SLCSD Board Meeting, March 18, 2026 5:30 PM

001I love it. So he's coming for you. How are you? Sure. My name is Yes. You're not going to get Yeah, I know. I think the water Everybody. Jonathan What's that? They already fixed up. >> All right. Thank you everybody for joining us. Uh today is March 18th, 2026. We are here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education meeting. Um we did have a a a study session earlier on diploma options that'll be coming back to us in May. Um for now, I do want to go through some welcoming items. Um, I want to acknowledge our association presidents um who are with us or will be joining us soon. For our classified association groups, we have buildings and grounds Sam Gilchrist. Um, child nutrition president Tanya Slaughter. Uh, for

002SLEA, we have President Mike Harmon and Vice President Chelsea A Costa. They are not here right now. They let us know that they'll be late. Uh, they have a SLEA representation meeting and they're hoping to be here right around 7 this evening. And then for SLAsa, the Salt Lake Association of School Administrators, uh they are represented by Tom Luthie. Thank you, Tom, for being here. Um up next, we have the pledge of allegiance. And I've asked Principal Britney Pal to lead us in the pledge. I aliance 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. Um, moving on to the consent agenda. U, we did get a request to move item 1B to

003the action agenda. Um, so we will go ahead and and do that um within the motion. And then there's also some discussion that I know needs to happen regarding u the board meeting minutes for March 3rd, 2026. And we'll entertain a motion to start that discussion. >> Do you want it just as a motion to approve so that we can go into discussion about it? I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of 1B, the Rocky Mountain turf, artificial turf. >> Okay. Is there a second to the motion? >> Second. >> All right. We've got a motion and a second. Uh board member Longwell, do you want to go ahead and um contribute to the discussion about the changes you'd like to see to the March 3rd meeting? >> So, yes.

004and I can um integrate this into my motion, but basically the March 3rd, 2026 minutes, we had quite a bit of a discussion around um holding on the asphalt projects on the uh buildings that are currently in the G5 closure process. Um, and so that my request would be that that be reflected in the minutes, which it was not previously, so it can be documented that it was committed to hold on the asphalt projects for the buildings that are in the G5 closure process. So, >> do you want me to make the motion to include that so that it's formally >> No, I think we could just make the the changes to the minutes now. um be >> I I want to clarify what hold means because the discussion was we'll put them at the

005end and so as things progress we'll have better information versus hold mean as in pull them off >> right but at this yes >> we're going to hold and make future hold until we complete the G5 to determine what the appropriate next steps were with the asphalt because I think that has to be clearly be noted um versus just hold and done regardless of the concern about the G5 closure. >> Is that okay with you be accused? >> Yep. >> Okay. Any other discussion? >> Oh, and we'll make sure that those changes are made. >> We will make sure those changes are made. Right, Helen? >> Okay. Thank you, Helen. >> All right. Any other discussion? Okay. Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Williams. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >>

006Charlotte Fe Jefferson. Yes. >> Ashley Anderson. Yes. >> Nate Salazar. Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Brian Jensen. Yes. >> Amanda Long. Yes. >> Thank you. That motion passes. Uh before I move on to the request to speak, I neglected to remind everybody that we do have a time certain uh public comment on school fees and that'll be at 7:15. Um per our normal practice. Uh regardless of where we're at in any discussion or report, uh we will stop. um then at 7:15 so that we can hear from the public regarding those school fees. Um up next we have the request to speak and I have one speaker this evening and that is Jen Oscerson. >> Am I good here? >> All right. Great. >> There we go. Good afternoon, president, board members, and superintendent.

007With budgeting around the corner, I want to be sure we're asking what cuts are going to be acceptable. A good example is I'm seeing the guide dogs coming through. Um, we still have outstanding like identified issues of ADA issues that are existing at schools. The G5 policy, as you were just discussing, seems to be restricting the board's request of a study um of shuttered schools. That just leaves the question of what is the district planning? There seems to be a G5 policy director. I am confused as topheavy uh the org chart really is and how it's acting. Uh for example, we have an in-house general counsel and Jordan school district which is double our size. They just outsource that to the board council. So there's other resources that could be utilized in different ways and

008doing so wouldn't create a lot of money but it would create money back into um and it's you know it's really not funny to me because you're going to cut serious things and so I want you to really consider what you're cutting and how that's going to impact everyone in the community. Thank you, Jen. Um, and I did get an updated request to speak list, so there are two more speakers. Um, Rosie Singleton, come on up. Hi, I'm Rosie Singleton. I graduated from Highland High School last year and I'm currently studying at the University of Utah. I first got involved with the CTC's puppy raising program as a high school freshman and it completely changed my life. The program taught me independence and confidence that no other high school class was able to. I understand

009that a primary reason the program is being discontinued is that it doesn't directly lead to a high paying or high demand industry. I believe that these classes prepare students for a variety of future careers by teaching them foundational skills that are completely necessary for the transition into adulthood. I urge you to continue to look for a way to support the guide dog training within Salt Lake City high schools and I request that the board reconsider the removal of these classes. Since graduating, I've continued to raise dogs for the organization and I'll soon be receiving I'll soon be receiving my fourth dog to raise for guide dogs. Since I am no longer in high school, the decision to remove the program won't affect my ability to be involved with guide dogs. But I'm speaking here today

010because I believe that how sorry uh because I know how much this opportunity benefits students as they move towards careers in higher education. Being a part of guide dog training has had a massive impact on my educational, academic, and social connections post high school. When I moved off my parents house last fall and began a more independent adult life, I wasn't intimidated by the change because for the last three years, I had been learning how to advocate for myself and become more responsible and independent. This program does so much more for the students than what you see on the surface. It teaches students how to be resilient and adapt when circumstances change. It teaches students how to be confident and to know when to stand up for themselves. And at the program's core, it teaches

011them the importance of being a part of something bigger than themselves. I've seen this firsthand countless times. The students who put all of their love, effort, and time into these dogs are permanently changed when they give their dog away, and they gain a massive respect and appreciation for social responsibility and learn to support and be supported by the people around them. I remember my last guide dog training class, our teacher, Anna Blackman, wanted to share with the graduating seniors her advice for the next chapters in our lives. Her most important piece of advice was to believe in something regardless of what that was. She thought that by believing in something, people always had an ideal to strive for, an image of how they could continue to improve. I think that ultimately that is what this

012program does for its students. It teaches them to believe in their own communities and in the impact they can individually make on others. That belief prepares students for their lives post high school, regardless of what that path is, more than you could ever expect from a high school class. I hope that you will consider our position and thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Rosie. Our next speaker is Martin. And Martine, I'm so sorry I can't read your handwriting. >> You should see mine. Thanks so much for giving me an opportunity to speak. I sent each one of you plus the superintendent a letter. It had three letters in it. So I hope you've had a chance to look at that. I'm here to speak in behalf of the um guide dog program too.

013And not just the guide dog program, but the whole agricultural education pathway in high school. the um agricultural education pathway is the um companion animal science program and the guide dog program. If this is shut down, we're shutting down the agricultural education pathway, which I think is really sad that we're taking away opportunities from students instead of giving them more opportunities. Not every student fits into, you know, the niches sometimes that we create for them. and to give them more opportunities to see what fits for them and what their niche would be is a better way of approaching education in general and especially it shows how much we care about students that we are trying to help them to see you know what it is that would matter to them most of all oh it

014timed out um the program especially the guide dogs has a huge ripple effect so if we look at the students themselves and them raising a guy dog. It has a huge impact on them, but a huge impact on their family, a huge impact on their um the community and for the um recipients who get the dogs too. So, this is a huge impact, I might say, bigger impact than a lot of other programs that we offer through the district and a lot of other programs that we offer um through school. So, I think it is really important to take into consideration how devastating it would be to lose that opportunity. I'd like to um read a letter. It's the very end of one of the letters that you um that I sent to you and

015I'll send you more information too so that you can see lots and lots of impacts that um this particular program has made. This was written by a parent and maybe I should address the fact that I was the one who started the guide dog program. I have since retired and Anna Blackman is one of my old students which in and of itself says a lot about the impact that this program makes. My student went and educated herself with a master's degree to um be able to take over the program when I left. And this was written um by one of my students um parents. And as a side note too, he's an attorney. So he's not just I mean he's a highly educated person and values education a ton. He says as a parent you

016hope and I'll try to get through this without crying. You hope that your kids will learn to be compassionate, resilient, responsible. Oh, I'm sorry. basically a better human being than yourself. Of all the classes that Ian took, from math to history to economics to social studies to sports, none of them taught them this fundamental skill the way the guide dog program did. And for that, we will forever be in your debt. Please reconsider closing the AED um pathway. Thank you. >> Thank you, Martin. And thank you to everybody who spoke with us this evening. Uh we'll now move on to our reports agenda. Uh the first item is budget development 2026 2027 preliminary property tax rates. plug in here. All right. So, our next step in the budget development process, uh, today we're going to

017talk about the preliminary tax rates for, um, next school year. Again, tax rates are on a calendar year. So really, these are the taxes. Uh this is the rate that it would be paid in November on the homes, but it really funds our 26 27 fiscal year. Um the first step in estimating a tax rate for next year is estimating the assessed value. Uh we do that by looking at historical assist values increases and and do our our best estimate of what they're going to look like next year. Uh in June, the Utah State Tax Commission actually sends the uh valuations to us and those are the final ones that the rate gets built on. So these are all based on estimates. Uh we anticipate uh an increase of 4.8% from the 2026 uh tax

018year of assessed valuation. Uh again, just a little reminder of what the certified tax rate is. Uh so the certified tax rate is the rate that generates the same amount of revenue uh for the district as in prior year. So in other words, as it says there in the beginning, all existing values times the certified tax rate equals previous year's revenue. Uh just want to cover those bullet points under the certified tax rate. uh if the so if as assist value goes up the rate goes down and that's how you generate the same same revenue. Uh the previous year revenue is not increased due to inflation. So if if costs go up uh utilities go up we don't get any more automatic revenue. It's just it it stays the same. Uh new construction increases sometimes

019referred to that as growth does increase. So if there's farmland that gets a bunch of houses built on it, then that adds to the revenue uh for uh taxing any for the next year. Um part of the certified tax rate is the basic levy and that's um set by the legislature. So when they determine what the weighted people unit value is and how much money statewide that needs, then they they determine what that rate is to generate that amount of revenue statewide. Uh and then general obligation bond uh levy is set to pay the debt that has already been approved by the voters voters. So that is also not part of the certified tax calculation. Uh just some historical numbers here on on our tax rates. Those are the different levies. You see again the

020basic school levy is set by the legislature. Uh they're the the two stars. the charter school levy. That's a levy that is actually um set by well the the school district levies that but that money goes to the state office and then gets distributed out to charter schools throughout the city. Um so that just gives you some historical uh rate values. Again, our estimated preliminary certified tax rate for next year there in the bottom 0354 uh slightly down from the rate from last year. uh again down because as assist values go up, the certified tax rate goes down. Uh impact uh um for homeowners. Again, here we use a market value of a home of $100,000. Not because there's homes that are valued at $100,000, but it just makes the math easier. Um homeowners get

021a 45% discount in that value of the appraised value to become a taxable value. There you see down. So, a $100,000 home would be taxed at $55,000 worth of value, taxable value. And there you see the rate. Uh, so our current year estimate would show a decrease of $1243 for the $100,000 home in annual taxes. Um, now that's largely because as assessed value goes up. So I'm I'm not I don't want to say that people would see a decrease in their taxes, but um as because there's the value goes up, the rate goes down to keep the same amount of revenue. And I also want to say that that's citywide. So there's in I mean a home home neighborhood over here may have an increase in valuation. Another area may have decrease or stagnant. So

022it's citywide. So Every individual can't look at their tax notice that they'll get from the from the county and say, "Well, mine went up." Because again, the total revenue we get that matches the previous year revenue is the city as a whole. Uh I just have a slide in here that also shows the effect on a million-doll business. Businesses do not get that um that 45% uh discount on their appraised value. Um, so shows a a again a drop of 226 per million dollars of assessed value for a business. The levies we have go into different funds. There you can see in the um the different colors. The bulk of it is the general fund which goes to fund standard operations of the district. Uh then we have that small green slice of the charter

023school levy and then the capital and debt services combined in that blue. Um there you can see just continual decrease in the rate. Uh largely again I want to emphasize as assessed value goes up what happens with the rate >> it goes down. So again, I want to emphasize that the budget we are preparing for next year uh is planning on adopting the certified tax rate. So no increase in the tax rate for the district. Uh will so we will not have to have any truth and taxation hearings in August. Uh the legislature added new rules and and criteria for um taxing entities that are going through truth and taxation. We won't have to worry about this that this year if we uh choose to adopt the certified tax rate. uh next steps in our

024budget building process. So in April, we'll cover the capital projects and debt service fund budgets. Uh April through May, uh I'll invite board members who wish to come in, meet in small groups, and kind of go over some details of the budget. Uh May 5th, we'll have the general fund budget and review and the executive summary. Then a final review of the whole budget in May. And then it's anticipated that the board will approve the budget on June 2nd. Again, we approve a revised current year budget, an original next year budget, and also the final uh approval of the tax rate. That is the end of my presentation. If there are any questions, Charlie, >> um did you say so you were talking about the businesses You said that went down or it will go

025down and can you explain why again? >> Let me get to that slide again. You see over there in the blue under the 2627 that property tax increase or decrease decrease from prior year. So that's a decrease on an assessed value of a million dollars. So if you're >> what line is >> the the highlighted in blue there at the very end. >> Okay. Yeah, >> there you see that >> negative226. >> So all things being equal, if their assessed value didn't change from last year, if it was a million dollars last year and it's going to be a million dollars next year, then they would see an actual decrease of negative of 226. Uh we do know property values are increasing. So the likelihood of a stagnant assessed value is probably not going to

026happen. So they won't necessarily see a decrease in what they're paying. Um but overall through the system it'll be the same amount um paid in as it was the previous year because if we if we adopt a rate that is in excess of the certified tax rate that's when we have to go through the truth of taxation process >> and you basically just touched on something that I was going to ask just to emphasize to the community that we are not asking the community to go above and beyond um the basic tax um levy if I'm using my terminology correctly. Um so this year will be kind of a I guess a stable year in that regard. Um and I did give you heads up the the question that I I'm asking for the public

027understanding as well. Um is with the assumed increase in property values but decrease in basic levies that's set by the legislature. Um you kind of talked about this. Will we see gains in what we receive or will those gains go in part or whole to the city via the HTRZ TIF every other letter that's out there allocations we're required to pay to the city um out of our property tax receipts so that the community knows that you know we do if we get $100 per se we have to turn around and send a portion of that off to the city. It's not all money for the district. this year, if I remember right, it's somewhere around $35 million that we have to hand over to the city that we don't get to put into our

028students and our school community. So, circling back, you got that or you want me to repeat it? >> I got it. >> So, I talked briefly about the one way that taxing entities can get more revenue even while adopting the certified tax rate is if there's growth, new development. However, if that new development is contained in a redevelopment entity which is being funded, yeah, project area which is being funded by tax increment financing, the bulk of that growth doesn't come to the district. It goes to the redevelopment agency to then be invested into the redevelopment projects. So you might see a lot of growth going in a certain area, but if again if it's in one of the various um redevelopment project areas uh depending on the agreement, sometimes we get some of the growth,

029sometimes we get zero of the growth. Each agreement kind of has a different contract. Um so to answer your question, yes. Then let's say there was a 7525 split because some of our agreements are that. So 75% of the growth would go to the the redevelopment project and then 25% of the growth would come to the district. >> And two parts here. Um for the public's sake, this is not something we have a choice over. Um and then secondly, when they're looking at the capital funds uh budget um in the property taxes that we receive, they then need to look at the is that it the tax increment financing part of the budget book um to see what money is turned around and sent to the city that's not actually ours to know what our

030actual net amount that we are working with in this picture because it is a it's a substantial hit. So, just a a reiteration of what's happening with the monies that we don't get all of it. >> Right. Like like you said, we have a what's we have a fund that's called the tax increment financing fund or we may call it the the tax pass through fund because the charter school taxes are also in there where it's >> taxes that are collected on a levy set by the the district. However, due to various different reasons that those taxes get diverted and never actually show up to this district. Um and that's that's reported both in our budget book and our uh year in financials that indicates how much money um gets diverted out. Again I last

031year it was about 35 36 million. Um that trend just continues to to grow when we get the tax settlement. So in at the end of March we get what's generally called the tax settlement from the county which is settling up all of the 2025 taxes. And that's when we get the final number that um will be diverted that w that was diverted in the 2025 to these other uh entities from the district and we'll report on that when we get that fund and talk to that part in the budget. >> Thank you. >> Um and just to clarify there was no change in legislation regarding this issue. So it should be the same type of operation as this past year, >> right? There was discussion as in the year before to take the basic

032rate which is set by the legislature and um that wouldn't come to districts that would go to the state money state into this year they were proposing to create a new kind of special revenue fund to put that money in um and then backfill that to the districts with um income tax money. That bill did not pass. So there's there's no difference than the way we've been doing it for years. >> Thank you. Ashley. >> So, it is my understanding that this year our property tax growth that we did get in the budget was about $2.8 million. Um, and in past budget cycles, this board, but also neighboring boards have restricted property tax growth to specific line items in their budget. But as we see other revenue diminishing and costs increasing, it's my understanding that

033that $2.8 8 million of growth goes to inflationary costs for things like utilities that have gone up, substitute pay that has increased, insurance rates that are going up, and any other kind of inflationary cost. Is that accurate? >> Both both inflationary cost is accurate. We've also received cuts from the state over the last couple years in the um professional staff cost formula. The way they reformulated that uh resulted in a $2 million decrease in state funding of the district. Uh in addition this year, as we we saw when we got our October one counts, the at risk money decreased by a million dollars. So um the the increases in inflation and the decreases in funding have far exceeded the growth. So yes, it's just going to kind of help smooth that out a little bit.

034>> And so 2.8 million in growth is a drop in the bucket compared to $36 million going to the city's CRA for development as board member Longwell pointed out. But how much additional growth do we know the hard number of what we would receive if the city and state were to release the district from existing tiff areas specifically the ones that we opposed? >> It would be that 36 million for for again for that was the 2024 tax year. So >> plus 2.8. >> Yeah. Well because we get the 2.8 regardless that that was the current year. it would be on top of >> um so yeah, let's say they all ended on all that money instead of being diverted to other entities came to us. Uh yeah, that'd be the $36 million plus the

0352.8 which we did receive. >> So we'd end up with close to $40 million additional to work with to address those declining revenues and inflationary costs. >> That is correct. >> And if we know that we're locked into many of these agreements because not least of all we have two votes on a committee of only several people. Um, if we know that property tax growth can only keep pace with inflation while those agreements are in place, what property tax rate would it take to supplement the weighted pupil unit so we could lower the ratio of students to faculty to retain more of our especially secondary school staffing at close to present levels as enrollment goes down. >> Right. Um, I can't switch over to my email, so you might have to remind me. So, I

036believe it was a 0 five. >> Yeah. um which would it would take if we if we took our allocation method which is um you know when we allocate FTE there's a student per teacher ratio if we dropped all those by one excuse me it would take that 0.5 rate uh to generate enough funds which um was about 2 million I don't I'm trying to just go off my memory >> I think the total cost is like 2.7 million 2.8 million approximately. >> Yeah. So that increase would generate those additional funds if we you know that's that would generate about $2.7 million. >> So in other words in the future if inflationary costs were able to be addressed we're looking at roughly the same amount $2.8 million of growth that we anticipate to receive and

037$2.8 8 million that it would cost to lower the faculty to student ratio in schools to retain more staff than otherwise we're able to retain. >> Yes, >> that's the investment that would be required and we could not do that in this cycle if we're not proposing a tax increase because that would be either allocating, you know, committing to allocate $2.8 million in growth to that, which you're saying we don't have because of these inflationary costs, or raising it $2.8 million, which would be about $17 a household. Is that that true? >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> For and and that was for the average I used 600,000. I believe the average the last time we got the number from the county was in the high 500. So I just rounded to 600

038when I made that calculation. >> Right. So $17 or less on average >> per year. Yes. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. >> Any other questions? >> Seeing that we'll move to round two with >> Brad and then we move around two. >> Go ahead. >> So I just make sure that I understand um how this is going to proceed. In one of the last slides, you said on April 14th, we're going to have another budget report and that's where we're going to be looking at capital projects and then the debt service fund. Um you've suggested that small group could come and meet with you. Will the budget draft budget be available for us then when we come to um meet with you? >> Yes, there we usually have it done there by the end

039of April. >> That's why I I put in there April through May >> um to give me a little wiggle room and not hold it to a specific date, right? >> Um and that's when the whole budget's available. The general fund takes the the longest. That's why that's usually the last piece we get done. >> Right. Again, the budget book when it's all done is a 150 page document. And in one meeting, if we just waited, that would be too much to cover in one meeting. That's why we we break it out in these little chunks. And starting last month up through May, we we give you the little chunks and then do a final review there in May of the total budget book. I think that's valuable for the public to understand that in

040each board meeting and I mean we can go back to like January when you started breaking this out in pieces. So it isn't that we haven't been talking about the budget. We've been talking about the budget for the last two and a half months or >> Yep. Yep. We we we discussed the building I I call them the building blocks of the budget. So when we hit in May, you've kind of got some background of what how did we get to this whole big 250 or 150 page document. >> So you're suggesting that it would be better because I would like to come in and meet with you. So toward the end of April, beginning of May, that's when you >> Yep. >> have it ready for us to be able to look. >> Yeah.

041I'll reach out and email and and have some time set up that uh people want to come in and meet uh in small groups or individually to go over a more detail. The goal is that when we hit that June 2nd meeting, when we hit June 2nd, that the board has a good understanding of the budget, of what it what it does, how we got to it, and feel comfortable voting on it. So if the public is following along, is there anywhere that they can go to see? I guess the one way they could do it would be to go to the passport meetings and click on the various reports that you've given. >> Is there is there another way that they can see? >> Well, I I would highly suggest they go look at

042the current year budget that's on the website under under board of education. There's the budget. Look at that document. um because we're we we don't change we don't recreate the wheel every time. So if they're familiar with the LA with the current year budget then it makes understanding the budget we're we'll be proposing uh just that much easier. I think that's helpful for them to understand how they can be tracking >> what we're talking >> and then I'll note so when we get in those May meetings so the the draft budget will be on the web page uh we'll also that June 2nd meeting will be a public hearing >> correct >> where the uh public is invited to come and and make comments specifically for the proposed budget. >> Thank you. >> Thanks Brian.

043Moving to round two with Annie. Um, just from a parent slregular person perspective, I'm just going to see if I'm understanding correctly. So, what we're talking about is property taxes and a lot of school funding generally comes through state the state or local tax rate, right? And so what's happening is we have property taxes that aren't going up significantly because people don't want their taxes to go up. And they're then of that money um in the tax increment financing, a lot of it is being diverted to development projects instead of schools, which is why it's tied up in those projects, which is why we're we don't get that 36 million. So is that a kind of generally the right idea? >> Right. Let So here up on the screen I have the rates again. >>

044So all of these rates are they're set and and taxed by the district. However, these rates generate. So when we get to these development areas, they're also paying these exact same rates. Only not all the revenue comes to the district. it gets pushed back to the development agencies to reinvest into the the projects. So even though the homeowner on their T so they'll get their tax notice uh in the summer uh and it'll show all the different taxing entities um nowhere on the tax notice does it say this much money goes to the redevelopment agencies versus the schools. it just it acts like it's all coming to the school, but there is that portion that doesn't ever make it to the school district because it gets diverted off uh to the redevelopment projects. >> I

045just wanted to state this because I'm a parent and before being on the school board um six months ago, I did not know this. I thought, you know what, my property taxes are going to the schools. And so I think it's important for the general public to know this because in light of our budget and trying to have a balanced budget and in light of any proposed staff cuts, these regulations, our hands are tied in that sense. State legislators and other um entities are the ones who are setting this. So, the 36 million that we would have had this year to spend on all sorts of programs, um, more CTE classes, more, you know, a lower student to faculty ratio, all of that has been diverted. So, I just think it's important for the public

046to understand that as we are finalizing our budget. So, that's all. >> Thank you, Ashley. Yeah, I just want to reiterate that personally as we go through the budget cycle and look at opening that budget book, knowing that the amount of property tax growth we have is about 2.8 and the cost of lowering the ratio is about 2.8. I would like us sorry losing my voice a little bit to consider how we could dedicate dedicate growth to lowering the ratio. You know, we've had a lot of public comments and a lot of concerns about reductions of staff especially at the secondary level and lowering the ratio is one way to address that. that our school enrollment is declining and without doing significantly additional school closures, adjusting the ratio is one way that we can commit

047to staffing at present levels. And so I would like us to consider how we can look at inflationary costs. What other reductions are possible um specifically as the finance committee looks at the zerobased budgeting activity the district office is doing? How could that be offset to consider using that 2.8 to lowering ratio? I just think that's an important conversation to have knowing that we're not looking at school closure this year. We're about to look at an enrollment report where I see a lot of lines going the wrong way, right? That there's very limited things we can do absent school consolidation. And if lowering the ratio is something that would retain more staff, that's what we're hearing above all that the community would like us to do. So seeing those numbers are equivalent, I just reiterate

048personally I think as we continue to go through these presentations, we should talk about whether lowering the ratio is a valuable activity. >> Thank you. Any further discussion or comments questions for BA Gearsley? >> Charlotte, >> I have a lot of questions, but I don't think they can all be answered right now. So small meeting will help. Well, again, and if you have questions that come up before we get to that small meetings, please reach out. And again, school finance is not it it's not easy. It's actually very complicated. Uh again, this is what I do full-time. Um so I'm happy to spend some time even beforehand to kind of walk through some of the processes. >> Thank you. Great. Thank you, Alan. We appreciate it. Uh moving on in our reports agenda, we have

049strategic plan pillar 2 review. Dr. Grant, would you like to introduce this please? >> Yep. We're going to have Dr. Hall come up again and present on strategic plan or two. And you have a hard copy here at your table too. That'll be to give you a better view of the whole presentation. paper. >> It's not yet. >> It's going. How about now? Okay. If if you would just take out your paper copies so you can follow along as I read to you, that would be great. No, no, I am just kidding. Um I am happy to be here and to talk about the work of pillar 2. This pillar uh student achievements prek12 and transitions uh really encompasses students in our district from age three to age 211. And it really looks at all

050of the different kinds of things that we want for our students uh throughout this district. And as we have been reflecting in our department and and in conversations across the district, I what am I doing wrong here? I'm sorry. I'll trying to Thank you. Um it's it's really thinking about, you know, why is pillar two important? Why is this an important thing that we do? Um this is the pillar where we really talk about what we want kids to know, what we want them to be able to do, and what they're going to contribute to the world. And you've all heard me say before that we want graduates that leave us with choices. We want graduates that leave us feeling successful and ready to do things as they go forward in the world. And so

051I'm going to be talking tonight about things like our instructional consistency and how we're developing student voice and how we're increasing literacy across all of those age groups, prek12 um to 12 plus. We're going to talk about academics and we're going to talk about civic readiness and what it looks like in the real world. And this is really how it all fits together for us. Um, you know, we we want to think about who students are becoming. And that is really as we're thinking about what is it going to take? What what is the background we need to make sure students have so when they leave us they are civic ready that they are thoughtful citizens. They understand their place in the world. they understand the effect that um their actions have on the environment,

052on their neighbors, on their government, and that they have an opportunity to be able to know how to demonstrate that learning. And that that can take a lot of different um that can be demonstrated in a lot of different ways. We think sometimes about academic learning as they'll be able to read a book and and write on a piece of paper, but we know that in the 21st century, it's so much more than that. And we want to make sure that they're ready to be able to address those things. And that's because at the end of this, where learning leads are those real world experiences. We want them to be able to do the things in the world that will move them um to the places that they want to be. So, I am truly

053kidding about reading every word of this, but I am going to use goal one to introduce the um format of this and then I'm going to move through and just kind of highlight some of the pieces. I did print it so that it's easier for us if I say page four. Um but right now I'm going to start on page four and I'm going to use this as the example to kind of talk through how we put together our response to this. So for everyone, we have our goal and our objective and of course we have a a a goal for 2029 and we talk about some of the actions that we've completed. Those are some of the things you'll have heard in reports from us before. So our first goal is to develop our

054civic ready and thoughtful citizens. And to do this, we want them to develop and demonstrate that civic awareness and those competencies. And our primary strategy for this is the development and implementation of our seal of civic readiness which is a multiaceted tool to enable us to develop this in students. So we started this uh two years ago. We've created our framework and our rubric and our toolkits and we continue to engage in building um more levels to those toolkits. So right now we have a module that pushes into an existing class. We also have a standalone class and we're working on um the module that we talked about. I remember specifically um board member Longwell, you talked about having an independent path. And so that module is the next thing so that we have a

055way for students who aren't in a class, don't want to take another class, but still want to do this and earn this award um that they would be able to do that. So all of those things are coming up. Um, last year we had 89 students participate and we had many of you there to hear and see that. I will be sending you an invitation to be a judge this year. Our second civic showcase is scheduled too many s's for April 29th. So, um, please look for that. And if you have some time to come and and and judge or just be there for part of the day, it is um really an amazing event. As we continue to move forward, we're going to continue to grow that teacher awareness and promoting this. Last year,

056we had five teachers that um participated over three schools. This year, we've got 10 to 14. So, we're really anticipating um growth of this program to meet our goal. You'll notice in that first chart, so again, I'm not talking this much about all of them, but as we move through our data description, um this is the data that we're using to measure this. And it is the number of students that graduate with the seal of civic readiness. One thing that as we wrote that goal, we didn't anticipate is that while, for instance, last year we had 89 students who were awarded it, um 39 of those students were 10th and 11th graders. So, they didn't count toward our goal last year, but they will count in subsequent years. So, we'll be continuing to break that

057out so that we see how many students are making um are making it across the finish line for us to have those graduates. Now, one of the questions that has um been asked are, you know, questions about resources. And so, I'm going to just kind of address those briefly as I go through each one of these goals. And I want to preface this with while I would be very happy to accept a large pile of money from anyone from anywhere for any of these goals to do any of the things um we we are really working to make sure that we're able to do the things that we need to do within the budgets that we have and we use some things creatively. We're looking at things that maybe we don't need as much and

058if we are rep prioritizing other areas, those are conversations that we're having um I'm having internally with my team on a regular basis. But for instance, uh the seal of civic readiness we fund with the title 4 grant and uh that is a um federal funding and this is part of a well-rounded education. So that is where the funding comes from at this point. Could we do another amazing things if you know we found another extra $7 million someplace? Absolutely. But right now, we're moving forward. Um, and we're we're happy with that. So, that's kind of the format of how this report is put together. And again, I am going to just kind of move through and then we can uh come back for questions. Our second goal is around increasing that academic achievement and

059the equity um around that. And we have these goals, these four goals. Apparently, I have two threes. I apologize for that. But there are four goals in this. And the first one is to increase our academic conversation and literacy development. And this isn't just about increasing talking in the classroom. It's not just about having more noise happen in the classroom. It's about increasing the productive learning um about content and about students ability to express that learning across the board. And I'm going to come back to that across some of these goals because it plays into multiple goals. It is one of our foundational strategies to help improve uh student academic achievement. We started this in 2024 and some of the um things that we have done we have been working with both teachers and administrators

060to provide professional development. About 74% of our teachers and about 90% of our administrators when surveyed remembered that they have um received that professional development. We have been specifically working in math. Math is not generally one of the subjects that you think, wow, there's going to be a lot of conversation in math. Um, but that is one of our discourse areas. It it supports their STR standards and we are working with all of our curriculum materials and all of our planning documents to point out times and areas in the learning that those um pushins for solid academic conversation, questioning, and talking would be appropriate for students. Some of the things that we're doing next, we're uh finishing a toolkit that we'll have online. Um we found a a place to put it that everybody will

061be able to find it. Thank you to Mr. Quants's team. That will help us identify clearly with um ways and times to use them. Some of those high lever strategies to support this. Not every strategy is correct for every moment of your class. And sometimes helping teachers and um educators take the guesswork out of what strategy will work for what I want to have happen here is really helpful. Some of the data that we have, we conducted a survey. We had um very very good survey-wise responses to this both from teachers and from our administrators. Um we'll look at just a couple of those um coming up next. We are also going to have some observational data. I'd like to uh talk about that. We're excited. um coming up with 50% looking at what that

062looks like. We are going to at the end of this month do some interrator reliability training uh that is modeled on the way we have done ECAP um interrator reliability through HRS. This is not an evaluative process. I want to be very clear about that. But we are going to work with all of our administrators and our instructional coaches and anybody else who's interested and wants to Oh, but not just anybody. We're gonna I'm I'm spreading a wide net um to look at how we are going to collect some data about what that looks like. So, we'll be going out over three days um March 30, 31, and April 1st and doing 20 minute segments, visits across classes. We're working to spread that out across um all of our content areas, our grade levels. We're

063looking at time of uh period and calculating within that 20 minutes how many minutes are teacher talk, how many minutes are student talk and um is this a a perfect way? No. Will it be absolutely perfect? No. But it will give us a baseline and then every year subsequently we'll be able to collect similar data across the board um at about the same time of year so that we can look at this and see where where we have um progressed. On page seven, um we have just a couple of responses from the teacher survey. Um I just want to point out on the first one, the print is very small and I apologize for that, but it is how confident are you in your understanding of opportunities to respond in academic discourse. And we have

064a large predominant number of our teachers who are confident or very confident. And the third graph, how often do you intentionally plan? uh we have a far and away our largest number of teachers do that daily. And I think the fact that we are beginning to think about this as an intentional strategy that is used to help support student learning is an important um indicator of growth in this area. On page eight, the uh graph in the middle with all of the bars, that is a large variety of strategies. Those are strategies that are everything from a simple response to an indepth um conversation with a peer or colleague. And what we love about this is that it really demonstrates a variety of levels of depth and complexity. And why I love that phrase is

065that very often depth and complexity is a phrase that we hear in our magnet and our gifted programs. We need to increase depth and complexity. We need to increase depth and complexity in every classroom for every student. And this is one of the ways that we're able to do that. And we're having really fantastic conversations about what can we do when we're three, what can we do when we're seven, what can we do when we're 17, because those are all different things. Um, starting there at the bottom of page eight, we have responses from our administrator survey. Um we ask them how often when they're observing in classrooms they are seeing um intentional academic discourse and um they're seeing it 25 to 50% of the time. Our goal is 50% our administrators are seeing it

066in the classroom. And on page nine our administrators are talking about it with their teachers as they guide and support them and talk to them about their engagement strategies and what this looks like for all of our classrooms. And we see that our teachers and our administrators are understanding that this is an important engagement strategy for students in classrooms. When students feel like they have a voice, that they're they're speaking and their learning is intentional, they engage more not only with the content, but with school in and of itself. Um resource-wise, we have several schools that are working with Teach FX. This is a wonderful program. We continue. I know um board member Anderson, you've experienced that at Uinta Elementary School. Um they have pushed out, we have pushed out with a math cohort across

067the grade levels to look at this. And so we continue to look at ways that we could expand and and continue that. Our um second objective is our grade level proficiency and our core areas, English, uh math, and science with our board goal being that we'll show literacy proficiency in third, 8th, and 10th grade. Um, so as we look at these, I know we have looked at depth. Um, Dr. Jeff brought this to you earlier in the year, so I won't go quite as in depth with that, but some of the things that we're really working to do to make sure that this happens is provide highquality materials with um good pacing guides that are aligned to the standards to ensure that we have a guaranteed and viable curriculum. And that means that we know

068what students should be learning in each of those classes and that we're sure that they have enough time to make sure that all of those things happen. We are working across the board with school leadership and support who are supporting the work in schools of developing and sustaining professional learning communities. That is a strategy that will help us increase all of our academic success. And we are working with all of our instructional coaches, all of our specialists that are um supporting our teachers. This year we have had I'll speak about this in a a subsequent section as well, but we have been working with them to make sure that we are pushing deliberately and intentionally into our special education classes to support both our resource students and our um hub schools and our self-contained special

069classrooms. So all of those uh pieces are becoming more intentional across the board. We are also doing our letters training. That's been something our district has doubled down on. We are also proud to say that in our district, our prek teachers have the pre-K letters and our secondary teachers who are teaching reading and are otherwise interested in it are also able to take that training. So um those instructional building the instructional proficiency of our teachers and all of our educators is very important. Our literacy teams with our administrators have also been working with both Dr. Maloof and Miss Kam um Kamuckuk in our uh literacy department to help administrators be able to really see what highquality high leverage practices look like and work with them to develop that capacity and then move to another team

070and and begin that same conversation. On page 11, we have some of that data just to see how um we're looking at it. That first graph shows the percent of students that are proficient on literacy assessments by grade. So we have 1083. The dotted line is our district goal of 70% that we are shooting for in 2029. What I love about this graph and we do have it um broken down by school for schools to look at as well is that it shows us how many students it is to get to that goal. Because sometimes I think when we look at things as a percentage it feels really really big. But when we look at, for instance, our 10th grade students, we're 75 students away from meeting that goal. This is an achievable piece. And

071as we drill down and we look at that and we are able to talk with schools about those things, um that is the the level of conversation that we want to have. That came up in our earlier study session. And I I just believe that that is something that our administrators and our educators are looking at across the board. The second one um similar pattern, the proficiency goal is in green. That's 70%. So you can see where we are with our NWA map um in grades eight and 10 and our acadians in grade three. So we'll continue to work on building that growth. The next page 12 looks at content proficiency. Um looking first at our rise ELA. Um in grade three moving towards 65% in um grade 8. We add science. Science in the

072rise comes in grade four. So you can see we are really pleased with our science performance in the elementary grades and hope that that will continue to grow as we um focus on our sustainability efforts and our place-based learning efforts. Um the last graph is grade 10 currently that is on Aspire Plus. This is going to be very interesting to see um starting next year because next year we will be moving from a Aspire Plus in grades nine and 10 to a rise. And what is significant about that is the Aspire Plus is a test that was designed to align to the ACT with a couple of Utah standards questions thrown in. That's the plus. So it's expire for ACT plus some Utah. >> Next year, um the test that they take will be aligned

073to the Utah standards. And so, um, we're really hoping since the work that we're doing is to say, please, let's teach the Utah standards and be aligned and and do all these things, um, that that that will um, help us see what that looks like across the board. Um, resource-wise, we talk all the time about having our instructional specialists that are supporting teachers in the classroom, improving that teacher efficacy and all of those pieces. Um but also we would love to again if the pile of money fell out of the sky talk about interventionists and um some more tier 2 support. So those are some of the things that that we look at and continue to talk about and um try to prioritize that support. This year we're looking at working within our existing resources

074to prioritize some of the support we have maybe at schools that are proficient or scoring very well and and moving those. As hard as it is, we want everybody to have all the supports, but sometimes we have to decide where support is most needed to make sure that we're efficacious with that. Um, on page 13, objective 2.3 talks about how we are helping our English language learners um, gain that proficiency and leave that program. We have adopted elevation. That is a program that helps us to track their progress and their goals across all of the areas, all of their grade levels. It also has um a really wonderful professional development component that's actually down in our next steps. One of the things that we would like to do is see that become a more widely

075used. It's self-paced and um independent. Some of the schools that we've had double down on that have really seen some growth in their specific WTA student populations. We are also working, we have two ELD specialists, um, an elementary and a secondary. And while they work specifically with EL teams and teachers, as well as our ALS coordinators, we're also working with them to make sure all of our instructional coaches are pushing out with same look, same feel support for um English learners across all of our classrooms. So, in addition, as I said, to strengthening our work with special education with our um instructional coach cadre, we also want to make sure that we're supporting that with our uh English language learners. One of the things um that I think is very fantastic when we talked my

076colleague Dr. Taylor talked about in pillar one closing those achievement gaps at the last meeting. One of the things that's happening as we work with our heritage language speakers is really working to um identify and support the their their language. And I just that came to mind today because I was at Highland this morning and I talked to a French teacher who was giving the stamp test and I said, "So you've moved to stamp from Apple." Okay, so I don't know what those words mean, but they're the two words, right? You got apple, you got stamp. Those are the language tests, right? And she said, "Yes." And we are all doing both because we found that for students that have learned the language, they might do better on one, but our heritage speakers might do

077better on another. and we want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to be fully recognized for the skills and abilities that they have and to earn that seal of by literacy. I just appreciate always this is a shout out to the thoughtfulness of our teachers who look at those kinds of differences and work to find the ways that their students can be the most successful. So on page 14 again we have talked about this but here is our um students making growth on the Wii to access. We did have a large jump a couple of years ago when they changed some of the um levels of the WEDA test and now you know we're sort of back in line with the growth that we see across the state. But we continue to work

078on that. We know one of the areas that our students especially as they get older struggle with is the speaking and we are seeing our speaking scores come up which we think is is tied to our academic discourse. So that's fantastic. Um the uh second graph our met target by grade as we work toward that you'll notice um in fourth grade that is fairly consistent consistently one of our highest grades. One of the things that we always say is give us a speaker for five years and we'll bring them to proficiency. Um here we are. So um we really do see that that is one of the things that we're able to do in our district. And on page 15, our fourth goal in this area um with intan enhancing our technology knowledge and skills

079among students, we have a lot of ways that we're doing this. We are really working with students to be able to use a lot of different software tools. Um they are working with Office Suite. They are doing um a lot of work in different programs. We're looking at a few of them specifically. And so, um, for instance, I pulled up our study sync and our our midchool math and I looked at that and I thought, okay, well, those are kind of interesting and low. I would like to very quickly, um, shout out to Dr. Ashley McKini in Glendale. They are our high users at um the high 87 or 88% study sync and 90s in math. And when you are in those classrooms, you really see them interacting. So we are using um moving forward

080with them as a model for what that looks like when students and teachers are really engaged. We know that this goal may look different as we move forward with some of the recent legislation that was passed that that may limit some screen time and do some things. So as we figure out what that looks like, we may come back um to this as a living document and say let's think some more about how we are um looking at this goal. And then we have our goal three which is how again we connect to our real world experiences. And um we start this in prek where we really want to make sure that we are transitioning our youngest students carefully and safely into school. Um we have such an excellent early childhood program. And on page

08116 at the bottom I have um some performance data from literacy and numeracy. And when we look at the uh chart the first bar is how they come in in the fall. And so just to look specifically because I love this data at 2025 in the fall we had um about 75% of our students come in underperforming >> significantly underperforming. And as they leave at the end of the year, those charts have reversed. And you'll see that that 75% of those students are in fact at grade level and prepared and ready to go to kindergarten. And the same with numeracy. About 55% of them come in um below average preparation and we flip that number by the end of the year. Um, one of the things resource-wise that we continue to look for, um, we've

082been grateful for the support of the Salt Lake Education Foundation who's working with us to find funding to support, um, summer camp, I don't want to say camp, but summer programs for the students who end the year in our red and yellow. We would love to to pull those students in and have some additional time over the summer to give them specific and targeted support to be ready for kindergarten. Um the graph, the purple and blue graph at the um top of page 17. This is TS Gold Teaching Standards Gold is a program that measures how students come in not just specific to literacy and numeracy, but across their social and emotional development and a variety of other ways. So, how ready are they um as a whole child to move from preschool to kindergarten?

083And you know, once again, I I love seeing on this one, you want the green to be bigger and the blue to be smaller. And we see that happen over the years. So, all of those things really help prepare our students to enter kindergarten. And as we think about what that looks like across the board um for you know our third grade readers that starts when you're three that starts when you're four that starts when you're five to be literate at that age. Um objective 3.2 are innovative real world learning. This is one that the board has asked me in the past. You know what is placebased learning and how are we defining it? And you know it's kind of interesting because it's defined a lot of ways in a lot of places. I'm going

084to tell you how we define it. Placebased learning for us is learning that happens in a context that is real world that pushes outside of a textbook and looks at various ways that students could use the learning that they have to see what the world around them looks like. Um, some examples of that would be things like, and I know many of you have participated with our green teams at different schools that you've been interested in. One of the things our green teams um have done is they have gone through and this is a very sexy project. They have gone through trash at the end of lunch and they have collected data on what kinds of things get thrown away, what kinds of food are wasted, what kind of products are wasted. They look at

085all of those things. They chart that. They make a presentation and they propose to their school some changes that they could make to be more efficient. Um today I was at um Meark and I was talking to a fifth grade teacher there, Miss Christine Gibbs, and she said, "It's hot today." And I said, "I know. It really feels like summer." She goes, "No, you don't understand. We just went to the river." Like our fifth grade class went to the river today and it was really hot and I was not ready for it to be that hot. >> And that is an example of our place-based learning where she is taking her class. They are collecting data that could be anything from temperature to the number of plants to the number of birds. um taking water

086readings, looking at different chemicals or findings they have in the water, charting that, looking at that over the course of a year. Seal of civic readiness would be a place-based learning opportunity because students go and find that community need, talk with people in their communities and and create that solution. So, those are all um pieces of learning that happen outside of that. And we have three um wonderful people in my department that do a lot of this work with science and social studies. We have two science specialists, Summer Pelton and Christine Kaye, and a sustainability specialist, Carlen Christensen. They have been working a lot. They have also um been pushing out very hard into our special education classrooms to make sure all of this is able to happen across the board. Um we'll be collecting

087some self-reported data at the end of this year to capture um better from all teachers what that looks like because there's it is so much bigger than teaching and learning at this department. It is all teachers really helping to make that um learning interesting and engaging for students. Objective 3.3 is preparing students to leave us and go to the world. Um we have several goals here. This is where we talk about um CTE pathway completers. Those are our students that take three, our concentrators with two um students who are participating in apprenticeship programs and students who are taking CE classes. Some of our completed actions listed below. We we've had a lot of conversation together about CTE, but um I just like to shout out to Superintendent Grant. we've really been getting some traction this

088year um with her conversations with um Salt Lake Community College to help us break down some of the barriers we've needed to kind of get through and around to increase the number of CE classes that we can offer in the district and to put them in pathways that will make a difference for our students as they look at CTE preparation. So, um we expect to see those numbers going up as we look at this. Of course, we know some of our next steps. We want to continue to increase access to those things. We're working on our tech center. Um looking at the data on page 19, um our uh the bottom one, we have success. Look at this. We've already achieved that goal. Um 75% of our students who are taking um CE, we have

08987% of those students being concentrators, which is fantastic. as we continue to work um on page 20 at developing our apprenticeship programs. As you've heard ad nauseium, but I just like saying, we are the first district to really um introduce and embrace the apprenticeship model, the Swiss apprenticeship model in the state of Utah. On April 23rd, you'll be getting a save the date later this week. Um here in these rooms from 4 to 9 o'clock, we'll be having the signing day. And I think a few of you have been to an apprenticeship signing day. I cry like I can't even. This is where all of the students who have applied for their apprenticeship come and the the companies that are signing them that are taking them announce it. It is like getting signed to the

090NBA. It is like it is like it is like being signed to play at Michigan. I mean, and these these parents and these kids, they sit there and I sat next to a student the last time I went and he was just shaking. He was so nervous. He wanted to Anyway, I will >> It is It is a beautiful evening. If you can if you can come see that, I would come see that. Um and then of course our CE um students 20%, we're at 15 and again, we're hoping that that continues to increase. Now, pages 21 and 22 are gratuitous. I admit that fully. I threw them in. I mean, I did throw them in. I put them in there intentionally. They don't directly tie to some of these goals. But, um, knowing that

091we were having a study session earlier that we talked about graduation rate and some other things. Um, this first chart looks at over a four-year cohort the graduation rate of students that complete one credit of CTE, two credits of CTE, and three credits of CTE. And as you look at the um increase in those graduation rates for students who are involved in these programs, I don't need to say anything else about that. Um, it is really absolutely amazing. And in the pillar one presentation where we talked about achievement gaps, Dr. Taylor talked about achievement gaps. Just to to pull these out as a highlight, and I know that they were in the presentation last time, too, but um, when we look at closing that graduation gap, students with disabilities um, when they are a concentrator,

092that gap is reduced by 77%. um our lowincome students that gap is reduced by 94%. We have closed the gap for our English language learners. We have closed the gap for our Hispanic students. So um when we think about where that realworld relevance lies and the fact that students really do see that that is purposeful and important. Um we're excited to have that. Our last objective um 3.4 four is developing that career and college pathway learning experiences. We are looking at this um with the meetings that our counselors have with all of our students beginning in seventh grade. They have group and then individual and then group and then individual meetings throughout um middle school and high school. And as we looked at the planning document in our study session earlier today, just a reminder

093that all of the conversations that the board has brought forward um as we continue to look at the planning document and think about support for students across the board, all of those conversations have been uh conversations in school leadership and support um both with uh Dr. Taylor and with Director Mindy Hdall and her team who are over um counseling. So when we think about pillar two uh again the things that we're really I I always think about crew not because it ruins your back and makes you tired but because we are aligned right this is this is where we are talking about aligning instruction and aligning engagement and aligning opportunity so that our graduates leave us as literate, thoughtful and prepared citizens who are ready to represent us and move forward in the world. Thank

094you for letting me get all the way through that >> so I don't lose my voice. >> There we are. >> We already have one person who's wanted to talk from the board. Annie. >> Yeah, thanks so much for that report. There's a lot to cover there and I have a lot of questions, but I'm going to start kind of in reverse with the CTE. We have a lot of kids here from the animal services and I just wanted to um ask a question about determining which courses are part of those pathways and maybe um Superintendent Grant can shed some light a little bit on this, but um I I just wonder just because we're trying to have increased CTE concentrators and if we're eliminating a pathway, you you know, how will that affect certain

095students where that's their interest? Um, if you could speak to that. >> Sure. Do you want me to start? >> Um, and truly, um, director Laura Desazo is the best person to answer that question. So, I will if she comes back and says that I said something wrong, then listen to her. >> Okay? >> But, um, CTE pathways are not determined at the district level. They're determined, um, by well, they're federal. I mean, it's not even the state, right? So, they're determined at a much higher level. And the courses that align to each pathway are in those areas. And in the district, in this district and in all districts, you can't focus on all of the possible or available pathways. Um, so we choose pathways. And one of the things that we have looked at

096very hard, the superintendent and Laura have looked at very hard is aligning to the pathways that are high demand um that lead that are in high demand and lead to to jobs that whether you're leaving with a certificate of value or you're moving on to uh a college degree that those are areas you say this part better than I do. um when we talk about how how we're looking for those pathways that will um produce the highest yield for our 21st century students moving out into our schools. >> So CTE ranges in what it offers students from an engagement strategy or a an just an engagement class that says you can be interested in this kind of work and we're hoping it draws you into school or draws you toward an interest area. Um all

097the way to something that provides a certificate that's got labor market value to it, right? You can get a higher wage once you've graduated with that. What we try and balance in that is keeping some of the engagement pieces that actually don't lead particularly to um many positions in the world. There aren't very many. I think this dog training program is wonderful and have loved hearing the students speak about it. um the number of positions open in the world to do that kind of work are small um and the the remuneration is is limited in that as well which doesn't mean it's not of value um but rather our CTE money under the directions of the CTE budget and things is is to be directed in some different ways. So there there's a whole range

098of things and and we are working to get more of our classes up towards those that have value going on um into a a different program into the labor market that way. So it is a it's a tough balance but it and we keep some classes that are just for engagement um that way to interest students and um you know one of the things that I think we want to talk about is it can we provide this kind of service can it be part of some afterchool programs or clubs rather than built into the CTE pathway so that's what we're looking at >> yeah so from what you said and from my understanding so a lot of CTE funding is tied to those um higher demand or certification courses. >> There's an expectation that we

099spend funding um in that way. They don't we can spend it on things that don't have an automatic labor market return to them as well. We're just trying to increase the numbers and variety of what we are offering that does have that labor market return. Yeah, I think um it just a little bit, you know, like as a parent or a student like um we all love dogs and I think there's a huge industry. I mean, pet services is a billion dollar industry, right? So, >> yes. So I think that is a huge >> um important piece and I think um it's kind of a matter like you said of balancing the different pathways with funding sources and also district priorities. Is that my understanding? Okay. >> Thank you Annie Ashley and then Amanda. Um,

100so part of the logic of using Aspire Plus when it was aligned to the ACT was that theoretically we were told students would care more about taking the test if it was aligned to the ACT and it was an ACT predictor. Did we whereas they don't maybe care about standardized tests more generally, they don't count towards your grade, they take up a lot of time, we know that there's kind of just lower engagement. Is there a reason why we're moving away from what was aligned with the ACT as like a student strategy? Did that just not work? >> You're asking me to peer into the mind. >> Yes. >> of the >> I know it's a dark place at times. >> I know. I know. Um I I I do think that um part of

101it was that, you know, when when you're using it as as we're using it right here, right, to say how prepared are ninth and tth graders? Well, it it is a very difficult fit and so I think the I I think because these conversations happen at meetings that aren't my meetings. They would have happened in the assessment meetings, right? But from what I come out of or I hear out of that is when we are balancing is the predictive ability for ACT more or less important than knowing how students are doing on the core that we're teaching in that year. and the the predictive ability of that while it it was there and and and you could see that um I think many people myself included would say knowing whether or not we're teaching secondary

102one English language nine science like if if we're teaching those things. Well, um the ACT should follow and and being able to know what that looks like um would would be important. >> That makes sense. And learning that we're moving away from that, we have had a number of public comments and also board member feedback just about testing fatigue like as a concept. Are there any meaningful ways you could anticipate as we execute this part of the strategic plan that we could reduce some of the tests students are taking while still getting good information? >> We are looking at that. That has been a challenge that has been extended to me by the superintendent and so we are talking with teams about that. >> Great. And um do we have any idea when we would

103hear about that again or is that something that would not impact this coming academic year? >> It would impact this coming academic year. >> It would. Okay. So do you know when we would hear about that again? Maybe that's a question for the superintendent. >> Yeah, I have not generally brought the assessment plan to the board. >> Um although we do post it on our web page. >> Got it. >> So, and we generally do that in the spring. >> Okay. Thank you so much. And um we did have some discussion about resources and so this is no question but just a comment that I do think it's really great as we go through these um pillar updates if we identify what in the next year's budget could align with the critical needs you know

104beyond what you said which is true which is that everyone would like more ample resources and absent that also it's great to know how much these existing programs cost like it's good to know how much we are spending on assessment for example or how how much we are spending um you know what is the CTE budget that this goes toward and how much are we putting into that if anything at all that's non-restricted you know learning how the building blocks of the budget is also learning the building blocks of the strategic plan so I just think that's useful and we spoke to it a little bit but wanted to reiterate as we've gone through pillar one and two I have the same kind of request that we look a little bit more at what are

105the costs of all of the things that we're doing and how could we reconsider consider those costs, too. >> Thanks, Ashley. And then Amanda and >> I feel like with as long as that presentation was, I should get a little leeway on my time limit. >> There's a total of five minutes between both rounds. >> I I'll try. I was trying to take notes, but anyway. Okay. Um, if I throw out all my questions and we have to go back to it. So, I'm just going to go step by step and you have to bear with me. Tiffany, you have to answer it quickly so I don't run out of time quickly. Um, so, uh, uh, goal two, objective 2.1, increase student academic conversation. Um, you're talking about going in and observing, um, and teachers

106and their, uh, professional days and such. So with the academic conversation and observing the classrooms, what's being done to ensure that we're observing the special education classrooms specifically not just >> well specifically the self-contained classrooms which usually there's more challenges in that um academic conversation. So uh ensuring that it's done in a way that's achieved for the students in their varying abilities. So, >> we are planning to chart out and identify across the board, you know, we'd like this many people at elementary, this many people in special classes, this many people middle school, this many people high school, um within middle school and high school across the board with the content areas, the uh elective classes, CTE classes. So, um, we're envisioning a large spreadsheet where everybody kind of knows where they go to make

107sure that we have adequate coverage across all of those classes >> and I presume training on how to do academic conversation slash observing it properly so that it can actually be useful data. >> Yep. Yeah, that's that's happening on the 27th. >> Okay. Um, and then let's see, it's taking a lot of notes. Apologies. um some of your site administrative server data. It says 25. You've got 05 10 15 20 25 for example. That's the number of participants of your administrators, your principles >> on the bottom of your chart whenever you're showing me the colors. And like in this one, it goes from 0 to 25. Is that basically the number of principles that participated in that survey? >> Yes, because it was just school. Uh we had let's see, sorry, let me go back

108to the front part of that. Um let's see. We had 45% of our teachers and we had 58% of our site administrators. So 69 of our site administrators and so that that number is roughly 100. Okay. Thank you. Um and then on objective 2.2 to page nine you have 70% of students will show literacy growth and proficiency dot dot dot by 2029 um I do recognize proficiency is a challenge with our more complex uh students um I presume we run into this with our ELLL students as they're gaining English profic proficiency and being able to take these tests equivalently however you and I both know that um um there's a way to assess a complex student's ability and growth. Um, a lot of these test um pieces around growth are the traditional testing types that

109are not accessible for our more complex students. So, I guess my question would be um what's going to be done uh to build in a measurement to assess and monitor the growth for our more complex students as well? >> Yep. We are looking at using the DM. I just ran out of time this year to get it. >> So, start building that in. Thank you. >> Um, >> the DM, >> uh, dynamic learning maps, that is, um, an assessment measure that we use for our more most complex students, kind of our 1% students. So, it is aligned to the Utah core standards, but it is at a different developmental level. >> Okay. um on the placebased learning um where you're talking about green team science investigations reverse there's also in regard to career pathways and

110you're talking about how the um success rate for our students with disabilities especially more including more complex that when they're um pathway uh completers or concentrators they're you seeing higher outcomes. So my question again goes back to our more complex most complex students in the self-contained classrooms and uh accessing these opportunities that aren't typically um done clear from prek all the way up. As I get older there's a little bit more opportunity and there's peer groups and mentoring. I sent a link on Syracuse University that is at a um university level on how they utilize the peer supports in partnering in accessing these um opportunities. So kind of a less a question more of a an a well I guess an ask question. >> Give me one more second please. um is just utilizing more

111of that peer buddy supports in giving students especially whether they're ELELLL um or students with disabilities and accessing these type of like you commented very important um avenues in connecting with their community and their trajectories. >> Thank you. Anybody in this first round of comments still? >> Brian? >> Yes. I had a couple of comments. The first one would kind of tie in with and I think I'm one of the ones that has mentioned the testing fatigue in that over on page 14. It talks about um Lita >> and it would just help me understand a little bit better if so when I look down at that bottom graph it shows that u like in 12th grade 18% met the target um 11 33%. One of the things that I'm hearing is that some of

112these students by the time they get to high school, they really are proficient in English, >> but they just can't pass that darn WEDA um exam, >> but they continually have to take that exam. Is there anything we can do to address that? >> No. WEDA is a federally required um assessment. >> Okay. >> But I will say the part that we are working to address is I don't believe anybody can't pass that exam. Um we are identifying the areas that tend to be the ones that students struggle with the most. Um we know that the writing piece is a very specific kind of writing. We have increased the amount of writing that we are um doing across the board to support that. And then of course the one especially as students get older is

113speaking and that is one of the things that we're targeting as well. >> Thank you. I understand that. I mean, it's federally mandated, but I wanted to hear you explain how you're going about trying to >> address that because I think that one of the and I agree. I think that the students can >> um pass the test, but I think that it gets to the point of why try so >> if you're looking at ways to give them the tools and the approach to take. Okay. Like there's this language writing or whatever. >> Let's show you what you need to do here. And so you're breaking it down that way. >> Yeah. That's that's >> I think that's a really helpful thing because I think it's really discouraging for students to have an exam,

114take it and I think a lot of times they try really hard and then after a while it's >> Yeah. >> Okay. And and as you know, the the test also at certain grade levels really kind of jumps and takes a jag, you know, so you kind of you're like, "Okay, okay, I'm almost there. I'm almost there. I'm almost there." And then, you know, so that's a technical term. Sorry. >> Thank you. Okay. This is over on page 10. Um it's under letters. I appreciated that program when I was taking it. But I know that that's something that we have worked to see that you know it's provided across the district and I mean that's something that the state has encouraged and all of that. Does the data support um this letters program? Is it

115is it helping? That is a really great question because um you know we've now had it in play long enough and so one of >> yeah one of the things that we have been looking at and um assessment has been evaluation has been um working with us to pull out >> are the teachers by year when they when they went through it because as you know when you're going through it you're not necessarily implementing it. your implementation really is you know that year year after when you have it. >> The other thing that's interesting about letters is that it is so much about the knowledge and understanding and it doesn't always have that direct this is what students will then do and look like but we are looking at that longitudinal data to see. I

116think one of the things that I really do love about what I see with the secondary letters program is that most educators who are teaching reading in high school are like me. They have an English degree. And I have said this before. I can tell you how to interpret Virginia Wolf, but I did not learn in college how to teach reading. And um so so looking at that and saying who are our really engaging teachers who are teaching reading and helping them understand that background that makes them more confident in the things that they're doing. So um I think across the state we're all looking at what that data point will look like that will do exactly what you've asked. >> That's good to hear. I appreciate that because I think we are expending a

117lot of energy on letters. So >> yeah. >> Okay. Um quickly then to um this is now back on page page six. In that top box you have math discourse supported as the subject of HP 396 supported book studies. Help me understand what that means. Sorry, I just looked at that sentence and went, well, I put that out in education and we have a time. >> I'm gonna go ahead and and ask maybe you repeat that when we're done with >> I can answer it in one sentence. >> Okay, one sentence. >> HB396 is a professional development funding source. So, I was attempting to demonstrate that we're leveraging those funds so teachers have an opportunity to study math discourse with that funding source. That's right. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And Brad, we'll pick right

118back up. Um we are at our time certain we're well about 30 to 45 seconds away now. Um so we'll go ahead and wait for 7:15 to to you know tick on the clock so to speak and uh we'll go ahead and get started with our public comment on the 2025 2026 student fee schedule. Um there will be a signup sheet up here on the table um if you are here to speak to it. Thank you Bryce. We both settle alarms. Um but yes uh we have reached 7:15. So if you are here to speak on the student fees uh please come forward um sign your name on the um the signup sheet right there and uh the same threeminut rule will apply uh to your comments this evening. Mr. Aspirin, please. Good evening. My

119name is Russell Ascrin. Um, been a district parent for nearly 20 years. I have two children in district high schools. Although I'm generally opposed to most of the fees in your fee schedule tonight, I want to focus on the new fees related to credit recovery. And I think that my my comments also apply to the new fees related to taking GED exams. These services are used by struggling students. Students who don't fit easily into our education system or whose life path has interfered with their education. things like teen pregnancy, family illness, and if you haven't had to deal with credit recovery, you might not understand and recognize what the effect of these new fees are. I mean, I didn't know anything about credit recovery till two years ago when all of a sudden my son

120had to do credit recovery. I think there's three problems with uh these fees. One, the fees create a new obstacle to these students who already struggle to getting their diploma. For many of these students, such as my son, his diploma is going to be the final stop on his educational journey in a in a liberal arts kind of sense. He's going to go on and get a trade certification, but he won't ever take another English class because it's just not what's there for him. And so, we've put another obstacle in the way of these students to being able to complete these degrees. For some families, this is number two. These fees can actually be quite costly. If these fees had been in place the entire time that my son was in high school to be

121followed by my daughter who's just started high school, these fees would total over $1,000 for my family. That may sound you you I mean it doesn't take much to get there. Failing a course a year over the eight years that my two children would be in high school gets you to almost $1,000. If they hit more, you're over $1,000. Finally, I think these fees are probably discriminatory in their effect. I don't have the data to prove this. I'm sure the district does, but if you haven't thought about these questions, I invite you to think about them. How many of the students using credit recovery have IEPs and 504s? How many of the students using credit recovery belong to marginalized ethnic, racial, religious, and gender identity groups? How many of the students using credit recovery are

122or have been classed as English language learners? How many of the students using credit recovery come from challenging socioeconomic circumstances? Finally, how many of these students live west of I-15? I ask you to remove these fees from the schedule that you have before you tonight unless you can answer these questions and show me that the effect is not disproportionate. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, if you don't mind just letting us know who you are and pulling the microphone closer. Thank you for joining us. Y sha Valerie Hoses. I I am a kitchen worker at Delworth Elementary School. Chasing the cost could be either food maintenance and also concerning the amount of garbage we put with food. This is my year and a half with the Delworth Elementary School. I would say I had

123a parent come up to me and ask about extra like what my kid is still hungry. I said unfortunately we are considering students from kindergartener up to sixth grader and it's very hard for us because I do pretty much everything in the kitchen. But I do have a kitchen manager. But we're very clean. We're very sanitized. But it does cause the student to start stealing, for example, orange juice, apple, extra lunchable. So unfortunately, the Salt Lake School District, I worked for a temp, but during that time, we had a incident report. And after she got treated, she got escorted to the hospital. But it created two weeks because the students were asking about her health status. And in that situation, it really stressed me out because I was doing the hot food, the cold food,

124and helping the assistant kitchen manager. Now during that time a lot of students were taking advantage of myself and the kitchen the kitchen manager. So to my understanding we're supposed to have three staff and unfortunately we have not been able to accommodate that. But again it put a lot of stress on me because I have to control everything. not control if they help support the kitchen manager because when I start at 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. That's where I'm pretty much everywhere and I work through my lunch. But like I said, I am limited to my hours. But during the cost, all I'm saying it could be a lot of things. Food cost, maintenance, and employment because I'm restricted and I have to do my training on top of that. I'm sorry, but I I

125can't be able to accommodate that. I know training is very important. I know that bulliness is a very huge concern. But as a temp and I got hired on, that's what I was feeling. I was being harmed on match on match and repeated cuz during those two weeks I encouraged the student. Like I said, I'm here to work. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. >> Is there anyone else here to speak to our 2025 2026 student fee schedules? We'll just give it another couple of minutes or a minute. Okay, this will be the last call for anybody to provide public input on our draft 2025 2026 student fee schedules. Okay, seeing none, uh we will go ahead and resume uh with our um strategic plan pillar 2 review. Dr. call if you don't

126mind rejoining us up at the front. And Brian, I believe you have one more question. >> I do. Okay. And >> thank you everybody for joining us to speak this evening. Okay. Dr. Hall, this is over on Give me a second. I'm trying to get my timing going. This is over on page six. I believe it's under 2.1 and uh board member Longwell um kind of looked at this a little bit, but this is where you're putting together um a group of reviewers that are going to go in and I believe it's the end of March, the beginning of April, and they're going to be doing observations. I'm just hoping because I'm now thinking about this with my teacher hat on. We're now to the point where we're trying to get ready for end of

127year testing and all of those sorts of things. So these reviewers, this is going to be unobtrusive or I mean >> Oh yes. Okay. Yeah. And yes, absolutely. And and we'll also talk about a protocol that if you walk in and somebody is testing, walk out. like that's not that's not what we're here for. >> Okay, great. >> Yeah. >> Um along with that, this would be my last question. So, in that survey that you were referring to, were the teachers required to respond to that? No. >> I just am wondering what was the percentage of response? Were we getting a good read? >> Uh 45% for teachers. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, are there anybody else in the first round? If not, we'll jump to the second. Board member Romano and then Amanda, do

128you have any additional comments or questions from the first round? >> Thanks. >> Okay. Um, firstly, I would just like to celebrate uh those numbers for ELLL fourth graders. I think that's great. and also um the graduation gap um progress that has been made. So, thank you to everyone across the district who are working on those things. Um then I just wanted to kind of touch on prek. So, Brian already asked my question about the letters program. So, I kind of had questions about effectiveness of that um training. And then the other question um I had was clearly it shows like a lot of progress from the prek students. Can you give us a rough number like you know what percentage of students who enter kindergarten go to prek within the district? >> I have

129this number. I I I should have put it in this. I appreciate you asking. Can I can I respond to the board with that number because I could give you a close guess, but I do have that number. >> Okay. And then the other question I have is looking on page 16, um, it showed the the graph of the percent of students performance based on literacy and numeracy. Um, and I'm wondering, do you track do you flag those students and follow them >> so you can see students who engage in prek through the district and their scores throughout their career in the district? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Would you like to see that included in >> Sure. I would love to see that. Absolutely. Um, I do just want to emphasize I think we

130do have a really strong early education program and given the um, statewide discourse um, on literacy and the emphasis on third grade literacy and some of the recent legislation on that. I think it's really important to recognize how important prek can be in in those performance outcomes and how we're doing on that so far. and you know if we possibly could expand th that in the future if we had an infinite pile of money like you said >> um how that could affect students throughout their you know 12 13 years at within the district. >> Perfect. We'll make a note to include that. >> Thank you Dr. Hall. Thank you Annie. Any more questions or comments in the second round? >> Okay seeing none. Thank you for joining us. We'll move on to our final

131report on tonight's report agenda which is applied economics draft demographic report. Um before I turn this over to BA Kley to introduce I just want to remind the board that this is a very high level first introduction um to a report that came as a request from this board um to to the administration. Um there will be additional readings um on this in the future at future times. So um BA Kersley will you please introduce us? Right. You you introduced what I was going to introduce. Um I'm sorry, >> but you're you're fine. Um the board received this what one hour before the meeting. So this is kind of a first glance at this report. Um and um as requested by the board, we can bring it back for deeper dive at a later meeting.

132Um, I'm gonna have Sam actually introduce the presenter um, real quick and then uh, he's on Zoom, so we'll just listen to his presentation. >> Yeah. So, I'm going to introduce Mr. Rick Brammer. He is the principal of uh, applied economics. We contracted with applied economics in 21 for a demographic study. And about 18 months ago, we also contracted them when we were discussing the possibility of a fourth high school on the west side. They gave us a a smaller update then and so we've been able to work with them and provide that information. So, um we did have a couple of delays with regards to the city providing some data, but they worked very hard to um to be ready for tonight. So, thank you. >> All right. Um, thank you, Mr. Quants, U,

133President Salazar, Vice President Jensen, members of the board, Dr. Grant. U, it's my pleasure to be here tonight to present what, um, we are calling draft results at this point. Um, we we certainly would have liked to have gotten it to you, uh, before an hour before the meeting, but uh, as uh, Mr. Quattz indicated, um, there's a lot of work to do and we have a lot more blanks to fill, I think, than than we thought. and we had some, you know, some difficulty getting information, but in the end, I have to say that uh this this the city of Salt Lake City ended up being very cooperative and really um taking the data that we had put together and you know helping us make sense of it so that hopefully we can make

134we can make good projections for uh you all. The this the full uh study scope obviously includes looking at enrollment trends of all kinds. Not only uh total enrollment but grade level distributions and probably more importantly to me geographic distributions looking uh within the district at what's going on. Um alternative providers and methods, what impacts that may have on enrollment. Um the demographic characteristics of the existing population. And while it's really exciting and interesting to see all the new development and construction that's going on, um it's the changes in demographics that are probably the most significant in the district right now. The aging of the population and the you know basically the uh the gentrifying of of the entire area particularly um you know east of east of 215 or east of I'm sorry east

135of 15. um residential I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, residential development impacts. Um looking at where projects are happening now um looking at where they might happen in the future and then looking at whether those are likely to be the kind of units and and developments that will provide us with additional school age population and therefore students. Um and the final piece is in our projections we do two different models. one is a top-down district level macroeconomic. How does the district fit into this the state of Utah economy? How does the you know the major demographic shifts that we're seeing um across the state and across the nation apply big picture stuff. And then we do a subdist model which is basically modeling based on these 169 areas. So, we divided the district in 2021 uh

136into these um planning areas, if you want to call them that, that they at that time at least they respected all of the elementary uh middle school attendance area boundaries. And here I'm just showing overlaid with community planning areas just so you can kind of get an idea of what's what. But it's this level of detail. Everything that we do, we do not only at the district at the district level, but we do for each of these 169 areas. If we start off just looking back at uh total enrollment in the district in this chart, the blue bar is is keyed to the left axis. That's uh the fall total K12 enrollment non-charter regular education only. And the red squiggly line which is keyed to the right hand axis in red uh is the year-over-year

137percent change. And what the slide shows obviously is from you know really from the beginning of this chart all the way through 2015 and then it really didn't fluctuate all that much given the size of the of of the population. Um but since then it's declined by roughly 5600 students. um a big drop during CO and like many districts that we work for um we didn't get a bounce back after CO I think a lot of us expected that after CO you know we'd get a lot of the students back who who who didn't show up that year and in many areas particularly higher socioeconomic areas and areas with a lot of stay-at-home uh parents um they didn't come back and they've embraced educational alternatives in a very big way and it's not really private

138schools. That's the thing. It's becoming more online and more homeschooling again which is kind of coming back to a trend that that really started quite quite a long time ago. Um we look at the distribution of enrollment by grade coord. So if you look back during that whole 2000 through 20134 period, the largest group of students in the district were K2. So the average enrollment per grade in that group averaged almost 2100 students per grade. And you can see as the people went up through grades, enrollment actually fell. And so people were moving up and out of the area for the most part. And starting in 2015, between the educational alternatives and the demographic shifts, we're going to talk about birth rates that started happening, we started seeing this this fall in the K2 group,

139which has sustained itself until this day. And the problem with that is that these curves follow each other. And so, you know, you you look at one, you look three years over to the next group and you generally find that line. And where I'm worried about it right now the most is you see these guys, you know, K2 had a big drop through 2021 through CO, but it, you know, it's gone down, but not drastically. The other curves have just joined it. Now, this group, this decline we saw in the 68 group between 2000 and 2023 is right now catching up with us at the high school level. and we'll see at at some of the levels uh in some of the other charts that we're going to look at, but it's important to understand

140that the not only has the nature of the district changed where now the largest group is high school students. Um there's been a big decline in in the in the middle and it's and it's likely not over yet. Um, we talked about looking at subdist stuff. So, we get a a very stripped down uh student data file so that we can uh put an XY coordinate on every student, place them on the map. That way, we not only know the number of students that are being generated in each one of these areas, we can correlate that number of students with housing characteristics, rental rates, all kinds of other data to see what those relationships are that are influencing where students come from. If you'll notice, there's dots, of course, that go outside the district. The

141district does serve uh quite a large number of students from uh elsewhere in the metropolitan area. Um most of those come from South Salt Lake City and West Valley City, relatively close by, but really draws from all over the valley, particularly at the high school level, which I think is a real testament to the quality of the programs of the district. um if you added all those dots up together that that sit in each one of those boxes, you'd have this map. So the numbers in here show you how many students are actually served K12 from each of these grids this year. The coloring is normalized because the grids aren't the same size. And so there the blue is under 200 per square mile, not under 200 because the count is different than that. But

142um you can see the you know relatively um low density of of of enrollment for the most part across most of the district other than over there along that 215 and and in the West Salt Lake or the uh Glendale area um where you see um you know very high concentrations of students and you can use this data for all kinds of fun things including planning and boundaries and things like that. But what I'm most interested in it for is looking at the change. Since we have had the opportunity of serving you over a period of time, we can now start looking at at the neighborhood level which way is everything going. And so if a square is colored blue around here, that means it lost a moment in the last 5 years. And if

143it's red, it gained. And we'll look at housing unit additions here in a minute. And you'll see, you know, a very high correlation between where housing units have been added and where you see any kind of pink at all on this map because what's really been happening is the aging and the gentrification of the large part of the population. And so um the growth that you know that have experienced growth have not experienced it in any way near the proportion necessary to cancel out the declines across the rest of the district. If you look at just the demographics, this is of the school district. The top one, the green bar shows you the population of the district, which you can see actually went down between 2022. You may call, you may recall, uh, the great

144recession and all the things that happened during that period of time. So, the growth didn't really start until after 2010 or at least didn't resume until after 2010. And since then there's been a very significant amount of growth in both population and the blue bars which show housing units. What has what you know what is happening though is that if you look back in 2000 24% of that 188,980 were under the age of 18 and that number has now fallen to 16%. which is very low uh for you know for standards um across most of the districts that we serve certainly much lower than any of the suburban areas that we serve. The bottom chart talks about the age structure and the and the tenure owner versus renter structure of households. And so the red

145part of the bar here is the number of households edited headed by someone under the age of 55. whereas the green part is headed by people over the age of 55. And so what's happened since the growth has returned in 2010 is that more than half about 60% of all the growth has been concentrated in households over the age of 55. So that their share of the total has gone from 28.9% to 36.4%. And then wrapped inside of that group of of those householders um under 55 are owners under 55. We have owners and renters. And the best indication of where enrollment's going to go is the number of owner occupied housing units with people under age of 55. And that that's the purple line. You've seen that decline from 33% or I'm sorry. Yeah,

146about 31% down, you know, to about 23%. Again, a substantial decline. A lot of this is due to birth rates. Um, this chart doesn't really show, you know, exactly the number of births. I'm not sure that's all that important in this particular level of discussion, but the fact of the matter is in 2010, the birth rate in the state of Utah at 18 or about 18 1.5 188 per thousand residents was about 45% above the US average, which is what this right hand axis is showing you. And during this period of time, it's, you know, it's fallen from, you know, 45% over to about 21 or 22% over. Substantial decline um in the in the birth rates. Largest decline in the state in the in the in the United States. um um just slightly larger

147interestingly uh than where I am in the state of Arizona which is has the second largest decline in birth rates. Um and then if you look at not only just the total for the state, you look at the areas they do have smaller areas they designate within the city. So you can look at how birth rates have trended um in different parts of of the city or district. And there's many areas where the just the drop in the last 3 years has been close to 20%. And you see that the steepness of that last part of this curve here of the of the Utah versus US rate. And that's obviously very concerning for us going forward. Um we're really trying to see where's the bottom in that regard. We talked just briefly about charter schools.

148There's a lot about this in the report, so I'm not going to talk too much about it either. Um, really a fairly small group of charter schools get and two of those of course um or three of those are of course are yours or authorized by the district. That number 3,46 total is down about 500 from where it peaked um seven or eight years ago. So any declines we've got in enrollment isn't really coming from growth in charter schools. And the same goes with private schools where the 3,700 or so students that are in in those um facilities today are relatively close to what we found all the way back in 2122. Um we'll turn our attention now to the second part or the part about um housing development and we're going to start with

149just looking at what's been added in the in the district. This is the last 15 years and it's really two distinct periods. 2010 through 2019, you know, through the year where, you know, CO finally started catching up during the back, you know, the the completions after that year. Um, but since then, you know, the the additions have been amazing, averaging about 3,200 units per year. Um, whoops. As you can see, nearly all of that be multifamily, which means apartments and condos and town homes mostly. However, in your case, we really are talking about apartments. Um, and apartments shifted from utilitarianism to luxury during this period of time. and the prices reflected that luxury and excluded a lot of people who would have liked to have had homes in this city or houses to live in

150in this city. And so the city and other groups have redoubled their efforts. We're going to talk about, you know, some set aides for affordable housing that they're not huge, but at least it's pushing it, you know, in the right direction. you look at that 26,000 units. So when I say 24, it's really 26,000 that have been added in the last 15 years. Um if if you that first 10ear period was 10,000 housing units added and again high number in the downtown area and out on the corridor there to the east and then at the intersection of 215. But then you know just an explosion in the last 5 years where you see the impact of this spreading out you know both east and west and north to south. The other thing that's been happening

151in this period is like I said, there's been a little bit more of attention being paid to, you know, what type of units are being added. But, um, this is a very very high level of of activity and I think right now it's going to cause a little bit of a dip because I think we have the market pretty well saturated, but there's no indication from the number of planning units that that dip is going to continue. So, we looked at the houses that we uh we looked at before the apartment complexes. We looked at for our first study back in 2122. Um, at which time I thought they were all um post 2010. I figured out the first four are not. The first four are older, but look how many students per unit you

152get out of an older one. up to a half a student per unit, a quarter of a student per unit versus all of the new fancy stuff that has been added since then where we go back and look at our survey from, you know, from 2 years ago. We look at it now. We're getting roughly exactly the same number of students, 60 students out of 4600 housing units or less than, you know, about 0.01 per unit. So you have 100 units and you'll get uh 13 kids between 2020 and 24. This is actually the number of units has has expanded. We're we have identified just in this survey which is not comprehensive the addition of of 9,100 housing units uh just in this period of time. And you know obviously these are new a lot

153of them. And so we may not we may see more students come in as time goes by because it does take a while to occupy. But generally speaking with a very few exceptions where there are affordable housing available. This is a perfect example of where it makes a difference. So all of a sudden you get 100 students or.12 per acre. It's affordable. Affordable. Affordable doesn't mean affordable means here. It's not just the price that makes it affordable. there's actually a set aside or an income limit or an income maximum or whatever in this case. Whoops. Like for a central station, 80% of those units are affordable and they have up to four bedroomedroom units. And those are the kind of units that were, you know, looking for to help, you know, families to be able

154to to live in the district. um in the future. This is where the the work really slowed down was that when we started analyzing this flow of projects, we identified nearly a hundred projects that had been brought forward in the newspapers and in planning documents just over the last four years. And we had the city then come alongside of us after we had collected all the basic data and help us prioritize like what's real, what's not real. The red dots are places that are under construction right now. Orange dots are places we expect construction 1 to two years, yellow 2 to 3 years, etc., etc. And so their their advice and their input on this part of the process was incredibly valuable in order to understand the timing of all of this that that we're

155seeing. And it breaks down into groups. We've got 714 units sitting in projects that are complete but um not occupiable yet. Let's put it that way. Um there's 2,000 units under construction currently, 370 more units that will start in the next year. Way down and that's where multif family tends to happen is the peak and valley you know and and watch the market. But coming in the pipeline 2 to 3 years, 3 to 5 years, many many many thousands more units um that are that are possible. more than 12,200 units we identified in this survey. And some of them won't happen ever, but other projects we don't know about will materialize. And it just demonstrates the sheer strength and size of the housing market. In addition to what I would call infield development, which most

156of that is, there is some vacant land in the district, not a lot, about 4,500 acres or so. Uh the vast majority of that is earmarked for non-residential uses, but only 150 acres for residential uses, but given the densities and things that we're seeing, that could be another 5,000 or so units. And again, we don't know exactly when that'll happen, but it does enter into the later parts of the projection period as potential, you know, housing additions. So what we do is look at the absorption of these projects and figure out how many units based on those priorities are going to come online um over the next 10 years. We do have a slow year coming up followed by a bigger one, but with, you know, all we were looking at with long-term market demand,

157not this this blip was more like about 1,600 units per year, which would result in about 16,000 new housing units over the next 10 years. If they're occupied, they become a household. So, you throw occupancy rate, you get about 15,600 new households. And what we do behind the scenes is structure the households according to age group and owner versus renter because that enables us to model what we call school age population. And school age population is all persons living in the district aged 5 to 17 whether they go to your your schools or any school at all. And the bold numbers here are census figures. And I'm doing estimates and interpolations, you know, in in in between to try to find the try to try to find the patterns here. Um, I'm going to bring

158up a couple of more numbers, but as you can see, the actual school age population, the the universe of students you could potentially educate has fallen by about 4,000 since uh well be between the census in 2000 and the census in 2020. That rate has actually accelerated a bit in in the last five years as we've seen those birth rates and the echoes of those birth rates uh continue to expand. So in the last 5 years there's been a drop of about 1,400 schoolaged persons in the district. Now in that same period of time K12 enrollment actually has fallen by 2600 2700 and the difference between those two numbers is the impact of alternative providers or homeschooling or additional options. And so what we do is we take that we back out of K12 enrollment

159the number that come from outside of the district so that we can look at what I call the service rate. So what percent of the 5 to 17 year olds in the district is the district actually serving and we watched that fall from you know 80%. It fell rather slowly until you hit CO and then CO was a big jump down and as I've said before didn't come back afterwards and in fact it keeps going down and the rate at which it's going down um is also concerning. So what I do is I look at that how that service rate has trended over time. That's the green line here. So the blue is a school age population, red is your enrollment. Um and then the green bar is the ser or the green line is

160the service rate. So if I look at the full you know 10 uh 10 year trend last 10 11 years I'm seeing that rate go down at 1.7% per year. That includes however the co dip. If I look at it just since co it looks like it's going down at a rate of about 1.1% per year. And this is an important factor. It's probably the most important factor in doing these projections is where is that number going to fall in the future. And so in my conservative scenario, I decided I would average those two rates, which comes out at 1.4% per year. So if they if the service rate continued to fall at 1.4% 4% per year. Enrollment would fall by about 4,000 students based on the size of the school age population. If the

161cap if the service rate stayed stable or as stable as I can make it without totally fixing the numbers um is that there will be decline of around 700. that's really closer to the demographic impact that we're that we're thinking about and literally I believe reality is going to fall in the middle because I think we've gone through a big um period here where there's choices available um and at least what we're seeing here is you know those are starting to max out so when we lose you know 700 again next year is it going to be 500 that's the that's that's where I um I have problems because that's not about demographics, not not about the housing market. It's about individual choice and the perception of your product. And I like I said, I

162everyone is is is struggling with this exact same phenomenon. Every district I work for and I worked for 35 of them this year. So this is, you know, a large company, I guess, but this is something that every district is is really struggling with. And it's even harder when you're having to look at programs at the same time because of funding. >> We don't just do projections for the district. Again, I'm not going to go into all the detail, but we do projections for each one of those grades. And one of the ways we can look at those is by adding them up by attendance area. And um back in 2011 I worked with with Sam uh Mr. Quansson you know used this to help guide some of his work which gets down you know

163to the school by grade level which is a whole another than level of refinement but given that this gives us some you know some actual some historic u changes to look at in addition to our projections I think is helpful. You look at that 18 to 21 period was, you know, the training act where 2600 decline uh in the K6 level, 461 at the middle school level. That didn't happen at the high school cuz that population was still growing. Plus, high schoolers generally just didn't um didn't uh drop out or didn't defer because of CO. But um so but in that period of time district total was down 3,000 and in the 22 through 25 period we're now down another 2,000. However, a lot of that was driven by this this loss I was talking

164about the high school number. We saw that curve really diving off the last few years. That's going to be temporary. That will be a level again. So we're looking at losses more like 1,00 to 1,500 you know per 5year period um is probably the most likely scenario uh for enrollment in the district. And so the conclusions that we came to you know obviously the district is experiencing very significant growth in housing and population um but the housing really continues to have a limited impact on the school's population but they're trying. I would say that you can see a definite change in mentality and market orientation of the projects. With that in mind, um school age population has been shrinking um because of aging and also the influx be with multifamily of additional college students and

165non-family households which tend to be able to in many cases price out the family households. um what you saw multif family construction has, you know, skyrocketed. They're generally too expensive. Um we'll see. We're going to see a little bit of weakness in that market now. So, I'm going to be really curious to see how that, you know, how that plays out. Um the rise of charter schools and online homeschooling and other options since co have really put a dent in the share of the school age population uh being served by the district. And you know, unfortunately, it normally is projected to decline throughout the period. The real question to me is the amount. It could be as little as 700 or even less, but it could be as much as 4,000. And that's the problem

166with choice right now is that it takes the science of demographics and makes it into the art of of guessing what people are going to choose. So, I know that's a lot of material and I said it pretty fast, but I'm certainly happy to take questions. >> Um, I have a question. Uh, earlier in the slides, you were showing that the older housing units are more likely to have school age children. Um, and I'm wondering if the demographics that you looked up for future school age children um, account for the fact that perhaps people who are currently in these apartments would in the future stay in those apartments and have school age children. >> It does. It it does in that we're constantly looking at the characteristics of the householders and if you get householders,

167you know, basically you want householders 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 mostly. And so we do that by looking at how those groups might transition. I mean, that's not a direct measurement, but it is the way that we try to account for it. >> Okay. Thank you, Ashley. I don't know if my question is particularly for the presenter, but um you know I know we need to talk about this again because it was just produced right before the meeting and we haven't all prepared our typical questions. But one thing I'd like to see in our next discussion is some extrapolation of those TIFF projects in relationship to this report because as we see a slight uptick of kids downtown, what's kind of being left unsaid is that not only is the city investing in

168those units, they're investing tens of millions of the property tax dollars that we levy for schools. They are giving them to developers under the opaces that development will be get families. And the last report that was produced for us by applied economics, if you did a little back of the envelope math, every unit where we got a kid, we were investing 80,000 property tax dollars into the units with kids. That's six times the weighted pupil unit that we spend on students once they are in the door. So my knee-jerk reaction upon seeing the report is that this would likely corroborate the same costs where we have about 300 units with kids for 9,000 units that are intended to house some kids. And I'd really like to see us more aggressively push back on the negative

169impacts of TIFF. And considering that absent substantial school closure, we need to again allocate money to lower the ratio with our limited dollars for the students who we do serve because unless we change the ratio and make a strategic investment, we are just going to continue to have schools that are under capacity. So unless we reconceive of what capacity is and invest for that while also pushing back on the loss of our property tax dollars that are not regaining children, we're going to continue to be in a real struggle here. >> I was very interested in the first gentleman's presentation because um I I I really think it's I really think it's wrong that we don't itemize out how much of your property tax is going to those programs. >> Yep. Don't we all? >>

170I guess to that end hearing that you're interested in that. Um, is there something we could could we look at, for example, some of these units and identify exactly what I said? Like when I said back at the envelope math, I mean I an envelope with a bill and I did the math. But obviously there's a more, you know, novel way to really parse out how much are we investing in CRA project areas for these exact apartment complexes that you've highlighted. >> Great. >> I'm sure it could be done. It would, you know, to do it really well would be very difficult and I'm not sure that you'd get a much different answer than what you got by doing it back in the envelope, to be honest. But it's definitely something that could be researched.

171>> So it could be done, but the payoff would be probably the same that if there's only 300 units with children out of 9,000 units coming aboard, it is reasonable that the amount we are investing continues to be more than we spend per pupil once they are in our schools. That's what I'm hearing. So if we could look at that, that would be kind of novel for our next discussion. But if he trusts my math, that's what I heard. >> I DON'T trust anyone's math. I'm just saying that I I think you could you could spend a lot of money and and get about the same answer, but we could definitely give it a look. See, >> thank you very much. >> Any other questions? Dr. Grant, >> thank you for this. I'd like um

172your best explanation of the service rate again and particularly that continued fall that you're you're predicting sort of some a service rate that declines a little less dramatically as well as one that declines dramatically. But then um in speaking about the loss of students, you mentioned mostly homeschooling and online education which I think would be saturated at some point that those options parents choosing those options may have already chosen out of the district and I'm not sure how many more would continue to choose those options. I'm trying to understand the service rate and what you're seeing and and your >> Yeah. the the I guess kind of the bottom line looking at this one is that school age population doesn't change that fast. I mean it changes over time. >> But when you see enrollment

173drop by a,200 students in a single year there's a lot more going on than just demographics. >> And what's your best guess on that? That's what I'm trying to understand is where the competition is more and um I think it was in a different >> we have well um I know that what I have been reading is that homeschooling you know was was kind of a fad what 10 years ago 15 years ago and people found out it was hard um and co put people in a different mindset relative to their school systems and the people changed. And I have kids with kids, you know, and the way they look at a school district is different than the way I was taught to look at a school district. >> You're just one choice out of

174many. Yeah. >> And it doesn't matter that there's neighborhood cohesion or anything like that. It's just where can I get my kid the best. >> Are you seeing similar service rate drops um nationally or regionally? >> I'm seeing them everywhere I work where they have charter schools and open enrollment. >> Okay. >> And here in Arizona now they have vouchers. The rate has doubled. >> Has it really? Okay. the rate of decline. >> Okay. >> Voucher being you can use you can use tax dollars to go to a private school. >> Yeah. And we've instituted that now here in Utah and it's just a couple years old so the effects may not be as measurable yet. >> Thank you. I'll go ahead and and ask my question and it's more a followup from your report

175that you gave us a number of years ago. Um um and it was actually just a figure that I hope not a figure but I guess of um I believe it was just kind of housing stability and it kind of follows along what board member Anderson was asking um to be included in our next discussion uh relative to her back of the envelope math. But you I felt like you gave a figure of like a a threshold or a certain percentage that good planning um in the development housing market would indicate you know a certain percentage of how many students you would anticipate or what would be considered good planning uh per you know thousand of units and I I thought it was like five or 10%. It's probably been five or so years since

176I've seen that report from you. But you're actually you're actually right in the ballpark. >> Okay. But if and and maybe if you could highlight that and also include it um if you can get the similar math notations that Ashley got on her envelope. But um but I found that to be a really intriguing um figure or at least threshold um that you were you were describing to us that I think we could um continue to use as we're working with our partners at the state and local level. >> Yeah. And it's and it's awfully hard for um you know developers to I mean they they well they say it's awfully hard to even do that much. So you know these set aides um end up costing everyone else a little more. >> Okay. Thank

177you. Any other questions this evening on this topic? >> Ashley will go into round two. >> I just have one more question. um when you pulled up the list of alternative providers, you're not saying the enrollment from our district students in the alternative provider. You're saying the total enrollment. So like for example, if a student >> all of that schools, correct? They may not all be yours. That's correct. >> If I'm looking at the number for Roland Hall, for example, and you I assume that a certain number of the students come from Park City, we're not losing all of those students to alternative providers. That's just simply who else is a provider in the city limits. Is that true? >> That's true. And I didn't include it here, but what I'm really more interested in

178is how it's trended over time. You know, is it getting bigger? Is it getting smaller? And >> so that's not but that's something we could hear in a future iteration. >> Okay. >> Would that be true that we could learn the trend? >> That'd be helpful. I think it would be really helpful to see. Thank you. And also I also think it would be helpful to know which percent of these students or the number of students are from the district. >> I don't know that we can track that. Are we able >> we aren't able to track that? We don't have a student ID number that we can follow. >> Oh, got it. So if if the students enroll in a charter or school that reports to USB, we can work on that data. But

179if they enroll in a private school, then we cannot because they do not report up. So unless we were to reach out to a Roland Hall and say, can you give us the addresses of all your students? Which I would say no to if somebody asked me that. Um >> no, but that's an interesting point. If we can get it though for the charters, let's get it. >> Yeah. So, we could work on some of those. >> I'm a data, you know, I'm a data hound. If anything helps, you know, up to a point. >> We found this the state of Arizona just made it possible for us to to look at a district and and look at where every student that's publicly funded goes and vice versa. And what it taught us about charter

180schools was that you can look at the ones that are in your district, but the people that are mobile are really mobile. And you'll find out that you actually have students in 15 or 20 different schools, not just the ones that are in your district. >> Yeah. >> But I'd like to see the data that that might actually help us. >> All right. Thank you so much for joining us all the way virtually from Arizona. We appreciate it and look forward to our next discussion and presentation from you. >> Oh, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it very much. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> Uh we'll now move on to our discussion agenda. Uh the first item that we have there is the proposed 2026 uh 27 student fee schedules

181and annual re review fee and fee waiver policy and procedures. Um I believe um just based on the sequence of um our discussions and our public comment periods that we've met all the requirements uh per state law and per our policies here in the district. Um and I would just open it up for discussion if there's anything else that folks would like to ask. Um and then potentially um seeking a motion to move this to the action agenda. We'll start with Amanda and then Annie. Um I just want to revisit what was stated in the um public comment section for this particular topic. Um and just to confirm Allan uh prior discussion by it was confirmed correct me if I'm wrong that um fee wavers there's six eligibility reasons plus case by case even if

182they don't meet the specific criteria and the principal always has the option to grant fee w fee wavers case by case. So when it comes to um that particular topic, the credit recovery, is that also applicable to that fee? >> Right. All all fees are waverable unless it specifically says on the fee schedule that they are not. >> And based on what I saw, there was no >> I don't see any note on there that they're not waverable. Therefore, they would be subject to fee waiver. So it would be good to ensure that that's communicated out uh when families are dealing with that situation because yes it can be de debilitating and then also assess um the different um segments of student populations that may be impacted by this as a way to see what

183we can do to um work on those in regard to our pillars and everything else that we do. So, I just want to make sure that the community is aware that that fee waiver option does exist even if they don't financially qualify. They can have a case by case exception. >> That is correct. >> Thank you. >> Have Annie in the Charlotte. Yeah, I I was just going to follow up on that on the fee waiver for the credit recovery and also just um question, can you give us the thinking behind um that adding that to the fee schedule and the number of that? >> I would like to invite Dr. Tiffany Hall forward as she kind of oversees credit recovery and um was kind of the the person who developed all this. So, I

184would love to have her respond to your question. >> Would you repeat the question? >> Yeah. So, Mr. Askin asked about district credit recovery and it there's a new fee that's been added to the schedule of $30 for academic credit recovery retake fee per term and per course. And I'm just curious why that was added and how you reached that number. >> So, uh, $30 is, as with all fees on the fee schedule, the highest amount that we could charge. Um, so we are looking at a range and trying to figure out what a a good place to to settle that might be. The reason that we have decided there's a there are kind of three reasons that we looked at applying a fee to our credit recovery classes. First, they're extremely labor intensive. And

185as we are looking, you know, moving forward to make sure that they're core aligned, that we are um connected to all of the systems, that everything inside that works well. That requires a lot of um district employee time. Um I am working with teachers. So, within each of the content areas, I have teachers who are writing those classes, reviewing the classes. somebody else has to be hired that is um putting the canvas pieces together so that it all works. Then the IT team, Mr. Quansa's team takes them and makes them all speak to P school. So um in looking at all of that, that's a piece to a high quality program. Um another piece to that is all of the other providers in the area including Northridge um where many of our students go for

186um credit recovery or the online system through the state. some of the providers that provide credit recovery through there, they both charge anywhere from $25 to $50 a term. And a third reason is the idea of um looking at this as a recovery program. Students have an opportunity to work with teachers and to do a lot of work. And what we're seeing is many students I I hear this from teachers on a regular basis that there are many students who say I don't think I like the teacher. It will be easier for me to just go through credit recovery. And so we're really kind of looking at ways of saying you know we're giving you a wonderful opportunity right here. We understand and I appreciate Mr. accurely saying if a student needs a waiver, a

187student will get a waiver. There are reasons that students may fail a class and we want to make sure that we have the resources there to provide an opportunity for them to graduate and get through. What we don't want is I don't I I can see this as a default way to move through my education. And so, um, for example, if you settle on a $20 fee instead of a $30 fee, that would be applied districtwide, including the alternative high school, which is Horizonte, >> uh, >> for credit recovery. >> If Horizonte students are in credit recovery, but Horizonte's program is not credit recovery. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Annie. Charlotte, >> um, have we, when was it that we started >> offering credit recovery for for

188no fee? Um, >> did we always have that option or I thought Northridge was the >> the way that students had to go before. >> Northridge has been the default for a long time. Um, the high school principles asked the district to put a program together for this in when did when was >> I can remember the principles and they're all different now. But um >> I I I'm trying to remember if it's pre or postcoid, but it was right around there. So, it's been four or five years. I I could look up the exact date. I have a spreadsheet. >> Everything for me right now is pre- or postcoid. That's all I got. And then have we ever had free um classes for that? When did that start? >> They >> from the conception

189of this program. >> Oh, >> so it's been free till this point. >> Okay. >> It's okay. Any other questions? Okay. Um Allan, I I know in the past you've given a a really good explanation about how um principles manage uh fee waivers and reimbursement from the district. Could you please just describe that for the community so um it's reinforced? >> Yeah, so uh fee wavers can I mean they can happen at any time during the year. Largely they happen at registration. Uh each school has a fee waiver administrator. one of the APS is usually that fee waver administrator and um they approach there with also if you fill out the form for free and reduced lunch that automatically qualifies for a fee waiver across the board. Uh if things change during the year after

190registration um the student or parent can approach the fee waiver administrator at each school and um complete the necessary steps to uh do fee waiver. Uh I I want to note so this will be year two that we've wait that we do not charge curricular and co-curricular fees. Um we still would love for people to fill out the free and reduced lunch form uh even though maybe they're they're not paying any fees anymore. Um because that helps with our title one funding with our at risk funding helps with uh with our data knowing you know our socioeconomic status of our students. So even though maybe you register and you're like, "Well, since they're not charging any curricular co-curricular fees, I don't need to fill out the form." We would encourage families to still fill out

191the form. >> Thank you, Alan. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, is there a motion on the table to move this to the action agenda? I move that we I move that we move uh the proposed 202627 student fee schedules and annual review fee and fee waiver policy and procedures to the action agenda. >> Second. >> We've got a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? All right, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nick Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longo, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> All right, that motion passes. Thank you, board. We'll revisit that on the action agenda. Um, our next discussion, what's >> Who second

192it? >> Oh, um, the second was Ashley. Um, our next uh uh discussion agenda item is the Salt Lake Center for Science Education Slickie Charter renewal request. Uh, we have a a team of Slickie uh legends of of current day and past. So, thank you for joining us. Uh, Dr. Grant, is there anything you'd like to introduce before we get started? just to um state after that enrollment report and the conversations about charters. Um Slickie in my mind is different. I count them as our students. They weren't in those totals, but I count them as our Salt Lake City School District students. >> I appreciate that. We feel the same. >> Uh good evening and thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today. I appreciate your time and your thoughtful consideration that

193you that you give to this work. Um, I'm excited to share a little bit more about Slickie tonight and our proposal to reestablish middle grades in a way that supports students and also aligns with district priorities. Um, the recent action to dissolve the Slicky Bryant partnership creates a natural transition point for Slickie to revisit our program design. In response, we are seeking to thoughtfully reestablish a vertically aligned 6 through12 model consistent with the school's original design and long-term vision. So, I don't know how many of you know this, but Slickie actually began as a middle school. When we first opened in 2008, we served grades 6 through 8 and then added one grade level at a time until we were operating as a 6 through 12 school. In 2018, the board approved the cross-campus partnership

194with Bryant as a way to expand access to our programming um to that slickie model. And at its peak, that partnership allowed nearly 800 students across both campuses to participate in the program. So, up until last month, Slickie has always included a middle school component. Middle grades are not a new direction for us. They are foundational to how the school was originally conceived and designed. Now that the partnership has ended, we are seeking an amendment to our charter that would allow us to reestablish grades 6 through 8 on the Slickie campus, restoring vertical alignment structures that has historically been central to our model. Currently, our charter authorizes 450 students in grades 9 through 12, and our proposal would adjust that configuration to 380 students in high school and 180 students to the middle school. So,

195why reestablish middle grades? As the slide outlines, reestablishing middle grades strengthens vertical alignment across grades 6 through 12 and supports long-term student success. It allows us to preserve the continuity of Slick's inclusive detracted STEM model while building coherent pathways rather than relying on that cross-campus structure. But an important question that we have to consider is why this work needs to be done earlier. For students from historically marginalized communities, successfully accessing rigorous programming in high school, such as AP courses, that does not begin in high school. The foundation for that success is built much earlier. Middle school is a particularly critical time because it is when academic identity is forming. It is when students begin to develop beliefs about what they are capable of and where they belong academically. If we want enrollment in rigorous coursework

196to reflect the diversity of our school and our district, students must not only have access to those opportunities later in high school, but they also have to experience those high expectations paired with high levels of support much early in their educational journey. middle school is where that work becomes especially important. Then we have to ask ourselves, well, why science? Uh, we're a STEM focused school. Um, research consistently shows that disparities in science achievement emerge early in student educational experiences. Addressing those disparities requires intentional programming during the middle grades. I would go earlier if I had my way, but I'll take middle grades. Um, inquirybased science instruction and authentic hands-on scientific practices help students build deeper conceptual understanding and engagement within the discipline. When students experience science in this way early on, it strengthens both their

197achievement and persistence in STEM pathways. This is such a core part of the slickie model. By reestablishing middle grades, we can begin that work earlier and more intentionally, supporting students as they develop confidence, skills, and curiosity that carry forward into high school and beyond. Our middle school design intentionally scaffolds that transition from elementary learning structures to secondary expectations. I think this is a really important piece for you all to understand. It's really unique to our model. Um when we had middle school, we use a unique structure in our middle school programming that's intentionally to designed to design or designed to support both students and their families as they transition from that elementary model into the secondary setting, which we know can be really challenging for lots. Um, in sixth grade, you can see in the

198picture that students experience a structure that feels somewhat familiar um to elementary school while also gradually introducing uh the expectations of middle school. So, what that looks like in sixth grade is that students work with one teacher for English, language arts, and social studies with extended time and they work with a different teacher for mathematics and science with extended time. And then they also have typically two periods dedicated to electives. So in an elementary setting, they typically have had like one primary teacher and then they've gone to specials. And in this case, we grow them into more like four teachers who work really closely with those students and families. That structure really allows us um to build strong relationships with students and their families. Um and it helps students build those strong relationships with a

199small number of teachers rather than jumping right into seven or eight which is a more typical model. Um it then also gives them some sufficient instructional time to go deeper into the content with those extended time blocks. Um okay so another thing to think about is sixth grade is such it's a particularly strong entry point for students um to begin their middle school experience. Developmentally, there is something so unique about sixth graders compared to seventh graders. Um, students at this age are often so much more open to building community and relationships with a wide range of peers. That beautiful willingness on their part creates this opportunity to intentionally establish the inclusive culture and collaborative learning environment that are central to our model. We implement a desegregated model and for students to come into that model

200with an open mind and the developmental readiness to befriend lots is really powerful at that age. Um and then I'll move on to the seventh and eighth grade model. So beginning in seventh grade, students transition into a structure that more closely does resemble a traditional secondary model. At that point, they do move into having one teacher for each core subject, but those subjects still have extended time blocks and they continue to have two elective periods. Um, a really important element of that design though is that our core teachers loop with our seventh grade students into eighth grade, meaning students have the same core teacher for two years. This looping structure strengthens relationships, allows teachers to deeply understand students strengths and needs over time, and supports greater academic growth and consistency for students. Uh there's a

201lot of research that supports the benefits of looping and where it saves time in building relationships with a new group of students. Teachers are then able to hit the ground running that following year and pick up right where they left off to continue to grow students. Um, our structure, the way we structure these classes also creates rich opportunities for cross-curricular integration and project-based learning. Sorry, this is like giving some weird feedback. It's bugging me, Sam. Okay. >> Okay. Sorry, everybody. All right. Uh and not only does that that um crosscurricular integration and project-based learning reflect how problems are solved in the real world, but research also shows that interdisciplinary inquirybased learning can be particularly impactful for students from historically marginalized backgrounds. Um the extended time built into our schedule allows student support services to be

202embedded directly within the classroom. This enables us to implement a strong inclusion model with co-eing and push-in supports rather than relying primarily on pullout interventions. Um, the structure allows us to meet students where they are developmentally at while building the academic and social foundations that support success throughout the rest of their middle and high school experience. And finally, there is strong research to support positive student outcomes. This can be graduation or post-secary readiness. um when students have fewer school transitions. So a 6 through 12 model actually reduces an entire school transition for students which is even more beneficial for our more impacted students. Okay, the academic model for our middle school, we have rigorous and extended STEM and experiential learning foundation at Slicky. I've mentioned this when I presented before, but students are organized into

203classes based on grade level, not ability. This reflects our detra our detract model and all students are given access to rigorous coursework and teachers utilize scaffolding and differentiation to ensure students can successfully engage with that rigor. Um we have heterogeneous and inclusive instructional model which we imp so this means we implement an inclusion model that emphasizes those push-in services and co-eing for special education allowing students to remain part of the po the core classroom community while receiving the supports they need intervention and student support embedded within MTSS. Uh I love this part of the work that we do at Slickie. Our teachers work in grade level teams not only to refine their instructional practice but also to closely monitor and intervene um when student progress is concerning. Uh you should come and join these teams

204sometime if you just want it's like fun but also really really amazing to hear um the plans that they have to support students. These teams collaborate to identify students who may be struggling and provide time um timely targeted intervention. And because of that team structure, this work happens in a coordinated and highly responsive way. Social emotional and community school supports. We also implement a tiered social emotional learning framework using the ruler approach. This helps students develop the emotional awareness and regulation skills that support both academic success and healthy relationships beyond school. Additionally, we partner with Promise Partnership Utah, which helps us implement strong community school practices and ensures students and families have access to the supports they need. Vertical preparation for Slickie High School coursework and pathways. Ultimately, the Slickie model uh prepares students for

205the opportunities available in our high school. And one of the outcomes we're particularly proud of is our advanced placement courses are among the most diverse courses in the state of Utah. Uh there was even a year where we were required to set a recruitment goal focused on increasing the number of white male participants in our AP classes um because they had become our most underrepresented demographic. That level of diversity and rigorous coursework does not happen by accident and it does not happen starting in high school. It is the result of the DTract model and the high expectations paired with high level of supports that begin in middle school and continue out throughout the slicky pathway. In terms of operational readiness, uh the enrollment demand and phased growth approach. So, our current proposal is to launch

206the middle school in fall of 2027, and we'd like to begin with grades 6 and 7 and then grow into 8th grade the following year. This phased approach allows us to grow intentionally and ensures we have the structures and staffing in place to support students effectively as the program expands. Staffing and program design aligned with the existing Slickie model. Because we would be growing gradually, we would be able to hire intentional intentionally and at a manageable pace uh which allows new teachers to build time to build capacity within our model. It is it's really hard work. You have to meet a wide range of needs in one space. Um and helping support people build those tools. We need the time to do that. Maintaining integrity of the instructional model is very important to us and

207this approach supports thoughtful onboarding and professional learning for new staff. Facilities capacity and implementation timeline. So from a facility standpoint, the current satellite horizonte program would need to relocate. Um district leadership has indicated support for that transition. That shift would then allow the Slickie campus to accommodate the the middle school grades within the existing space. And then in terms of financial sustainability and budget planning, we have historically operated with a very with a fiscally conservative approach and we currently have a fund balance of approximately $1.7 million. Based on our planning, we anticipate needing approximately four additional FTE positions in the first year to support the middle school launch. Um in add in addition within our existing special education budget we have already allocated enough funding to support one full-time FTE for special education. Uh which

208and this would allow us to continue the strong inclusion model that's been central to Slicky since we opened. We are also actively pursuing additional um funding opportunities. We were only a few points away from qualifying for a federal grant uh valued at approximately $400,000 and we're reapplying for that in May. And um additionally, our application for new schools funding which could provide approximately $250,000 has advanced past the first round and remains under consideration. So taken together, these elements position us well to launch a middle school in a way that's financially responsible, operationally manageable, and along aligned with long-term stability of the program or sustainability of the program. Um, in terms of stakeholder alignment, uh, our faculty, so faculty engagement and consensus building throughout last spring, our faculty engaged in deep and thoughtful conversations about both

209the benefits and the challenges of reestablishing middle school programming. Uh, reestablishing this programming is not a small task. Uh, in fact, in many ways, it would be much easier to just continue as status quo and stay a high school. But as our faculty uh reflected on the mission of our school and the impact of our model, there was strong agreement that the beginning that beginning this work earlier would better support our students. Teachers spoke about the importance of students learning alongside peers whose lived experiences may differ from their own, developing empathy, building authentic relationships across racial and socioeconomic differences, and understanding the value of diverse perspectives. Desegregation is at the heart of our work. They also recognized the academic benefits of beginning earlier with the work of building academic identity, belonging, and strong intervention supports.

210Ultimately, our faculty reached strong consensus in support of reestablishing middle grades. Every teacher was in favor of of pursuing this family interest and community demand. Family interest in middle grades at Slickie has remained strong. When the middle school component was initially moved from our campus, it was very difficult for many of our families. Um, and they have continued to ask about the possibility of its return. Commitment to a diverse and inclusive student population. We also remain deeply committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive student population that reflects the broader school district. That has always been a focus of our work. Uh I think sometimes there are misconceptions about the students who attend Slickie. Certainly some students are drawn to our school for science. They're excited about that. Um but actually many more families come to

211our school because they are looking for a smaller school community where students are known and supported where they feel confident their child will not fall through the cracks. Currently 54% of our students are from BIPO communities. 25% are multil- language learners and 21% are students with disabilities. We serve a significant number of students who may be considered among the most at risk youth in the district. Slicky strives to be a place where students who may feel unseen elsewhere become visible, where uncertainty becomes stability, and where students whose needs have not always been met find the support necessary to thrive. alignment with district priorities. This work also aligns closely with district priorities around student success, equity, and program stability and school community council support. Finally, our school community council has also engaged in discussion around this

212proposal and they voiced strong support in the reestablishment of middle grades also reaching consensus. Okay, so now we'll talk about the elephant of the room since I followed that last presentation. That was interesting timing. All right. Enrollment impact and district stability. So, Slickie is very aware of the broader district-wide enrollment decline, and our goal with this proposal is not expansion for expansion's sake. Instead, we are focused on responsible growth that can help stabilize and support district stabilizing of enrollment overall. So currently, I know where you can get the numbers you were asking for because I've pulled those numbers, but currently there are seven out of district charter schools within roughly a 15 mile radius of this office that serve middle grades. And many Salt Lake City families are choosing those options. But there are real

213benefits for families when their child can attend a district sponsored charter school rather than an outofd charter. students remain connected to the district ser support services the calendar they but then they also benefit um from the innovation that a charter model can provide to me this really is the best of both worlds. It creates the symbiotic relationship where where charter innovation and district stability can work together to meet the needs of our students and families. Um, I remember last year Superintendent Grant shared data showing that while district enrollment has been on the decline, charter enrollment has continued to remain stable. Uh, district enrollment reports from 2025 show that 1,500 students left the district and only about 600 of those departures were associated with a known zip code change. That suggests that a significant number of

214families may still actually live within our district but are choosing schooling options elsewhere. I can just speak from the historical perspective of when Slickie had a middle school on its campus. Um, historically we drew kids from several other charter schools. Pacific Heritage, Legacy Preparatory, Salt Lake Arts Academy, Dual Immersion Academy, Guadalupe, City Academy, and Wallace Stegner. We had good chunks of kids that came from those places. Based on those historical patterns, we are confident that reestablishing middle grades at Slickie would allow us to bring some of those students back into the district system. There is clearly a demand for a Westside district sponsor charter middle school option and we believe that Slickie can play a really important role in meeting that need while also helping to strengthen district enrollment stability. In this way, reestablishing middle

215grades at Slickie is not about drawing students away from district schools. It is about bringing district families back. So, let's look at some of the data. Um, you can see here, Slicky's historic enrollment patterns show that we typically draw small numbers of students from many different elementary schools rather than having a significant impact on any single feeder. Um, I think the range is typically between one and a max of seven from any one elementary school. Uh, I know there has been some concern that reestablishing a middle school um at Slickie could impact enrollment at Bryant. For this reason, I included the years when Slickie previously operated a middle school on this campus. Historically, very few students came from Bryant Middle School prior to the partnership. In fact, the connection between the two campuses didn't really

216begin until 2017 when the partnership was first being developed and then the shared model began implementation of fall of 18. Uh most recently following Bryant's program shift this year, Slickie Slickie actually released the lowest number of high school applicants from that campus since that partnership began, which suggests there's limited natural crossover between the two programs. Historically, about 17 to 20% of Slickie Middle School students came from outside of district boundaries. And we plan to implement a focused, intentional recruiting um plan to get students from outside of Salt Lake City School District so that we're not in competition. This helps position Salt Lake City School District as a district that offers innovative and rigorous educational opportunities and it allows us to bring students and the associated funding into the district rather than losing them to neighboring

217districts or charter systems. The proposed middle school is designed to serve families specifically seeking the Slicky model, not to compete or draw enrollment from Bryant or any of the other district middle schools. Finally, the chart at the top illustrates the number of students who have moved from district middle schools to charter schools or neighboring district middle schools. These students represent families who have already chosen to leave the district system and they are students we believe Slickie could realistically bring back. So again, in that sense, this proposal is less about redistributing students within our school district and more about recovering students the district is currently losing. As this slide highlights, Slickie remains deeply committed to collaboration with the district, supporting enrollment stability, and maintaining a diverse student population that reflects the broader Salt Lake City School

218District. Our goal with this proposal is not to grow, but not simply to grow, but to do so in a way that would strengthen the district as a whole. We're also committed to continued guidance and partnership from district leadership as we move forward to ensure that implementation aligns with broader district priorities and contributes positively to long-term district stability. Ultimately, our intent is to ensure that Slickie continues to serve as a district asset. And by that I mean supporting innovation, expanding meaningful student opportunities, and strengthening the overall system that we are all here at this meeting or doing our work throughout the day to improve. Uh slicky continues to be a strong option within this school district and we work the work we're doing aligns closely with the district's mission and priorities. So, I wanted to

219share this mo most recent data um that was released by USB. Last year, our school achieved exemplary growth with students and our results show that we're outpacing the state across all measured areas. But to me, what was particularly amazing is that the growth holds true for all disagregated student groups, which is awesome. And this reflects our commitment to ensuring that every student is supported and making progress. Much of the work we do at Slickie directly reflects the core tenants of Salt Lake City School District's mission. We are cultivating a love of learning within a diverse and inclusive school community. We are committed to educational excellence and high expectations for all students. We work to support the individual needs of each learner and we strive to provide a safe and supportive environment where students develop the

220academic problemolving and social skills necessary for success in college, career and life. These shared values are what makes a strong partner within the district and why we believe continuing to strengthen this model beginning earlier with middle grades will further support student success. Because of this success, we believe expanding the vertically aligned model to include include middle grades allows us to build on what is already working well for students. In addition to strong growth results, also had commendable ratings for overall student achievement, again outpacing the state in all three tested subjects. These results reflect the vision of Salt Lake City School District. Excellence and equity, every student, every classroom, every day. At Slickie, that vision is not just language. It is work we strive to live day out daily in our classrooms and community. Slickie represents

221a strong option within Salt Lake City School District and plays an important role in supporting the district's commitment to educational excellence. We are proud to contribute to the vision by providing students with meaningful opportunities to engage deeply in learning and grow both academically and personally. If you were to visit Slickie on any given day, you can show up unannounced. I promise I will take you into classrooms and you will see great and beautiful and excellent things. You will see students engaged in thoughtful work, collaborating with peers, teachers working intentionally to support every learning, every learner, and they do really cool things. It's really fun. Our goal is to build a strong found on the Our goal is to build onto the strong foundation already in place and continue expanding opportunities for students. Slick's mission strongly

222reflects and advance the mission and vision of Salt Lake City School District. I have actually had the privilege to spend my entire career in this school district. I completed my student teaching here like only a couple years ago, so don't worry. Um, and for a long time I believed this was the only place I ever wanted to work. And don't worry, that's still true today. >> It's the only place I want to work. It's the only place I want to work because I truly deeply believe in this school district's vision and mission. Um, when a colleague first approached me about coming and applying to work at Slickie, I remember saying to her, "No, I'm not doing that. I am working for Salt Lake City School District. This is where I want to be forever. and

223she explained that Sluxie was very much a part of the school district and that it was a district sponsored charter which I had never heard of and my family really tried to talk me out of it. Um, but that the beauty of it being a district sponsored charter was that it created that it created the opportunity to be innovative within the system and that perspective is ultimately what led me here. I truly believe that through Slickie, I am continuing to advance the district's mission and vision. Our school plays an important role in that. Not only through the direct impact we have on the students we serve, but also through our ability to pilot innovative approaches and serve as a model for other schools and programs in the district. And I don't think we always do

224that in a formal capacity, but I think there are lots of things that have grown out of the work that we initiated. The math program or the math curriculum that was adopted by high schools um a couple of years ago, we have been implementing for over 10 years. Uh we were the first school to have an outdoor explorations class that now there are multiple of those. We were the first school to have a school bike fleet. I think when people it's kind of cool because when you're small and nimble, you can try some stuff out. We do a lot of failing. Don't worry. We we just call it failing forward. >> Um but we also do a lot of things right and learn from them and do them even better. And I think when other

225people can see that, it ignites opportunity for other students and other schools. When that kind of work happens well, it strengthens the entire system. And for for that system, it moves us all closer to, I think, what we all want, a more just and equitable community where students graduate with skills, knowledge, and mindsets that they need to thrive and contribute meaningfully to the world around them. I wanted to share this well-being data with you. I know you've seen it before. Um, but I I wanted to share it with you because uh to see data like this at any school, but particularly at a school with the communities Slickie serves is remarkable. I don't know how many of you had a middle school experience that you're just like itching to go back to. You're like, "Those

226were the glory days, 8th grade." Um, but I would say overwhelmingly for most students, middle school often becomes a time in their life where they just merely try to survive. And when we had a middle school on our campus, it was not a time for kids to survive. It was a time and space where kids truly thrived, particularly students who may not in more traditional environments. And we want to reestablish that space once again. What I love about this district is we frequently center decision-making around what is best for students. Reestablishing middlegrades at Slickie reflects that commitment. It creates another highquality inclusive pathway that we know will serve students well and strengthen outcomes for kids who thrive in this model. I'll just close with one other thing and then you can you can ask me

227really scary questions. Uh there are many things I want for Slickie students. Of course, I want every one of them to graduate. I want them to leave our school with the skills and knowledge necessary to lead those meaningful, fulfilling lives. But when I think more deeply about what I want for all students at Slickie, it becomes even more clear. I want every student who graduates from us to be fully literate, reading and writing on grade level and equipped to navigate this world with confidence. I want our multilingual learners to leave us fully bilingual, able to leverage their second language as an incredible asset and the superpower that it is. I want all students to understand their emotions and learn how to regulate them in healthy ways so that momentary decisions do not become lifealtering consequences.

228And I want every student to recognize their own value and their ability to make the world better through empathy, daily interactions, and meaningful relationships with people who are different from themselves. I believe Slickie can do this and I believe that the reestablish that reestablishing a coherently aligned middle school gives us the earlier start and sustained time necessary to do this work. For me, this proposal is absolutely about what is best for students, not in theory, but in practice. If there truly is a path forward that would serve students better than this one, I want to understand it. But based on everything we know, I believe reestablishing middle grades at at Slickie strengthens our ability to deliver the outcomes we all say we want for students, excellence, equity, and opportunity. >> Thank you, Principal Pal, for

229joining us and for your presentation. Um, before I open it up for questions, I just want to remind the board that we're not taking specific action on this particular topic this evening. Uh, Britney, you're going to have to come back in April. We're going to have a >> You're going to get so sick of me. No, we're not. But nonetheless, um I just wanted to throw that out. Um and I'll open it up for any questions or comments for Principal Pal. >> Um thank you so much for this presentation. I was very inspired and I think you're doing a lot of great work. I was particularly impressed with the the well-being scores and I think that's hugely important in education is feeling that psychological safety and belonging. Um, just wanted to ask a little bit

230about your, you said you have a little bit of a plan or a strategy to recruit outside of the district. I'm wondering what that is, what that would look like. >> Well, we've had a lot of experience recruiting just for the high school in general and I think growing some of that work that we've done. So, partnering with other schools to give presentations, um, ones that we're not directly competing with, but more like feeders. We're a word of mouth school. So when we can get into feeders into schools like at an elementary level, that becomes a really great hinge point. I also think, you know, we're talking about some I think people sometimes think like we're trying to take all your top kids. Give us like the ferocious velociraptors that are just going to eat

231science up, but actually we want the kids who people are worried are going to disappear in a bigger school because those are the ones that you can really support in academic identity. I think when we've worked with other schools to help them understand like we're not trying to take any particular kind of student but we are a space for lots of students then that immediately allows us to build a more authentic partnership because really anyone working in education is in it because we care about kids. Any kid you want to see them have the best chance they can to be where they need to be to to meet that. So in terms of what we've typically done with recruiting and again we would work to make this much more strategic and thoughtful but partnering with

232other schools particularly out of district um and charter schools that have elementaryaged kids to give them a different pathway that is going to have better outcomes for their students. Um making sure we go to like community councils. We've been invited to go work in some or like share our message in those spaces. other community events. It really ends up being a grassroots word of mouth work. We have lots of families who come from a wide range of communities and I know they would partner with us in helping make sure they get other kids to to understand what we offer. Um we do wider pieces like social media outreach, mailers, um and those kinds of things. I think we would work to grow out. >> Thank you. Yep. >> Bryce, >> I don't necessarily have questions,

233but I have some uh it's kind of my theme tonight, but testimonials that I want to share out. I did that in the study session as well. Um, so one of I did have this question and I think it was answered. So, one of the concerns I had about uh was about the competing uh perceived competing nature of adding a middle school and I think you addressed my questions that I had around that. Um, I also just want to say, um, as Britney was talking, there were a lot of things I'm like shaking my head. Yes, this is true. This is true. So, I wanted to mention some of those things. Um, as I've sat in, uh, various SEC meetings, I have heard the desire from the SEC as well as the faculty that this

234is a unanimous thing that they want to see happen. So, that is true. That is I've witnessed that uh for I think one or two years now in those meetings. Um, sorry I was writing a lot of things and then I kept adding and deleting and trying to get all my thoughts out. It's going to be a little complicated right now. Um, so I've been on the board uh almost five years and uh the moment uh that I became a board member either was Nikki or Britney I can't remember reached out to reached out to me immediately to come and visit the school and uh from the moment that I stepped foot in that school I've been uh highly impressed in what's happening there and uh while I don't have kids of my own at

235Slickie I immediately felt part of the community there and um as I've spent five years there through SEC meetings different events events that are happening, um, presentations, whatever that's that's going on there, um, I felt like they do a really good job of building community at Slicky. And so, if there is an opportunity to expand and include, uh, younger students at an earlier period of time, I can just see a lot of advantages and a lot of benefits to that happening. Um, I know there's lots of things that we as a board uh, need to consider in making this decision. Um, but it truly is, it truly is a magical and unique place to be. And so I just would like to keep that human aspect to things. Um, while we still have to look

236at numbers and budgets and things of that nature, um, I just want to speak to the great work that they do there. >> Thank you. >> I have Ashley and then Amanda. I also, as people know, really value the work that Slickie does and I've enjoyed my visits to their campus where their dedicated faculty are always serving kids in important ways. It's great to see so many of their faculty in the audience. Um, I especially loved following your outdoor learning, your mountain biking team, and especially the creative and innovative senior projects that students produce every single year. If board members haven't seen those projects, especially new board members, I would encourage you to go. Um, and with that in mind, I want to thank Principal Powell for her excellent presentation and acknowledge that I know

237the request poses some complexity which she started to address. And so when it's brought back to the board again, I'm hoping that district staff can share with us some of their recommendations regarding the request. And I have a few items I'd like them to consider um speaking to, not tonight, but in the future when we talk about it. I think any financial and logistic impacts of renewing the charter with uh grades six through eight when our district's elementary model remains K through six except for some schools in Glendale and Popular Grove where grade levels adjusted during an enrollment boom on the west side. We've had some conversations about middle school. We had a large middle school study, but this request obviously comes at a time when we have not been asked to make any changes

238to the middle school structure. So, I'm curious particularly about the impact to elementary schools in the district in um adopting the the middle school model. I think any interpretation of how enrollment dips district-wide could be helped by Slick's renewal of middle grades by retaining students in district who we see leave for alternatives like Slarts uh is important to address as well as kind of debunking any potential risks for the declining student populations at middle schools like Northwest where we have seen in electives go down as enrollment goes down and we wouldn't want to contribute to that risk. Um perhaps having an analysis of some of the trends from the raw data that Principal Powell presented could help us make a good decision while looking at any potential outcomes for our neighborhood schools that we serve.

239Um and also it would be great to find that there was some positive benefits for the attrition we see to state charters. That would be really important to know. And last, I would hope that staff can help us identify whether any changes the board deliberates onto the model might also align with any recommended adjustments to the way special education costs for Slicky are addressed. Um, I know we have a multi-million dollar deficit in special education that we pay for out of the general fund. and we commit to providing these important special education services to our district charters out of what I feel is a sense of duty rather than obligation because we know that state charters have a different playbook. Um so I think that it's important that we talk a little bit about whether

240we would make any other compatible changes in considering this request that would also support the district budget more generally. So, those are things I know we wouldn't answer today, but are things I would hope we can include that would build upon the very excellent presentation prepared by Principal Powell. >> Could I just respond to one thing, >> please? >> So, I just want to make it clear that none of the district special ed funds uh go to support the two charters. They get their own allocation from the state for special education. We don't I mean, we support them as an organization, but not financially. And any of the services we utilize, we have to pay for. >> And that's what I'm talking about is the way in which those services are paid for. That's what

241I think it's important for us to understand how it's uniquely different than what happens in a neighborhood school where the services are built into the district budget in such a way that the charters provide an outlying example. How do we structure that? How is it done? We've talked about um the consultants that go out and how those have been paid for. We talked about that in finance committee when we reviewed the financial statements. So that's the type of thing it would be great to bring back to the whole board to see if there's any kind of redress in that structure knowing that it is complicated is the point. >> Thank you Ashley Amanda. >> Yeah finished typing my thoughts. Um, it's kind of basically along the lines of what stated, but I feel like I

242still need to. One, your presentation was phenomenal. I am always impressed on how you present yourself and how you represent Slickie and all of the amazing things that are occurring. So, just kudos to you. Kudos to your team. >> Thank you. >> I It's just I love to listen to you talk. It's very impressive. Um I am generally supportive of Slickie um for all the reasons stated. I had evaluated my um for my oldest son to attend um and the other reason we didn't pursue it was at that point it was three kids, three different schools and I have a complex child. So it was just nope, not going to do it. But um I I understand the reason behind it. Um I am concerned about the um inconsistent feeder pattern so to speak um

243because a six through 12 where our elementary schools are K through six the majority and we already have a feeder pattern issue um with some of the schools that are not aligned um the same and how they feed. So, um potentially adding another inconsistent model um seems to add to an already problematic equation. Um and then additionally, I have very grave concerns about um adding another middle school model when we are going through substantial declining enrollment situations. um and we're on the cusp of potentially having to close more schools. So, uh we're if we weren't in that quandry, it would be an easier conversation um to support uh one when we're heading down the path of having to take away from our neighborhood schools. Um it's really really hard place to be. But you know

244that being said, you know, you guys as an entity within our district, you are providing a value added service. It's just that extra layer of ask is very difficult. >> Yes, I'm happy to not be in your seat when it comes to that. I will say I do think uh I think those challenges that you all are facing with enrollment and school reconfigurations or potential closures while they are incredibly difficult I also hope we look for opportunity within that and when we're maybe doing a little bit of reimagining really thinking of like what is best for our middle school programming and if we pilot and launch this middle school to learn from some of the practices because there are a lot of power um powerful pieces in very intentional practices. They're not haphazard that support

245kids transitioning. That jump from elementary to secondary, man, that is mean. It's kind of nasty for kids and families, right? They're whole different systems. And so I think like if we can maybe leverage that as an opportunity or even thinking about like the curriculum that we are expected to teach sixth graders, it's very challenging in elementary constraints. And I'm not going to open that giant can of worms for you all. But >> leaning into some of the opportunities that are created by hardship, I think this district has always been a champion of that of like finding innovation in in the challenge. Any other questions or comments? Brian, >> thank you for your presentation. Um, you're very well spoken and I appreciate all of the information. I have to say that I have personal experience with

246slicky having taught at Newman Elementary for 11 years. There are numerous occasions where I've enjoyed the benefits of science fairs for my sixth grade students. Um, you had a program at one point where I don't know if you would call them mentors, but that's what I would call them that were coming to Newman. And I mean those are wonderful um thinking out of the box examples I think that you're talking about. Um I really enjoyed the visit that I had. Um geez it was only four days ago now that I think about Ralph. >> It's been a long week. um when I was there, it brought back a lot of great memories. I do have to say I'm anxious about that sixth grade piece as well. I'm thinking about it again as a sixth grade

247teacher. I mean, I had students that were really endeavoring, and I'm thinking about fifth grade anyway, trying to get into Slicky, and at that time it was more challenging um to get into the program. So there are certainly students in my experience that are well equipped, but I'm also anxious about some students that I knew in my sixth grade that they needed one teacher monitoring them and supporting them. Anyway, that was my experience. >> I'll just speak a little I mean as another former sixth grade teacher. >> Okay, we can discuss back and forth. Yeah, I I just I hear you. And that's what I think like that student that you're talking about that really needed one teacher, >> they're next year they're going to have seven or eight. >> And so this is where

248like that sixth grade sweet spot like they get primarily like two C two teachers that have them 68 of the day. They have them almost the entire day. In fact, when I started at Slickie, I came from an elementary background and didn't know prep was a thing. Like that you were given time to prepare. And Larry Madden had to like wrestle me into taking prep time cuz I was like, "No, I need these babies all day. Like we're working on stuff all day." And so over time, he like got me to let them go to other things like every other day. And then I then I learned how to work as more of a village model. But yeah, I do think like sixth grade, I know that's a really complicated hinge point and people have

249some really deep feelings about that. So, I don't want to dismiss that at all. It's that's hard. Also, sixth graders are like this perfect age to still be willing to be friends with anybody. They also don't have these misperceptions about what middle school really should be. They haven't watched all those terrible TV shows about middle school. Like they don't know. And so they're really willing to lean into actually building a culture of inclusion and building a culture where like we can come from wildly different backgrounds and we can work together in class and sit together at lunch and I can see you as a human being and value you for that beyond anything else. And so for me, sixth grade is that really golden hour of time with kids where they're still just moldable enough

250and with the right supports so that that kid who actually does need one teacher can thrive with four before they're dumped into seven or eight. >> I don't know. >> You're very persuasive. I would just respond when we're talking about that magical age. I think also one of my um concerns is that magical age is really valuable in the one or the K through sixth grade too. There's lots of wonderful things that sixth graders are doing in the school that they're in. So, I appreciate staff looking at that and seeing >> how that all plays out. And I think we, you know, others have mentioned that. And then finally, I would defer to, it appears to me from your comments, board member Anderson, and then some of the head nods from the others that are

251on the finance committee, you have discussed some things that we're not, anyway, I'm not familiar with. um some of those impacts when it comes to and I understand a charter school is financed separately but I just want to understand all of those implications to the district. >> I could respond to that please. >> Um we did review the financial statements and then the whole board was actually obligated to share that. So it was shared in a board member report and it was discussed in a meeting. But I think what we uncovered through that process is that we had not necessarily gone through the financial statements as anticipated on an annual basis to quite the degree that perhaps would be ideal. So I think everyone has essentially the same information but because we haven't been doing

252it by wrote you know repeatedly we're not all quite at the same >> right like we need a refresher is what I would agree >> looking at it and I don't understand it the same way that you do >> exactly so I think we should consider talking about that again to revisit what we've talked about and um just to address again the idea about sixth grade I of course am very compelled by what you know very experienced faculty have to say about the benefits and that's why I'm pointing back to the middle school study that if we don't act on the middle school study in a global way which talked about the benefits potentially of moving sixth grade but also we know the consequences of moving sixth grade enrollment wise for elementary school staffing that

253it seems like this is why I'm saying if staff could talk to us about this >> rather than we make a decision in a vacuum that we think is really good that is compelled by the best reasoning and you know the the best pedigogy and we don't think through what it might mean for all the other schools we operate and how they too benefit from learning best practices from >> Can I just share one other piece that attaches to that? One thing I love particularly about the Slicky model is for sixth grade we actually utilize elementary school teachers. Elementary teachers have the best pedigogy. They know how to teach kids and they know how to teach them deeply. And so bringing them up into a middle school model is really powerful because where they sometimes

254lack and please anyone who's watching this, don't get mad, but as a former elementary person, you don't come out of college with the depth of content knowledge that you really need. And so being a sixth grade teacher in a middle school, I was able to collaborate with colleagues to really deepen my content knowledge while I was then able to share structures and strategies that expanded their pedigogy. So, it's actually like that's one way to think about the staffing pieces of like considering how do we move those great practices that elementary teachers leave college amazing at implementing and grow those structures into a secondary setting. >> Charlotte, did you have anything you wanted to add? >> No, I'm just taking all of this in and you know, thank you for your presentation. Uh yeah, it made

255me wish that more students would have that opportunity. Um so but yes, we have constraints um with and considerations with um in declining enrollment and feeder patterns. So yeah, we have a lot to think about. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> I'll just close us out and I'll try to keep my comments brief. Um because similar to the other social worker on the board, Bryce, I might get emotional and that's mostly because I just have a deep love and respect for what Slickie does. And I believe that it's the epitome of education and I've always felt that way. um as long as I've been a board member and even beforehand um just knowing what what Slickixie means and what it is and um it's great to see so many Slicky folks in the in the audience,

256people that I I know and have come to know over the years like Diane and Nikki and Larry. I mean, we've been through hell and back, right? So, um so it's it's good to see the support that you have tonight, Britney. And um I don't necessarily have concerns or or anxieties, but I I do agree with my colleagues that I just want to seek to understand um you know, kind of what this looks like in the long run and and how we get there. Um if that's what the board so chooses. And so I look forward to hearing back from you. And um I know there's been a lot of questions posed to you, Dr. Grant, and to you, BA Kursley, and probably others on your team. Um there's some pretty significant asks I feel

257like and I just want to make sure that the board is in agreement um to give that direction to Dr. Grant and to BA Kursley and you obviously coordination with Slickie um the principal pal to make sure that we get those questions answered or maybe just a thumbs up on that from everybody. Okay, great. And one thing we might be looking for, we need to create the charter. And would the board be amanable to creating the charter as presented for further discussion in a in an April meeting or are we not ready to have that charter created? I mean, not finalized necessarily, but but created doing the draft work. So, um, any direction we can receive on that timing would be helpful. How soon would you need that? Like tonight or at our next discussion?

258>> Well, it depends. If we want a charter to be >> an exhibit for for the April meeting to discuss what that ex you know the language on there looks like. Um we would need guidance. Do we want to build a draft charter with the with the sixth, seventh and eighth grade in it or is the board not ready to you know we need further discussion before we can kind of go there? I will speak for myself, but I feel like we need that further discussion, but I'm open to hearing what the other board members obviously have to say, too. >> Do we have a hard deadline on when we need to um have this charter agreement stamp signed and delivered? >> Well, current charter expires the end of this school. So, June 30th. >>

259Yeah. Um, and I'm sure Principal Pal would like to have it sooner than later just so she can start putting stuff in place because whatever she's proposing, whatever gets approved would be for next school year. >> The launch date of the middle school would be fall of 2027. >> Okay. With that knowledge, I I I think then the June 30th really becomes, you know, having something in place by June 30th. >> Yeah. So I would my I guess input would be the next meeting would be our I guess potentially final round of discussion to decide what we're interested in pursuing in that charter agreement. So we have one more round of conversations. >> Yeah. With with any of the financial information that we can refresh on and that sort of thing that some questions we

260asked. >> Okay. Cool. And and I don't know Dr. Grant and Principal Pal if there's two different versions that you want to work on or present. I don't know what that might present one >> what >> I think we can present one version. >> I think we could come back like in May or something and things. >> Yeah. >> Great. Well, Principal Pal, thank you for coming. Thank you, Slickie staff um present today um from the past and who who are still working at Slickie. So, thank you for being here tonight. >> Thank you, Britney. All right, our final discussion um agenda item this evening um is the testing compliance assistant um special education job reclassification. Um Brian and I heard from enough board members that would constitute a majority to have this come back.

261If you remember our previous discussion whether to bring this back to the discussion or the consent agenda. Um so uh we have it here on the discussion agenda um per the board's request u based on that feedback and I'll open it up for discussion. I'll go. Um, so my initial reluctance with that proposal was just wanting to ensure that um I guess unless you wanted to present something first. Okay. um to have a better understanding of the why behind it and to ensure that that was the the 4-hourly uh to the two contract with benefits um was the um consensus approach with all of those directly impacted by it. Um and from my perspective, I did some I had some further conversations with Logan, conversations with Tiffany. I did some digging with um stakeholders that

262are more or that are directly impacted um by how it's currently functioning versus how um things would change under the proposed situation. And then I believe we all received a joint letter from the district psychologist kind of a resounding support for this change and with a lot of detail in regard to it. So, um, I have no aversion to this proposal. I fully support it. >> Thank you, Amanda. Any other discussion? >> Ashley, >> I move that we place testing compliance assistant sped job reclassification as attached in exhibit 3 F3 on the action agenda. >> A second. >> Got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting board member Ramono. Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Lug, yes. >> Rice Williams, yes. >>

263Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. All right, that'll we'll revisit that on the action agenda. Let me just make a note real quick. All right, our first >> Thank you foration. >> Um, moving on to our action agenda, we have three items. Just to recap, we have um the consent item 1B, Rocky Mountain Artificial Turf LLC. Item number two is our um student fees schedule 2627 review um and approval ideally. Um and then item number three is our special education testing compliance assistant. Um we'll start with item 1B, Rocky Mountain Artificial Turf. Um is there a motion on the table to start discussion? I move that we approve Rocky Mountain Artificial Turf LLC's um purchase order as request and it requested in exhibit 3B1B. >> Second. >> Okay, we

264got a motion in a in a second and open up for discussion. >> Um Oh, sorry. I was just wondering if um Isaac Ael could give like a one minute summary of some of the information behind why artificial turf would be beneficial and cost savings and great for this >> one minute. >> Well, I'm just saying it's late. Okay, that's a tall order. Just if you could give some context. >> He's got a >> show and tell. There we go. >> We got to fill it, bond with it. >> So, uh just quick rundown. This material is a opportunity to replace what is there and is failing for a much lower cost. It's much it's very similar. The top the top one I that you see blue and black that's pouring place the top cap

265that is failing on a lot of our areas. >> This is the one that's failing. >> Yeah. >> And it would be in the middle of these two, right? >> No. And and sorry there I I need to point out three things real quick. >> Um in my response to you guys, I mentioned that we would keep the the underfill in place. The reason it's $20,000 and not cheaper per place is because we thought we could do that, but then when we talked to the manufacturer, the manufacturer came back and said, "We won't warranty or ensure any rating underneath on a product that we didn't install." So, it would remove that lower case, put that piece in, and then the carpet over the top, the >> the turf over the top of that foam >>

266like this. Just those two. >> It would just be those two. >> That's what's there now that they would pull off. And the the under >> This is there now. Like this. >> Yeah. >> It's It's a different product that's under that. >> Okay. >> Right now, it's it's the same as the blue and the black. It's just not compacted as much. So, there's much more cushion to it. >> Okay. So, I apologize. I I misled you on that, but I got educated this morning. That was the original plan is to code it, put the new place on. The other thing I wanted to tell you is I I I told you guys that Rosland Heights was the only playground that has this in place. I was incorrect. There are three um in place uh

267kindergarten playgrounds, Washington, Wasach, and Nibbi Park that all have the astral turf in place already, but it's been there for five or six years. And it was it was put in place because it's a flat area that they wanted just for the kinder kindergarten and prek >> and it's over that cushion. >> It it is over the cushion and and does provide it. Um the other point that I want to make is it's the same materials in either product. It's just in a different form and strand. Um so that the heat and things that it's not we're not putting this in a place where we don't already have something that's similar. So like the chemical properties and the >> are the same essentially just reformed. >> Yes. Just just in a strand rather than in

268a in a pellet form. Okay. Basically. >> Um and do you have generally speaking like just for parents who would maybe be worried because they think artificial turf isn't good for their kids. Do you want to It sounds like generally across the state and the nation there's been many studies done by school districts that have not found conclusive evidence of any harm and that there it's widely used and safe >> that it is it there are a lot of studies out there. There are scientific and then there are blogging and opinion-based studies. Um I shared a few of the most recent science-based that were out of Palo Alto California and um the EPA and both of those um stay say in the summary that there is no conclude there's no conclusive evidence of harm to

269anyone in in the regular use of this stuff and I would say that the same material of this is the same stuff that's in your clothes um polyester polyethylene polyropylene It's the same products. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Yep. >> Amanda. >> Yes. I was just trying to chart out where all these recommendations are. You just said that um Nibi and Washington already had the turf in place. Correct. >> Yes. >> But they're listed on that RFP. >> So, are you upgrading or replacing it or >> There's multiple playgrounds at these pl at these places. These these are for the larger playgrounds. The areas where those are at right now are just in the small prek kindergarten area. >> Okay. Um and then basically the it's redundant to what I've said before, but bas we're we're

270on the cusp of um again gearing up for potential school closures. And um we're doing this. I understand we need to maintain things. Things are falling apart, degrading, and we need to replace them. So my question would be simply um is this something that needs to happen this fiscal year or can we get through what our October enrollment numbers are in the fall, see what trajectory that's going to send us on in regard to the G5 process and then do these kind of things or is it something that we need to be doing now? the these these areas have active problems that need to be addressed otherwise it creates a trip hazard or a fall where it doesn't uh absorb the way that it's supposed to and then we're dealing with lawsuits and other challenges

271>> which is why I recommend that we >> and and again that's why we're recommending this product rather than pour in place because of I mean you're at least half 50% less cost in this than the pour in place and there is a cheaper option which is wood chips But that's a much it's a much more uh there's many more challenges with that one whether it be uh maintenance or um cleanliness for the students >> teachers. Yeah. >> And for mobility challenges, wheelchairs, walking and all of that. Wood chips are basic any place that has wood chips really should be replaced because students that have mobility challenges just cannot access those environments. And I would presume I've been on other turf areas and like Highland High School their turf um they obviously have done like

272the track and field out there with unified sports and it seems like the kids are able to access it quite fine. So I presume it would be the similar stabil stable surface like that. It is. And I I should have mentioned this product is being used at Canyons, Davis, and um Granite School Districts right now that they've moved to this as well because of the cost and the the u life of the product. >> And then can you talk about like so obviously green instead of black? The black is currently being used. Black is hot. Green is not so hot as long as the infill is not metal. Um, so, um, the the I guess temperature improvement going from the black, um, stuff that we currently have to the turf slashinfill. >> It surprisingly there's

273not a big difference between the two. >> Okay. Still be >> Yeah, it's it's still it's still warm um at certain times. Um, sorry I don't want to make this longer, but we, my predecessor did a rather large study on shading and other other things for the district. And the recommendation is that we don't provide those things at this point because looking at the last seven years of temperatures, you're looking at less than two weeks or two weeks of school that you're looking at temperatures that would affect students in in school >> sometimes. There's been some years that have been brutal in April, >> right? But I'm just talking average over a seven-year period. And that was his recommendation before I got here that to not provide shading structures and things like that because of

274the cost involved for such a small number of days throughout the school year. >> And that's something I'll continue to pursue because I I am a lot of parents that have heat sensitive students that um it's prohibitive for them to actually enjoy the environment when it's cooking out there. even they were out the other day um yesterday doing an activity and it was 70 some odd degrees and kids were getting sunburned and and having heat issues. So um you don't know it till you live it. Let's put it that way. Um I if you are like I support everything you're saying. I won't pursue this any further. I'm good with this proposal. Thank you. >> Thank you Amanda. Um, if there's no other questions, I'll do a roll call call for a roll call vote

275starting with Vice President Jensen. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Thank you, board. That that motion passes. We'll move on to our proposed fiscal year 2627 student fees schedule. I'll entertain a motion. I move that we um pass the 2026 2027 student fee schedule as proposed. >> Parliamentarian. >> Oh, the state requirements are that you approve the fee schedules as well as the board and the administrative procedures. >> Sorry. I move that we approve the proposed 202627 student fee schedules and annual review fee and fee waiver policy and procedures. Second have a motion and a second on the table. Any further discussion? All right, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote

276starting with board member Longwell. >> Me. Is that what we said? Amanda Longwell. Yes. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> All right, that motion passes. Thank you, board. Thank you, Alan, to you and your team, uh, Dr. Hall, and >> the whole cabinet probably for helping us get this um together for this year. Um, our last and final action agenda item is the testing compliance assistant for special education job reclassification. I move that we approve the testing compliance assistant sped job reclassification. >> I second. >> Is there any further discussion? >> Are you scratching your Ashley or sorry I thought you were raising? >> Okay. >> All right. Seeing no um discussion, we'll do a roll call

277vote starting with board member Williams. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson. Yes. >> Ashley Anderson. Yes. >> Nate Salazar. Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Brian Jensen. Yes. >> Amanda Langley. Yes. >> All right. That motion passes. Thank you. Uh we will now move into the superintendent report. >> Yep. Just a couple of items. One, um just wanted to give a shout out to our coaches and um teachers who support unified sports. We had the um basketball championships at the Delta Center and um really it is an amazing program. I love to see it. All the kids are happy participating. Highland High did a great job in bringing their student body officers and cheer team down. They had a couple of teams participating and um really just such a delight to watch the

278joy kids take in playing together all of the kids and it's just a lovely thing that we do. So, I'm so glad that's districtwide. The second thing tomorrow is our um groundbreaking for West High School. It will begin at 1:30. If you I'm glad so many all of our board members, I believe, are able to make it. And thank you for that. Carving out the middle of the day. If you could plan to be seated by 1:15, that would be great so we can get going. We have some um news attention as well. So media will be there um and they're already starting on their stories about West High and the changes. So um encourage you to dress in your West High colors if you would like. Bryce is going to pull out his old

279high school clothes. Um but I think we have a great program. We have Bryce and Nate and Ashley speaking and um and then uh some students there participating. So a nice compact program but still something that's I think meaningful for West High School and the start of our our build that way. So, thank you for your participation and we'll see you there tomorrow. >> Thank you, Dr. Grant. You're welcome. >> Uh BA Kley has disappeared, so I'm going to assume that there is no report from him tonight. We'll do board member report starting with board member five Jefferson. >> I think I'll pass tonight. Um I will You want me to go? Okay. Um, I just want to give a shout out to the Clayton Middle School staff and parent volunteers and students who participated

280in The Little Mermaid. There are hundreds of people involved in those productions every year and it's a huge highlight for that school community. Um, my son is always excited to go to Clay and play. So, that was awesome. Um, I visited Slickie with Brian and was able to tour the school for the first time and learn about it and I'm planning to buy a bike for my son from their bike sale. Um, I was able to do agenda setting and um, engage with different community members answering questions. I want to give a shout out to Isaac for all of his hard work to get um a partnership with the city on Sugar House Park, which will um preserve some of the Clayton Middle School grounds for their athletic and inter mural purposes. Um and also

281for the future of West Plumbing System or I mean not West Highland, sorry. Um also shout out to Amanda and others. I was out of town and they engaged in the transportation committee discussions. Um, also just want to say quickly that I um was a little sad tonight to miss the protest against the um new ICE detention facility that was purchased by the Department of Homeland Security in Salt Lake City and um tell all of the community and um particularly immigrant community that I stand with them and do not support uh any of that building proposal And Charlotte let me know that you do have one thing. >> Yes, I do have one thing that I wanted to mention. Um, I I was um fortunate to have participated in a band and orchestra concert at

282Glendel Middle School and there was a guest performer um playing co the Cotto um Japanese stringed instrument that's in the shape of a dragon. And um I I want what is her name? Oh dear. Um okay. Well, I'm gonna Can I come back to mine? Okay, >> sure. Um first of all, and I'll try and be quick here. I was just excited to see that the revisions to board policy B1 were successfully implemented. I think it's really exciting to see that we're going to have stu two student board members. >> Um to me that's an example of how we can adapt policy to address what we perceive are important needs in our school. Along that line, the policy subcommittee meeting will be coming this at the end of this month, March 31st. So, we'll have

283a report for you on that, I believe, in our next board meeting. Um, I also wanted to do a shout out um for the Clayton School play. I enjoyed it greatly. Um, it is remarkable what um the staff, the PTA, the parents, the students, what they're able to accomplish. Thank you, Isaac, for your work on um the softball fields at Sugar House Park. That's a wonderful thing for that claim community. Thank you. Um I was able to attend SEC at Indian Hills at the same time. I think it's important that we recognize those thank you Thursdays and there were two that went on um this past week at Indian and um Beacon Heights. Um we have some remarkable teachers. Um I attended the USBA policy meeting. Um I find those really helpful. Um especially as

284he incorporates revisions that have come through legislation and all of those sorts of things. I find those valuable. Um, finally I attended and Bryce Cernate can speak to this as well, the SLE board meeting today. They are working really hard and we have several significant projects that they're endeavoring to raise money for and fund. Um, I know that um, Maria Katz and Lorina Rifo Jensen, they had a wonderful discourse between each other. And I said that I thought it would be helpful for board members that aren't there to hear what they're doing and how they're trying to support some of these programs. And they said they would be happy to reach out and like have a small group meet. You know how we do that? I think it would be nice for you to hear

285what they're working on. So, that's something that it's available. That's my report. Thank you, >> Ashley. >> Um, I'll congratulate our student board member who normally is sitting next to me but is absent, Foss Goodwin. I know he is absent because he along with many other district students performs with the children's dance theater this week at Capitol Theater and many uh peer students will go see them as part of matinea performances tomorrow and Friday. I know that students um from the school district are also participating in the University of Utah's youth theater performance um this week and so as a district we're really fortunate to have so many fine arts partners who provide kids with excellent opportunities across the district. Um, I did want to share that this morning I was included along with board

286leadership by Dr. Grant um in a meeting that LDS church leadership had to begin discussions about the potential impacts to school commutes that pass through precinct 3 um if the city council grants the road closure to the LDS church for the temple reopening downtown. So for everyone's reference, there are three main school routes that would be impacted. the avenues to West, Fair Park to Bryant, and Central City to Ensign. But it would also impact any student who takes the one, two, or 200, as well as other UTA routes that students take to Slickie and other schools of their choice that require travel through downtown. Um, all of the people present shared some concern that the impacts of traffic and rerouting may impact our attendance or have a lot of like unknown consequences that we just

287find it a little bit challenging to predict during what is kind of like an unprecedented sixmonth event period. Um, we're interested to learn what mitigation and support can be offered if the council supports the road closures in their March 24th meeting. But as a reminder to community members, they had a public hearing regarding that and the city council will make that decision and we will have to respond accordingly. It's not a decision that comes to the school board and we have shared what routes we find to be concerning. Um I also wanted to share along with board member Romano that I have some concerns about the warehouse purchased by ICE and I want to share that in our social studies core, our fourth and our seventh graders learn about the dangers of incarcerating people from

288the history of concentration camps in central Utah. Um, because of these standards, when I attended history day last week to support students from Bryant, Clayton, and Slickie, I was not surprised to see many of the student projects focused on Japanese American incarceration as they do every year. So, it was shocking to leave History Day and learn about the sale of the property to ICE when I had hoped to just congratulate those students who advanced to the next level of history day events. I want to oppose to adults that our middle school children know the dangers of incarcerating people to generate conflict and justify hate. And I implore adults to oppose that sale just as our children have learned to do through social studies. Um I think that Bryce will share my last remaining business item

289because it was mutual. So I'll pass the baton for speed. >> Yep. And um I have a number of things I'd like to talk about but because of time I'll wait till next time. Um but uh board member Anderson and I uh met with Emily Sutherland and uh Dr. Taylor around some uh concerns we had around guidance counseling at West. I very much appreciate the time and consideration that were given to those. >> That was really fast. um echoing the ICE. I won't go into it, but ultimately it's it's shameful that we are having to deal with that kind of a detention center, especially so close. Um I went to let's see, backing up a little bit here, the CTE openhouse. It was really exciting. Had a really long conversation um with one of the

290I think it's law enforcement classroom, the um teacher in there. It was really interesting. and I think they said that their participation was substantially higher than the year prior and then their community partners as well. It was really fun to see the difference from from last year to this year. Um I visited Sixie last week. Um I'm there with you Brian just a few days feels like a few years these days. Um USBA spring region meetings um attended that. That was interesting and important work what they were also talking about and um Dr. Grant and I were there and we shared our thoughts, but if you guys um want to send your thoughts to them, I'm sure they'd be open to it. But they're they want to try to be um proactive and look at

291um seeing what we could do to um proactively recommend legislation versus being reactive. Um so that was good. And then I was able to watch Hillside performance on Moana regarding I can't get my words out. It's too late. Moana at Hillside speak simple English. It was fabulous. The kids were amazing. I loved it. Um and then obviously West High groundbreaking um upcoming Salt Lake sorry finance committee meeting next week on the 24th. Um and then the next board meeting it's going to include the final five fiscal impact of the past bills, right? Um so that'll be fun. Um and cheers. Have a good night. >> I'll also be um brief on a few of these things. Um so I also attended the Clayton Middle School play. Congratulations to the Clayton community. Um, I had an

292awesome experience over at Bryant Middle School. Um, I had the opportunity to um, see their preap work in Sar Posy's classroom. Um, just brilliant stuff. I wish we had a like could clone Ser Posie. Um, because she's doing awesome work. Um, let's see. And then I also attended the SLF meeting today. I won't touch on that since Brian did. Um, and then also the LDS church meeting. Um, I do also want to just restate um that um we're in difficult times and I am also in alignment with a couple of board members who spoke regarding the ICE detention facility. Um I also strongly oppose it in our community. Um I a couple meetings ago asked for a second regarding maybe a revision to the resolution for the protection of children. and I did not hear

293back from anybody, but that was really geared towards making sure that our students know and are aware um that we are standing with them in these moments of fear and threat. Um and if there isn't a second, then I would like to ask um the district to make sure that that resolution for the protection of children is added back to our website um as soon as possible so that families can refer back to that. >> I second. >> Thank you. Uh we'll work on that offline. Uh we do have um a need for a close session. Um, I'll entertain a motion. >> I move that the board enter close session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual, pending or reasonably imminent litigation, collective bargaining, and the purchase, exch

294exchange, sale, or lease of real property, and that the board immediately adjourn upon the conclusion of the discussion. Second, got a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Williams. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte F. Jefferson, yes. Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> And Longo, yes. >> Thank you for joining us this evening. Take care. >> I really need to write my boards down. to your name.