June 3, 2025 Board of Education Meeting

001for being everybody being here tonight. Um we'd like to welcome you tonight. This is June 3rd, 2025. At 7:01 is our board of education meeting. We're going to begin by indicating who's here. Clark, go ahead. Clark Nelson, Karen Wer, Chris Win Burgess, Kim Chandler, Julie Jackson, Todd Harley, Nicole McDermott. All right, we're going to begin by um doing our um welcomes. We have We want to recognize anybody who's visiting here from our PTA. First of all, PTA, I know I seen a couple. There you are. You're PTA, too. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Um GA this summer. They're not here. That's okay. Granted Office Professionals. Did I see Gana here? No. All right. Middle managers, um, GESPA, um, Grant Education Foundation. I know we have some. Thank you, Sean Kerry, and I

002think Christiey's here, right? So, thank you for being here, you guys. Um, we do have elected officials. We have Representative Carol Moss, who is visiting with us. Um, is there any others that I missed? I didn't see any. And um do we have any administrators or principles if you'll stand and be recognized as well? There's some right there. There's some right there. Thank you. Welcome. Thanks you guys. We appreciate you being here. All right, we're going to go ahead and move on to our pledge of allegiance. We're going to have Sean Nelson, who's the associate director of family and community engagement, come up and lead us in our pledge of allegiance. Will the audience please stand? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

003stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] Thank you. And we're actually going to um for our reverence this evening, we're going to invite Sean back up and Kimberly to introduce our reverence. We're grateful for the opportunity to be here. I'm going to introduce Kimberly Swenson, who's our director of the Network 5, our Network 5 PTA. And before we introduce these amazing students, I just want to recognize I just want to recognize Kimberly who is completing her uh tour of duty with the our region 5 PTA. She's done an amazing job and she's moving on next year to the state level. So, we want to recognize her. She doesn't know this is coming and I'm sure she's scowlling at me behind my head. But anyway, we want to recognize her

004for the amazing job she's done. And I'll turn the time over to her and let her introduce our our two amazing students. [Music] Yes, I was scowlling, by the way. All right, we have two amazing national PTA reflection winners from our region. Um, to give you a little background, we had 17,855 entries across all categories and divisions this year in Utah PTA. This year's theme was accepting imperfection. So, these kids won at their school level, they won at the council level, they won at the state level, a region level, excuse me, I skipped region, and then the state level, and then a national level. So, it's quite an accomplishment for these kids. Um, and there were only 230 total winners on the national level. So, pretty exciting to have two of those kiddos in our

005schools. Um, these kids received a $200 young artist scholarship, a silver medal, a certificate of excellence, and their, um, work is being featured on the national website. So, that's very exciting for these kids. Uh, so I have Grayson from Rosecrest Elementary. He will be performing his musical composition and Maximus from Cottonwood Elementary and he has made a movie for us. So Maximus and Grayson, you want to come up? [Music] They look very excited. Okay. So, come right up [Music] here. Come right here. Nice job. Nice job. Incredible. Congratulations. You guys are going to congratulations. Well done. Congratulations. Okay. picture real quick. Here's another little treat. Already awesome. All right. Do your piece first. right here on the front row before you do your video. I will be playing pineapple [Music] jazz. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.

006Heat. [Music] Oh, heat, heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up here. [Music] Heat. Heat. And before we watch Maximus' video, he wanted to just mention a little bit give you a little background on the [Applause] [Music] video. I made Scaredy the clumsy ghost to show accepting your imperfections. It was close to Halloween time, so it was a Halloween story. [Music] We would love to also recognize their parents. Will you guys stand and and be recognized as well? We understand Grayson's available for weddings for $200 an hour. Is that right? Thank you. That was spectacular. That was so fun. Thank you so much. Incredibly talented. I am totally looking forward to both of you and seeing what the future holds for you. That's amazing. All right, we're going to go ahead and move on to

007our good news minute. Um, let's go ahead and start with Julie. Um I just off of that I one of my favorite things about um getting to go and celebrate these guys in their schools was to see how absolutely all the kids in their classes were so excited for them. It was just this beautiful moment. I I'm sure you guys parents agree with me. it just watching kids celebrate each other and elevate each other and and recognize that we all do great things now and then and we can cheer each other on. It it was just so beautiful. I really felt inspired by um both of you guys and your incredible artistic um work there. Um, I wanted to highlight, um, the good news that I wanted to highlight today was that Skyline had its

008first testing season in its new building and it was a huge success. And I I just cannot say enough about uh what a big deal it was that we could listen to that community to understand their unique needs. And I mean I have been in the I have helped with that testing in previous years and I I saw what I didn't help this year but I saw what happened this year and oh my goodness just such a big difference and so I just wanted to take time to celebrate that I think we got um that right for that community and and they have expressed a lot of appreciation to me for it. Go ahead. Well it's been a busy month. Um a lot going on. on. I wanted to mention a couple of things. So,

009Redwood, I was able to go to their community carnival, their kind of end of school forever celebration, right, for that school. And they had a huge turnout. Lots of people there. It was really, really good. They had 10 bounce houses. It was like more than if you've gone to a kangaroo zoo. They had more. Okay. It was awesome. Um they had a decade walk set up in the gym with just old pictures of all kids and teachers and classes and for the last 72 years. So they just did a really good job. Wonderful way of um celebrating the legacy of that school. Um also got to help out at Ride at Elementary's field day. The kids got to play games, get wet, and then see their teacher get dunked in slime. So that was fun

010for them. Um Valley Crest Community Council was just good to be there because I was able to see it. that community council is largely going to be in place still for the new school when it opens. And so I think that gave them like a unique positioning to make decisions for the fall that that's going to help them out. I think that's been key in transition. So that was great. Um and then of course graduations have kept us busy. I know this is the good news minute, but I just have to comment somehow. We need to get some help with that traffic into the Maverick Center. So, the good news part of this is any of you that got into those graduations on time, good for you, cuz I did not. I was late. So,

011um yeah, that's what I have for this month. Thank you. Thanks, Kevin. Connie, um congratulations to the CEO uh part of uh the GTI. They did those students have been mentored all year and they had um they had to form a business and then sell their products and I was able to go out to Southtown and see some of the products or some of the ideas. One young man decided to carry on his uh lawn care but do more than lawn care. So, he was willing to help inside the house if they needed painting or whatever that you could buy. Um, some had food for sale, um, healthy food. One student had um created a game and was willing to play that uh to sell that so others could play. It looked like a fun

012game. Uh, so I really appreciate what GTI does in lots of different areas. Also, graduations are certainly a highlight for me and I was grateful to go up to uh Huntsman Center as well as to Maverick to see the difference. And thanks to the students, they all behaved so well and were just wonderful young people um in those graduation ceremonies and they weren't very long any of them. So it was great. Okay, I have a couple things. Um, so Orchard Elementary, you know, has closed and they had a beautiful celebration to welcome in the community and come in and one last time at Orchard Elementary um the Soaring Eagles and um they had wonderful displays and just some really neat um there was just a feel there that that it's a beloved school that people

013will remember forever. And so it's very hard to see a school closed, but at the same time it was a beautiful sendoff that they orchestrated at Orchard Elementary. Um also Cypress, we have another school that will be moving. Um but the campus is closing and that's Cypress High. They also had community, a community night um of lift the anchor and it was just amazing to see all the people that came out to share their memories and see they did a lot of class mini class reunions that night and um what a great sendoff for Cypress High. Um and I just have to give a shout out to everyone packing their rooms was amazing. We had so many moving parts right now. Um, Broadbank campus has is getting remodeled so they had to or upgrade uh

014kind of some upgraded um rooms in there and so all those teachers had to pack out before the last day of school. Um, the Cypress community have they they're just amazing. These teachers and staff are amazing. They've they've really worked hard this last couple weeks to get their rooms um emptied and um it's not a small job. So, thank you so much. And then I got to attend four graduation ceremonies that were all so different and unique but wonderful. Um, Granite Transition Services is a program that I just love with all my heart. and they had two student speakers and a student play the piano. And it was just I it if you don't know what student the transition services are, it's it's our students that are 18 to 22 um who are learning job

015skills and some um independent living and they are just amazing and it was such a heartfelt ceremony they did for those students. Um, and then Hunter and Cypress graduations at the Maverick Center. The parking on at Hunters was or the getting into Hunter graduation was a lot easier than Cypress. I'm sorry, Kim. Um, they had a road open that wasn't open for this for the Hunter. So, I got barely got there on time for one, but the other one was not hard. So, I don't know. We We'll work it out, right? We'll figure that out. Um but their ceremonies were so great and just um we have some amazing students, some amazing kids that are going to do some wonderful things in this world. I just can't wait to see where these students go, these

016graduates go. And then the last ceremony I went to was um Granite Connect. We do it in two nights because they do a more individual um ceremony for them and those students overcome some really hard things to get on that stage. And so I'm just so proud of all our students and I just have so much gratitude for our teachers and our staff and counselors and principles and everyone who got them to that point that they could graduate and succeed. So thank you. Graduations are fun. Um I attended Granger Hunter and Karns graduations. Um, and just a small highlight about Grangers was the sense of community we had as the name Sha was read out, the entire arena erupted in applause. And this young man is the one who is the lone survivor of that

017tragic um, murder suicide out in my hometown, my West Valley. And the amazing strength and resilience that kid has. I was able to talk with him for a few minutes before the ceremony even started and man he has a positive forward outlook on on his life despite his challenges despite losing his family and his eyesight but uh he is it was so heartwarming to hear that chair. Nobody else came even close to that chair. So I that really touched my heart. Um another thing the end of the year of course there's been a lot of work for the end of year choir concerts. So, it's been fun attending some of those and all the work that goes into that. Um, being the last community council at Granger High, Dr. How didn't know this was coming,

018but he was celebrated by many of the community members um as they bid farewell to him and his principal role. So, that was pretty awesome to witness. I didn't know that was happening until I got there to the meeting. And so, that was fun to join in on the on the on, you know, complimenting him on the work there. Um, another fun thing is a teacher at Farnsworth Elementary reached out to me who had gotten a James Madison project grant to teach um, elementary kids debate. So, I got to go judge a mock hearing and the kids had pl planned and prepped and had their equal opposite sides and and that was that was a ton of fun to be able to be a a um, a judge to the mock caring there. um received

019an email from the Hunter Elementary principal who is having tremendous results with the Kodak kindergarten and she's grateful to have that program and the data is looking pretty positive and that takes an investment from the board and so I just wanted to share that not only with the public but with the board that numbers are looking really good there for what we want to accomplish. Couple more things. Um was happy to go to the GTI tour and invite our legislatures legislators um to not only come and see the GTI but to dive into our budget and to know exactly where we are and what our budgetary challenges are um especially in this this last um budget or legislative session um and trying to fill in some gaps um of funding that has been cut from

020us. And so it was helpful to I think have a good education all the way around on where we are with our budget and to ask for their help and their advocacy for us for public education up on the hill. So um thanks to those who who came on that. Carol's here and she's she's one of our champions anyway. Um, the last thing I want to speak of is um the uh I sit on the benefits committee and this isn't a budget report, but I didn't know that the wellness challenges were a thing. And maybe the board doesn't know either, but there are competitions going on all the time between schools and apparently Fox Hills won this year. And it can be anywhere from like weight loss to how many ounces of water you're drinking

021to how much sleep you're getting. I had no clue. So, I just wanted to share that I think there's a lot of good things at the district level that we need to maybe find out a little bit more on. And I gave them the feedback so that maybe we can be a little bit more, you know, like invited to those things and those celebrations so that we can celebrate right right alongside with with some of our employees. So, just thanks for uh first and foremost, I I likewise would like to uh celebrate all of our graduates of the Granite School District. I was honored to participate in uh graduation ceremonies at Granite Connection and Olympus and Cottonwood high schools and it was um absolutely a pleasure to be a part of those ceremonies and and

022to celebrate with those graduates as they came across the stage each one of them. Uh secondly, Cottonwood High School or the Cottonwood Network I should say um held its annual uh Cottonwood community family night a couple of weeks ago. um a tremendous event with quite literally thousands of people in attendance and every single one of our network schools in the Cottonwood network uh participating and and interacting with uh others from the community and providing entertainment and talent showcases. Um, and just absolutely a pleasure to be with and to rub shoulders with all of the great people from the the Cottonwood Network and all of the schools and their administration um, and their teachers who came out to support the event and to support the community. Um, just a an incredible feeling of of community um,

023and of togetherness uh, throughout that night. It was a pleasure to be a part of it. Thanks, Clark. Um, for mine, I just wanted to give a huge thanks to all the parent volunteers and PTA for I I went and helped. I got to help with South Kern's Elementary, their field day. Um, and I did not get in the dunk tank. Um, but uh I really I I just thought, man, those people to get in there and it's hose cold water. That's how it is. Um, bless their hearts for doing that. Thank you. And for the the PTA volunteers and the many, many, many parents who came out and helped with those field days. Uh, and I know at least our junior high also did one. Um, so there's also many other schools who do

024those. So, thank you for all those people who helped with those. I had the opportunity to go to Beehive Elementary. We were invited to come and see a fifth grade presentation. Um, fifth grade teacher kind of did some cross-curricular activities with uh having the students learn a little bit about what lunches were were favored in the school and which lunches were not maybe so favored. And they had done um uh they they put together they did the math, they did the graphs, they did the you know a plot graph, they did everything with it and they presented every single grade. They had done it and I am here to tell you that chicken sandwiches are not the favorite in the district. Pizza is um but uh it was really it was very impressive just the

025the amount of work that went into that and really um you could tell that the kids really enjoyed doing that. And so I love it when I see teachers who are thinking outside the box and really are creative in the way that they teach some of this curriculum. And so I just wanted to um recognize that. Got to go to the GTI open house for the the houses that were built this year. Um always impresses me those kids and and there were some of the kids that were um that attended Hunter that were there that that helped build the houses and uh it's it's just incredible and the the pride they have in those are are really impressive. Um, and then of course graduations. I was able to go to Karns and Taylor'sville. And um,

026I will have the the Granite Peaks one this week as well. Um, but those graduates, it's impressive. I I know we we have some great kids in this district and wish them well and and all that they do. Um, and and all the wonderful things that are ahead of them. So, that will conclude our good news minute. Thank you so much. Um, we're going to go ahead and move on to recognitions. I'm going to invite Leslie Bell to come up and do the Discovery Education Educator of the Year first. Thank you. Good evening, board president, members of the board, superintendent, and the executive leadership members that are here. I'm excited to share that one of our own educators has received a national recognition from Discovery Education Awards. This company honors outstanding individuals who go above

027and beyond to ignite curiosity and connect learning to the world beyond the classroom. This educator works with students who have diverse abilities and needs, consistently creating a classroom environment both built on trust, safety, and meaningful connection. And by using tools like virtual reality, real world projects, and innovative technology, this educator makes both learning accessible and inspiring. His approach recognizes a traditional that traditional instruction doesn't always fit every student and they meet that challenge with create creativity, compassion, and commitment. The school motto where this educator works is educate, encourage, and empower. And this teacher embodies it fully, helping each student feel seen, supported, and capable of growth. This educator's impact was recognized through a highly competitive selection process by Discovery Education, which serves millions of educators and students worldwide. We're proud to celebrate tonight this person's

028achievement and the positive impact being made in our district. Please join me in congratulating Sed Sharifi, special educator at Hart Vixen School on being named Discovery Educator of the Year. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yes, we do. We got one, two, and thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. In two weeks or two weeks in two weeks, she kind of steals the show. Sorry. All right. I also have the privilege to turn the time over to our secondary fine arts specialists, Noami Hernandez Balcazar and Tim Jacob um to present the Sornson Legacy Award recipients. Good evening. Um, I am going to present the award for Lisa Noise. Lisa Noise is an accomplished director and choreographer in addition to her work in the theater. Hi, Bruno. Sorry. Lisa is passionate about education. In 2020,

029she earned her mers of arts in teaching fine arts from the University of Utah. She currently serves as the BTS drama specialist for Granite School District where she enjoys collaborating with classroom teachers to integrate performing arts and curriculum. Lisa believes every student should have the opportunity to perform and challenge themselves. Each year, her students showcase their learning through Mayor Productions to demonstrate their growth. Is Lisa Noise here? Congratulations. Go ahead. If I get closer, you guys. Okay. Our second recipient tonight of the Sorson Award, secondary music instructor Joshua Miller. Josh, are you here? All right. Joshua Miller has been a teacher in Utah for 22 years. Has enjoyed many years working with his students, colleagues, and administrators administrators. His first teaching assignment was at Beaver High School in Beaver, Utah. His current assignment is Hunter

030High School, where he has been there for the last 18 years. His wife Amy and his two sons have been incredibly supportive and he has kept busy with the many responsibilities he has as a high school music teacher and a technical theater teacher. Josh, please come on down. [Music] How small was this? We're going to invite James Taylor to come up for CTE teacher of the year. Thank you. I could use some. Good evening, President, superintendent, members of the board. It's a pleasure to be here with you this evening. Uh two years ago, Granite School District uh recognized Mr. Sha Kennedy as the uh district uh CTE teacher of the year. It's my pleasure this evening to further recognize uh Mr. Kennedy as the Utah uh Association of Career and Technical Education Teacher of the

031Year. Um Mr. Kennedy was awarded this recognition back in uh February um at the annual uh UATI conference. Uh this award recognizes the finest career and technical education teachers at the middle and secondary school level who are de who have demonstrated innovation in the classroom, commitment to their students and dedication to the improvement of CTE in their institutions and communities. Uh I assure you that Shawn does exactly that. uh for Skyline and for Granite School District. Shawn Kennedy is an exemplary teacher, leader, and mentor for CTE in Granite School District. Shawn came to the district from industry uh more than a few years ago where he worked in graphic design and printing. Shawn brought these skills to Granite along with his enthusiasm and love of learning. On any given year, Shawn has over 600 students

032taking graphic production classes at Skyline High School. Each of his students leaves knowing that a teacher has taken a personal interest in their success in not only his class, but in what they are doing across the school and in life. He says that working with youth is inspiring, frustrating, vexing, humorous, and most important, incredibly fulfilling. I'd like to uh bring Sean up here uh for your recognition this evening. I just want to say that I have a lot of merch made by Sean and his students at my house. Like a lot. And I bet a lot of the stuff you guys have I I bet you would have seen his stuff. It's every everyone uses Sean. [Music] Can I have something else? Can I have this one? Yeah. I'll just take a picture. All right.

033We're going to invite Scott Bell to come up to present our LA Teacher of the Year. Good evening, board presidency, uh, board members, and superintendency. It is my honor to recognize Anna Kendall for implementation of the Latino and action program at Bonavville Junior High. In the last 3 years, Anna has set up strong partnerships with local elementary schools for her students to uh teach or tutor uh the students there. And also Anna empowers her students to experience leadership roles as they perform service, participate in Bonavville's multicultural community night, and host an amazing LAA family night where students successes are celebrated. LAA's mission is to empower Latino youth to lead and strengthen their community through college and career readiness. The vision is to be the model for Latino youth engagement through personal assets, excellence, and education,

034service, and leadership. Anna Kendall embodies the mission and vision through her teaching and implementation of the Latinos and action program. And if you can come [Applause] up your sister [Music] She knows how to I hope you got that one. And finally, we'd like to um invite up Sean Neil and Carrie Johnson to come represent our Granite Education Foundation Awards. [Music] President McDermott, members of this Granite School Board of Education, Superintendent Horesley, and members of the Superintendency, thank you for letting the Granite Education Foundation be with you this evening. I'm representing the foundation um in our recognition this evening of a key partnership with both the foundation and the Granite School District and that is our foundation for life partner. Here tonight from the Foundation for Life, we have Jenna Lisenmbb who represents the Lismbb family.

035For a better part of a decade, this foundation, the Foundation for Life uh company has been one of our largest and longest supporters. They have donated 1.7 million and we're still counting because they continue to donate has been donated uh in the lifetime partnership that we've had with them. They have supported us in our mission to reduce barriers and increase access to opportunities for students in granite. The foundation for life has been instrumental in our Santa Sachs program. They have provided even uh providing one of us one of our delivery trucks which is crucial to our ability to execute this program. They have provided hundreds of volunteer hours annually and thousands of hours over the lifetime of our partnership. They are a title sponsor of our volunteer action center at Twin Peaks, which hosts thousands

036of volunteers every year who come and prepare and uh help us distribute the different kits and goods that the foundation provides to thousands of students in Granite. We are so grateful for the years of trust, support, and continued investment that Foundation for Life has made with our Granite students and our Granite School District. Thank you so much, Jenna, for being here tonight. Thank you so much. This is a lot of sweaty bunch. Thank you so much. All right, we're going to go ahead and move on in our agenda. We have um nobody registered for patron participation time, but we would like to invite Representative Carol Moss to come on up and give her a little bit of time um to share with us some thoughts. Well, good evening board and board members and superintendent and

037superintendency. Uh, I appreciate having this time to say a few things. Uh, if I'd known your board meetings were so inspiring and so much fun, I would have come to more of them. But since this is the end of the year, before I start my remarks, and I did tell superintendent, I timed it at six minutes. So, I'm going to But if I can say just a couple things before, as you said, I'm Carol Moss. Carol Spackman Moss and I um taught at Olympus High for 33 years and I was 23 years old when I started and my I had all sophomores in most every class had 40 kids or more because it was the year before Cottonwood opened and school was very crowded. So I grew up at Olympus High 33 years and I

038call teaching English. I taught AP and honors English and a variety of other things. was student body officer adviser. I call it the gift that goes on giving because every day wherever I go my I see my students grown up being leaders in their community, business leaders, university presidents, church leaders. They're in my neighborhood. I see them at church and at the store and I see them as I'm getting to that. and school board members Amanda Oaks out in Kenya and my school board member Julie Jackson AP English student and her husband Grant were both in my so I'm proud she's she is my board member and the students in my uh district Holiday Mil Creek and Murray mostly go to Cottonwood Olympus and Skyline and so I I am proud proud to have been

039a teacher and I'm proud to see all these teachers here tonight be honored. Okay, now I'll start. I have to get my timer here ready. Okay, so just a second. It skipped over. Okay, I wrote my remarks so I'd stay on topic. And it's really a tribute to teachers about respecting their expertise and professionalism. School may be out for the summer, but most teachers do not have three months off. Some work other jobs like summer school classes or camps. Others take workshops and seminars and work on graduate degrees to sharpen their skills and to move higher on the salary scale. Many granite teachers this week are reading AP exams for the College Board. It's a real tribute to Granite that so many were selected from calculus to literature to history and all the other AP

040uh courses 8 hours a day for a week. Something I used to do also, but I got to fly to Princeton, New Jersey, and read essays. And now the teachers do it online in their homes. Just a minute. I I need to drink a have a little drink of water. gone. But this year and for the past few years, oh by the way, I taught summer swimming and I taught summer school English for a few years to make extra money. That was a treat. But this year and for the past few years, many teachers and other professionals, including librarians, social workers, and school psychologists in Granite and other districts, are quitting. They're retiring early and fewer new teachers are coming into the profession. There are a number of reasons, but what many tell me is

041they feel disrespected. They feel that they're being watched and scrutinized for what they say, what they teach, what kind of posters or flags they put in their classrooms. The legislators to blame for this. New laws are part of the problem. But some of the extremist groups who wield power but have not been elected to anything have not only shown disrespect to teachers, but they've actually threatened school librarians that they would call the police and have them arrested if they didn't immediately remove a book from their library. That was in Davis County. I know the woman who did that. These same groups have pressured schoolboard members to scrutinize the curriculum and teaching methods in ways that go beyond anything I ever experienced in the three decades I taught at Olympus High School. One of the most

042disturbing trends is the result of two bills dealing with sensitive materials. HP 374 in 2022 started as a search for books in school libraries that had what UPU Eagle Forum and others deemed as pornography. Granite created a good review policy when a book was challenged that allowed them to decide whether to move the book to a higher grade level or remove it entirely. Local control and I voted for that bill. This has been the mantra local control of the state since I was elected in 2001. Then in 2024, HB29 sensitive materials changed the law to three districts or three charter schools plus five public schools who found it had if it had sensitive materials, the books were banned statewide, not local control. The search for pornography then moved to books in the curriculum. And here's

043where I have objections. English teachers plan their curriculum months and even years in advance. They select novels plays, poetry, and non-fiction, writing texts from approved and writing texts from approved district lists, and they attend professional development workshops in the summer to share teaching methods and sometimes add new works to their curriculum. When a literary work is challenged during the school year, as has happened twice in the past two years, it is unfair to teachers and to students to suddenly notify them that they can't teach that work because it has been challenged. One example was at Taylor'sville High last year where a special ed teacher and an English teacher were co-eing a novel that was selected specifically for that age group and for their interest level as many were struggling students. They were stopped midway through

044the novel when a school administrator or district official, I don't know who came in and gathered up all the books and said, "You're done with this book." No warning, just interrupted midstream. In another case this year, the novel Beloved by the renowned Nobel Prizewinning author Tony Morrison, a novel which has been taught at Skyline High since 1997 by two different AP teachers, was challenged and the teacher notified the day they were starting to study it and the students had brought their books to class cuz they bring their own book. They they buy their own books or get them from the library. The teacher thought it was district approved for college level classes, that is AP or IB English. No one notified the teacher that it was taken off that list a few years ago. There's

045no information on the reason and no one notified the teacher. The teacher was justifiably upset. The students were angry. Parents too, some um who wrote to the superintendent. I know he got some of those emails and the board their board members. I also want to note that Tony Morrison was awarded the Puliter Prize and I also want for that novel I also want to note that that it was made into a movie a few years later starring Oprah Winfrey. It has been on the College Board's list of the top five literary works suggested for students to write on on the open essay question because those are the ones that usually get the highest scores of four or five. I know the laws. I voted for the first one as I told you because it was

046local control and it allowed a small number of schools to decide what and and against the second one because it took away local control and allowed a small group uh number of schools to determine what all districts could teach or have in their libraries. It also distinguishes between objective and subjective sensitive materials. It's all subjective. There's nothing objective when you take things out of context. It's anyone who's studied literature or studied any kind of text knows that you look at things in context. I believes HB 374 the second bill is unconstitutional and interferes with parents' rights. Parents, not politicians, should guide their children's reading. Only two parents in all the years beloved has been taught have asked not to have their student read the novel. and the teacher readily agreed and gave the student an

047alternate novel. Similarly, I only had two parents in my 33 years of teaching at Olympus object to a book and I gave the student another book students another book to read. So, I ask you board members and administrators to honor and respect, show honor and respect to teachers who want their students to succeed and thrive academically and emotionally. Give them notice so they can make preparations to teach other works. Set an example for students who feel they are being discriminated against. They will remember these incidents for most of their lives and we hope they'll be fond memories. That concludes my remarks and I thank you very much for providing me with the time to speak about this so topic. Thank you very much. That was a little over six minutes. Thank you, Representative M. I

048also wanted to thank Representative Moss. We've had some vigorous discussions surrounding this topic and I think we can all agree that we want to be as sensitive as possible with respect to our teachers and in helping them uh as they plan their lessons and making sure that they are aware of what content is available and accessible. And there's always ways as we look to implement laws and legislation uh to make sure out of an abundance of caution we're uh protecting children but at the same time um making sure our employees aware of circumstances surrounding um the the guidance and uh direction from the district in these situations. So we'll continue to do so. I know in both of these situations there were uh some some communication challenges and difficulties but at the same time out

049of an abundance of caution out of protection to the teachers involved um and with actually some conflicts in code right now um we wanted to make sure that our teachers were not uh referred inappropriately for a UPUPAC referral um and and our efforts were in an again abundance of caution to protect them from inadvertently being referred uh for lensure investigation and so um in in our efforts uh we may have been a little abrupt but uh with the best intentions and I appreciate everybody's patience as we work to implement um these laws and work to to keep our children safe. Okay, thank you. We're going to go ahead and move on. Uh the next item on our agenda is the consent items. We've had these for a while and been able to ask questions and

050I will entertain a motion if there are no questions. No further questions. I move that we approve the items on the consent agenda. Second. Right. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? I have one comment. Um buried deep in the consent agenda item 9 of 11. It says lease agreement Western Hills United Police Department. Now this is Western Hills was closed. This is a school we closed last year. Um, and so I just want to kind of bring something to the board's attention. I've already spoken to board leadership and to Ben about this that when we're going through a school closure, that procedure goes from February to December. And everything we do with a school closure is in a very public meeting. the discussions. We have community meetings. We have

051publicly noticed board meetings where all of our reasons and the discussion and the pros and the cons and the maps and all the slide decks are shown. And once people realize clo, what's their first question? What are we doing with the property? That's always the first question. So, I find it a little ironic that we're very public about closing a school, but we're not super public about what we're doing with the property. So, I would like to just bring that to everyone's attention. And I've already requested the board leadership consider that we move this anytime that there's a school closure and a decision about what we're doing with the property that it's moved to an admin report right after the construction update prior to a vote to give us the opportunity to share with the

052public that we're making good on our word to take care of that property and so the public in general can be aware of what we're doing with each individual school. So, I am not opposed to UPD moving in. I think it's great um that we found a good partner, community partner to go and um we all know vacant buildings are not good buildings. Um they're set up for vandalism and so we want to prevent that of course, but I think the it's a missed opportunity if we just bury it in the consent agenda and we don't speak of it by name. I'm not saying it has to turn into a 30 minute discussion. It can be a very fast 5minute discussion, but if I'm somebody living in that community to be able to just notice

053to read the agenda and see, oh, there's an update on my my neighborhood school. What is the board going to do with that? I I just I would like us to consider that where we're so public on the front end about the closure, we need to equally be public on the back end of what we're taking, how we're taking care of that property. So, I just wanted to that was something that bothered me as I read through this agenda. Thanks Karen. And as we talked um just so so people know also that community has had some community meetings so that community is aware of what's happening to it. It just would be nice for everybody else. I think that's the point is that yeah we've done a good job of communicating with the neighborhood. Um

054but I think as we close schools there's a lot of other people with eyes on what we do with properties that don't necessarily live in that community. And I still think it's really important for us to be very transparent and open and have a good discussion in the public forum, not just tucked away in a consent agenda about the what we're doing with those properties. Karen, I've just been recently asking the same question of like, well, how do we engage the community when we, you know, deal with these empty schools? And um I I'd be interested in having a a conversation as a board um even if we could find space in the board retreat to just talk about what we expect and what we think would be a good um a good community communications

055and feedback input policy. I don't even know if I really actually want to use the word policy. Um but um I I would like us to all be on the same um page on that. I I think it's a really great point. I appreciate you bringing that up, Karen. Thanks. I have a Can I make a comment also? Okay. Um I'd like to comment on the item K renaming Magna Elementary to Magna Steam Academy. Um I'm from our last board meeting, that was the name recommendation that we talked about on that board meeting. Um since then, we've had some other comments come in and also the community council chimed in from Magna Elementary. um as to a different name to to name Magna and um normally I would just go along with what the community

056council recommends. However, that would be changing from Magna Elementary um not to Magnus Steam Academy, but I just want to give some explanation of why. Um long Magna has a long rich history in our community. Magna's been the name for lots and lots and lots of years. Um we we're trying to find a balance with that community of dedicating. We want those employees and people who have worked at that school to feel like they've they're of value and they are. Um we have we have some changes we need to make at Magna Elementary. We need some culture changes there and we need to raise the level of expectations and that's hard to do when when we're going into a new school year. Um, so why why a different school name would be acceptable? Um, keeping

057Magna I think keeps that long history of Magna there, but I think adding the academy on the end raises our academic expectations and um that shared commitment to academics at Magna Elementary. So, um, while maybe the community council was wanting to go with a different name, I'm still, um, going to support changing the name to Magnus Steam Academy. So, I'd like to keep that name. And I don't know if any other board members want to chime in on that. I know Kim and I have had some discussions about this. I've talked to many community members about this. um people who don't have students at Magna anymore, but people who um do have students at Magna. And it's pretty split because um there's a lot of people who do want a a brand new um rebrand

058of the school and maybe name it Cypress um Steam Academy or Magnus Steam Elementary. But I think we can find a balance with both worlds and do Magnus Steam Academy while we're keeping our heritage but also trying to elevate our community. So any other comments or any other comments? Yeah, go ahead. Couple of comments. So thanks for that, Chris. I I do want to comment on the name change as well. Um from my side, I I know there was I think a more a majority of feedback was Magna instead of Cypress, but also elementary instead of Academy just from that community. Um, and so I kind of just give some representation to that part of the community. I would prefer going with the Magnus team elementary renaming just because that's what the majority of the

059community seems to have asked for. Again, that differs from there's been so much different feedback coming from different directions. Um, but that's kind of where I am on that one. But along with that, I mean, there are other things in the consent agenda that still align with several other concerns I've expressed in the past. I mean, the school AI contract, I don't know that we know enough about the pitfalls, potential pitfalls of AI in education. So, that concerns me a little bit. Um, you know, there's panorama on there again, some other uh electronic curriculum contracts. So, things like that. I think just all combined um along with that name change, I will be voting a no on that today. Thanks. Any other comments? All right, we have a motion and a second to approve the

060consent agenda. There's no further comments. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Nay. Motion passes. We're going to go ahead and move on. We've got action items. Um the first one is administrative appointments and transfers. Again, this is something that we've had for um a few days and been able to ask any questions. If there are no further questions, I will entertain a motion. I move we accept the action item of administrative administrative appointments transfers and transfers. I'll second right. We have a motion and a second to approve the administrative appointments and transfers. Are there any comments? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. I'm going to just turn the time over to Mitch first. She's going to introduce a new position. Thank you, Madam Board

061President, uh, superintendent, and members of the board. I'm excited to, uh, present the person for this new position. This position is a partnership with Granite School District and the United Way. The United Way is funding this position and it is focused and intentional about trying to help the community school project in the Cottonwood and Karns networks to move forward and to accomplish those goals of of helping more kids reach higher academically to get that 100% initiative at Cottonwood across the finish line. Um we are thrilled to um appoint tonight Christy Christensen. Let me tell you, Christy Christensen began her career uh uh quite a few years ago as an elementary school teacher. Um she went home for a little while and then came back as an elementary school teacher and then she went in to

062do some literacy coaching. She was a literacy coach, began her administrative career as an intern in our district and then was appointed the elementary principal at Truman. Has most recently been here at Wilson, has done a phenomenal job over her many years here, and we are so excited to name her the director of community schools for the Granite School District. Christie, if you could uh why don't you introduce the folks that are with you? This is my husband Brian and my daughter Camila, my son Brandon, my soon to be daughter-in-law Taylor, my son Blake, and my most wonderful three smartest, cutest grandkids on the planet. Congratulations, I just wanted to vocalize a little bit more about this partnership with United Way and the Promise Partnership. This is a a partnership that we share with our

063local municipalities including Mil Creek City and South Salt Lake City and and obviously Karns as well. Um so this is uh this is an important initiative and um this was an administrative transfer instead of an open applicant pool because they specifically requested um an administrator who had strong experience in uh working with um and partnering with this coalition. And we could find no better as we both kind of went to the table. We could find no better partner and uh strong applicant um than Christy Christensen. They came up with that name and we both like that name and they are funding this position. We're grateful for that. I want to point that out because we have actually been reducing and eliminating positions here in Granite School District as as a result of a reduction in

064student populations. So, I want to make sure the public understands and knows that this position is tied to this specific partnership and is funded uh through that partnership. And we're very grateful for the support from these external partners to help us move this initiative forward. And thanks to Christie for doing an outstanding job at Wilson and we look forward to the things she's going to be able to do in our other schools. Invite Dr. How up to come and take care of the rest. Thank you so much and congratulations Christie. Um this is always an exciting moment and a milestone for so many people and it's great to be able to celebrate not just with the board but with family. So, um, with that, we want to be able to recognize, um, some of these

065individuals who are part of our administrative appointments tonight. First, if I could ask Kathy Homus to stand up, give a round of applause if we could. Kathy has been an elementary teacher in Granite School District. She was an instructional coach and intern assistant at Kennedy Junior High School. Kathy is currently an assistant principal at Foxhill and Gorley elementary schools. And we're excited to announce that Kathy will be the new principal at Gorley Elementary School. They'll be very excited. If I could ask Franchesca Hall to stand. Before we do that, could we ask Kathy who she brought with us? Sure. She embarrasses them appropriately. Kathy, if you could just introduce who you have with you. Yeah, I appreciate this opportunity. Thank you for I have my husband with me who supports me in all my crazy

066things I want to do and he thinks this is the craziest. So, and my son and my other son Jacob and my daughter Kaylee and one of my grandkids Graham who I when he got came in today I said this might be kind of long and a little boring and he's like but I'm here to support you. Thanks to [Music] Board meeting is my fa is my kid's favorite thing to go to. It really is. Francesca, thanks for waiting that extra moment. Francesca, can we give her a round of applause? Francesca has been a teacher in Tennessee and Canyon School District. She is currently an intern assistant at Granite Park Junior High School. Francesca will be an assistant principal at Hunter and Pleasant Green elementary schools. Congratulations, Francesca. We can have you introduce who you

067have with you. [Music] Good to see you, April. Um, Alex Huy, can you stand, please? Alex has been a teacher at Cypress High School. She's currently an intern assistant at Jefferson Junior High School. Alex will be an assistant principal at Fox Hill and Gorley elementary schools. Congratulations. I know Jefferson's very sad to be losing you. Alex, can you introduce who you have with you? Yes. I have my in-laws Todd and Bridget, my husband Hayden, and then my three kids and Blakeley, and then my parents. Thanks for being here. Good cheering system. Can we give a welcome to Christine Kent, if you could stand? Christine has been a teacher at Hillsside Elementary. She is currently an intern assistant at Hillsdale Elementary. Christine will be the new assistant principal at Arcadia Elementary. No, that's not quite right.

068No, that is correct. Arcadia Elementary. I have to double check myself. Don't want to scare you right now. Still Arcadia. I'm not official in this job till July, so this is just a work in progress. Christine, can you introduce who you're with? my mother. So, thanks for being here. And finally, we want to recognize Ricky Renlessbacher. If you could stand. Ricky has taught special education at Mat Junior High and Hunter High School. She has also been an instructional coach at Hunter High. Ricky is currently an intern assistant principal at Karns Junior High. and Ricky will be the new assistant principal at Lakeidge Elementary School. Congratulations, Ricky, if you could do your introductions. Yes. This is my husband Aaron, my daughter Grace, my oldest Blair, my parents Rick and Lesie, my one of my best friends,

069my work dad Paul, my great friend, and my first 15. Well, we're excited for each of those. Congratulations. And if you didn't have an exciting summer in front of you, you do now. Thank you. Thanks so much. Um Christy, you have to go take your grandson out for ice cream now. Thanks. You guys are welcome to stay, but you're also welcome to leave if you want to step out. We know that this is exciting. [Music] All right. Our next um our next uh action item that we have is just a slight calendar calendar change. Um and I'm going to let Ben just explain this real fast before we take a vote on it. Uh thank you. As we have kind of gone through uh the last few weeks uh trying to clarify some things uh

070moving into next year and uh we recognize uh through the process of negotiations. We did lose some additional per uh professional development time and um we felt that uh that we had some additional legislative days that we could potentially use and wanted to make sure that uh some of that professional development was actually in the midst of the school year. Sometimes doing that at the front end of the year is a little bit more difficult and uh we can actually set some goals and work on some things after we get into the new year. And so uh it was our request to the board of education that we add an additional um legislative day on September 4th. I believe it's a Tuesday after Labor Day. Maybe I said that wrong. I'm trying to remember off

071top of my September. Thank you. That's what I said. And I just for the Can you fix that on the record? Thanks. Um yeah, September 2nd. So that'll be uh the day after Labor Day. Uh we feel like this will be a a good spot for this particular legislative day and for this professional development there. It is a half and half day. So half of that will be districtled um uh professional development and then teacher additional teacher planning time for the other half of the day. Did I say that? All right. Uh yes. I think it is a a super important piece that needed to be added to as we went through negotiations. There's 5 days before school starts. School starts this year on a Wednesday, which teachers really like. And we through negotiations, we

072traded one of the days that should be for professional development to the teachers to help them get prepared in their classrooms. So, we've taken a a away a a critical piece, a whole day of professional development and principles were like, "What have you done? You've you've you've hamstring our ability to help our teachers get better prepared." And so, we this adding this ledge day gets us back some of that PD time that is so critically needed. we did uh properly uh working through the notification process to our community and we're uh right at the the deadline for making an adjustment to our calendar. So, we'd appreciate the board's support of this. Uh one last bit, they the folks that are oversee this have worked through the AB schedule and have made some adjustments to ensure

073that the AB uh matches up for high school. So, uh I think that's was has been a change and critical I just want to make sure because I've had a couple of people reach out to me about this. Um, we couldn't just tack this on to the beginning. For example, our teachers come back on Wednesday the 6th. We couldn't just put it on Tuesday the 5th because we have to replace a student uh an in student day. Is that correct? If you accept the ledge day, you have to swap it, right? Yeah. The idea of a ledge day is that students don't come. Yeah. We consider if we did it on the fifth, we'd have to pay our teachers for the fifth, right? We could give a later day off to the kids and the

074the teachers, too. We considered that during negotiations, but it was decided that this it was so late the notice that that these employees may have plans already, if that makes sense. And it doesn't make sense to just start school later because then it starts on Thursday and then nobody comes, right? It's hard. So, it's not necessarily ideal, but um it it's our it's our best option if we want to give it to our teachers, and we really do, right? Well, give it to our our principles. It's it's for the I mean, as well, it's professional development, but it's also a half day of prep. And who every teacher wants to turn that down? Every teacher wants that. Yeah. I'm just emphasizing what they actually want. That's a half day of prep. Did you want to

075say no? That was Yeah, I I I I just I was uh relaying at at dinner time how frustrating that is. That can be and I think teachers do feel overwhelmed with all the PD that you get at the beginning of the year because also on top of that you're doing you have to get there's certain things you have to get done. You have to get your your um you know everything online. You have to get your canvas going. You have to get everything set up. You have to get your rolls printed all this stuff. And there's so much that it's nice to have a PD that okay, I've already gotten all that stuff done. Okay, now let's do the PD. And so I actually I love that. That actually speaks to my conversation with

076Jessica uh and the GA on this is uh we're actually studying the notion of placing more of our PD days during the the course of the school year for that very reason is um a lot of times our PD gets watered down a little bit by virtue of the fact that our teachers are distracted by um overall classroom preparation and and the things that they have to do um in order to start the school day school year in and of itself. So this this will be an interesting experiment in terms of um how well this works for our PD and the implementation of that PD as well. Is there any PD in those five days before school or Yes, there's two two full days of PD of let me think that through make sure. Yes,

077there's two full days of professional development plus a faculty meeting in that in those five days before. Oh, so they do get but they're but we're used to having three full days of professional development. Oh, plus faculty meeting. So I just faculty meeting also wanted to thank the AB days that they are close in number how many they get. I was very impressed with the Are there any other questions? Okay, if there are no other questions I'll entertain a motion. I move that we accept the cal the 2025 2026 calendar changes. I'll second. We have a motion and a second to approve the 2025 2026 calendar change. Are there any further discussion? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Right. Motion passes. Can I just say as we're finishing that that I think

078it's uh many kudos to the board of education to recognize this need and to not be compelled to do it, but hey, you guys said we want to take care of teachers and you and you did it without any other impetus. So, I think that's wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go ahead and move on. We have a um information item. We're going to invite Steve Hogan up to present to us about um from the the pack the population analysis committee report. Hello, good evening. Welcome to summer. Not yet. Yeah, almost for three more days. A couple of you. No, it's summer. No, it's not. It is for everybody. I'm not bitter. ran into Nicole in the parking lot this afternoon and she was not happy that her summer had

079not quite begun yet. So, um, thank you for having me again. Um, I'm here representing the pack to provide an update as an information item tonight, not an action item on tonight's agenda regarding the Granite School District elementary boundary and closure study for area 5. I'm going to jump right in. I'm going to go over these pretty quickly. Um, I would probably go over it even more qu quickly for your benefit. I know these most of these slides are old news to you, but I believe we had people joining online or we'll go back and watch this. So, I'll go over them as quickly as I can and still cover the information. So, the first map we're seeing is one we've been using since the beginning. It just simply identifies the elementary schools in the

080study, 10 elementary schools. Um, please understand and you'll see on there uh under the asterric that um, Immigration Canyon simply is it was hard to fit the actual location of Immigration Canyon on the map and keep everything else to some scale because of Immigration's interesting location as part of our district in the Eastwood boundary. But we're very aware our our students and and families in Immigration Canyon. So with that in mind, this is the same area but with junior high boundaries. This is largely in an and was Churchill, Evergreen, Olympus. We do have parts of Bonavville identified in there, but I think most of the impact potential impact is on those four. And the same thing if you're looking at this from the high school perspective. This is really an Olympus Skyline network study. This

081is our table that we've been using from the beginning. Uh and you've seen this many times. I'll just make one note um about this. We've had a lot of questions about FCI. We know um and you're very aware that it's been a few years since we've had the team of engineers go out and and uh conduct the ranking or assessment of all of our buildings to give us this ranking system for the condition of our buildings. We're aware of that and we try to explain that in all of our meetings and I think for the most part people get that. We would love to be able to do uh have another assessment soon, but until then, we've decided to really keep those current rankings. Um I will make one exception here because it's been brought

082up so much, and that is that we recognize more than just where all of the schools have a security upgrade and some other things that have been done. The two schools in this area that received a remodel, Rose and especially Driggs Elementary was probably a more significant remodel than most of our schools uh receive. We're aware of that and that is certainly being taken into account even though we haven't officially changed their FCI score on here. So, just just know that we we haven't forgotten and uh we're reminded every time we walk into that beautiful building and and uh see what that remodel looks like. So, this of course is the same thing without FCI, but just recognizing there are secondary schools as part of the study, but keeping in mind as a reminder always

083is that um the focus and emphasis is on elementaryaries. If there are any changes at the secondary, there typically is a byproduct of any changes at the elementary. Um although I will say there has been a a decent amount of conversation about Churchill and Evergreen Junior Highs. You can see the enrollment for those two schools. If we have a way in this process to balance those out or bring those numbers up a little bit, we would certainly like to find that. And um but outside of that that that really has been the emphasis on on the secondary level. Why why are we here? Why are we conducting the study? There are a lot of reasons for this but really it comes down to a declining student enrollment. No surprise here but just really a reminder

084this is um and I'll even use the word epidemic in in a lot of ways. This is the reason you guys are familiar. You've seen this trend line for the last approximately 20 years what our enrollment has done in Granite School District and we are um scheduled to or anticipated that we'll go down even more over the next four to 5 years. Well, let me go back to that just a second to remind everyone one more time. This isn't an area 5 issue. Um, this isn't a granite district, not a Utah, not even a US issue as far as birth rate and uh, student enrollment. This is a global, this is a world, worldwide challenge that countries are facing literally all over the world and especially in their education systems. You can do a quick

085Google search of of issues around the world and you can find shows, news clips, articles, you name it on this issue. And it's important that people understand this is not a not an US issue. Some highlights, again, not news to most of you because you've been attending a lot of these, but we started back in February where I came to this board and we asked for approval to study area 5 and that was in a public meeting. So, I included that in our outreach efforts. We immediately sent a mass email that included and also texts and postcards to advertise public meetings. Those postcards went to not just our families and patrons, but to residents of and all the area to make sure we covered everyone because everyone has a stake in this. Not just current

086families with current students, but everyone living in the area. We had a a staff or an employeeonly meeting was the very first meeting we held so that we'd have a chance to uh answer their questions and hopefully have some of the fear taken out for the employees and so they'd understand what the process is and we could get a lot of those questions answered. We like that. We think we will continue to do that going forward. Um then we had an all school community council open house. That means all council members from every school, all 15 schools, we invited them to come in and visit and have a conversation. We have of course posters and yard signs at all the schools to advertise the meetings. We had our two large meetings back in March. Uh

087went at Skyline and Olympus. I think the Skyline meeting was the first night we had just over 200 people attend. The Olympus meeting was about 350 people attend, which is fantastic. Um, I I like I really do like coming into meetings and seeing a lot of people there because that means we're reaching people and although that can be somewhat intimidating in the end, I would rather reach more than than not. I then attended and visited with the Salt Lake County Council, Immigration City, Holiday City, and Mil Creek City for a presentation and a question and answer session. I didn't put it on here, but there also been follow-up meetings with many of those council members after that, some in person, some over the phone to be able to answer specific questions that they've had. And

088those have been, I think, very productive and fruitful conversations. Um, multiple school community council and small group meetings, three joint school community council subcommittee meetings. I'm going to talk more about that in just a moment in detail. Mount Olympus Community Council question uh and answer session. We had the superintendent's town hall a couple of weeks ago up at Wasach Junior High where we had I don't know uh I didn't count 150 200 people perhaps quite a few. There was more than a handful uh numerous numerous follow-up emails, phone calls, and meetings with patrons. Um I I would frankly almost rather meet with patrons face to face in a lot of ways than try to answer these in emails because the um we can get into the details and nuance and I'm always concerned about uh

089um the tone and everything else of a of a written message. So I've had a lot of those. All meeting video recordings are posted of course as they always are on our website if it is recorded. Most everything we do is recorded and and this is meant as a compliment completely. Extensive board member engagement. This is just kind of a special shout out especially to Julie. It's largely her area and uh I don't know if I've ever had a um a study where someone has had more community engagement than I've had in part of the process, but I believe she's achieved that. And and uh it's it's it's been close. It's been close, man. I appreciate it. It's there there have been a lot of a lot of great meetings and a lot of great

090feedback. I've talked to a lot of people and often times they'll preface their comment with well I talked to Julie and she said this. Can we talk more about that? And that's been that's been good. I want to go over quickly because maybe or maybe not you've heard or had questions about this what we call our joint school community council subcommittee. We have this statement, these three next slides on the website word for word and I want to go over it quickly to make sure you understand or if you have any questions about it and for those that are watching or will watch later that they understand clearly what this is and what it is not. This year the Granite School District added a new wrinkle to the boundary enclosure study process by organizing a

091joint school community council subcommittee to provide further feedback and insights from each community. This subcommittee is made up of two parent members from each school community council and one teacher from each school. In addition, any city council member from affected municipalities are invited to serve on this subcommittee. This creates a representative group comprised of over members. The parent school community council members are selected by each school's council chair. These elected members are charged with representing their respective school communities in many key decisions throughout their tenure and throughout the year. And this role is no different. The teacher rep is appointed by the school principal and provides a unique insight into the impact on their school from an employee perspective. And finally, the participating city council members of course have the responsibility to represent all their

092constituents and are a valued voice in the process. Finally, and this part is really key, this subcommittee's role is to help the population analysis committee better understand the nuances and sometimes competing interests that exist in each community. Their role is different from the pack in that only the pack makes recommendations to the Granite School District board. The subcommittee provides feedback, insight, and suggestions to the pack. While their input is strongly considered their meaning the subcommittee, they are not a decision-making body. The pack considers the subcommittee's feedback along with all other voices in the community as it eventually makes recommendations to the board. I've been very clear. I've had like I mentioned three meetings with this group and there have been about 40ish people there each time and um we set up those norms and understanding

093from very first and I think I've mentioned twice in the first meeting and in the third meeting a reminder to the group of what their role is and what it's not. Um, I want them to be clear and I think they have been clear and are okay with and appreciate the fact that one, they don't have the weight, feel the weight of making an actual recommendation, but they appreciate the ability to have input and and uh and feedback to the pack and then of course via um via the pack to the board as part of this committee. But they understand that difference. We do have some members in the community. You've perhaps heard from some of them in an email or phone call and I've visited with a few of them already. Um concerns that

094this group, this subcommittee is uh has an outsized impact on our study. Um that is not the intention. It is simply another avenue and a why I simply added that long that line there in italics along with all other voices in the community. It is is an opportunity to to look at data and study things um in a little more in depth. We just don't have the the way to do that with the 350 people in these large group meetings. So um any any questions about that? I'll take in just a second. We're unless you unless you want me to stop now. I can take all questions at the end. I can. Okay. Two things. Again, this these are not action items, but I think they were worth mentioning. We've gotten a lot of questions,

095of course, and and a lot of people are used to our studies in the past where at some point early in the summer about this time, we we like to name names, I call it, or name schools. Or they they say, "Steve, what is the deal?" Still tell us, is it zero schools? Is it five schools that are closing cuz there are so many ideas and rumors that are out there. So the pack wanted to make sure that we were clear that we were saying at this point the pack is still considering two to three school closures as well as boundary adjustments and program moves. I think we can safely say um there's not really been a proposal or a plan or ideas to um other than I I I hate to call it, but

096wishful thinking, but we don't want to ever close schools, but we don't see a a solution there, not having any closures. We also don't see solutions of of having four or five or more closures. That just doesn't make sense to us. So, we at least wanted to give everyone a number of where where we were. Um and and there's a a significant consideration like you like I said here is leaving some flexibility in the capacity of our schools to make sure we still have room for our programs whether that's um some people have asked for preschool and in every school or after school programs whether it's DIB ALC or other programs um we do need to to consider those and so we do need to be careful about making our schools too tight where we

097can have some flexibility for those programs. The other thing I wanted to mention and this is not a new idea but because the east side and this area 5 has a lot of students come from out of boundary either out of their own school boundary and even quite a few in this area from out of district that we we can assure those out of boundary students of the opportunity to remain in their new boundary school in 2026. whether you're there now or next year, we want those students to remain. Um I mean the the the last thing quite frankly is we we don't want to lose students. We want them to remain. So I wanted to make that clear that that is the the plan. When we make projections, we are projecting as if those

098students will remain. I wanted to make that clear now because I heard a few people ask me and recently in meetings, hey, tell me if that's not the case, then I need to find a new school for fall of 25 and and I want to be clear, no, that is not the case. We have room and we will make room. So, if you're out of boundary, students, continue to come to Granite School District so that we can uh provide you the fantastic education, the plan going forward very quickly. And by the way, that we will I will be sending an email out to patrons probably in the next couple of days to as as a recap. It'll have this information in it so everyone knows what to expect over the next uh 5 months. Um

099unless unless I'm told otherwise, we do plan to reconvene our joint school community uh joint excuse me subcommittee in August. we have uh two maybe three meetings that we will have and then we will have specific recommendations from the pack um at the September 2nd board meeting. So at that meeting we will be like we typically see is is having school names and considerations for closures and boundaries and other things at that meeting. We anticipate two more public meetings September 23rd and the 25th. We'll send out that information. Those will be at Skyline and Olympus also. And um we'll of course send that to the board as as as we send it to the patrons here in a few days. We'll have follow-up meetings in October as necessary depending on what the need is. And

100then of course we will have as always our November 1st reading and December final action. That is the basic plan going forward from today. Questions? comments. Steve, I just really want to thank you for the engagement that you've had with my community. I think just like on behalf of my community, I thank you because you've been very um very forthcoming. Um and just I think everybody's really appreciated how much you've made yourself available to them. I know you've met with a lot of people individually and you never hesitate to do that. And I also know that this isn't the only thing on your plate. Um though it might feel like the only thing on I know you have a lot of other things that you are responsible for. So just thank you very very much

101um from all my neighbors. Um I wanted to just say uh this is a little bit speaking to my community here for a minute. the joint subcommittee is sort of something that we're kind it's like the plane that we're building while we're flying it a little bit and so um I appreciate you being patient while we figure out we're kind of like we know we can get great feedback from our community and think this is a good way to try to do that and we're trying to figure out how to get the most value out of it that we can. So, um, uh, I feel like if we were to do this again in another, uh, study or something, man, we would, we'd have learned a lot, don't you think? Of course. One of the

102things that I think I've learned that I I regret is that I wish we would have let my entire like the whole area five boundary know we were building this committee because um a lot of people didn't realize and then they felt like it was some sort of a secret committee and I was like oh yeah we should have told everybody like why didn't we tell everybody so that was one of the things and and so um I I I recognized that we should have done that Um, but man, uh, we've gotten really great feedback from that committee because having them get together and hear what each other have to say and coming back. I mean, I'm not in the meeting so I don't know. I'm only hearing what comes out of the meetings and

103it's revvelatory to me some of the things that I'm hearing them um, come up with. Um, it's also not perfect. Wouldn't you agree, Steve? Yes, absolutely. I agree. Um I just wanted to make sure and highlight this idea that if you are in a school and you're out of the boundary um that you when if your school closes and then if it is boundary to a new school, you are assured a spot in that new school. You are assured that you get to move with all your kids get to move with all their friends to the new school. We are promising that. Can I use the word promise? Can I use the word guarantee? We are committed. We cannot promise. I mean, the numbers don't demonstrate that we should be able to honor that commitment

104for every student. Well, we have some I mean, we have the word assure. Yeah. On the PowerPoint. I'm not sure how that's different from promise or guarantee. And I didn't write the PowerPoint. I know you didn't. I I think that we need to be clear on what we're saying to my community because the word assure to me is pretty strong. Can I add not in between a board member and a superintendent? Let me add some context perhaps and you tell me if I'm on the right track or not. And and in the past, a lot of these concerns about guarantees or promises or assuredness have been about students that wanted to remain at a school once their boundary was changed. And then we've said in policy, no, we don't do that anymore. In other words,

105quote, grandfathering, allow them to stay at that school. What we're referring to, because that's a challenge, that is a big challenge and we understand that. what we're talking about is once a boundary has changed. Um I I don't at this point I'm not sure if there's a concern about having enough room or space for especially even our out of boundary or excuse me out of district students. Is there a distinction there that that we're worried about? Well, I feel like we're um dis well actually now that I look at this, this is different from what I expected it to say because this says we can assure out of boundary students the opportunity to rem remain in their new boundary school. Um, I don't know who this I'm expecting that this the promise that I was

106looking for. Um, only relates to students whose school has closed, not a school whose boundary has changed. That one I think we still say we're committed to giving that. I feel like as we look at the numbers, we can make a promise about a school closure situation because we look at that like we're taking all the numbers from this school and we're moving all and it's including the however many% which is high in our in my area of out of boundary students. Right. I I'm sorry now that we're having this debate here um in public meeting because I felt like we were all on the same page, but now it sounds like we weren't quite. I that was kind of like a sorry not sorry too. I don't know. I don't I didn't feel like

107a lot of sincerity in that apology. Well, there is sorry it wasn't together but I think we got to have the conversation. I really do. I think uh we feel comfortable that we've been able to honor these types of commitments before and it behooves us to accommodate every out- of-boundary student uh as as possible especially those who are from out of district and wanting to participate in in our schools and our programming. Of course, we want to try to do everything we can to retain those students. So, a sure commit. Uh I think short of like 500 kids moving into that neighborhood and we have to we have to take those kids first. Is that what I'm saying, right? That's the reason aside from an apocalyptic event or an act of God, I think we

108can honor that and it behooves us to do so. You're on public record as that. I and you if if that doesn't come true, then you better be figuring out a good argument of why it was an act of God because of the 500 kids that move in. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate having that discussion and and my community really appreciates that because there are a lot of people who are very much feeling like I could be homeless, right? Um, it's it's a really it's really stressing out a lot of people in my area because instead of just saying, "Well, okay, my boundary would shift and I'd have this place," they're going, "I wouldn't even have a school at all to go to." Um, well, they would they could go to their home school, right?

109But, um, they that it's not the same as like I can follow my kids can follow their friends, right? They are not promised that. Can I just champion, but now they are well, now they're assured that she used the right word. Can I just join you in championing um students whose families decide to enroll them in our schools are our students and we will take care of them and we want them to stay with us in the elementary school in our junior highs and into our high schools. It it is imperative that they understand that we will take care of them. Absolutely. short of apocalyptic. Um I also can you just go back go to the plan going forward. Uh I just wanted to also make sure to mention um because you've said this before

110anyone who wants to have a meeting with Steve, he will have a meeting. If your school wants to have a meeting, Steve loves it. He just like can't get enough meetings. No, but he's so gracious about it. And so if if your community is concerned, he will come and meet with you. Teachers, he will come and meet with you. Um if you're concerned um individuals, if you want to call and have a meeting with Steve, you can or with me. I'm happy to as well. Board members are happy to discuss this with anyone as well. Like just speaking for you, but I know you well enough to know that you will you are happy to have those conversations. So um those are all my comments. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments, questions, concerns? I

111want I don't know. It's not really a question. Maybe a little bit more of a concern. In the past when we've delayed naming schools, um the complaint has come back with us that oh, now there's no timeline. We've got to gather. we've got to get together and fight this thing because if you're not notifi if we're not coming out publicly until September that then that's the main meeting in September that only gives them the board meeting October before we're doing our first vote in November board members you remember that concern being brought forward in the past. Um, so I'm just I I'm just kind of wondering if um I mean I I look at that and I'm like, "Oh, okay." But if it's my school closing, that's not very much time to kind of rally

112the right the troops. I don't know the right word. I I think you can I could absolutely um defend either of those because we've done both. And I'll just tell you now, if we were to name those schools tonight, we would hear a lot of people say we didn't have enough time. We didn't have enough time in in meetings or subcommittees or to meet or whatever to make our case. Um, and now that we're saying September 2nd, there's going to be people saying we don't have enough time on the back end to do the same thing. Um, and and again, given the year, I I hear that and I can't disagree necessarily depending on your point of view on that. So, um, but our decision as a pack this year, every year is different, was

113we still had too many unanswered questions, um, and we're still within our statute, um, timeline. So, we thought, let's just make sure we're right and make the best recommendation possible and push that back a little bit. And for the record, I'm not fighting this. I just am bringing up that that has been a concern. um kind of waiting and then they feel like, you know, it was just a little bit of a whiplash. So, I just wanted to bring that up and and I appreciate that, Karen, because I've also heard the other side of that is sometimes when we do announce those names in the summer, they feel like we're doing it outside of the school year and then they have you did this in the summer when we couldn't even talk about it or

114whatever. So, I I think it's hard either way. I don't think there's a great exact time to name. Moral of the story is people just never want to hear their name at the school. Yes, that is true. I I can tell you that I've um had the opportunity um unfortunately we we've we've done we've closed 10 schools in the last 6 years and and it looks like we'll have more coming. Um because of that I've had a lot of good experience in this process and because of that I've gotten a lot of phone calls and had a chance to do some consulting and conversations with other districts around the state and even outside of the state on the process. I even had another conversation with a a neighboring district um or or I should say

115in the state this morning uh with the district district leadership and I explained this issue that about a process and choose a process but regardless of what you choose you're probably going to get some push back on whatever process you choose whether that's short uh notifications, long notifications, many meetings, few meetings. Um, we've done this long enough to try almost every option and um, we think we have a a dang good process, but nothing's perfect. And so here we are trying something a little different this year. I was going to say West Westbrook was two-year study and I still heard we didn't have enough time. You didn't use you didn't. Right. So yeah, I think what I'm falling back on is the Ochre Hills Elementary and uh and that's I think that and that we

116want to do that again and we wouldn't do it the same way. I I think the important part of this process is something that's new to us that makes it a little bit unique and dynamic with this community committee that is has actually while it is an airplane that's being built mid-flight. I think it's proving to be very helpful and seeing things that as much as we know and understand these communities, there's great insight and I want to make sure that we've given this full opportunity to flesh out and that we're making sure that we're taking the time to meet with that committee and uh before we make any final recommendations and we've had extensive meetings with them already, but we have not gotten to the place where we feel comfortable to make those recommendations

117at this point in time. And with the summertime being upon us, um, and making sure those committee members can continue to p, uh, participate and represent the communities they were designated to do so, it feels appropriate that we should hold off on those the narrowing of that scope at this point in time. Any other discussion or questions, concerns? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. We're going to invite Doug Larson up to go over our first reading. First readings. Good evening, board members. We're back again. Uh we have four readings tonight. Uh two first readings, two second readings. Uh, we're going over the first readings first, correct? Okay. Or second readings first. First readings first. My fault. Um, okay. So, policy and legal services presents these to you. These have gone through our

118law and policy committee. Um, we have two policies tonight. The first one is article 2M. This is the disposition of real property. Karen, I think this is probably hopefully uh beginning to address some of the concerns that you that you expressed tonight. Um clearly we have a lot of work to do on the back end in terms of creating additional um procedures to go along with this, but we're starting tonight with the with the board policy that this is intended um to provide a framework for exactly what you've been discussing, and that is the disposition of property when we're no longer using it. Um it is a new policy and um this policy also directs um the business administrator uh to chair the district real estate committee that will meet regularly, produce findings and studies

119and make recommendations to the board regarding future use of land and our facilities. Um particularly um demographically as we continue to um uh decrease in size um there are some needs to be able to uh you know there's we need a mechanism to be able to uh discuss uh the use of our properties that aren't currently being used but may be used in the future. So that's the policy that I'm bringing to you and I'm happy to respond to questions if you have them. Oh, I might mention one thing on that policy, please uh if you don't mind. So, in law and policy, we actually discussed under subsection B. Subsection B has four priorities and those are the priorities that um uh actually Todd put together. Um these are priorities that we will use when

120we're discussing um the disposition of property. So as we uh discussed the disposition of property, we wanted to have some guiding priorities. These are the the priorities that um that we landed upon. I will say that it number four, we had discussed removing number four in law and policy. I uh took a little bit of um privilege to reinclude number four with a slight change. So now what number four says is consider community interest and best use. Therefore, if we can't um necessarily agree on retaining land for current and future use, retaining building use as long as reasonably possible, or prioritizing district interests, if those things aren't um uh if those priorities are not um uh helping us to arrive at some uh consensus as to how we want to use the property, then we

121can uh also consider community interest and best use as part of that equation. So, I did add that back in. I'm happy to discuss that with board members or happy to answer any other questions that you've got. Are there any questions? If there are no questions, I'll entertain a motion. I move that we approve as first reading article 2M disposition of real property. Second. Right. We have a motion and a second to approve article 2m disposition of real property as a first reading. Are there any further comments? Um, I just need a refresher. Uh, I guess that in the I'm just wondering where cuz in here it doesn't say anything about if we decided to dispose or like sell the property, right? Where is that? It's in the an administrative memo memo, I would think.

122Right. So, not yet. We we do plan to um uh attach an administrative memo to this district policy. However, um uh surplus property in statute, the surplus property statute does govern how we would um dispose of property, sell property if that was a if that was the intent of the district or of the board. Okay. So, this is I mean the word is disposition of real property, which makes me think of the word dispose. Am I right? No, not necessarily. So the disposition is kind of a think of the disposition of a court for example. You you you come to a consensus, you find a resolution, you you um you that there's a a final decision that's made. Does um would you say I'm I'm trying to think that um this is very broad what

123we've put here, right? It it sets kind of our vision without limiting us in any way, right? Um, it would allow for us to create new buildings that were not necessarily schools on a property, create new buildings. I don't I don't think this addresses that, but uh well, I'm thinking about recently there's a KUTV um article where uh Ben was interviewed to discuss some of the things that we're researching about of subsidized housing for teachers and things like this. And I'm wondering if this policy limits any of those, any of that spaghetti that we're throwing on the wall. Yeah, number three in the priorities. Okay, great. Good. And part of that administrative memo is the flowchart, if you will, that will be included in that as well. So for your community because I think your

124community is this is highly Yeah. This is really important to my community right now but I mean many of our communities right now right not just mine but especially yours as you're going through this study. So okay there any further comments. Right. Let's go ahead. Um all those in favor please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. We're going to take a small pause if you will to um we have Representative Anthony Lube who came and want to invite him up. You missed the crowd, but we're still grateful you're here and we just want to recognize you. So, we're going to turn the time over to Ben. So uh earlier this evening after we'd extended this invitation they uh the legislature the house side held leadership elections because their house majority leader was

125appointed to a position in the governor's cabinet I want to say something go something like that some executive director yeah something of something um so they had to emergency meetings to hold new leadership elections and so he was not able to be with us a little bit earlier during the recognition section of our meeting when all the people were here that would have cheered for you. PTA is here though. PTA is totally here. Tyler's here. We are live streaming. How many people online? Okay. I'm not going to believe that, but that's all right. Um, we would be remiss if we did not thank uh Representative Lube for his time and service during this most recent legislative session. and uh the friend of of public education from Granite School District is just a small token of

126our appreciation uh for the efforts uh that he has made. Um there were some specific instances during the legislative session where we requested some very specific things and votes of Representative Lube and uh he's always been very open um and kind and responsive um to our questions and uh the things that we uh would like to share with him. And so we're very appreciative of his time in service in the legislature. And he's very well respected uh despite being what are you now a sophomore roughly? Close. Close to Yeah. So, he's been great to work with and we uh hope to continue to perpetuate the relationship and uh advance um the benefits of public education um up on the on Capitol Hill with his help and assistance. So, I present to you board of education

127um Representative Anthony Lube, a friend of public education. [Music] You are such a great advocate for us. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for coming over after a long meeting. The white smoke came out of the [Music] capsule picture right here. Is that all right? Yeah. Sure you do. actually kind of Yes, fellow Wonk. That's You're welcome to stick around. Uh our our next policy uh is that okay, keep going. Our next policy is article 8A15. This is student uh dress guidelines. Uh this is kind of an interesting policy because um it demonstrates a little bit how things eb and flow uh in in our schools and uh when we make a decision uh we we don't necessarily know how that's going to affect us you know 5 years later. So what we've done in this particular

128policy is it's being updated uh to establish process for schools to adopt a uniform dress code that is standardized for all students. Um, if this sounds somewhat familiar, it should because it used to be in the policy and it was removed and now it's being reinserted. Uh, and that's because that we do have some schools who are interested in adopting um uniform dress codes for all students. Uh, the policy requires principles and community councils to create written proposal and timeline. Uniform dress code uh adopted under this policy will be reauthorized. So um the idea behind this this if if you look at the the policy itself there's just a section that's added and it provides an opportunity for principles and their community councils to go through a process to um uh make a a plan

129recommendation and then um uh adopt a uniform uh dress code for their whole school. Um, we did allow in there a uh a section or excuse me, one sentence that that does allow them to reconduct this same process if they want to change, modify, or eliminate um the uniforms that they've that they've adopted. So, it does allow for some flexibility over time. Uh, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you've got. I just want to make a comment. years ago, Eisenhower did this and I think that was one of the reasons why they got rid of this policy because of the feedback. But within the school itself, it was a major change. Had parents stayed out of it, then the students did so well the year that they had that um the

130student policy. My kids were there at that time and it really did unify. So, I'm glad it's back. I'm glad we have something because at one of my junior highs a few years back, they wanted to get rid of the school uniforms. And they came to me because we were telling them two different things constantly to the point where they were having to redo surveys because it didn't meet this requirement or that. And I remember being on the phone with Doug, I'm sure you remember that, trying to navigate and it was just navigating really muddy waters. There was never a clear, easy path. The the school, the faculty, the community council, they stood ready to go and do whatever they needed to do, but it was very unclear what those steps and those boxes to

131check even were. So, I appreciate you getting us something back in to guide. It's a little more simple than it was and it's Yeah, it seems very I mean that process before was very arduous. So I I like the simplicity of this. Good. [Music] I move that we approve article 8A15 student dress guidelines. I'll second. We have a motion in a second to approve article 8 as a first reading. As a first reading. Thank you. Article 815 student dress guidelines as a first reading. Are there any further questions? Well, I wanted to say that one of the things I really feel strongly about, this is one of those areas where we're really making an effort to empower local decision making as much as possible. And I I think that there's a real effort on our

132part to empower community councils to make sure that every individual community gets to be individual and gets to do what they think is best for their own community. So, I really celebrate that this gives options to people. Um, the other thing I and and I really want to encourage community councils to be empowered to make decisions like this with in conjunction with their community and their principles. Uh the other thing that I wanted to say about this is if uh if you're on a community council or if you're not if you're just if your school community has not looked at its dress code policy in a while, I just encourage you to because there are some really outofdate dress code policies in our um district and so out of date that they're just not even

133being followed because they're a little bit ridiculous. But it's a really controversial thing to tackle. So people don't like to tackle it. Um, but it makes a big difference when you do tackle it. And I will just point you to uh the magnificent Jen Johnson who was at Bonavville Junior High when she did a whole community and student outreach situation to get a which resulted in a fantastic uh upto-date not targeted at anybody um but very professional um dress code policy that now is being implemented with Fidelity by her her what who comes after success or thank you um Eric Bailey and as someone who is who hires people in the workforce I'm like yes thank you thank you we need these kids coming to my office knowing how they should be um dressed uh

134I don't want to have to teach them that. So I I really appreciate when when we have those good strong dress code policies. I think it makes a difference when our kids graduate. And I quickly add on to that, the current policy does require schools to review their dress code every other year. So hopefully they are doing that. I was going to mention the same. Thanks, Kim. They're not. They should. So she's going to amend her remarks to say that if you are on a school school community council, please encourage them to to review it every two years. Right. All right. Any other comments? All right. Um, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Great. We'll move on to our second readings. The first of the second readings

135is article 9 A1P. This is parental and postpartum recovery leave. We read this last month. Um, as I mentioned last month, this is a benefit that is um in state statute with respect to all state employees. Although that didn't apply to um uh LEAs government, it only applied to um uh to the subdivisions of the of the state. Um now it applies to all um LEAs as well. Uh we did have to go back and uh redo a couple of things. We worked with um Berkeley to make just a couple of modifications if I can point those out. um in 11 12 and uh excuse me in C11 and 12 and then D12 um there is there there were just slight modifications I'll point to C12 is the most um uh the the uh uh

136the modification that was that was most highly required and that is employees may use up to 6 weeks of acred sick leave following their qualifying event or up to 8 weeks that the qualing qualifying event involves a cesarian section operation or other medical care prescribed by a medical provider. Kim, you had brought that up last time and um I wanted to just mention that we appreciate you bringing that up because there was a change that was necessary and we made that change. Okay. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to respond. Any other questions? Okay. I'll entertain a motion. I move that we approve as a second and final reading article 9A1P parental and postpartum recovery leave. I'll second it. Right. We have a motion and a second to approve article 9 A1P

137parental and postpartum recovery leave as a second and final reading. Are there any further comments on this? All right. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Right. Motion carries. Okay. The last one for the evening is article 8A24 electronic devices and acceptable use of technology. Um this policy is being updated to include statements on the proper role of screens and screen time in classrooms. We had a lot of conversation about this. We had a a district community council that was specifically um uh um dedicated to this subject. Um, this change arose from u discussions about the appropriate role of technology in classrooms, whether we're hitting um what we like to call the um uh the the Goldilocks um principle that we're trying to um we're trying to hit the uh sweet spot there

138and and so that we're using technology in an appropriate manner and not overusing technology. This change in policy will emphasize that screen time in the classroom should be used for planned learning and not to keep students passively occupied. So all we've done to that policy, this is the same policy you'll recall board members um that includes our cell phone language and other um language related to the use of technology. We added uh under section C5 uh a statement about appropriate um uh educational use of um particularly our our Chromebooks. Um and we think that that was a good update to the policy. We've had lots of conversations with like I said with parents um with community members and with the board and uh I I think that we do have some additional work to do

139in our in our memoranda. Um but um the policy now is in a place where I think that um uh the board has indicated they feel comfortable and if there's any other questions I'd be happy to respond. You look like you have a question clerk. I do but I can wait for commentary. Okay. My question is is the in the second sentence of paragraph 5 is the phrase to the extent possible necessary? Is it needed? seems inappropriate to be blunt. Why can't we just state definitively that school hours should indeed be a chance for students to be engaged in learning free from excessive screen interaction? What I don't I don't understand the preface there. Um that's a great question. uh that the the language came from um the I guess the um uh the concern

140that there was excessive screen time and um there's excessive screen time being used for passive type activities. To the extent that we're going to eliminate those altogether, I can't really say therefore have the the the qualification there. um because there may be opportunities for a use of of a Chromebook. I I can't really make a definitive um uh statement that there would never be use of of a Chromebook for for another reason other than teaching and learning. But if there is, then then that's that's why the qualification is there. I don't disagree with you that perhaps the policy itself should state um kind of our expectation and if that's the case I'd be happy to make the change. I'm open to other feedback from the board and from the superintendent, but we've already stated the

141word should. It should be a chance and there could be exceptions to that and that seems to take that into account in that language. I just I don't know. It seems kind of if we're going to have a policy, it just seems rather inconsequential to to add a qualifier such as to the extent there. It just seems to kind of cut it off from his legs. Chance I would take Chance out, too. Fair. Now that I look at it, yeah, I think that's fair, too. I agree. I think that that um just to give you color on the conversation around that and the law and policy committee. I think that are you referring specifically to the part that says not to keep students passely occupied. No. No. I'm referring specifically to the qualifier at the

142beginning of the sentence that states to the extent and then I think I agree with Nicole as well that of the use of the word chance. There's no there's no reason for those qualifiers. So you think you you you feel like we should just take out that second sentence? Yeah. The second sentence should begin with the word school hours should be for students to be or should should uh should be for students. Yeah. School hours should be for students to be engaged in learning free from excessive screen interaction. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. I think it's actually more elegant that way. Yeah. I'm in favor of I'm I I like that change. I think it instead of there's a chance that we might not do this, it's very very direct. So I like that. I think

143it makes for better policy. Actually, you should come to our log policy. Yes. You're welcome. That's a terrible idea. I agree. Doug brings treats. Joe brings them. Oh, Joe brings treats. It's true. Um that was in the microphone, Chris. It was It was That was Nicole. That was Nicole. For the record, subtle but effective. I wanted to just mention that since we've been talking about this, I've already had some um teachers reach out to me and say, "Here are some of the things that are kind of complicated about I see what you're trying to do. Here are the things that I'm finding are complicated in my experience." And it's um exciting me to hear them say these things because this is exactly the feedback we want for the memorandum. So I because that's this is

144the vision. Carrying out the vision is a little more tricky. It's not the board's job to carry out the vision. It's you guys'es. But um I I just wanted to emphasize how important it's going to be to talk to those teachers as you figure out how to carry out that vision because they are going to be able to I think they're going to get on board with this vision, but they're going to tell you like, "Okay, here are the bumps in the road." uh that I mean and you know with technology it's just always some little deal that is the biggest deal ever you know if you can just know about it and go fix it. So um I hope that this is one of those moments where we just like it becomes the model

145of how we interact with our employees um to get the best outcomes for kids. I think this is one of those where we can like elevate our game on that. Okay, there's no other questions. I'll entertain a motion. Would you I don't Did we make a motion? You need to make a motion. Can I amend my [Music] There's not a motion. Oh, you want Do you want to change it? Make the motion with the amendment of your with your amendment. Sure. Is this a first or second? I can't recall. Second reading. Second and final. I move we accept as a second reading uh and final or just a second. Second and final reading of article 8. A.24 electronic devices and acceptable use of technology with the proposed amendment that is discussed with respect to the

146second sentence in C5. C5. IC5. Thank you. All right. Well, I'll second it. Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve article 8 A24 electronic devices and acceptable use of technology as a second and final reading with the proposed amendment to C5, the second sentence of C5. Is there any further discussion on this? Quick comment. So, same as last month, can I ask for Stacy to record the reasons for my vote in the minutes, please? Um, which is, you know, I I want to just make clear for the record, I still have concerns, as I did when the policy was initially approved. Um, concerns relating to the fact that I don't find the exceptions we wrote into the memo, not actually in the policy, but in the memo, um, not practically usable by

147students in practice, um, still have those same concerns. So just putting that on the record, but I am voting on this change in particular today. So that will be a yes from me. Any other comments? I will say that this was not it's a very as we talked about this in lawn policy and we brought this back a couple times um to make sure that we kind of got the feedback that we wanted to. And I we we uh shared this as a information item a couple months ago just for this specific purpose. Um it is a balance and we recognize that technology can be used for good. Um but that we don't want to have it be excessive and that we want it to be pointed specifically for teaching and for learning for students

148to be able to make make growth and that's the purpose of it. So that's the purpose of this. All right. Uh with no further comments we'll go ahead and take a vote. All in favor please say I. I. Any opposed? Right, motion carries. Thanks, board members. Thanks. Right, I'm going to turn the time over to superintendent for his report. Thank you. I'm going to take a little bit longer tonight, so buckle up. Um, not too long, though. But uh I I have just finished 308 days of service as your superintendent and wanted to share a few things that we've been working on um this year. Um you're going to be getting a report on our salt um that's our student achievement leadership team and our boost schools initiative from our uh new members of our

149leadership team uh Dr. Nerd and Dr. how and Lesie Bell um in the coming months. We're very excited about this this upcoming initiative which will help us to bring up and provide additional supports to some of our schools that are struggling in their performance and their outcomes. um this focus um will help us to kind of raise all boats in the harbor and I'm very appreciative of the budget that we have proposed and uh your adoption of that budget and the upcoming meetings that helps fund some of those supports that are essential for improving student outcomes. Uh I'm grateful for the the scores that we're starting to see come out of our schools and the more that we talk about improving instruction, the more people are starting to grasp onto the focus and the concept.

150And it's interesting what you focus on, people will also grasp onto that. And so I would encourage everybody here, remember what our primary mission and goal is. While we want to create uh community, warm, welcoming environments, ultimately our mission and our core goal is to provide students with the the learning and the opportunities and the instruction that will help them to be successful. So the more that we can talk about improving and enhancing instruction that every child can learn, um the more uh people are going to grasp onto that and we can build that collective efficacy in our school district. So I'm very grateful for the efforts of uh the district to take on some of these challenges with uh changes um and leadership and some other things that have come our way. I'm grateful

151uh want to extend uh support for another initiative that we've begun this year which is our safe school Lag program. We have seen some of our um schools struggling not just with uh violent offenders who need alternative placement, but we see students because of some of the changes in legislation and um causing disruptions on school properties. I don't know why people don't slough um off of school property, but they seem to be sloughing more and more and causing disruptions within our schools. And because they're not uh violent, uh we're not uh able to place them under our current policies and procedures out of those schools. Um Safe School Light is providing an avenue and a direction to allow us to uh bring uh that perspective that school is a privilege and it's an honor to

152be there and to um to take that back to the student and build their respect for the opportunity that's been given to them. and if they're not willing to address it at that point in time, take them out of that local environment and provide them the education that they stand in need of without disrupting uh the remaining student population. I'm very excited for Leslie and Jared as they they helped to implement that uh program. I want to uh acknowledge the significant decrease in reorganization of district staffing. Um there were some very difficult challenges that we've had to face this year as a result of declining student enrollment, not just school closures, but uh ensuring that our district size uh and staffing reflected um uh that change in student enrollment. And we've had some tremendous people

153uh be able to leave uh through attrition and other normal means, but we've had to make some other difficult uh challenging decisions. And I appreciate the support of the board as we've worked through some of those challenges as well. Um, I'm very very grateful for the class size reduction money. I think this speaks to the commitment on this board to not just hold the status quo, um, but looking at targeted interventions with money that will make a difference in actually improving and enhancing student outcomes because again, that's what we're here to do. We're here to make sure that our kids are learning. and I'm confident that we're going to be able to see some um some fruits of those investments despite the challenges in funding um in our district. Uh one of the other things

154that we're working on and I appreciate the efforts of mentioned Lesie in particular and some of their uh team is the alignment of our coaching resources in Granite School District. We've kind of been a little bit disjointed in some of the coaching supports that we provided, but it's my hope and it's my vision that we can become a district where everybody from the superintendent down to the par profofessional and the custodian and a bus driver and everybody that we have a culture of coaching that we can always improve, that we can always get better, um, and that we can always improve the services that we're providing to our students. So, uh, we're going to be aligning those resources better and making sure that our our PD and our other resources are working to enhance and

155improve tier one instruction. I had the privilege to welcome a group of uh, what was I doing yesterday, Mitch? It was a group of uh, new um, they are in the coaching endorsement program. Yeah, we had uh, probably about 30 individuals who were uh, going to get endorsed with their their coaching. Um, so we're very excited to to bring on individuals on that. Um I I'm so very grateful for uh our our culture that I feel like is shifting. I uh we have always had a warm culture here um in Granite School District, but people reach out to me and they have tremendous ideas and suggestions and I would encourage them to continue to do so and I'm grateful when people are willing to collaborate and work together and I see that happening more and

156more in Salt and in school community councils in a variety of places because the more of us that can uh chime in and address some of the those challenges that we face um the the better we're going to be and the more accountable we're going to be to to our teachers and to our to our families that we serve. Um I want to chime in on the tremendous relationships we have here in Granite School District um from a variety of individuals from Todd, myself, and many others um with our state officials and uh with other key stakeholders within our communities. Um it's it's become so very apparent these last few months in particular how critical those relationships have been and we've been able to call upon those relationships to help support us in some very

157desperate and dire times of which I know the board is aware of. Um and so as I kind of report out on this first year um I just want to thank those individuals for the the the relationships that we do have and their support of of Granite School District. Um, again, this budget proposal, um, looking forward to the next few meetings. I know that they will be challenging, but it is a it is a budget that is focused on improving outcomes. And I'm I'm so excited about the things that we're going to be able to do and the focus um, and the commitment to improving instruction. And so, I thank the board for that help and support. And lastly, I'm I'm very excited about a few initiatives that we have within the schools themselves. I'm

158excited about the Magnus Team Academy. I'm excited about our standalone DLI magnet program. These are all ideas and concepts that are outside of the box and a few years ago we would not have taken some of these steps, but I think it shows our community that we're willing to do whatever we can to provide the necessary support um and the differentiation that our kids deserve and our our parents are relying on. And uh I continue to hope that and plan on leading Granite School District in a way where everybody looks at what Granite is doing because we're doing amazing things and we're doing cool things. And it's because of these great staff members um and Salt and our amazing school administrators, incredible teachers, our PTA, our other community leaders that help make this a tremendous

159school district. And it's my honor and privilege to serve as your superintendent. So that is my report. Thanks, Superintendent Horsesley. Clark, do you have anything? Just a quick update from the audit committee. Uh it has been a busy audit season. Um audit reports have been completed for all of the elementary schools that have been audited um both internally and by our external auditors. Uh and the uh reports for secondary schools are coming in uh as we speak. So that process will wrap up uh this month in June with all of those reports being completed and uh to the extent I have not read every single report yet. I'm about there and it is awesome. The results are good and I'm it is riveting. That's kind of what I was trying to convey. It's so much

160more riveting than a law and policy meeting. Absolutely. Clark makes a good audit committee chair, doesn't he? Um, I sit on the benefits committee and uh, we had a meeting uh, a couple weeks ago. Our benefits are looking healthy. We're at an 89% loss uh, ratio to begin. We're spot on where we want to be. Keeping an eye on some of our pharmacy. We have a couple of expensive drugs that are being used a lot, but um, but overall um, benefits are healthy. I spoke a little bit earlier. I wanted to elaborate on these um, Granite Wellness Awards. So, the interesting thing is, and I'm so glad that this kind of came up naturally in discussion because it wasn't on the agenda, but um he had like a literal piece of granite called the rock.

161It was heavy. And that is the award that goes around to these different schools so they can portray their wellness rock. Anyway, I thought that was pretty funny. But, um but it's it's actually really good. you have to every school can can um compete in these wellness challenges um as long as you have 10 employees sign up to do it. And the fascinating thing that I learned was that no school has won twice. And so we do have a variety of schools participating in these challenges. And I think the summer one is some kind of a water drinking challenge like how well hydrated can you stay throughout the summer? Now, how this is measured, I don't know, but they give out um but they give out kind of school awards, but then there's individual prizes

162and you'll be and and so I asked, well, where does the funding, you know, being a board member, I'm like, who funds that? And the funding from for all of these comes from the late enrollment fees. So, during open enrollment, if you miss the deadline, you're employ an employee to sign up for your benefits for the next year, um you're charged a $50 fee. And you would think that everybody's on time. They're not. And so they collect those $50. And so that can pay for the individual prizes. Earbuds. I asked what they were. So there's water bottles, there's smartwatches, earbuds, backpacks. It just kind of goes on and on. So that the funding actually comes from the benefits um the open enrollment bucket. So I thought you guys would find that interesting since I learned

163that was new to me. So I thought I'd share. I just want to know if it counts if you would drink caffeine-free diet coke if that counts as water. Probably not. I'd be in trouble. Just clarification. Chris, go ahead. Um the budget and finance committee, we met today. Um we're meeting quarterly. If you remember, we changed our um schedule, meeting schedule. Um we talked about the capital budget today and Todd did such a great job. It's on board book, so you can go in and look at the slides. um and he talked about our priorities. We're where we're at with capital and also kind of redefining some of our um processes now that we have some changes and um he's gone through and they're they're going step by step to look at what those processes

164will look like and the criteria. I know we've talked about this the top 10 projects before. We talked about worst first scenarios and all those different scenarios were they're now red you know redefining or also formalizing some of those um what meets that criteria so we have a better perspective not just perspective but a better outlook on what our um buildings the needs are in our on our capital projects and that was our um so on board book you can go in and look at those slides and if you have any questions you can ask to or um Connie or or Mark. So that's it. So just a reminder that this weekend is the delegate assembly. Anyone can come. Um we don't have to just have there's just not everyone can vote, but it will

165be held at Canyon's District Office, which is at 9361 South 30 East in Sandy. um June or 6th Friday the meeting is from 6 till 10 and on the 7th it's from 8 till 12 and like I said anyone can come um we're working on the evaluation right now the USBA superintendent board has 80 questions And so we're narrowing that down to hopefully much um just real quick before I give my report. I want to comment back on my good news minute comment about the graduations. Hopefully it didn't come across as negative. The graduation was amazing. Just not good feeling to walk in late. So yeah, I've been there, Kim. And plus I got, you know, um say I wouldn't say punished, but like rewarded by the universe for being late by being called Chriswin

166on both the program and the and the big screen. So now that's one for the team. Called something far worse. It's funny. I just want to comment really quick. Um, I always get called Kim when at the Granite Transition Services graduation ceremony and they called me Chris this time. So, it happens to all of us. We have Kim, Chris, Connie, Clark, and Karen. I That's a lot of C. It is. It is. But, but only one Julie. There's only one Julie. And one Natalie. Yeah. Anyway, I know I know one really didn't have anything to do with the other, but it was a funny situation, so I had to bring it up. Um, I attended the parks and wreck meeting this month. Couple of things were discussed um that I thought were interesting. They're attempting

167to create a water sports park on the Jordan River for paddlecraft and canoeing and racing and that kind of thing. Um, it would be just south of 2011, just west of 900 West on the Jordan River there. So that's something that's being talked about. I think it's still a long way down the road still. No, that's that's kind of like still Salt Lake. Yeah, it's like my it's it's within my precinct actually. I think on the map. I have to go look again. But yeah, close to Redwood I think. I don't have the map in front of me now, so I may be making an idiot idiot of myself, but that's what I remember seeing. Um there was a discussion about the ongoing support of the my county rec pals. So that was interesting to

168hear. The feedback is that signups enrollments are really high, utilization is low. Um so I think people, you know, sign up for something that's free, but then because it's free, there's not really a lot of motivation to use it. Right. Did you offer them my explanation? We haven't met yet again, but I will. And I was going to comment on that here that Nicole did provide some feedback saying that perhaps one of the reasons that they're not getting there is because of transport and maybe something that should be looked at is a um bus passes for those same kids to be able to get themselves to the rec center. So I will bring that feed back to them in our next meeting. Um and then mentioned this to Ben. the the committee would like to

169engage in conversations with school districts about resource use and possible resource sharing. Um I think they're looking to hopefully get more free use of our our facilities is what they're hoping for. Um so that's coming down the road. We'll organize how to get them in touch with the district administration when the time comes. And that is all. Um I just wanted to mention how much I'm enjoying being in leadership on USBA. I'm just learning and growing so much from all the other board members across the state and this month we're going to be meeting with the some legislative leaders and or leadership of both the Senate and the House and I'm really excited for the opportunity to be able to like advocate on that level for us. So, um I feel like um that takes

170up some of my board time. That's why I want to say it here because I appreciate being able to spend time doing that. Um I the evaluation committee is getting together to talk about um to prep plan and prepare our board self- evaluation for this year. So, be looking for that coming soon. And also, we'll be preparing our superintendent evaluation for this fall. Um, we had a district community council meeting that I felt was pretty well attended. Um, and in that we talked about the um, technology policy that we just passed as a second reading. Got some great feedback. It was interesting. I would say that for the most part, everybody really appreciated the policy that we just passed here, which is why there was no like change of feedback. Uh, you know, we didn't

171come with any changes. People were pretty pleased with what we were doing there. And there were a lot of kind of detailed things that were said to us. Um, one thing that was very interesting was I think I told you that um, it was a group actually three separate groups of high school students who told me that they thought that we should just get rid of Chromebooks altogether in elementary. And it was really interesting to see that parent committee say absolutely not. I I don't feel they all said well you need to control it but man you can't take that away. It was very interesting to see those differing perspectives which is another reason why we got to make sure that we go out and get all perspectives on the situation. So um uh anyway

172uh and I think those are all my committees. So thank you. All right. Thank you. Um for law and policy, just so you all are aware, we did bring up uh per Julie and my request um and support from other people, we asked for the travel policy to be reviewed. uh we've had some issues that have been brought to our attention and some things. So, if you have any feedback on the travel policy as it stands or any feedback from teachers or your respective communities, we'd love to hear it. We are meeting next week as well. Um so, in addition to that, uh just a quick reminder that we do have our um our budget hearing which is on June 17th, 6 p.m. 6 p.m. Thank you. It's at 6 PM. It's on our calendars.

1735 6 6 PM. So, please make sure that you have that um on your calendar. And uh also we have a board retreat on scheduled on the 8th, just a reminder, and that will be at Mil Creek City. Um JD has asked uh about doing a service project at the Granite Education Foundation. If there's no objection to that, we'd like to set something up. Um, and then I know there's you have to come late, so that's okay. But, um, we're we're looking forward to that. And also, if you have any suggestions, Chris and I have a running list of things that we are going to put on that agenda. We will get that out to you guys as soon as possible. But if you have any other specific requests, please let us know. Um, and

174aside from that, can we just I just want to publicly thank Kennedy Jr. for the thank you notes. I don't think I've ever gotten a thank you note for something like that. And I just thought it was really sweet. I'm actually quite touched. What school? Kennedy. Kennedy Junior. They didn't make it this way. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. It's my school. I love them with joy and love. Supported them down there. I apologize. They literally all say, "Thank you for spending $175,000 on a new sound system. I can finally understand. It sounds so good. It's so clear." And you know the principal at the front saying hello nights. I mean why are you holding this for me? I went this way. This is this is why being a school member board member is so awesome.

175Pass those over. I almost this is what makes it all worth it right here. It's so fun. No, but it is very No, it is they were very excited and they announced kind of a thanks to the board. I was in the audience in their first play um with the with the new sound system and they were over the moon excited and I had like just random parents coming up to me saying thank you for pushing this through. Thank you for pushing this through. So yes, I I'm I'm I will look at these before I leave. Yeah. So we're looking Thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, other schools are like thanks for not giving us. All right, having reached the end of our agenda, we stand adjourned.