SLCSD Board Meeting, June 2, 2026 5:30 PM

001You're welcome. All right. Thank you everybody for joining us. Today is June 2nd, 20126. We are here for the purposes of a public school district board business meeting. Uh the board does have a need to enter a closed executive session and I'll entertain a motion now. On June 2nd, 2026, I move that the board enter close session to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual and pending or reasonably in imminent litigation. >> I second. >> We got a motion, a second on the table. Any discussion to the motion? All right, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Williams. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. Brian Jensen, yes. M >> Lumble, yes. So, >> that

002motion passes. Thank you, board. We will reconvene at 5:30. Thank you. last year. It's a strong Chinese population. I mean when I say fully Jamaican accent All the Hey, come here. All right. Good evening everybody and uh thank you for rejoining us while the board conducted a close session. Um today again is June 2nd, 2026. We are here for the purposes of a public board business meeting. Um, I do just want to make a couple of announcements and welcomes to our association presidents who are with us this evening. For buildings and grounds, we have Sam Gilchrist. For child nutrition, we have President Tanya Slaughter as part of our classified association groups. For SLEA, we have President Mike Harmon and Vice President Chelsea A. Costa, who I'm sure is watching. Oh, she's in Australia. Never mind.

003She might not be watching, but nonetheless, uh, Mike, thank you for being here as always. um for SLAsa, the Salt Lake Association of School Administrators. They're represented by Tom Luthie, who I believe is with us this evening. Hey Tom, thank you for joining us. Um we'll go ahead and move on to the pledge of allegiance, and I'll go ahead and lead us in the pledge this evening. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you for joining me in the pledge. Um we don't have any announcements or um celebrations. Uh, but we will now move on to our consent agenda and I'll entertain a motion. >> I make a motion

004to approve the consent agenda as posted. >> I second. >> Got a motion in a second. Any discussion to the motion? >> Um, >> I got Annie, Amanda, and then Brian. Um yeah, I just sorry I just wanted to um state that this policy subcommittee met last week and we discussed numerous policies which are on the consent agenda. Um and the ones that have been placed on there have no substantive change. Um but there are some that will be on the discussion agenda that will but the subcommittee will be reviewing and updating administrative procedures for some of those policies. Um and once those changes have been made, we will forward those to the entire board. >> Amanda, >> I just wanted to um point out on the strong solutions that one it stated that basketball

005court additions 258 K. Um, I got clarification that so when I'm hearing addition, I Isaac communicated that it wasn't a building that they're building. It was basketball courts, exterior basketball courts that they're improving so that the Bryant Middle School has a better outside basketball court setup. So, I just wanted to share that out to the community. >> Thank you, Amanda. I mean, Brian, sorry, you just spoke. I just want to make sure that when you look at the board minutes, it's referring to January 26. There's a typographical error there for the May 5th meeting. It should be May 5th. So, we need to make a correction in that. >> Motion >> if you'd like as I'll I'll pull my motion and do a correction. sure everybody's made their comments. >> Okay. Well, I think when

006you pull it, it ends the discussion. So, if you want to restate your motion. >> Sure. So, pulling the motion, I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of the meeting minutes that um to correct the date to >> May 5th. >> Thank you. To May 5th, 2026. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> I second. >> Any further discussion? All right, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member F Jefferson. >> Charlotte F Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Armano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> That motion passes. Thank you, board, and thank you for catching that that typo there, Brian. Um, before we move on to our request to

007speak, um, I forgot to acknowledge a couple of items of business. Um the first being that we have a time certain public comment uh for our board budget at 7 p.m. Um so folks will be um have the opportunity to come up and and say their their feedback or comments regarding the budget that we're we're talking about and have been talking about the last few meetings. And I also want to acknowledge that Superintendent Grant is joining us remotely today. Um she is in route to um Indianapolis as she's been invited to participate in a career and technical education task force um as charged by the governor and is joined with um Abby Cox, Lieutenant Governor, Dra Henderson, um Lincoln Filmore, just to name a few, Rich Nye, who's the the governor's adviser on education. So

008we're really excited that she's representing um Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City School District, and the state of Utah in that capacity. um tomorrow. So, thank you Dr. Grant for doing that. Uh we will now move on to our request to speak. Um there is a little speaker guideline comment to for public comment that the board has asked me to read uh before each public comment period. Uh the board enjoys the opportunity to hear from the public during the comment portion of its meetings. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to remind you of our board rules governing your comments. The total time reserved for public comment is not to exceed 15 minutes with all speakers or groups limited to three minutes. The board will not allow public comments during board meetings that

009are slanderous, obscene, or otherwise violate state or federal law. Employees and or their representatives may not use the public comment period to address issues that should be raised through existing formal communication channels or establish grievance or negotiation procedures. I'd also like to explain that unless the speaker's topic is already on the agenda, state law prohibits the board from taking action on items raised during the public comment period. However, if it seems appropriate to the circumstances, I may direct district staff to follow up with a speaker on a topic discussed. Our first speaker this evening is Rhett Jeepson. >> Thank you. Salt Lake City bans artificial turf in residences due to the known heat island effects and the shedding of microplastics and forever chemicals into our soil and waterways. Despite this, the district's position has been

010that we can do whatever we want, installing acres of turf with rubber infill in our backyards without considering the impacts. Unfortunately, the district did not provide you, the board, with sufficient or material information about the impacts of artificial turf pri prior to the approval of the Rosland Heights facility. The original layout was switched and presented to you last minute at a board meeting. The additional warm-up field adjacent to our homes was not part of the original design. Mr. Ael told us they had not done any environmental impacts assessments, sustainability, or risk analysis with respect to the turf. Instead, they relied primarily on a sales brochure from the manufacturer. He claimed that artificial turf is now industry standard. of the 541 acres of property that he oversees. I asked how many other turf installations are adjacent

011to homes, none was his response. Turf next to residences is not industry standard. It's a mistake. He said that they reduce the percentage of asphalt on the property using terms like hardscape and landscape. And now in your own planning documents, you add a third category, artificial turf. Let's call it what it is. There are now far more heating surfaces than before. Do your own search. ask which are the hottest of the property surfaces when temperatures are above 90 degrees. Far and away, it's artificial turf, ranging from 150 to 198 degrees. Turf is much hotter than asphalt. Imagine walking down an industrial alley surrounded by tire manufacturing. It smells like that in our yard every day, and it's especially awful when there is a breeze. It gets worse as it gets hotter. What chemicals am I

012breathing in? The legal definition of nuisance in Utah includes anything that is injurious to health, offensive to the senses, or interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property. Check. Check. Check. The district denies they've created a nuisance. And yet they tell us they are running the water cannons on the plastic and rubber for our benefit. Why would they need to cool the field for us if they also claim that the turf doesn't create a heat island? While the lack of any kind of prior risk assessment is infuriating, we are focused on the current impacts and solutions. The excessive heat rippling off the turf like a convection oven into our yard is damaging our garden and trees and stressing our pets. Would you want to live next door to these toxic conditions? As public officials,

013this is the sort of thing that should make you feel outraged as much as we are. We think the public will also be outraged if steps aren't taken to resolve the issues. We're asking for solutions. Blasting the turf with water in our arid climate throughout the day or planting a few shrubs won't fix the problem or make the neighbors go away. We need long-term solutions to mitigate the heat, the smell, and the fugitive lights. This is what we live with every day. You board members oversee the district. We have tried to work with the district staff to no avail. Staff take their directions from you. Please work with us to discuss solutions. At a minimum, remove the unnecessary warm-up field and replace it with real landscaping. Thank you. Thank you, Rhett. Our next speaker this

014evening is Willow Gypson. >> Good evening, board members. I've spent 20 years creating a beautiful haven for my family, friends, and neighbors in my yard. This field is ruining it. Last summer, one of our main shade trees was the proverbial canary in a coal mine. Its cracked bark and weeping soores, proof of the heat plume pouring off the field. Two certified arborists visited to diagnose our severely heat stressed trees. This is how the heat island works. One of them said, "First, it weakens and kills the plants on the edges, and then increasingly the hot, dry, inhospitable desert conditions spread outwards." One of the best parts of Utah weather is the summer evenings. Cool enough to need a sweatshirt on the grass after 9:00 p.m. This is not the case in my yard anymore. At 11

015p.m., my yard is still hot because artificial turf absorbs the sun's heat all day and radiates it back long after the sun down sun goes down. The heat plume carries with it a noxious chemical plume of carcinogens and other toxins evaporating from the tons of crumb rubber infill. Have you smelled a hot artificial turf field? It smells awful. And now that is the smell of my yard. The jasmine, honeysuckle, and gardinas I grow. I can't smell them in my yard over the rubber fumes. As our board representative Amanda Longwell said last summer when she visit visited, "It smells like a tire store." Spring through fall, heat and fumes engulf our yard. They came in through second story windows and open doors. It's worst on hot, sunny days, but they're even present on cooler, overcast, and

016even rainy days. Who doesn't love the smell of a good spring or summer rain? I haven't been able to smell enjoy that smell in my yard for the last year. Last week, on a beautiful afternoon, I was outside weeding and planting when the fumes became so offensive and irritating that I had to quit. My headache, my eyes, and throat were burning. These are well-known effects of these chemicals, and mostly, I just couldn't stand the strong obnoxious smell anymore. I tried moving to my front yard, but the breeze was carrying the fumes there, too. So, I gave up and went inside. I'd been outside for only 45 minutes. On a perfect spring day, I couldn't comfortably work outside for a an hour in my own yard. Some of you may think Rhett and I are exaggerating

017these impacts. I assure you, we are not. I invite you to come and visit our yard for yourself. Come see, sme smell, and feel for yourself what it's like. Now, trust me, I would not be spending my time on this if this weren't real. We are not anti-ports. We love sports. We understand Highland needs a field for soccer and lacrosse during the rebuild. But instead of building the field they needed, the district decided to build two. The secondary field, the part Mr. Ael calls the warm-up field, was added late in the planning process. It is not needed for Highland team practices or games. Instead, it functions as a public park. This extraneous field doubles the heat and fume impacts to our property. When we met with Dr. grant last. We urged her to find scientifically

018based solutions which will actually eliminate the heat and fume impacts. We appreciate the district's acknowledgement that the field's impacts are serious and need addressing. We want to state that any solution but should be judged by one standard. Does it eliminate the excessive heat and fume impacts on neighboring properties? If it does not, it is not an adequate solution regardless of cost, complexity, or appearance. The heat of science and emissions and smart planning in general both point towards controlling the source of a problem rather than attempting increasingly expensive mitigation measures around it. We are here to ask you to intercede to protect the rights of your constituents to ensure fairness and justice. We respect the athletes need for affiliate and as district stakeholders, we ask for you to respect our ability to enjoy our own property.

019Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker this evening is James Martin. Um he is unavailable to be here but has asked uh Dr. Sandra Buendia to read his statement on his behalf. >> Thanks Dr. >> And I'm certainly going to run out of time. Okay. Sorry. I worked Oh, are we ready? I worked for Salt Lake City School District from 2008 until 2018. I was an award-winning principal who worked at every level of the organization from teacher to assistant principal to principal to principal supervisor. I loved my time here until I didn't recognize Salt Lake City School District any longer. The recent article in the Tribune titled East High principal to step down continuing trend of leadership shakeups at Salt Lake City high schools. I've heard from board members that the article has mistakes

020and that they can uh they can't discuss personnel matters. I'm sure you will say to yourselves, "Well, James doesn't understand." Believe me, I understand completely. This type of disciplinary overreach has been happening since I was in Salt Lake City School District and began began after Muel Withers left. Dr. Withers did a good job managing his staff. He he was in charge. When I posted this Tribune article on Facebook, a former employee of Salt Lake said, "Everyone knows who is in charge of the district, and it's not the superintendent." Of course, I'm not going to name names, but that would be of course that would be a breach of protocol for public comment. But I think the board knows who this being is. This behavior has to end. People are afraid to come to work in

021the district. You are losing access to some of the best educators because of your reputation. I'm not sure what HR manual you are all operating out of. It is, sorry, lost my track. It is never best practice to put someone on administrative leave when they aren't a danger to the student. Supervisors should be conducting investigations and attempting to address them at the lowest level. They should be working with educators to turn mistakes into learning opportunities rather than life and death situations. I can assure you that when the district comes into a space asking questions, it changes how people answer and you aren't getting the most accurate investigative results, especially given the fact that the accused is on administrative leave. It advances the notion of guiltiness even before any decision has been made. I hope people

022continue to run against you so that the board represents a group that is about children and not about the political whims of a particular unhinged unhinged staff member. Of course, I'd prefer that you step up and do what is right. >> Thank you, Dr. Quindia. All right, that concludes our request to speak. Uh we will now move on to our reports agenda. The first item we have on the reports agenda is the construction update. Uh, BA Kley, uh, do you know who's going to be presenting that update this evening? >> Yes. Uh, we've got, uh, Clayton Thomas, right? >> Um, Isaac's out of town this week. So, this is Clayton. He's kind of oversees our our construction projects. Uh, and so he's going to give us the update. >> Thank you, Clayton. It's nice to

023meet you. >> It's good to meet you, too. Uh, thank you. Uh, and good evening, board members. um grateful for the opportunity to to present to you tonight. Um just a wanted to give a few updates with regards to each of the high school construction projects that are that are moving forward as we speak. First of all, uh with the West High School, um we're making extreme progress there. Uh staying on schedule and on hopefully on budget. I think overall we're on budget and at to this point. Um there are a lot of footings going down. I don't know if you've had an opportunity to drive by, but there are some very large footings that are going down. In fact, uh this week we have a 275 yard footing that is going in. Um so,

024a lot of concrete and a lot of metal and uh getting getting the the buildings going and moving forward. Uh there are casting um beds that are being laid to uh set up for the uh build of the tiltup panels um as well. So, that work is moving forward. We also have a lot of um metal inbeds and other materials that are starting to arrive on site. Um most of the work that's being done right now is still site work and and footing work that's being done there at the high school. Underground plumbing and electrical uh started at the end of the week last week. So we got a lot of that going into as well. Uh conduits. Uh with regards to the public utilities, um all of the work down 300 West has been

025completed as far as conduits uh go, uh Rocky Mountain, we're working closely with Rocky Mountain Power and and other communications companies to make sure that they get their lines pulled through the conduit, etc. So that work continues. Uh we're working with Inbridge Gas as well, uh to ensure that uh that all of their lines are going in properly and and being taken care of. We're grateful to uh Salt Lake City public works and and public utilities for all of their cooperation and help in in getting uh easements etc uh passed through as well. So um overall the project's looking great. Um I'd like to if I can um I'd like to just share a couple of pictures with regards to each of these projects. So let me get that set up here real quick. Hopefully

026it won't take but a minute just to kind of give you an idea. Um believe I may need to enlist Sam's help here, but we'll see if we can get the get these to come up. I think that will do it. We'll check and see. Should be good. Push me. Okay, while we're working on getting that up, I'll go ahead and give you an update on Highland uh high school and kind of where we're at there. Um public utility work is started um on that site. We've also uh started footing work um on the east side of the building. Um and a lot of site work is happening. some big holes being dug on the especially on the east or on the west side of the of the campus. Um we also have uh have

027uh torn down of course the a couple of the signs. The marquee sign will go down by the end of the week this week. Um we have uh salvaged the acrylic signs on that particular marquee that were on the top part of the marquee, if you will. Um and uh they're potentially looking to use those as an auction item uh for the for the uh um anyway to be used as an auction item at some point each of those signs and all. So so there is some work uh being done to kind of salvage some of the great materials there. We we are also uh that we were able to salvage the uh letters from the the big brick sign that was there and those will go into the new high school um in certain

028location uh to be determined um which is great. Um also uh they started digging the orchestra the new orchestra pit as of this last week too as well. So there's a nice big hole on the east side as well and um so there's a lot of great work happening on that project as well. And uh so let's go ahead and go if you'll go to the third slide. So this is just some pictures of of the uh west project that's going forth. As I mentioned the casting beds, you'll notice in the bottom left corner that is uh basically the forms that are being set up for the tiltup walls. So they actually pour those walls in place and then they will tilt them up. Um, so, uh, so the casting bed is basically the floor,

029I guess you could say, of of that and then they take and pour the concrete and then tilt them up. So, it's a kind of a unique process. Um, if you get a chance to see when they start tilting them up, it's pretty amazing. So, um, and then just some of the rebar, you'll notice some of the rebar that's going in the the top right is actually a picture of the the footing that's going to be done this Friday. That's the 275 yards. So, uh, some big rebar. um number 11 inch and 38 rebar that's going in there. It's a lot of metal. A lot of metal, but uh it's great to see the project progressing and moving forward. Um we are on track as I mentioned on that one. So, and then if you

030go two slides over on the Highland project, we got a couple of aerial shots. You'll see on the east and the west side down on the lower pictures some of the footing work. We also got the cooling tower moved over. Uh that was actually done during uh the l later latter weeks of school. So fortunately um we got it done when uh when it was cool still. I'm glad we weren't doing it this week. So overall uh the cooling towers in place and uh things are going well there. We also tore out the the the playground went out uh this week on that particular site along the library side if you will and and so work continues to move forward there. So, any questions? >> First, >> no questions. Just seeing the Highland High School.

031I haven't seen it this week, but I've got a kid that attends there, so I got to see the progress. And yeah, >> last week whenever we were doing the last little few days of school, seeing the uh footings getting put in place and everything. It's definitely exciting to see that progress. >> Yeah. >> And my daughter thinks that I know all the details because she messaged me last week. Why aren't the water working? I'm like, I don't know. >> Oh, no. That's the first I've heard about the water. >> Well, obviously school's out. >> Yeah, school's out now. So, yeah, >> it's wonderful. You're doing two massive projects >> and seeing them go into place really brings awareness to how large they really are. >> They are. Yeah, they're very large. One comment just

032on Highland uh too as well. We have been working very closely with Sugar House Park, Salt Lake City, and Salt Lake County departments um for the Sugar House Park portion of that. Um we are uh we are of course they're they're building and using uh some of the south end of the campus there uh by that pavilion in the park. Um we've got all those approvals through. Construction will start on that area around the 18th of the month. And uh also the softball field, the the temporary softball field or I should say the permanent softball field that's going to be there after we're done with Highland after Highland uses it is also starting in about two and a half weeks as well. So >> other questions see thank you so much. >> Thank you. Appreciate

033your time. >> Appreciate it. >> I will move on to our second report agenda item which is proposal to add truency gold goal. Um, I believe Dr. Connley is presenting on this this evening. Superintendent Grant, is there anything that you wanted to highlight before uh Dr. Connley gets started? >> Take it away, Dr. >> Hi. >> Sorry. New process. Well, while Sam gets the presentation going, thank you for having me here tonight. Again, I'm here on the board's request to add a truency metric to our strategic plan until um 2029. And just to cover a little bit of what chronic absenteeism is first, because that is the big board priority. Um, chronic absenteeism is missing 10% of the school year um or more for any reason. And our students can miss school for a number

034of reasons including bar barriers, aversion, disengagement, and misconceptions about school. Um, chronic absenteeism includes excused and unexcused absences and all of the absences impact their learning. And what we're trying to do is reduce chronic absenteeism from 28% which is where we started when the strategic plan went into place to 10% by the end of 2029. Um at the end of this year we ended at 24.8% with chronic absenteeism. So we are decreasing slowly but surely. But we are implementing things that will um be solid and will continue to support our students throughout the years. Um as far as truency is concerned, you can go to the next slide Sam please. Truy in our district is at 34% right now and that means students who have missed school for 5 days or more and those are

035unexcused absences and those absences have not been reported by parents as excused. So they haven't called the school within a week to say we are excusing our children for the following reasons. So if they're not excused then you become truent. Um we send family notifications daily through parent square currently. Next year we're going to start using EDIA to inform families when their students are not in class and we actually started that pilot over at Rose Park and West High at the end of the school year. And we're excited about it for next year because the response rate was pretty good. Um, so we want to continue communicating with our families, letting them know when their students are absent so they can report why their students are absent. Um, and that includes excuse or I apologize,

036absences without a valid excuse for at least half of the school day. That's what makes you truent. Um, so the next slide, Sam, please. We want to improve our data and communication. So through EDIA and any other forms that our families communicate with us, we want to be able to capture absence reasons that are creating the barriers for students to come to school. We want to strengthen family communication and collaboration. We know that our families know their children best and we want to support any way that we can in bringing them to school and keeping them engaged. And then we want to continue to use the data that we get to address and continue um to decrease absenteeism in our district. We have a referral process for our students who are truent. So at five

037days of truencies, we start with the notifications, truency notifications and then we also start implementing tiered systems of support. So that can look like attendance contracts, mentoring, um tutoring, uh support or referrals to mental health services, so on and so forth. But what we want to make sure is that all schools have tier one supports in place that help all students feel welcome and safe at school and that their instruction is engaging in their classrooms every single day. And then we continue with those tiered supports. You can go to the next slide Sam. So these are some of the things that we do in our schools and it's not limited to only these things but we implement the school interventions. Then we move on to working with our community. So, community services like the juvenile

038justice and youth services, we can refer students to that. That is something that we are going to continue to work with our administrators so that they're aware that these services are in place and that they can refer students to these services. We also have pre-court truency mediation. That's something that's offered by Utah courts. So, a third party can come in and work with schools and students and families to support um uh plans that they can put in place to help kids come to school. And then the last thing that we want is to refer students to court, but they have to meet a certain threshold. So, they have to have at least 40 truencies and we need to have had interventions in place that have been logged um throughout the time the time limit. So

039what we are proposing to add to the strategic plan would be to reduce the percent of students who are truent with five or more unexcused absences from 34.4% by 8 percentage points each year. Any questions? >> Ashley, Amanda, and Brian. >> Annie and Charlotte. >> So we've talked about this in several meetings. Um and one of the things we talked about was that district administrators were not referring truent students as allowed after um changes to the law post pandemic. >> And so it's my understanding from the superintendent that staff are working on changes to administrative procedures, also called APS, >> to address more consistent referral of truency. Um, and so I'm curious if there's a reason why we're recommending this change before the new APs are implemented because my big concern is that truency will

040go down, of course, if people continue to decline to report it. And actually, I would expect that if we implement the APs, we'll see a jump in truency because we will actually be reporting truent students, which we're not commonly doing now. So, how will this align with changes to administrative procedures, which is maybe a question for the superintendent. So we do ensure that families are notified. So we do send the citations, right? The 5, 10, 15 day notices are the citations that we send out. And then we want to work with our families and students to put plans in place because sending the notifications one thing, but how do we get them to come to school consistently? That's what we work on and we want to make sure that we have a plan and process

041in place to support students. Does that answer your question, board member Anderson? >> Um, sort of. I think the thing I'm still unclear about is if administrative procedures are in the process of being changed, >> why would we change the language of the plan before we know what the new procedures are? >> Does that make sense? Like when will those procedures be changed and how would these decisions be aligned? >> Okay. Um, >> does that make sense? >> Yes. I'm going to defer to our legal counsel, but >> Dr. Dr. Grant also >> or Dr. Grant. Yeah, >> Dr. Grant. >> I can't see. >> Yes. that the change to the strategic plan would be quite simple because what we're doing is just adding a couple of bits of language. We're not talking about process

042in the strategic plan. So that it would be in there as um truency and chronic absenteeism and then a metric around truency that we would be aiming for. So when we go to the administrative procedures, we won't be um putting in much that's too complicated because we already do track truency. We have those metrics. We've just not put it in the strategic plan. >> That's that's interesting to me. Um just because in the last study session we had on this topic we talked about how administrators did not understand they could refer truency universally across the district and there was a lot of confusion around it >> and some of that confusion centered on a training that's no longer used for a former agreement called the Winston agreement. >> So I guess what I would say

043is how would changing this goal change the day-to-day practice of administrators like have we really clarified the process of try referral for them? >> That's something that we can continue to clarify. So in our new administrative institute, we can touch on that and um we're also developing an attendance guide book and all of these things can be more clarified on there so that people know these are the steps that we need to follow. >> And to that end, I think one of the things that's the largest source of confusion is what will happen districtwide for students who are chronically truent inside of the school building. So, I know there are a lot of um parents who receive a message that their student is chronically absent and or truent and they say, "Actually, my students at

044school all day. You can see right here on my phone, they're in the school building from 8 to 3:15." >> Right? >> And so, how are we addressing students who are chronically truent inside of school but just not going to class? >> Every school approaches it differently. So administrators have the flexibility to implement practices that have been evidencebased and researchbased that support our students. So we're going to continue to work with them to ensure that our students get into the classrooms and not just to the school building. >> That's really helpful. I'm excited that you added um the county juvenile justice resources. I know people don't want to consider referring to juvenile justice beyond a last resort because it's problematic in various ways, but I do think largely as a district we are underestimating how

045many students fail to attend class every day and stay in school in the school building. And it indicates that one, you feel safe at school, and that is good. But if you're not getting to class, we really have a serious problem. And I think that allowing people to have flexible practices is really great. I'd like to see if we make this part of the strategic plan that we have some consistent practices that help administrators to feel confident in how to address this. I think it's a really significant problem. So, I would support adding that change in the future um when we discuss this again and I just think the more we see what those APS are and how this would realistically be implemented, it's nice to say that we're going to do this, but I

046think until we give administrators the support to do it, you know, it's really difficult. Obviously, we all do. So, I think that's really helpful. Thank you so much. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Amanda. >> Um, first off, I just wanted to say thank you for looking at adding this because like the um board priorities, it says reduce chronic absenteeism from 28% to 10%. Um, and truency is a piece of that. whenever a student's not um intentionally basically coming to school then that um there are potentially outlier things that need to be resolved. So we're actually trying to work it look more intentionally of the whole child. Um I do have a child that would be considered chronically absent because of medical appointments. It's nothing the district can fix, >> right? But the truency piece, um,

047I do have to say last year at my child's high school, um, there was the, I think, the ability for parents to respond by a text. Um, and this year there wasn't. And so it was a lot more um, arduous to >> um, call in and report or email. And so, to be honest, the last week of school, my daughter probably was considered truent because I was tapped out. >> I hear you. that's going to be fixed next year with EDIA. So, you'll continue to receive those text messages now. >> Yeah. And that's great because if you give the people the ability to report easily, then it could obviously contribute to a truency dropping because then people are communicating what's going on instead of just >> being too busy to do so. So, just thank

048you again because I think we really need to concentrate on our true students. >> Absolutely. Thanks. >> Thanks, Amanda. I've got Brian and then Annie. Early on in your comments, you were talking about, and I might not be using the correct term, but like a valid excuse. Can you explain to us what that would be? >> Any of those excuses where we say a student is sick or they have a medical appointment or a mental health reason. Um, the rodeo, there's a couple of others that are coming up with the new law changes that will be in place. I think it's important for people to hear what those are. >> Thank you, Brian. I've got Annie and then Charlotte. >> Yeah. I just wanted to um dig a little bit deeper like Ashley was saying

049about uh students who are truent but in the building and I think that's pretty common for secondary schools. Um, I know that it's been a huge burden for staff, including administrators, SRO's, and teachers to feel like they have to hunt down students to get them to class. And it it um, you know, it it makes their lives a lot harder. So, um, I had emailed you about what other districts are doing and if there are any strategies that we know. Oh, I know you're trying to not have punitive measures, but I've heard of other districts having different approaches that are really effective. Um, and even at my time at East, when East was the number one truent school in the state, which it still may be, um, there was a period of time where they

050warned students ahead of time saying there will be officers citing you with truency and you'll have to go to court. Um, and as soon as one of my friends got that, we all went straight to class. No one wanted that. So, I understand that we're obviously trying to do multi- um tier support, but I also am wondering what type of um actual measures with teeth can be in enacted to make a change because I think oftentimes um if there's not really a consequence, things aren't going to change. So, as a district, we try to ensure that we're addressing the barriers as to why students are not coming to school rather than putting a punitive approach to citing them with a ticket or charging them money for not being in class. Um, there's a number of

051things that that we don't want to do. We want our students to come to school and not feel like, oh, now you're going to do all of these other things, then I'm not even going to try to get there. So, we're trying to work with our administrators and put things in place that can support their student population at each of their schools that's reflective of of the students that they have. >> Can you give an example of what would be put in place? >> Yeah. Like welcoming schools, making sure that every teacher, every student has an adult that they can trust, that they feel good with, that they feel welcome and seen. That's the number one thing that supports our students and coming to school. And after that, it's a strong tier one instruction that's

052relevant to their lives and the things that they're experiencing. If we put those two things in place and we continue to work with our administrators and our teachers to make sure that students have what they need, then we're also going to see a decrease um in truency and chronic absenteeism. >> Yeah, I understand that. I I do think there's always going to be a level of um students that even if you create a welcoming environment, they still can be lingering in the halls, hiding in the bathrooms, walking off school property. >> So, I just want to ensure that this is actually a attainable goal that if we're just saying, "Oh, yeah, we're going to be more welcoming," or, "Oh, we'll refer them better." That's not super tangible in my mind of an actual change that's

053going to be made. >> Well, and and to your point as well, having more communication with our families, like this new EDIA app that we will be introducing, if families know, okay, my student is not in class and I need to talk to my student about what's going on, they can open up and tell the parent, I'm not going to this class for this reason. So that's something that we can address again with the school administration so that they can put things in place to support our students. >> Okay. Um just my last thing is I would encourage recommend that there's a little bit more of an open dialogue with administrators because a lot of administrators I've spoken to feel like they're they are given very few tools >> to actually decrease truency. And in

054fact, just saying being more welcoming is not actually a real concrete tool. So like Ashley was saying, increasing referral process, maybe periodically announcing to students that you could be cited by police if you are not in class or leaving campus. you know, I think there there is use for those things, not to be punitive, but to show that there are serious consequences and actually encourage um because I think that would actually make a difference. So, that's all. >> Yeah. In addition to that, I'd like to say um being proactive about informing our families about what the process is before the school year begins to let them know this is when a student becomes truent. This is what truency means. If you miss school, you need to contact us. If your child is not in class,

055this is what occurs. So, teaching families and informing them of the procedures as well as our students also goes a long way and that's something that we'll continue to work on. >> Thank you, Annie. I've got Charlotte and then Brian. If nobody else is requested to speak, then we'll start you off with the second round. >> Thank you very much for the work on this. Um, I do agree that we need welcoming schools and we engaging curriculum and um and I but I really think that that family school collaboration piece is huge and I'm wondering if we could do well I just think it would be really good to maybe have a a town hall or a listening session invite families at where at schools where the attendance and the truency is high maybe have

056families come and that's the topic and you know I'm there are a lot of factors why why a student may not want to be in class I mean if we have cell phone you know rules where they can't use their cell phone in class would they I'm just thinking of my teenagers you know when they were teenagers they would want to go where they can use their phone or anyway there's just a lot of different reasons and maybe the parents the students but also admin you know giving them I mean they know their students well they know their building well I think all of that needs to be considered so thank you >> thank you Charlotte Bryce did you have okay Brian I will start round two with Yes, I just wanted to follow up

057on a couple of comments um by board member Anderson and Romano and Vive Jefferson. I guess um I'm looking at this as two pieces. I mean, there are when we're talking about truency, there are the middle school and high school students, but then there are the elementary students. That's right. >> Okay. Um, speaking to those um, high school students, I have heard from parents and when Ashley was referring to and Annie that there are consequences that this can be reported, I have heard from parents saying that is helpful because we are trying to get our children in class and they are having a difficult time And in some ways that supports parents in what they're trying to do. I'm not saying um that this is just this exerted punitive effort, but it is okay. There

058are qu consequences to your actions. Um to me that's helpful for parents when they're trying to respond to us. um engaging them and helping them get their students to class. The other piece though, and I'm speaking to this from my experience in the elementary schools, I have had children that have said to me, "Mr. Jensen, I really want to be in school and I don't have a way to get there. My parents aren't getting me to school. there needs to be accountability there and consequences as well. So I think that those we need to yes be welcoming and um be engaging but there are also there are consequences to your actions whether you're a student or whether you're a parent that's responsible for getting your child to class. Thank you Brian. We do send out

059compulsory education notifications as well to your point. >> Are there any other questions for Dr. Conley tonight? >> All right. Um I guess maybe just some next steps. Um obviously this is report so we're not making any decisions. Um but Dr. Grant um is there any questions that you have um so that we can prepare our next discussion um or whatever next steps you might recommend to us in this process? I think we're ready to make it part of the strategic plan. Um, and we can follow up. There has been training with administrators about what can be done about students in the hallways and the truency that happens within schools. We can make a note to spend even more time and emphasis on that this fall. and as we work through the district leadership committee

060meetings with principles to make sure they understand their options that way. Um other than that I think from the district side we're ready to move forward if the board would like to. Okay. When do you anticipate um this coming back to a board agenda Dr. Grant? Obviously, you got to get through the the the principal institute or the leadership institute first, but any sites on when we might see this again. >> Um, we could put it on discussion as soon as you'd like. >> Okay. Excellent. Well, my recommendation would be let's chat about it in the next board agenda setting and we can follow up with the board um at that time. Does that work for everybody? >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. >> Thank you, President. All right, our next um topic this evening is

061uh meeting student mental health needs and possible partnerships. Uh this was a request um from board member Charlotte Jefferson. Um I believe Mindy Hondell is here to present to the board on this topic. >> We're good at that. Thank you so much. tonight. Can you hear me? >> Not yet. >> That mic working? Okay. >> All right. Thank you. I'll scoot that back a little bit. Okay. Um, again, thank you for having us here tonight to discuss district mental health supports. My name is Mindy Hdall. I'm the student services director. I work with counselors and social workers and McKini Vento, um, nurses. Uh, we have a huge student support department. And today again, we're here to talk about mental health supports. And this is Melissa Larson. She is our lead social worker. And um she'll

062help me if I'm forgetting anything on any of the slides. Um I know you've all had a chance to look at the slides. So we'll just dive right in and then at the end answer any questions that have come up. >> Just slightly closer. >> Is that better? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um we'll start with state legislation. Um one of the first things um that happened recently was in 2025 our state legislators passed um a house bill that was specifically around mental health services in schools. It was House Bill 281. And House Bill 281 defined school-based mental health therapy as a restricted service that can only be provided by individuals with a the appropriate Doppelo license um which is different from an educator school counseling license um that school counselors hold. USB created this slide

063to explain the difference and the crossover for counselors and social workers. both can teach mental health skills and strategies. Um they can teach coping uh regulation strategies, stress management strategies, but only social workers can provide restricted mental health therapy. Their licenses allow them to assess, diagnose, and create treatment plans for students in schools. Um so we have a few slides just making sure we're reiterating the key differences. Um, school counseling services are provided daily. We have a counselor in every school and they provide the daily schoolwide support, building student skills, supporting well-being through school climate, MTSS, PBIS, SEAL counselors are preventative while restricted services, social work services, and mental health therapy focus on assessment and treatment of identified mental health needs. And they do that through targeted interventions and referrals. And um social workers share

064time at multiple schools. As students uh as as student services as a student services team, we clearly defined counseling and mental health tiers of support. We outlined universal whole school targeted some students and intensive a few students um type interventions. Our multi-tiered support model ensures students receive the appropriate level of mental health and social emotional supportbased services um to meet their individual needs. So again, counselors provide the daily schoolwide support, building student skills and supporting well-being, while social workers conduct a professional evaluation of mental health with standards generally recognized as mental health therapy. They establish a diagnosis of prescribing a plan for the prevention or treatment with the application of general of established and generally recognized methods for mental health support therapy things like CBT and DBT and they use the DSM to um diagnose.

065Um also House Bill 281 indicated that mental health therapy groups are not allowed. Um group mental health therapy provided in schools cannot be provided by a contracted service provider either um or a hired uh district social worker. Um students are not sharing and not processing their needs in front of other students. Even if they h all have a a similar need, maybe all students have anxiety. We can have a group around anxiety, but it can be totally skill-based. It wouldn't be this is what causes me anxiety. This is how I process and deal with anxiety. We're not talking about students um histories, personal histories in in group settings or teaching skills. Um, and that one of the last things that House Bill 281 did was that it required a separate consent form for mental health

066therapy. And part of that um, parent permission included an opportunity for parents to restrict any topics. They can let a social worker know you cannot talk about this with my student if they bring it up. Um, and it also implemented 24-hour notification. So, anytime a social worker meets with a student within 24 hours, they are required to have a contact with a parent unless a parent opts for a different notification um service pattern. So, we have worked to establish and maintain clear and coordinated supports for students in schools via these tiered supports. Um to ensure clarity and coordination of services, we provide a lot of staff training. The social workers and the counselors and our community providers work together to present in staff meetings. We teach the differences between counselors and social workers. We teach

067staff how to refer or how to reach out if they have a concern about a student. We have mental health teams that provide ongoing communication among the stakeholders of the schools. Admin, counselors, um teachers and our partners can are part of these mental health teams. Um and also at those meetings, we might be referring to a partner. They can all discuss student needs and then they can um decide who the most rep appropriate person is. And it may be the school counselor. It may be a skill group or some seal lessons. Or it may be, hey, this is a student that we really want to support. They're having suicide ideation or a higher level of services required. Okay. And next we have the social work process. And we have an expert social worker here, Melissa.

068So, um, she's going to walk through the process with us. >> I don't know if I'm an expert, but I'll do my best. Um, so like Mindy said, each school has a a school-based mental health meeting that has the admin counselor and the social worker and any other parties that might be part of the school giving services. So referrals often come through that meeting. Sometimes it's just an administrator, sometimes it's a teacher, sometimes it's the counselor, but the presentation we give at the start of the year just reminds everyone of the process. So anytime a referral comes, we're not turning it away, but we are reminding them like, "Okay, I'll take it to this person. We'll staff it." Um so once we get the referral um which includes the school having made contact with the

069family to let them know that this referral came up and make sure that the family is interested in the referral. Then they expect a call from the social worker um where we go over our process, our role, what to expect, scheduling the intake and if there's and answer any questions that they might have. Then from there we schedule the intake which is when we go over the the new consent form with them. um and go through our intake questionnaire, learn more about the family, the background, what they're seeing, what the school's seeing, um as well, and then the the reason for referral and if any conversations they may have had with their student about um mental health support after the and then navigating um I feel like it's luckily for me, but the HB281, one

070of the tricky parts was what parents may choose to restrict. And so the exception being like anything safety related is not can't be restricted. And so we do explain that to families because it does come up and or if they say that they do want certain things restricted, we just have a conversation around what that means and what it might look like and encourage them to have that conversation with their student as well. Um once we then we coordinate with their student teacher to find a regular time to meet with students. It varies in the middle school and the in the high school as well, but there is a general regular weekly plan to meet with students for 30 to 45 minutes. Um the initial few sessions are gathering more information from the student to

071make a plan for what their goals are because often students goals are different than the parents goals or the caregivers or the teachers goals. And so combining all the things that we're hearing and making a plan for how to support them. Um student sessions last anywhere from 8 to 12 sessions. If it makes sense for them to continue because there's a barrier to accessing community supports then we will extend that and have that discussion with families as well. Sometimes families will choose to they are able to navigate a community resource and so we'll help with the transition and the referral and like phase ourselves out versus just closing them out. So nobody is ever like oh you're at 12 you're closed. like we work with the families to continue and make sure it's appropriate for

072them. Um and then we have an internal process if we are going to continue services after 12 to make sure it's like clinically appropriate for them to continue and not just um sometimes students just really like meeting with us and that's really awesome but then we want to make sure it's appropriate for them to continue meeting with us and so we have that conversation with students and their parents as well and and teachers. And then we have our final session which is a we call it a graduation instead of a discharge because it's sounds funner. And then we're celebrating their progress and and sometimes parents will come to those sessions as well and then talk about what they enjoyed, what they learned, what maybe they didn't like, what parts were hard and meeting with parents.

073Um the benefit of the HB281 is that it did increase communication with families and through parent square being able to give them updates that way and schedule phone calls has been really great as well. But then we still will do u phone calls to check in and make plans for next steps for them and just make ourselves available for any questions that they might have. And then the group process is similar. So like following mental health screening or groups that are identified, we'll contact families and make sure that's something they're interested in. Go through the they don't do an intake, but they do go through a consent process and then we organize the groups which are again more skill-based. Awesome. Thank you. All right. And um so next we have our social work data. Um

074this year social workers served uh more students than ever before. We had 19 social workers and they um served more than 1300 students this year through both individualized sessions and preventative skill building groups. We are so grateful to the board for rein the reinstatement of the three social workers um at the high schools. Um we're really excited to track progress and to continue the support work that has been started there. Um it uh just makes such a difference um to each of the schools and the school's communities and we're we're incredibly grateful for that support. So thank you very much. Um the number I did have a question um about what will um board member Romano asked a question about um if what will happen when if we're reduced by three. How many fewer students

075might be served? Each social worker serves the the team goal is everyone serves at a minimum 50. We have social workers who double that goal. We have social workers who exceed that goal in in different ways. Um when the mental health teams are really strong at schools and the collaboration is really strong um social workers and counselors working together, social workers working um with classroom, social workers even working with after school and working before school. That really increases the number of students who might receive um strategic not necessarily the therapeutic services but some of those um skilluing services. So, um each year social workers share with each other about how they're navigating those um situations and how they increase those numbers at um all of their schools. Um but across the board this year with

07619 social workers, we have served the most um students. You can see in prior years there were a few years where um and actually Melissa was also part of this um in 2022 23 where we had 493 um so students served in groups. Do you want to talk about what you guys did that year? Um, yes. I used to be at Bryant Middle. I know it's not called Bryant, but Bryant. Um, and with an intern, we partnered with techniques for tough times to do like a it wasn't um utilizing skills from the DBT and skills book. Um, so really the lessons were focused on like mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal skills, and distress tolerance um with techn tough times. So we came in once a week for each quarter. the admin at that time um wanted

077us to do all of seventh grade and so that was the plan. We did seventh grade for the whole school year and then um our a previous social worker that's no longer on our team also continued that and added two of the eighth grade classes. So half of eighth grade also got this um those skills and it was pretty fun to see all the kids having the conversations and doing like a whole classroom. um I don't have a teaching background so that was a learning curve for me but the class management and the conversations that were had were very uh like specific to the students because they were the ones that came up with the examples. So, um yeah, and that techniques for tough times class um was a great um support that we used

078to have with gang prevention and intervention and it was um it was just a perfect fit for the support and the counselor was actually a part-time teacher that year. So, all of the stars aligned for um those numbers to work out. Um next we have um um some of our sharp survey data trends. when we wrote our federal grant um that is supporting it was $3 million to support um social workers over the next several years. Um one of the data points we used as part of our grant application was the sharp data. Um at the time we only had the 2023 data. So our goal and and and really because it's a population level, you know, for kids who have experience, we were really hesitant to shoot too high, we thought, gosh, maybe 1%,

079maybe 3%, what happens if we don't meet it? Will we still get our funding? So um we estimated and we we submitted 1% and we did receive the grant with that 1%. So we were thrilled when we got our 2027 or 2025 um data that for every point that we had written into the grant application um we had far exceeded that 1%. So in um the overall trend was for students who reported suicidal ideiation we had um a dis uh decrease of about 6%. And then also for suicide planning, that's that next level where you know a student is serious. They're not just kind of arbitrarily thinking about it. They're thinking about a way about a time about a suicide note. They're they're planning. Um and that also was reduced by about 6% as well.

080And then um also uh self-reported suicide attempts from students um also decreased from 9.7 um to 5.4 for which was a 4.3% reduction. Um and I also received a question about you know can we attribute this reduction to social workers and because the survey is anonymous we can't identify who among the students that took the survey received social work services. So there is not like a direct correlation um by any means, but we do um believe that it is like a a reasonable connection and um and luckily the federal department of ed also agreed that it would be an okay metric for our federal grant. And in the end, we're excited that students are reporting um less thoughts. And I think across the board, the more social workers are in school, the more you know,

081Dne at East did tons of presentations to he participated in assemblies. He participated he went into different classrooms and talked to students about services that are available. Um we have lots of social workers who do different things and do parent training nights and do um other types of activities and even our mental health screening that we do at the beginning of the year. even um parents who have declined that screening have come back and as kids are excuse me as kids are talking about the screening or as it's a topic of conversation we've had parents who have come back and said hey can I didn't participate in screening but can we screen my student um so I think just the the conversation also and the fact that services are there has expanded and also nationally

082like our national consciousness is since COVID has increased dramatically about mental health. So, it's hard to draw a direct line, but I do think it's a nice piece of the pie. >> Can I add something? >> Yes, please. >> Um, just to speak about the screening from being in the school, the other benefit of the screening is that we because we do share schools, it is harder for us to get integrated into the school community. But then with our reduced school load, it's made it a lot easier to like be more in the schools and then in the screening and in the classrooms and being able to like just have more face to face time with the students in the way that's many counselors do. Um but the other cool part about screening is that

083it does um destigmatize mental health and like kids are like I want to go too and take me or what like I want to answer these questions also. And so we either will if they we'll just inc we explain who has permission who doesn't have permission but sometimes a lot of them will just go home and ask for permission and then their parents will call and say my my student called me to do this like can you tell me more and then we do it and then it just opens up a lot of conversations around mental health and concerns and we all you know like anxiety for example is on a spectrum so we all have some level of anxiety and sometimes it's helpful and sometimes it's not and so none of it means that

084anyone's getting diagnosed or that they need to get a service and we explain that to families as well and then they can decide what next steps happen based on the screener results too. >> Yeah, >> I think that part's really fun and >> and also students have been identified through screening that were not on anybody's radar. They were more silent sufferers. They had excellent grades. They were they had no behavior issues. they had um nothing on the surface that indicated that they had some real suicide ideation. So all of those things combined I think have um just really been more than just very beneficial to all of our students. Um and now we're leading into the partner section is Mr. Yakia is here. Would you like to come up? Um together we um we do

085not do this work in isolation. and we rely on a multitude of community partners. Um, and we are those are organized. We're so supported by the Salt Lake Education Foundation. Um, and we collaborate in a lot of ways and really our partners add that next level of tier to our to our service model. um partners have established an um give us another opportunity for students to receive an appropriate level of support if um services are beyond what social work sessions can do. We have such amazing partners in the University of Utah and Odyssey House in our CLC's and um we and we really that coordinated effort um is super important. Um we have um Odyssey House. We've we've actually the district has partnered with Odyssey House for more than 25 years with different um programs

086and in their day treatment and in their residential treatment when I was at Horizonte. We also partnered we also partnered with Odyssey House um at that point. But um you can see um I think at the time that I sent this out, I didn't have the totals for this year from Odyssey House, but this year they supported 127 students. They are in five of our schools at East Highland, Horizonte, Park View, and Bachmann and over the years um have have supported about a hundred students if not more every year. And then this next slide is uh James Yus' slide. So maybe we could do you want to talk about that? >> I think I've shared this at the last meeting. >> Before you get started, I just want to let the group and the board

087know that we're 10 minutes out from our time certain at seven. So if I cut you off, that's the reason. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That's great. Um, I'll just keep it short. I think this information is valuable and as Mindy's mentioned, uh, we've already seen 41 over 4,100 visits at the clinic at West. Uh, we did, uh, what's exciting right now, we're in the process of planning with uh, also the building of the new uh, Highland Clinic. We're in preparation of how are we going to do the wraparound services for the next three years and what types of plans we need to uh plan we need to have in place so to ensure that as we transition into also Highland we have uh a clear uh uh time frame for how we're going to

088address mental health. So um the Liberty Elementary Clinic and the Rose Park clinic the uh they are incredible. Uh when we met a week ago with Inter Mountain Healthcare, uh they're open to growth and expansion as it relates to providing support for families uh K8 really and the elementary is they're they're very focused with our clinics there at the CLC's. They want to make sure that students and families are supported and um there are ongoing conversations with that and I know board member Longwell was a part of that conversation a week ago which really uh we're creating a plan where we're in which will support all of our social workers as well uh and implementing some of the work that they're doing. >> Um yeah the nice thing with the Rose Park clinic the difference

089is of course with the West High Clinic is that it is solely for students. at the Liberty and the Rose Park clinics um community can access services, kids can access um health and mental health services there. They are great partners especially during the summer um for ongoing services if families would like to continue services throughout the summer. Um we're we're grateful James and I um Mr. Yapius and I talk all a lot about future partnerships. We are approached often by different agencies who would like to also provide services in our schools. The partners that we do have serve every student. There are many partners that would like to come in and build CHIP and bill Medicaid, but that we have a significant number of students who don't have access to CHIP or Medicaid. And our

090partners have different grants and different funding that make sure that there's no student that is turned away. And so um that's why we have not brought on four or five or six or seven different agencies because there's typically some sort of barrier to services for some level of student. So as far as payment and I would also just say the difference between there was a question too about you know is it is it more costefficient to use uh community partners and I would just say the difference with community partners and employees is that employees have that direct access. They can collaborate with teachers and administrators um and parents right there in the school. HIPPA and FURPA and those types of things um can sometimes be a barrier for an outside social worker to see is

091what they're doing um translating into all of these different areas. We're working through that. We want to make sure that all of our partners can collaborate with us, but um we our partners enhance so much of what we do. Um but I would encourage that they're not a substitute for the the district social workers. Um, and the mental health funding, of course, it comes from federal, state, and district funding. Um, and we have, you know, thank you again for restoring those high school FTE. Um, and we believe that there's just such a huge student impact um with better continuity of care and um earlier support for students and support across uh multiple sites. Um, social workers are the reason some students feel connected to school. They are the reason some students attend. They are the

092one caring adult in some situations for students. They're the adult in the school that really knows the student and knows the student's name. Um, they support students being ready to learn. They ultimately support literacy. They support and because they're part of the student services team, social workers hear about the college and career pathways. So when they're talking with a student, they can say, "Oh, hey, you want to be a teacher? there's this great scholarship for that. You want to, you know, be, you're into welding, did you know that there's this really cool intern thing or that we, you know, partner with Stoddler Rail? They're also a partner in that with all of the one-on-one sessions that they can provide with students. So, they really do support our uh district goals. And there even on the

093Highland High website, I think it was like slide eight, there was a graduate hugging one of our social workers and it was just um lovely and it just shows the connection. Um and I think that pretty much says the same thing I'm trying to finish. So I leave time for questions. >> Charlotte and then Ashley and Amanda. >> I do too, but I >> thank you very much for all of this information and I I I'm glad that we were able to um to to uh bring or keep those three social worker positions um or create them actually right create the funding find the funding for it. Um, I am wondering if a decrease in social workers would equal a decrease in screening our, you know, in would that decrease our ability to screen as

094many students? >> We've talked about that. Um, we feel like we're kind of we're in our third or fourth year of screening and so um, they're well equipped. I do think we pro maybe fewer students at each school, a social worker that might be serving three schools. Um, yes. I mean, the answer is most likely a little bit. We'll do our best um and see what we can accomplish. We team really well together. Um, but that that is a possibility. >> Okay. So a decrease those three less that are cut will you you you can say that it would decrease the number of students that are screened for mental health >> potentially because instead of a social worker having two schools now they have three schools and so to get uh you know the work

095of do they have permission do like and we have to do that within the first eight weeks of school. Um and like I said they're be they get better and better at it every year. um we'll know, we have the numbers, we'll be able to compare at the um by next October, we would know October, November if there was a decrease. >> Okay. >> Or if we were able to squeeze it all in. >> And do you have um data or numbers on the amount of students or fam parents that are opting out of of that survey at the beginning of the year survey? we get um through SAM and registration we would be able to look and see um and probably fashion some sort of a report about how many did provide permission and

096how many did not. >> Okay, that would be good to know. >> Okay. >> Um I am wondering if um you you mentioned in the presentation that social workers share time at different schools. >> Yes. Not all though, right? Or are are all of them shared at different schools? >> The only ones who will not be um is East, West, and Highland because they have such huge student populations. The rest of the populations are divided to be somewhat equal to that. But the middle schools usually have a feeder elementary um as well. So they usually like Glendale also serves uh the social worker at Glendel also serves Mountain View. Um the Northwest social worker also serves Rose Park and that's a nice continuum of care um because they'll know kids from elementary or they'll know

097families and then um kids may resurface or they you know they can see them as and how they've progressed. >> Okay. And that that makes sense that the high schools have have a full-time I mean a social worker, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Um >> Horizonte will share with um an elementary. Okay. Um, >> hey Charlotte, before you ask, we are probably 30 seconds away from seven. >> Um, do you mind holding on to that question and um, when my clock turns seven and you hear my smashing pumpkins alarm, you'll know that it's time. There it is. Okay. Um, we are now at 7 o'clock. Um, you learned a lot about me obviously in that short little stint there. Uh but nonetheless um it is time for our public comment on the 2026 27 budget.

098Um this is our opportunity to hear from the public your input on the 2026 27 budget that the board has been discussing um for the last number of meetings. Um the rules uh that govern our public comments at the beginning in our request to speak portion of the meeting um still apply here uh three minutes um to each individual that would like to speak. Uh so we will go ahead and that up. Um I believe there's a signup sheet um here on the table um for folks to sign their name and any other pertinent information. Is there anybody here to speak to the budget? Dr. Bundia. Thank you. Sorry, this is taking a minute. >> It's all right. Take your time. All right. You were elected by your constituents to prioritize the education, well-being, and

099success of students while serving as responsible stewards of public funds. A series of your decisions call into question your credibility as representatives of your respective communities. On January 9th, 2024, the B board voted four to three to close four elementary schools due to declining enrollment and concerns about the district's ability to sustain operational cost. Then just over a year later on March 4th, 2025, the board voted 5 to1 to approve a district reorganization plan that provided one to twole promotions for existing district level administrators, increase the number of district level administrative positions and salaries. This raises an important question. How can the district justify expanding administrative expenditures while simultaneously considering cuts to personnel who provide direct services to students and families? The proposed elimination of any number of social worker positions is deeply concerning. Social

100workers play a critical role in supporting students mental health, attendance, family engagement, and overwell overall well-being. These are not peripheral services. as they are essential to student success. I respectfully urge the board to conduct a thorough review of district level administrative spending before reducing services that directly impact students and schools. Our students, families, educators, and community deserve a budget that reflects student centered priorities. I strongly encourage you to reject the proposed 2026 27 budget in its current form. preserve all social worker positions and protect the rec the direct services that students and families rely on every day. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Wendy. >> Is there anybody else here to speak to the budget president Mike Harmon. Thank you. >> Good evening. On behalf of SLE, I appreciate the support of the board in

101approving the tenative agreement. Um we were disappointed however that the board chose not to go through the truth and taxation process. Um a 1.5% increase was was tough for teachers. Um especially given the the cost factors that are happening inflationary for all of us. Um but we support the plan of looking for efficiencies. Um even small cost I think can save a lot of money over time. So we'll we'll be part of that and help find those efficiencies. Um I am concerned about the plan to approve the budget tonight. I think that is the plan anyway. Um so my understanding is at this point you accepted all the tenative agreements. Um but there is still the agreement of the of the business administrator and the last goround that individual received a substantial increase much higher

102than any other employee groups. And so with you approving a budget tonight without that com that contract being approved. I am concerned about that process. So I would encourage you to get that process completed approve a pro approve his contract and then approve a budget. Thank you. >> Thank you Mike. Oh, Mike, don't forget to sign it, please. Thank you. Is there anybody else here to speak um in the public comment portion regarding the 2026 27 budget? Just give it one more minute. Last call. We just got a few more seconds. When my clock hits 706, we'll go ahead and conclude. That concludes our public comment portion for the 2026 27 budget. Thank you both Dr. Bundia and Selia President Mike Carman for speaking to the budget this evening. Uh we'll get back to our

103uh Q&A. uh with Mindy and Melissa. Charlotte, I believe you still have the floor. >> Okay. Um >> Okay. Let's see. Um are there some counselors that are also social workers or that have this that those credentials to be a social worker in the district? We um so back in the day and by I guess in the day that's probably two or three student services directors ago there the USB changed their rules around licensing and at one point especially in the secondary programs said um every there we will not accept social workers every anymore they have to have a school counseling license. So, a few were grandfathered in, many retired. Um, but there still are a few um at the elementary level. It's not as um as restrictive at the elementary level. They can be

104a school social worker functioning more as a school counselor. When they apply for the job, they're looking at a counselor job description. And so, they're not necessarily doing social work. They're functioning as a school counselor. And we do have three of those who have been grandfathered in um and have been and they are at elementary schools. >> They're grandfathered in, but we're not doing any >> their functioning their job duties are counseling. >> Counseling. >> Yeah. School counseling. >> So, they're not allowed to do social work. That's not part of their job descriptions, >> right? >> Okay. Um, and that was just a a decision that was made. >> It was more We would need I wonder if Logan could speak to it more. >> State law. >> It's state law. >> State law. >>

105Thanks for letting me come up. Um, no. recent state law, I believe it was two years ago, prohibits school counselors from performing certain duties. And so there has to be a delineation between what a the role of a school counselor does versus a um school social worker. Social workers being licensed um social workers are allowed to provide therapeutic services where school counselors are not. So there needs to be a a distinct difference between what they're allowed to do in their perspective roles. And so the counselors that Minnie is talking about that have um social work licenses, although they may be allowable to do that in their professional capacity, in their role as a school counselor, they're not allowed to perform the social work function if that makes sense. >> Because of the law. >> Yes.

106Okay, that's correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. >> Um I have Ashley and then Amanda and then Right. I realize it would be most prudent to move on after our time started to the discussion. So, I'll actually just say what my questions and concerns are and we can answer them offline because this is only a report. But I am curious um when we preserved the three high school social workers comprehensive high school social worker positions. Um it seems like there have been some human resources issues falling out from that where because they were mistakenly told there was no position when in fact the board had not been told those positions might be cut. Um it becomes confusing about how we're going to address their ability to stay in their school. So, I would just say

107it would be great if the board could following this meeting receive an update on how those human resources issues have been addressed. And the other um thing I'd like to address is that the same way federal grants expired that caused us to take the reallocation actions we took in the last meeting, we have another federal grant that will be expiring in four years, which funds five of our existing social workers. So I think we need to ensure that our business administrator is keeping us up to date on how these programs will be sustained while we also meet our objective of staying out of debt when those grants lapse. So rather than um belor the discussion as I know we want to move to the discussion agenda. I just think it would be great in the

108future to have an update on how are the human resources issues resolved so we know those social workers were able to be placed at their comprehensive high schools and also what will be the plan um in the next four years to sustainably fund the services that we've seen presented. Thanks. >> Thank you Ashley. I have Amanda next and then Annie and Brent. Um, few things. I I just wanted to point out how exciting it is that with the 19 social workers, how many students we were able to serve. It's fabulous. Um, we all know the need exists. Um, so just pass please pass on to that community, the social worker community a big gratitude and thanks for all the outreach that they've been doing. Um, a question regarding community health partners. Um, you know, James

109mentioned I had the privilege of being able to attend that initial meeting and discussion, but if you could elaborate on um what the interest is of our community partners in um expanding what they could potentially do to help us with our social worker need. So, we kind of do dove into that a little bit in that meeting with them. Um, so >> yeah, I would um best for James to come back up. I like he had mentioned, we are looking at Highland High School and East High School eventually. We'd like to expand to all of the schools with the West High Clinic. >> I I think first of all what we have to do is have a a clear idea and plan as far as what services they're providing. So we're mapping we're mapping out

110all the resources that each organization provides. community health centers, Inter Mountain Healthcare, U View Health, uh, Odyssey as well. And so, as we're mapping that out, we're taking a look at where the gray areas right now. The first meeting that took place was last week. Uh, and that was uh to ensure that we identify um the potential resources that could come could be coming in. For example, the University of Utah Health applied for a million-doll grant that potentially could help our special ed department. And so, we're looking we're working with Aaron Anderson on that aspect of it. And um which would include a halftime social worker through a grant as well. But there's still a lot of work to be done on that because anytime they write a grant, we still have to go through

111the process of uh a clear memorandum of understanding uh what our role will be, what the district's role will be and in certainly working with Christina to ensure that we're protecting our students with Furpa and HEPA as well the University of Utah side. uh other areas of concentration or discussion has been taking a look at Inter Mountain Healthcare. uh they do want to invest in in the district and they have been a a partner for 15 years and um they have already been working at the CLC's uh with providing services for mental health services for uh families and um those services also uh they want to expand to other locations but there's been conversations about teleaalth as well because um they do have the possibility to invest into that type of resource. But before we

112do any of those services, we have to ensure that we also consult with our legal and see whether or not we we can provide those uh opportunities for our students and families. Um in the last part, Odyssey has been interesting. Uh they've been as Mendy's mentioned a partner for 25 years. um they have the resources, they want to expand as well and provide uh resources in the Glendel area. And so we our first meeting it was exciting because towards the beginning of the meeting was more about the discussion of what's working not working and towards the end they basically uh talked about what can we do to support the district and our students here in the dis you know in Salt Lake and uh they were open to new ideas and that's where uh experts

113you know Mindy and the social workers will definitely contribute and I encourage you to continue to attend those meetings as well because your feedback is critical for us. Um but uh I think uh we will see well I I would love to provide some sort of a report probably next two months back to the board uh on this uh on the partnership side but that's for uh discussion for still for us to still have. So >> I have two more but I think I'm about out of time so I can save around two. >> I think you've still got some time. >> Okay. I'll just throw them out there and then you can answer them. Um, do we have social workers in all of our schools that have behavior units? And then are we looking

114at ways to break down the direct access barriers that you mentioned uh that our partner social workers have where district employee workers um do not have that direct access barrier so I don't run out of time. >> I can repeat if you need. >> Okay. No. Um on the um the question about sped social workers, sped does have a full-time social worker um and her name is Christine Kaine and that and as mental health is part of a student's IEP. She services those specific goals on the IEP. I think it looks a little bit different. Yeah. And it might be a behavioral goal. It might be a mental health goal. Would you do you have anything to add that Melissa pro provides a lot of support for Christine? >> Um So all the B every

115school has a social worker. The three that have the BTU have the sped social worker and so then she's only assigned to those three schools and only sees the students in the BTU. >> So the the general social worker is still assigned to that school. >> Yeah. >> But that the students with those IEPs have a specific social worker. >> And then you want me to repeat the last question? >> Yes. Um so are you looking so you mentioned that there are direct access barriers for the partner social workers where our district employee social workers do not have that direct access barrier. So, are we exploring ways to um reduce or eliminate those barriers? Like, for example, compensating the uh partner um social worker like I don't know just some extreme number out by $5

116a week so that they could be classified as a district employee to have the access to the direct access. like are there ideas turnurning to figure out how to break down those barriers so that that problem doesn't exist? >> I'd probably have to defer to HR regarding like how they could be set up in in terms of that idea. Um >> and we can explore it later but just planting that seed of >> we tried that I think we explored that a little bit with West. It's very complicated and I always defer to Logan for that. But um I think there anytime there's a such idea uh what we do is we we have a discussion we run by Logan and obviously our legal to give us some feedback and what are the potential complications

117with HIPPA and FURPA and all that. So the there's still more conversations to have, but if they do provide the funding, um again, it's soft money, but there are possibilities, but we would still have to go through that process. >> Thank you and thank you for your hard work. I'm excited about this potential expansion of the uh community partners. >> Thank you, Amanda. I have uh Annie next and then Brett. >> Yeah, I'll be brief um because I know we're ready to move on. I just had a question about how um during the screening process students are referred to in a district social worker versus with community partners, how those referrals work and are there times where um students are opting for a community partner like the west clinic might be the best example. Uh

118so part of it is is the meeting, part of it is like the case load sometimes. And I think each school that has a community partner will also talk about uh like backgrounds that they're more that they have more strength in serving. And so sometimes that's part of the conversation. I think with West, they tag team because West has also said that they have a short-term service. So sometimes they'll refer back to the social worker or the other way around. So then they're still getting support. When we have the conversation with parents, parents usually is who we we always defer to like what does a family want to do and what does the student want to do? And so if the family says they want to choose the they want to stay in the school,

119then that's the route. If they are comfortable going outside of the school, then we just explain and support them in that process and then that's the route. So it's like a everyone conversation. >> Okay. Um, I wonder if as community partnerships expand that becomes more of like a process or protocol that comes in place so that it makes sense of like who's going where. Yeah. There there the schools that have a partnership there there's like a flyer that we've made that explains the differences between in um the school social worker Odyssey House when when Valley used to be around Valley and I guess the clinic too. So then the parents kind of know exactly what they're getting and what to expect with each um whatever provider that they choose. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Our providers

120will want to bill. Our providers will want Medicare or you know CHIP Medicaid information and sometimes that can be a barrier to families to share that information. Um so but we do make them aware of what the process looks like whether it's a a partner or a schoolbased. >> Okay. Thanks. And then lastly, it sounds like James, you might be putting together a report in the future. Um, I'm just curious of cost savings that we've calculated from community partners versus internal. Obviously, they're very different, so it's hard to compare apples to oranges, but it would be interesting to see um how that partnership saves money or or whatever. Anyway, that's it. >> Yeah. Thank you, Brian. >> I appreciate board member Anderson trying to keep us to our agenda. So, I will ask a question

121and we can get the answer later as well based on your explanation and then uh Logan Hall's explanation as well about the social worker and the therapeutic services that they can provide as opposed to the counselors. Do we need to look at the ratio of counselors to social workers. Do we need to be looking at do we need more social workers and could we um address some of that by maybe we don't need counselors in every school? How how does that work? counselors have and I can share um links to their handbooks because that's I think a great way to see the differences in their job descriptions because they are very different and um the the social worker at the school every day is really working on a a lot of those whole school and

122tier 2 interventions where the social workers are really that tier three level. I don't um imagine school principles would I don't I don't believe that a social worker could take on the work of a counselor um and provide that same level of student services and then also we couldn't provide um those counselors can't provide those services. So they really do have distinct roles um that support the entire school. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions for folks on this topic? Round two. We'll start with you. >> Um, I think we have a lot of support for I think a lot of the board supports social workers and it sounds like Mindy, you do think that social workers, our social workers have that direct access. They have they're in the schools. They can they can

123they have those relationships. Um, so it's about the funding, you know, it's about funding these positions. And I know there's a bunch of different grants cobbled together to fund them. Um, is is is it hard? Is it difficult to get the grants? And is it um is it who is it that is responsible for getting these grants for the social worker positions in particular? >> Specific social work positions. Um I work with business administrator Ellen Kursley regarding those grants. Many of them are in the Utah grants system. And then we have different community grants and federal grants and um yeah we rally the team and start writing grants. We gather data. We um we write those grants ourselves. So >> and so is that an is that a difficult process that we would rather not

124do? I mean, is that what we're I mean, I know that >> the state and federal grants I'm I mean, I hate to be all but I've been doing it for a really long time. Um I at Horizonte I wrote adult grants, YIC grants. I'm really familiar with all of those state grants. Um so, um I was a high school English teacher. It is within my skill set to um write those grants and we've been very successful in attaining those grants. Um, so I mean is that I federal grants I think it probably took us two months. It I mean it was really intense. I had never written one before. >> Going through the process wasn't easy in any way. Um but it was well worth it. >> Well, thank you for your work on

125that. Um it is very I know what we're trying to avoid is having to cut positions when grants run out, >> right? >> So that's what we we need to avoid, right? >> Um I agree. And as even um at Horizonte, we had a school improvement grant that was $2 million. And really when I talked to um Mr. curiously about it. I don't want to not write grants because so many kids benefit for the time that we have them. There may be a sunset. We might not be able to continue the services, but the kids that are impacted while we do have the services. Um it it's worth it's worth that. It is it is a hardship. We try to be very upfront and say, "Hey, this is a grant-funded position. Um it may run

126out in five years." Um, but I wouldn't I mean obviously it would be great to not have to worry about the funding, but knowing that we're declining enrollment, knowing all of the different things that we face, um, it would be ideal to not be grant funded, but um, I'm willing to write the grants. So, and they do help. And for the kids that do have that access, um, it's great while they do have it. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Charlotte. Uh, seeing no other questions, we'll go ahead and move on to the discussion agenda. Um, our first item of business there is Oh, thank you, Mindy, Melissa, and James. >> Thank you. >> Um, the our first item on the agenda for discussion is the Salt Lake Center for Science Education building lease. And

127wouldn't you know it, Britney Pal is back. This is like your fifth meeting in a row. All right. Um, we'll go ahead and turn it over to DA Kley to introduce this along with Britney Pal, superintendent. >> So, just for some historic background, since uh the inception of the Slicky Charter School, they are using what was the old Northwest Middle School before we we bought the new one or we built the new one on its current site. Um, and so we have a lease agreement between the district and Slickixie of that kind of lays out the responsibilities of of each in maintaining that building. uh that lease is uh the current version of the lease expires on June 30th. So, we've been having discussion both last meeting and this meeting about um are there changes

128we want to recommend to that lease largely around the idea of so the lease doesn't we don't really charge Slickixie a lease amount a dollar amount like if if they're if they're an independent charter school and they're going out and they're getting a building they're either going to buy the building get a loan buy the building or pay somebody lease um because it was advantageous for the district at the time we had a building we was unused. We select had a need. So we we put those two together. Uh these years later as we look at that building and look at the ongoing maintenance cost uh and capital needs of that building. Um the the attachment to the agenda kind of shows some historical the first line some historical capital um expenditures that the district

129has paid for on that building. Uh we've got some big ones coming up with HVAC system renovation. Um so just looking at that looks in the last 10 years we've averaged a little over $300,000 a year of district funds to um maintain that building and that's per the lease. We have to maintain it that it's that it's functional. Um Slicky County does the little stuff with their funds. We do the big stuff with district capital funds. Um so we had this discussion last Tuesday in board finance committee meeting um about is there a proposal we would like to bring forth to um charge slickie a lease amount to help offset at least a portion of these capital needs that the district is paying for both now and into the future. Uh we discussed both um

130maybe a flat $50,000 a year. Uh also looked at a 1% of their expenditures which both of those come out very similar in in annual amount. Uh the attachment kind of shows how Slick's fund balance has been growing over the years. Um and then it shows that it this is not I want to clarify on the um attachment. It doesn't show a cumulative 10-year effect as if we had charged $50,000 a year on the fund balance. It just shows what would have happened each of those years to Slickixie's fund balance um had they had an additional $50,000 worth of expenditures. Um and most the only years they were negative is the years they were negative anyway. Um there were some specific spend down areas. Um so that's what that attachment uh does. So, I know

131board finance committee can talk about a little bit more, but we want to now have a full board discussion of is that a change we would like to to make to their lease agreement before we um create their new one starting July 1 um or leave it as is or do something uh totally different. So board member Roman. >> Yeah. I just had a question of how you came to that number of 50,000. If you could explain like the process and reasoning behind that. >> Right. So I think I discussed in the first meeting we can't charge Slickie either market rate or really what that building is going to cost. That we we our goal is not to bankrupt Slicky. it's to have them be successful and support them, but also offset some of the

132costs that the district is incurring on those buildings. So, just doing a couple different models of, you know, what what's an amount. It it 50,000 is really kind of maybe more token amount, but it is something. Um, so it was just modeling some different stuff. Um there's no specific calculation on how did I come up with 50 other than I looked at well what would 25,000 50,000 75,000 what would different models look like and what would different percentages look like. >> Okay. Um and seeing the total fund balance it looks um relatively robust. So, I'm just wondering given the districts um in in current state of financial affairs um why it wouldn't be higher. Obviously, I love Slicky. I want them to be able to use the building, but I'm just wondering um again kind

133of a little bit the logic. It sounds like 50 was like, "Oh, that makes sense." But it it would seem uh to me that there would be some sort of formula that would be in place because then in the future if we need to update the lease and costs increase as they always do, it would make sense for us to have a formula instead of just a random number. >> Yeah. Uh board member Romano, I hear what you're saying. One of the things um we asked Alan just to start with the recommendation. I think you get that. One of the things I was concerned about is charging them too much to start with. Um that was a very big concern for me especially because we haven't done this before. And so just going off of

134the recommendation that Mr. Kersley recommended, I really pushed to start low as opposed to that higher number that was a conver or a higher number that was a conversation that did happen in the the finance committee. So the the dollar amount is relatively low, but the percentage increase is like >> Yeah, I I see that. >> And you mentioned doing 1% of their annual revenue, 1% of their fund balance. What was that? >> 1% of their annual expenditures. >> Annual expenditures. Got it. And what would that be? It's similar to 50,000. >> Um so for last fiscal year, it would have been 46,000. >> Okay. Um, I I just am pushing this because as we've discussed with financial matters, having ratios and formulas in place are much more effective than just random choices and numbers.

135So, I would just highly encourage that this can be a formula that then is adjust adjusted, you know, with inflation or adjusted based on um building needs or, you know what I mean? so that it's not just some random number we throw out there. Um I don't know if Britney has anything to say about that, but >> uh I had a very similar question. So that's already been addressed in terms of like how what the what framework was used to um come up with that amount. So I appreciate you clarifying that. I I don't have a great answer. I do think an important thing to consider in terms of like uh the philosophical lens of this is what what the board views um the relation of like district sponsored chart charters in relation to other

136district schools. So is the intent going forward to view Slickixie as a district school un operating under a unique model which is I think what the intention was when it was initially chartered or as a separate entity list uh leasing district space and personally I would hope we don't go to that path because that's where I do think it's we're different than like what SPA was I've I think in the past boards have very much viewed Slickie as a part of the school district. I understand that we account separately, our student enrollment is accounted separately, but I also remember board members actively like adding us in to be part of those um pieces because I think we are a really important part of this. Um, and so I'm just curious what your thinking is in

137terms of like what we are uh when you compare us to other district schools because you don't charge district schools for their spaces either. >> Thank you Britney. Annie, did you have any other comments or questions? >> Um, yeah, my my only other one was just that um I had mentioned this in a previous board meeting. If we are going to go to this model, I would echo what you're saying. I would hope that it would uh be more like, oh, we're just cost sharing on this building because it's old >> um and not as much like you're separate from us and you're this independent entity leasing. But that being said, because Open Classroom is also a charter, it would stand to reason that we would also need to create a lease agreement with them.

138>> Thank you, >> Annie. You're just hitting like all my questions because that was one of them as well. And then just something I think that relates to the question that you that you asked and well both both questions is were the other expenses that we incur that are different. I sent this in a follow-up email to you all. We incur different expenses than typical boundary schools like we have to buy our own school bus, we pay our own bus driver, we um uh we are responsible for all the networking costs. So there are like big ticket items that that is why it's really important that we carry a healthy fund balance because when you know someone from it calls and says hey three years down the line this is going to run you a

139h 100,000 are you going to be ready to pay for this? Um, and so I'm just curious if that was part of the number, which it sounds like we haven't really landed on a formula for the number, but being just keeping in mind that there are expenses that we do incur that other schools are not responsible for either. >> Thank you, Britney. I did see Amanda's hand. Or were you in response to >> I was going to just member of the finance committee give some response to your questions on both sides. um just one you it's not the intent isn't to treat you like a you know you're a business and we're charging you kind of thing. It was more um looking at the the the net effect over 10 years on um the overall

140cost versus what we're receiving and in consideration of the fund balance without impairing or negatively impacting your fund balance the health of it. Um so that was kind of the um a lot of the discussion was ensuring that you still maintained a healthy fund balance but then also trying to offset a little bit of what has been our average cost as well as knowing that we have some anticipated surges coming that we can't continue to um carry this on our backs because as is stated in about every board meeting financially you know we're running really tight so we have to make hard decisions and this is another area of a hard decision. Um the 50k number um was brought as an idea wasn't brought as a concrete um I guess have to do. Um so

141that's the intent is for the board discussion to determine um what the majority or unanimous decision would be moving forward. So some more context on the questions. >> Thank you Amanda Ashley. I also had some more context um based on Annie's questions which refer back to open classroom. I mean part of the reason this discussion is initiated is the amount of money spent on emergent capital needs at open classroom. You can correct me if I'm wrong. I think you are acknowledging that that is correct interpretation. And a reminder is the amount of money rolls forward into the capital needs. It doesn't roll forward to buy new curriculum for somebody else or pay for something at a a totally different school. It's rolling forward to ensure that we don't have the same emergencies knowing that it

142is not necessarily sustainable for districts charter schools to relocate midyear, nor would we necessarily have facilities for them to relocate in. So, it's also about preserving the school. So, just to give the context of open classroom to your point about needing a model going forward, my follow-up question would be if Allan could remind all of us when the open classroom agreement renews because we know we would have to do a similar thing and if we are starting with this amount that is equivalent to a percentage to see how it works so that we can then roll it forward for both schools in a sustainable way. >> Right. My recollection is the open classrooms both charter and lease expire at next year. So June 30th, 2027. >> And how long is this lease renewed for in

143the attachment? >> Um so the attachment is still the old lease, but we were trying to recommend that the lease line up with the charter and the charter was recently renewed for five years. So we would recommend that the lease be also renewed for five years. Anybody else want to speak? Charlotte or Brian? We'll start round two with you. >> Yeah, I would just recommend that we're starting a lease with Open Classroom and with Slickie at the same time. It wouldn't make sense to be charging Slickie before we're charging Open Classroom. >> So, that would either require we defer a charge to Slickie this year because we have a standing lease that we can't change until it expires. >> Yeah. Anyway, I'm just saying for all fairness, it would seem silly to start charging them

144and then not charge open classroom at the same time. >> The challenge I see with that is we're beginning a new lease. So, >> yeah, I know, but I'm just saying that would >> lease that's and I mean they've made this determination. So, now with any leases that come up, that's when it would be initiated. you could choose to renew the lease for one year until we're aligned. I will just say one other thing to consider is the value added by having an occupied building. That is I mean I think the Rose Park community is quite proud of Slickie being there. It's a well-kept space. Um it adds to the community certainly and the I think the district is familiar with the um risk that comes with unoccupied buildings and having to move departments out

145to be in those buildings because they are a liability. And so considering to like handle the numerous vacant properties and then pursue a possible lease plan because having Yeah. additional vacant buildings isn't a great option either. I mean, so we add value by being in that building. >> Ashley, >> just as a followup for Alan, you know, what Annie has raised is not something we discussed. We discussed aligning open classroom in the subsequent year. Do you feel there would be a substantial financial consequence or a logistical consequence to I don't know all of the regulations regarding leasing to not making a change this year, renewing it as is and then renegotiating both next year. Is that even possible? >> Yeah. I mean, we can just write in lease again. We could do a one-year lease.

146We could do if if we're think we want to do a 50,000 or a 1% we could say year one is zero, year two is 1% and then years two through five are 2% and then that would line them up. Um so there's there's a lot of different options we can do if if the goal would be to line those two up. >> And to follow up with my remaining time, the the question becomes this lease renews on June 30th. Is that correct? >> Correct. And what that means is whatever decision we make, we would need to make that tonight. So we need to move this to the action agenda regardless and continue the discussion on the action agenda. >> Right? So the theory whether it's it's action here or guidance so we can put

147it on the consent agenda for our next June meeting. >> Will we have a consent agenda at the board? >> We we will have a consent agenda for our June meeting. >> Okay. Um, with that in mind, I would continue the discussion on action and I would recommend we move the Salt Lake Center for Science Education Building Lease um, as attached in exhibit 3F1 to the action agenda. >> Second. >> We got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Romano. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jetson, yes. >> Amanda Longo, yes. >> Rice, yes. Charlotte Feith Jefferson. Yes. >> Ashley Anderson. Yes. >> Thanks. Yes. That motion passes. Thank you Britney for joining us and I'm sure you might come back when

148we get to the action agenda. Our next item of business is uh some board policies, new and revised policies. Uh we have board policy B2, um policy I18, policy S13. There's a lot of them here. We have um Miss Kindle joining us. Is there anybody from the policy committee that would like to introduce this or we just turn it over to Miss Kle? I would just quickly introduce this with the request of Christina Kindle to explain the family support all of those um requirements because I think that that directs a lot of what we're referring to here and I'm not sure whether the other board members are familiar with that um legislation. >> Okay. Um, so if it's okay with you, board president Salazar, I'd like to address uh board policy B1, board of education,

149legal status, responsibilities, and ethics first, which goes to uh Vice President Jensen's question um or comment. Um so Senate in the last legislative session, they passed Senate Bill 232, which is regulatory impact on families. As part of that legislation, which applied to basically all governmental entities, it requires now that before the district adopt a new policy or taking um other formal action under the school board's uh legislative responsibilities um that the local school board can consider and it says shall consider the impact of the proposed policy or action um that the policy or action may have on family health stability and formation. Um so uh that's a requirement for every new policy. It wouldn't um be required if we're just reviewing current policies. Um but as there are several new policies um either on this

150discussion agenda or that will be coming up in the near future um the subcommittee discussed how it would be implementing that legislation. So as a subcommittee every time there was a new policy we discussed as a committee um what the impact of the proposed policy was on family health stability and formation. Um and then you will see in each memo that each board memo that's attached for a new policy. Um we indicated that we had considered it um and we would obviously have that discussion of what we thought the impacts were in the open board meeting but then by the board approving um the policy um that would sort of indicate that the board had considered it as a whole. Does that make sense to everyone? And so in terms of what was adjusted in

151board policy B1, if you look at the section on page two for policy development, it's spec we added the line before adopting a new policy, the board shall consider the impact the proposed policy may have on family health stability and formation. just um for institutional knowledge in case um you know people weren't necessarily familiar with that legislation, the subcommittee felt that it was important to put it in one of your guiding documents. So it will be a reminder that that's something you need to do before adopting any new policy. >> Any questions? Um could you just clarify? Obviously we don't know the exact intent um behind those additions based on the legislation but could you just uh explain your legal understanding of what that means? Family health formation >> stability and stability >> formation. Um

152I think as we were discussing it um obviously it's going to mean a different thing to each governmental body. You know obviously if you're passing water regulation that means something different than if um we're implementing a policy regarding attendance. So I think it's going to be a unique viewpoint and analysis based on the particular policy. Um but obviously the idea would be that we're considering whether or not um the impact would be a positive or negative or neutral impact either on um you know improving family health and well-being um whether it supports like um you know the mental health and well-being in terms of family stability or formation would probably typically not apply to this district in terms of creating families. amilies unless it um obviously we might have a policy regarding like paid parental

153leave or something like that that would obviously directly impact those kinds of things but um I think it's going to be somewhat unique to each policy so it's a little bit hard to give a global >> definition does that make sense >> yeah thanks >> Ashley >> yeah so I had the same question and I understood from a prior email that the bill itself did not define family formation but that it was generally intended to mean? Does it interfere with marriage or having children? Right? So, personally, I understand our need to comply with state law, but I'm concerned about that type of language. To me, it reads as a pretty clear dog whistle, >> and I wanted to name that I find it to be problematic, though it's out of our district control, and thus,

154I will likely abstain from affirming the change, though I understand why it has to be made. >> Miss K, you want to move on to some other >> Sure. Um I didn't know if you wanted to take them one at a time or just as a group. >> Whatever works best for you. >> Um either way. Um so the next um the one that was initially listed was board policy B2 school board meetings. Um uh this doesn't have very many changes. We just wanted to um call out the fact that with regard to the agenda development question, there had been some um I believe board member Longwell asked that um the board reook at whether or not it the number of board members who needed to make a request to get something on an agenda

155should be increased from two to three. Um and the subcommittee decided that that was probably a better topic for your upcoming board retreat than for um the subcommittee just to take on in its most recent meeting. So we did not have any um discussion outside of that limited discussion regarding that particular request. But we did at least consider it and talk about it. Um and we also indicated um we made a change um based on um some scheduling conflicts that um if as the policy currently reads two board members make a request for a topic to be placed on an agenda that that request will be accommodated within two meetings if practicable because I my understanding from the subcommittee members was that um on some occasions based on agenda development that's difficult to accomplish. So

156they wanted that um wiggle room for if practicable. >> So >> if I could just hear a little bit of explanation there would be >> we could run into situations where we would then end up having to have a study session every board meeting and to us that's problematic. Okay. So, moving on. Um, revisions to board policy I18 um and the proposal of a new board policy S13 internet filtering and monitoring. um the separation and creation well the separation of the internet filtering piece out of I18 and the creation of um S13 is a direct result of um Senate Bill 88 which is school technology amendments um as part of this bill it does require um a school board to direct the development of a policy. The policy is intended to allow and um Before

157I go on, Sam, if I say something wrong, you can of course interject. Um, the policy is intended to um basically allow parents to ask for more stringent filtering and monitoring of their students internet usage. So, obviously, we have internet filtering right now that's on all our systems that's intended to protect students from harmful cont content. However, a parent can make a request that their student only be allowed to access pre-approved websites and resources. So, that would be further limiting their access um to to not just what would normally be filtered out, but to specific sites and resources that had been pre-approved by the district. Um obviously that's going to be um a significant undertaking for um what here is designated as the district's technology committee to go to move forward and pre-approve all those

158resources in sites so that we would know what sites and resources parents could use. Um, the bill also allows parents to um to uh well, it requires the use of a parent accessible monitoring system so that parents can monitor their students internet usage while at school. Um, we currently our systems allow that capability. We haven't turned it on um yet. We will be uh working to have it so that parents you know at the end of the day hopefully can review their students usage for the you know the date that earlier in that day but it will not be real time monitoring. We're not having real time monitoring but we will have a report that allows them to do that. Um the bill also requires that we create complaint uh system in which people can

159lodge complaints um if we aren't utilizing this appropriately. And um and so we've written something about um that we'll be creating a complaint system and that enforcement of the policy can be um directed to Sam, our uh chief information officer. So um student use of internet computers and resources I8 currently talks about students you need to be nice while you're using the computer you know computer network etiquette the things that a student needs to do so th this portion did not easily fit within the our current acceptable use policy which is why we pulled it out and created its own S13 internet filtering and monitoring. Does that make sense to everybody? Okay. Um G5 administrative procedures. Um as you all know um typically uh good policy development um dictates that we do not change our

160policies or procedures while we're in the middle of a process. However, um when we have legislation that mandates changes, we have to do that. So in this instance, there were multiple bills that impacted um the G5 administrative procedures. And after discussing it with um our associate superintendent um as well as um our director of planning and boundaries um Brian Connley and um the superintendent, we made the decision to separate out um the G5 administrative procedures into two, an A and a B. So the A administrative procedures cover boundary changes in school closures um or district like reconfigurations of grades. The B procedures covers everything that would happen after we had closed a building. Um the legislative changes um that um impacted what is now considered G5A is that we are now required to give specific

161notice to any parents whose children um are enrolled in a special education special class um whose special class is being relocated. if that relocation is not due to an official boundary change or a school closure. So, if we just decided, you know, we wanted to up and move um for example, an academic support class from Emerson to a different school, we would have to go through these notice provisions. Um it doesn't require public hearings. It does require, however, that we assemble all the parent comments and respond to each one and notice each comment. Um but um and and obviously give a very specific notice at specific timelines to the affected parties. Um so that would be the changes that are outlined in G5A. In G5B, um, state law changed, um, how the district is allowed

162to dispose of what it can would be a significant parcel, which is a a significant portion of real property that has a value over a half a million dollars. Um, and dispose does not have um what a lot of people would think of as being disposal, meaning to sell it or transfer it. It also means um uh giving a private entity the right to use it, possess it or occupy it through a lease agreement that has an initial term of 10 years or longer or um entering into a joint venture with a private entity um for the right to use or possess or occupy the property. Um so dispose might still mean that we maintain ownership under this process. So, um, uh, if you look under the disposal of public property, um, statute now requires

163us to make a determination as to whether or not the property does constitute that significant parcel. And then it outlines various publication requirements and then various public meeting requirements and what the board would need to do in an open meeting before it could dispose of that property. Um, one of the things that's um, important to note is that if the district were to um, declare the property surplus and dispose of well get rid of the property through the surplus process, those provisions related to disposal of public property do not apply. So, it's only if we choose to not surplus it. >> Yes, board member. Um so on the G5A um when we look at the um procedures to be followed during each year in which changes to school boundaries are contemplated um we approve that

164the parents of students enrolled in a school affected by a boundary change will have at least 30 days after the board approves any such change to file an open enrollment school choice application. Then, and this is very sensitive to me, okay? >> I have a child who is being served in a special class. The policy for relocation of special education, special class boundary changes, the notification, the the policy is stating that the district only has to let them know 30 days before that change is effective. As a parent of a child with a disability, I would be through the roof furious if the rug was pulled out from me 30 days before that effective date occurred. So I strongly request we actually mirror the language in the boundary change that we approved in the prior

165round that we approve these because I mean obviously it's a conservative approach but it's not respectful of families and the realities that families go through when they're having to restructure their entire lives around the change. So I I do not agree with that language at all. >> So I'm I'm just trying to seek clarification. So on the boundary adjustment portion, it says at least 30 days prior to the board voting to change boundaries, you know, there's all this language and then and with a school closure, it's at least 90 days. So >> So actually it's F of section one. Section one F says parents of students enrolled. >> So after the board approves a change. >> Well, we have at least 30 days after the board approves the change >> to file an open enrollment

166school choice application. So that means the families are informed by that point. So the district the board has approved the change >> and then the approval has to be made. So, so right. So, with a boundary adjustment, if we were changing boundaries, we notify we have to notify parents at least 30 days before the board votes. And that's the same for the relocation of the special education special class that we would have to notify people 30 days before the board even votes. The section you're talking about is after a board votes to close. >> Well, and and good point, and I'd have to go back and look at the language on prior to the board voting. So, when does the board have to vote? So if you look at 1B on first boundaries, >> yeah,

167if you look at 1B, it says at least 30 days prior to the board voting. And of course, this is a minimum required by state law. So if the board wanted to extend that notification period, I'm fine doing that. I'm just trying to understand. Basically, I think that if if a notice doesn't go out until 30 days before an effective date and this gives that ability to have that hardline be there, it's it's not appropriate at all. It's not keeping families in mind. It's not serving our families properly. So, just it needs to be changed. It's it's it's not okay. You have a recommendation on what you think it could be changed to, Amanda? >> Um, I'm have to go back through this language because I think on the when we're doing the school closures,

168um, we have to make our decisions. So, we vote to close December 15th and then we have to um, we have 60 days after the vote to adjust the school boundaries. Um, and so that would put that to February 15th. So, I guess But again all like this the relocation of a special education class if it's part of one of those other two process it's going to fall under those process. So this would be a standalone. So so with a school closure we start the process 90 days before the school vote. So I so school closure is 90 boundaries would be 30 regular boundaries. So you can choose >> those policies. So if we have a separate special education relocation, I'm saying specifically that we have to give families more notice than 30 days, right?

169>> And I was just drawing a correlation to if we do a school closure, >> then February 15th, we have to it's says 60 days after we vote to approve. So if we have our final vote to approve is December 15th, then roughly February 15th is 60 days after and that would be for you've got a look of confusion on your face. >> I know I only I only have a because state law requires that the vote take place by December 30th and there's no like deadline or >> we put a deadline on here. >> Well, the deadline's directed by state law as well. >> We went more conservative, >> right? So, I'm just trying to understand because there's no there's no date by which we'd have to So, I guess >> I'm just reading

170out of the policy. >> I know. I'm just trying to explain that. So, we could move a school later than December. So, I guess I just wanted to make sure that that even if we chose to decide to move a a special class after December, that maybe if what you want is 60 days notice or 90 days notice, that's just what we should say as opposed to trying to pick a date. or we follow what we did in our other policies and we say that if we're going to restructure re change our boundaries that those decisions have to be made by February 15th at the prior school year and it aligns with our uh school closure and boundary change policies and that way it actually gives families a decent chunk of time to know what's

171coming in the upcoming school year to adjust and also aligns with um open enrollment and all those other factors, too. If we're going to do that stuff to those kids, then we need to give families appropriate notice. So, I that's my recommendation. Align it with the others. February 15th's the cut off for the upcoming school year. >> Thanks, Amanda. I had Ashley and then Annie. Similar to the last discussion we had, what's the obligation that we approve this policy tonight or every single policy in the list >> like in terms of legal compliance? Do you know what I mean? Are we expected to go one by one? If there is something like this where more discussion appears to be reasonable, is it most prudent to send it back to the subcommittee? Like what processoriented things

172would you recommend? >> Um, so I think I was perfectly flexible with anything. I know that sometimes the board wants to do three readings whether or not the subcommittee constituted a first reading and obviously there's some policies that um you know perhaps the B2 school board meetings that doesn't have a lot of changes. I mean there's flexibility there but certainly whatever the board wants to do in terms of compliance. I don't think we're planning on relocating any special enrollment class anytime soon. I mean not special enrollment class special class anytime soon. So, um, as long as we know that this is out there and that there are minimum requirements for that, that would be fine. Um, and the same with the G5B, I'm not seeing that we're going to make a decision um, on closed

173properties anytime soon. So, clearly that can come back for another discussion or it can be sent back to the subcommittee. >> So, in general, at the conclusion of this discussion, ideally we are not moving all these policies to action. At most we'd be sending them to consent and it looks like correct some people are willing to consent to and some there is you know more discussion to be had and perhaps the policy subcommittee could bring back recommendations to address the concerns. So in in that situation I think you know I don't have further questions about the policies. I wanted to make sure we weren't obligated to approve anything tonight and that we're all aware that this can come back again in in whatever form is is necessary. >> Thanks Ashley. I do want to note

174sorry I'll get right to you that there's two the two B policies are recommended for action or to go to action and the remaining policies um either be consent or to your point can be moved to a previous or to a subsequent meeting. >> Yeah, basically I was going to say the same thing. We could table and move to future meeting those other ones and then just do the B ones today or move the B for consent next time. >> And to be clear, my concern is G A G G5A, not G5B. >> Yeah. >> So, we can move B in my opinion. >> Okay. So, if I'm hearing the discussion correctly, um it seems like the board could be possible or could be comfortable to possibly move. um discussion agenda number 2A and B

175to action and potentially G5A um policy I17 and policy I8. >> We haven't discussed I7 yet. >> You're right. Thank you. >> That's still to come first. >> Anyway, there's some flexibility. So um board policy I17 emergency safety interventions. Um this is we had this embedded in our student conduct and discipline policy. Um USB regulations um and well administrative rules indicated that um since emergency safety interventions cannot be used as a disciplinary measure that they shouldn't be part of um disciplinary policies or procedures. So, um, we wanted to remove it from, um, the S3 and make it its own policy. And because so much of safety interventions really isn't, I mean, obviously, it addresses student behavior, but it it's not that the policies or procedures are students need to do this. It's more about what

176teachers need to do. Um, in consultation with Dr. Paul um and um Director Anderson, it was determined that an I as an instructional policy would be best. Um so we pulled it out of S3 and put it in um created a new I17 policy and um there was recent legislation in Senate Bill 181 um that addressed some emergency safety interventions. This is um completely in line with USB rules um and all recent legislation. One of the um I know board member Romano had um some questions about um the annual that well at the end of the policy it says the district shall annually provide documentation of any school program or district use of ESI to the state superintendent of schools. Um, and you had indicated a question about do we need to, you know, review

177that more frequently, but that's USB state superintendent. It's an annual report that goes up through Qualrix. So, it wouldn't be that we would be submitting information more regularly to the state. >> Yeah. It it also says the district shall collect, maintain, and periodically review the documentation or records regarding the use of ESI. So, I'm just wondering in our practice, how often is that periodically reviewed? Is that annual as well? >> Oh, no. That is um uh so teachers or anyone who implements an ESI is required to fill out a paper the paperwork um to document that ESI and then we have an a committee that meets every month and reviews all those ESIs and that committee is um uh under the direction of Dr. Alli Martin. Um but um obviously sped it has two administrators,

178parents and teachers on it. Um so they do review it monthly. >> Okay, that's what I was wondering. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Any other questions, comments, concerns? >> I'm seeing none. And we're also down a couple folks. Um but just to reiterate that um there's some flexibility and we don't have to move all of these to action. Um but Maybe there's a couple to board member Longwell's points that might be worth considering or moving back to the policy committee. Um, but without the the full board here, we're kind of we're a little stuck. Um, so maybe when they get back, we can revisit this. But >> do you want to move on to the Just take a quick break. Thanks everybody. >> President Sal. >> Yes. >> I'm wondering if maybe we take a five

179minute recess. folks can take care of what you take care of and then we can come back to the conversation. >> Yeah, let's do that. Thanks, Bryce. We'll reconvene at 8:18. >> Thanks. >> It's okay. Are you recording this? Record it. >> No, I'm looking at the Take a picture. Chelsea send me wildife photos. I sent her wildife photo and That's it. He was responding everything else. I got you know people Yeah. And then Thank you. Sorry. Great. I was honest. Hey, are you ready for all my questions? >> All right, board. If we could reconvene, that would be awesome. Thank you. >> Sam, are we still live? Okay. All right. So, we've had a chance to reconvene. Thank you for that quick break. Um, as was stated before we took that break, um, there's

180some flexibility as we we talked about tonight with these policies. There's a couple that we could probably move on and approve and there's some that I think need a little more study um, to the points that you raised um, regarding G5B, if I'm correct, G5A. Um, and otherwise we could also consent to some of these um, at the next meeting. So I is there a motion on the table or any direction that the board would like to to provide right now? I make a motion to move board policy B2 school board meetings u and then revisions to board policy I8 and the creation of board policy S13. Um G5B, administrative procedure to decisions related to district facilities no longer in use of school building school closures. Board policy B1 board of education legal status responsibilities

181and ethics and administrative procedure to board policy I7 emergency safety interventions to the action agenda. Is there a second to the motion? >> I'll second. >> Second. Thank you, Bryce. >> Um, I would prefer that we keep G5A and G5B together as they're all part of the same exhibit. Is that matter? I don't know. >> Um, I the motion's been made. >> Okay. But >> you could take a vote to vote on the current >> Okay, it doesn't matter then. Fine. That's okay. >> All right. Um any other discussion? Okay. And my only other um my discussion contribution um to Amanda would be with G5A. Um would you recommend that that go back to policy? Thank you. Yes. And I recommend G5A to be go back to the policy committee for reconsideration. >> Okay. >>

182Any other discussion? >> Great. Amanda, would you mind just restating your motion? >> That's really hard. >> I move that we move the following to the action agenda. Board policy B2, school board meetings, revisions to board policy I8 on the creation of board policy S13. G5B, administrative procedures, decisions related to to district facilities no longer in use as school building school closures. Board policy B1, board of education legal status, responsibilities and ethics, administrative procedures and board policy I7, emergency safety interventions. Then I also move that recommend that uh G5A um the administrative procedures district configuration long-term school culture policy recommendation go back to the policy subcommittee for reconsideration. >> I'll second further discussion seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with Vice President Johnson. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Wall, yes. >>

183Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Ferson, yes. Ashley Anderson. Yes. >> Salazar. Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> All right. Thank you, board. We will revisit that um on the action agenda. Um our next discussion agenda item is item number three, budget. Ba Kersley. >> All right. So, for the last several board meetings, we've had budget presentations on the different funds, different pieces of the budget uh with uh accumulation last board meeting of the final budget. Uh so the attachment uh for this board meeting simply has a link to the final budget book that is posted on our web page. Um again a reminder that the budget uh anticipates adopting the certified tax rate which is a no increase in the tax rate. Um and so open for discussions on questions on the budget. And again,

184I wanted so when when and if we get to a motion, the motion language is in the attachment to the agenda. >> Good. Um, okay. So, I've had a lot of questions about this budget and um some of the public comments were in alignment with a lot of my questions um regarding student services and focusing our general fund expenses and staffing on student facing roles. Um so, in previous meeting, I asked if you and Dr. grant could establish support service staffing ratios for like the central office and structural support etc. Have you done that? >> Yeah, so we haven't done that yet. I mean it's we've asked around. There's no easy hey just grab this template and stick it in. Uh and part of that conversation needs to be we need to fully understand the

185roles of all these. I mean I I can't make those decisions in a silo. Um like if it's in the teaching and learning department I need to involve them. if it's in the school leadership, I think involve them. So, um those conversations are still ongoing and will be for the next couple of months while we develop whether because maybe a ratio isn't isn't feasible. Maybe it doesn't work for certain areas, but at least some sort of methodology for determining those staffing levels. >> Okay. Um so it should be done in like the next six months or so. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um, and then looking at the budget on page 57, can you explain why the expenditures under supporting services are increasing for next year compared to this current year even though we will have

186a decrease in revenue and a decrease in student enrollment. This includes student services, instructional staff, general district administration, general school administration, central business office, Uh so on page 57 you're really looking at projections. Um and projections are just guesses. If you really because the budget we're going to approve if you look on page 56 you want to look at the revised you know the three years actual the revised and the and next year's budget. Um so I just want to note that um yes instruction is decreasing. Some of that is we do have schools have carryover. Um most school expenditures are in instruction functions. So we have school carryover. We assume that they're going to spend all of their money this year that they've been allocated, but we know historically they do not. So those

187funds will carry over. We have under expenditures in in different programs. Uh but if you look at so support services for students um for the 26 27 year has a slight $400,000 decrease. Um, and then for instructional staff, that's about a $2 million decrease. And then you get the rest of those who are actually increasing a little bit. Those increases are mostly due to step and lane costs and uh inflationary costs for utilities, increase in in water, water rates, sewer rates, electricity rates. Um there's no new additional expenditures in there uh that we're budgeting for. It's just those step and lane um increases there. >> Okay. And those step and lane increases apply to the central business office. So like the district office employees as well as all of the um teachers and school administrators.

188>> That is correct. >> Okay. Um, my next question, sorry, got to go back. Um, so given the projected $17 million deficit this this budget proposes, why was the full board not notified or consulted um previous to the March deadline about the need for significant staffing cuts primarily in district or administrative roles because the staffing cuts that were made uh we weren't aware of and those were towards um studentf facing roles like teachers and social workers. >> Right. First of all, I want to clarify. So, the teacher cuts are based on the board approved formula. We have an estimate of how many students we plan on having uh with the board approved studenttoteer ratio and that's how many FTE that generates. So, if we currently have more FTE than that, then there's a reduction for

189teacher FTE. And as was noted with the social workers, those were funded by grant fundings and those fundings expired. Um, so the the thought was, well, the funding that was paying for those went away. So those are the positions that go away versus other positions. Um, so but now we're looking at this $16 million deficit. So we do have to have >> 16 or 60. >> Okay. >> It it didn't increase 16. And I do want to note that um that's kind of a worst case scenario. Um we we conservatively estimate our revenues. Uh and again we do have our under expenditures and carryovers but we still have a significant budget imbalance. Um so because we didn't purposely go and cut, you know, we we cut the social workers because the funding went away. We

190cut the teachers because the formula was applied. So there wasn't a specific cut that was recommended. Maybe there should have been um but there was not because there were these targeted ones based on how we've normally done things. Um so there wasn't a discussion with the full board of hey let's look at this um classification of employees and look at reducing them to help bring our budget into balance. Now is that a discussion that maybe we have over the next um couple months to make sure that this is a a blip and not a long-term trend? Yes, that I think those are that's good feedback to have from the board. >> Um, yeah, I generally feel like that was a big oversight. Obviously, this is my first budget cycle on the board, but I was

191not aware that we would have cuts proposed or completed of riffs previous to our approving the budget. I assumed that we would be notified of those. So that was my misperception of the process, but I definitely think that we need to discuss that for future budgets because it doesn't make sense if our main cost is staffing and we're not even giving input when the board's main job is the budget or one of our primary jobs. So it doesn't make sense for us not to be discussing strategic rights sizing of not only schools but in administrative roles. So anyway, I'll just stay. I think I've I've conveyed this, but I am upset by that timeline. Um I just don't feel like this budget reflects a methodical approach of board input and priorities that are reflected in

192these numbers. I don't think it reflects that. I think it reflects like, oh well, that grant went away. what's cut that or and then here we are looking at this with a $16 million deficit and asking to approve it. So I'm not comfortable as the budget stands to approve the budget as it is. >> Yeah, I had um very similar questions to board member Romano. I don't need to rehash those out. Um one of the things I I do want to say is I do appreciate the work that's gone into creating the budget. Alan and Christy Hart, I really really do appreciate that there's been ample time to ask certain questions and opportunities to come in in small groups and um I appreciate that that was an opportunity. One of the things I am frustrated

193with and need to bring attention to is that the board asked for a zerobased budget um process to happen with uh district facing um or excuse me not district facing but district positions. I don't believe that that has happened or it has not been completed and it makes me very reluctant to either vote yes or no on the budget. I'm kind of leaning to an extension or possibly a no because that has impacted where we stand right now. And I think had that been done, we would be in a better place right now. Ashley, >> um I share both of these perspectives and I think that I've had a difficult um time with the budget for similar reasons. I also specifically have been disappointed that um we haven't fulfilled the directive from the finance committee

194to complete a zerobased budgeting exercise for the district office to be commensurate with the kind of cuts we're expecting schools to make. Um, and as one public commenter pointed out, you know, there was some opposition on the board to reorganization and the addition of administrative special assignments along similar grounds. And so these past decisions and a lack of action um by the superintendent in completing the zerobased budget leaves me feeling concern about our ability to address the growing deficit. And I also don't feel particularly confident that the organizational of the structure, the organizational structure, sorry, of the district office is prepared to support the kind of changes we're going to need to get out of debt. But to that end, I would also draw renewed attention to the letter from the finance committee last December,

195which asked us to draw regular and more careful attention to the budget anticipating some of the reductions we're talking about. Now, with these concerns in mind, I also recognize that the business office does a tremendous amount of work to balance the actual figures themselves. There's like the values discussion and the educational discussion, and then there's the actual math. And they do conduct a clear process that aligns with numerous local, state, and federal requirements. And I'm concerned that it's also not prudent to reject the budget at this point in the year when the alternative would be in two weeks time when we're obligated to have a budget in place that we're essentially asking for a a number of riffs without any kind of notice to future employees. So I think that we're in between a rock

196and a hard place would be the the comparison to use honestly. And with that in mind, I think what is most prudent for us to do is cautiously approve the budget and give some simultaneous direction to the business office to proactively address the deficit and present a reconciled version of this budget in January. And there are four things that I think we should suggest. Um the first would be to return to a pastboard practice of having a budget update every meeting so that we have fewer surprises than we had this year. The second would be to ensure we have a revised district office staffing plan by January of 2027 to meaningfully respond to the ongoing directive that the superintendent complete a zerobased budgeting activity for the office and that would exclude student-f facing roles. The

197third would be a goal of reconciling the budget we approved tonight with a reduction of up to $5 million over the course of the fiscal year by keeping pace with attrition, addressing lapsing contracts, and evaluating other shortfalls which could be addressed. And the last would be a commitment of us to no new positions in the district office until we're out of debt. So, I'm suggesting if we were made concurrent directives like these, we could avoid not having a budget, making the taxpayer the scapegoat for our poor organizational planning, and making sure future tax increases don't only fund inflation, but they fund specific needs like salary increases. So, th that would be my suggestion. >> Amanda, >> thank you, Ashley, for covering that. I think this is excellent questions and um I'm in agreement with Ashley's

198thing that it would be more harmful to not approve the budget. Um and I like your requested um suggestions. I would add to that is there's been some concerns that I've had with how we are tackling the budget as well. I know it seems like it's a process that's been in place for quite a while, but an an additional request would be that we add this to a study session in the future. Um, so that we can analyze how we're approaching the budget cycle and having these conversations and questions so that we can all feel comfortable with when we get to the this point in the process that um we can more comfortably approve the budget. Um because I know like was has been stated, there's a lot of effort put in by you and

199your team getting it to this point and these offers for one-on- ones and the finance committee and everything, you're you're you're putting in the work for sure. But I think that if we revisit our the how it's being approached through the months and through the year, um we can adjust it so that it um we all feel comfortable when it gets to this point. I appreciate those comments and in the past I have said you know that I am looking to the finance committee and I appreciate hearing the concerns that the finance committee are raising. Um Ashley is the senior member on the finance committee. You've been there since we joined the board. I've been on the policies committee since we joined the board and um the perspective that you bring I think is really

200valuable because you've been looking at it for the last three years. So I appreciate your um outline of how to navigate through some of these really challenging questions. Um I don't know if we're going to go into a second round. Um, I would save a comment there if we do, but I'm trying to keep this. >> Yeah, moving along. >> There any other comments in the first round? See, now we'll jump to the second. >> Um, I recognize the the harm of not passing the budget. I do think um my frustration lies in the fact that I think these conversations have been had and the lack of action that has occurred in terms of educational and staffing priorities um is upsetting. And I do think the budget office and everyone is doing great math. I'm

201sure you're brilliant. I don't understand it. I I just think um like the time to tackle a deficit is now. Like I don't think our enrollment's going to go up, our revenue is going to go up. I am uncomfortable as a taxpayer, as a parent, as a citizen to be like, "Oh, sure. Let's just pass a $16 million deficit." when it's our responsibility to make sure that that we are having a healthy enough fund reserve for emergencies. So yeah, that's that's one of my main things. I I guess my last question to Alan is >> Oh, that was the I'm sorry, we're now in the second round. >> Okay, sorry. This my last question to Alan is um given the projected deficit, what actions are you taking outside of staffing categories? I know that's our

202main um cost, our main expense, but what else are we doing to decrease maybe it's in building maintenance, maybe it's in other costs, >> right? So again, as noted, staffing FTE is 89% of our budget. Um, so we we can't close this budget with ignoring the staffing. >> Yeah. >> So I know that for next year we've already eliminated 16 FTE and we'll continue to address anytime a position is vacated that position gets reviewed and discussed and can we take that those duties and spread them amongst other people. So we will continue to have those discussions. Um, in addition, one thing that was was discussed is I can't generate more money. I can give recommendations. Only the legislature and the school board can generate more money. So, we've had discussions for years about a need

203to because the certified tax rate gives us the same amount of revenue as we got last year. And if there's zero inflation, then that works just fine. We know that there's not zero inflation. So, we will continue to have discussions of what areas might we want to look at for for tax increases. Uh some other things we've done I believe Isaac's talked about with so with the sewer rates our sewer rates are going through the roof. So we're taking the meters and we're going to split. So our irrigation water because right now everything goes through the same meter so it counts as if it went through the meter it also went into the sewer. So we get build for all those gallons and we're going to it does cost quite a bit of money but

204separate those meters so that irrigation water gets metered separately so it does not then get build to us on the sewer rate and the only stuff that gets build on the sewer is stuff that actually gets used in the school and goes down the sewer. Uh we're looking at efficiencies on custodial now. Can we where can we cut back on overtime or cut back on and um you know maybe we don't need to mop the floor or wax the floor quite as often. Is there stuff we can still maintain the buildings to a a a standard but maybe the standard drops slightly because we don't have the resources to keep at this high standard. uh talking with with Sam over here. We've talked about the um the IT department. Um there's some positions that we've

205talked about that those pe those positions have been vacated. We're not going to fill them right now because we want to see can we function without those positions and then if we can we'll make those cuts permanent. But we also have to be careful at what point do you cut so much that then you're not providing the service that is needed. So some of those will be believe, hey, let's give this a try and see if we can do without it. And then and we can have those conversations before we make it permanent with the board, say, "Hey, this is what we're trying. This is what we're doing." Um, I do think we need to look at, you know, as our student counts keep going down in our schools, we need to look at our

206administrative allocations. Um, we last looked at them back when the board requested that there at least be a.5 FTE at every elementary school. And maybe that's not the correct model anymore. We need to review that as well. So those are some of the things we're we're looking at. >> Um sorry, you stated that there were 16 FTE. Are you talking about for this proposed budget? 16 FTE have already been cut. Are you talking about for the next Okay. >> Not all of them are reflected in the budget because some of them we didn't know about when the budget was built. Um these are again people who have said, "Hey, I'm retiring the end of this year." And we're like, "Okay, we're not going to replace that position." >> Okay. I do want to point out

207that um we also have direct control over our freeing up finances through how we handle the closure of the or the schools that are closed and whether we um let those buildings go and acquire the money from it. And then we also are looking at future school closures. So obviously both of those play into um how we what we can do to um help our budget in the long haul as well. And then Ashley I'll to your if that's okay if you're not going to go into it where you're advocating to address tax increment financing and how it substantially negatively impacts our bottom line because I think in the proposed budget book tiff is now 41 million. >> The 41 includes both charter school um Tiff is about 36. >> But yeah, like it was

208mentioned in prior board meetings, if >> all those entities weren't taking our property tax money from our our children, then we would have an extra 36 million and we would be, you know, over 17 million in the other direction. >> Thank you. I think in the last board meeting um with my questions I was certainly demonstrating my angst over this deficit. Um I still have that angst. Um for me one of the challenges that as I sit in this seat I think we're going to have to make some really hard decisions. And the thing that I am anxious about is we get to things that, okay, an example that we just had was a $50,000 lease. Okay, I understand the ramifications that that has on Slicky, but the thing that I'm anxious about is we

209give these directions to our business administrator and to the finance department, but then when we're faced with it, then it's well, okay, we'll talk about that later. Um, I think we've got to get over the mentality of we'll talk about it later. Um, I think that previous boards have had a challenge with that of we'll talk about it later. I don't think we can talk about it later. I think we have to talk about these things now. In the conversation that we just had with counselors and social workers. I asked a question. The question was help me understand the ratio on counselors and social workers because I'm trying to figure out do we need to look at how we staff schools because one of the things that we are continually talking about is administrative costs.

210Okay. Again, I'm speaking to this as a teacher. Oh, and that that's not me. That was I'm sorry. I forgot to turn it off with >> Sure. >> Okay. I I'll stop talking, but Okay. Um, what I'm trying to say is we talk about administrative costs and as a teacher I looked at counselors, assistant principles, coaches, all of those individuals to me come under that admin. I mean, we talk about the district office, but there are other administrative um positions. This is hard. But what I'm saying is that's where I see we're not going to overcome the deficit by 50,000 here. And no, we are going to have to find significant ways to address that. So, we're going to need to look at some of those other administrative positions. >> I'll go ahead and chime

211in. Um, and I recognize everybody's points and, you know, all of the boundaries that we have um the deficits. Um, but I I do have some hesitations um relative to some of the points that were raised by board member Anderson around what we could attach to um a decision tonight. we have to make one or that it would be not the greatest step to not approve a budget >> based on our our obligations to um to law and code. Um and I think the one that's given me the most anxiety is this notion of zerobased budget. I don't believe that I've ever participated in a vote or formal direction to the superintendent or to the business administrator about zerobased budgeting in any capacity, whether that's within schools or whether that's within the district office. Um,

212and I I wouldn't feel comfortable about attaching that exercise. Um, while it might and is a very noble and effective tool to be using, um, it just doesn't seem like that's been the direction from the whole board. Um, and if I if I made a vote and I forgot about it, you know, I' I'd love to go back and look into that. Um, but I also think that there's other steps that can be taken relative to new positions. um reconciling the budget, you know, later on down the road. I actually really do appreciate more frequent um budget updates. That's something that I do agree with um with Ashley's recommendations there as potentials. Um but I I don't feel comfortable moving zerobased budgeting forward um attached to this budget cycle or this budget decision tonight um

213without having a more formal discussion so I can be better educated on what that might look like. I know we've gotten updates and reports um from the finance committee. Um but it it does it's alarming to me that that direction was given by by not the whole board um out of the committee. Um so that's just where I'm at. I know that we've got to approve this um but I would I would have strong reservations about approving a budget with that zerobased budgeting element attached to it. >> U we'll move on. Um I saw Ashley first. Okay. I'm not sure. >> Yeah. So, I would offer clarification that the directive was given from the finance committee to be presented to us in finance committee for the purposes of building this budget. >> So, it the

214reservations that finance committee members are expressing are because the direction we gave to help us build the budget was not fulfilled. >> So, when I'm asking that it be fulfilled, I'm not asking that it be fulfilled and then implemented. I'm asking that it be fulfilled and presented to the finance committee as indicated because we wanted it to align with what we're asking schools to do which is reduce their FTE as an exercise not in terms of what could be reallocated in different ways the same way we've talked about with social workers it's not just about cutting it's about reallocating and aligning with priorities and that happens in the committee so when we're asking for that directive to be fulfilled the directive is to complete the exercise to present to the finance committee for our discussion

215which would still come back to the full board. So what the the words that I'm stating are not a decision that's made exclusive of the rest of the board. They're fulfilling committee work that was not completed prior to the budget. What is difficult is we're being asked to approve the budget without having the thing we asked for and that puts us in a precarious position which is why I'm offering it as a directive and that's what I would would move. I'd also echo echo my prior comment that I think the solution of rejecting the budget and advising immediate reductions is going to lead to employee rifts with less than two weeks notice which I find harmful even if I didn't support some of the initial positions. I think the way I'm personally balancing it is

216by offering these multiple concurrent directives for the board to consider. It helps us balance the predicament we're in and place the onus on district leadership to really dig in and face these long-term problems. And I think as a public commenter presented tonight, there are often some dissenting votes and most commonly they are mine. So I would also not, you know, have any uh concern if other board members have a dissenting vote in this situation because it is incredibly difficult to move forward on work when not everything's been done. So that is why just to clarify, I'm asking for that specific directive. um that it would be something that comes to the finance committee and then is discussed by everybody as part of what I'm suggesting is a timeline that we agree on and Amanda's added

217to that potential directive that that could happen in a study session. So that's what I would move. >> Thanks for the clarification. Bryce was that reverse. >> Okay. >> Any further discussion? Um Charlotte or >> Charlotte? >> I I think I when I heard that there was this directive to like all of the schools. I I didn't even understand what the directive was for the zerobased budgeting. It was kind of a surprise. And I when when when I heard about it, I was like, "What? Wait, did I miss something?" Yeah. So, I felt that way, too. Um, but I So, I think communication maybe could have been a little bit better on that. That's all. >> Thanks, Charlotte. Um, I've got Brian and Annie. Brian, >> I would just interject. I thought that the suggestion

218that Ashley um related to Amanda's comment about a study session, it seems to me like that would be an appropriate place. Okay, we're looking at the budget, but then we're also talking about the zero bait. I mean, to me that would all tie in together. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. So um I understood that the zerobased budget was an exercise and not necessarily because that would be the budget but it's a a method in which we can define prior priorities and needs within staffing. So I clearly understood that and I would be supportive of that. Um in terms of G5 enclosures and potential properties, there's nothing more popular. Um, I mean, which is more popular, like a $60 million deficit or school closures? Like, no, those are like not great alternatives, but obviously those

219are the conversations we need to have because of declining enrollment. That being said, I think um I would hesitate to assert anything about happening with those properties just because we are still waiting for the the final report. Um, do we have a timeline for that report? >> It won't be till the fall. >> Okay. The fall. So that discussion will not is not happening imminently. It will be happening in the fall and would be more related likely to next year's or whatever 2728 budget. >> Okay. >> Is there a motion on the table? >> Ashley. >> Um before I make the motion, I'd just like to clarify I can just move items A through C to action and then provide additional direction once on the action agenda. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Okay.

220So, I would request that we move the I don't request. I move um that we place budget items A, B, and C, the 2526 revised budget, the 2627 proposed budget, and the 2627 proposed tax rate as attached in exhibit 3 F3 on the action agenda. Is there a second to the motion? >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? Alan, does that motion align with your recommendation to the board relative to action? >> The motion to action will be fine. Then in when in action, we'll want the motion as laid out in the exhibit. >> I'm seeing a discussion, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member long. yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. Ashley Anderson, yes. Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, Annie Romano, abstain. Ryan Jensen. Yes. >>

221That motion passes. We'll revisit that on the action agenda. Um the last discussion agenda item we have is our board retreat. Um and some some copies of what was said by Brian and me over the weekend. Um Brian and I had the chance to to meet and speak with Charlotte. um just hearing all of y'all's feedback relative to priorities for agenda items. Um we weren't able to fit everything on. Um so what we really tried to do was focus where we had two or three priorities present. Um and that's what you see on the agenda um the draft agenda tonight. Um the other document that we handed out um is just our previous year's board norms um document that we're currently updating still. Um Brian and I have been going through that and just trying

222to reconcile the work that we've been doing or have done and some things that we still need to work on and our plan is to add in some of the new norm recommendations from the board members from all of you um that we would add to that board norms document. So, um, the board norms document that you have is actually a copy uh from last year's. Uh, we still have the previous year's copy. Um, but we we didn't want to edit that particular document in that that was what we used last year. So, um, I know there's been some some feedback already given to Brian and me, which we can talk about tonight. Um, we did also ask Charlotte um to come prepared with more information about what she was thinking around icebreaker or building

223a culture of trust. and we will make sure that there are copies provided uh for the board meeting minutes tonight. Um as you know we have to um ideally at least to agree on an agenda for our meeting and board retreat on the 13th. Um I know all of you have received um the board self-evaluation tool from Richard Stole uh which will be due on June 12th sorry 13th 16th is the retreat. 13th is a completely different day for me. But uh but nonetheless uh this is um the draft that we have and can discuss tonight. Um we left about 15 minutes of wiggle room in the four hours that we have. Um it is really tight. Um but Brian and I did anticipate that there are probably a couple of things that wouldn't make

224the final cut in our discussion tonight. Um so with that um I'll open it up for discussion um to see what the board is thinking with this particular draft agenda. or Charlotte, you wanted to go first on icebreaker. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> So, the icebreaker that I or activity that I thought might be helpful for our our team, you know, is to um um it's called inspiring a culture of trust. And um it's it starts with uh well and I don't know if we will be too tired of doing this but it's a self um evaluation a self assessment to just be aware of because uh a culture of trust begins um from the inside out. So it starts with all of us everybody and so selfrust first um and so there is a

225um let's see one two okay 20 questions and it's it's not anything that we would share with anybody with with the whole board. It's just for our own purposes to see how how um how well we're doing in different areas, the four core um areas of credibility. So, it's about integrity and intent. Whoa, sorry. Um anyway, the questions I think it would be good not just for board members but for our for the superintendent and the business administrator, you know, for all of us to to look at. Um, and then I was also looking at a um presentation from Ohio school board the it's like USBA but Ohio board um >> their school board association >> yes their school board association and it's basically um about handling conflict and difficult conversations ions and how when

226it's not dealt well dealt with well um a conflict is good but when it's not managed well it can lead to breakdown in trust. Um so that was that's another thing we could consider. Um anyway, um it probably would only take about 30 minutes, I think. Um just going through this little self self assessment and um um having just a a small discussion about um you know handling conflict and how to restore trust if trust has been broken. or ways ways that we can um work on that. >> I just had a quick question. I I see what um the intent of the icebreaker. I'm curious if there's anything that uh any board members um proposed that didn't make it on this draft. Yeah, because my thought would be while I appreciate the icebreaker and

227the activity and the intent around the culture of trust, I think there's a lot of business that we need to have done. And I would, my personal opinion, I'll speak for myself, is that I would opt that we move into more of those business functions with the proposed 30 to 45 minutes. Um, I don't have that list right in front of me, but um, it's something that we could definitely look up um, while we're having the discussion. The way that I would also respond to that is the items that are on here, board norms, board evaluation, board meeting structure, board goals. Those were the ones that >> that had the high. You know how you're doing a tally? >> I figured it's >> okay. when we were telling it those four. >> Sure. >> Okay.

228There were lots of requests for um items that would be like a study session. I think well and I think others um suggested that too in their response was oh that would be a study session or like a report in another board meeting. um trying to tackle all of those things, I don't think we'd be able to do it. That was my sense from the other board members is we would not be able to tackle all of those things in a board retreat. I think that's fair. I um also acknowledge the limited amount of time to do so many things that folks want to get to. So that was just >> I I thank you. >> Um I guess the One add on I would or clarification I would ask is the board meeting structure.

229It's a subcommittee schedule. I would um ask that we put kind of a slash report. And the the thought that I have around this is um I think when I was looking at other school districts, the way that they structure their meetings um sort of along our subcommittees, we really don't have a structure for how we um report back our work. Ashley's super great about putting it in her um comments or we organically are talking about as we're hitting a particular comment, but if we could actually talk about integrating that into our um agenda each board meeting and sometimes obviously we may not meet so we don't need to talk about it but the policies are intentionally reviewed from the policy committee which is fabulous but the other subcommittees we don't really have that intentional

230conversation. So um just a slash report to the board that we integrated that into the agenda. We could discuss at a retreat was my request. >> And that that's something that Brian and I talked about um like similar to the um norm that we established last year where Brian and I put together like a board leadership update, right? We send that out. Um but I think that's either here in the structure like you mentioned or it could be a norm that we establish during the retreat too. So that has come in the development of those two Any other comments or questions? Um I think we're still a little fuzzy on the icebreaker. >> Yeah, it's a little fuzzy still. >> Last year, um we did something that was just a little more organic and fun

231by talking about your most recent read, I think is what it was, or your favorite book. Well, one thing you did was we we put our we shared our why, >> right? >> Our board member why >> and then we also didn't we have priorities. >> Um >> I think it was >> we put it on the board on the white board. >> I think that was more like our board member why we kind of listed out why we do what we do or why >> engage in this type of work. Well, another um another idea is to uh like have everybody talk about one what like their greatest fear for the coming year, you know, like what what is it that we're worried about? Not a fear, but a concern or a worry in

232in our district or our board. and then and then one hope, you know, like a a positive one and a but that that brings out our bigger big concerns and our um anyway I I can um give you more details on this. Um, >> a random thought for a light icebreaker around a muno. >> Thanks, Amanda. Annie. >> Yeah, I I um just think right now we we just um move past like deciding specifically what the icebreaker is and maybe just say the icebreaker will be 30 minutes and then we just move on with um some important action items. I just of note I have a scheduled vacation so I may be late or um limited availability of internet in this uh board retreat but I'll try my best to be present the whole time.

233So, I move that we um move the draft board retreat agenda for 61626 uh to the action agenda. Um striking the specific building of culture of trust for the icebreaker and um just having icebreaker for 45 minutes. >> I'd second that for 45. >> Oh, 30 minutes. >> Okay. I second that. >> All right. Got a motion and a second on the table. Any further discussion? Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting according to Williams. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte 5 Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. And I'm just going to add that when that buser went off, that was our threeh hour. So anyway, we're now clo we're, you know, running into four. Okay, >> ma'am Longwell. Yes,

234>> thank you. That motion passes. We'll revisit that on the action agenda. Um, which we are at now. Um, the first item of business we have is the Slick Seed lease, the Salt Lake Center for Science Education lease. Is there a motion on the table to start the discussion? May I ask our business administrator a question before we make a motion? >> Please. >> Uh if you you've heard the feedback and so we need to continue the discussion here and make a decision about the lease agreement. Do you think it is most reasonable to give us your recommended amount in a percentage so that we can meaningfully apply that to open classroom at the same time? >> Yes, I believe the percentage would be better because especially if we're going to apply the same thing

235to open classroom. Open classroom is a smaller building. They have uh fewer a little fewer less students. Um, so a percentage would be better to if we're going to apply the same thing, a percentage to slickie and the same percentage to open classroom would be the preferred. And I would say we use that 1% that we've um kind of modeled. >> So to clarify, if a person wanted to move to approve that as you recommend, they would move a 1% um charge on the first year and 2% for years two through five. >> We haven't really talked about a 2%. Um >> I thought that's what you said. This is why I want to clarify what you >> Yeah, we talked about if we charge 0% the year one and then a 1% the year

236two because then open classroom comes on board >> um at that same time. So both schools would be getting the 1% charge starting in the same year. So in that universe where it would be 0% for year one, what I'm going to move is that we approve Slick's lease agreement as is for the coming year and then renegotiate both leases at the same time. Open classroom is up for charter renewal. >> Second. >> We got a motion in a second on the table. Any further discussion? I just want to respond to what, you know, Brian rightfully said, no longer delay the decision, but if the decision would be 0% this year, I'd rather not make a convoluted >> motion and and commit to making a decision next year. That that's all that I heard what

237you said >> and I think regardless if 0% is the recommendation for year one, then we move forward as is for one year and then do them both at the same time. I think that's a reasonable way to try to respond to everyone's feedback, but I acknowledge what you said. >> Yeah, I would just like to acknowledge also what Brian said. I do believe it's important that we do establish some sort of pro protocol. I do think in the interim while we have this year ahead of us that we are very thoughtful in terms of our formula so that it can be like a long-term lease. And then secondarily, if we need to have any accompanying policy or something that we look at um related to leases for charters or leases of buildings or anything

238like that, I think it would be pertinent to look at that as well. >> Um my question is to Alan and maybe Ashley if you could clarify too. What we're suggesting is that leaving the slicky budget as is for the coming year would be for the 2728 fiscal year school year >> or for the >> for the 26 27th year >> and then next >> So we would extend we we do a lease for one year. So that would expire June 30th of 2027. Okay. >> So we would be forced to have the conversation again to renew. We if we choose to we do Slickixie for a four-year lease because if we want to keep it lined up with their charter and we would do open class for a five-year lease to keep that one

239lined up with their charter. >> That aligns with what I believe that I stated. >> Perfect. Thanks, Ashley. Thanks, Alan. And seeing no further discussion, we'll go ahead and take a roll call vote starting with board member five Jefferson. >> Charlotte Ferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. and along. Yes, >> Rice Wayne. Yes. >> All right, that motion passes. Um, our next item of business is new and revised policies. We have policies B2, I18, S13, G5B, B1, and I17. Is there a motion on the table? >> Do we have to do them separate or can we do them all together? >> I think we could do them all together. >> I guess I'll go for it. I make a motion to approve the

240board policy B2 school board meetings as posted in the exhibit 35 3F2A. The revisions to board policy I18 and the creation of board policy S13 as posted in exhibit 3F2B. GB administrative procedures decisions related to district facilities no longer in use of school building school closure. Oh, I yes is ex as posted as exhibit 3F2C, board policy B1, board of education, legal status, responsibilities and ethics as posted in exhibit 3F2D and administrative procedures board policy I7 emergency safety and interventions as posted in exhibit 3F2E. >> I second. >> Got a motion in a second. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, uh, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson. >> Marsh Anderson, yes. >> Nick Salazar, yes. >> Annie Nano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Long, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes.

241>> Charlotte Ferson, yes. >> That motion passes. Uh, we'll now move on to our third item, which is the budget. Is there a motion on the table? I move that the board of education approve the revised budget for the fiscal year 2526 as it has been presented to the board. The board also approved the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2627 and as it has been presented to the board. The board approved the adoption of the certified tax rate for the 26 tax year. And in addition, the board authorizes the business administrator to make any budget adjustments necessary to reflect funds received from the final approved tax rate. The board would provide concurrent direction to the superintendent and business administrator to return to a past practice of having a budget update in every business meeting.

242Produce a revised district office staffing plan for consideration by January 2027 to meaningfully respond to the directive from the finance committee to complete a zerobased budgeting activity for consideration. Maintain a goal of reducing the approved budget by 5 million over the course of the 2627 fiscal year. And the board would additionally commit to no new positions in the district office until we are out of debt beyond our bond obligations. And to that end would hold a study session on the timeline of the 2728 budget cycle. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? I just want to respond a little bit to the prior discussion about um people being surprised and I would offer that I do provide a finance committee update in almost every board meeting we have

243which is documented in our minutes. I don't have a tremendous amount of other ways outside of the open public meeting to communicate with all board members and I do rely on everyone to follow the reports provided and the minutes that we sign off on. So, I just want to indicate that I've every step of the way communicated about this happening. >> Sure. >> I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't surprised by it today. It was the first time we heard it. It just seemed like a big ask or a big um directive that it seemed like a a quite significant um directive from from a committee because it it involved all the principles, all the admin, you know, it was like districtwide, right? So, it just seemed it surprised me that I didn't realize

244a committee could could make a directive like that. That's all. >> Thanks, any further discussion. >> I I'll just clarify. I think that that um instruction was from the business office or the district and then the finance committee requested that it be extended to the district office and the superintendent. I don't think they gave the directive to everyone. Is that correct? >> I can clarify. >> I would clarify that I think what Charlotte is referring to is a directive that actually came out of open public meeting which was for all principles in title one schools to complete a zerobased budgeting activity that then was extended to all schools when we were looking to extend family school collaboration. So that was actually something that came as a full board directive and there are two different things

245that we're talking about. >> Okay. Just offline, I'd like to have board member Anderson point me to um a a past board meeting where these monthly budget updates were given just so I can know what the expectation is. >> Yeah, I'm happy to do that. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Ashley. Thanks, Alan. Any further discussion? >> All right, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Romano. Annie Romano abstain for the reason being that I don't uh support the current budget allocation, but I also do not support a no budget, which would then therefore um lead to a further riff of employees. Brian Brian Jensen. Yes. face Brian Yensen. That's a combination. But yes, based on this hearty discussion and this detailed motion Williams, >> Bryce Williams abstained based on the

246same reasons board stated. I know. >> You want to come back to here? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Ashley Anderson. Yes. These cells are Charlotte Ferson. No. >> All right. Um based on the tally with two abstensions, two nos, and three yays, um the motion does not pass. Is there a new motion on the table? Um, can I ask a question, please? >> Um, I think based on my comments, it was clear and my abstension why I voted um to abstain. I'm just wondering if um there's a motion that could be put on the table that would vote to or be a pass or if we want to give direction for further work from um VA Kley and his team. >> I'll make a motion. >> I make a motion to approve the budget. Oh,

247the language is in the thingy, right? >> My computer died, so I need it from somebody's computer or something. >> I make a motion to approve the the revised budget for the fiscal year 2526 as it has been presented to the board. The board I also approved the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2026 27 as has been presented to the board. Board approved the adoption of the certified tax rate for the 2026 tax year. In addition, the board authorizes the business administrator to make any of such adjustments necessary to reflect funds received from the final approved tax rate. Is there a second to the motion? >> I'll second the motion. >> Thank you, Brace. Any discussion? Ashley and then >> the reason I can't support this is again I've indicated that the finance committee

248made commitments we had discussions those were not fulfilled I was willing to support it with concurrent direction that I feel was meaningful and supportive of moving forward in a strong fiscally responsible way. I feel when that motion failed so fails the direction of the finance committee which is does not support the work that we did and so I could not support it as is. >> Thank you. >> Um given my reservations about the previous motion I felt like that was a good robust effort to try to make amends for some of the um shortfalls of the current budget. But given that this motion that is currently on the table does not even give further direction, um I would intend to vote no on that. I don't I don't imagine that um that will garner more

249support. >> I'll vote on that first. >> You can vote on withdrawing it, but you can't just pull it now that it's been >> Oh, come on. trying to simplify things here. >> Um, I mean, do you want us to vote to withdraw or would you like to proceed? >> We'll just proceed, see how it plays out. I'm just trying to move marker. I mean, we can't obviously function without a budget. >> There you go. All right. Um, seeing no further discussion, um, we'll do a roll call vote starting with, um, with Vice President Jensen. Ryan Jensen, no. >> Amanda Longley, yes. >> Bryce Williams, no. >> Charlotte F Jefferson, no. Ash Anderson, no. >> Naza, yes. >> Annie Romano, no. >> That motion also fails. >> Anyone else have any suggestions or are we

250just going to let it fail? Um, President Salazar, are you able to propose a motion >> um >> as the board president or is that against the norms? >> The board I mean it's not against the norms um but the board president doesn't typically provide motions. It's something that I've kind of held on to um in this position but I guess definitely >> okay just a question. >> Ashley, >> may I ask our parliamentarian a question please? within a business meeting. May we move to reconsider a prior motion? >> Yes, we may. >> I move to reconsider my prior motion as stated. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Any discussion? >> I would offer that if this fails again and we don't have a budget, our obligation would be to decline to

251move forward on the retreat and hold a business meeting in which we reconsider a revised budget. I agree with Ashley and for those that are still not comfortable passing this motion with the um recommendations for directives to address some of the concerns at hand. Please identify what the hold up or what your hangup is specifically to the motion so we can see if we can resolve that and potentially an amended motion. Yeah, I I think um I I think from my perspective, I would hesitate to support a motion when we've already requested a lot of those same things. and I don't have a strong confidence that all of those directives will be followed in a timely manner which would then actually reduce the deficit which is my primary concern. However, I do think a lot

252of those recommendations are solid recommendations. Um but as I've mentioned before my abstension is because I um cannot get behind a $16 million deficit when when um we had a lot of time and a lot of direction and a lot of strategy to avoid that and I would like to see a revised budget in that regard. >> Thanks. >> Any other discussion? >> Sure. I'm still not um satisfied with the funding for social workers in our schools and um yeah, I uh this is something that's extremely important and so I just feel like we we need to do I I would say we need a revised budget. Not just that, but because of the deficit and because of some increases that are happening. And I just don't think we're we're sharing this sharing this tightening

253of a budget, you know, where where we need to. Amanda >> and I'm in agreement with what with every everything that everybody is saying, but I think that we need to pass the budget and then challenge ourselves to dig in extremely hard over this next year to really address and remedy these issues. We still have to function as a district. We still have to pay the bills. We still have to move forward. So this can be a challenge to ourselves to do um the work to uh get ourselves set straight by the next budget proposal. So, and regarding the social worker, I just want to re-emphasize what was stated during the presentation of the social worker situation that the community health partners that we that SLF has established, they are overly excited to try to

254um remedy some of those gaps that we have. So, there is work underway to try to work on that particular item. Call the question. >> Um, call the question has been called. I'll accept it. Um, parliamentarian. My understanding is that once that's happened that we move to a vote on call to question. >> All right. Well, we will now uh conduct a vote on the call to question to end discussion. Uh, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Williams. Yes. >> Charlotte F. Jefferson. Yes. >> Ashley Anderson. Yes. Mazar. Yes. And yes, >> Brian Johnson, yes. >> Mandala, yes. >> That motion passes. We'll do a roll call vote regarding uh the revisit to board member Anderson's previous motion. Um starting with uh board member F Jefferson. Oh, I'm so sorry. We

255forgot to Liz, Dr. Grant, I forgot to acknowledge you, but I did call for a vote. Um, board, are you okay if we hear from the superintendent? >> I would like we called the question. Debate is over >> and we vote in a different order. We have to move forward. >> Charlotte Charlotte Fe Jefferson. No. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazard, >> no. >> Annie Romano, abstain. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Man, yes. >> Bryce Williams, abstain. All right. Um, based on the tally, that motion does not pass. >> You want to Dr. Grants? >> That'd be great. Dr. Do you have any comments? >> Yes. I just want to I want to set some context on this budget that we have before you. Um, this has taken six months to put together. And

256I think we need to be careful in thinking about how much of a deficit can be um erased in a single year. If we truly are 16 million out, that means um Alan, I may get the numbers wrong. Um but I would think five I don't know. uh 5 * 16 would be 72. We'd have to end 72 positions essentially to recoup all of that additional in addition to what's been recouped already trying to to short to shrink that budget gap. So to to capture a budget gap like this in a single year is nearly impossible. Um but it is something we can do over a number of years to get down to a much more well to a balanced budget which is the plan but to do it all at once I don't think

257really is possible and even if we made some changes in the budget now we're talking about changing people's jobs there's nothing else to do but change people's jobs meaning we end some jobs or if you want fund some things this year uh at the last moment here in a tough budget year. It really would be taking away some people's jobs to add others. So the consequences of these things are are pretty strong and large and I I'm not sure we're capturing that in this discussion and the frustration about where we are. the remedy is draconian at some level to get to where we want to be. Um, and I think we're going to get there soon, but it to get there tonight or to get there in time to get a new budget set up,

258I I just think isn't realistic. And I would prefer that the board look on what has been done so far to decrease the budget and try and shrink that gap which has been significant and consider that as the direction we're going to consider continue to go. A zerobased budgeting exercise is a good thing to do but it's not a decision making tool like Ashley said. It helps in understanding where some cuts might be made or where our priorities are. But again, it doesn't make the decisions for us. So those decisions still need to be made even after that exercise is done. I would encourage the board to pass a budget with the understanding that we have a top-notch financial office that is going to help close the deficit as quickly as possible with doing all

259the things you're recommending and looking at all the places you're recommending for savings, but that we move forward understanding that to do it now at the in June um really has some consequential um it's consequential for a number of people whose jobs might be changed or lost. >> Thank you, Dr. Ashley. >> Yeah. Um I agree with a lot of what Dr. Grant is saying, but I am concerned about the alternative continuing to be um trust in the decisions when the budget has jumped from 4 to 17 in one fiscal year. So I I have done my best effort to put forth a way to approve the budget with caveats. That was rejected twice. The budget as is was also rejected once in that universe. I stand by what I said in the prior discussion

260which is we need to move forward and simply provide the direction that a revised budget uh needs to be provided on June 16th and the board retreat agenda needs to be punted because we must approve a budget by that day. Not really. Sorry. Um I I agree. Like I think it's it's tricky because I understand like I the reason I'm abstaining in my vote is because I don't want to have 100 people just suddenly fired, right? Like that's not what I'm wanting. What I'm wanting is strategic decision making throughout the year, evaluating positions and evaluating those positions in light of our revenues and other expenditures. I don't feel like that's happening. And so that's my way of conveying that. But given that I don't want there to be no budget passed, I'm either supportive of

261just tableabling the retreat and coming back with a revised budget or entertaining another motion that may someone else may have. I don't know. >> Which motion would you be open to considering? >> I don't know. I I guess I'm just saying like I would like there to be some sort of um faster movement instead of waiting for the whole next budget cycle. >> I think we're obligated at this point to move on in action agenda. >> Any last thoughts? So, as been noted, I can erase that $16 million deficit in the next two weeks, and there will be a lot of people who don't have jobs anymore. So, what I'm looking for, I guess, is board direction of of of that $16 million, how much do you expect to be reduced in two weeks? And

262so, I can bring a list of here's the jobs that um will no longer exist come July 1. So, that's the that's the feedback I will leave from the board. Thanks. >> I will make a commitment that I will vote yes in approving a budget if we do those four slash5 things um that Ashley and Amanda um had mentioned, I will as upset as I am about the direction things have gone, I do not want people to lose their jobs. So, I will vote yes with those five conditions if someone is willing to make that motion. >> And can I I just the the conditions seem reasonable. I I have no severe heartburn about the conditions. I think there's stuff we'd be doing anyway, we would need to be doing anyway. It just puts them

263in in a solid form. So those conditions that were put forth in the original motion don't I mean we'll still end up in a discussion of people that you know jobs get ended um or you know is there a 0% cola next year? You know those are the discussions we'll be having. Um but um we might eliminate the someone's position. >> Wait, what? >> Um so the conversations don't get easier. It just gives us more time to to flesh them out and and make them um more targeted. And the qu some of the questions will be I mean I think the $5 million decrease which was put in the motion is reasonable. It's not erasing the whole thing, but we'll have a property tax growth number uh mid this month. So, we'll know how much

264additional revenue we're getting from growth. Um we'll have the discussion over the next cycle of is there a property tax increase. So, those will help those revenue increases will help offset the the positions that need to to be cut. But, I want to give a caveat a little bit. Um Charlotte kind of kind of said what the issue is of well she doesn't like the budget because we've cut three um social worker positions. Well, when I bring a list of things we're going to cut, there always going to be people who says no, those are important positions and we need them. And then we'll end up in the exact same position where we're at of nobody wants to cut anything, but we also need to balance the budget. So these are just kind of some

265warnings that we're going to have. It's been mentioned we're going to have hard conversations over the next six months. Um, but they need to be had and I think the question on the motion on the table or the question will be do we have those conversations in the next two weeks or do we have them over the next six months? >> I would just ask our parliamentarian how is there a limit to how many times you can move to reconsider? >> No. >> I move to reconsider my prior motion as stated. >> I second. Any discussion? Ashley, >> I would offer that these are being referred to as conditions and they are actually directives and most of them say things like goal and commitment. They are not the same as a motion. So just I'm

266I'm clarifying that this is not conditional for support. It is what I think reflects the finance committee's work and discussion. I'm not bargaining conditions. I'm providing potential directives for you to support or not support. And I don't see it as a condition like a hostage situation. Any further discussion? >> Ashley, I appreciate the thought that you have put into this. I think that you really have reflected on what you have been experiencing in the finance committee. I'm not on the finance committee. It's not that I I'm trying to abregate any responsibility. I am just trying to recognize your work but also have the understanding that I appreciate and I'm relying on a direct picture giving me as a board member. Thanks. Um I think the only thing that I would add and actually I appreciate

267you clarifying that these are directives and that you're not holding anything hostage. Um but I I in my experience I know that there are times when something is said in board meetings and if it's not done it can be brought up multiple times throughout any discussion you know and that's the thing that really um gives me some anxiety over this. Um, I think just based on where we're at and hearing your clarification, what you're comfortable with moving forward, um, that gives me a lot more hope that we can manage these things moving forward, um, in a meaningful way and not, um, in any other type of way that might be perceived as negative or whatever. But, nonetheless, um, I appreciate that. And Bryce, hearing your your piece on this, too. And Allan, um, I'm willing

268to support this um, moving forward. Any other discussion, Charlotte? >> Yeah, I just uh I know we need to pass a budget. I I mean, I'm willing to give up my stipend to help pay for social workers, for our students who are desperately needing it. I know as a teacher how important it is and so it just anyway >> we'll do a roll call vote starting with member Anderson Anderson. Yes. >> Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Brian Jensen. Yes. >> Mandalo. Yes. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> Charlotte F. Jefferson. Yes. >> Congratulations, board. We passed a budget. Um, our next agenda item on the action agenda is the board retreat agenda. Is there a motion on the table? I move we um approve the draft agenda for the board retreat on 616 as um

269stated in exhibit 3F4 um with the amendment that the icebreaker will be a generic icebreaker for 30 minutes. >> I'll second. >> Oh, motion and second. Any discussion? >> Sure. I didn't know it had to be a generic one. >> Well, I'm I'm just saying we will have an icebreaker that is 30 minutes. Is that clear? >> Okay. >> But it may >> I just want to add a clarification. It was mentioned earlier. We will also have a consent agenda attached to this so we can get purchase orders approved and so forth. >> I withdraw my motion for was it seconded? >> It was second. All right. Any further discussion? >> No. >> All right. Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Romano. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Is that

270including the consent agenda? >> Correct. >> Okay. Yes. >> Brian Jensen. Yes. >> And yes. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson. Yes. >> Nick Salazar. Yes. That motion passes. Uh we will now move on to the superintendent's report. Dr. Grant >> uh nothing this evening to add. >> Thank you. Uh BA Kley, do you have a report this evening? >> No, nothing. We'll start with board member reports with board member 5 Jefferson. >> I don't have anything. >> Um I'll just say congrats to the graduating class. I enjoyed participating in graduation. I've set an upcoming meeting with doc uh with some U of health providers that um will be helpful in increasing the mental health partnerships that will be coming up this week and I'll report back on those. And also happy pride

271month. hours late, I too would just celebrate with those graduates. It was really wonderful to be at those different graduation ceremonies. >> Just a couple of uh quick things. Um one, the USBA uh board of directors meeting is this uh Friday, so we'll be attending that. Um the conversation around USBA's further involvement in SBA has been um scheduled. So that conversation will be happening. I will report back uh when I know anything about that >> in this board meeting in your board meeting on Friday. >> On Friday. Yeah. >> Um the other thing I was going to mention is this Friday is also the pre-delegate assembly. Um so all board members are invited to come and participate in that. There's a a dinner and some speakers and things like that that happen Friday. I believe

272that's at six o'clock. I'm just going to be down in Sandy all >> All day. Um and the delegate assembly takes place on Saturday morning. Charlotte is one of our um voting members in that. Um folks are also welcome to come and attend that as well. But just reminder, just a reminder that Charlotte and one other person are the only ones who vote from our region. >> Thank you and happy Pride. >> Just an honor and privilege to be able to attend the graduation ceremonies. It's extremely exciting to see the joy on the students faces. So >> congratulations class of 2026. Thank you, Amanda. I don't have a report other than just a congratulations to all of our graduates. Um, a huge shout out um to Happy Pride to everybody that's celebrating. Um, we really

273really thank you uh for all of your efforts and for joining us tonight. The board does have a need to reenter close session. And I'll entertain a motion. I move that the board re-enter close session to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual and pending or reasonably imminent litigation and that the board adjourn immediately upon the conclusion of close session. >> Second. >> Any discussion to the motion? Okay, we'll do a roll call vote starting uh with Vice President Jetson. >> Brian Jetson. Yes. >> Amanda Waffle. Yes. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> Charlotte F. Jefferson. Yes. >> Salazar. Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> That motion passes. Thank you for joining us this evening.