uh, so are not following those processes and procedures. We come back and coach and provide additional instruction. um would there might be a situation where a student's immediately brought down to the office for a behavior issue instead of working through the actual um intervention and strategy approach um to make sure that student can stay in the classroom as long as possible and continue with instruction. And so in that instance, a principal would provide some additional coaching on the process and the procedure. Um and so that sustainability score is how well we're following through on those processes and procedures districtwide. It's more fidelity to the process score. Is that fair to say, Leslie? Yeah. And it's scored on a rubric, too. It has a rubric that has the expectations of each
094of the areas that they score themselves on. We'd be happy to provide some additional data offline on that as well. Okay. Thank you, Ben. Um, could you speak to the salt effort in next steps to look at the academic return on investment? like can you just give me a quick how do you guys think you're going to look at that etc. Yeah. So uh we have a couple of meth uh methods that we've utilized starting last year. Is Rick still here? Yeah. He is Rick kind of ran this process for us. It's actually been two years. I want to say we have kind of a monthto-month calendar that we adhere to and we follow up on specific measures each month. Well, as we've kind of gone through some adjustments through what was DISC district improvement
095steering committee to be more student, we don't want to lose what we were doing. We like what we were doing in terms of measuring strategic outcomes um on a month-to-month basis. But that is our basically our chart that tells us how well we're doing on comparison to our goals. That's an overall assessment is are these goals getting us where we want to be? Are we measuring the right things? um are we are our priorities where they should be? And so when we talk about academic return on investment, it's analyzing the the strategic plan in in its entirety. So you're going to see some focus groups uh both with teachers and with princip administrators this fall uh and opportunities to provide feedback on those measures and uh provide some additional collaboration so that it we don't
096want this to be a top-down strategic plan. This is what you need to do. this is what you measure. We want to collaborate on those approaches. We feel like we've done that to some extent. We do have our graduated grant characteristics. We've had a lot of collaboration. But now as we kind of had opportunity to sit on these measures for a few years, um let's go back and evaluate those further to see if they're getting us the outcomes that we would like. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's really helpful. Thank you. And I appreciate you guys being willing to look at that and constantly be evaluating the goals and like do have have are we looking at the right measures and all of that I I think it's really important. So I mean that goes
097to the conversation we're having on attendance is is this is this the right measure right and uh are are we is it getting us to the outcome that we're hoping for which is our two primary goals which is enhanced um proficiency and graduation rates. Right. I hope she's okay. Question. Yeah, sorry I put myself on mute. Yeah, that's great. Thank you, Ben. I appreciate it. Leslie, did you want to add to that? If I could add some additional information also, the school improvement plan goals and the strategic plan goals. We when we shaped both sides of the goals, we looked at the school improvement plan goals in order to shape the strategic plan goals. And then the strategic plan goals have also shaped the school continuous improvement plan goals. So, we've looked to have that
098go both ways and have them interconnected those two plans. I love that you brought that up and I'd like to give a huge shout out to our executive leadership team as we've assessed this. I mean, for Rick did an amazing job under Dr. leadership to to kind of build up the strategic plan and these measures and these outcomes. Dr. Wilson, who's now an elementary principal at Smith. Um, and we're grateful for his time and service there, did a good job of kind of walking us through our measures on a regular basis. And we have our subcommittees on each of the pillars that meet regularly to analyze the data. Um, so there's just a lot of people going into it. Again, it's about measuring. Are we measuring the right things? And are those goals and measures
099getting us to the place where we want to be? this enhanced collaboration with our schools is a key cog in all of that to make sure that uh their goals are lining up with ours and vice versa, right? Um but they have to buy into that as well. So they have to believe that what we're measuring is the right measure and uh that we can achieve the things that we would like to achieve through those measures in and of themselves. So it's appropriate to continue to have that conversation and evaluate that ARI Great. We're going to move on. Thank you. We're going to move on. We've got two second readings. Um these are policies that we talked about last month and by invite you to ask any questions. Not that way. Good evening, board members.
100Yep. These are two policies that we did discuss last month. And uh the first one we're talking about is disposition of property. This is article 2M. Uh article 2, you'll remember, is that section of our policies that specifically refer to the board and the board's um responsibilities and authority. U disposition of real property falls within that. And this policy provides a framework for the real estate committee uh to use when considering future uh use of land and facilities when the original primary purpose has been um uh exhausted. Policy provides uh guiding principles for maintenance of disposition of such property uh by the real estate committee on behalf of the board. As you recall last month that we u discussed um keeping one additional element in those um considerations that the that the real estate committee
101um uh will use uh give the board the best information possible when it comes time for decisions regarding disposition of property. So if you have any further questions about that policy, I'll be happy to respond. I do have a quick um item that hopefully you can address. I had some constituent feedback regarding this policy after our last meeting specificity section um B and the feedback was around the way he was written. We have those four priorities or principles there and comm community consideration is number four on that list. I think it can in some situations be read to imply that um community input is the very last concern of the district and property disposition if we in that make it to that point. I know we've talked about this in other settings. I'm just hoping
102you could address this um on the public record, how this language um protects and prioritizes community feedback regarding property disposition and whether it could be worded any differently to show that we prioritize the community and these decisions. Just some feedback or input on that would be appreciated. Yeah. So, I mean it the the reason that it's and Tom, I'll actually ask you to to chime in as well because um we developed these together, but um you know Tom was the one who who developed it first, but I'll let him weigh in as well. So the idea is that there may be uses for property that um are that that there would be priorities and the priorities for us would clearly be the uses that the district um uh needs um most for the use of
103the property. if we got to the end of that list um that you know we we had a piece of property that we weren't going to be repurposing or using or or uh doing something within the district which would be obviously the primary purpose for the property. Then we would start to consider community um interests such as some of the the leases that we're now engaging in um with some of our municipalities um so that they can house um law enforcement agencies um uh mun municipal offices, those kinds of things. Uh one is actually being repurposed as green space as a park. Um, so there's lots of things that we can do uh when we're repurposing or or or reconsidering the uses of that property if we're not in need of um uh that property
104for the specific purpose of of educating kids at least at that moment recognizing that that could change in 10 years or 20 years or 30 years down the road. Right? So that's what we're we're constantly uh trying to consider. Now, the fact of the matter is those four um items were not necessarily put in um in a rank order. And so, um considering community interest is not the fourth most important in that list. Um it it just happens to be listed in that position. And I think it does um lend itself to the uh uh at least to an inference that our first priority is making sure that we've got schools open for kids that are safe and um uh and that are clean and and they're updated and those would be our highest priorities.
105If we don't have those types of uses, then we would go through that listing and make cons additional considerations. I think the what I would just add to that is if there is a priority even though it's not stated in these four statements is it's district use first and then we have a lot of private interest in the properties especially as we've closed. So we've had not only municipalities speaking to us but developers as well and so sifting between those two groups we would prefer to work with the community first and their needs before we start talking about private private development right so so if you wanted to see a priority it would be district community private interests in that order I I don't either just as you stated I don't view that there's a
106rank order here I view all um requirements, if you will, of all part of the policy. If we need to state that more explicitly, I'm open to that. But that's how I view all of the policies. There may be a numerical uh enumeration of of certain policy items, but I don't I've never viewed any of our numbered policy items as a rank order, if you will. And you could say something to the effect of in no particular order or no particular priority or something like that if that clarify. I do think that this touches a little bit on what was discussed a month or two ago when we voted on the Western Hills property and I made the comment of, you know, how much of the broad how how many people in the broader community
107even knew that that was, you know, speaking of what to do with land, you know, when we when we closed schools and that it was news to me even though Western Hill sat in my precinct for eight years before it was um before those the realignment, but I still near and dear to my heart, right? Because I represented at that school for years and then I'm reading, you know, the board packet basically and I'm finding out, oh, you know, the police want to use this. And even though that Western Hills, the very small community knew about it, it wasn't put to the broader community, which I think touches a little bit on this that I feel sometimes the community feels a little broadsided when we're talking about how how we get rid of properties or
108how we're going to reutilize properties. So, I mean, this doesn't address the exact thing that you're talking about in the rank order. Night Gra Clark. I don't really view those as recorder anyway, but I do think that right now we have our communities that are on heightened alert because of all of these recent school closures on how do I know what those properties are going to be used for and how do I have a say in that. To touch on your point, I think people are a little hyper sensitive to that right now. Sure. Yeah, they have, you know, the perspective maybe from that side is we are the ones who actually ultimately pay for these buildings. We should have a statement and it's rightfully so. Um, I don't disagree with your comment, Clark, at
109all. That's my understanding of how we wrote this. I just wanted to make sure because that concern was raised. But but to your point, Kim, I wouldn't be opposed to just adding a a clarification in there that these aren't in any order. If that's helpful, I think m maybe when all of us are gone, um maybe that would be useful for future generations of of board members and attorneys. So, would you like to add that language as we would you propose that that we add something like shall consider the guiding principles in no particular order? Sure. Can we add those words? Um so they comments. I'll make a motion to anyone else have any questions. So, we move that we approve article 2 and disposition of real property as a second and final reading with
110the addition of the words um in no particular order at the end of the first paragraph section B. I'll second. I have a motion and a second to approve 2M disposition of real property is a second and final reading with the addition of in no particular order the end of section B following the the board shall consider the following principles in no particular order. Is there any further discussion on it? All in favor please say I. I. Any oppos? Motion carries. Okay. Uh the second policy is our student dress guidelines. Um you'll recall from this policy we essentially this is article uh 8A15. And with this policy, uh, we're basically updating, um, the policy to reincclude, if that's a word, um, a a section on, um, schools being able to, uh, work with the community
111councils on developing uniform dress codes for all students. This isn't a dress code the way we've become accustomed to that. This is a these are dress codes that involve um a certain number of options that would allow them um to um control essentially the the the uniformity of of what students are wearing to school. That section we we we had a section like that in our in our previous policy that was removed and because some schools have expressed interest in developing uniform um dress codes, we've put it right back in again. Um, so that's the the change to the policy. If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to answer questions and I'll entertain a motion. I move that we approve as a second final reading article 815 student dress guidelines. Second to approve
112article 8 A15 dress guidelines as a second and final reading. Is there any further comment on this? All in favor, please say I. I any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, board members. Thank you. Turn the time over to the superintendent for superintendent report. You've already heard uh an update on uh our where we're at in terms of our strategic plan and some initiatives we have moving into the next school year. Uh I did want to give a a shout out to um our team. We received a recognition from the Southerntherland Institute with respect to our curriculum and parent engagement um that allowed us to be recognized for a certification on how we approach curriculum and uh those topics with our parents and allow them to provide input and feedback. So, we're grateful for um our
113team's efforts to uh get that information and make sure that our parents have the opportunity to do so. Um, I'm very excited about our graduation rates and I hope to be able to share some of that information moving forward uh as soon as that data is confirmed. Um, that's all I have. Superintendent U. Julie, do you have anything for us? Yep. Um, so the evaluation committee has uh is prepared to send out tonight. I will send you guys um our self evaluation board self-evaluation for us to discuss in our retreat on Tuesday. So be looking for that. I'm going to ask you to send that to me by Sunday filled out so that I can compile results and bring them to our thing on Tuesday. Um and uh I also just wanted to mention that
114um as a part of USBA uh Ben mentioned that we got to meet with uh we had a good meeting with uh Representative Schultz and Senator Adams and uh my takeaways from that are that they will be bringing back SB37 with an expectation that they'll be able to garner enough support for that to be passed without and and veto proof. and also that they are really willing and interested in looking at attendance and right now they're looking to us to say well what do you want the bill to say so that's but they're very anxious to help with that so and there are a lot of people kind of discussing it together and I know that Todd has been a part of all of those discussions as well so which one Julie it's the one
115that makes it so that the government can basically They take some of the property taxes, put it into their general fund. Got it. And then return it back to us. Go ahead. Um, our parks and rec meeting is actually supposed to go to July. So, I need to report this month and next month. [Music] I don't nothing USDA. No, other than tomorrow they have a a um what's it called? Yeah, a webinar for a half hour that talks. But it looks interesting for tomorrow. They're going to talk about um a few things with students. I don't remember. I thought that would be interesting, but it's from 11 to 11:30. And then in September, if you wanted to go to the leadership training, it's going to be down in Ruby. Is that anyway? Yes. That's the
116leadership academy and in Ruby by Bryce Canyon, right? Yes. I have nothing to read. Uh, I'll say that I send it along with Chris and Julie the USBA delegate assembly a few weeks back. Um, and I'll just report that anytime there's dialogue between school boards and the legislature, it's a positive thing. So, that was my takeaway. Um, a very high level. Uh, last, I have nothing further to report other than to wish our superintendent a happy birthday. And, uh, I can suggest that I have no doubt that the last 365 days have been the fastest pace of his life. and I thank you for that and for all your efforts. Happy birthday, Ben. Um, really quick, just a reminder, next week we have our board retreat. Um, I realize it is on a calendar uh
117for 10 10:30 is what Clark said. Um, we do have I just I I did hear back from JD just recently. Um, and if anybody is available at 8:00, we do have an opportunity to go do service at the Grand Education Foundation. Um, but otherwise I will see their assessment. Okay. Maybe we did 10:30 because of you. Yeah. Okay. All right. Um, so no, that's okay. So, just a reminder of that. And Nicole, what's the location of the retreat? Is it Mil Creek Commons? The Oh, yeah. Okay. What is the conference room that's official? I believe it's in the it's in the meeting room space that's above the roller skating rental place. So, it's not in the actual city hall. It's the small adventure right there. Thank you. That's what it's called. How do you
118know that? It's right here. Um and Chris and I will send out our agenda tomorrow. Yeah. It it's just it's the different building than the city hall. And then um on top of that, yes, we do want to wish Ben happy birthday, but we also want to recognize this is John Wilbur's last huzah here. You know, he's so excited. And as a board, we did want to recognize him and say thank you. So, we did get you a little gift and want to wish you the very best. So on behalf of all your hard work and everything John is looking forward to traveling and golfing and um I did I was going to throw in there a pair of um clippers for weeds as well as band-aids if you ever do get the idea of
119of letting your golf bag. Do the walking by itself. I learned a valuable lesson. So, we hope you enjoy your retirement and hope that you're not a stranger that you still come and say hi. We really appreciate all the hard work and dedication that you have given us. Thank you. So with that, having reached the end of our agenda, with no objections, we will stand a journ. %