PCSD Board Meeting | 2023.04.18

001Let's um let's call the meeting to order. Um this meeting with varsity board of education Tuesday, April 18th, 3:02 p.m. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I will entertain a motion partners to discuss let's see what we have here on the list we have uh we have recently we've come in litigation or just negotiations land. Okay. So, discuss uh lease or purchase of land and or and um personal negotiations. Make a motion session. All right. Um I'll just ask your names if you approve. Nick, yes. Meredith, yes. And Andrew, yes. Okay. We'll go to closed and then we'll come back. We may as well start because Wendy United States. It's gonna

002have such a huge impact on it that anything we go into now is kind of it's going to be moved soon enough, right? Yeah. Maybe right there. What's up? [Music] super blood. saying you see it. Yeah, I see it now. I had to log in. Sorry. Error. Um, okay. Um, we will start with 3.01 consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion and approve consent agenda. included the following regular session minutes of March 21st. Close session minutes of March 21st. Account payable registers of March 3rd, 4th, 15th, 22nd, 23rd, 28th, April 1st, 5th, 10th, travel request, land trust, GSSA plan approvals, personnel information, March revenues, expenditures, and then municipal services. I make the motion to accept the consent agenda as stated a second. Okay. Do we have any discussion on any of the consent items? No. All

003those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say I. I. Um, we will go into 4.01 employee groups. We John, do you remember? It's Jake, do you want to join us? We'll go. Good evening everyone. Um, PC would like to thank the board and the district for the ongoing discussions as we continue compensation negotiations. Thank you. We are all looking forward to finishing it up as soon as possible with the understanding that this is a long and complicated process. Thank you for the collaboration. There are a few things being discussed and adopted tonight that we would like to mention. PCA supports the parental leave policy 7070 as it was originally written in 2018 without restrictions and appreciate the dialogue regarding this policy. We would also like to make a few suggestions to the fiscal

004year 2023 2024 calendar being adopted. Uh first of all there seems the last that I looked there is a mistake on the June uh August sorry August 16th date since that is not a makeup for PD for teachers. We are already fulfilling that requirement on June 6th. Um, we have the March 8th professional development day for teachers that can also be used as a makeup snow day if needed. That allows for one snow day during the school year. In addition to that, we would like to ask for a remote option for all K12 students. This would allow for an additional resource if we go over the one snow day for next year. Extending the school year after graduation to fulfill the state requirement is non-productive for students. Allowing for a snow day to be built

005into the schedule rather than stacked at the end of the year, plus a remote option as a backup keeps things consistent during the school year when students need the most academic support. Again, we thank you for your time. Thanks, Jen Branson, Park City Classified Employee Association. I wanted to say thank you for your continued discussion surrounding compensation policy and employee job satisfaction. We feel like everyone involved with negotiations has a shared interest and is invested in the success of our school district, the students we serve, and attracting and retaining the best employees. Our educational support staff has continued to work and come up with creative solutions in the face of adversity throughout COVID and while experiencing extreme staff shortages. Extra responsibilities have been expected of staff. They have stepped up and worked as a team

006for the benefit of our students. ESPs have remained loyal to Park City School District because they believe in and want to see our district thrive. We hope the board of education will continue to have an open dialogue with the associations as we represent the voice and the best interests of our employee members. Park City School District employees have insight and can offer solutions and suggestions to issues affecting the students they work with and their job families. Employees are asking to be compensated, heard, and have their input taken seriously. This is how our members define respect. Thank you. and Cindy, I represent the classified employee employee involvement group, easier as EIG. I just want to thank you for allowing us for this time to give you this brief update on behalf of BIG. We would like

007to thank the board and the administration for the ongoing meetings regarding negotiation. We feel like the process is being transparent and all of our stakeholders for EIG are being heard. We look forward to continuing the process and coming to a final resolution for the best of all all of our employees. Uh we would also like to start and I don't have my glasses on. I have some it's only two things. We would like to um state that we like the change in policy 77 for the paid parent leave as a maximum benefit of two times per employee. That we feel that this policy is extremely generous, especially since it only benefits a handful of employees. Okay, thank you guys. Um, we'll get into that policy a little bit later. Um, Mr. Caner, CL, please. Good

008afternoon. See operations update for the 18th of April 23. Uh, we're still watching CO even though we're low. Hoping to take that off the report at the end of this calendar year. Uh but just for the public's notice that we're prepared in case things flare back up and all of our backshot mitigation are still in place. Buildings and grounds, our capital outlay budget is complete. Uh we're not getting the funds that we had hoped because of some other issues, but the we're hoping to get some supplementation through House Bill 61 for some security initiatives that we plan on. So there's $71 million out there that's allocated for FY24 for projects just for security. So we're hoping to tap those heavily through some of the issues that we're looking at. Our operation staff is ensuring the

009drains and culverts on Park City property are clear, preparing for potential spring flooding. We're seeing more and more of that out on the field. So far, no issues. And just to rebate, none of our our schools are in flood plans, although we're seeing some of our employees being impacted by it, especially in Uber. Um, luckily, we've got a mod modest warmup predicted this week and colder at nights, which allowed for more than me uh melt up on the snow at least initially. Um, I just want to shout out to the transportation team. Uh, how great of a job they did in getting their kids with limited resources. uh considering the snow. Um I did a ride along with Rich up through Summer Park and I could not believe the conditions they were dealing with. We

010had to do an 18 cone turn from a vehicle out there because it was snowed in and operating on one lane roads up there. So just a great great job those guys are doing. Um staffing continues to be a challenge. Uh but we're we're um working through some of that. Um and we're considering group consolidations um in possible spot for lack of supports for after school program is needed. Well hopefully we won't need those things but as they come along we get a short qual drive we might have to do some of those things. Um we're requesting two new buses for capital flight 24 capital outlays the very usual three but those two should allow us to remove the last two uh dairy diesels that we have in the property. for child nutrition services uh

011completed a state administrative review and all the following recommendations were accomplished and John is dealing with a couple staff shortfalls but he's uh uh interviewing people for those positions uh human resources a couple big things going on right now we got the job salary study uh EMS who's the company we retained to do that for us uh has held supervisory orientations with about 25 staff members to get a baseline understanding of house under studied. Uh they then help focus groups consisting of representative samples of each of the employee groups and they'll they'll create draft job descriptions and validate them with those supervisory group and then they'll perform a competitive market uh analysis and internal equity analysis uh and produce salary recommendations. So that work is going on right now. Um the other big thing going

012on in human resources is facilitating occurred uh interest based partying conversations with the PCBA, PCCA and EIG um groups have met together twice and as individuals uh as as a collective group and then broke off into meetings afterwards as individual negotiating bodies. Uh staffing issues continue to be concern uh in all our support service areas. Uh the security committee met today uh with a product demo for both Ajix and Zero which are two of the technologies we're looking at bringing on board here. Um Ajix is already uh starting to be implemented in the schools. It's at S County Sheriff's Office. We're going to have a demo for admin team tomorrow morning at 9:00 if anybody wants to come on board and take a look. Uh we had the zero eyes team do a demo for

013us which I mentioned was is a really promising um leveraging our current camera system artificial intelligence to look for weapons. And so it takes those 500 cameras that we have that are just passive um use and actually enables them to be active uh searching for weapons. So, uh, the cameras in our parking lots and hallways can all 247 searching for for weapons with artificial intelligence. So, very promising technology we hope to secure with that house bill 612. That's all I have for you. Thanks, Mike. What kind of buses are we looking at? as it gas or is it? No, right now the the we're looking at diesel buses, but they're ultra low em ultra low emission buses, so they put out about the same amount of CO2 um as do a car and and so

014they're actually quite efficient. Um you know, electric buses at this point are still 2x 3x of a cost of a diesel bus plus the infrastructure we have to switch over to. So, we're keeping our eye out for, you know, programs that would would that would allow us to make that conversion. Um, and um, you know, with the current political environment, there likely will be those things that are coming and also the cost of electric buses is coming down. So, it's something we're keeping an eye on. going to be a point where it makes sense for us to switch over from a a financial perspective right now. And lastly, looking at I mean J and I spoke uh well last weekend um at the national school board conference there's some some really interesting programs to make

015the grants federal grants. Yeah, the grants right now are kind of spotty, right? Someone might say, "Hey, we got $50 million available for grants." It sounds like a ton of money, but that's really like 15 buses, right? So, we got 30 on property and it be shared across the entire state. So, while the numbers sound pretty high, they're actually still not. But well, they months out as well. I mean, we've got to get you like six months out. Yep. Okay. Any other questions? Thanks, Mike. Yeah. Yeah, please. Um, so we have the student council elections coming up for deciding who gets the student body vice president, oh, president and vice president position as well as senior class and senior class vice president as well as the junior and sophomore positions. And so that will be

016held on April 28th, which is going to be the last Friday in April. And that's going to be an assembly during the day, and we should be getting the results back from that that same day or the day after. And then we also have Pchella, which we have a date now, and that's going to be May 13th, and it will be held in the senior lot at the high school, and it will be open to the public. Anybody who wants to enter a car for the car show portion of it, or whoever wants to show up can. And for prom, it's going to be at snow park from 7 to 10:00 p.m. And the theme is going to be uh city lights or New York, New York. And then for Wish Week, which was the

017last week in March, we were able to help Grant Isabelle's wish of going to Disneyland. That's awesome. And that's it. Congratulations. Thank you. So then in May, will you bring in replacement meeting so that there's transition or no? Um if I get the position again next year. Yeah. Congratulations. Yes. If I get the position again next year, I won't. But if I don't like that, excellent. So last month we focused on communication as part of the report. Today we're going to do community alliances. Kind of fun. So as we know our collective work as a school system is to ensure safety. That's why we always hear from ops, security, safety, that big quarterly meeting with all of our um emergency responders. So, I don't have those 45 organizations necessarily listed, but we typically have 45

018organizations that we partner with throughout um Summit County just for safety and security. Um our work of course is to ensure academic achievement of all students and to provide as many opportunities as we can for student success. This month I'll be focusing on inspiring and supporting all students equitably. The committee's work up till this point. A little bit on the facility survey that will be out later this week about the future use of treasure mountain sites. And then the community partnerships. So it's so weird that that All right. Right. So, our mission as a school district, and this was adopted by the community and board in 2017, is to inspire and support all students equitably to achieve their academic and social potential. And I love that graduation shot because that really symbolizes, you know, everybody

019all together and you're doing your your hat toss. It's really a fun milestone. Our vision is one of a student centered district where our focus and emphasis is on the whole child. our students are safe, engaged, challenged, and healthy. And I love thinking about preschool all the way through 12th grade when we see evidence of this through the system. Our inspiring and supporting all students equitably committee and many members are here tonight. I I see them in the audience. Um and this is so weird like my slide says one and two, but that one says one and one. So um but the main goals for this year it had two main overarching goals to inspire and support our students equitably to achieve academic social potential. So they grab that right from the mission of the

020school district and then what we're trying to do is create and maintain a welcoming, inclusive and equitable school climate that promotes learning. So that's the driver behind all of this talk about having a policy and what does that mean? The driver is numbered one and two there for this committee. Our committee had 21 members this year as a full committee. They had been meeting monthly all year. Um there was a policy development subcommittee that met more frequently. there was an external facilitator and we did have a membership reflective of the community and um even the students at the table were recommending that the practices include having student representatives at the table every year which is awesome. That's a great step. Um and community leadership right and students having real authentic experiences to be at the

021table whether it's the board seat or a committee seat. So making real decisions and real um recommendations that are taken seriously by the entirety of the community. We had administrators, educators, staff, aboard rep and then like I said students and we're trying also to build in feedback loop opportunities. The committee made progress throughout the year. They worked on the draft policy. They looked at different case studies of things happening really in the district or even broader um to say how might we address a concern or an issue and what would our action steps be and what consistent actions do we take to remove bias or barriers. And then we do have a request for professional services that we're um three companies were selected to interview and then one company was selected to provide an external

022assessment of how we are doing in our work to ensure all students are achieving access opportunities and the ability to succeed in our system. the policy timeline. Um we are hoping that by next month we'll have that which really just helps us to define the what what does it mean to have an equitable education an educational equity policy? What's that mean? Um what procedures kind of follow that? So what are the action steps and then bring in student insights? um bringing in um community voice in that and then rolling out that policy next school year. From a facilities lens, we do not have a determination of the future use of the Tre Mountain Junior High site, the facility or the site. And so we are going to be sending out to staff and the community

023staff, parents, community members a very short um survey where there are six uh ideas that what the future use might be as well as an other so that there can be um other ideas generated. So um no none of the bond money is used for anything with treasure not for rehabbing it not for demolishing it nothing can be used. So, we will expend all of our bonded dollars before we ever tackle this particular problem, but people were starting to talk about it. So, we thought we might as well have a focused way to gather some input before the end of the school year so the board could take a look at that. So the future use of Treasure Mountain or the Treasure Mountain site, the master educational plan with two different architecture firms both in

0242019 and then 2021 both called for a demolition of the school and a reuse of the site for fields, athletic fields. Um, however, the board community board will have to determine if that is the right uh decision. So that's one of the choices of the six is to demolish it and re-establish it as parking internal routing andor fields. That was in the 30-year plan. Um so like I said, you'll receive this insight survey. Please take the moment to answer it. It will be interesting to see what people's thoughts are on this topic. Um it will be open until early May. We then have an outside um team review the insights from that survey. So, we're not actually dealing with the data internally at all. It's going straight to an external site and then they give

025us the report. So, we're looking forward to that. And then going into our partnerships, we have so many. There are just 25 that I've highlighted here in the presentation tonight. So, I'm sure I've missed a bunch of them, but to at least give us the idea um of, you know, recognizing and appreciating all of our many partners because really the community partners help so many things that I and I think that remains kind of hidden in the school district. I don't know that we talk about it a lot, but everything from our education foundation where the bright futures program is kind of a sub program of PCEF. They have their first college graduation of seven students this year. Next year 25, right? So, it's grown exponentially. So, it's really exciting and definitely promotes this idea

026of every student being able to reach, you know, have access and reach um their optimal potential. We've got our community ed program, which we can never talk about um highly enough. It's a whole different stream kind of tax funding, but it helps to support a sliding scale before and after school program, summer school, adult ed, you know, all kinds of cool courses through the compass program. Basenre of course um helps um we do shared facilities out at Echer Hill United Way where a part of the regional promise partnership program where we look at urgent needs from early learning all the way to literacy and numeracy scores um that partnership has been amazing. and looks at attendance issues and gives, you know, different scalable um opportunities, right, for us to try whether you're a big district

027like Salt Lake or a smaller district like us, we get the chance to talk about these issues collaboratively and then they um track and monitor data, everything from preschool entry to attendance rates throughout the region, which is awesome. The Early Childhood Alliance is a Park City Community Foundation um idea from several years ago where we're looking at the big picture from Utah's um really most of the western states have a childcare desert. Really hard to find reliable affordable child care. talks about everything from advocacy to um for universal preschool all the way to just getting high quality preschool experiences for learners because we know the earlier that kids um are exposed to socialization and preacademic learning the better transitioning into kindergarten. So, it's an awesome partnership. That care has been an organization that many of

028you are familiar with and they really focused on teens and their well-being and they have done some really creative programing. They were one of only three community uh agencies across the US that got a federal grant for five years for preventive programming, you know, preventing drug abuse. Um, so it's amazing, you know, that they were able to pull that together and that keeps their funding really secure for the foreseable future is amazing. We are part of the K16 alliance which is a partner with UVU. Um, it helps us with everything from educational internships all the way to just um making sure that we are thinking through a seamless transition for students to be able to do uh postsecary learning. Mtech is similar and we are grateful to Meredith for volunteering to serve on the Mtech

029board for us. That's about a quarterly meeting I believe and I think you can go on Zoom if you don't want to go down to Lehi for that. But really fun you know technical just what can technical education provide for kids and even adult career changers really interesting programming. Our bridges group is an internal group where our face team meets with PCL and SP reps to talk about different departments in the district, different initiatives and share ideas back and forth. The Park State Community Foundation is an excellent partner. Over a hundred of our students this year are high school students have received um funding to help close the gap with um academic or um athletic fees. traveling to the United Nations presentation um the competition there were kids that were able to access travel funds

030through this rise program through the community foundation so we're really so grateful for that of course Park City Institute has announced its new executive director and we do have a partnership with the PCI as they use the Eckles Theater for their winter programming primarily parks and municipal is a quick phone call away but we definitely whether it's field usage or whether it's working on our sustainability efforts and energy conservation. They're the first people we call and I know Mike has great relationship uh with park and principal. As you all know, Veil rents our lots for weekends only, not school days during ski season. But boy, have they been an amazing partner this year with our student council, right? The nighttime ski events. How fun was that, right? Ski under the lights. um they've done the

031skillet drive for graduation day before they hosted homecoming. So great partnership there and we're so appreciative. Our um safety providers, of course, our our Park State Police Department and Summit County Sheriff's Office are always I mean just right right there on the spot. we need any kind of security safety question, the Ajix is right in the Summit County Sheriff's Office to get everybody in the county on one system for communications and door plans and all that kind of stuff. They also help us with their school resource officers. Um we've been doing some fun partnerships even with um connect which is a mental health awareness um and support group here in Summit County. Dear Viet Valley, similar to Bale, you know, they rent to our Treasure Mountain lot. So, as we think of that future use,

032you know, they they do currently rent that lot on their busiest ski weekends, but we'll want to probably think about that in our parking situation. Our youth sports alliance, one of my favorite nonprofits here in Park City, providing those Friday afternoon introduction to a wide range of sports and activities is really an amazing opportunity for the kids. And SOS also does such a nice job of mentoring and supporting students, teaching them how to ski. Um, overall health and wellness benefits of that program are amazing. National Ability Center has been amazing partner with us as has the Chamber of Commerce. Summit County Behavioral Health. Uh their team helps organize preventive programming as well and helps to um interpret the sharp data and then they use that sharp data to see what certain areas are are kids

033um engaging in safe behaviors or risky behaviors and what kind of programming can they do to lean towards the supportive um services rather than you know negative risk factors. that can drive use out all of you all. Um, Summit County Land Conservancy does such a nice job helping us with our really cool habitat right outside of Treasure Mountain doors. We have some amazing wetlands, amazing animals back there and they're so great about helping us, you know, even with our Highland campus that 55 acres and basis and getting out there to remove those. you've really been an amazing partner along with recycle Utah who's a great part of our green team and you know recycle Utah for years has done lessons for kids on recycling and sustainability and composting and all those sorts of things. Um

034eats as we know is kind of combining with community gardens which is really exciting. We know my husband has a garden plot out there and just loves it. Helped to build their greenhouse but as you know we have some green houses at schools. So really fun to keep the ideas flowing on what we might do um to enhance those programs. The peace house always also comes into the schools and does some lessons on safety and well-being. Um so truly in conclusion, our schools are a reflection of the community we serve and we are so grateful for all the partnership and advocacy that is provided by the community at large for the Park City School District. So an update on those media for you. [Music] Thank you. Um one quick question and the treasure survey. How's

035that going out just by email? That will go out via Swift K12 parents and to staff to be able to answer. But then for the community, we also put just like we did with the equity policy. link that goes right on the website and we kind of push that out through Chamber of Commerce so they'll have the link and that way we reach kind of a broader audience social media and [Music] but yes control the more avenues to get out to people that's all All right. Um, can we please invite up Chloe and Bailey? You can introduce what you're here for. It's so good to see you. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you members of the school board for having us. My name is Chloe Terrell and my name is Bailey Carmarmac.

036We're both in 12th grade at Park City High School. together. We both serve as youth liaison to the advisory board of the children's justice center of Summit County. We've been working with the advisory board for the past two years and our role is to bring a youth voice to the children's justice center at Summit County. April is child abuse prevention month. Child maltreatment is a national and global issue that affects all sectors of society and crosses socioeconomic, racial, religious, and multicultural boundaries. It's important for us to help foster awareness of child malreatment and to help ensure a comprehensive response to child malreatment in our community. Many citizens may not be aware of all the child protection workers at our Summit County Children's Justice Center. Chloe and I have had the opportunity to meet detectives, child

037protective service workers, prosecutors, interviewers, medical professionals, therapists, victim advocates, and more. When children report maltreatment to a trusted adult and the trusted adult calls the hotline or law enforcement, this team of professionals convenes at the CJC to provide a comprehensive response. It's pretty amazing. We also want to remind all adults that they are mandatory reporters. It's ingrained in us starting in first grade that if we're not safe, we should tell a trusted adult. Children then rely on the trusted adults to do their part and notify the hotline or law enforcement. This system can help ensure that every child can find the path to safety and health and resilience. Raising awareness is critical to prevent child malreatment. We are here to ask you to help us. You shall all have a copy of the resolution which

038we hope you will adopt to declare April Child abuse prevention month in the Park City School District. We saw that President Biden once again declared April to be child national child abuse prevention month. We hope that the Park City School Board will do the same. We would like to read our proposed resolution to the school board if that's okay with you. All right. Thank you. Whereas child abuse and neglect is a complex and ongoing problem in our society affecting many children in Summit County. And whereas every child is entitled to be loved, cared for, nurtured, feel secure, and be free from verbal, sexual, emotional, and physical abuse and neglect. And whereas it is the responsibility of every adult who comes in contact with a child to protect that child's inalienable right to a safe and

039nurturing childhood. And whereas Summit County has dedicated individuals and organizations who work daily to counter of child malreatment and to help parents obtain the assistance they need. And whereas our communities are stronger when all citizens become aware of child maltreatment prevention and become involved in supporting parents to raise their children in a safe and nurturing environment. And whereas effective child abuse prevention programs succeed because of partnerships among families, social service agencies, schools, religious and civic organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the business community. And whereas all citizens commas all citizens, community agencies, faith organizations, and businesses will work together to increase their effort to support family. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Park City School Board hereby proclaim the month of April 2023 to be child abuse and neglect prevention. Thank you guys very much.

040Great work. Do you have any questions? Just really thank you for coming. All right. Um so I will um I'll entertain a motion to adopt this resolution as read. We're sorry proclamation as read. I make a motion to adopt um April. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I. Thank you guys. Thank you. Um all right we will go to 5.01 um district facility updated. Good afternoon. I'll start out with uh talking about our schools within the county jurisdiction. Uh Jeremy Ranch uh school is under full construction right now. Um our team has formed poured and put foundation walls in and stripped those forms away from the walls and add rebar. Uh utility blockouts are being placed in the foundation walls support electrical and plumbing and the storm drain tie-ins to the

041storm tech underwater underground detention system are being crafted. Um you'll see you've probably seen that the walls starting to emerge from the ground now. Those are foundation walls. So Masons will be out there in probably about two weeks starting to have lock. So kind of an exciting time seeing the wall starting up on on Jeremy Ecker Hill Middle School. Remember we broke things up into two big packages. The first one was for the bus lock construction uh on the church side. Um that's been delayed a little bit because of snow and the moisture conditions back there. We're hoping to get the crews out there uh either this week or next week as the soil stabilizes and begin that work. Most of the curb core is in there already. So, uh, once they get clearance to

042get in there, uh, the rope grading and the warmer weather will allow us to to begin the asphalt work very quickly there. Um, we still don't have the final closure on securing the church lot. We've done everything within our power uh to make that happen legally. Um, it's in the hands of the church bureaucrac bureaucracy at this point and we're just waiting for the final close on that. Um, Eker Hill Middle School did patch number two, which was the overall project. Again, full construction is underway. Uh, for folks who are going by treasure, you'll see um the south side by the pool. Um, snow has been pulled away from that entrance way, and we're starting to put in construction fencing there to allow to demolish that that wall on the side of Virginia. Uh we've

043worked with the Ecker Hill team to ensure that we have safe transit for people accessing the pool and we can work through all the door issues associated with that and the uh the bad result. Um Oben will produce who is the construction firm who's managing the Hecker Hill project will produce a summer impact schedule that we can share with our our partners as as the Basin Recreation uh to deconlict our Ecker Hill Middle School recreation offerings to make sure we can maximize sort of use that site during construction. Parley's Park Elementary School, we're we're starting in coordination with the county already. Uh our site plan was reviewed by the county on the 21st of March. uh construction documents are due from our architect there, BCDO, on the 23rd of April and additional use permit application

044will be submitted on the 24th April, a week from yesterday. Um our USB project numbers uh were at 10% completion on that, but we anticipate getting that hand for hopefully demolition to begin uh in the middle of June. Uh since it's partly park project is smaller in size, it won't require uh modification to the master development plan and will not have to be in front of the center uh planning commission or summit county council for approval. Once the plans are submitted, which we hope again is on the 24th of April, it'll take about eight weeks for us to get that conditional use. uh Trailside Elementary. We're starting our coordination with the county and uh starting the the construction documents production design at this stage, but we don't start the state. Our city schools, uh McPoland,

045the full construction is underway. Uh we've had snow removed across the entire building pad. Again, same thing like at jerine. Uh we've formed the foundations for them uh rebar them, stripped the foundation uh the fl away from the walls uh to make those available. And again, utility blockouts are being placed in the foundation walls to support electrical and plumbing. Uh the brickmasons and equipment mobilization for that site began yesterday. So they're about a week and a half ahead of Jeremy. So again, we'll be seeing walls coming up there soon. So kind of exciting time for us. Park City High School. Again, we're a little hampered by the snow there. The snow removal is happening right now. Structural fill will be brought in here soon. And um we're a little slowed up by the the soil

046and muddy moisture, the muddy soil. Um just a reminder to the group and to the public, they had a construction summary updated weekly on the district website. um and certain maintenance terms along with primary spreadsheet that shows the status of all the domain we're securing. We have JD with us who's the the the brain from our our owners team here if you have any questions um that I might not be able to answer. You guys have any questions? One stupid question. We have confirmed with the county that they agree upon is several things needs to go in the planning commission. Right. That's that that's what we've been told here. It's under 10,000 square feet. Okay. So 10,000 anything greater than 10,000 ft needs all the stuff. This is under it's just the let me correct

047that. It does have to go but only to the planning. It doesn't have to go beyond. It doesn't have to go to county. Okay. Understood. Um and then just my usual check and old contingency. How we doing with the contingency rules, snow delays and everything else and you know it's back to um where we're roughly six months behind our initial plan. Uh we're a best guess. We're slightly over budget but within inflation at this point where we think that we can make it over uh over the entire entirety of the project. We think we'll still be within relatively good bounds there. Um so um I think we're in a pretty good place uh considering the snow conditions and the uh the operating that we're working great for all your work. Yes, I'll I'll make this

048quick because we're still in the the budget phase with budget bargaining and those types of things. I've added a document uh to the board packet or had Lori add a document. I appreciate doing that which is a quick guide that just kind of came hot off the press in the last few days from the state office. So I just thought I'd share that for your reference. Talks about the increase in the W and some of the different funding mechanisms and then also include some of the notable education bills uh that are slated there. So for example, full day kindergarten uh the earmark uh for education uh be able to use those funds for other things what we're going to do with the plan enrollment in the state and those things. So without taking more time

049from the meeting today president uh if there's specific questions I'm happy to answer those but this is a a general overview of the legislator session and what happened in funding uh was some of these affect us some of these don't um then if you have other questions after the fact you know feel free to reach out to answer those but you'll see greater detail of that in the presentation as we post to June budget bas questions spotlight. Yeah, great. This is nice review. Thank you very much. All right. Um we have two decisions on the docket today. Both on the calendar proposals. Um we start with um FY23 school calendar proposal revision. Um this is to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate the middle school date first. Um so I will entertain a motion to

050approve this amendment. Discussion. Okay. Amendment to the school calendar. We have the discussion before. Yeah. Yeah. But we have to get the motion just from a procedural discuss. Sure. Now we can I'm just a little bit concerned with extending to the to the fifth. I mean I think so I understand our priorities given in person education. I understand why it happened. Is there really no other solution to get that timing covered so that we're not asking families and uh students, teachers, everyone to rearrange plans that would have been made a long time ago. So the school calendar minimums in Utah are 174 school days, four professional learning days and two parent teacher conferences. So the way our district handles the parent teacher conferences is we have a lot of evening conferences and then we take

051a day of spring break and the day before Thanksgiving break as those commence for days. We are at the minimum of four professional learning dates. What we used to have in past years is we had eight professional learning dates. So we had some flexibility. We don't have them. We have four professional learning days since 2018. So right now uh we have to meet the I did apply for a waiver. The waiver was denied by the state. Um we have to hit days um minimum. So we do need to add the June 5th to the school calendar. We can run that as a Friday day and that can be like the field days or the fun, you know, kind of the fun closing activities of the school year, but we do have to host a day.

052We can't do like two Friday half days. I was trying to look at any other option as well, but we're unable to do that with the number of 174. We have to get to that. How is that going to impact uh some mechanics in Well, there was a chance that they're going to start at Harley that they're actually start Dr. Gild Day, you said you did request a waiver and it was denied. Is that what I heard you say? that it was denied because we have not built in additional days. But we do need to build in additional days for a few years to give ourselves flexibility, right? A lot of kids show I think that makes I think that Yeah, I think that makes the next, you know, revision and future ones more for

053sure. But on this one, um, you know, it appears that we don't have one of choice. Um so um with that if there's any no other questions let's have a vote on extending that extra day as is listed in this graphic. Um, all those in favor of extending. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. Yes. I All right. So, that passes. The next one is for 24. Um, this would be to um and I think we have to make well I'll entertain a motion to approve the amendment on the 23.4 pound calendar. and make a motion to refer to the amendment on the information calendar. Yes, sir. Okay. So, we've already had one comment from Mary that the 16th is uh listed here as a makeup PB day and that'll be satisfied on June 6th, I believe.

054Um so, we can remove that. Um, so I'll I'll entertain a motion to amend this um this uh listed calendar to remove that first day of the 16th and make it the 17th of um of August for the future. Okay. I make the motion or motion. I make a motion to amend the motion. Okay. Uh so first we're gonna we're going to vote on that amendment um before we have any other discussion. Um all those in favor of that specific amendment to revise that error, please say I. I. Okay. I. Perfect. Now we can discuss the rest of the calendar um which builds in one extra um snow day. Um and well actually it has what it does is it allows there to be maximum of five aster days um after graduation in June. So

055it starts the 10th and it allows for a potential of up to five actually days postgraduation. Do you have any discussion around that part of this amendment? So I'm fine doing that but to Mar's uh point earlier can we have remote learning as a fallback to minimize the chance we will ever get to Um well I mean I think that's a discussion. I think um well I'll let Meredith speak that first actually. Oh sure. I mean certainly will be you know for that as they other parents and educators in the community because they want to avoid this situation what we have to do this year and you know potentially I mean certainly this was a a unusual winter and you know we might not get this again in my lifetime I hope we do but

056I don't Oh, you know, this is certainly outside of what we are used to dealing with and then with the power outage as well situation occurred as well. But yeah, if there's some way that we can respond to that and be agile, how are we people from the pandemic experience? Well, it's not ideal, but they have a backup, you know, it wouldn't be out of what we experience. Okay, remote learning. [Music] November school and that would require the elementary teachers to build in build lessons into that for all content areas so that the kids could access because really 612 this is very everything is built into canvas sources page two we have seesaw as a learning management system free five we've been using Google classroom so we have a way to do But it would

057put a different version on the K5 than what they typically have from November to April from the amount of time that the devices are more wear and tear on the devices. We currently have a sevenyear renewal cycle on device that would drastically cut it. And can I clarify that made sense during co when it was an investment you knew for a period of time to do that for a new case they made your investment yes I think right that conversation right it's your I just think that that's a lot of back and forth yeah I think for an in case Okay. I mean to have all the teachers and all the elementary schools, all the devices, everything set up for that in case I don't know. I would let the operations team, you know, answer

058that. So certainly wouldn't be work we have to do. So, um I don't even know how that um if the ask right now is to I mean I don't even let's say we still determine that that's something one could do that we still adopt this calendar and have a new case five days for makeup or are we saying that that's an alternative to doing this potential makeup? Well, I think you said we'd have to have the potential phase in order to apply for a waiver or something in the future anyway. We have the money down the track. Yeah. So, I think that's a good thing to make sure that we protect but so I think we should do that. Yes. That's why I I don't think this conversation about impacts what we're trying to adopt.

059No. No. No. It's more about how we avoid getting into and that could be a discussion I think with admin and teachers that they could have but I don't think that impacts this decision. Yeah. And do you have any comments? Well, just so I'm clear. So, by adding in five days, it it it makes us eligible for the waiver. Is that what it is? Do we have to do five days or is that kind of the baseline? That just gives us eligibility for waiver and it adds the potential for five extra days if there's of in electrical outlet. Yeah. Outages and Okay. Um and if obviously if we don't use them then the last day of school is the 7th and if we use two then last day is the 11th. Okay. That's all I

060have. Yeah. I mean, my my view would be that um I think it makes sense to have these in the in the calendar so that we have a little bit more flexibility. But that said, I don't I'm not a big believer of um remote learning. I think um you know, we did it with, you know, as an option during extraordinary times. Um and I think we were one of the fortunate school districts that offered inperson learning as well. And you know, it's proven, you know, the districts that went fully remote or had remote learning, you know, fell way behind. And so, um, I know it's a convenience factor for parents, but I I don't just on principle, I'm not a big fan of it. And I don't think that it's, you know, I kind of

061view it as a slippery slope once we go down the the path of remote learning is acceptable. um you know in normal times it's it's not a great policy to have. So that's my view um just to note publicly but I think that doesn't affect my view that this makes sense to admit. So um it sounds like we're ready to vote. Um so um all those in favor of approving uh the amended motion for the new calendar, please say I. Hi. Hi. All right. So, that passes. Um All right. This conversation was help issues that came out. Yeah, certainly. 100%. We should continue. I agree. In person is clearly preferential. We're talking, you know, it's back up for extreme. Yeah. I think we're I think we're solving the issue by added our lesson. Move on.

062Um okay, we have two policies for posting um the two policies for posting policy one6 and one21. One6 is educational equity. Um I would imagine that a lot of the folks who are here today um are looking to give public comment on this. Um the good news is you will be able to make public comment. The better news is we are going to be hosting some open houses um to allow everyone to come and make public comment and give their input on educational equity um including today. Um I think that uh it would be great to have this policy um posted now and then um even if we need to have more discussion at our next meeting have this approved by the end of the school year this will be a great time for us

063all to have. But we do recognize as a board that there are different opinions on this board or against and we want to have as much public input as possible. Um so with that said um I want to take a motion to post two uh policies. One is an amended one6 and the second is one21 dropout potenti I make a motion to post both those policies as a second. Okay. Any discussion um on those policies? I think we have a lot of people who are going to be discussing this policy. All right, perfect. Um, all those in favor of posting these two policies uh for public input, please say I I All right, those are posted. Um, we have eight policies for adoption. Um, I'm going to state seven of them and keep one separate

064because I know that we have some discussion on that one. So, I'll entertain a motion to adopt policy 4010 travel and conference reimbursement. Policy 7075 12-month employee staff holiday. Policy 9,000 academic integrity. Policy 9015 patriotic education. Policy 9025 enrollments. Policy 10 110 enrollment. Um um I make a motion to adopt those policies as Okay. Um, do we have any feedback on those seven policies? From city on the policy 4010 in reviewing policies that are posted that will be adopted today. We have some concerns about policy for weekend travel and constant reimbursement. Most suggested changes to the travel policy are reasonable and clarified questions to issues that come up on a daily basis with the exception of the suggested change in F mileage reimbursement. It states mileage will be reimbursed if special dietary needs are available

065while the employee is traveling. Utah administrative code Regarding travel related reimbursements R25-7-9 reimbursement for incidentals says in B personal use of such transportation to a restaurant is not reimburseable. An example is if an employee doesn't like what the conference is serving, they will simply say their dietary needs could not be met. Thus, the taxpayers will not have to pay for the one meal at the conference mileage to get to another place and a second meal. If a conference offers meals paid for with the registration, taxpayers should not have to pay for a second special meal. In most, if not all cases, conferences ask if they have special dietary needs in advance and may adjust accordingly. Thank you, sir. Thank you. where so we should be removing F so on or sorry F2 sub where did

066this um come from was there a specific reason that it was included in the policy yes Jack we had two specific instances where blockchain was booked for employees and it was away from the conference site and food wasn't provided to the conference site and there was nothing in the vicinity of them getting the dietary needs and when they went to submit for reimbursement tonight the policy didn't address it. So perhaps we can So the issue is is that there's no food available at the conference to be reimbured for the mileage. So it's less about special dietary needs. more um about with that code specifically says mileage to restaurant is not allowable but we do reimburse for the lunch but it was special dietary needs for these two employees because there was food near where they

067were staying but there wasn't vegetarian okay so what I what I would suggest here is that we send this back to committee um and have Jim review it especially given the the objection is is due to you code because I don't think we want to be passing something that's violating state law. So let's do that and then we'll look at it again at our next meeting. Code or is a rule? It's the R2.5, right? It's R25-7. Yeah, those administrative rules, right? Just like we have. All right, let's just have a quick look at it. We'll do it next. see if it um if so we make an amendment to the motion to remove policy 4010 from adoption. Make a motion to amend to remove um this policy policy state. I get a second. All those

068in favor of amending removing policy 4010 from the motion, please say I. I. I. I. So, just for clarity, we're voting on adopting policy 7075, 9000, 9015, 9025, and 110. All those in favor of approving those five policies, please say I. I. I. Perfect. All right. Those five pass. 4010 is sent back. Um I'll entertain a motion to adopt policy 77 paid parental leave. Um discuss I make a motion to pay77. Second. Perfect. All right. Um, so I know one piece of um, actually, mayor, you're here, so you can clarify if I get this wrong. There's been a there's been a request from PCBA to strike point C application to strike number seven, which says parental leave has a maximum benefit of two times per employee. Is that the correct amendment? Okay. And then we

069also heard from Cindy earlier I believe that we want this part to remain that EIG wants this point to remain comfortable with the change. Okay. So EIG is comfortable PCBA is asking for that point to be removed. Um Lori in addition to those comments do we have any other comments on this policy? Okay. Um so I will entertain a motion to amend policy uh to amend the motion to approve policy 77 7070 remove 7 which is a rental has a maximum benefit of two times I make a motion to amend the motion to um remove seven the C7 July 2017. Okay. So, um let's discuss that. Um that's a a request that's coming from PCA leadership. Um we have some financial numbers on parent policy. Superintendent or Randy, you guys want to share those with

070the board? So, we have context. [Music] Yeah, I think All right. So, we have had 56 people use this benefit. We've had nine people use it more than once. 17 people who have used it are no longer employees of PCSD. One person resigned after receiving the benefit. Um it's cost has been approximately $600,000 for the salaries of the people who use the benefit but does not include the substance teacher cost and that's so that's 56 over how many years? That is from the 1819 school year over five years. So 10 or 12 people are using a year on average and it's costing the district $120,000 a year or 150 or more I guess. Okay. Um so the background on this um for you guys is the teacher came to us uh back in 2018 I

071guess and um brought up the idea that they would have paid parental leave in addition to FMLA. Um and it was it was an ask from a specific teacher rather than from PCA. Um but it was one that came directly to the board and we debated it felt that it was a fair ask and it was something that most employers do which is provide paid parental leave maternity maternity um and we did that. Um there was an amendment made um in the past year or two that said that only used one time in 24 month period. Um the push back on that was that you know As a district, we shouldn't be dictating how frequent people have children or what window they have them in. You want have two kids right away or three kids

072versus having them over a six year period. That's your own business. Um, and that's kind of, you know, where it all stands now. So, um, does it make sense to have Mary or J? Yeah. You guys have anything to add, Mary or Jake on this? I mean that's pretty good summary of what conversations look like. Um the follow part part of the like you said a lot of the ideas of changing amendment whatever be based kind of on like teacher member usage and feedback to us about what's worked and what's not worked. Um that's kind of pretty good last night. Yeah. Um and uh yeah, Nick, do you have any thoughts? Um I think the same logic that we would apply to not dictating when people have children would apply to not dictating how many

073children people have had. But I understand that has consequences for the district when people have three, four, five children. But it sounds like we're talking about edge cases, you know, very small numbers for any staff number qualifies for this. Well, I I I understand that, but I mean in terms of who's used it, but suggest that we're not talking about a huge number likely to take it five times in four, five year period. Yeah. So, just to make sure that I understand the amendment, I've got Um, so it used to say that you could only use it one time during the period and the proposed amendment is a maximum benefit of two. So that's the proposed amendment that's on we want to take it out and the ask is to remove that whole session. Okay.

074Basically making it there's no limits on how many children you can have, what frequency you can have children. Yes. Makes me think. Yeah. Okay. And no I'm that's all clear. Thank you for clarifying all that. I'm good. Yeah, I'm fine with with seven. Okay. Um Okay. Um all those in favor of uh adopting policy 77 the with the amendment striking seven, please say I. I. I. That policy passes. Um all right. public comment. Does anyone want a quick break before we get into this? Yeah, let's give two seconds and continue. No, I was house. [Music] I know. Yeah. I'm sure. service. All right. Um the board of education wants to hear live input from community members at our meetings in order to respect and preserve a time a lot presented on the agenda. Each speaker

075will be limited to three minutes. Um we have a bunch of people here. So um if we can be respectful of everyone's time and keep it to three minutes that would be appreciated. Um, we'll just call people to the roster in order of uh this staff received person care speaking one policy 10006 educational. Yeah, just come up and join us today. Okay, thank you. I snuck in just Yeah, perfect. Um, thank you um so much uh for allowing me to speak. I'm a little bit nervous. This is not something that I enjoy doing. However, um it just shows how much I personally care about this as a parent and community member and taxpayer um here in my school district. I'm in full support of the policy missio educators and every single school district employee as

076well as both lovely kid sitting behind me and all the 4,500 children in the school district. um virtually to work to our mission and envision here in New York City School District and the policy will do. So um and I'm just going to leave at that and thank you so much for um for giving me the time. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Uh Jen Brans commenting on behalf of myself and as an employer. Um I am in full support of the policy um offer that you all have developed. I think it covers um it needs to happen. you know, um I've been in town for 24 years and I saw I've seen how equity has changed our our school district over years. When my children entered kindergarten, we didn't have public preschool and the difference

077between kids was obvious and it really took away from opportunities of some kids because it had to play catch-up all the time. And as a preschool teacher in our only title one school, I know that we need a way so that when we look at procedure, we can run it against policy to make sure that it's working for everyone in our district. We had changes at McPolland recently, I think districtwide, based on safety standards, and some of those policies affected the equity in our preschool families that I work with. um they couldn't drop off their kids as early as they had, their jobs were threatened. Um we have to have a way to explore that if we want to create a system that benefits everyone and works with our mission. Thank you very much. Thanks.

078Merry Christmas. [Music] Hi. Thank you so much for your time. I come here in somewhat of a unique role. I've had the opportunity and the privilege of facilitating the inspiring and supporting all students equity committee this year. And what I want to bring to this conversation today and to have you all know and hopefully you can feel it is the incredible care, the diligence, the hard work, the hard conversations that happen amongst those committee members made up of teachers, staff, students, community members. a very thoughtful, robust, diligent process to bring to a policy so that we can uphold the mission of the Park City School District. Um the conversations that happened around this table were incredible. Um they were brave and courageous and thoughtful and every single word in that policy has been put there

079with great deliberation um by this group of experts who live um the impacts of um these policies every single day in their work. And so I just want to bring that to you and and give voice to the process that has been so carefully um undertaken over this period of time. I would also like to just uh drop into the conversation that in addition to the conversations and the the work of that committee was a very thoughtful um feedback process through the K12 innovate uh platform. There were over 200 respondents to that platform. I hope that you will take their um comments and weigh them carefully. They were overwhelmingly supportive. I know you saw that the last board meeting um in that report from K12 innovate and um you know in that process no one

080was asked to contact you directly and so I hope that you will weigh those comments um fairly and give them the way that they deserve and your consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Piece of wall. Hi. I'm Lisa L Pine Brook resident of seven years. I'm a mom to class of 21 and Sarah a current senior. For the record, I'm not a bigot. I'm not a racist. Not a domestic terrorist. Just so you know. I spent many thoughtful hours on the letter that I wrote to all of you and hundreds of hours um of over the years researching CRT, DEI, and other progressive left-wing Marxist ideologies that are somehow infiltrating our Utah schools. Um now down to K through 12. I thank Dr. Gilde and Andrew uh for having the decency to respond to my letter.

081I took a lot of time on that. um whether they agree or not on my stance firmly against this proposed educational equity policy. I also appreciate my discussion with Mr. Arati and input received from legislators and state school board members. I will attend the two um scheduled forums and I'm glad that you will have that opportunity to to reach out to other people with different views. Um I'll reiterate my top questions and concern that were in my letter. Uh what exactly are the problems we are trying to fix? What are the barriers? Explain the achievement gaps using data. How will you go about achieving equitable outcomes? Does that involve lowering standards for high achievers? Will that what will be the tax increase? Our personal PCSD taxes have risen over 59% since 2017. What will be

082the return on investment? I voted for the la the latest school bond and at least I got the infrastructure. I'm very happy about that. But for this feel-good, nebulous, open-ended policy, I really need specifics. How will this increase the number of minorities playing sports and living a healthy lifestyle? How will it fix the disparity between disciplinary outcomes for students? Does this align with House Bill 427 and Utah State Board of Education Rule 277 328? The language is inconsistent. Gender expression, for example, is not in those higher documents. And what of the children most discriminated against in our district? Those who hold ideological or political beliefs different from the majority here. Diversity of thought and freedom of speech are neither mentioned nor protected. Uh PCSD is not diverse. We cater to one group that receives a

083disproportionately high level of resources. My family experienced true diversity for five years when our girls attended a huge British school, international school in Abu Dhabi with 94 different nationalities, mostly male and Muslim. We were the only Roman Catholics. Uh our birth birthday parties resembled an assembly of the UN and we loved it. There was no DEI policy. Simply discipline, high academic standards, and sports and activities to bring all children and families together and not divide them. DEI is nothing more than a modern-day Soviet era commasar system. Commasaars were injected into every level of society. It was so pervasive that organizational leadership were more worried about what was correct thought than doing their actual jobs. It was a failed system. And we are replacing commisaars now with DEI overlords with no real job except to monitor

084right think as they perceive it. Teachers will be looking over their shoulders instead of mastering their lesson plans and focusing on our precious students. All of them. Corporations and colleges are ditching DEI because of high cost and no measurable return on investment. I firmly stand against policy 10 06 um and I look forward to the forums um and expressing further news. I hope you'll actually read my letter that I spent a lot of time on. Thank you. Thank you. All my name is Allison Cook. I'm a Park Meadows resident and a parent of three children, two of whom graduated from high school. I have many concerns regarding the education equity proposal, and I will touch on some highlights. Our families part of an ethnic minority. I have a gay child and two children with learning

085differences. None ever felt discriminated against in the district due to these characteristics. However, all of my kids have experienced discrimination and harassment due to their political beliefs. In fact, one of my sons was verbally harassed on multiple occasions and criminally attacked because of his political positions and pride for being an American. A teacher actually told one of my sons she was docking his grade because she didn't agree with his politics. We had him switched to a different class, but as far as I know, she never received implicit bias training for her actions. I see nothing in this policy that protects open dialogue and civil discourse. Diversity of thought and freedom of speech are neither mentioned nor protected. That is a requirement of USB rule 227-328. The definitions of gender and gender identity should be eliminated

086from the document. They are in violation of rule 277-328 which states the rule should not be applied in a way that will promote one ideology over another regarding a topic including those described in the rule. Some in the community believe that gender is binary and determined by your chromosomes and others believe it is a spectrum determined by an innate sense. Your definitions promote the latter ideology which is a rule of violation. They also seem to be in violation of HB427, which restricts materials that incentivize or force students to change a sincerely held belief they learned at home. Opportunity gaps. What does this mean and how would this be implemented? Are we providing tutors for kids with learning disabilities or language barriers? Are providing all homes with internet access? Or are we lowering the bar to

087allow underqualified students into classes classes that their skill set won't support, setting them up for failure? Or will we or will we will we be dragging high achievers and our school district's national ranking down by admitting unqualified students into AP classes, for example? What does equitable hiring practices mean? We want the best teachers who are competent at speaking and writing the English language. We don't care what they look like or who they sleep with and neither should the school district. Balancing the workforce to reflect the diversity of the student body seems antithetical to stated goals of achieving academic excellence in ensuring all students graduate ready to succeed. This also seems a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. What does it mean to benefit equally? Should the kid who does all his homework and

088studies 20 hours a week get A's on his exams to get A's on his exams get the same grade as the kid who doesn't do any assignments or show up for class. I ask you to please consider tableabling any vote on this proposal until all community input is reviewed. The document is revised and a budget for this project is discussed and approved by the taxpayers. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Jimmy May. Hello. Hi. Thank you for having us. My name is Jimmy May. I represent a group, a local community group called the Deplorables. Our motto is wine and politics. What could go wrong? We represent over 150 households. I had very humble beginnings. As a young adult young adult, I took the wrong turn. Yet, here I am living the dream in Park City.

089Where else but in America. I want all kids to have the same opportunities as I did. I applaud your efforts to educate our kids. We're and we are all for actual equity. Yet, policy 1006 enhances neither Smith your mission nor nor your vision. Um, a handful of topics. Weaponized language. The equity movement may have started with good intentions. Sure, it did. Defenders of it ask naively or sometimes disingenuually as the part record did on their February 28th editorial despicable who could be against they ask diversity, equity or inclusion. These words used to represent noble virtues and and still do yet they have been weaponized. These words are now sadly utterly ambiguous. Andrew Sullivan states, "Language is being rewritten in order to make actual informed debate harder by design, injecting euphemisms and deceptions. Implicit bias. The

090very premise of the policy is flawed. Quote, PCSD recognizes the role systems of bias and discrimination play in creating disparities." Close quote. Implicit bias is widely recognized as the grift that it is. Another example of hysterical science used to justify failed practices. For example, in the Harvard Business Reviews meta study of nearly a thousand trainings across 800 companies, diversity training simply didn't work. It's tempting to believe that there's a psychological fix, especially in that fix dovetales with your ideology, but it's wrong. and real science has shown it to be. So the actual implementation of diversity programs have had horrific outcomes. I had a whole section of had to excise talk about the corruption of the military, the American government and and American companies all under the guise of inclusion and diversity. Academically, it's been a

091disaster. There are three incidents just from recent weeks. the brutality of all American swimmer Riley Gains two weeks ago, the shoutown of SUNY Albany of Ian Hayworth three weeks ago, both in the name of diversity and equity. And on March 9th, the notorious incident at Stanford Law School, student hecklers rudely prevented federal federal judge Kyle Duncan from speaking. And worse, Stanford dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion publicly chastised the judge with a prepared steel. There are countless other in incidents of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion at work. And we all know we all know that insanity is rightly defined as repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. Why? Why would things be any different here at Park City High School and school district? The infrastructure. The board statement introducing the policy enumerates alarming action

092steps. hiring consultants, teacher trainers, new hires based on identity, not merit, new hires to support implementation. Each of these demand valuable, scarce resources, including time, money, mental bandwidth, office space, and other infrastructure, all of which rob students and educators of things they need to get our kids actually educated. Contrary to our mission and vision, administrative bloat and academia is quite well documented. I'm sure I don't have to lecture you on that. Don't exacerbated it as this proposal would. Across the US each year, hundreds hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on diversity programs in US colleges and and universities. In Utah alone, that figure is 11 million. How much will this initiative cost? How long will it be in place? How much will it grow? Or is this equity policy, as is the case literally

093everywhere we know of, a perpetual motion machine, a black hole for resources? The quota system cited are alarming as well. On what identities will hiring be based? Race, gender, something else. It is absolutely terrifying to us that you might put people in the classroom who aren't the very very best in order to meet misguided good intentions. Lastly, we all we know it's well intention. You good people with great intentions. Yet, the premise is based on junk science. The empirical results of diversity, equity, and inclusion are widely seen to be undesirable or worse. I'm going to close with a quote from Wall Street Journal's Ger Gerard Baker. We are in the grip of an ideology that disown our genius, denounces our success, disdains merit, elevates victimhood, embraces societal self-loathing, and enforces it all in a web

094of exclusionary authoritarian rules. Let's not surrender our schools to this, ladies and gentlemen. the so-called to the so-called equity, diversity, and inclusion. We oppose this policy and ask that it be removed from this consideration. Thank you very much. Uh J. I know I know all of you up here, but I don't know everybody in the room. Um my name is Dr. Jake Joe. This is my 10th year in the Park City School District. Um I'm also the co-president of parks education association. Um and so I wanted to uh just offer some uh feedback on the policy. I was a member of the policy writing committee. Um the new policy was constructed you know through a thorough process over the last six months but more than that over the last number of years includes students u

095many of whom are in the room tonight some will speak in this public comment uh teachers and admin um and committee members and I'm appreciative of everybody who is up here sharing their thoughts tonight. I'd like to establish what equity means in tangible terms to offer some perspective on the issues and data points the committee considered when drafting policy. I think the debate on equity tends to ob obuscate the nuts and bolts of why it's important and some examples kind of demonstrate this point. Uh students being able to read and write is an equity issue. However, many of our multilingual learners enter the district and enrolled in ESL classes. They then remain in those classes for years, sometimes through all their K12 education. That is an equity issue that we must solve. The policy would

096put funding and accountability behind solving this problem and others related to opportunity gaps across our student population. Seeking a diverse faculty is an equity issue. It's important for students of color to see leaders and role models look like them. But it's just as important that all students have teachers from variety of social and cultural backgrounds. Young boys benefit from male elementary teachers who can show them masculinity, compassionate, and nurturing are not mutually exclusive traits. LGBTQ youth benefit from having quer teachers as role models who show the possibilities of being an adult professional in the LGBTQ community. All students benefit from a diverse faculty. This policy would ask us to look seriously at recruitment and how we can recruit and support our own diverse teaching staff. We'll be a stronger district with more diverse employees. This

097is true of all organizations, not just school districts. The policy allows us to ascertain the barriers to success and address those barriers while also identifying what we're already doing well so we can scale, reproduce, and institutionalize those successes. Some programs in Park City are worth celebrating like Dream Big and PCHS, which has made massive strides in academic performance, college readiness, and college performance for first generation students. The equity policy provides guarantee that programs like this which are directly doing the equity work that they're funded institutionally supported and studied to further scale to the different grade levels. Districts function best when strong policy and procedure allow regular people to do extraordinary work every day. At the moment, too much of our extraordinary work is the result of chance, individual action, and exceptional people. As a result,

098our overall outcomes and opportunities are too inequitable, too inconsistent, and too reliant on individual efforts. The policy supports a framework for doing equity right, studying what's working, what is not, and continuing to achieve the district mission we created in 2017. Thanks for your time. Okay, next up is Jose Hernandez Bellow. Hi. Um, I'm Jose Hernandez. I'm a senior at the high school and I've been and I'm also president of Latinos in Action. I've been um a member of the Park City community since I was born, my whole life. Um I've lived here with I've been here for 18 years. Um and my mom has been here for over 20. I would like to start by saying thank you for hearing us out and I would like to share with you the perspective of a student

099who has gone through the school system K through 12. I am not here to share with you a political perspective. I am here to share with you the perspective of an actual student who has chosen to show up today and has lived through these you know different experiences. I would like to start by saying that Park City School District has definitely seen a lot of improvement. I think our graduation rates for Latin Latinx students are way higher than they used to be and for that I am very proud. I will say that in my experience growing up with English Spanish learning well English has always been the second language but despite that students in LA have to work harder and despite of that we are succeeding and we are members of community and we are

100making an impact and we are contributing. I would like to share a little bit about the mission of Latinos in action which is to ensure for sure a diverse and equitable you know environment for all the students. I don't just represent minor minoritized students. I represent a lot of students who are coming together you know for a more equitable future. I recall a specific event when I was in preschool, kindergarten. Um, I was jumping up and down to reach the counter and I kept telling my teacher po. And I think I spent a good 15 minutes over there trying to reach what I was trying to reach, which was a straw. My teacher definitely struggled a bit to understand that I was trying to ask for a straw. You know, events like that. I will

101say at least follow us every single day. Every day when I wake up and I go to Park City School District, I will say I feel proud that our graduation rates are higher, that much, many more Latinx students, minority students are taking AP classes and succeeding in them. But I don't feel safe. Just the other day we were having, you know, a spirit week and we were priorit we were showcasing the cultures of all the students at our high school. And one of our LIA students heard um a student yell, targeted at her, yell, "I hate all Mexicans." That incident right there definitely put that student in a sense of shock. There was a lot of fear and not knowing what to do, not knowing what adult to turn to. And even now, a couple

102months later, that sticks with me. You know, part of the reason that I joined this equity policy task force was to share the experience of the students who are, you know, going to Park City High School every day who have to live through this every single day. And I just think it's unfair. It's unfair to have to work and put in more hours, you know, to succeed in a school district, in a school system that sadly wasn't built for our success. And it really wasn't. So that is a little bit of my experience and I can guarantee you that there are no experiences similar to that one school district. I know for a fact that everyone sitting behind me wearing the jackets has experienced something similar. And I think that this policy will ensure that

103we have somebody to turn to, that we have somebody to ask for help because as students, as children, we don't always know who to turn to. And sometimes the adults in the room aren't helpful. Incidents like that have happened before and they will continue to happen sadly. And before you know a lot wasn't done and I think that this policy ensures responsibility with that I would like to end by saying that please when you are taking this into consideration see this policy as way more than just politics. Minoritized students aren't a law. We aren't a bill. We are people and we show up to school every day and we want to make an impact and we want to grow as people. We are way more than just politics. Thank you. Um, Jessica. Hi everyone. Hi.

104My name is Jessica. I'm a junior at the high school and I am vice president of Latinos in action this year. Um, I'd also like to say I'm in support of the policy and I do want to mention the importance of feeling seen within Park City Schools. As a Latina student in a predominantly white community, when I was younger, I felt like I was not receiving the support I needed from the school district emotionally and academic. But it is through inclusive classroom discussions and initiatives that I was able to find my place and voice in the community. It is for this reason that I think it's very important to establish policies that promise support and guidance to future generations of students of color so that they can grow their to their fullest potential academically, professionally,

105and personally. Thank you for coming. Livingston, a parent of six Park City High School students. Five have already graduated, one's senior. So, thank you for this opportunity to speak. Um, this policy took a lot of work. Thank you. um it takes a lot of work to get things done and write things like that. But I actually feel like these basic ideas have actually been written down for us in our mission statement already. Although policy 106 is more detailed in its programming, the language and goals of both documents match up quite well. So just let me show you what I mean. When we look at the document, academic success promises developing the potential of every student through datadriven and best learning practices to be academically successful and prepared for life beyond graduation. Providing safe, optimal, and

106equitable learning environments for all students and staff. Sounds familiar. Excellent personnel create a culture of respect for all employees through recruiting, retaining, and providing professional development while building the district's leadership capacity. So, we're missing the diversity piece. But I'm very confident that Dr. Gild Day that's on her mind. So, no matter if we have this or not, that's going to happen. And it has been happening appreciatively. Finally, I'll touch on community alliances, which I'm floored there are so many. Partner with families in the community for the general well-being and education of our collective student base while including a culture of inclusiveness, and respect for the rich diversity of our community. Respect for diversity, equitable learning environments, culture of inclusiveness for all. Sounds familiar? Over the years, I've been aware of many district actions meant to

107help students see their highest potential. Have we been perfect? Apparently not. And I appreciate the words that you shared today. Really touches my heart. Um, but will this policy really affect measurable change? That's what I want to know. Are we really going to see what we want through this? Let's hear what Harvard Business um business review says about the hundreds of DEI programs they've studied. They say, and of course this was company uh company context, but I believe that the human nature piece is a natural transfer. They say it shouldn't be surprising that most diversity programs are increasing diversity. Are we promising those students behind us something we cannot deliver? That's what I want to know. It's fine and nice to say it, but are we promising something we cannot deliver? Here, firms have long

108relied on diversity training to reduce bias. Yet, laboratory studies show that this kind of force feeding can activate bias rather than stamp it out. And better results are found when they ease up on the control tactics. This is our ease up right here. This is our control tactics. When we seek outcomes through equity lens, which is mandated here in this current draft, it can have negative unintended con consequences such as resentment and division. Those kids already have some division in their life. I'm worried that this policy will actually do the opposite and create even more division. Something that needs to be think thought about. Are things perfect now? Apparently not as has been so beautifully spoken. But I submit that we would be better off to set aside DEI ideals that are just not being

109pro proven effective. They're not being found. effective all across the country and stick with teaching kindness with a laser focus on academic excellence. This is what we can offer them. We need to offer them the academic excellence. The best gift any child diverse or not can receive. Okay, Angela Marquetti. Hi, thank you. Good evening. My name is Angela Marquetti. I have two students in the school district. My oldest graduated last year from a high school nearly five years ago. We we relocated to Park City from Southern California and one of the state's highest performing public school districts. There are several reasons why we left, but one of the main reasons was to escape what was happening in the public schools there. Your proposed equity policy is a repeat of what I saw brewing years before

110we finally left California. Lots of warm and fuzzy wording, ideas that feel good on paper, but with lofty ambitions that can in no way be achieved. It divided our small town community, pitting parents against each other, which trickled down to the students. Kids started obsessing over skin color and building hierarchies of identities. Our rankings dropped. The focus on academics felt almost secondary. Your mission and vision mentions your commitment to helping students reach their full academic potential. Our district, state, and national rankings have fallen in the past few years. What studies have you examined that prove a policy such as this will improve student success? I've read many articles and about states and university systems abandoning such policies because they actually do not change academic outcomes and add nothing but financial bloat. What is the impetus

111for this policy? Is this something required by the accreditation accredation body? How much will these initiatives cost and how will you measure the policy's success? The best future for our students is one that teaches them academic excellence and inspires unity, not one that constant constantly drills into them all the ways they are different or oppressed or privileged. Provide an equal opportunity for learning. Yes, absolutely. But reinforce to them that their own merit is what will lead to a successful outcome. As for the social aspect of public education, your policy need not be any more complicated than the golden rule. Those students who violate it should accept responsibility for their own actions and face real consequences. Last June, my daughter graduated from TCHS with a 4.1 GPA, got many scholarships, etc. We never received letters or

112emails recognizing her academic achievements throughout her high school years. Nothing on the graduation brochure or during the ceremony acknowledged the school's highest achievers. There seems to be no effort from the district to incentivize its students to strive to excel academically. Is this because of a fear of not appearing inclusive? Speaking of inclusivity, why have you failed to include political viewpoint in your definition of diversity? That very obvious omission in itself makes one suspicious of this policy and it seems a lot of the writers are here. So that would be a great question to answer. Lastly, as a mama with two sons still in your district, I urge you to focus on academic excellence as a measure of student, teacher, and district success. Thank you. I'm Tracy Sher. So before I came here, I asked myself

113why did this matter to teachers and in my case as an interventionist. So, I have been an educator for almost 19 years. And I've taught in three different schools, kindergarten through 8th grade, in special education, as a classroom teacher, um, as a reading specialist, um, as an ESL coordinator, and now as an interventionist. And it's important to note that I spent the last four and a half years leaning into the very uncomfortable conversation of education, equity, and cultural diversity as I pursued a dual master's degree in this. This is my second year in the school district and here is what I've witnessed. We are doing a lot of things right here. Um we have a ton of resources as Dr. Jill mentioned today. We have so many great community partnerships um that we can utilize

114all the time to help our kids grow. Our kids are growing academically. They're learning. I feel safe. I think most of most students although all students feel safe, right? um the general population students are growing. However, as the general population of students grow, the gap for our diverse and often marginalized population of students, those gaps widen. Let me explain. teachers are kind of floundering a bit um because many teachers feel a bit illquipped to meet the needs of our fastest growing population of students. Our fastest growing population of students are students that are multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Those are students with neurodeivergent needs that we didn't learn about when we received our bachelor's degrees in education. When I say illequipped, I mean we lack the very basics, those policies and procedures that serve

115our greatest needs. The Park City School District has been leading the way for the last few years, gathering stakeholders, teachers like myself, community members, administrators in creating a group of people to make changes. Part of those changes was to form a committee to make policies to start making changes that create equitable change. We need this policy in place so that we address address the inequities throughout our district and our schools so that we can move toward creating procedures to support all students as a means to create lifelong learners and access for all of our students with high standards and personalized learning. Um, I heard something from one of my favorite authors, Lennin Doyle, and she said that in the 1960s only 26% of people agreed with Dr. King. Do you know what that percentage is

116today? It's 95%. What side of history do we want to be on? Our students have come here today, they they've told us that they're struggling. This is not about politics, okay? Our teachers are struggling. The policies are going to set the stage for us to do the right thing in the classrooms. We're all here because of them. We care and we want to make the changes that we need to to do the right thing. Thank you. All right. Um, thank you all for coming sharing your thoughts. And this is the beginning of a ongoing discussion. Okay. Yes. The the two uh public forums. First one is April 25th at 10 o'clock here at the district office. The second is May 2nd in Ecker Hill. Um there's two sessions, one in English 5:30 and one in

117Spanish at 6:30. Um there's also um an ability to provide feedback, I believe, online. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, perfect. Um, yeah, I would just say uh, you know, it's an interesting conversation. I think um, you know, there's certainly an aspect of it that is political and then there's human aspect of it. And, um, you know, the one thing I'd say is like in the time that that I've been on the board and certainly predating me, um, equity has always been a part of what we do here at this district. And I think everyone probably agrees that, you know, we all want the best outcomes for all students. I don't think anyone here disagrees with that. And um it's about, I think, making everyone heard. And this is a somewhat uncomfortable and scary topic on, you

118know, for everyone involved. And I think we need to be conscious of that and and respectful of it and people's differences. you know, I think we're I look forward to continuing the conversation as a community. I think it's definitely an important one. So, thanks everyone. Um I'll I'll entertain a motion to adjourn until um our next Well, actually, we're probably going to have to have catch up on comp um once we get back to the associations. Um so, we're going to meet a close session, I would think. Um um maybe either next week or the week after uh maybe the first week of May is to give a little bit of time. Um what's people's availability that we um we could either do a morning one I think afternoon is easier but um I know

119for am during school hours is the best maybe like an hour an hour's worth of time okay so maybe first you can't do the first they change their options Wednesday. What about Thursday? Uh after you can do it. Yeah, let me just check. I can do that. All right. So, let's let's schedule that in Thursday the 4th at 11 for close session and we'll send that out to the end as well. Um so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn until Thursday the 4th at 11 a.m. for a close session discussing issues. I made a motion to adjourn until May. All right. All in favor? I Don't worry, send it to their