MCSD Board Meeting

001Right, it's now five o'clock. Thank you everyone for coming tonight on this busy holiday weekend. Um, and we'll just start with um the pledge of allegiance. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hi, could you tell us who you are and where you came from? My name is Michaela Day and I go to Hillrest Junior High School. Excellent. And can you tell us a little bit about a class or a teacher or something that's been meaningful to you? So, I'm a peer tutor and I love I love that class and I love Miss White. It was fun. I love it. Thank you for being brave. We

002appreciate you. All right. And then um we have Mrs. Cumington going to do an administrative appointment now. Thank you, board president. I am going to ask if Amber Rogers would please join me up here. Hello. All right. It's my pleasure this evening to introduce the board to Amber Rogers. Amber Rogers has been selected to be the assistant principal at Murray High School beginning July 1st, 2025. Um she has been she's been in education for 15 years. She has a deep passion for student success and a strong commitment to fostering a positive learning environment. She actually began her career at Murray High School where she was a teacher and a swim coach and then she went to Canyon School District so she could get a little bit more uh refinement. And now we are so happy

003to have her back um in Canyon. She was a teacher and an instructional coach for new teachers. And now she has been the intern assistant principal at Hillrest Junior High this year. And we are thrilled that Amber is coming home to Murray to be part of our Murray family. She has a great leadership philosophy that aligns with Murray High School's mission to take creative and supportive um measures to help all of our students and she is going to be succeeding Emily Bird who Emily Bird was previously appointed to be the director of atrisisk services beginning July 1st. And so I would ask for a motion and a vote of support for to appoint Amber Rogers as the assistant principal of Murray High School. Thank you. Is there a motion? I move that we approve Amber

004Rogers as the assistant p principal for Murray High School. Is there a second? I second. And any discussion? All right. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Right. Thank you. All right. I don't think I told you this, but would you like a few minutes to address the board? I told every I just thought of that. Now, usually I say, "Oh, and I'm going to ask if you'd like to just say anything to the board." So, I'm gonna give you the mic. If all you want to say is great, that's fine. But I apologize. Yes. Um, I was informed about what an hour ago that I would have maybe said something and I said, "Oh, well, I absolutely will because I'm very excited to be like, uh, Miss Cington said, and Superintendent Cington said that I'm

005excited to be home back in Murray School District. I um believe that Murray really instilled a lot of my values of what I feel um is important to education which is support and love for our students. And I was able to go over to Murray High School yesterday and introduce myself to the faculty and I recognized still about half of the faces. So that was always really really fun to see that a lot of the teachers who kind of inspired me to be a teacher leader were still there and were still present. And I would be very remissed if I didn't talk about the amazing team that I work with. Um Dr. Reynold and Sam Selenus are just the most phenomenal leaders. I am so grateful because um Murray High School is where I became

006a teacher leader and I think at Hillrest is where I became a real administrator and an understanding what it means to be a real leader for teachers and for students and they are the perfect blend of sticking calm and staying calm in very very uh difficult situations but also acting with boldness and just standing unapologetically for what is right. So, I am very grateful to be not only back in Murray School District, but also to be uh working at Murray High School and go Spartans. So, thank you so much. Welcome, Amber. Thank you. [Applause] Oh, I love all this. Thank you. Um do uh we just need to approve the consent agenda. And I just want to say when um I read over the minutes before we do this, I'm just always impressed with um

007how Richard is able to take the meeting and put it onto paper. So, thank you for your efforts on that. And um is there a motion for the consent agenda? I move that we approve the consent agenda. And is there a second? I second. Second. Thank you. And um any discussion? I have a quick question on the financials. Um, I just saw a new school mint. Can you tell me what that is? Yeah, I can tell you what that is. School mint is the um uh observer evaluation system we are using. So, we had used something previously this year. We switched to school mint because we felt that it was a better tool for our administrators to use. So, that's what you is used for all the evaluation purposes. Okay, great question. Thank you. All

008right. And then all in favor? I. And any opposed? Thank you. And then on to our delegations, we have Hillcrest Junior High PTA here with us tonight. So, welcome. Hi, I'm Kylie. I'm the PTSA president over at Hillrest Junior High. Um, PTA at the junior high is a lot different than the elementary. a lot of working with the staff and the student groups over there um to make things happen. One of those upcoming things is the student council is planning a volleyball tournament um as a fundraiser for them. So, they have asked us to help out with shop rounds as well as um doing any of the concessions and anything. I think they're planning on doing um like ices and stuff like that. So, we're looking forward to that. Um another really fun thing we've

009done this year with Hillrest is um each of the student groups at Hillrest does a spirit week. Um they do four a year. So LIA, BSU, SBO, they plan and run a SP spirit week and at the end of that each of those weeks they host a school dance which has been really fun for the kids and kind of getting junior high kids ready for um high school and all that stuff. Um so we've helped with providing treats such as donuts and pizza um and doing chaperones for that. Um, and another thing we've done this year, we did it last year, we introduced a swig day um, at the junior high school where we sell swig, they're not real swig drinks, we make the swig drinks, but for the kids. We did it last year.

010It was a huge success. Um, and so we ended up doing it twice this year and it was a bigger success this year than it was last year. They absolutely love it. So, and I can't thank admin enough for letting us do that and letting us give a bunch of 13 to 15 year olds soda to run around the school with. So, it's been amazing. I can't say enough good things about being the PTA president at Hillrest. It's been so much fun and I enjoy it. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate all that the PTA PTSA does. Wouldn't be the same without it. All right. And then, um, for MEA, we have Miss Amy Roberts. Thank you. Hi. Good evening. Um, in case you haven't heard, we just have a couple things to talk about

011or to share with you. Um, we're excited to announce that the referendum got more than double the signatures that it needed to get onto the ballot. So, we're excited about that. Um, those were handed in yesterday to the clerk's office and Murray teachers had a big part of collecting those signatures in different areas throughout the county to try to help us out with that. um they are now they have until June 21st for the lieutenant governor's office to figure out what's valid, what's not, how many we ended up with and and if that proceeds. So, we're looking forward to that. Um we've had a lot of anxiety with the members about this obviously, but we are um we know the insurance committee and quotes are still coming in. We know that there's been a delay

012with that and with HB267. So, we are we're trying to calm everybody. We're trying to help them know that we are all doing our best board and MEA to move forward the best that we can. Um it's hard for them to try to plan their family finances and moving forward with insurance and whatnot. So we're again just trying to hold everybody off while we're all working through this process and and um we're looking forward to continuing to work with the board and and uh keep Murray one of those forefront teachers places to work. So thank you. Thank you. All right. And then the um ma Mr. Kaufman don't have anything specific from the group. Just uh just a reminder where we're at in the school year. Um we're in the thick of testing uh activities,

013winding things up. Just one thing to share just you know since I'm at Riverview. Uh one of the new things we're trying this year um for our seventh and eighth graders to give them that feel of testing like you would in high school and just to see if it if it works better. Our seventh and eighth graders are going to do all their rice tests in one day this year. They'll do a test, go off, take a break, do another test, go off, take a break. The ninth graders are going to the zoo. So, we're getting them out of the building. They're going to do their thing and we're going to kind of see how that goes. But and I think I'm just one one piece of what all the administrators are doing around the

014district trying to do new things just to see if if other things can work compared to what we've been doing in the past just to improve our students. So thank you and have a great evening. Thank you. And then MEPA Mr. Bernette I don't have as much to there just as a couple of uh acclamations to one of them was is the uh the newest one and this has come out through Murray School District obviously but uh to an amazing uh principal or uh secretary Alicia Brimley who was uh named association uh Utah's association elementary school principles secretary of the year. So, you know, we're grateful for good people that are nominated. They're doing their best at their job and are recognized in that as well as um our IT department which has been phenomenal.

015Uh gee, Jason with his national recognition. So, we're just excited the of what our uh ESPs are doing in their job and in their community to make things better, our systems better, our uh people's better. So, we're just I just wanted to make sure we're aware of that. And as I said, um Doug's done great on putting that out there and putting it on the Facebook and and acknowledging that. And so, I just want to acknowledge that as well. Thank you. Thank you. That is exciting. Thanks for highlighting that. Um, and then MEF with Mr. Perry. So, we are wrapping up coasting into I should say our pickle ball tournament which will be next week, next a week from this Saturday. And we have uh we are down to just a few remaining slots. And

016so we're excited to uh get that going and know that we've um we've done our best to get people interested and engaged in it. And it's been a little a lot of a learning experience this year, but it's been a lot of fun. Hughes Construction, thank you for them uh for uh allowing us to use their um their pickle ball nets. Uh that's going to be very very helpful for us this year. Uh we also have our shoe drive that Inter Mountain Health did this last year. I'm told, I haven't inventoried or anything or looked at anything, but they told me about 480 pairs of shoes uh donated um either in cash or the shoes themselves. And so, we're excited to work with our social worker team at the at the district um to identify,

017you know, where those specific needs need to go and which schools and that kind of thing. Um we are doing our bicycle drive right now and you might see a collection of ugly bikes that are over there uh in the uh near the bus barn area. Um those are uh being collected for us on in our community for Murray for an organization called the bicycle collective who fixes them up and basically gets them ready for kids to use again. And so we're excited to partner with them and uh collect bikes, have them fix them, and then hopefully donate them back out to our community. Um as well as collecting money for locks and helmets, which we've collected, I think a few hundred dollars for as well this for this next year. And then the last

018thing is we're just for MEF, we're just doing our strategic planning for next year. It's getting close to that time to the end of the year. So we're looking ahead at what kind of fun things that we're going to be doing next year. So that's my report. Thank you. We love what you do. Thank you. Thank you. And then did we have any patron statements tonight? All right. Thank you. We'll move on to the report of the board. Um Cammy, would you mind going first? Um sure. And I don't have a whole lot to report other than the we attended the National School Boards Association and I was trying to review some of the notes that I have. Um I think we have a study we us generally do have a study session where we

019review some of those things that that we learned. Um this this year particularly was um I just I hit the jackpot because I think I attended all really great great sessions as you sometimes you attend some and they're like and but all of mine were great and I learned a lot. So, I appreciate the opportunity for us to go there, see on a national level um what's what's going on in education and try to bring that back and and help us solve some of the problem, not some of the problems, some of the things that we're doing and move in different directions. So, that's all I have to report. Thank you. Um I I wanted to report that um I had the opportunity to attend the Hillrest Junior High uh play this year and that

020was really fun. We have a lot of people that work really hard to give our kids great experiences and and I just enjoyed that a great deal. I also attended the the national conference and learned a lot that I hope to bring back and to uh inform my my decisions as part of the board and then also to inform um things that will help our schools to be better. And and I enjoy working with the PTA. They're getting things ready for some recognition of their members and that's a great thing that they would take time to do that and looking forward to the pickle ball tournament. There you go. Love it, Elizabeth. Um, so I don't have much to report. I am sad that I missed the national convention this year. It's the first time

021since I've been on the board that I haven't been able to attend. So I've been really looking forward to hearing the highlights. And so when we do have that study session, I'll I'll enjoy what you brought back from it because I really missed it this year. Um so I don't have anything else. Right. And we missed you too. Well, and you missed the back scratchers. Um I too really enjoyed the time that we had to be together. um and the informal times when we're not in conference um and then definitely gleaning from um leaders across the country. And it's always fascinating to me when um you're sitting there and you realize that some of the issues that we face that feel very Utah aren't that the problems that we are looking at and trying to

022solve for are across the country and such a unique opportunity to be able to go and learn from each other and to strategize and come home refreshed with some new ideas. Um, and um, what does that note mean? I was jotting down so I didn't forget anything. I'll come back to that one because I don't know what that means. Um, but just I wanted to reiterate how much I love my job. I love um, all of the things that we get to do. Um, and this week was one of the highlights of my career as a board member. I got to be a judge at the Young Chef competition. Sedexo um has this really great program and so sixth graders competed and each school selected one recipe and these sixth graders came to together and

023got to cook their recipe and the high school um ProStart students came. So they had a mentor and these 11 12 year old kids made spaghetti tacos and chicken parmesana and curry from scratch and it was magic standing in that kitchen watching it all happen. And I really appreciate um Gwen and all that she does for our schools. And they even had a region rep from Washington come and it was really fun to hear um her stories and experiences. Um the Murray coalition that I serve on is um really getting their structure in place and that's been a really great process to see the adoption of communities that care and seeing a room full of leaders in our community talk about how we can help students and children in our community and how we can

024enhance protective factors. And um that's a really cool thing that um that I get to be a part of. Um, and then just wanted to highlight our Sierra Marsh does such great things for our students in this district. um and she did a um family Zoom meeting where parents in the district could log on this week and watch a presentation from a company called Sapria and it was all about how to protect your children from um sexual abuse and the tools that were shared were invaluable and that's um the link to that um because there wasn't there was good attendance for for an evening thing but um every parent in our community could benefit from hearing what that um and and and I actually know the presenter on a personal level and um I've gone

025to many different things that he's done and he just has a way of presenting really hard information in really calm logical ways and so I just with this being a public meeting want to encourage any parent, grandparent or adult in our community to tune in and watch that. it had really good um information, tools, and skills um to help protect our children. Um and I still don't know what that note meant, so I will just close with that and we'll move into the report of the staff. Um we have our bond resolution and POS approval. So, do I just do you want to lead out on this? Sure. Thank Thank you. Um, President Ty, um, we have with us today Matt Dugduff from Stifl Nicholas and he's our uh, our bond guru. Um, and he's

026uh we I he's presented a a memo to that he'll walk us through with regards to the process at this point of of approving a bond resolution prior to our actually issuing the the general obligation bonds that were approved last November. So, we'll turn time over to Matt and have them walk through that. then we'll need to have a motion to actually approve the resolution as well. Thank you, Richard. It's so great to be with you today. Thank you for having me. And I first off, I need to apologize for the acronyms we use in the bond business. Um but uh yes, we as as Richard mentioned, we are here to contemplate the um the bond resolution which is a little different than the resolution we adopted at the last board meeting. This is uh

027that reflected kind of that perimeter discussion that we had. This is more of of the formal document that memorializes the bonds themselves, not just um the perimeter in which they need to be issued. And so pursuant to that resolution um and this resolution, we we do again mention the parameters. The maximum amount which was approved by voters, the maximum term over which they can be issued. Uh the maximum interest rate which um is still volatile and especially in the wake of last week, our market was very volatile. Um but the perimeter we've created is is still intact thankfully and uh but the uh resolution allows for uh a delegation of the authority to approve a few things um that facilitate the bonding process for us. And so it delegates to any two of the uh

028board president, vice vice president, business administrator or the superintendent to approve the method of sale for the bonds. Um it uh allows them to confirm that the bonds are issued within the parameters that the board has set and then it allows the basically the structure, execution and delivery of the bonds to be carried out pursuant to industry practices. And so that is the general outline for this resolution. It it formalizes um how the bonds will be executed, how they'll be delivered. Uh it allows the bonds to be issued under the state guarantee which we've already applied for and received. Um and it also approves this POS document which stands for the preliminary official statement which is basically a perspectus. It's a legal document prepared by bond council and it's a document that uh although they

029prepare it's very carefully reviewed by Richard and myself to ensure accuracy but it's the bond uh the document by which investors use to make their investment decisions. And so when we it comes time to sell the bonds to the public, this document will be uh sent out to the marketplace and investors um high netw worth individuals, those that would be buying these bonds will use this to learn about the district and learn about uh the credit strength and learn about the election and the projects. And so this document will be uh although it's marked preliminary for for purposes today, there will be a final version once bonds are sold. So, um, but this allows the board to approve this document in substantially final form, but for the final numbers that that are populated once bonds

030are sold. And that basically summarizes the resolution. I'm happy to dive in deeper if the board has any questions. U, Matt, thank you for being here. Could you maybe just walk the board through kind of the timeline that's on that second page, kind of once this is approved and what h when when we will go out to sell the bonds? that would be beneficial. Absolutely. So this this tonight would be the final action of the board and once this action uh takes place then we move on to a rating process where we actually meet with credit analysts and superintendent Richard and I will be meeting with them next week and we'll be telling them the great story of Murray City School District and uh all of your uh about your financial strength and about the

031community and about uh property tax history. we get pretty nuanced and pretty granular in these discussions. Um they ask about enrollment, they ask about trends, they ask about the state, they ask about the county. And so um Pat Richard and Superintendent on the back for having to spend that much time with me um in these meetings, but so but it's an important process. It's a vital process. And then once we uh share this information with these analysts, they take a couple weeks to work things through their methodologies and uh by May, I think we've told them May 6th, we hope to receive the bond ratings and we we suspect that we'll achieve an excellent credit rating. We're AAA by Fitch, double A2 by Moody's, and I'm I'm going to push Moody's for an upgrade. We'll

032see if that happens. Um but uh those are tremendous ratings. the district's in very good financial uh position. And then once we get those ratings back, that allows us to populate the ratings on this document that you see. And then uh we go through uh the sale process where we uh basically publish the district's intent to issue these bonds to the marketplace on date and time specific. And then we receive purchase bids for the bonds. And we currently have that calendared for June um 25th. And that is a process where basically the district is literally on the front lines of the bond market. Um you'll be u known by investors on the east coast and the west coast and Florida and they'll all be putting in bids to purchase these very strong bonds and it's

033a great investment for them obviously. Um and so that on that date we that date may change just depending on market conditions. We have some flexibility certainly if things take place that are out of our control, we'll pivot and and move to a date. We're looking for a good solid date with solid market fundamentals. Last week was actually a rough week for the bond market. Like I mentioned, um about 211 transactions nationwide were supposed to price. We call it pricing. They were supposed to price, but they were pulled due to the volatility. And so that those transactions will work through the market over the next few weeks. So, um, but, uh, but I June is a great time to sell bonds. I think the calendar is is solid. Historically, it's it's a great time for

034investor demand. We want to sell and investors are interested in buying. And June is a great month for that. And then, uh, on that date, rates will be locked in, terms will be locked in. We'll know exactly what uh, the interest rate is, what the cost is, what the payment schedule is on the bonds. and then is about a two-eek period that'll take us to July 9th where we actually close on the bonds and you deliver the bonds to the winning purchaser and it's all done electronically and they wire uh the money to the district and then you can start spending down for for the projects. So that's that's it in a nutshell. I'm happy to describe the process more. I just have a question for my curiosity. So when they go out to the

035market um and and investors buy this, do they buy just our bond or do they package them into kind of package deals? Just the district's bonds. Interesting. But there will be so we'll receive u several bids for these bonds from large investment banking institutions. But each of those institutions have a variety of investors that they've brought to their bid. And so while their name may be listed, it represents could be dozens of investors that have put in orders for specific maturities and specific amounts. And um and then this is a process that we call it's the primary market. So you're selling this primary issuance to investors. They're your primary purchasers, but these bonds actually trade on the secondary market. And so although they may buy them on June 25th, later that month or in a

036few weeks, they they could sell those bonds to other investors and it happens um every every time but yes that's uh it'll just be Murray and then it says our maximum interest rate is 6% I did see the historical in there we renewed our b some bonds in co during co 21 yes you were close to 2% on those so the the market has changed and we can kind of uh a lot of us are familiar with mortgage rates. I don't know if you see the mortgage mic billboards, but I our rates are lower than mortgage rates generally and just due to credit quality, but um just that trend that uh borrowing trend we subject to that. So, uh as as kind of a bookmark, a couple weeks ago, we were in the marketplace um

037for Park City School District. They sold a different type of a bond. It was a lease revenue bond. the districts issued lease revenues before um and they locked in about at 4%. Um the market continues to be volatile. I I would be um very surprised if we even get close to 6%. But what that does, it just again gives us that perimeter that in case something happens beyond our control, we're able to lock in for the district. But if the market's looking horrible, then we'll just we'll just wait for more stable markets. So Rich will foot the bill until then, right? Yeah. For about three days, great, great questions. So this so you're you're at the front lines of the financial markets. You have to go home, tell your families your big shots because this

038is this is it. This is every much as involved as a corporation issuing an IPO of stock. Literally very similar process. So Matt then clarify if you would with the board what needs to be officially approved tonight then. So this uh just the resolution itself uh needs to be approved and um I believe that I don't I think just a reading of that first top paragraph would be sufficient. Um on page what page is that? I don't know that it has a page about three pages back. Um let's see resolution. Okay. So with information that was sent, we have the official notice and the POS. Yes. So um that would fall under related matters. Did uh Gilmore provide you Richard with specific language they wanted you to adopt? So it should be under So this

039would be under the it'd be under the resolution document. So you this is the POS. That's that's the POS document. It would be I'm sorry the under the um so the resolution was sent um okay let's see so that was sent separate from these documents by Eric Cree then I'll ask one more question while he's looking this up um the maximum discount 2% of the PAR amount what is I'm I'm not familiar with that. What that is? That's a great that's a great question. Um, so that's a function of the markets that gets into a little bit of granular how how bonds are sold. Um, sometimes the market is such that investors will pay less than face value. So assume we're in the market for 125 million. It'll be less than that for this first.

040We're splitting it in half. But um you know in in certain markets depending on where investors feel in future interest rates are going they'll actually pay less than face value. And so that's that's called a discount from from par. And we like to set a floor on that because we wouldn't want an investor to purchase your bonds at too much of a discount to hurt your construction projects. Um, typically and in the current market, bonds are sold at a premium, which is greater than par amount, which is a function of again where investors feel rates are versus where they're going. And um we had the bond resolution is that do we need to revisit? Well, the actual resolution did it get put in? Oh, it didn't. Okay. So, what we could do is we do

041have a meeting a study session next week. If the board is amanable, we could start in an open session. um to do this approval and then go into our study session if that's okay with the board. I do think we probably need to make sure that is as part of our so we can oh is oh okay it's it's not in our board docs so it wasn't publicly available so I do think in best practice we need to do that so we can do that next Thursday is that going to work with your timeline that's per that's yes we have plenty of time that's not a concern at all so that makes so that doesn't mess anything up for Tuesday no not at all not a concern at all we we apologize that that didn't

042get in there and we'll get that done so no Right. Thank you for helping us understand that a little bit better. This is a whole new world for me at least. Any other questions? Appreciate it. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And so we'll put a pin in that and we'll have it done next week. Excellent. All right. So the next is um we've got Scott Tagger and Chris Kchner that will go over our guaranteed maximum price for Murray and Riverview. Scott promised to hold my hand through this. The light off your head. Yeah, we we have that certain glow going. Are you two brothers? I was like, he brought his brother with us. His brother from another brother. There's more there going on than you would even possibly know. Uh members of the board, superintendent,

043business administrator, we are here to propose to you to approve uh the guaranteed maximum price for the Murray High School project. We have, as you well know, we have been in design since last summer on this project. And throughout that process, there's been a lot of careful management by district leadership, uh, the design team and the contractor along with our efforts to make sure that we stayed within our budget and we are very pleased to announce that we have stayed within the original construction budget and we're recommending that Hogan con uh construction be awarded the guaranteed maximum price of 21,783,7 $799. Um, this also, we are also very pleased to this dollar value also includes the alternate for the replacement and upgrade of the of the mechanical controls at the high school, which if you

044have been hearing has been in pretty rough shape the last couple years. They've been on the rubber band and duct tape bailing wire operation of that for some time. And so we were very pleased to be able to complete that within the original construction budget, that additional very much needed upgrade. Are there any questions or uh anything that I could possibly do to help? Um just as a com comment, we our timing was extremely favorable for bidding. Um, we just happen to be in a slot where some of quite a bit of school construction is completing this year throughout the state of Utah and there's not as much in this particular window. There is some other pro rather large projects that are coming up for some of the other school districts and we just happened

045to fit into a time where a lot of contractors needed some backlog work. So we, as I indicated in the memo, there were eight masons, 11 mechanical contractors, and seven electrical contractors who provided bids on the project. So very competitive, and we we reaped some reward from that. So board president, I would ask for a motion to approve the guaranteed maximum price for the Murray High School bond project as noted in the memo. Right. Do we have a motion? I move that we approve the guaranteed maximum price for the Murray High School bond project. Is there a second? I second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. And any opposed? All right. Thank you. That passes. And more fun. Even more fun. Yeah. So, he was telling you about the borrowing the money and I'm telling

046you about spending the money. So, Hopefully there's some overlap there. So, uh, once again, uh, members of the board, superintendent, business administrator, we're here to present the bid package two, uh, which consists of the earthwork, utilities, footings, and foundations, the kind of the first phase for the Riverview Junior High project. As you well know, this is uh whereas we're going to be impacting the high school campus quite a bit by that we are literally building a whole another brand new junior high behind the existing junior high. And one of the things we're trying to do um through that process because it's such a large building is get a early start um this month with the earthwork and other things that need to be done in order to while the rest of the drawings were being

047completed. And so Hughes General Contractors is the uh our construction our contractor on this project and we've been working with them over the last few weeks on the bid for just those portions of the work. And what we have before you is a recommendation for that bid package um to be awarded to them so that they they can start work while the rest of the documents are being bid. And that's for 15,242,256. Uh they we have received some favorable pricing and we've worked through quite a few issues on it. So we feel like we're in a good position. You know, normally we're putting ourselves at somewhat of a risk by starting the job before we have the final price on everything. But because of the favorable pricing we we did receive on Murray High and

048because of the favorable pricing we've received so far on this particular bid packages, we feel comfortable. We really need as much time as we can if we're going to be complete that summer of uh 27 because the second we're done with the building and the second the kids are out of school, we have to knock it down and put in the parking lot um so that we can have school operating that fall. So, uh a little bit of the essence which is why we we chose to go with a partial bid package on this. And I want to remind you where this says bid package number two just remind you that we did do a big pack bid package number one for the the some of the long lead items like the switch gear that

049we did about a month ago. So that's why it says number two. And I have a question that you might not know the answer to, but but this this bid package to its 15 million. What percentage is that of of the original of I mean our 100 million it's 15% obviously, but was that what we were planning is 15% to go to this? Yeah. So we're roughly I want to say 800 to a million under what budget? So the overall budget for the Riverview Junior High is $80 million. So um of this portion of it, this 15 million budget wise probably in that 16 range is what we're 161 17 range of what we were projecting the cost to be for these particular scopes of the work. We still have the whole rest of the

050building. Um the, you know, the gymnasium, the the auditorium, all of all of the all of the rest of the building portion that um the base the softball field and those other portions that have to be done. So we we are within our budget for just these pieces of the work, if that answers your question. That's exactly. So we're not over budget on this piece. We're not over budget on that piece. If we were overbudget on this piece, I would be very concerned about the rest of it. Even though I think there are some of the rest of portions, for example, uh the masons, the masonry, we actually purchased the masonry as part of this bid package and that was about $200,000 under what we were we had uh seven masons bid the project. So

051bid this particular scope of work. So we are under what we were projecting. Yeah. And you'd used a word I was concerned about. You said, "If we're going to make it in time, when we get it built in time, can can you change that from if to when?" From your mouth to his ears. All right. Um, and so I would, president, I would ask for a motion to approve the guaranteed maximum price for bid package number two for the Riverview Junior High School bond project. All right. Do we have a motion? I move that we approve the minimum package price for the Riverview Junior High Project. And is there a second? I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I And any opposed? All right, that passes. Thank you. And we really Oh, yeah.

052We appreciate Kendall and Mark general contracting. So, thank you. Thank you. We really appreciate all the behind thescenes work that goes into this. You guys are great. All right. Um, we'll move on to the annual comprehensive guidance report with um Wendy Sanders from the high school. Hi guys. I'm very happy to be back. I've taken my turn off and so I'm back again. Um, I was just talking to to Scott Weihongi about u being here for the original Murray High School build. Well, not the original, I guess, the the 2000 build. So, we're excit we're excited to get that going. So, thank you guys. Um, I just want to remind you guys that we are on a six sixyear cycle. All of our the junior highs in the high school with the state of Utah,

053we get um accredited basically. We get reviewed every six years. um kind of halfway through that process in year three, we go ahead and do um um assessments. We do a needs assessment. We survey parents, students, um our faculty, and then they we're starting to get those results back. So, we're really excited about that and we feel like we're getting some really good data from that. Um and then we will go into um about three years from now, we will be reviewed from the state. So, we're kind of into that cycle of of getting back into our review. um uh needs assessment. We felt really good about the um percentages of parents and that's all in the if you guys want to scroll through those but yeah so it's all there's a lot there unfortunately

054so from the different schools but but we um I don't know that I put in there but 20 we got about 20 to 30% of our parents and students um of our faculty we got about 90% surveyed so it was pretty good we were hoping to get um parent to get parent permission as part of registration we weren't able to get it in. We're a little bit late this year. So, for not having the parent permission ahead of time and having to send all the forms and stuff out, we just we felt good about where we were at with that. So, anyway, and then we every year also do a data project. Um well, actually, let me do the college. Yes, data project. Perfect. Okay, that's perfect. Okay, so we um at the junior highs

055and the high school, we obviously do our college and career readiness meetings. Um our we feel really good about our student junior um participation. We're always trying to kind of increase our parent participation for sure. Um it was interesting this this was a low group for us this senior year. We were 36% parent participation. Um in that same group of parents in their junior year and their students junior year we were at 36% as well. So it just seems like it was a consistent number for that group of parents and students. Um anyway, we'd like to be obviously much higher than that. our junior student participation, parent participation was 60, which is a little bit more normal for us. So anyway, um our data project, which is next, we are trying to increase our Hispanic

056parent participation in our college and career readiness meetings. We're trying to go up 10%. Um we did were able to do that. So our senior CCRs we got up to 16% and then we did increase just barely in our junior. We did night meetings with translators. Um we didn't get as great. We phone called home with our translators. We we did a variety of methods to try to get them to to come to our to our evening activity. Um we're still going to work on that for next year. I think we're going to partner. Hillrest did actually a really similar data project. Um and they brought their admin in and they did the same kind of a college and career readiness meeting, but then they divided into their groups with their counselors and with an

057admin and then with a translator. So those parent groups got to meet the admin that was over there part of the alphabet, their counsel over there, part of the alphabet and then also had their translators that are kind of working for the district. So we're going to look at doing something like that and maybe some food which I think might help. So anyway, so that's kind of where we're at. We're really excited about a couple new things this year. Um our career center is doing a lot of really great stuff. They've added a lunch and learn um for our students uh this year. In December we did a college student panel. In January, we did internships and CTE. In March, we did trades and apprenticeships. Um, and so students come in at lunch, they do

058a presentation during first and second lunch, and we give them a U off for participating. Um, so it went really well for a kind of an introductory. And then the next slide, I think we're really excited too. We started or were able to do through the Career Center Healthcare Academy where we partner partnered with IHC. were able to send about 14 kids out for an eightw week at nights and they got uh to do a lot of really cool hands-on and meet uh some people in professions they're interested in. So those were kind of things I wanted to highlight. There's more information about Riverview and and Hillrest if you're interested, but about their data projects and kind of what they're working with as well. So I'd love to answer any questions. Does anybody want to

059talk about graduation? Just kidding. Can I get six tickets, please? I might have some in my back pocket. I'm happy you guys. Thank you for your support. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, then we'll have um Director Tail with the gifted and talented programming. I'm back. Um, we just have spent this time, we've spent a lot of time in study session and so wanted to do an official presentation to the board to share kind of where we've been and what we're proposing where we go. Um so just as a reminder one of in currently in board policy that that is what is there and specifically highlighting that our commitment as a board has been to providing appropriate educational experiences for the students that identify as gifted and talented. Um kind of as just a

060little historical information of where we've been. Uh several years ago, the district allotted three FTE full-time employees to create the magnet program at McMillan. And at that time until just recently, we've been screening all kindergarten students for entrance into the program, creating three different split classes, a first, second, third, fourth, and fifth, sixth split. And um based on just knowing that we were not meeting the needs of all students who probably need those services during the 2324 school year, a committee was formed to do some research and that was a combination of parents with students in and not in the gifted program. um my predecessor administrators and some former students that have participated in the magnet program at McMillan along with we counseledled with Dr. Plucker who is a leading researcher and professor at John

061Hopkins University in that um last year the at one of the recommendations that was made to the board last year through that study was the identification process at about third grade and we've kind of consider continued with that that is what current research is showing um and then there were a lot of different options given of what to do with those transition of the three FTEEs that are currently allotted and kind of hit a little bit of a standstill there. Um, and so at the recommendation of the board, because no new students have been tested and added to the program over the last little while, we knew we needed current data. And so, um, we, you know, we've kind of, the program's kind of evolved a little bit in combinations of some cluster groups, some

062split groups, some cluster groups, and that's just kind of rotated through. And so, we've just been at the point of what do we do now? Do we phase it out? Do we continue the current model or do we adapt and adjust the model? And so, uh, your guidance, you're fine. Um, we moved forward with testing. And so, um, oh, thank you. Current data of who is in the program. We currently have 40 students in the program at McMillan. And that's a breakdown of their grade levels and how many we have in each spot. And so, um, we conducted testing this spring, just finished up, um, February, March, a little bit in April with that. Um, 442 students were tested. 381 of them were second graders. We tested all second graders, there were a few that

063opted not to test, but, um, and of those 381 second graders, 45 of them met the threshold to complete the rest of the testing on that. And then um we have 29 third grade students, 18 fourth grade students and fifth or 14 fifth grade students recommended by either family members, parents, guardians or the school. Um and so um and then that data looks as follows. You can see the percentage of the students who were given the full battery this year, the percentage and number who would meet the threshold in what we have previously used as our threshold to identify for the gifted program. Um so in addition to the 40 students currently in the program, that's an additional 81 students for a total of 121 students in our district third through sixth grade who should

064be receiving services. Um and then kind of showing what the demographic breakdown looks like. That orange is um representative of the students that are currently in the program and the blue is representative of the students that were tested this year that would qualify for the program. And so you can see the big discrepancy there and um the need to make some adjustments so that we are better providing services for our students. Um, just some noteworthy information. The KOAT is the assessment that we use. It's a cognitive abilities test and at their own disclosure, just a reminder that it does not necessarily indicate giftedness, but it designates high achievers. Um, and then reminding that high achievers often are um impacted in their performance on that Kogat can be impacted by various life experiences, travel, and exposure

065to world things um family education levels, literacy being reinforced often and early in their lives and then meaning conversations and problem solving skills being supported by the adults in their lives as well. Just some historical data um in regards to students who have previously participated in the magnet program. There's no significant indicators of the performance on standardized tests between their similar peers. Um, same thing when it came to college acceptance and scholarship offerings from from that same group of students. And then with self-reported and this of course is 85% of the students who actually participated in the survey, but students that had moved from that magnet program where they were isolated in those those um split classes moving to the junior high and beyond said that they felt like they struggled more socially after elementary

066school than their peers who had not been isolated. Um, as we talk about students that identify as gifted and talented, they fit into an atrisisk population. And so, just in some comparison of what our other atrisisk populations in our district look like, that um 121 students within that gifted part would be 4.2%. And if I am fair and compare because those other parts of that pie are really K6 students kind of accounting for that that would be about an additional 70 students for a total of 191 to account for that like K1 group that's not really in the official data would still only be about 6.7% of our students identify as gifted and talented as a atrisisk population comparison there. Um and then looking at the services and the allocations that have been provided to

067give services to those at risk populations, we have 649 students K6 that have IEP related services. Of that 609 of them only receive about 100 or an hour and a half of services daily. Um and that accounts to about a one to three teacherto student ratio. When we talk about our um multilingual learners, we have 1.5 FTE allocated to that. Um but most of the other supports that we provide to those students comes from other grants that we have to write with like DWS and some of those kinds of things. And those students at max receive about 30 minutes a day of services within that as compared to a 1 to13 ratio that is an all day service for those students with in the gifted program currently the way it looks. So the proposed adjustments

068that we would recommend to the board would be now to continue to assess all second graders annually and then at the recommendation of guardians and school for those third through third through fifth graders whom we may have missed for whatever reason whether they're new to our district or um you know we would take it kind of as a case by case basis but not necessarily those that were just assessed in second grade would we do it again in third grade. um because historically that data that that KOAT data really doesn't change once they've entered the the system on that. Um and then we would begin providing services third through sixth grade moving that from where we have historically done first and second grade prior and then um in honoring the students that are currently in

069the magnet program to continue with the way their programming has looked for them and in talking with Dr. and parents over there. This is kind of what that would look like. Um, next school year it would be a fourth fifth split with a third or with a sixth grade cluster moving then the following year would be a fifth cluster and a sixth cluster and then creating cluster groups at all of our elementary schools third through 5ifth. So that would include McMillan. We would then add um those cluster groups as we roll forward with that. Um and it is important to make sure that we're we're not um overwhelming maybe some classes or totally depleting high learners from all classrooms and making sure that we could stick at about 10 gifted and talented students in a

070cluster group per class. So if we had a a school who said say had 18, we would split that into two cluster groups within their grade level. So there I don't think there were I have to look I think there might be one school that that applies to this current data. Um, and then coupled with that would be to use one of the FTE currently allotted to those split classes at McMillan to become a gifted and talented instructional coach to be able to support our teachers in the other schools that do not currently have their gifted and talented endorsement in knowing how to best adapt curriculum for them, meet their needs. And then um, thanks to MEF for providing a couple scholarship for our teachers to begin to start receiving their gifted and talented endorsements

071so that they're they're paying for that. We have two teachers already signed up that start in the next month or two. Um and would like to continue to add cohorts every year so that we have gifted and talented endorsed teachers in all of our buildings within that. And so I, you know, we'll continue to evaluate that, what that looks like and what the need for that instructional coach necessarily looks like after we get more um skill and endorsements to to teachers throughout the district. And then a big part of gifted and talented need for students is the mental health piece of that and that social emotional piece. Um both for themselves and understanding their peers that um you know we have students that are reading very advanced world happenings and things like that but are

072still processing as like a nine and 10 year old emotionally. And so we need to be able to support them in a lot of that. In addition to same-aged peers don't necessarily understand some of their thought process and their their high kind of adult processing and how they do some of that. And so we really want to make sure that we're working with our school-based mental health specialists and um Sierra Marsh and then our our social workers throughout the district to provide those services specific to our gifted and talented students. Um, additionally, we haven't currently really had a purpose statement beyond what was in that board policy and would recommend a purpose statement of why we are moving to this model. Um, we also have not had clearly articulated identifically idently articulated identification process or

073the success matrix to know is our program even meeting the need or what are the outcomes there. And so um this would be the recommended purpose statement which really just gets at that um we believe it is in the interest of students and families to provide differentiated opportunities for students at their neighborhood schools wherever possible. Doing this allows siblings to attend the same school and families to build community relationships with their neighborhoods which helps improve the homeschool connection. This results in strengthen Murray school communities and the greater Murray community as a whole. Um and then And um the next two slides just outline the identification process which we've studied and I've shared with you. I won't go into a lot of detail and what the moving forward the success success matrix of the program would

074be um within that and we had some parents ask does this mean my kids getting kicked out if they don't? Not necess not not really but we want to come back to this if we find that students who have been put with that cluster group are starting to struggle. This would be where we would start and looking and say, well, are they maintaining this? Is that maybe why they're struggling? And is being placed in that cluster group the right thing for that student moving forward? That's it. The current data, I am waiting for individualized student reports so that I can send those to parents um from the company and should have those in the next few days. I'm hoping so that I can get them all out by the end of April to families and

075let them know. And um so really what we're doing is coming to you for motion or a um support to move forward with those recommendations. All right. Um we really appreciate the time and effort and work and understand that this was a very heavy lift and coming in as a new director and and putting this all together in the way that you did and is really commendable. So, thank you for your efforts on this. Um, and do I have a motion? I move that we uh a motion of support for the gifted and talented program. Is there a second? I second. All right. And is there any discussion? I also just wanted to thank you for this. It's been this has been years in the making and for you coming on and taking over it

076has you've done incredible work with this. So, thank you very much. So, I I just have a quick question too. So, it looks like have have parents that their student tested positive test. I'm back in world tested um into that in on the co-ag that they tested where they needed to be up above the marker for gifted and talented. Have they been notified or that's what's happening? They have not. That's I'm waiting for those individual reports that I can send to families so that they have all of the breakdown. I also was waiting for this to be able to say this is what services will be looking like to to give that information to parents so that they know what's next for their students because some of those parents probably have no idea. Well, no,

077they know, but they don't know that we are going to start offering these opportunities for those students other than messaging was sent out about the testing, letting them know that piece, they really didn't know. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. Yes. Got the motion. Yes. Okay. Um, all in favor? I I And any opposed? All right. Thank you. You don't need a vote. Oh, I don't get a vote. Oh, thank you. You're the tiebreaker vote. I'm the tiebreaker. Thank you. Right. Number six, the IN304 instructional materials selection and reviews by Mr. Wihongi. Okay. Okay. So, we've done some a few adjustments to our instructional u material selection and review policy which is IN304. This is to better clarify some of the old policy and and make sure that we include a lot of the

078things that have been in recent legislation and code. So this is our policy which deals with the adoption of primary and supplementary instructional materials that can involve textbook, non-extbooks that can involve audio, visual, anything that's taught in the classroom. Um one of the things that we added in there in supplemental instructional materials is to ensure that we have um approval of guest speakers as well and that includes assemblies. So that was specifically added in the policy uh uh into this new uh updated version of the policy and that typically goes through the building principle to ensure they know what's being in um what what's being taught in the classrooms or in an assembly if there's a guest speaker. Um moving down to the primary instructional material selection. Um it reviews uh again who should be

079on those uh selection committees and what that involves. Um it does clarify that there are some instructional materials that uh do not need to go through a full-fledged committee process and those are concurrent enrollment AP um textbooks. a lot of the CTE materials, that sort of stuff, those are typically already approved by a a a um another institution's board. However, those should be um put in front of the uh school principal at the local level to make sure that those do align appropriately with a lot of the other requirements such as sensitive materials and so forth. And then the final um thumbs up for for those types of materials would go through our um curriculum director, our secondary curriculum director or the CT director. Um moving down it there are certain standards that we have

080to adhere to when adopting materials. So this one was uh now specifically outlined in in code and that is we are not to provide any entity that performs elective um abortions as detailed under that um code number there. So we cannot uh use anyone who is affiliated with with those institutions and that has been added on the next page as well for supplementary materials and audiovisisual materials. So we'll fast forward to page five. Uh in recent legis legislation they have also defined the type of flag that can be displayed in um public institutions or or government institution including um public schools. And so we have added in this policy all of those u flags that are approved of in state code. And so I'm not going to go through each of those in detail but

081you can kind of see what those are there. Um, we also had probably a little bit more than we needed when it involves who's on the review process and the selection process. So, we've adjusted that to to be a little bit more manageable because it's often hard to get people to be on these committees. And so, we have um adjusted those. And that's not really defined in in state code or board rule. It just says you need representatives of certain groups including parents. So that has been adjusted uh for the elementary school and also the secondary school selection committees there. We we uh we also clarified that it can be representatives that they might be chosen by the school community councils but we haven't um required that anymore but that's typically the platform in which

082they are chosen. Uh going down to the uh last section that we've we've uh in included well this came out uh I think in last year's legislative sess uh session. So we had not updated this part but this is about the parental rights and also trans curriculum transparency. So this section um requires based on board rule to make sure our curriculum is transparent upon request by by by parents that has been in place in our district for at least a year now anyway. Typically that's put out on Canvas and so forth and through newsletters um at the elementary. Uh it also then says that uh we cannot require schools cannot require students to participate in any kind of curriculum that violates their religion or their right of conscience. So we've added that section in there

083and that also clarifies that they cannot be penalized for that and that they can be provided an alternate um assignment. So So those are the big updates to this IN304. Hopefully, it aligns a little bit better with what's actually in board rule and state code and clarifies some of the confusion on those selection committee processes. So, any questions? I did have one question on the flag display. I really liked the flexibility that we provided in our previous policy about the teachers personal space um where we're adding as long as it's not in a prominent place. Is that from a model code or I'm just wondering if that is clear enough? Yeah, that is the wording from the code. From the code. Yes. So, yeah. Okay. Um what prominent place is I don't know if code

084has defined it. Superintendent. I don't know if you know. It has not. So, it's our understanding. So, this is where we're at right now. It's our understanding there may be some additional clarifications and cleanups in the 2026 legislative session. So at this point, this is where we are at. Are teachers and staff members still able to wear their own personal pens and like pins and stuff like that without problem? Yeah, I don't think that has been addressed in the code. So I will say that I have been informed that that may be something they're addressing next year. So we'll want I don't want to give anyone ideas. I take that back. But yes, no, at this point this just deals with the flags. Okay, great questions. Any other questions? I guess I'm just thinking because

085I have seen some things that if a parent feels like this is not being followed, there is a hotline or address that. So, um, it falls under the attorney general's office will be investigating it and then they they can report that to the Utah State Board of Education and then the the school and the district have 30 days to correct that. Um, and as any parent complaint that comes forward in violation of this does have to be reported to UPUPAC. It's going to be a problem. I feel like it could be it could really like I don't know that this policy is clear enough. Yeah. on we'll see what happens. I'm unhappy that we have to do this, but here we are. On what category are you thinking? It's it's that one at the in

086a prominent. Yeah, that's pretty vague. And if it's going to go to you. So, okay. So if an complaint comes, I guess who gets to decide the prominent place? Oh, is that what the the concern is is what? I do want to check and make sure in policy that the prominent location is I think that may have been just attached to flags and not this other part of it. So let's let us check on that. Okay, let us check on that. Yeah, double we'll we'll double check. Uh oh, I have that. Hold on. The other question I brought every policy there was. We just want to make sure that our teachers are clear in the expectation so that there's not aupac problem. Yeah. So, does a parent complaint generate an automatic uh uh is it

087sent automatically to upac then we do have to send it to upac. Yes, it does. Regardless of the val validity of the complaint. Yes. The so upupac is the ultimate and we h we will have to investigate it and we will provide the information on our investigation to UPUPAC and then upac decides if they're going to act on that that's already a current law on the books. Any parent complaint is is um technically supposed to be reported to UPUPAC. Uh the other the other question that has come up is club flags that is not defined in this policy. So when you have a flag, I mean you can you can fly a school flag, an official school flag, but if there's a certain club that includes, you know, FBLA or DECA, that sort of stuff,

088those flags are actually not um provided for in this policy. Okay, so posters are fine. I think with those types of things, it's it's the flags. Let let us check on that um prominent location. I've got the code right here, but I'm not able to see that. So, let's see if that was just tied directly to flags only and then we can come back. We can talk about it at our study session next week. How much time do we have until we have to implement this new law? Uh, is it July? Or was it May? It was May 7th. Yeah, May one. It goes into effect May 7th. So, we did send information out in the educator update yesterday. I saw to all of our employees. Um, because we certainly want to make sure that

089we're compliant with the law and keeping our employees in a good spot. we don't want to have to put them in that situation. And so we did, it is May 7th, so we won't have this. If we approve it on a second reading, it would be at May our May 8th board meeting. So we have let all of our employees know so we can um get more information on this at our study session. Yes, absolutely. I could put that on and we'll have clarification on that. Have our final vote. So this is the first reading. It is. Right. All right. All right. Okay, thank you for your time on that. That was a lot of red. All right. And then, um, Superintendent, you've got a few. Yeah, I have a few things. So, thank you,

090board president. The first thing I have is, um, a request for an overnight trip. And so, periodically, we do have opportunities that come to our secondary students, specifically high school students, that uh, come up that we that they don't know about when we approve our travel requests the following year. So, Unified Basketball has an opportunity um to attend the Utah Summer Games in Cedar City and they were approached by Special Olympics of Utah just a couple weeks ago about this. And so, Jesse Jesse Aggeria has put in this travel request for 12 students. Um she has put in kind of the information. Again, it's in Cedar City. They will either be housed in dorm rooms or a local hotel that is done by Special Olympics of Utah. So they will provide the housing for that.

091Um you can see that on Thursday would be the travel day. Friday would be the day that they would compete. So it does meet within our policy that they cannot miss more than two school days. Um they and then Saturday is the award ceremony. Um so all of the cost is covered by Special Olympics of Utah with exception of the transportation. And so um Missagaria has reserved the suburbans and that will be covered that will be covered by the school or there may be parents who are transporting their own children down because they want to see them compete. So um time is a little bit of the essence on this one because they do need to let Special Olympics of Utah know that they will be participating. So, I would like to ask for consideration

092to um if the board so fills to suspend the rules and approve this overnight trip for unified basketball for May 29th through May 31st on a first reading. Right. Is there a motion? I move that we suspend the rules and approve this trip for the unified basketball overnight trip request. And is there a second? I second. All right. Any discussion on this motion? I think this looks exciting and I always love approving travel requests. My only question on this was is there anything that we need to post to school fees? No, because there is no school fees that that Special Olympics will be paid all of it with except for the transportation and the school will cover that. So there that was one of my questions as well, but no, it is all covered. There

093is no fee for our students to participate. Okay. All right. Then if we could take a vote. All in favor? I I And any opposed? All right, that passes and I too am very excited. Great. I will let um I'll send her an email as soon as we're done with this meeting. So my second agenda item is PS 403 student enrollment eligibility and registration requirements. This policy is being updated to be in compliance with uh House Bill 76 that passed during the 2025 legislative session. In that bill, it's a very long bill. It deals with public education. One of the things that was changed is um and it's in red right here with regards to our kindergarten students that now a local school board may enroll a child in kindergarten who does not meet the

094age requirement if the child um moves to Utah from a different state in which the child during the relevant school year was a resident was enrolled in kindergarten in accordance to the previous state's AIDS requirements for kindergarten enrollment and transfers to the enrolling school after the beginning of the same school year. So, currently in statute, in order to attend kindergarten in Utah, you do have to be 5 years old um before September 2nd. So, by September 1st, you have to be 5 years old. And so this will say that for example if a student uh started kindergarten in Idaho I don't and they were four years old and they moved here September 7th and wanted to enroll in our schools because they had been enrolled in Idaho and if Idaho allowed four-year-olds to be in

095kindergarten then we could enroll them. Um it does not say anything about private schools, Monasuri school, kindergarten and so in clarification of that that would be up to this district to decide if we would accept that. So but this is a first reading. So that that is changed in there. And then the other item that was in House Bill 76 uh dealt with toilet training. So if you recall last year there was a bill that was passed that kindergarten students needed to be toilet trained before coming to kindergarten. This has now changed. Um what they found is some students were not coming to kindergarten and because kindergarten is not compulsory but were enrolling in first grade and were not toilet trained. So they hadn't gone to a public school kindergarten. So the law is now

096changed to read students must be toilet trained before enrolling in public schools. Um and then exemptions to this requirement include federal child find requirements and an IEP or section 504 accommodation plan. So those are two updates to that policy. Other than that, the policy stays the same. So, um, this is just with kindergarten or excuse me, student enrollment eligibility. Any questions on that? Again, just a first reading. So, okay, the next one, PS 403.1, very similar because we do have a general enrollment policy and then we have one very specific to kindergarten. And this, so this just updates those same things in PS 403.1, which is kindergarten requirements. Um it updates the toileting. So there it is. Um the toileting requirements. So students will be it talks about that they have to be toilet trained

097to go into kindergarten. But we also added this the line subject the exemptions are subject to federal child fine requirements or described in an IEP or section 504 accommodation plan. So we just updated that language to be consistent with code. Any questions on that? Okay, great. Look now. Here we go. We're going to go to PS428, school fees. School fees. Okay. So, in your board docs, there are two documents. There is this one with all of the strikethrough. So, this has had a major revision due to the change in school fees. So this one, I mean, you can see it's 22 pages and there's like a ton of strikeouts. So I put that in there so we can see what's being struck, but what I hope to do is just go over the policy without

098all those strikeouts so that it's easier for all of us to digest if that's okay. But the strikethrough one is in there. Um, so PS428 is being updated to comply with House Bill 344, which was passed during the 2025 legislative session. This has done a major restructuring to fees and so all of this first part the definitions come directly from code from the the law and from code itself. So um the the we are no longer in the buckets of general expenses curriculum co-curricular or extracurricular expenses. They fall into a couple of different categories. Um, they've got the definition of a common education expense and what a course is, discretionary projects, elementary school definitions. Okay. Um, fee, what a fee is. Okay. So, a fee course. So, we have fee courses and non-fee courses. Now,

099fee course and non-fee course. So, a fee course is a course that is not a non-fee course. Again, coming directly from code. And then a non-fee course is a course that results in a course credit or grade within the core standards that the state board establishes um for English language arts, health education, math, science, and social studies. So we cannot charge a fee for those courses that lead to a course a grade and we give course credit for. This does not include AP or concurrent enrollment. Those are separately carved out. So we can still charge a fee for those. That is a carveout. Um, we have done really, really well in Murray City School District and I'm very proud. For the most part, we were not charging a fee for these classes. Couple of exceptions

100in the sciences, but the principles have discussed that and they are able to cover that um those fees and so we're super super happy about that. I am not going to go through all of the definitions, but please read through at your leisure. Um there is some prohibited items that that we can't charge for. So again all of this comes directly from code. We have been operating under this. Um but what this basically says is we have to make sure that the fee we charge is directly related to the student who's getting whatever that is for the fee. And that fee cannot be it has to be equal or less than the expense described. Um and that's why we do those uh spend plans and have our principles work through those with their teachers. Um

101so we can charge a fee or a non-fee course. We can do instructional equipment. We can charge for a field trip our activity or a performance including related transportation, food and lodging, school activity, clothing, um discretionary projects. So if a student wants to do a project in addition to something that's part of the course requirement, they they we can do that and charge for that discretionary project and we can charge for remediation programs. Um all of those are things we can charge for. Okay. Things we cannot charge for. We can't charge elementary stu students for anything that's charged during part of the school day or takes place during part of the school day and supplies that are used during the regular elementary school day. So we don't charge fees in elementary. We do have the

102um and our teachers are pretty good at this. We try to remind them of this every year that they if they want to ask parents to voluntarily provide things they can but they have to put this with it. Um we have to annually approve stu the a and notice of students and fee wavers. So we adopt our fee policy. We provide that fee schedule. We have pro we provide two opportunities. Just so you know, this year the state board of education changed the rule. Typically school fees are due by April 1st. So we got ours all approved. Um they moved that date to July 1st because part of that is you have to approve not only the school fees but also your your policy and we they knew we wouldn't get this policy done by

103then. Moving forward, the state board is going to members of some some members of the state board are going to propose that those fee schedules as well as our fee policy that we have to look at every year will be due by June 1st, which would be great to give our our um teachers and schools a little bit more time to better understand what their needs are going to be for the upcoming school year. Um, and then I'm sorry, these are in red. I tried to change them to black. These haven't changed. they just changed. So the rest of it is so as far as fee wavers, nothing has changed there. Um we did add that um over here the cost to access software, digital content, other instructional materials is required as part of activity,

104course or program is something that is fee waveable. And I think all of the rest stayed the same. It did. Now, the beauty is we're actually going to go from a 17page policy to 12. So, that's good. But I I really would love the board to kind of look at this closely. And then if we want to talk about it at our study session next week, we can. This is just a first reading. But do you have any questions for me just based on what I've put out so far? I had one. There was a lot of conversation around student travel with during the legislative session. Where did that land? Yeah, that's still okay. So, as far as can we charge for it, is that what you're asking? Well, and I think it was with

105the fee waiver students that they would only be allowed one trip. Oh, that did not pass. So, that did not pass. That did not pass. That's a great question. Anything else? It it doesn't feel like it got stripped down as much as we were anticipating. It did not. So, actually, there was in the 2024 legislative session, there was a bill passed that we were going to have to implement for the 2526 school year, which was very stripped down. this bill came in and cleaned up a lot of that or took care of a lot of that, a lot of the concerns because we wouldn't have been able to charge for anything in the arts or uh you know that's fine arts, performing arts, the travel, there was a lot of things in there. So I

106am grateful to representative Strong for running this bill that kind of gives us a little bit more flexibility. Sure. And it doesn't feel like we are out of compliance with many of like our policies are not no too far. No, no. I think ours have been really well done. Um, the one thing that we will have to do when we revisit this policy next year, as we do have to do each year, is in the 26 27 school year, Murray City School District will have to provide a path for a student to take courses to fill their graduation requirements that will um that doesn't require them to pay any fees. And so we'll be working with our ele our secondary director and looking at that to what that path will look like. But we will

107update our fee or excuse me our policy at that time next year. You said that was 2627. It is correct. Yes. 2627 is when that requirement goes into place. Okay. Let's talk cell phones. All right. So uh this policy PS47.2 which is called right now interfering and electronic communication devices is being updated as a result of Senate Bill 178 which does specify that electronic devices and as well as upcoming technologies and smartwatches are not allowed during curricular time. So I am proposing or in this policy proposing that we would change the name because a lot of times people don't think when they're looking for our cell phone policy they type in cell phone. Um interfering doesn't and electron commun electric electronic communication devices doesn't really cut it. So um and so this policy so there

108are definitions these definitions come straight from Utah code. So, it defines what a cell phone is, what it includes, what classroom hours means, what emerging technology means, and really I think that's a category because we don't know what's coming, what a smartwatch means, and then we had a really good conversation. We we talked about this at our study session if you remember and then we talked about this with the principles last week two weeks ago and they felt very strongly and this is okay by the legislation we can add additional things in. They really felt strongly about addressing earbuds and earphones and so I have put in what an earbud means and what an earphone or a earphone means. So and that means they cannot use right. So let's go down. Let me show you.

109So the policy is um some of this we've kept. We we I I think I've mentioned this before. Our policy was actually pretty good for being done in 2010. So we did add we we have always had in there that the district takes no responsibility. We just specified along those same lines to try to keep it consistent with what it says in code. Um, so here's kind of what we are proposing. So there will be different levels. So this is the first one. In grades K through six, and when we change our sixth graders over to middle schoolers, we will have to update this. Sorry, it's not going to let me highlight it. In grades K through six, cell phones, emerging technology, smartwatches, and earbud earphones, and maybe I should change that to headphones. Maybe

110earphones is not the right. I don't know. Um, are not allowed from the first bell to the final bell. So in elementary they are not allowed from first belt to final belt including lunch, recess, transit time between classes, assemblies and field trips. Now we do have Chromebooks where students have to test um and that does require them and there's also Lexia and a couple of other programs that they do. So, we did add in there that students may wear earbuds or earphones when required by the teacher to complete curriculum or take online to do an online test because there are some instances where that has to happen in grades seven through nine. In talking to our junior high school administration, um they are not allowed during classroom hours. So when they're in class classrooms, they

111are allowed during lunch periods, transition time between classes, when required by the teacher to complete curriculum or testing online, field trips, and after school activities. And then in grades 10 through 12, right? They're not allowed during classroom hours, but they are allowed during lunch periods, transit time when required by the teacher, assemblies, field trips, and after school activities. So the high school admins had a chance to look at this already. Yes, they have. And they we originally had it grad 7 through 12. and the seventh or the junior highs did not want to have these types of things in assemblies. They actually take them away. The high school said very clearly there's no way we can do that. So they wanted it to be allow they said we're okay with them during assemblies up to

112the board. So, uh, and then we do have by code, and this comes straight from Utah, the code that cell phones, emerging technology, and smartwatches are allowed to respond to an imminent threat to the health and safety of an individual. We're going to just have to play that by ear. What does imminent threat mean? Our principles were like, can you describe imminent threat? So, I looked it up. That's going to be very nuanced. We're going to have to probably have conversations. though um to respond to a schoolwide emergency to use the safe UT crisis line if it's written into their accommodation plan either an IEP or 504 or an individual language development plan some of our teach our students do use that as a translation type of thing and we do have ILPS that we

113can put that into to address a medical necessity as part of a healthcare plan and then in the event of a school emergency we students will be allowed to use their cell phones smartwatches or other personal technology to communicate with parents parents or guardians once it's deemed safe to do so. And I don't know why there's a quotation at the end of that. I will fix that. Um, but that does come, this part comes from code in the event. We did add once it's deemed safe to do so because we do know in our standard response protocol, one of the things they say is don't use your don't kids, you shouldn't be using that. You need to keep as quiet as possible and you don't want to jam up the lines. But there will be

114a time when we say okay get your cell phones out and contact parents so or guardians. Um principles felt very strongly that we should say teachers shall not allow any of these things as part of a reward or free time. And I think that has some wise wisdom to it. Um, one of the problems is is if it's not consistent within the school, students are very quick to say, "Well, teacher X down the hall lets me use it at the end of the period for 10 minutes, but you won't." So, we in order for this to be effective, we have to have some consistency and we have to have this. We're not going to allow that. Um, and then we just cleaned up some language there. Um, number 11. Students may keep their cell or

115must keep their cell phones, emerging technology, and smartwatches in silent mode and in their bag, backpack, or other personal location. Schools may provide a location where these devices are required to be stored. So, Murray High School has a location where they're required to be stored. Other schools don't have that. Um, and then we did strike palms or pocket PCs out of our, but how 20110 of us that we had that in there. So, that is Uh after again after we talked about this in study session, we took it to the principles, worked it through with them. I updated some of the things that they asked for. There's a couple things that like I said, they wanted to know what imminent threat means. I just don't think we can define that in every situation. Those are

116going to be nuanced situations. So questions, thoughts. Um this policy is what are the repercussions of you know like how are we going to deal with it when this is a policy isn't being followed by students or by employees both. Well, students then they they will take it. They um down here right here. Where is it? Schools. Number 10. Schools may confiscate them which are used in violations of this policy. So, it is incumbent upon our teachers. And again, we're going to have to do a lot of education with this both with our teachers and with our parents and with our students. um if employees are not following it, if this I mean this is a policy and employees are expected to follow policy and if not it will be a conversation with the principal

117and then if we we would move forward through our um discipline process if they're not following board policy. So good question. I had two questions on the on the elementary part where they're going to be able to use earbuds or or headphones. Are we providing those or they use their ones from home or well and I think both. Thank you, Becky. So, I've seen it both. Some teachers I know a lot of teacher grants that we do through MEF are to provide the headphones because they need again there are programs that we use for learning that are really important. So, I think it's a combination of both. It might be different in different schools, but any student who needs that to do their work, headphones are provided for them if they don't have them. So,

118good question. Okay, had another question. I did. So, there was a part there and I can't see it right here, but it said so the student can find a place to store that, right? Unless the school requires it stored somewhere. So, I just don't want that to be in their pocket. Well, maybe I do want it to be in their pocket, but yeah, I mean, do we need to define that further or is that up to an individual teacher? That's a great question. And I I think personally I I feel like it's hard some parents I mean I know my phone I don't like to keep it in my bag because I'm afraid somebody might take my bag. So I keep my phone and I'm an adult and I get that. I'm not a student.

119But I always have it like in my pocket especially when I'm going somewhere and I'm not using it. See, I do too. But I wonder if it would be distracting to children on a during I mean, yeah, we're saying you can't use it during class, but am I gonna be, you know, I I just wonder about that. We Yeah, we could say not in silent mode, but turned off, but I don't know. I don't know. I'm open. Every kid situation is going to be different. One kid uses their locker, one kid doesn't use One kid has a backpack with big pockets and carries it everywhere and another kid doesn't. And see, I just I just didn't know. It's hard to know. So, I wondered how it landed at this point. Uh this they were fine

120with this. I don't think there was any thing on that. The the one we didn't have. We had schools may provide a location where these devices can be stored and the high school asked could we please put required to be stored if they per if they've got a spot they wanted to say that they're required. So I don't recall I'm sorry and I'm looking to my team. Do you recall anything else that they talked about with as far as putting it in their back backpack or another personal location? I don't recall. Okay. I I can't I can't recall. Well, I kept notes and but they were really chicken scratch. So, well, in the high school they have that pouch that goes right on the desk, right? And that I would assume would work really well.

121Elementary where they can't have it out. I'm guessing that the backpack won't be any big deal. Okay. And it's the junior high. I wonder if it becomes a problem if they're if they're noticing the pockets that maybe they'll move to something like the high school does. Yeah. Yeah. Because that way the whole idea is they're still in control but it's not distracting because it's in the pouch. So if a notification goes off, they don't know. But it feels better knowing it's right there. That was just unclear to me. So I wanted to see what Yeah. If there if there's some other proposed language, I'm happy to I mean, we could think about that and talk a little bit at next week's study session if you'd like. Um, when do we need to be in compliance

122with this this policy? This does not go into effect until July 1st. So, it's for next school year. Okay. So, we've got a little bit of time. I mean, um, if we want to take the May board meeting and even the June board meeting, totally fine on that. Yes, it takes effect July 1st. So, we've got a little bit of time on that one. I was fascinated to see because I know especially in secondary that the headphones are allowed at a certain point in class often. So that's interesting that it's spelled out that it has to be tied to I can't remember how it said it. They can't just for funsies. Well, and you know there was some discussion on that. I think myself and assistant superintendent Wii Hongi feel a certain way, but the

123principles felt very strongly and we want I mean the principles are and the teachers are the boots on the ground who are going to be they're the ones who are going to be implementing this and so we need to honor and think about what they're telling us. So and of uh our junior high principles are telling us that they are they're already taking I mean they're they're no earbuds they are checking and taking and doing those things. So now to what level? That's a good question, but I think they have already started to do that. So, well, and I do think one of our concerns was those who maybe need it for some kind of sensory and and learning and that would fall under IEP, right? They would be able to get and and that's

124excluded in here. Yep. An IEP accommodation, a 504 accommodation, or if it's something in a health care plan. Like we always worry about our kids who are diabetic. There's a there's great tools on your phone for our diabetics and we they need to have that. So, thanks for clarifying that. Anything else? All right. Those are some four fun five four fun five. I was wondering I you might have showed it but um like in student activities they're allowed right? Did was that on there for the for the high school? Yes. After school activities after school activities. Okay. Yep. after school activities and they're allowed at the junior high like for certain things but for example we have the after school program at Hillrest they don't allow it but that's a specific like they can say

125if you're going to join the after school program at Hillrest one of the things you sign up to is not have your cell phone out so those there's going to be some oneoffs that schools will be able to say this is what the policy says however in this program this is what is done let's take that off and see how that goes over ing like all the practices and the bus. Yeah. There's just no way that Yeah. Okay. All right. My next item is it is time for the board to review the 202526 school land trust plans. So, you all have a folder and um you are each going to review four plans. I tried to kind of keep them in your realm of where your districts were, but that doesn't always work cut and

126dried. So you'll have others and I don't think it's bad to see what other schools even outside of your your the boundary that you serve are. So all of these land trust plans are in our board doc board book. So if you would like to or board doc sorry if you would like to review any of them they're here. But um I would ask that you would review those next week. We have our principles as well as a school community council representative coming with them starting at 5:05. So, we'll do the approval of the thing that we need to do right at 5. And then at 5:05, we've got them slotted every 10 minutes and they will come in and talk about their school land trust plans and their school improvement student success plans. And

127will we be approving them? No. No. So, will Yes. So, this is just a first reading. I'm not going to go through all of them. We'd be here quite some time. Um, right. But I have I have I have looked through all of them to the best of my ability. I have a checklist that I go through that the school land trust office provides for me to make sure that we are in compliance. I think I'm not going to say I'm 100% sure. I'm like 99% sure we are in compliance. But no, we will we'll do this tonight. This is a first reading. We'll have the principles and their SEC representative come next week to our study session and then on May 8th um if the board feels like they're they're ready to we would

128ask for an approval at that board meeting because if we get them approved by May 15th I believe it is then we can start getting our allotments coming in our money coming in. So okay sounds good. Okay. All right. Um and and if you want printouts of any other ones I brought some extras too. So if you say, "I'd really like to to look at this schools as well." One thing I would say is maybe just as you're previewing those for next week, highlight a few things that you might want to ask the principal or the school community council chair if there's things or things that you find noteworthy. So they are being asked to come and talk about kind of the highlights of their plans, um what their goals are, how their goals are

129changing from our current school year to the next school year, and um how they believe their goals will help them to make progress as a school. Great. All right. And then finally, I would like to um request to go into a very hopefully short close session to discuss um personnel and legal. And I will just ask that Darren and Scott stay for just a moment. Okay, we'll do our poll. Elizabeth, yes. Kenny, yes. Jill, yes. And I say yes. Yes. Great. Thank you everyone. Thank you.