001All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Uh, thank you for joining us today. Today is January 6, 2026. We are here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education meeting. The board does have a need to enter into a close session and I will take a motion now. >> I move that the board enter close session to discuss the character, professional competence, and physical or mental health of an individual and pending or reasonably imminent litigation. >> I second. >> We got a motion, a second on the table. Any discussion? >> Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Williams. >> Rice Williams. Yes. Nick Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longo, yes. >> All right, that motion passes. Uh, we will
002return around 5:30 this evening. Thank you. >> I [laughter] did. Sorry. That's good. >> All right. We're going to go ahead and reconvene our public meeting. Um, so sorry that it took us a few extra minutes in our closed session. We thank you for your patience and for joining us this evening. There's a lot to celebrate in the new year. So, welcome back Salt Lake City School District to 2026. Uh, we look forward to finishing out the end of the year with you all. Um, again, just to reiterate, today is January 6, 2026. We are here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education meeting. Um, I do want to just make some some welcoming remarks to our association presidents. Um, for buildings and grounds, we have Sam Gilchrist, Child
003Nutrition President Tanya Slaughter. for SLEA Salt Lake Education Association President Mike Harmon and Vice President Chelsea A Costa. Uh for the Salt Lake Association of School Administrators, we have Nicole Palmer, who's the principal of Rose Park and is super excited that she's got two teachers who are getting national board certifications this evening recognition. So, thank you, Nicole, for being here and stepping into a leadership role with your administrators group. Um now, we will go ahead and turn the time over to doing a pledge of allegiance, and I'll go ahead and lead us in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you everybody. Well, we've got a couple
004of big recognitions. I kind of highlighted uh and hinted at one I should say. Uh the first one is our national board certified teacher recognitions. Dr. Grant um who will be helping us present those this evening? >> Desi Olsen. There she is. >> Oh, thank you Desi. >> Come on up. Hi. Thank you. This is a great way to kick off the year. So, thank you. Um, thank you to the Salt Lake uh, school district, the board members, and the Salt Lake Education Foundation administrators and fellow NBCTs for all the support um, and recognition that they give teachers pursuing uh, this certification. Um, for those of you who don't know, National Board Certification is the highest teaching certificate available to teachers. It is pursued voluntarily and is a process grounded in rigorous and extensive teaching
005standards that requires a teacher to demonstrate clear, convincing, and consistent evidence that their practice meets these standards and that their teaching has a positive impact on student learning. To achieve national board certification, teachers complete four components which address a range of practices including content knowledge, differentiation of instruction, classroom environment, assessment literacy, and professional learning and collaboration. Uh further, they do need to renew their certification every five years to maintain their national board certified status. Um I'm happy to say that over 70 teachers have achieved their national board certification while working in our district. Um, and though many have retired, today we have 53 active NBCTs teaching across grade levels and content areas and schools. So, this is the largest number of any district in Utah, which we're really proud of. We >> Jessie, I want
006to double down on that. Can I? >> Oh, yeah. Sorry. Um, [laughter] and that is I if I I don't usually interrupt presenters, but I I just think this point is so important, what you just said that we have more national board certified teachers than any district, no matter their size, in the state of Utah. >> SO, [applause] and and it's so important. So, thank you so much for the support that you provide um for us to be able to provide teachers professional development, support our NBCT mentors um and the likes. Um we currently have 22 national board candidates and 10 NBC current NBCTs uh serve as their candidate support providers. So, they provide them personalized support through the process. The process can take anywhere from one to five years. Um, and I just I
007like to read this quote uh from an NBCT because I think it really captures why this is so significant to our profession, to our practice, to student learning. It says, "National boards helped me be a more reflective teacher. It made me be in intentional about what I do. The essence, in essence, it helped me transform my teaching practice from a skills-based practice, knowing how to write assignments and assess students to a professional practice that engages students in learning and elicit deeper thinking in students. And that's from one of our NBCTs. So, I'd love to introduce we have seven new NBCTs this year. We have three renewed NBCTs. And so, let me just tell you who they are. Um, did are they coming up? Do you want them to stand? >> Have them come up here
008and and stand here and then we'd love to get a group picture. >> Okay, super. So we have Aaron Capra from West High School, [applause] Cara Sice from Rose Park, [applause] [applause] Ulie Danau from East High, [applause] Karen Kemp Schultz from Metallark, Hillary Thorwell from West High, [applause] Brandy Valdez from Rose Park, [applause] and another one from West High School, Crystal King, who couldn't be with us tonight. These are our new National Board Certified teachers. So, congratulations to you. [applause] We also have a couple of um renewed national board certified teachers. Lindsay Gish from Indian Hills, [applause] Carrie Johnson, another one from West High School. Um she couldn't be here with us tonight either. And then I renewed as well, which was like a huge relief. [applause] Should we cover up? >> I think it's
009what it was meant to do. Tiffany's hair looks nice. Okay, >> iPhone. I don't know. [clears throat] >> Just keep smiling. [applause] How are you? [clears throat] >> Go ahead. I just want to make one more comment about this. Um, there's a lot of time and additional effort that our teachers put in to get this certification. Um, and I want to start making the claim because I I believe it's true that Salt Lake District has the highest quality teachers of any district in the state. And I think this is We're going to find some numbers that show that, but I um the quality of teaching in our district I think is um isn't matched anywhere else in the state. So, thank you to our teachers. >> Thank you, Dr. Grant. Um and yeah, one more
010uh give it up one more time for our teachers. That's awesome. [applause] All right, our next recognition is the UVU for the love of reading board literacy champion. And this is in the librarian category, I believe. Dr. Grant, >> that would be >> Dr. Hall. Dr. Hall. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Well, I am also very excited to be up here and recognize a tremendous teacher. I'm going to ask Mr. Bryant Baird who is our teacher librarian at Enzyme Elementary to come UP and I would just I'm going to I've already told Bryant that I'm going to take this as a point of privilege that I have many pages of notes but I will say them fast. This uh today I had the opportunity to be at the literacy and reading symposium hosted
011by Governor Cox up in Ogden. And there were a couple of really key points that uh came up over and over again throughout the day. And one of the first ones was that reading is a community event. >> That if we're going to really develop literacy in all of our students, it can't just happen in our classrooms. It needs to be happening everywhere in students lives. And one of the things that really allows that to happen and it was the focus of the afternoon discussion is libraries and specifically school libraries because without having books in our homes, without our students being able to take books home that interest them and being able to find the books that are appropriate and and creatively connected to them, they won't begin to read. And we are one of
012two districts in Utah that still has fully certified teacher librarians in every one of our elementary libraries. I want to thank the board for their support of that and and how critical that is for literacy development has been shown in multiple studies and someday when you have six hours I'm happy to walk you all through them. But right now I would just like to to talk about Mr. Baird and the work that he does. You know, sometimes people think that, you know, librarians or being a teacher librarian in an elementary, it's a very easy job. You read a couple stories, you have a good voice, maybe you dust off the shelves, and you're good to go. Um, our elementary teacher librarians work so hard every single day. They have so many things that they have
013to do. And and one of the very first things that I want to talk about is their ability to curate a collection. Um, one of the things that we are able to do in this district because we have fully certified teacher librarians at our schools is make sure that every one of our schools has somebody reading and choosing the books that they know are interested or interesting to their students. And that's one of the things that Mr. Baird is amazing at. He asks kids what they're interested in. He focuses on what teachers are teaching in the classroom so that he can find books that extend from what's happening and where they're learning. Um, they also teach. Um, it's kind of in there with being a teacher librarian and they are responsible for all of our
014media standards and our digital literacy and making sure kids know how to find books that they want to read, that are safe to read, that are appropriate to read, and that when they go online to look at things, they are also safe and appropriate, and they um manage all of these pieces together. Now, this award that Mr. Barrett has been um given is from Utah Valley University for the love of reading and every year their board votes for a literacy champion and Mr. Baird was recognized this year and some of the things that they said made him the winning candidate this year was because he is an individual whose work has and I quote created a lasting transformative impact on the literacy lives of children and youth and that he truly exemplifies what this award
015represents. He does so many different things to help students connect their reading to the world around them. you have had USU come down and that's amazing for the kids not just because they usually bring ice cream but also because they also support um different activities where students are able to see how their their reading and their learning translate into the real world world. Hang on, I lost my notes on the other things. um you have created opportunities for students to read and write and create their own creative works and to um share those works with other people to really help them see themselves as writers, not just as readers, but as writers. And he works with teachers about enzyme to extend that learning in the classroom. If a teacher is teaching about polar bears, I'm
016going to walk in and there are going to be 27 books displayed about all parts of the Arctic so that kids can go, "Wait a minute. I know about polar bears. I'm going to know some more about penguin." I don't know if that's right. I don't know if polar bears and penguins are [laughter] together, but so with all of this, I would just like to say that Mr. Baird has been a teacher in our district for a long time. He has done a lot of different things, 33 years. But I don't like to say that [applause] because after 30 sometimes you start to use the R word and I don't want to hear that at all. So I just go with a long time and um came to us from came to to librarianship from
017Glendel Middle School where and he is able to take all of the things that he's done throughout his life and bring it to wherever he is. And I just want to say thank you for being such an exemplary leader in this and um really helping us see what Salt Lake City is about and that is about making sure kids have everything they need to be successful and to be readers in Salt Lake. We make readers and Mr. Baird leads the way. So thank you very much. [applause] Smile. Two. All right. Thank you, Mr. Bay. Thank you, Dr. Hall. another feather in our cap for the amazing work that we're doing um in our schools. Um to have all of our librarians be uh certified teachers is a really really big step um especially in increasing
018literacy in our community. Um we're seeing that as one of the key factors um in maintaining increasing literacy for students um in any community in the country and we're right there where we need to be. So thank you for all your efforts. Uh we will now move on to our consent agenda and I will um entertain a motion from the board. >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as posted. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Board member Anderson and then Longwell. >> I just have one question um that I'm hoping our business administrator could clarify. When we look at item B, which is about um I think redoing the asphalt at certain elementary schools, I just want to revisit for members of the public who listen the
019cycle on which projects like that are determined. I know that when big ticket capital projects come up, especially with declining enrollment, people begin to become worried that these mean something. You know what I mean? Other than your asphalt has met the end of its life. So, could you just explain briefly how we come to receive these recommendations? Right. So just from a high level um discussion, major capital projects come as part of the budget process. There there's a list that um for 2026 the board will be receiving that list um probably in February as part of the budget process. So current year was received last February that has those major projects on it. But also, you know, everything has an end of life um u cycle. So, as long as we own the properties, we
020continue to maintain them so they're usable and meet our needs. So, people shouldn't read anything more into, you know, stuff like this other than we're maintaining the properties that we own. >> Thank you so much for clarifying that. And then I realized as I flipped over my paper, I just had one thing I wanted to say to add to the discussion, which is when I was reading our HR services report, I was so surprised to see that our science department leader had left us for another opportunity. And I did want to just take the chance to say to Candace Penrod, wherever she may be listening to this or not, that I think she did an excellent job overseeing the science department and really grew science experiences for so many students in the district and that
021she would she will be very missed. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Ashley. Amanda, >> um this goes back to our BA. Um I had sent an inquiry over regarding the uh budget report um where it uh identified some large numbers with elementary guidance counselors and the concurrent enrollment. So if you could um explain out to the public um why the large um [clears throat] dollars. >> Right. So there there are two lines that she's referencing on the budget report. One's concurrent enrollment. We do have a large carryover of a concurrent enrollment and we don't anticipate to spend that full carryover in the current year and you'll see that. So you'll see the revenue exceeds the budget throughout the year and then at the end of the year we do an entry to defer
022those funds into the next year. Uh the other line item is uh about counselors. There's some revenue state revenue for counselors. Uh the report actually has an area we have other revenue that got rolled into that account number. Um, and so it's showing more revenue in there than there should be and that will be corrected in the December report. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments, feedback? Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member F Jefferson. >> F Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> All right, that motion passes. Thank you, board. Uh, we will now move into our request to speak portion of our agenda. And I have
023a statement that the board has asked me to read. Um, before we begin, I would like to take a moment to remind you of our board rules governing your comments. Number one, the total time reserved for public comment is not to exceed 15 minutes with all speakers or groups limited to three minutes. Two, the board will not allow public comments during board meetings that are slanderous, obscene, or otherwise violate state or federal law. Three, employees and/or their representatives may not use the public comment period to address issues that should be raised through existing formal communication channels or established grievance or negotiations procedures. I'd also like to explain that unless the speaker's topic is already on the agenda, state law prohibits the board from taking action on items raised during the public comment period. However, if
024it seems appropriate to the circumstances, I may direct district staff to follow up with a speaker on the topic discussed. We have one um speaker this evening, Aaron Alberty. Is Aaron with us? Hi, Aaron. Come on up to the front. >> You can sit here or stand at the podium. Either way works. >> Thank you for joining us. And your time starts when you start. >> Okay. Um, so I'm I'm a parent. I have a seventh grader at Clayton. And um I'm I guess I'm here and maybe this isn't totally the right place, but I can't really think of a better place because I'm kind of hoping to get the ball rolling on a district-wide policy that guarantees more accommodation for students to make up the work they miss when they have to be sick.
025And I know this sounds like a really simplistic thing to have to ask for on the heels of a pandemic, but the fact is my kid has been pretty seriously ill twice this year. Um it we're only halfway through the year. The first time was early in fall. We actually had to take her to the hospital. She only missed two days of school because it was Labor Day weekend. But on her first day back, after her first day back, I found her up late into the night crying over her books because she had so much work to make up and not enough time to do it. And that was after missing two days on the second week of the school year. Like I don't think it's going to get any better than that. And the
026second time was just a couple of weeks ago. kid shows up to their PE class, explicitly says she knows she's sick, but this is a class that, you know, the grade is all based on this one end of term event that they have to attend. If they don't, the makeup assignment is like super ownorous. They have to do it on top of all the other six classes of work that they've missed in the very last week of the term. It's just not realistic. And so, like, of course, kids are going to come and so this kid shows up sick. Two days later, my kid's sick. Three days later, I'm sick. Like a week ago tonight, I was probably about as sick as I've ever been in my life. And you can say, well, you don't
027know that this came from this one kid in this one class, but it's really beside the point. I think what concerns me is this incentive structure that effectively punishes kids for staying home when they're sick. And it I mean, it may sound easy and obvious, I think, to adults that, you know, well, if you need more time, you just ask for it. But that's not practically possible when your bus drops you off 5 minutes before school starts, picks you up five after 5 minutes after the the last bell and you get three minutes passing between classes. You can't have those kinds of discussions where you're juggling all these different teachers worth of assignment. And so I think that, you know, the fact that I do have to get up here and ask for this on
028the heels of a pandemic says to me that it's pretty deeply ingrained in our schools, not just this district, probably all of them. certainly when I was growing up that missing school because you were sick was viewed pretty punitively and pretty suspiciously. And so I think that like if that culture is to change, I think it does need to be a district-wide policy, which is why I'm here and not in my kids's classroom and principal's office also because I don't want to have this conversation 20 more times before she graduates. um that there be a district-wide policy that every class taught in this district begins with a statement from the teacher that if you are sick, you are expected to stay home and you will be accommodated with whatever time you need to make up
029that work. And if your if the timing is such that you know it's too close to the end of the term, your grade is based on the work you've done up until that point. And that's just how it has to be. Like at this point, kids are honestly kind of afraid to miss school and I was too when I was a student. I mean, in my life, I say the nadier of the accommodations I've gotten for sick days was high school. It shouldn't be easier to take a sick day as a professional adult than when you're 14 years old. So, that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you, Aaron. >> Um, we will now move on to our reports agenda. Uh, the first item is the annual comprehensive financial report. Via Keren, take it away. >>
030Thank you. So, I'd like to invite we have Thomas Hazelton from Squire and Company and also Christy Hart, our uh finance director. Um, most of you know um >> Dave, >> sorry, Dave Brown, who's usually here, uh, is sick today. So, Thomas has to do this all by himself. So, we we've invited Chris so he doesn't feel so lonely. >> Thomas will do just fine. >> Thank you. Um, >> pull the microphone. >> Oh, sorry. You're all right. >> Thank you. Um, >> and you all have a copy of the financial statements in front of you. >> Perfect. Thank you. So, we've been contracted to do three audits for the school district. Um, the first one being the financial statement audit. Um, and so we'll we'll on a high level, we'll go through each uh
031each one of them on a high level. We have talked with the audit committee previously in November um and went into more detail uh with them on the financial statements as well as as our opinion. Um so here we're just going to do a high level and if you have any questions uh please feel free to ask them on the first uh so for the audit of the financial statements. Uh >> can you pull that closer? >> A little closer >> please. >> Closer. Yes. Like this better. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Perfect. So the first first audit was the audit of the financial statements. Uh and we gave an unmodified opinion for the financial statements. Uh what that means is a clean opinion or um in non-accounting language uh the best grade that we
032can give as auditors. Um so what that means is the numbers in in the financial statements you can rely on that they are materially correct as you make decisions and budget decisions and uh capital outlay decisions um as well. Uh the second audit that we did was a federal audit. Uh we looked at the federal grants and did a risk brace approach and dove into two major programs title one and the education stabilization fund. Uh as we conducted those audits, we identified that there were no findings or question costs and we also issued an unmodified opinion as well. Uh again, the best grade that we can give as auditors in the finan on the the federal uh audit. The last audit that we do is uh a state program audit which is conducted in accordance
033with the state compliance audit guide. Uh again we issued an unmodified opinion and had um no note uh unmodified unmodified opinion and no findings or question costs. Again the best grade that we can give as auditors. Um as well it is note as we were talking as earlier today uh a lot of awards were given um and achievements which is wonderful to hear at at this district and I'd like to mention that accounting doesn't get many awards um but we should um [laughter] but Salt Lake City School District received what's called the GFA certificate of excellence Um what that means is they participate in a program for accounting where we send the these financial statements to get a third party um review outside the state of Utah and it goes through and they you know
034they make sure all the eyes are cur eyes are dotted tees are crossed um and they've received that for 48 years >> that's 47 >> which is the longest of anyone in the state of Utah >> which is the longest of any >> [applause] >> And that's and that's anyone in the state, right? So, this applies to all governments, not just school districts. >> So, um you can applause and take your picture with Alan and Christie and I'll take the photo. >> Tom, it sounds like you want to come take a picture, too. >> I will take the photo. [laughter] So, again, great achievements um made by the accounting. It is a heavy lift. We understand that. Uh, as auditors, we come in and we disrupt and we ask questions and we ask for supporting
035documentation and and um and we come in and and are disruptive and they are able to get us the things we need. And so we appreciate their time and and their help on top of their regular duties to um to to make this and get this um ready to go. So we appreciate them and all their hard work. Um any questions for me? I will say board members and members of the public who are watching this, if you want to get um in my opinion just the best overview of what happened, the management discussion and analysis that starts on page 18 and I think it goes to page 25 or 26. That's really I think if you um if you want to look at anything in this book, that's kind of a a good a
036good overview or starting place on it. Board member Anderson, do you have a question? >> I don't know that the questions are for the presenter, but I have some followup for our business administrator, but then you can direct it however you want, obviously. Um, I think this is really exciting because it means we're closing the budget book and we're about to start a new budget cycle. And so, as we reflect on that, I just am curious what you think like the biggest lesson of this report is that would influence the upcoming budget cycle and what we can look forward to. >> Yeah. So to me the I mean of all the great stuff and the the financial report is great. I think the key as far as looking forward is um for the year ended
037June 30th 2025 our expenditures outpaced our revenue by $6.7 million. Now that was covered with general fund um fund balance which is reserves we had over the years but that's not a sustainable position to be in. So, the next budget cycle, a lot of what we're going to hear is bringing this budget back into balance so that revenues and expenditures are are equal. >> Um, that's really helpful. And this report also talks a little bit about property tax growth. And I have a couple of questions. And the first is when we receive that property tax growth, where are we allocating that? Is it to a specific project or line item? >> Right. So, the property tax growth that we've received um this year and really last year's are going to they're they're not allocated to
038a specific area other than helping um balance that budget. There are some years where we have enough revenue that if we get growth then we can use that growth for specific items. Uh this year is not one of those years as it's just going to help you know cover our inflationary increases and then we've had several cuts from the state from state funding. Um, so sometimes in years where we we just get the growth and we we're not filling an inflationary hole, then we'll have discussions with the board of okay, what do what do we do with this new revenue? Um, but again, this year and last year are not years that are fit in that category. >> That makes sense to me. I think one thing um that we as a board should consider
039is as we see property tax growth, we should be mindful of what's happening with property tax increases at the city level and the county level where there's some community resistance to those increases. There's questions about of course when property tax is diverted then why are we increasing rather than using that revenue and really thinking about property tax growth as what it is which is new money and really carefully identifying where we're allocating it and if it's only covering inflationary increases I think that speaks to your earlier point. Um the second property tax question I have is this report highlights that community reinvestment agency areas are see a bump in growth. The problem I have with these numbers, and maybe you have some feedback here as well, is that we're investing a lot of increment into
040other CRAAS. And so when we're investing more than we're getting, how does this report highlighted as growth? Is there some reason this report is not capturing the $30 million that we're losing to CRAAS rather than only the smaller amount that we're getting back from CRAAS? >> Yeah. So without getting too complicated in detail, so there there's a fund called the tax increment fund, which indicates the money that's being diverted, it's it's from a tax levy of the the district, but those revenues don't come to the district. They get diverted over into development projects. Uh and um that was to the tune of 36ish million dollars for last year. Um, what we have a hard time determining because when we get our growth number from the state tax commission, it's just a number. Um, and really
041to break it down by which parcels generated this growth, we we don't readily have that information. We're looking at ways if we can figure out how much of that growth actually came from uh properties that are included in RDA projects or even RDA projects that maybe finished and and rolled off. So, we're working on ways to maybe better analyze that, trying to get maybe additional data from uh the county or the Salt Lake City uh community reinvestment uh department. So, I don't have a good solid answer for that one because we we're just kind of this reports really has everything just rolled up into kind of one number. So, you don't get that kind of detail you're looking for. Um but we are looking for ways we can maybe um better analyze and have that
042information. I think that's really helpful because if you see that we had, you know, a 9 million increase or whatever this identifies, but we had a 30 to$36 million loss, we really had a 20 something million loss to CRAAS. And so it's hard to imagine, you know, how this is shaking out. Um, I have a couple more questions about the report with the rest of my time. Um, this talks about hardware expenses and instructional costs digitally are really increasing. So at what point in the next year would we reconsider our strategies for the use of digital devices with those costs in mind? >> Yeah. So I talked a little to to Sam about this before the meeting of you know he did a kind of a thorough presentation on technology about this time last year.
043Um but as we the one to one that we went to a couple years ago as approved by the board it I would say it's kind of coming under some scrutiny of do kids have too much screen time and how is that affecting their their instruction. So um we think probably I don't we'll have to chat with Sam but maybe by the end of the school year we're having this discussion of what does our onetoone look like? how much is it costing and are we receiving benefits and you know do we keep putting money into the one to one or do we look at some other model >> that's really helpful um this talks about uh ESER expenses and were we re reimbursed that final ESSER expense that was in limbo >> yeah we had
044about 300 some thousand dollars that was a claim that we submitted and then the federal government said oh sorry we're not going to reimburse you that all worked out we received that full reimbursement >> that's very exciting it's a bare minimum as the lowest possible bar. That's very exciting. Um, uh, we've talked in the past about a demographics refresher and I just wanted to clarify, we're we have sent them October one data, our enrollment counts, and so we should be getting that refresher sometime at the beginning of this year. >> Probably in the next couple months. How long does that take, Sam? >> Four or five weeks. Because I mean the other big takeaway in addition to what you said about the deficit here is just that our enrollment impacts our funding substantially and if
045we aren't using the best demographic information, it'll be really hard to make decisions using, you know, this audit and the recommendations here to to move forward. So, thank you for clarifying that. >> Thanks, Ashley. Amanda, did I see your hand? >> Yeah. Um, >> great questions and points, Ashley. I really liked uh that dialogue there. Um, I wanted to extra emphasize the clean opinion that we received. I mean, you said it very softly, but you needed to shout that very loudly. Um, we covered this in our finance committee discussion as well, but the clean opinion of our 2425 financials, clean opinion charter schools audit, clean opinion federal programs, clean opinion state programs, um, school funds and assets are accounted for properly and well managed. There's school some schools on a rotation. High schools, all three
046comprehensive high schools were done. Um the emphasis on that certificate of achievement of excellence and financial reporting. Um our bond rating that we talked about a few board meetings ago that we're AAA bond rated with how well we're doing in that regard as well. Um, and then you mentioned the percentage that we've eaten up with our general fund with uh what we've had to absorb, but the actual dollar amount I believe uh you mentioned in our finance committee was um we've used up an 6.7 million of our general fund on those situations. So, it's it's not a minor amount as we're getting ready to have this uh next budget um conversation. So, I don't particularly have any questions, but just an emphasis at how phenomenal um our departments are doing in ensuring that we are
047fiscally responsible and sound. So, great great work. Thanks, >> Amanda. Brent. >> Uh yes. Well, first I would have to say that I really appreciate the work of the finance committee. I'm relying on you. um I'm not a part of that committee. So some of those questions um are really beneficial for me to be made aware of. Um having said that for this naive board member, I was looking at um the material that you gave us on the agenda. I don't know if that can be pulled up on the screen. Can that be pulled up, Sam? I just think that it's really valuable for the public to see because I think the public clicks at the agenda, but I don't know how often they click on the links and actually look at the reports. I
048think that for me as an individual who's not on the finance committee and thank you Christy Hart for explaining that those pages 18 through 27 or 25 or whatever they were it was right in that area >> to me those were informative but I did have a couple of questions um in relation to those pages pages. And the first one was the second bullet point. And on the second bullet point, it says during the year, expenses were slightly more than the 388.3 million generated in taxes and other revenues for governmental activities. This was a decrease from last year when expenses were less than revenues by 22 pi.5 million. Can you explain that to me? What What did that mean? Do you want me to take that one? >> I'll let you. >> Okay. Um, so
049last year we had excess revenue of 22.5 million. This year we did not. We had a deficit of 6 >> something that that's not very clear but yes last year we had an excess. This year we had a deficit. >> Okay. Thank you. Then my other question was in regard to and board member Anderson, I think you talked about this a little bit with declining student enrollment and that sort of but in another one of the bullet points um it talked about oh and I'm trying to find that the 530 student decrease >> the next bullet point. Yeah, it's that next bullet point. Um, >> what is the actual dollar amount that that really represents? I mean, I know there's the two I mean, you talk about the 214, but do we have like an
050aggregate amount? Yeah, I think at the end uh for June 30th, 2024 or sorry, 2025, I think the average WPU, so the average What was it? Yeah, $4,494 per student. >> Correct. >> So 530. >> Multiply that by Okay. >> All right. Those were my questions. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions for Christy or Tom or Alan? Allan, anything that you'd like to highlight? >> I just I mean I appreciate the auditors and their work and I say this often and I'll say it again. I think the dollars spent by school districts uh are some of the most audited dollars in government that exist. We have our external auditors. We have a set of internal auditors. We get audited by the state. We get audited by the federal government. We get audited by
051the legislative auditors. And often we get audited by the state auditors. So, um, these numbers get looked at a lot. Um, and then there are a lot of rules and regulations regarding, uh, almost all the dollars we get. So, I'm proud of our team, uh, and the work that they do to make sure that we're in compliance. Sometimes people get frustrated with us because, you know, they hear no, you can't do that. Well, we're just trying to keep everything um, right by the law. So, I appreciate the work that my team does. >> Thank you, Al. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time. Thank you, Tom. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you. [applause] >> All right. Our next item of business on the reports agenda is a construction update. Um Alan, are
052you taking that on? Okay. >> Right. So, Isaac Ael, our executive director of auxiliary services, is ill today and isn't able to be here. Um, so I'm just going to give some highlights uh from his report that's attached to the agenda regarding the our construction updates largely in relation with our two major uh high school rebuilds. Uh, I'll just note from his memo for West High School, uh, anyone who's driven by there sees that on the on the east side of the of 300 West is largely just dirt now. So that's that that's all prep work to um you know then start the construction. As he notes in the memo uh in January we'll be bidding out that project and so we should begin then actual construction of the new project a few months after
053that. Um and for Highland High School he says they're finalizing the the phasing plan. I'm not going to pretend to really understand what phasing plan means. Um but so as we've talked about before, Highland's a little bit in the pro process. Highlands three, four, five months behind the West process. Um but work continues on on both of those so that they will be ready according to the timelines which we've previously discussed. Uh Glendel Track and Field, I don't know if anyone's driven by there recently. It's progressing nicely um and is on schedule to to be completed by spring of 2026. so that the West High um uh athletics that are using that, it'll be ready for them. I believe that's lacrosse, soccer, and track. Uh the Rosewood Park, which is where West High will be
054playing their baseball and their softball, uh is nearing completion. There's just um some finalized efforts, and again, that's on schedule to be ready for the next season. Um there's other projects that we do uh but we're just highlighting those ones that we have some updates for as and as we have updates for other uh projects that are specifically related to the high schools whether it's the displacement of the athletic teams or just the high schools themselves uh we'll continue to bring those updates uh each month to the board. >> Thanks Alen. Any questions for Amanda? >> Maybe it was discussed previously. I don't recall, but uh and I know that the summary talks about phases for Highland High School, but do we have a a broad idea of when they're going to start digging over
055there? >> I can guess, but I might be wrong. So, >> well, don't guess. >> I'm I'm that there should be a timeline. I believe the timeline's on our construction web page. Um and I'd reference people there and and we can have Isaac maybe address that next month in the update. I just don't want to give bad information. >> Ashley, >> I just want to repeat what you said to make sure that I understand you, which is that if there are fields here that we know will need to be under construction specifically for baseball and softball in future seasons. We are not hearing the update now because there's nothing new since the last time we heard, but anything new that comes up, we will hear. >> Yes, that is correct. There there's there's nothing new
056to report, but when there is, it'll be included in this monthly report. And then will we also hear updated cost estimates or will we only hear cost estimates if they're needing to go above the general total that we approved? >> When we I I think you'll rarely hear the cost estimates when these projects get bid out because everything up to then's our best guess. It's when they get bid out and that's when we'll bring that information to the board um in the construction update and then you'll also see it when the purchase orders are on the purchasing report. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for Brent? >> I was happy to hear that explanation that you just gave Ashley. So, when we're talking about fields and all of those things, we're talking about Clayton,
057all of that. We're going to get an update on all of those um different fields. >> Right. So, there there's still, you know, work going on behind the scenes, but there hasn't there isn't any specific updates to give the board at this point. And as those happen then we will present them to you. >> All right. Thank you board. We'll go ahead and move on to our next topic which is Bryant uh Salt Lake Center for Science Education Sixie Partnership Update. Um Dr. Grant I believe Dr. Taylor is going to be presenting on this one tonight. >> That's right. >> Happy New Year everyone. >> Happy New Year Dr. still here. >> So, I won't be here too long. [laughter] >> We've submitted a report which is an overview of the process that was in
058place for last year for reviewing the partnership between Slicky and Slicky Bryant. And so, if there are any questions, we're here to address those questions as well as seek guidance about implementing G18 and no, sorry, G16 as we move move forward to rename the facility. >> Dr. Taylor. Um, just before we hear questions from the board, I just want to emphasize to the board that we're not necessarily looking for a decision or a board vote tonight, but what we're really looking for is approval from us. Not necessarily form through a formal vote, but at least agreement um that Slickie and and Dr. Taylor and Bryant can come back um with a couple of different elements. One being a dissolution um and more information about that and then a name change for Brian if that is
059the direction that we'd like to go. Any questions for Dr. Taylor? Ashley. >> So, if I'm understanding what you just said correctly, that means the next step if we follow the administrative procedures in G16 would be for principal AMO to convene a committee to recommend the specific actions to take at the next meeting. Is that right? >> Regarding the name change, >> name change. >> That's only regarding the name change. >> Yes. >> And that's the only thing we would vote on. Is that correct? There'll be a recommendation coming from the district regarding whether to keep the partnership or dissolve the partnership, but also the name >> a name change if so agreed upon. >> I understand. So you would be recommending the dissolution and the name change at the same time. >> That's correct.
060>> And it would be principal AMO who convenes that committee because it's the Bryant site. >> Do we hear anything else or is there committee report coming out of Slickie or only from Bryant? only from Brian because that's the name change that would be >> okay and can you remind us in that G16 policy how the committee is set up who participates in it you know what what are the steps where we could anticipate what we're going to hear at a future meeting >> I'm gonna punt that to Allan [laughter] he looked down like I was going to call him I'm a former teacher I know how to call on baseball Hold on. I'm pulling up the policy real quick. >> That committee work um I don't think has many stipulations about what that is.
061It's just the opportunity for the community itself. >> Yeah. >> To provide input on to what the name change would be. And I appreciate that you distinguished the district will be after the process that was followed over these last months in looking at Slickie um and the Slicky Bryant partnership >> across campus >> that um that the district will come back with the recommendation to dissolve that partnership, but that the name change goes through the G16 process and is a different process. process than the other. So I appreciate that you named those two as different things. >> So I can talk a little bit about the G16 process. So the G16 process that committee would involve the SEC and then um they should get significant input from the community. They can include if they would
062like teachers and students on that committee as well and coming up with three recommendations to forward. Um but they have multiple avenues for um soliciting that community input for the whole from all their stakeholders but the committee for sure is made up of the SEC and then additional staff and students as appropriate and community members. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other questions for Dr. Taylor at this time? >> I'll just say I pulled up the policy and she's right. [laughter] All right. Do we have board approval for Dr. Taylor and both campuses um Dr. Amio um and Slickie? Hey Britney Britney Pal to um move forward with those recommendations. >> See some head nods and thumbs up. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> We'll look for this topic on a future board meeting.
063Thank you Dr. Taylor. Thank you um Dr. Amio and and and Britney Pal for um for engaging in your community in this discussion. Um we really appreciate all of your efforts up to this point. U moving on to our discussion agenda. We have one um discussion agenda item. It's pretty straightforward. Um our March 17th board meeting falls on the evening of of caucus night uh which is when um members of our community go out and um participate in the in in our democratic process um to either become delegates or support people who they know who are becoming delegates. Um we wanted to follow suit as a board um to not interfere our meeting with such an important um step in our in our just our community um so that we could free all of us
064up to free the community up and our teachers and administrators to participate in in that process if they'd so like. Um, Vice President Jensen and I did pull the board uh before um this meeting and um the board has unanimously identified to move the Tuesday, March 17th board meeting to Wednesday, which would be Wednesday, March 18th. Um just to accommodate that that for us. Um we do need to move this to action before we can take a final vote. Um but we will need to vote on that to action. So any discussion? Is there a motion to move this topic to the action agenda? >> Uh, I move that we send approving the calendar change as posted to the action agenda. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Any discussion to the motion? Seeing none, we will
065take a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. Charlotte Feif Jefferson. Yes. >> All right, that motion passes. And guess what? We're on the action agenda. Is there a motion to approve? >> I move that we move the March 17th, 2026 board meeting to March 18th, 2026. >> Second. [laughter] >> You guys are competing. We got That's awesome. Any discussion to the motion? >> All right, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Romano. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jetson, yes. >> Amanda Long, yes. Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Excellent. That motion passes. Dr. Grant, if you could please
066make sure to work with the appropriate teams to update the website um for our board calendar and every >> I didn't hear you. >> Oh, yes. That was a yes. Maybe I didn't vote on Thank you for catching that, Alan. But yeah, if you could just make sure that all those changes are made to the website, that'd be awesome. >> We'll do it. >> All right. Um we are >> we are on to the superintendent report. Dr. Yep. I have a few things to report. First, thank you board in the consent agenda for approving the three-year calendar ahead. So, I wanted to let you know because I know you've been fielding a lot of questions about what the 2627 school year calendar will be that our communications department is on that. It's available on our
067website now. that's been posted and it will go out in social media so that because of your vote at the consent agenda, we're getting that out as quickly as we can, which means it's available now so families can look at that and um know what the school calendar is for the coming year. So, I wanted to highlight that. The other piece, and this is jumping the official gun a little bit, but I did want to let you know that we have been audited twice by the legislative auditor general. Uh, one of those audits came in December of 2022. The second audit was a follow-up audit um in November of 2024. The first audit had 15 recommendations that we were required to respond to. Um, the district was required to respond to some. The board was
068given specific tasks to take on. The follow-up audit had six more of those. Um we have been informally informed that we have met all of the outstanding recommendations and we will receive um a letter later on to say that we have completed all of the materitor on that and to um business administrator Kersley and general counsel Kindle for so adeptly um guiding the district through that and working with the legislative auditor uh on completing all that work. So I just think that's impressive that we've done that and have um earned great confidence I think from the legislature for our responsiveness on that. Um I also want to give a shout out to buildings and grounds. Um a lot of us are off over the holidays. Our buildings and grounds team is often not off over
069the holidays. And there were buildings that um had power outages. There were some that had um some significant improvements that needed to be done. Um there were also some buildings that needed some furnace changes, some things like that that were done. I just want to say thank you for how responsive our buildings and grounds team is and how timely they are. They're on call 24 hours a day because of the needs of so many of our buildings and what can go wrong and they're just really responsive to it and I appreciate that particularly at a holiday season when the rest of us are enjoying a bit of a break. Um yeah, [applause] thank you. That's right. I also just wanted to um reemphasize what Dr. Hall was talking about. She attended the literacy symposium today.
070You may see this in the news. Um the governor is pushing a literacy agenda and um as Dr. Hall mentioned um one of the things that I attended an event last night uh with associate superintendent Ruiz at the governor's mansion about this that was about just an introduction to it and I appreciate the uh community emphasis in this literacy initiative and the recognition that in order to improve literacy across the state of Utah, we need the whole community to be involved and it's not just the burden of classroom teachers and schools to get that work done. And so I think what you'll see in the coming months is that community effort and it provides us I think some wind at our backs to continue to work with even more focus and attention on literacy. Uh
071one of our three board goals that we're putting our efforts behind. So, I know our team is already thinking of some ways that we might take advantage of that wind at our backs and some possible uh philanthropic funding. And I don't know about state funding at the moment, but I know some philanthropic funding will be coming with that. And so, it'll be something that we'll come and report to the board about and and get your input on in the coming months. I just wanted to flag that for you so you see those conversations and know that our team um is right at the forefront of thinking about what we're doing next in literacy. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Grant. >> Alan, do you have a BA report this evening? >> You already gave
072up. >> Yeah. No. All right. U we'll start with um board member reports with Amanda. >> Um I was just working on my notes so we'll have to bear with me because I didn't get it all through. um planning I have a meeting set up with the Hillside principles tomorrow for a visit and a tour. Um I've been up there before but not as a formal board member. So kind of exploring that relationship and I've told them directly but a shout out to them. My daughter puked all over the stage [laughter] in December and then a few places on the way in the office to help her out and they were just just fabulous in stepping in and helping her feel supported as we were doing with the disaster. So, thank you to all at
073Hillside that um supported her and us through that not fun moment. Um and then USBA conference at the end of the week. I know a lot of us will be in attendance to that. Um, a Celic Education Foundation has gotten underway. There are thank you Thursdays and I'm looking forward to um participating in those and celebrating individuals that um are being acknowledged there. And we all know now it's the fun of the legislative session. Um, so we'll be doing my best to um participate where I can and try to advocate for the good bills and, you know, make sure they understand the ramifications of bills that might be harmful. So hopefully we can get as many voices out there as possible to try to make a difference. >> Thank you, Bricks. >> Uh, I don't
074have anything this time. >> Okay, buckle in everyone. It's a new year. I got a lot of things to talk about. Um, I wanted to congratulate the West High Choir. They were invited to sing at the city council inauguration if there was anyone who was there. Um, congratulations to all new and returning council members as well. Um, as we've talked about in the past, both the superintendent and I are passionate about the FAFSA because we are both aware that Utah leaves more FAFSA dollars on the table than almost any state, maybe than every other state. >> But they leave a significant amount of money that could be used for college for students. and West High and other area high schools have FAFSA nights and Wests will be on Thursday, January 22nd from 3:30 to 6:30
075PM in the library and people should really go get the help they need to fill out that application and not leave any available money behind that could support them attending college. Um, I have not yet made it to many winter athletics, but I have seen that girls basketball at West continues to be ranked very highly statewide and I know that swimmers are also having very successful meets among other sports. Um, elementary schools are continuing to cycle through exciting events, science fairs, preparing for spring art nights, talent shows, and I'll look forward to highlighting those in future months. Um, the board finance committee, as we've talked about before, is working out some kinks in our meeting schedule, but topics on our horizon include um internal audit reports, updates from school community leader, what is it called?
076SCT now, school community collaboration team, >> not SIC is what I call it at home. Okay. updates from SCT. They did a zerobased budgeting exercise as we're looking toward how to meet those title one resource allocations. Um, and I look forward to, you know, looking at how we open our new budget book, uh, as we look at this report from Squire and consider, you know, our activities through the end of the year. I was able to attend an advocacy webinar with the National School Boards Association to prepare for the beliefs and resolutions committee meeting later this month and I appreciate everyone's support to attend. Um I wanted to talk about over the beginning of the new year I started um you know my new reading list and I just finished a report on data called
077how schools really matter by Douglas Downey and it really I wanted to share it because I think everyone should read it but especially in light of the literacy report. I think sometimes we look at testing data in a vacuum and we don't recognize that schools are actually a compensatory service that cause much more help than harm and that unless we really address social inequality we are unlikely to see literacy rates change. And I'm really concerned that when we use the literacy testing data that we have available, our solution is sometimes to intervene to the detriment of students actually being able to read books. And it also is often used by the legislature as a tool to push students to use vouchers where they will never take a standardized test in private or homebased opportunities. And
078yet we will be beholden to those same test results. So I'm a little bit worried about the impact of those things. And one thing I think could help bring us to the same page is to consider this book, How Schools Really Matter by Douglas Downey. I encourage you to look at it. Um, last, I I didn't have this in my original report, but I really wanted to validate as a parent the public comment that we had this evening. I've had personal experiences with my children where it is really difficult to make up work after you've been out sick. And I think in our zeal to address absenteeism, which is a worthy cause, we don't always leave a lot of room for nuance in the many reasons why kids miss school and how some of those
079reasons are incredibly legitimate. Um, I think as our high schools implement flex time and begin to figure out what that means, what it looks like, and how it's working, that that flex time is maybe one model for redress in high schools that our middle school leaders can begin to learn from as we go through the year. But wanted to validate her experience. It relates to mine. And that is all. actually thoughts. >> Um I'd just like to comment on Mr. Bear. Um I attended Nsign Elementary where he worked for a period if not uh still. And although I was not attending at the same time as he arrived, he arrived the year after I left, I heard for several years from my classmates in younger grades, "Oh my gosh, we got this new librarian. He's
080so wonderful." Um, so his reputation precedes him with an award or not. He's a wonderful teacher. >> Much appreciated. >> Thanks, boss. >> Brian. >> Yes. >> Well, first of all, I do want to maybe it's reiterate um Amanda's comment about USBA, but add just a little bit more to it. We do have um that conference that's coming up this weekend. But in light of your other comment about the legislature um shortly convening, there will be JLC meetings and I really would encourage you to um follow those on your calendar. The first one is [clears throat] this Thursday um at um 3M in the afternoon and then there will be another one that is on the 23rd of January. And I think that those are really beneficial because it helps um school boards prepare for
081what's to come in the legislative session. So I would encourage you to do that. And then to cap that off, I think that it is um valuable for us to participate in day on the hill when the legislature is in session so that they can see that we are um engaged with them and that is on January 30th. >> Okay. Then I just would echo um Superintendent Grant's um comments on the school calendar. I attended lots of SEC meetings and I really appreciate the involvement that those committees um expressed and I mean they worked hard to make sure that they were um advocating for the calendar that they thought would be best for their schools and I appreciate that we're getting it out as quickly as we can. I think that that really helps parents.
082Finally, I as a teacher want to acknowledge all of the teachers who did receive the national certified teacher recognition. That I just know as a teacher that is a lot of work and I appreciate all of our teachers that take that on. And talked about um Mr. But I want and I appreciate the award that he um received, but I just think that it's really important to acknowledge that our librarians are certified teachers. For me, that was a wonderful tool as a teacher to know that I had an additional resource that I could use in helping my children. Um, yes, learn um research skills and those sorts of things, but also to supplement what we were learning in the classroom. Um it was wonderful the different um and I had an experience with a very
083good librarian as well who really worked hard to make sure that what my children were doing in the library was supporting what we were doing in the classroom. >> Thanks Annie. >> Yeah. So I'm going to be a little bit like board member Anderson and do a kind of long one. >> [laughter and snorts] >> Um, so in December I was able to attend the USBA webinar and then also do the thank you Thursday with Salt Lake Education Foundation to go to Whittier and Innovations. Um, and appreciate the Salt Lake Education Foundation and all that they do to support the district and the teachers in the district and I'm so impressed by all the work that these teachers are doing and happy that they can be highlighted and look forward to future Thank You Thursdays.
084Um the East High School FAFSA night is January 14th, so next week. Um the East High School men's basketball team had a tournament um over the winter break and they won the Tar Taranian Classic. I don't know what that is, but good job. And I was able to attend two East High basketball games as well. And go Leopards. Um the East High School theater department is doing High School Musical which the tickets are on sale now and that's happening February 19th through the 24th. Um so it's going to be good and it's you know the home of High School Musical so everyone should attend. Um, I was able to do the hotline and audit training for the state and learned um, a lot and appreciate the audit presentation today and all of the hard work
085um, from Squire as well as our finance team in um, making sure that we are fiscally responsible and um, meeting all of the obligations. Um, I would like to extend condolences to the Bonavville Elementary School community who lost um their crossing garden, one of the pillars of um school spirit um unicorn uh this last weekend. Um and appreciate the community coming together to provide funeral services for him. Um I also want to do a message um today being January 6th on the importance of the democratic process and um gratitude for mention of that earlier um and that I do have faith in the democratic process and encourage everyone to engage with that whether it's filing um supporting a candidate you believe in advocating at the legislative session for something you're passionate about or simply voting
086um And I also would like to um say that I have faith in public education. I know that there's a lot of forces and a lot of things that happen. Um but I do think that public education has a valuable place in society. It is a community social um movement that has accountability and a lot of growth in social emotional learning as well as academic learning. And um as a parent, I am so grateful for the opportunity for my children to be able to attend public schools in the Salt Lake City School District and for all of the staff and faculty um and everyone who makes that experience possible. >> [applause] >> Well, I think everything was said and um but I just want to um express my deep appreciation for all of our employees
087in the Salt Lake City School District, our teachers, our educators, our counselors and social workers, and our our building um maintenance. Yeah. And uh um all all of our admin. I mean, we're we're doing very very important work and I hope that we can all um really make a difference in 2026. So, I want to wish everybody a happy new year and um I will be um keeping track of legislator of bills in the legislature affecting public education and um talking to my legislators. Um there's a legislative preview session that I'm missing tonight with in my community on the west side, but um yeah, the joint legislative committee. So that's the I don't know if the public's listening, but that's all of the board members, superintendent, and business administrators from all of the school districts
088in the state. they come together and meet on Fridays at the Capitol during the session and work toward common goals. And it's um heartening to see rural, you know, more conservative areas and urban areas united to try to um protect public education. So, um, there is a public education celebration out in the Rotunda on January 20 first. >> Yeah. >> 3 to 6 p.m. >> from 3 to 6 pm. So, to celebrate public education and uh, let's just onward onward. >> Thank you, Charlotte. Thank you, board. Um, I just want to kind of dovetail from where Charlotte left off and where all of my colleagues left off about the importance of our teachers. Had an awesome experience with um, a teacher at Highland High School and his IB class, Kyle Bracken. Um, I got to
089go be an IB student for a day. Um, before the winter break um, and all my East High friends, I'm sorry, but I wore a Highland Ram sweater. Brian's probably really excited now. Now, you know, Bryce is shaking because I've worn a West High basketball um hoodie as well. But nonetheless, it was such a really cool experience um to be in that classroom. Um I've known tons of IB students over the years, friends and students who I've engaged with um as a board member and just a really solid group of students. U very humble um super energetic and smart um but just super class I would say. um our students at Highland in an IB program, all of our students are super superclass over there and um they talked about the importance of what IB
090brings and how it helps them critically think about the world and that the program isn't necessarily always about academics and looking from the outside in that day. as like it's definitely heavily academic, but every student I talked to and engaged with emphasized the importance of being critical thinkers, being um civic leaders, being civically engaged, being like stewards of our world and our community. And I thought that was just the highlight of the experience. Um I definitely need to go brush up on my calculus skills. Um and I don't know how all these students write these um end of of term, you know, papers that they're required to do for the requirements. And um it was just an awesome experience. Um, I did run into James Tobler. Mike, James says hi. He misses you. Um, but
091he was super excited. Um, he says he's fly fishing a lot, but nonetheless, um, Highland IB program is is really rocking it, and thank you for the hoodie and the opportunity to be there. Um, and also I just want to thank this board as we begin a new year. Um, this has been an awesome experience being on the board and also I've been through different iterations of the board over my time here. Um, and I'm really really excited to start 26 with this team. Um, we are a solid team and I can't express enough how awesome it is to see us all come together in the interest of students um, and centering students and all the work that we do and I look forward to 26 um, working with you through the end of this
092year. So, thank you so much. Um, thank you to our community, thank you to our teachers. Um, welcome to 2026 and let's finish the year off strong. I'll call the meeting adjourned. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hey, you and Ryan need to decide when we're meeting as board leadership. >> Okay. >> You guys let us know what works for your schedule. I've been [laughter] keeping a