001coffee. My grandparents were That's the question. All right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, welcome. Today is December 2nd, 2025. We are here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education business meeting. The board does have a need to go into close session. Uh and I will entertain a motion to do so. >> On December 2nd, 2025, I move that the board enter close session to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical and mental health of an individual pending a reasonably imminent litigation and the deployment of security personnel, devices, or systems. >> Can second. >> Right. We got a motion and a second. Any discussion to the motion? All right, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nazar, yes.
002>> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Right, that motion passes. Uh, we will reconvene around 5:30 this evening. Thank you. I'll get that. Sorry about that. I saw it. I just made sense. creates [clears throat] here reading. So I was like, >> wildlen So, >> but I turned it off. [laughter] Sorry. >> My dad choices. >> I know everyone did, but [laughter] >> singing to meet my other kid. >> He is a nervous college and he is deeply distressed. It's hard to be a tiny snowflake. I'm very >> That is not What am I? I mean, the first day actual. Yeah. I heard >> office right there. Hey, how are you? >> Good. [laughter] >> Some days are longer than others, too. Some days you're
003like, "Oh, seriously. dramatically quietly. >> And then you'll come up here and you'll introduce the group and introduce. >> Do you want them here or do you want them on this beautiful Okay, unfortunately for all in front of How are you? I just need to get my card. By the way, when we walked in, we saw you This is fun for you. How are you? some holiday. >> Good stuff. already here. I mean, I'm not I do that. I do that where the >> [clears throat] >> Hello. Trying to determine I know. That's what I said. I'll bring it in. >> Should I call you? >> I'll ask They don't know what they How are you? >> Fantastic. Good to see you. Give me a second. All right. Good evening everybody. Welcome back um to
004the public portion of our meeting. Thank you for the time uh that we needed to go into closed executive session. Uh just to restate, today is December 2nd, 2025. We are here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education business meeting. Um I want to just take a moment to welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us online and here in person. Um definitely want to make some um some announcements about our classified association groups and their leadership who's with us this evening. For buildings and grounds, we have President Leo Compo. For child nutrition, President Tanya Slaughter. For transportation, Audrey Benali. Uh with SLEA, we got President Mike Harmon and Vice President Chelsea A Costa. Mike, welcome back from Tori. Hope you had a good time. [laughter] >> Always. >> Um
005and for SLAsa, they're represented by Tom Luthy and Emily Sutherland is representing Slassa this evening. I I know I saw her in here before. So, thank you everybody for joining us. We will move into um our pledge of allegiance and I'll go ahead and lead us in the pledge this [cough and clears throat] evening. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you everybody for that. Moving on to our recognition this evening. Uh Dr. Grant and board, it looks like we have the West High Choir with us this evening. Is there anything that you wanted to to announce before we get started with that recognition, Dr.
006Grant? >> Just that the West High Choir is planning to go back and sing at Carne D Hall in New York. And before they did, we wanted to make sure they were well prepped [laughter] and had enough practice time. And so we're grateful that they have spent some time this afternoon, this evening to come in and um share this with the board. >> Excellent. Thank you. And board members, let's go ahead and join in the audience like we do for other performances like this. Thank you. [clears throat] I think filling in on those two rows. >> Your front row. She's back. >> Yep. There you go. See? >> Don't worry about the cameras. >> Think about them until now. [laughter] >> Sort of. Okay. Honey. Oh, honey. [singing] Oh, honey. Oh han. [singing] Oh han.
007Oh han. [singing] Oh han. [singing] Let's have [music] a party around the [music and singing] table. Shin [music] [singing] [music] candles are candles burning. [singing] Ever one for [music] each night. [singing] [music] [singing] Let's [singing] have a party [music] around the [singing] table. [music] >> [singing] >> with [music] [singing] the candles are burning. They're burning. [singing] They're one for each night. They shed [music] [singing] us light. Remind us. >> [singing] >> of days. [music] [applause] So we are the West High Choir and these are my students who are specifically in a capella and corral and they are my students who've been with me for at least two to three even four and five years at this point and we're just super grateful that you were able to invite us here to this event tonight. Thank
008you so much. Our second piece is called Carol of the Belts. It's a winter classic. The bells >> [singing] >> seems to hear words of cheer from everywhere. [singing] Christmas is here. [singing] >> [singing] >> Christmas young [singing] [music] [singing] everywhere. Christmas [singing and music] is here. >> [singing] >> And Don't [singing] [applause] >> [applause] >> You guys gave me chills on that one. >> I did. It was beautiful. >> Thank you. Thanks for doing that. >> You can watch it on YouTube later if you want. >> Beautiful. >> You guys, nice work. >> You're pretty great. It's me, turns out. >> All right, let's give another round of applause for our West High choir. [applause] It's always awesome to see the work that our students are doing and the celebrations that they're they're getting
009out there in the world here locally and in New York City coming up too for our choir. So, thank you for joining us for that this evening. Um, moving on to our consent agenda, I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a mo motion to approve the consent agenda as posted. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> I second the motion. >> Any discussion, >> Amanda? >> Um I just wanted to point out um go back to my notes. Sorry. Um I'm grateful that we're continuing to hire for needed areas and such. Um do want to point out that we are still hiring for special education. Um, and that was November's report. I hope that we're finally there. Um, I did get some statistics on, it's kind of a side note, but our fill rates
010for um, absences. And in general, our fill rates are good. Our fill rates for uh, special education teachers and paras are significantly less than the general. So just kind of a side note as we're talking about special education and other things, the need is real. The need need exists. So we need to keep progressing to shore up the contributors to those problems. So >> thank you Amanda. >> Any further discussion? Bren, >> I noticed in the human resource report, and Logan, I commented on this last time with our substitutes, but I was happy to see that there were bus drivers um and a student transportation driver. Do we have lots of vacancies still for bus drivers or where are we there? I mean, that's such a critical piece. >> It is. Thank you, board member
011Jensen. The struggle with bus drivers is ever going so we have people um resign, you know, it seems that we hire one, somebody resigns. And so, it's it's an evergoing battle. Currently, I believe that we are staffed sufficiently, but we always have positions where we could add more. Um some upcoming um things that are going to impact transportation specifically are uh the transportation needs to take student athletes to um practice fields in the coming spring with the with the new construction for east, not east, west and highland. We're going to lose out on some some field space. So we're going to have increases in our transportation needs. So it's an ongoing battle. Um much like special education, we're always seeking uh well-qualified special educators and qualified bus drivers. So looking forward to continuing that that
012to meet that challenge. >> Thank you. I'm glad you have that noted for our athletics. >> Thank you. >> We're already working on it. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or discussion? >> All right, seeing none, we'll start with a roll call vote with board member Williams. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson. Yes. >> Ashley Anderson. Abstain. >> Nazer. Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Brian Jetson. Yes. >> Amanda Longwell. Yes. >> That motion passes. Thank you, board. We'll now move on to our request to speak. Um, let me get to my statement that I like you to read and then Helen, was there a signup sheet that you had. Great. Thank you. While that's making its way up here, thank you Helen for getting that for us. Um there is a
013statement that the board um has asked me to read uh before each public comment period. Uh before the board the board enjoys the opportunity to hear from the public during the comment portion of its meetings. Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to remind you of our board rules governing your comments. One, the total time reserved for the 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 negotiation procedures. I'd also like to explain that unless the
014speaker's topic is already on the agenda, state law prohibits the board from taking action on items raised during the public comment period. However, if it seems appropriate to the circumstances, I may direct district staff to follow up with a speaker on the topic discussed. Our first and only speaker this evening is Eric Pavalis. Eric, thank you. Please join us at one of the podiums. >> All right. >> I've never beat that choir. So, [laughter] >> all right. Is this on? All right. So, my name is Eric Povalis. I'm the proud parent of two graduates over at East High in 2018 and 2020. And I want to start off by asking you a question. If you had a child spend 68 hours a day in a building or a school that was sitting on top of
015a toxic plume, as a parent, would you want to be informed whether it is a safe environment or a nonsafe environment? So, I am here today requesting that the Salt Lake City School Board take the PCE plume that was formally discovered in 2016 that sits directly under East High and all your property seriously and become more engaged. I found out about this plume by attending a meeting this past October along with other neighbors and believe it or not the EPA was there, federal agencies, state and city health agencies, the VA and other agencies. I learned a lot about the plume. I also learned that it's going to take 30 to$60 million to remediate this plume and it will require activity on East High property, specifically your proper, your parking lot and some other property at
016the stadium. You know who was missing from this meeting? A key player, the school district. Not one single individual from the school district. In fact, no one from the school district has attended a plume meeting on this toxic site for the last five years. evident by the meeting minutes. I was actually kind of shocked about that on October 30th because I went to the meeting and there was a media report that came out. The school district decided to do a public relations email dur via parent square to students and staff. In that you specifically stated you're working with all these agencies and quote there is no evident of immediate risk to students at East High. I find it odd that federal government published a report October 24th, I mean October 2024 on the exact same
017site that you guys quoted that said in their conclusion they cannot make a determination whether East High is safe or unsafe. In fact, in that same report, there are two locations inside East High that exceed federal standards with PCE levels. That is in your workshop area and your elevator. I also find it odd that east that east high and the school district specifically refuse to put monitoring wells up at the stadium and the soccer field. Additionally, I find that the school district is missing all these key meetings. When asked and in discussion where the school district was, the federal agencies and the state agencies had no clue where the school district was. They actually have been requesting you guys to attend. So I'm just asking you please show transparency and get engaged. As a parent,
018I would have liked to have known my when my students were there, they were attending a school on a toxic waste site. So just please get involved. All your communication says you are and you are not. It's evident by meeting minutes and everything else. Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. and I'm willing to work with, you know, your facilities people and stuff. I've done a lot of research in the last month and stuff. I know this isn't to solve anything. >> Great. >> Thank you for joining us this evening. >> All right. Moving on in our agenda. Uh we have our reports agenda. The first item there is school land trust annual board training. Uh Dr. Grant, anything you wanted to introduce before we get started? just that I appreciate that the board takes so seriously
019the responsibility to review the land trust plans that are um done by each of our schools. And with that um there was a request this year to get additional training on how to go about looking at those reports when they come in. So, we have moved this um up early and um our director who oversees this as well as title one um Christine Marriott and Kenny Al, our area director uh will be presenting the information on this and um have expanded it to include information that board members have requested. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Happy to be here again. Um this is our annual board training for you. kicking off our school improvement cycle that occurs throughout the winter. And um so we will start with a little introduction. I'm Christine Marriott. I'm the director
020of title one and school improvement. It's my third year in the role and I am finally starting to get a handle on it. Takes a minute. There's some complexities. Um and then we were going to have area director Lisa Young, but uh she had a different obligation. So, um, Kenny, would you introduce yourself as well? >> Kenny Al, um, area director, um, over area three elementary schools. Happy to be here. >> Thanks. Okay, so today we will provide you this required board training. We'll review the responsibilities that you have in the school improvement and uh community council and land trust program and then share with you the process and the deadlines, the dates that we'll be um working with this year for 20 uh 20 cycle which you'll see includes a couple different things. So
021Kenny, if you want to go ahead and start on back a couple more right there. >> No, go back another Sorry. I'm not connect school land trust program. There's a little video. Um, so we'll start the video. >> Do we have the video? Did you guys review the video outside of the uh >> Probably not. >> Are we able? >> Oh, sorry. You did? >> Yes. question is do we want to play the video? We will >> in our master board certification. >> I think it's important so for the public to see it queue up the video first. [music] Several of the state's most important public institutions are beneficiaries of permanent trusts totaling over $3.2 billion. As part of Utah's 1894 enabling act, Congress granted millions of acres of land [music] called trust lands to
022our state. Constitutional provisions require that revenue generated from business activity on trust lands be invested and earnings from those investments [music] be distributed to 12 specific beneficiaries including public and higher education, teaching colleges, [music] health and human services, and other state institutions. These endowments are made possible by Utah's school and institutional [music] trust land system, a group of four self-funded agencies that share fiduciary responsibilities for trust [music] lands management, trust funds investment, distribution, and beneficiary protection and advocacy. The trust system as we know it [music] today began with the creation of the Trust Lands Administration in 1994. The Trust Lands [music] Administration manages 7.8 million surface and mineral acres of trust lands throughout Utah. The administration generates revenue for the beneficiaries [music] through energy development, real estate planning, and surface resource use. Before the creation
023of the Trustlands Administration, [music] the permanent funds totaled about $50 million. Since then, the funds have grown dramatically to over $3.2 billion today. Except for the administration's nominal operating costs, all of the revenue generated from trust lands goes directly into the permanent trust [music] funds. The school and institutional trust funds office, also known as SITFO, manages and invests these funds. Distributions from the permanent trusts [music] administered by SITFO totaled over7 million in fiscal year 2023. [music] Utah public schools are the largest beneficiary and receive approximately 95% of the annual distributions. The school children's trust [music] office under the Utah State Board of Education manages the annual distributions that go to schools. Every school has a council that determines its [music] greatest academic needs. And upon approval from its local school board, land trust funds are
024used to help meet those needs. [music] To enhance the protection and growth of the trust system, the land trust protection and advocacy office represents and [music] protects the beneficiaries interests, provides trust system oversight, and educates the public about these significant endowments. Some important initiatives going [music] on in the Trust system right now include a new Trust Lands Administration website with an exciting social media campaign, added emphasis on legislative outreach [music] and communications with beneficiaries, and bills in Congress supporting an extensive land exchange with the federal government, [music] which if passed will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the beneficiaries. Also, look [music] for a proposed constitutional amendment on your ballot in 2024 addressing land trust distributions. [music] The proposed amendment will ensure better distribution practices for public education beneficiaries [music] today and in the
025future. The trust system in Utah is widely known as one [music] of, if not the best managed trust land systems in the United States. All partners working within the system are dedicated to ensuring the [music] trusts continue to grow and benefit Utah's education programs and other trust institutions now and for years to come so we can continue supporting the important work you do. [music] So distribution the first 10% of the district's total distribution is divided equally between the 41 districts as a base funding amount with the inclusion of the base the distribution formula advantages schools and smaller districts. The remaining 90% of the district total distributions divided per pupil. Then each school receives the district per pupil amount based on enrollment. What does this mean for the Salt Lake City School District students? In 2025
026and 26 allocation was 3,10,489, an increase of 95,689 from the school year 20 2425. Some of the roles of the school community council members is the principal um serves on the community council but is not elected. The parents and guardian members must have children enrolled in the school for at least one of the two years of their term and are elected by parents and guardians. School employee members must be employed at the school and be elected by school employees. Responsibilities of community councils are one to adopt rules of order and procedures which are the bylaws. Advise and make recommendations on schools and its programs. School district or charter programs. Child access routing plans commonly known as safe walking routes. student safety, including safe technology usage and other issues relating to the community environment for students.
027School land trust plans. Actively particip participate and advise and make recommendations for the school land trust plan. Vote to approve the final school land trust plan and sign the asurances that they were actively involved in developing of the school land trust plan. Here's some of the responsibilities of school boards members. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, [music] hey, [music] hey, hey. >> [music] >> Hey, [music] hey, hey. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat [music] up here. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >>
028[music] [music] >> Okay. Thanks, Kenny. All right. So, uh, our first item that's coming up for us this winter is to actually review and take a look at the results of last year's plans. So, that will be the 2024 2025 school year final reports. Even though we're well into this year, the first thing you'll be doing is looking at a a final report from each school based on last year's plan and how it was implemented. Um, so that platform opens principles to start the process on January 15th. So, they will have uh about a week or a week and a half to work on that. We'll build in a little bit of time in our office for area directors and me to review those and support any principles who need it. And those final reports
029will be completed and ready for you to see on February 3rd. Um you will have a very short window to provide a little feedback if needed. Um We're really just putting a bow on last year's plans. So, we're not developing a new plan. Um, if there are any corrections coming back from you, the principles will have just a couple of days make those and then you will receive the final final reports on February 17th, ready for approval in time for the school land trust deadline of March 1st. Okay. So then the next piece will be taking a look at the plans for the upcoming school year. That will be the 2026 2027 school year. um principles will actually be starting the process of developing those plans um in by mid December and will be full
030into uh working on looking at the needs analysis and developing uh bringing their committee together starting to develop goals with the support of our curriculum department and school leadership and support aligning those goals with the board priorities. Um so there will be a lot of work going on January, February, March to develop those plans. Um you will see those starting on April 14th with one exception which is we have two charter schools. The land trust portion only for those two charter schools has a slightly accelerated timeline. So you can see those dates on the right hand side of that slide. Um, so when you receive those plans, that will be land trust and school improvement plans for most of our schools. Um, you'll have a pretty short window, just almost a week to provide any
031feedback for those schools. Um, the principles then will have a short window to respond to that feedback, including oversight and support from our department. Um, and then you will see those back again on May 5th for your vote. And that gives us time to get those approved plans uploaded to the state in time for the May 15th deadline. Okay. So when you receive those plans, it will be like prior years. You'll get a folder in one drive. You'll have uh all of the plans will be in there. Um there will be reviewer assignments. Each of you will have a folder for your or a document for your review form for each school that you're assigned. Um, and let's go on down to the board member reviewer assignments. Uh, assuming we want to stick with the
032same strategy where each school has two reviewers. This would be the proposed set of reviewer assignments for this year. Um, and you can see uh if you're if that's your precinct, you're the number one reviewer, but then you have number two reviews so that every school has two um board member reviews. And the plan review form we're proposing is the one adapted from the one provided by the state. It um will be similar to prior years. You can see the criteria for land trust plans for the 26 27 um upcoming plan year. You'll have a space to make some feedback and then same for the school improvement plan. Slightly different uh review categories but a similar form is proposed for that year. Okay. What questions do you have? >> Bman Williams. >> Sorry. Yeah. Um,
033so I'm a little embarrassed to bring this question up, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. Um, so I've been on the board for four and a half years, and I think this will be my fifth time doing this. I don't see this process as cumbersome by any means, and I I know our obligation to do this review. It seemed pretty it seemed pretty easy to me to go through this process in the past, but I'm wondering if I need to be like looking at it from a different eye and being more um what's the word? Like asking more questions like I understand like the criteria like it's you know serving students and um our schools and things of that nature, but should I be looking at it from a different lens and providing
034more critique as I go through this process? I haven't done that so much in the past and as I'm thinking about it a little bit more, I'm wondering if maybe I need to put more effort or more time into it. >> I I would I would want you to keep in mind that the process has been underway for principles and school community councils and faculty committees um for quite a few months by the time the plan is developed and is in your hands. Um I think it's very helpful to be part of any SEC meetings you can be. It's wonderful to be part of the discussion and to see how principles and uh community councils engage with the content. Um I personally I can make a commitment that there will be a higher or a
035more stringent review for things like uh spelling and grammar the the basic editing. Um if you see things like that I think it's always good to point that out. We want to send the most high quality plans we can to the state. >> I appreciate that. provides a little more reassurance in what I've been doing. Thank you. >> Let me also add as a board member when you're reviewing the plans you want to make sure the plan is clear and concise. >> So if you have information that you don't understand, we can be kind of guaranteed that your constituents are not understanding it. So ask that question so that we can then in turn answer that question and address that plan. We're not asking for you to review the individual strategies because like you say
036that's been developed through the constituents. what we're reviewing is clear and concise and is in in compliance with state regulations. >> I appreciate that. Thank you, >> member Anderson. >> Yeah, I have a couple of questions. I mean, uh the first is we've reinstated recently chairs meetings where Superintendent Grant, you're meeting with school community council chairs. And one of the things that's come up in past cycles is I know we can't blame everything on the pandemic, but it seems like since COVID there's been a shift in the way SEC's are largely run where the chair sometimes feels less empowered to chair the meeting and it's principles chairing the meeting basically. And so I'm wondering if you've seen um Dr. Grant that as these chairs meetings have been reinstated, we've sort of like re-empowered what this
037structure is meant to be, which is really a parent or grandparentled meeting. I'm gonna have Christina speak to that. Um, in that she's been working with the SEC's on this. >> Um, I, you know, I think there's a lot of variability of how SEC's function across our district. I think some schools have, uh, really, you know, active, well-prepared [clears throat] chairs who have a great desire to run the SEC and and a lot of experience. And some schools have an an SEC chair who has stepped up possibly at the request of the principal. I've coached a few principles who have said, you know, I'm having a hard time even finding someone. And I' I've coached them about, you know, when I was a principal, it would be the parent who I happen to see a
038lot out front and >> they seem to be pretty open to it and I would say, "Hey, I would love for you to try this and I'll support you as much as I can." So, it can look different at different schools and certainly we want these SEC chairs to have that experience of running that committee at their school. Um, helping develop the agenda. You know, whether they are actually the one typing it on a computer and managing to share it electronically, that's less important. But I I think it's very important that they develop that skill to create the agenda to uh you know build in time for uh other people to bring up any concerns they have and and have really productive parent meetings. Um but it definitely looks a little different at different schools.
039>> Yeah, that really resonates with my experience. Um, part of the reason I ask is that every time we've talked about land trust, I've brought up the same thing, which is that if you review some of our obligations, um, not just with the training materials you presented tonight, but past versions or information on the state board website, it's clear that when schools are all asking for the same thing or a large number of schools are asking for the same thing, it's our obligation to consider how to put that in our budget. And I think one thing that has happened as parent empowerment and parent involvement has somewhat diminished at some schools or become more challenging, there is also this idea that whatever is most needed in the budget and has been used previously, we're going
040to use it again. And it's sort of the supposition of the land trust program that an individual group or a unique group year-over-year comes up with what is the most unique academic need that this group of students has. And so it's a little bit disheartening when the answer is always academic intervention or reduction of class size and it's the same thing time and time again. And I would say, you know, more than 90% of the requests I receive are for the same thing. Whereas prior to my joining the board, we saw a lot of requests for things like a cash match to BTS. So we had a full-time art teacher or a hands-on science specialist. And we've really seen those things drop off. And so my my question which I'll ask again I think it's
041probably the you know tenth time and I'll look to Allan because we can't give direction from this report is what is the best way for us to start to calculate these needs in the budget book because it's our responsibility as a board. >> Yeah and I I just want to add too so if we look at some I know Dr. Dr. Taylor and his team is looking at compiling those >> um so we have an easy hey look and as opposed to going through each individual one. But the bigger challenge would be if you know if they were all asking for the same thing and we wanted to um [clears throat] fund that at at the district level. It's where do we get the funds to do that? Do we stop doing something else? Do
042we do we seek new funding? So that's the biggest challenge. Um figuring out what they're all asking for. We're working on on the e ease of that. Um so as we go through the budget process, we'll be able to look at that and say, >> you know, where does this priority fit with the limited amount of resources that we have? >> Can I also just >> um Dr. Taylor, could you speak to that too or Dr. Marriott about what what our plans are with that? One thing that Allan didn't [clears throat] mention that we will be discussing is we we we are compiling the information according to the budget item what they're requesting the category but also we'll have a conversation about the effectiveness of it. Have we seen the data the end end of
043the year outcomes that we have intended by expending these resources? So you'll see greater oversight and discussion from that in terms of the review of the plan that will inform future discussions. >> That's really helpful. And then my last question um that I would pose to you, Dr. Marriott, I apologize. I usually send my questions in advance, but as you pulled up that image of schools, it occurred to me that over time we've seen some school closure. And tonight we're being asked to vote on additional school closure. And so right now as an example we are you know hearing a presentation on the potential closure of innovations. Innovations obviously has a current school community council. They've convened. They have met. Um just to use them as a hypothetical example because we're not to that item
044yet. If a program like innovations was to be closed, do we know from our past elementary schools actually what happens to those land trust allocations? Do they continue to follow pupils as they would with the WPU? And again, I didn't ask in advance, so if that's something we don't know, >> that's okay to do. >> The dollars the dollars definitely follow the students. So when our elementaryaries closed, those students went to other elementaryaries and the land trust and other uh other budgets like title one, those other budgets increased at the schools that absorbed the students from the closed programs. And so could you help me remember those the way in which they're absorbed did not require amendments to come back to us before. So like for instance Mary W. Jackson closed a portion of those
045students were reszoneed to Washington. Washington's land trust allocation went up but not sufficient. The plan stays the same. They just have a little bit more money to work with. What's the threshold when an amendment would come back to us? uh the school can submit an amendment anytime they make a significant change to how their what their plan is, what their plan contains. So if they were paying for some parapros to help with intervention, they were able to do more of that. If they were paying for a 043 teacher for class size reduction, it maybe went up to 0.53 or whatever that was. Any school that changes their plan because of a different allocation or for any other reason, they should submit an amendment that the board would see throughout the school year whenever they recognize
046that the amendment is needed. >> That's really helpful. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> thank you, Ashley. Are there any other questions, Amanda? >> Mine are less questions. They they were covered well. Um, mine are uh I guess more ask and suggestions. So obviously I've only been on the board a year. I went through the spring review of the prior years and then the upcoming one getting my feet underneath me. The piece that I would request is some of the forms uh if I remember right didn't actually um reflect the right year. It wasn't clear on those forms what our specific like purpose was. Like it might be something that you can think about quickly because you're you're living it constantly, but whenever it's brought before us when we're juggling all these other things, it's not
047necessarily um at the front of our like awareness as to what we're supposed to be doing. >> So, a little like summary would be lovely as a helper so we can just dive right in. And then additionally, there was some um confusion as to how we were to document when we completed our reviews because there were some some that reordered it on the documents. So that had a trail as to who had completed it. Others it was we communicated to you guys through email. But then what that didn't show other board members is that that was done. So having a cohesive place that it is documented that we all concede that we've done our duty um for the state and for each other uh would be really helpful because that was that was problematic um
048earlier this year when we went through that. So just some suggestions and ask for this next round. >> Thank you Amanda. >> Any other questions? >> All right seeing none. Thank you Dr. Mary >> Kenny Dr. Taylor. Good to see you guys. Thank you. >> All right, our next report agenda item is an update on construction progress and athletic athletic fields. Um I see Isaac stepping up. Um Allan or Dr. Grant, is there anything that you wanted to introduce before you get started? >> I present to you Isaac, >> executive director as [laughter] >> good evening. Um there not a whole lot to update this week other than we're progressing um West High School specifically. We've started to grub and and prep that area. A couple highlights that I think would will be important to
049the board is uh we've been working with West High School on a few uh pieces of the uh track and things that they wanted to keep and utilize for other reasons. We've moved all of the uh equipment and practice facilities to their uh appropriate locations while the construction of those areas complete. Once the uh Rosewood Park and Glendel are complete, then we'll transport that equipment over to where they'll officially be held until we can officially open a new school. um the uh the uh Glendel field. I I just want to mention um a while back we we did have some community discussions about the Glendel with the community out there and we received some feedback and uh Jenny Sika who used to be on the board um was there and she represented the community very
050well and I reached out to her on Allen's recommendation a few weeks ago and she actually walked the community and took out some flyers for me. Uh responded that she's had really good positive feedback about what's happening out there. Uh the only complaint that she had was uh a couple of the residents felt like their homes were moving a little bit with the big machinery rolling around. Um but other than that, they were excited about the improvements uh the the plan for what will be on the facility and the use of it for the next few years. Um the Rosewood Park is just about done. Uh they're we're waiting on some metal. Um but the uh conxes are in place and and everything's ready to go out there. It's beautiful looking. If you have a
051chance, I'd encourage you to drive by. Um, [clears throat] Highland, uh, we're I always thought West was going to be the hard one, but Highland, we're running into a lot of little whatifs and oopses and things that we're trying to work around. Um, we're we're having multiple conversations with the park authority and the neighbors about that. Um, the biggest challenge up there is space. Parking is going to be a challenge up there, but we're working through that phasing with with our architects and the uh contractor. We're excited for the cooperation and conversations we've had with the park authority and um the others uh the other projects that'll start next spring summer. Uh they're in design right now and we're looking good. Questions, concerns? Um yeah, thank you so much for the update. Just a general
052question. It sounds like there are um community meetings and district [clears throat] representatives going ahead of construction trying to explain to the community [clears throat] if someone for example was not able to attend that meeting, are they receiving any printed material or any material at their actual home for the neighborhoods that are being affected by the construction? So, we've we've definitely focused on Glendel differently than how Rosland Heights uh happened. We did a lot of electronic communication and student and parent information in that community. This uh the Glendel community, we did focus more on we've we've done two uh community walks, dropping off flyers and letting them know of these meetings. Um the the second one is um Jenny walking around with her family and talking with each of the members that uh directly um
053surround those properties. Um and then obviously our communications team and their efforts of putting it on the website and providing weekly updates of of things there if people have follow-up questions. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Ashley. Yeah, I'm not sure who the best person to direct my question to is, but I've raised a few times and then attached on our last meeting minutes notes where I went back, I relisted to all of the applicable meetings about the fields and we were told that once there were project totals, fundraising would commence. And then later it was sort of said, "Oh, but we only meant about Glendale." But when you go back and relisten, you know, we were told there would be as much community investment as fundraising for all of this as possible given that it's
054a temporary cost and as you've shared with us many times before, our purview is in the academic school day and we did not want to, you know, burden our budget with these temporary athletic expenses. So recognizing that, you know, Rosewood is coming in, we're seeing the POS come in for it, we're approving them. What efforts are being made to try to offset any of this or the other temporary sports costs through fundraising as we were told? And the important part of that is that certain parts of the infrastructure may have already been paid for, but temporary athletics come with a lot of like unforeseen costs, right? like the ongoing storage, additional or temporary equipment and just the teams being offset by that. Do we have an update on that? And then also, do we have
055an update for teams who are kind of in a liinal space waiting for their sport to start and they still don't know how they're being transported? >> So, the the funding I'd like to introduce you to Alas [laughter] was a good call back. Thank you. So, um, you know, reviewing the email that you attached to the minutes last board meeting and also the board meeting of that conversation, we talked about creating partnerships, whether it's with donors or with the city and really with those with the Rosewood Park area that the partnership with the city really helped mitigate the cost to that project. >> Sure. Um so we're not doing any specific fundraising um efforts for that area. Uh always if if there are entities out there who wish to donate they can donate uh through
056the foundation and if they want to specify the donation for a particular project or area uh they can do that. Um so the foundation's focusing they they presented a little bit last board meeting on um their three things the the clinic the Glendel site and the um the CTC center. Um so [snorts] as far as specific campaigns they're not doing campaigns for these uh other temporary field spaces. U but again I want to emphasize we're always happy to take donations. Uh there's just not a specific campaign for those projects. That's really helpful. If I could follow up on that, I would say it's been raised a few times, but it seems like a mistake, particularly on the west side, not to engage with perhaps the most well-known philanthropist and alumnus of West High School who
057hangs their hat on the industry of baseball. I think that it seems like we're leaving a lot of resources on the table by failing to engage not only for the needs of baseball at West but also some of the issues that we've seen come up with the you know the field construction for Highland. So just just to throw that out there I don't know if board member F Jefferson you wanted to add I can see that you're nodding but >> I was this thinking the same thing. It just I understand the idea of not making too many competing campaigns and I think we're we're leaving some important resources on the table and I don't know if you were going to speak to transportation but I would just go back to that question also. >> Yeah,
058I'll I'll take that one on. Um transportation we are working on. Uh we had meetings as recently as today about uh options to encourage uh in district and outside of district uh people to volunteer to do that uh well to become drivers and participate in that. Uh we'll hopefully have some cemented plans on Friday that we can um put together and get out to the community to um recruit more there. Um, a lot of these are ident identified as we've been going through this and trying to figure out what the next step is. Um, I I will say that I feel like our west side is going to there's a huge support group for West High School. And I I though we're concerned about making sure we have the resources, we know that the between
059the district and the uh community that will be able to fill all of those needs for the athletes to get to where they need to go. Um, there is one sport that I'm still working on and that's tennis. Um the uh it's the last sport and it's not the least important. I played tennis. My daughters played tennis. So it's important. >> Super tennis. >> Superintendent played uh tennis. So there there's still just a couple options that we've got to figure out there. But we do have some time and there are existing. It's not that we haven't done anything. I have communicated with several entities to figure out what resources are available and which is best for the school. I know I have a little bit of time left, so I'm actually going to poach something
060from my board member report and put it now because it seems more relevant now, which is um I had to drive today actually to deliver a baseball glove that was left at home. And I noticed that there's a lot of construction trucks that are not related to our construction because there's another development being built, I understand, on LDS church property on Second West. >> Yes. So, um, a couple of things I just wanted to highlight that as this construction is going on, it's certainly not the only construction taking place in the city. And so, when people do have concerns about construction and they're not sure which project it's attached to, it's my understanding and I've been sharing with community members, the fastest way to share a concern is using the comment button on the landing
061page on the website. So, if you go to the main page and you click, you know, bond construction updates and you scroll all the way down, there's a little comment button and that gets to someone faster than asking me who forwards it to you, who forwards it to you, right? It just gets to the right person. If someone has a question about construction of fields, that's what they should use. >> But if a person has a question about their actual sports use of a field, they should go to their principal. Does that sound accurate to you? Um I I would caution on the going to the principal. Uh all the reservations go through um auxiliary services. Now if it has to do with this specific sport, I would encourage them to reach out to their
062coach or the athletic director first. Um but yes, everything else is accurate. Um like like you mentioned, um we did get a few comments through the board. By the time we got those, we had already talked to our contractor and Ben Allen's site to see that half the trucks were coming to our site and half were going to the other site. Um, and it's the act the same company doing the hauling for both sites. >> So, it was easy to communicate and say, "Hey, make sure we're not speeding." >> Great. So, that's So, a reminder, if it's a construction question, we're using that comment button. Yes. >> If it's an actual question about the sports being played on fields, go to your coach first or your athletic director at your school. >> Yes. Okay, thank
063you so much. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Isaac? >> All right, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on to our discussion agenda. Uh before we get started, I just want to just highlight a couple of things about our process this evening. um per our policy and per state code um regarding district reconfiguration and long-term school closures, we have to take each item under that discussion agenda item number one A, B, and C individually. So, we're going to be discussing each item individually. We'll be moving we'll we'll make a decision whether to move it to action or not individually as well which also includes our structure of having three minutes and two minutes uh round one and round two discussion for each AB and C as well.
064Um so I just wanted to highlight that to the board before we get started. And Dr. Grant, is there anything else that you wanted to to add? >> Just that um putting closure on the agenda is always a hard thing. um for board members to take on to look at program closures or school closures um because it affects famil family's lives. And I appreciate that the board has been careful and deliberative in asking questions and getting information as we've worked through the process over the last few months. And so many of you have come to public comment meetings too to hear from um constituents from families who have children who are affected by these programs. So just wanted to thank you for that and also to note that we are not presenting anything particularly tonight.
065Um Brian is here and we have the memo that we provided in the board um with the board agenda attached to the board agenda and even deliberately kept that simple because the study report is what we're leaning on. But there were a lot of questions by board members that we'd like to answer tonight and hopefully we're ready to provide you the information you need for the decision making. So, Brian to you. >> Thank you, Superintendent. >> Hold on one second, Brian. I don't think the mic's on. One second. Okay. >> All right. Thank you, Superintendent Grant. And good evening, board members. Um, the final recommendation memo that you received. Uh the four-page memo is also on a link uh in the agenda for for those that that want to look at what that what that
066final recommendation memo entails. Um along with >> Brian, they have hard copies in their folders. Okay. >> That's right there for you. >> All right. And those uh that memo includes Washington Elementary and the magnet program for grades four through six. uh Innovations High School and it includes Nibi Park uh the recon uh possible reconfiguration of grades and uh the summary of rationale as well as The final recommendations for board consideration as board president Salazar mentioned will be uh dealt with individually. Those were Washington Elementary Grade 6 magnet program. Uh the recommendation is to approve special enrollment program closure for Nibi Park school grade level reconfiguration. The recommendation is to approve reconfiguration to a K6 model and for innovations early college high school is to approve long-term school closure. Also with that uh with that
067uh memo, you saw that those attachments, the in-depth study report that you received in October, as well as the facility data uh on Nibbi Park and innovations that were requested over the last month or two and public comments that were periodically updated are also uh linked to that memo as well. and be happy to take questions at this time and and have any discussion that you might have that might bring some clarity for you all. >> Thank you, Brian. I'm going to suggest that we start with um 1A. If board members have specific questions to uh discontinuation of grades four, six magnet services at Washington Elementary, we'll go ahead and start with round one. three minutes. >> Um I'll go ahead. You said yes, right? Um so to share with past board members, I had
068a child who was enrolled in this pilot. So throughout this process, I've abstained from voting and would continue to do so again. Um, but something that I will share as you deliberate about the decision is one source of frustration to the community that was served at Washington is that when this original decision was made, a majority of board members also abstained from voting due to what I perceived as a lack of available data on the sustainability of the pilot's enrollment before moving to advance that pilot. and it was an option to vote in the case of the pilot, but our board doesn't maintain that kind of role in other placement of magnet classrooms, which is part of our policy for optional specialized programs. They're placed by the superintendent and her staff. So, while I'll abstain
069from voting in this matter, as I've explained, I would support our board making some type of direction about requesting specific me metrics for our magnet classrooms going forward. Um to reiterate what was frustrating is that part of the dialogue when the pilot was discontinued is that the classroom sizes seemed too small to be sustainable. But we continue to operate magnets with classroom sizes that are actually even smaller than the pilot. So it was again, you know, to use the word frustrating three times, four times frustrating for the community to have a pilot subject to non-renewal because of low enrollment when we see some of those same class sizes elsewhere. So, I think if some of our magnet programs are too small to be sustainable or they're using outsized transportation resources or other resources sufficient with
070the board's initial desire to annually review pilots, I would support some type of direction that coincides with this decision that includes annually reviewing our optional specialized programs which are placed by the superintendent including magnet classrooms that include the relative costs per pupil. I think that absent some more direction from the board, we risk some community upset by kind of renewing this controversial decision which was felt like a non-decision due to a lack of information which was was difficult for people who felt like they were being adequately served by the program and their peers were able to be served in comparable classrooms with similar sizes in other places when the opportunity was taken away from them. So, those are my thoughts as a representative for that area, though I've explained why I wouldn't personally participate in
071the decision in this case. >> Thank you, Ashley. Annie. >> Yeah, I would just echo um Representative Anderson's thoughts. Um, looking at the the comments and just my own thoughts, I guess I would like to maybe superintendent, you could address what why the magnet programs are being placed where they are and what are the criteria um, and kind of, you know, metrics used for success as Ashley pointed out because a I think a lot of parents and students felt that this program was successful but it was hard for us to see that and also understand [clears throat] the allocation of these magnet programs. So this magnet was placed at Washington for two reasons from what I understand this was before my time or Dr. Hall would you like to take some of this on? My
072understanding was it's accessibility um and the other is space availability. But you were here when that decision was made. >> I was. Yes. So this magnet program was started when we moved our testing from uh for magnet from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of third grade. And we did that because testing at the beginning of fourth grade meant that if a student was found eligible, they then had to move from, you know, if they chose to to enroll in a magnet program, they would have to move from the beginning of the school year. And so they'd already have started in a classroom and then if their parents decided they wanted them to be in another magnet classroom, that would be a move of a classroom, a school, whatever. So moving it to
073the end of third grade enabled parents to make that decision at the end of the school year for the beginning of the next school year. Well, one of the things that happened when that occurred was that we had a bump of the number of students that were found eligible in grade four. And so the question was raised, do we create a second so that we had um two fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grades in one of our existing magnet [clears throat] school or would we move that to another school that would increase um families ability to reach schools or opportunities to be in another space? At that time we had programs at Whittier, at um Emerson and which was an DLI program. So they couldn't enter at fourth, fifth or sixth grade unless they were
074already a heritage Spanish speaker or at Hawthorne. And so um we didn't want to put another grade at either of those schools, nor did we have room. We didn't have classrooms for those. So we decided that we would make a pilot and that we would put that at Washington because they had sufficient room for us to have up to three classrooms of fourth, fifth and sixth grade. And it was initially started with just fourth grade with the idea that it would be a pilot. Um one of the things that we heard in exit interviews was that parents were concerned because it was perceived as a pilot and so many of them chose maybe not to enroll there that might have enrolled there. But we did begin that that tracking. So that's the reason that it
075was placed at Washington. Was did that answer your question? >> Yeah. So basically it's like um kind of a case byase basis based on the number of students that are eligible for magnet. >> Yes. We had um an an additional 70 students about um I'd have to go back to the PowerPoint that I presented to the board, but we had anywhere from 50 to 70 students identified for fourth grade, which would easily be a class had they all chosen to enroll. And many of our other fourth grade classes in the other two programs were already at capacity or close to capacity. >> Okay. um and what metrics were used to see the effectiveness of this pilot? >> So I'm not quite sure I >> you know um for example was there testing were there you
076know student performance reviews some way to say you know they're following this model that this magnet program is meeting expectations. >> Yeah. So all students were tested before they entered the program and they were in a program then that was designed and taught by a highly qualified instructor with a magnet endorsement. >> And so as we looked at the students that were in there um classroom observations were made to ensure that we had teachers that were following our model of depth and complexity for magnet. Um however in the second year when it was decided to discontinue the magnet then we stopped um adding additional students into the program and so that that is I mean when we think about our metric of how many students were enrolling that is kind of where we lost steam
077with that. Um but in I I guess are you asking if the students were successful in the magnet program? I guess I'm just asking you know from parents perspective they're thinking oh this is going well it looks like this program is effective and students are participating why >> this program has to close down rather than another program or yeah >> you know what if that in the future there's a bump >> in students who are eligible for magnet testing are we just going to be opening and closing these magnet pilot programs at per needs you know when Yes. Yeah. So I the the board felt that the enrollment wasn't sufficient to continue the pilot. Um and I I don't think that we would try a pilot again if if that's the case. If that if
078that's the question >> at this time. Okay. >> Bryce. >> Yeah. I don't um have a question. I just have more of a comment. Um I would echo everything that board member Anderson said. Um, I'd say the third most frequent thing I hear from constituents about is uh the closure at Washington. I'm very excited um and think it was a great thing that we have um a program on the west side over at Edison. Um however, from a precinct one perspective, uh folks are very frustrated that that is actually a farther distance for them to um send their kids and it's um in my opinion a disservice that we um went that route with Washington. Um, I was going to say something else and I completely spaced it. Um, give me just one second. >>
079Yeah, I I as um board member Anderson said as well, the um frustration from uh precinct one constituents that I'm hearing is the number of um abstension votes that took place back in April of 2024. And um I I just think it's a a disservice that um we don't have that option available after years of advocacy to having more of those programs on the west side. So I'll just leave it at that. >> Thank you, Brace. >> Amanda, >> mine's just more of a comment to the public. Um there was a lot of frustration obviously with the process and um how disjointed it it was and felt and just to reiterate what I had said at the um public and I don't remember what it was called but when you guys were explaining the Washington
080closure and the having that discussion that we emphasized even though the public didn't feel like they were being heard um that the comments that were stated at that one at the Nibbly Park Innovations um they were heard um they're internalized and they um have um they are making an impact if even if you don't directly see it. So I wanted to make that clear to the public that we are hearing you um despite if we land on the same page as you would prefer us to be throughout this process. >> Thank you Amanda. Any other questions for the first round? We can move into the second round. Any questions for the second round? >> Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to move this item 1A to the action agenda. I move that we move that
081we send um e oh sorry um the 1A discontinuation of grades four through six magnet services at Washington Elementary School to the action agenda. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> I second. >> Motion a second on the table. Any further discussion? Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Romano. >> Yes. Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> And Long, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. All right, we will revisit that on the action agenda. Um we will now move to um item 1B uh which um is the Nibi Park um topic um moving NibLy Park >> grade level reconfiguration K through6 model again they'll start a new round of of discussion time >>
082Amanda >> um I don't really have a lot of questions just reviewing the public comments. Um, but it seems like the majority of the input is recognizing um the the um basis of the decision and how it'll be um more beneficial for the 78 students to be able to access a more robust middle school experience. Um so just gratitude to the community. It's it's been a longer process because we did bump it from the discussions earlier this year um to give more time for this transition. Um which you know personally I feel good about allowing that uh extra time for that. Um so just thank you for the patience of the community and having those discussions and really trying to figure out uh what is best for our students. >> Thank you Bryce. >> Yeah
083I don't have a question just a comment. Um, in all of this, I just want to recognize the, uh, folks teaching the seventh and eth that, um, this is not because of their lack of ability or um, their expertise. I I think it's really important that we mention that in this process as well. So, I wanted to say that. >> Thank you, Ashley. >> Yes. I don't have Well, I'll end with a question, but I have some comments. I've throughout this process with Nibbly Park, I've shared concerns not about the um recommendation we have, which is to reconfigure, but about the process we've used to get there. I feel like, and I've said this before, rather than leading out with the reality that it is administratively challenging to operate a K8, it's a relative outlier
084absent the charter we um have, which is a K8, and the administrative and financial burdens of a K8 are not desired by the current leaders. There was a time in which this was, you know, one of the first K8s, if not the first K8 in the state. It's become kind of an explosively popular model among charters where we see a lot of attrition from district students. And I think instead of focusing on why it's hard as a traditional school district to run that model, we've sort of presupposed that the opportunities at a traditional middle school are better. And in doing so, I think we've unfortunately ignored that most, if not all of the families who choose a K8 choose the K8 specifically because they do not want to participate in a traditional middle school. So,
085this dialogue, you know, risks ignoring some of the many successful student experiences at Nibi, including those students who went on to graduate from Highland. Um, I think if the experience had [clears throat] been framed to the board as one of administrative desire, interest, or feasibility rather than a value judgment about the curriculum offered, I would have approached this really differently. It's been concerning to me that we've levied a lot of what I feel to be value judgments about what's ultimately a Utah State Board of Education approved model for instruction with approve approval for the lensure of those faculty. And I think in having the dialogue that way, we've done a bit of communications damage, not least of all with the faculty who are teaching what is an approved curriculum with all the required qualifications and
086sort of kind of pit traditional faculty against K8 faculty. And I think that I really regret that that has occurred. Um the communication issues notwithstanding the outlying issue that I have I've shared in the past study session was facilities. So, I appreciate um that Brian Connelly shared with all of us the facil's information which does show that Nibbli's investment in making it a K8 places it much larger than its elementary school peers if we reconfigure. And parents in the comments have rightly expressed worries that the school, if it's reconfigured, will now be drastically under capacity relative to elementary schools and then be placed at risk for potential school closure moving forward based on our G5 policy. Can you speak to the ways that we would consider this facility and its potential to be under capacity
087as a result of this potential decision? Uh the first the first uh real piece that pops into my mind regarding um potential closure of of a of an elementary school is what we've recently just in the last year added to G5 administrative procedures which is to look at that enrollment of 300. Um, I believe right now, um, right now, Nibbi Park is closer to 500 than 400. I believe they're in the high 400s for their enrollment. Um, so even if without seventh and eighth grade, I do believe their enrollment, if it wouldn't remain at least 400, would be right up, you know, 400 420 mark somewhere in there. And I know our principal is here. Does that sound Um >> that's right. >> That sounds right. Okay. So um I think one of the one
088of the initial reasons why based on how our G5 administrative procedures are written now. One of the things that catches our eyes is oh look at that enrollment. Let's look at the enrollment. What has that trend been? We didn't we didn't have that you know a number a few years ago. Um, [clears throat] I I think that looking at what the enrollment numbers look like in our um the desires and enrollment numbers from our kindergarten class over at Nibi Park, it's uh we we don't have three or four years worth of information to share on this, but those numbers are certainly going in the right direction. I would um anticipate that uh under current leadership and also u the quality of teaching that we do have at Nibi Park its location for several reasons. I
089think Nibbi Park would be one of the you know five or six largest elementarymentaries we would have in our district. So, I look at that and and say I think that there's there I'd never say never, but I think there would be a very low probability in the foreseeable future that Nibbi Park is going um as a school would be considered for closure for the for those reasons. uh enrollment, its geographic location, uh what the enrollment in those lower grades has started to look like, and we're hoping that that continues. Um so I [clears throat] think the future is very bright for Nibbi Park as a K6 school. >> And so just to use some of my remaining time to reiterate, you're saying the capacity of the school building itself is not what would be
090considered next. It would be the metric for what a K6 school is, which would be the number 300. Am I getting that right? >> That that is one of those it is one of those factors. We do have um we do have some elementarymentaries that do have more classrooms than others. It would be unique in the gymnasium setup piece um compared to other elementary schools. But as far as classrooms, we have other schools that are within that have if not as many classrooms within two or three classrooms as being as many. So Edison as a new school has about the same number of classrooms as Nibi and Edison was just recently rebuilt. And some of our schools are smaller, some are larger. Um but definitely uh it it isn't an outlier to the point of
091saying well that you know they're there's so the the number of CL they have 20% more classrooms than any other elementary in the district. So I don't think that that's going to be um the factor as much as what does ongoing enrollment does it build or does it dwindle and right now it's going in the right direction. >> That's very helpful. I have one more question, one more comment. How many seconds? We talked before about waivers for sports. So like people a many of the people who participate in the 78 come from out of district and they have siblings who stay in the district and they participate in sports. If school if people impacted by a reconfiguration or a closure had to transfer back to their home district, would we support their waiverss for sports?
092I'm afraid I don't understand. >> Do we have >> middle school sports or >> it's I I think what what the question is so you kind of set your district of residence or school of residents in the middle school and so as you transfer into high school they don't question your residence because you've already kind of been in that feeder pattern. >> Is that what the question is? May I use more time to clarify my question? Um, so essentially families come to Nibbly Parks K8 from out of district, at least a handful. You can get out your ruler. We could all look at it. >> Um, they stay in the district. They have younger siblings who stay in the K8. They go on to go to Highland, for instance. They're at Highland. They play a
093sport. Let's say they're playing baseball. If they choose to transfer back home to Murray School District, they would lose a year of eligibility once they've already been playing at Highland. So my question is for families that are impacted by any of these things when we send them back would we be willing to support the family through the petition process or the waiver process to not lose their eligibility because it would be a potential decision of this board to impact their family's choice of where to go to school. So I think the question is someone who's already at Highland for instance and their sibling is going to um parkibl and because the sibling no longer has that option the family decides to move all kids back to their district of residence. >> This is something we
094heard about in the public information meetings. >> Okay. Dr. Taylor, we will support that family's petition to the U UHSA in terms of wanting that period of eligibility. So, we would work with those families that are impacted by this. It would be helpful if they'd let us know they were impacted by this when they reach out for that support so we know and we can make sure to be provide that support. Thanks for raising that. >> Yeah, this would be as a result of the decision that the district has made through permission from the board. So it would not be a result of any type of recruitment efforts. So we would do it. >> Thank you Dr. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Any >> I just have one question. Um, and this maybe for
095Allan and Brian as well. Um, there was some concern about potential funding vulnerability, um, with possible title one cuts that would affect Nibi Park um, and losing the seventh and eighth grade students. Have you is that something you've looked at? >> Dr. Marriott, leave. I have not looked directly at title one funding. >> Right. And um does Nibbley Park get that much title one funding? >> And if so, it's largely associated with their um their K through six grades. >> Principal Green, do you want to help us out here? Yeah, I think any effect would be minimal. >> Okay, just trying to address a public cons or a community concern. >> And Annie, just to cl to restate what principal green mentioned that they don't receive a lot of title one funding, which would what
096Allan backed up with, it'd be a minimal impact. Okay. Any other questions on this topic in the first round? [clears throat] >> Okay, we'll move to round two. Any additional questions? Ashley, >> I'll just finish what um I was cut off a little bit before I had one more comment which was in the last discussion about Washington, I mentioned that I would support board direction about things like annual reviews. And I want to bring that up about nibbly that I think a past version of this board really invested in a K8 to try to stave off what was going to become attrition to charters. And the same will be true in the next agenda item that we have that these innovative decisions were made by a past group to try to retain as many students
097by providing as many types of choices as possible. And so when we when we begin to sort of erode some of those choices, it seems like it always comes to us at the very end of the road. Like it's now financially infeasible. It's now really a problem. And what we've missed is opportunities for annual reviews between when the board makes a decision to invest in a program or make something like school choice a priority and now. And so my request would be regardless of what happens with NIBI that when the board makes initiatives for specialty programs like this, we take the time to receive annual reviews about those programs so that we can make better decisions that don't um catch families offg guard, that don't catch faculty offguard, that don't leave, you know, buildings that
098have had multi-million dollar investments without a plan for how that building is going to be used. I think when we miss the opportunity to evaluate how things are working over time, we we reach the point where, you know, as Brian says, like, is the house on fire? Is it not on fire? We kind of wait for the fire to engulf the house before we start talking about how there may be a fire. So, I think that my my plea would be for sort of annual reviews of topics of this type rather than only hearing about it when it comes time to recommend a reconfiguration or a closure. >> Thank you, Ashley. Foss, I'll get to you in just a second. Ashley, just to clarify, is that for future innovative ideas that the board might be
099taking on or future boards might be taking on or are you still hoping for those types of annual evaluations and reviews on current, you know, specialty programs? And >> as I said, I mean, our OSP policy means that school initiated programs now do report to us every year. Good step in the right direction. for Washington. I asked, could we direct staff to report to us too on those programs we don't place? Like what's going on with ELP and DLA and those costs? And then in this case, I mean, if Nibbi was not to be reconfigured, it would be something I would hope we'd get an annual report on. If Nibbi is reconfigured, we don't need an annual report on it, but we need to look at what our practices have been and make sure that
100past initiatives that have continued as well as new initiatives are reported back on to the board regularly. If that answers your question. >> Yes, it does. Um, I know we're in the middle of a specific topic, but is the board okay giving direction on current and future annual reviews and evaluations on on specialty programs? I'm seeing heading up and everybody Dr. Grant, >> so you just made a request for us to provide an ELP and DI update to the board every year on each of those sites. Is that correct >> or [clears throat] not? Because that if you want to know about how every district program is go, those are the two districtwide programs that we support. >> We can put that on the agenda for every year that you get an update on those
101programs. >> Okay. Yes. Thank you. Well, and I may suggest that the policy subcommittee take on since we have the the policy or the the policy about the optional school programs, we just put it in there as also the district's program so it doesn't get lost. >> And let me clarify, we have that already every other year, but you would prefer it every year rather than just every other year. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you, boss. >> Just an update. Um, just going off what Ashley had also said about how she's seen that many parents and community members value the opportunity to go to a K8 because they don't feel like a middle school typical experience is the right option for their student. And so I'd just like to note that
102uh an option like 7th through 12th at West High School is the inverse but also serves a similar population um who desire an opportunity for their student that's outside of that typical uh middle school program. Um and I did observe that sentiment during my time at West's ELP program. Um, and as we go into the innovations um, conversation, I would also note that um, many of the innovations options that um, may no longer be available at innovations as a high school uh, have been made available in certain capacities within other high schools in the district. Um, and so I think it's important for the board to um, continue to ensure dedication to things like CTE or early college programs as we are proposing that they're being moved away from a program like innovations into our
103other high schools. And I I've seen that that is going on especially with CTE. Um, there's been a definite focus. Uh for example, at the beginning meeting of this year, we had a keynote uh speech from the president of the community college um about the dedication of the district and the community college to work together to provide those increased CTE opportunities. So, I think the board is working on it, but it's important to note that when we're um moving away from certain programs, we're making sure to uh only bolster our services in other areas that align with what may be taken away temporarily. >> Thank you, F. Real quick, Annie, we'll move to Amanda and if there's Yes, Amanda. Uh just point of information, the Nibbi Park K through 8 was any student was able
104to enroll whereas the West High is ELP specific. >> I am unsure of the current situation at Weiss High School. Do you have to place at a certain level on an entrance exam? >> Okay. I wasn't sure how that was after co >> Yes. So I do think the point about um with declining enrollment generally and the demographic trends, we are unable to sustain as many innovative options that maybe past board members in their wisdom were looking to create and sustain because they wanted to meet the needs of diverse students in a diverse population. But but I do think that um based on a lot of the feedback um from the Nibbi Park community, they are okay to have it returned to a K- through6 school. And it sounds like um executive director Connley is
105also reassuring that that would not necessarily threaten the K through six uh program which includes the DLI program. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, Amanda. And then Brian, >> uh, just a clarifying question, uh, kind of going back to board Anderson's concern on, um, if, uh, it's voted to, uh, move the 78 program, um, to our comprehensive middle schools. Um, just a confirmation or clarifying question as to with the DLI program and such. Uh I believe it was explained that the uh Nibbli's K through six area was running out of space and so the available space left for the 78 can fulfill that growth of those programs. Is that accurate? >> DI programs require more classrooms because you're teaching both English and Spanish. So there is a need for space with DI. I don't we'd have
106to ask Principal Green on how many classrooms would eventually be used, but that is one piece that a DLI program requires more classroom space. >> So, could Principal Green speak to that? Um, if you are feeling a space need that um if the 78 program moves that that would give you that uh growth room if you're needing it. Are you needing it? Principal Green, do you mind coming up to the microphone here? [laughter] >> Yeah, sorry about that. Thank you. >> So, the the um the way that the DI program is evolving as we're kind of growing it, uh we're adding a new classroom every year. Um, so currently, um, in fourth grade, we have one teacher that's teaching the DLI program. So half their day is in English and half day their day is
107in Spanish. And next year we'll be hiring another teacher to take the English side and and then have a Spanish side. So every year we'll need one more classroom. Um, are we do we have room right now? Absolutely. Um, are we going to get tight? Yes. Like as we keep growing it. So we it um Yes. So does that answer your question? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> In this conversation, I'd also like to commend Principal Green on her efforts to grow the enrollment in the school. She was um leading one of the schools that did grow in this last year and has worked hard to connect with the community and share the offerings of newly broadly. >> Yeah, it's a good note considering the declining enrollment. If you're showing growth >> amidst that,
108then yeah, definitely commendable. >> How many kindergarteners do you have this year? >> Um, I think we're at like 80, >> which is an increase from previous years. >> Yes. >> So, >> drastically. We have uh four kindergarten classroom DLI and then to um traditional. >> Thank you, Principal Green. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. We're in our second round, so it's two minutes, so it does go more quickly, but I I do want to just say, and I um board member Romano, I think that you alluded to this a little bit, but what has been on my mind is with each of these programs that we're looking at, Washington, Nibi Park, and innovations, I wasn't on the board when any of those programs or initiatives were started. And what I have to do as
109an individual is also look at the good faith that they were putting forth in trying to um find programs that would meet the needs of the communities that they were representing. And sometimes when you do that, it's new and you don't know what's going to happen. So for me, what I'm trying to do is not second guessess and say, "Well, if you'd done this or if you had done that." I mean, we've all already acknowledged that um K through8s, that's kind of a thing right now in charter schools across the state. >> Yeah, this is something Well, here it was being adopted in Salt Lake City in the very beginning. Board member Anderson, you recognize that it's challenging to implement that program in a traditional school setting. Um, with innovations, now they use that word
110innovations for all of these CTE programs that are I mean the legislature has adopted them. To me, one of the things that I think important is to acknowledge that as a school board we are trying to um figure out programs that are helpful and beneficial. Part of the challenge is they're new. And so I really embrace board member Anderson's thought to have an annual review, especially on these new programs that will allow us to address or intercede or something with a new program. Um, so as I'm looking at these programs and I mean it's disappointing to have to close programs, but I also have to say we tried something and what we were trying to do was support students in unique c unique circumstances. >> Thank you, Brian. Any other comments, questions, discussion for the
111second round on this particular topic? Charlie? >> Yeah, I just wanted to add that um in addition to you know uh declining enrollment that we have that we're facing now, we also are have a smaller budget. We don't we not we aren't as cashri as we were in the past. And so we really have to think very carefully and strategically about how we use our resources and how we best meet the needs of all of our students. And so um you know things do change 20 I mean this was what 20 >> 2012 >> 20 2003 >> sorry >> it started in 2003 >> two years ago >> yeah so 22 years later there are different conditions um that we have to account for >> all right seeing No other discussion. Um I will entertain
112a motion to move um item discussion item 1B uh regarding Nibly Park grade level reconfiguration to the action agenda. >> So moved. Um but as a point of information, it became a program in 2007. >> Okay. >> I'll second. >> All right. Got a motion and a second on the table. Any further discussion? >> [clears throat] >> All right, seeing none, we'll do a roll call >> a roll call vote starting uh with Vice President Jensen. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Long, yes. >> Rice Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> All right, that motion passes. We'll revisit this on the action agenda. Um, moving on to item 1 C, Innovations Early College High School. Uh, we'll start the discussion in
113a new round of three minutes. Ashley, >> I'll go first. Um, it'll be a little bit of a repeat where with all these things, I understand many of the factors at play and my concerns have always been a little bit about the process. And one reason the process is atypical is in the last round we discussed of school closure there was not as many kind of extenduating special factors of something being a pilot or something being a reconfiguration or something being a non-traditional school. It was fairly straightforward and in this situation, Innovations is again a school that was created to stave off some of the attrition that we've seen uh to charters and in as you know board member Ferson wisely pointed out which we share this view that we've said many times we're not
114as cashrich as we once were when we made um investments like establishing innovations and that's one reason I'm a little bit concerned by the financial memo which kind of indicates this large amount of savings But we've also received information from the superintendent that no faculty or staff would be rifted as a result of the closure. So actually the savings is neutral absent some very specific attrition in very specific ways. But what I also wanted to raise is even if there is attrition in some of the roles like a counselor, a special education support person, um theoretically we would want to retain every student in innovations for the program to close. And so am I correct? Um this question would be probably best directed to Allan that that we have enough students that we would typically
115staff three faculty. So even in a situation where there was attrition, we would still be retaining three of the FTE from this memo. >> Right? So currently there is 94ish uh as as of October one. Our staffing allocation for high school is one staff one FT per every 30.2 I believe. Sam 30.2. So roughly the math is they would generate three knowing that there that you know for next year there is a senior class that graduates and moves on. Um but if you just took current data divided by our ratios approximately 3ft. >> And so then as we're also looking at those numbers what we're not extrapolating is cost of facilities. And it's my understanding that this facility is one of our lowest cost facilities as we don't do all of the maintenance. We lease
116it basically for free. I don't know what the split is with Slick on like utilities or other things we see that do have a high cost. How do facilities factor into that note that we've received? >> Right. So, we we do pay for upkeep and and custodial repairs, etc. is sometimes those are done by Slick staff and then they send us an invoice. Um so as far as comparability between other um >> facilities you know looking at a square footage per square footage I don't have that information right in front of me at the moment. >> Right. So I I guess my only point in asking these questions is to clarify that the cost savings is not straightforward particularly in a scenario where we're not riffing any employees. So when I consider that there's not
117an immediate uh flow of cash into the buildings from the decision, I get a little bit concerned by some of the concerns raised by the former SIC and the current SCT as well as parents on the school community council. And I do think to speak to what I've said before, when we get information about programs as issues are arising rather than when all of a sudden we want to recommend them for closure, it then becomes an easier decision to look at some of our options. Um because before innovations existed, we didn't have the robust uh online education program or SOEP that students at any comprehensive high school now can use. So when innovations was made, students could not do innovations anywhere. And now it seems like on some level students could participate in an innovations
118type program out of East, out of Highland, out of West, out of Slicky using the S SOEP options that the state now provides. And we are pretty forward thinking. And so I'm wondering why rather than closing a program where students have found success after struggling in traditional settings, why we wouldn't instead first try to look at some type of counseling initiative that would help students transition out of innovations specifically as the CTC is still housed there rather than evaluate it for permanent closure. Is there a reason we're not receiving options other than long-term closure? >> The the decision of long-term closure or not then is followed up with transition plans. Um we don't have uh we don't have piece of we we've started to discuss what could transition plans look like. Um nothing is formal
119formalized nothing has been decided because we need this answer obviously tonight to move forward with that. What we do anticipate is that by January 12th, we would have uh that would give us an opportunity in the month of December. Um, you know, a winter holiday shortens our time a little bit, but we should have enough time to really say here here are pieces of our transition plan that we we could do to help students. uh the roughly uh not roughly, it is right now 52 students that are freshman, sophomores, and juniors. What could we do to help them? We've uh thrown ideas around. Should I share some of those some of those ideas um that that we've started saying these are the kind of things we dig into and see what we could make really
120go well is we could come um with a one-year only um dedicated counselor and social worker to help with those 52 students. we could teach uh their their assignment would include um helping students learn about their new school, including opportunities for involvement um in the classroom and also extracurricular SEAL check-ins monthly with each student or small groups uh small support group opportunities. Building class schedules that address the needs for each student during their transition year. Doing periodic grade checks with those students. access to resources like tutoring and study groups, quarterly parent check-ins and updates for the parents of those students. Uh student services committee referrals to the schools where those students at uh go so each of the teachers knows their uh their new students background, strengths, potential challenges. So, we think that we could
121we could use some of the resources that we have to really help students not just adjust to a new setting, whether that new setting would be east, it could be uh Salt Lake Center for Science Education, which is also a small um a school that is right around 350 students right now for grades 91 12 horizonting those 52 students and really helping shepherd them into a successful transition year. Um, for the for the juniors, obviously they'd be seniors and it'd be finishing up, but for those 22 freshman and sophomores that would then be sophomores and juniors, there'd be that added uh help for that year to really get them adjusted and and successful going into uh going to whatever school they're attending. >> That's helpful. I think part of this issue remains that there's just
122a communication barrier. Like if you look through the materials you provided, a large number of the students are dual enrolled. So they're already taking classes at, you know, a boundary high school or a homebased high school. Um I can finish in the second round. That's fine. >> Um yeah, I just kind of gonna go off of what Ashley um was talking about with costs. I think implicit in this decision was kind of an understanding that there would maybe be some cost savings and the enrollment and cash was declining. Um but based, you know, on what Ashley said and knowing the low cost of the building, um I'm actually concerned about losing those 52 students and what that would do to the district enrollment and you know revenue and FTEES. I from a lot of the
123um community input, it sounds like these students and families have found a place in this small high school that's self-paced um using online concurrent enrollment. Obviously, a lot of these um elements can be replicated, but it can't be the exact experience they're having in that space. Um, and as a precinct 5 representative, knowing that precinct 5 has had many closures in recent years, I am concerned that we have this space, we have this building, we have the faculty, we have, from what I can tell, the funding. I just don't quite understand. I do understand the the model, but I don't know if there's any more clarification you get can give to us of the funding like per student. Does it cost more to send a student to Innovations than it would to East High School?
124>> Yeah, let me address that. Um, so East School requires a certain kind of base model, principal, secretary, counselor, um, custodian, etc. So, in the case of innovations, you have a very small student population generating in a WPU to offset the cost of those base materials. Whereas in a comprehensive high school with 1,800 kids um they really can you know when then you divide that base at admin uh etc across 1800 kids versus and again the base is smaller at innovations I don't want to indicate that they're the same but when you divide by number of students you have a higher per student expenditure at a small school such as innovations because you do have to have that that core um structure there in place for any school. >> Can can I add to that
125a little and just say that we're when we talked about this an administrator as as uh Allen mentioned also secretary counselor special education services. Um you would need to have somebody teaching math, language arts, science, social studies, the bare minimum. even if they weren't full-time in those positions, you're looking at six to eight worth of staff. So the money the 6 to eight uh people serving 52 students is um it is a lot of money per student compared to even a school like even a school like uh uh Slickie where there's 350 400 students somewhere in that range there's you know you you you just have more students to spread out that cost over. >> Yeah. Okay. Um that kind of leads into my second line of, you know, line of questioning as if I'm
126a lawyer. [laughter] Okay. I'm not not a line of questioning. Um my second question, which is um kind of the related to both of your comments, which is like the splitting of the admin between the CTE center and innovations. And that makes sense because it's spreading the cost um of those FTE. Um but also it it sounds like part of that was a financial decision. Partially it was an administrative decision in 2018. there were some issues I guess but also how that impacted the ability of innovations to fulfill its learning model when there's split staff um and their ability to recruit because you were saying assuming 52 kids well that's assuming no new kids are being recruited which they were told to not recruit for a few years so just asking that question like why
127was the recruitment halted and was the splitting of the admin, does that affect the recruitment and did that affect the ability to um fulfill their learning? I >> I'll address the splitting of the admin first. So clearly there were enrollment issues prior which is why we chose to financially split the the administration. Um so the the downward trend was already there before that decision was made. Um but like you said, it's it becomes it comes down to financial again I'm the finance guy. >> Yeah. of you know having a full-time FTE principal for small number of children just didn't seem very reasonable for a cost analysis. So that's why we looked at splitting that and and having a 0.5 >> part of the recruitment issue too is that the um principal who stepped into that
128was stepping into a school that needed structural and academic improvement and was spending time on that. So, I don't know that it was a divided loyalty question as much as where are we spending our time on this. And um this is a unique program because it doesn't it's our only high school. Well, Slickies this model too, but they're a charter school and so they naturally have to recruit in order to bring students in. This one is without boundaries, so requires that um that interest in order to keep it of a substantial size. But our concern wasn't that in the last couple of years where it's dropped off quite a lot wasn't that. It was that it's been under 300 for some years now and in the portfolio of schools was rep replicating our alternative high
129school um and no longer serving that original model which had prompted its beginnings. So um it I don't think it was a divided loyalties problem that way. Um It sounds like from SEC input that they were told not to actively recruit. So even if the admin didn't have the bandwidth to be recruiting, why would the parents and teachers not be able to recruit? >> I don't believe that's true that they were told actively not to recruit. that was never a message within >> well I think the >> I guess from the from the community input the SEC said they looked through meeting minutes and it was told that recruiting was paused so that included their own efforts to recruit. I don't I guess it wasn't saying you can't recruit but it was paused. There were
130no recruiting efforts. >> Is that your [clears throat] time Annie did Dr. Let me um yeah there there was a there's a difference in the last couple of years in the enrollment in the school but again I want to focus on the fact that we were looking at the fact that it's a school under 300 not that it's a school right today of 100 but looking at that it was a school of under 300 for a number of years under a couple of different principles. Um when the school was under the previous principal. The school numbers had dropped enough that it was of such concern that they decided to try and make the they opened up the school to as many kids as they could, trying to say, let's expand the scope and purpose of
131the school in order to attract more students. As we're looking at this from a district perspective, we don't see the extended scope of the school as one that we want to continue in the district in the options that we have as a sixth high school that would provide something that is provided at other schools. So whether or not that was going on, it that wasn't the determinant about bringing forward to you the question of do we continue a small high school when its core functions are served in other places as well. There's no question that the parents who came and spoke to you have felt that the school really met their kids' needs and I think the teachers did a lot of work to meet those needs. Um and that's the that's the real value
132of it is that it was providing that smaller class, smaller school setting. Um we have the other two small schools with Slicky as an option for those who want to go the charter route or um horizont school which also provides the same kind of support and things in a small school setting. Is that helpful? Did that >> Yeah, kind of. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you. We got Bryce, Amanda, and then Charlotte. >> Yeah. Um, thank you first. So, um I understand why we're here today and we're having the conversations that we're having and I don't want to discredit um the conversations around financials or conversations about enrollment. So, I kind of want to take my comments in a different direction noting that that's um still part of it. So, um one of the things
133that I'm thinking about is kind of a phrase um that Ashley used in regards to the last round around erosion of choices. Um so we um have seen you know the written comments from the public. We've also had um the comments um section uh excuse me comment sessions where folks have expressed um both students and parents and sic uh SEC members about u meeting the uh needs and the value of experiences and belonging in the current um makeup of Innovations High School. Um, and I know superintendent just kind of talked about this, but I I think I want to bring it up again, is that we are hearing statements from the faculty um and SEC members that they were specifically told not to do any sort of recruitment and in many ways were restricted from
134doing so. Um, I'm also thinking about um the the words that Brian used around chance. And so my question is, have we given innovations a chance during this process to actually um think through this and I'll also use, no pun intended, have we thought about innovative ways to keep this school going? Um, and I'm thinking about some of the things that Brian just mentioned, Brian Connley mentioned a few moments ago, some of the different things that may be um available. I have kind of my own, it's not that innovative, but a little bit of an innovative idea of what if we give it two years and pump the brakes and really think about innovative ways to make Innovations High School innovative again and actually do some of that recruitment as well to see if we
135can bring the numbers up and then if we get, you know, two years down the road because I don't think one year is enough. I think we we need a little bit more time. But if, you know, things are not working out in two years, then we have this conversation again and maybe explore or explore um closure. But I I think this is a little too too premature um to actually go about closing Innovations High School at this point. >> Board President Salazar, can I comment on um please do keep this this information in mind and weigh it into um weigh it into what you're thinking. um [clears throat] this um the numbers at innovations have dropped quicker than they have throughout the district. Still that being said, in October of 2022, so after after
136COVID October 22 um October of 2022, we had districtwide 172 more freshmen than we have right now. throughout the district. We had 196 more sophomores. We had 143 more juniors. You see, we did have more seniors this year, but that was that bulge moving through. Um I mean, we're talking 150 to 200 more students per grade level. And so, um, when we ask to get more students and recruit, if the at a public school, are we ju are we, how much are we saying we're just going to take West High students and move them over to innovations? Does that really grow us? Are we taking East High students, Highland High students, wherever those might be coming from? our numbers at uh innovations and I know that these are percentages and the numbers have dropped so
137the actual number of students is smaller but in 24% of the students at innovations came from out of district I then took a I I I looked at it at four different times over 13 years 2012 it was 24% 2017 it was 29% so more coming from out of district in 2021 it was 37% % coming from out of district. Last year was 44% coming from out of district. Now at this point we know there's only 95 90ome students. So 44% I know it's a smaller number but there have been more percentage-wise this this year there's 40%. So there have been over time uh percentage-wise more students coming from out of district but our numbers continue to shrink because they are shrinking throughout the entire district. We have 150 to 200 fewer students per grade
138level in just a four-year period. I didn't go back 13 years. I just went back four because after COVID I thought we those are kind of more stable numbers to work forward from. So, I just want to put that out there as well as far as thinking that we're the I mean the challenges of growing, recruiting, making numbers shoot up to 300, 400 students. Um, just keep that in mind with what we're seeing in our district. >> Bryce, anything you wanted to [clears throat] add with your remaining time? >> Okay, the answer. >> Thank you, Amanda, and then Char. >> Okay. Um I a few comments and then like I guess a suggestion. So uh hearing the public comment at the last meeting, it was really hard to hear the um students um talk about
139basically um being yanked out of their high school, especially the juniors um right before they come seniors and graduate. I mean, like it's it's one thing for elementary students to be uh have their schools closed and um have to rebalance in the district, but they have time to settle before they're into their middle schools typically and then their high schools and then middle schools a little harder, but then there's still some time to settle into their uh new boundary high school if they don't go elsewhere. Um but uh specifically for obviously the seniors are going to graduate this year. So that's a moot point. But for our juniors who are all of a sudden potentially facing um having their senior experience um in the the trajectory they were planning pulled out from underneath them and
140moved to another school. Um that it it hard pill to swallow for me. like if I were a student in that position, I would potentially be devastated and I think it could cause some emotional trauma as well. Um, so one of the things like especially after hearing those comments at that uh last board meeting that one of the things I've been circling around is um maybe we do close innovations but not put a stop to it but slow down the closure. So it's kind of similar to what we did at Nibbly Park. Um, so basically instead of this being the last year and then next year they're pushed out to their whatever schools. Um, we do one more year so we continue for the year of 26 27 and then we shut down at the
141end of that year so our seniors I mean our juniors can graduate out of innovations as seniors. um the current freshman sophomores could choose to do another year um over at innovations as well or find another place. We obviously will most likely face a significant drop in numbers. Um so the caveat I would add on to that is that we retain a comparable number of teachers so that they can still uh receive a comparable education as they're finishing out their school year. Um, I could wrap I could support something like that where we're allowing our juniors to graduate out out through innovations. Um, and then you've got your counselors and such that can support any juniors that may want to move elsewhere and finish out their senior year somewhere else. But then obviously specifically this
142freshman and sophomores will be moving up and elsewhere either give them another year and let them look at their options for their next year and where is a good fit for those families. Um I can feel I can sleep well at night with that concept um over just a complete shutdown at the end of this school a year and yanking our juniors senior experiences out from underneath them at the school that they chose. something to chew on. >> Um, so in order to do that, because we've thought about that too, um, the board would be making a decision to support the school. Um, and for this additional year, that would require more people than usual, right, to support, but it would be a small number of students. It would require still the the um a
143principal, a counselor, special education services, um the social worker there. And we could do that. I mean, it's possible. It becomes awkward in that we have a school of 52 students spread over three grades. So figuring out, we need to look and we haven't done this yet, really carefully at the end different teachers have. So what subjects they could teach. Um but imagine that we would um shrink the number of FTE there um from is it six right now? >> Yeah. >> Um to probably three to four depending on the number of endorsements needed to teach the core subjects. As we've described in the materials, um a majority of the students take the state online education classes already. So, a lot of them would continue with that work and but to do the core there.
144So, there is a possibility of making that happen. It would just be an affirmative board decision to support the awkwardness of that for a year um in supporting the students in that. >> Thank you. I would be real curious to see how how close to the current juniors, how many credits they have right now. The graduation requirement is 24. Um are they at are they all over the board and some at 2021 and others at >> Yeah. Are they close to graduation or not? Yeah, because um we often see seniors with um not not as not as many credit hours being taken as as others as well. >> True. But if you don't have that answer, it's not a number we can consider if we're making our decision tonight. >> Thank you, Amanda. Charlotte. >>
145Okay. I I wondered if we do we have capacity at Slicky and at Horizonte to absorb those 52 students. >> Certainly there would be with open enrollment still going on till February 6th I believe. Um open enrollment and um I think you know u staffing follows students the formula for that. So it would be whatever school if a school if horizonte absor picked up 25 more students that's about an FTE more that they would be getting there then yeah >> point of order >> there would be one second point of order please >> uh the horizont has a different enrollment process than a traditional school so I think we're speaking out of turn about what could or could not happen without perhaps more clarification from staff about the process for signing I don't think anyone
146can just open and roll horizontal, >> right? Though we could um we did talk about this too as a staff and and we can work this through. There's typically a referral process for students to get into horizontant. One of the things that has happened is that um sometimes school students get moved around into different schools and we wanted to be careful about which students were being moved into horizonte. if these students wanted to attend, they would go through the same referral process, but it would be of a little different kind because they're coming from this school. So, yeah, it's not quite the same open enrollment and yet there's the ability of students to enroll in a school if they go through the referral process. Um, just so we're gatekeeping a little bit and making sure
147that students are properly um encouraged to attend Horizonte. The other piece just to note is that um Slickie is a charter school and they have their own enrollment processes and so um we don't >> lottery >> we don't um oversee their enrollment. >> Um >> right >> I would encourage students to attend Sixie because I think it's a really strong school but it isn't one that we can promise positions in. >> Okay. So >> back to you. Go ahead. >> Yeah that that is a little problem. I mean, it's problematic at both both schools for the process of students going there, transferring there. Um, I just wanted to say that I I still remember one parent saying that, you know, this is a numbers game and that that we are just talking about numbers. But
148I want him to know and all the families to know that we're it's not your students are people to us and and we value every each and every one of our students. And so when we make these decisions, it's we're we are not making them lightly and we're caring about every student as a as a human being. And uh I I was really struck by the sense of belonging that many of these students have found in this space where they didn't have that before. Um so I I see the value in that you know um which makes the decision very difficult. Uh but yeah um that's all I wanted to say. >> Thank you. Any other clicking my time? I thank you for your thoughts. Um, Charlotte, I think it's really important for the community
149and the public to understand that we don't do this lightly. And I've tried to read through all of the emails that have come and I've tried to listen to all of the individuals that have come and spoken to us. Um, I would just encourage the board as we're school closures are probably the most difficult decision that we make. And we had to do this a couple of years ago and it was in well due to declining student enrollment. But one of the things that was difficult for me in that um first year as a board member was looking at the numbers and I understand this isn't a numbers game but thinking you know what this should have been addressed long before but we get to these decisions and it's really hard. So, the easy thing
150to do a lot of times is to kick the can. And for me as a board member, I don't think that I'm doing a good job if I just kick the can. What I'm supposed to do is listen to all of the comments. I'm supposed to pour through the reports that are given the um advice that is coming from the administration who is tasked with running the day-to-day operations at the school and give some confidence to them and their thoughts as to how this impacts all of the students. I'm not saying that my decision is easy. >> But what I am saying is I also have to look at the equity here. I mean four years ago there were elementary schools that their whole community was lost. And I think it must be kind of
151hard for them right now to be sitting listening to this and going, "Well, there's my time." Thank you, Brian. Um, we can move into round two, Ashley. >> Um, so where I left off, I was trying to address the communication barrier where some students in this report are enrolled dual enrolled, which means they take at least some classes at a boundary school. But it's clear from the public comments both in person and online that it's still not universally understood that students can largely complete this model at any school site. And so to go back to, you know, Brian Connelly raised this issue of essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul student demographic wise. And I do realize there's a finite pool of students in these age groups. And I've talked about this before. I don't want
152to make schools fight over their enrollment, but I do consider that this is a particularly mobile group um where I share the concern of board member Romano about the impact of losing most if not all of these students to some other SOEP model that we're not not clearly offering. Um and for those who do stay in the boundary and participate in an SOEP model, we will still pay or lose a portion of that student's WPU for their participation in those online classes. So, I feel like unless we can really wrap our arms around the miscommunication and help students get the counseling support they need to maintain this program outside of innovations, we really need to consider like what what the best option would be. And with the difficulty of communication in mind, I'm much more
153open to recommendations that some community members made in the public information meeting about reinvesting in innovations as a program rather than a high school. And I'm not sure why rather than looking at closing the program without a clear transition plan, we're not considering about moving it into a high school to support the kids who really need it and also really training counselors to better disseminate the offerings of this program so that we are strategically using the WPU. we're giving kids all equal information about the SOEP where I hear from families there's a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about what options are available, what options does the district pay for, what options does the district not pay for. And I think if we don't wrap our arms around it in that way, these students will be
154gone to an online charter or an option where we still pay for them and we're just not serving them in the way they'd hoped. I do think grandfathering it at its current site risks a lot of FTE misallocation because um Vice President Jensen has pointed out many times once a school is recommended for closure if the school is then not closed we still see a huge drop in enrollment at that school site because people think well you know it could only be a matter of time before this happens again especially in a landscape of declining enrollment so rather than grandfathering a current site I'm really open to options where we see it as a dedicated program without a clear end date. Which balances the financial portions of this ask with the need to continue to
155serve students creatively and acknowledge that we clearly haven't communicated very well that students can do concurrent enrollment, early graduation plans, flexible learning, and balance it with SOEP options in any of our boundary schools. and I'm concerned if we just close put a pin in it without really wrapping our arms around what the difficulty is, we're going to continue to see problems. Um, I would add to what the SIC and SEC have communicated to us. If if all of us here assume the best intentions, we could assume it was a misunderstanding, but I think when you know Dr. Grant, you said we just don't see a need to continue this program. I think if you think about innovations like a balloon, people at innovations feel like the air was just let out of the balloon rather
156than saying, you know what, if you're looking at the the budget book, you're looking at the enrollment numbers, we've got a couple balloons to pop and this is a balloon. And it feels to people like it's been the air has been taken out of it rather than we've just accepted that it's it's no longer feasible to continue. And so I think it hearkens back to the other items on this agenda that rather than letting the air drain out of some of these programs over time as they become harder to operate or less sustainable that we we talk really frankly about what that is and the best way to address it rather than kind of let it deflate itself and then we have to make a difficult decision which is frustrating to people. So, just to
157go back to, you know, the point of this second round comment is I I'm curious why we're not considering making it a program that would help us train counselors to better offer this moving forward. >> The first piece is that it's a school and we'd have to close it down as a school number in order to make it a program. So, that's one of the logistical pieces of this because we have talked about um working to create it. I mean really this is what we offer at horizontante um is this kind of school and um it's what I want to work on with horizonte to be more clear about this students who are looking for a small school experience as well as the support for the online options and different kinds of settings that way
158horizonte is a good option for them. Um, so the school has become that over time, has become an alternative school much like horizonte. So what we're saying is that they could be served in that kind of setting rather than you could you could kind of try and recreate in each comprehensive high school a particular program that is a online focused program. Um I think the number of students taking online classes is much greater. Well actually no I don't know that it's the concurrent enrollment that they're taking at much higher rates in other schools not the online program that so different that way. So our at our comprehensive high schools there's a lot of knowledge about how to take concurrent enrollment [clears throat] classes. Um and so more a higher percentage of students are taking them
159at comprehensive high schools than others. So, we're serving them in that way. If we're talking about trying to craft an early education, an early graduation plan, um we can work with counselors to do that and try and we can work um to create this kind of internal program in comprehensive schools. It wouldn't be my first preference as a superintendent to ask the board to support. I would go in a different direction and work to incre in um implement an actual early college model in our comp each of our comprehensive high schools because an actual early college model served to address the needs of first generation students by giving them concurrent enrollment courses and helping them see themselves as collegegoing students. That was the whole purpose of some of that. It has now become just a
160let's take college courses early but to implement a model within each um which is kind of what the AVID program is trying to do. It's trying to get students to pick up that identity and understand themselves as collegegoing. My desire to create a special school for students who are looking for working at their own rate personalized learning um would perhaps be a second request after that one, but we could create those kinds of things in our comprehensive high schools. But again, we do offer that in our our alternative high school setting within Horizonte as well. So if if that's what you're I was picking up from what you were saying that you were thinking these more tailored bespoke programs would is what you're thinking of that we need to tell students are more available for
161them and that they should be available within each comprehensive high school if I caught that right >> please. >> Um I think my time has elapsed so I'll try to be brief. I'm more asking the recommendation is simply close this as a school number. >> It is not close this as a school number and provide direction for any of the things that you said. So, I guess I would say I don't have a clear understanding from the recommendation of what you're suggesting based on the response, but what what I had indicated was I would be more comfortable saying um if we were voting tonight to conclude innovations high school as a school number, we would provide direction for counseling for online programs and allow students enrollment with a counselor as you've sort of shared was
162maybe Bandandy about at a designated school site where they would work with that counselor to continue their plan. And I the reason I suppose that that would be superior to the recommendation were offered is that I don't want to risk the total loss of the student body because we don't provide them a sufficient option beyond you may enroll at your boundary school. And I see it's very feasible that students would say I will use East as a hypothetical example, not a real decision. If students from Innovations, Innovations was voted to be closed, but students from Innovations could continue if they are currently enrolled in a program at East and we use that as a way to look at what are these ongoing miscommunications, what information from the counselor that travels with these students to, you
163know, potentially East is able to then share with schools like West and Highland or Slickie about these these needs students have for what you referred to as like a bespoke Oak option, right? So, that's my question is why the recommendation doesn't provide that um flexibility and if there is room for a recommendation from staff that places these students in a place where they would be most likely to reliably enroll, they would get the ongoing services they need without the kind of attrition and FTE m allocation that comes with grandfathering at an existing site. >> I like the way you put that. um in terms of an option and we have thought about that as an option. Um and it would be just a little bit of a shift on what we were thinking about as
164a transition model in having that that full-time counselor for these students. Um, we could also set it up so there's um the the teacher piece is a little more complicated and maybe we'd need to think through um because the relationships are with the teachers so much. Um but we could think through that as an option and um designate a particular school, one of the comprehensive high schools and the board could give us direction to do this to um to create that support service. And um I think your second point we we will take um with or without the vote which is your sense from families that there just isn't enough information about out there about the options available to them in the school and and one of you mentioned the choice question um which will
165always be with us right choice is now part of the education landscape and um as we shrink and have a harder time keeping a number of different small schools um options open. I think it is thinking about what we do within schools. You know, you can do freshmanmies, you can do a science, you know, you can do those sort of quasi schools within schools kind of thing. Um to more explicitly expose families to the options that are available to them within within our school system. >> Any other comments, questions? Annie? Um [clears throat and laughter] yeah, I actually have um would be very supportive of this plan. I've been thinking of a similar model as you have been talking about um specifically at East High School. Um I do think there would be definitely some
166planning that would need to be involved with resources like classrooms and FTE. Um, but I do think the idea that that Ashley was talking about that I brought up earlier is that the attrition of these students, I think if we decide to close a school will happen. And I I want to give them a place that's a permanent place in the district that's not just a one-year bridge. And for middle school students to be understanding, oh, this is an option. Now, it is going to be a little difficult to cultivate that small community feeling of belonging within a larger comprehensive high school, and I realize that that would be a limitation. But I do think um addressing kind of this idea that I have thought about a lot since last board meeting when we um
167had our statement of ethics that we committed to, which is I will guard the public trust by spending school funds to benefit all children. And I think that that is a huge, if not one of the most important commitments that the board makes. And I've been ruminating on all children. And we talk about every student and how that equity piece works that we're putting more resources. for example, if we were to be putting more resources to certain students who wanted to do this innovations model or how we can balance the needs of every student while also thinking of all students and I think um something like different looking at different programs including early college when I lived in Florida I worked with a lot of students in in college >> in that type of model
168and >> I think there are places that we have a lot of room to innovate regardless of maybe not having a a brick and mortar opening, but I would like to see the the choices still be there within our existing schools, within our district to make sure that there's excellence and options. Um, but I I I just do want to reiterate, I think that we've kind of talked about this. It's been a little bit of a catch22 I think for a lot of these school communities, families, parents, students feeling like um we don't they they're not getting the support and resources from the district but the district isn't giving them support and resources because they don't have the number of students and then they're losing students and then it's this back and forth of feeling
169like well we don't have the support that we once did but it's the limits because the funds follow the students. So, I think um just as Charlotte mentioned, I just do want to reiterate to every student at Innovations that we do care about them and we think about them as an individual and what their needs are to have an excellent education and great opportunities for their future. Just going to say if if there's board interest, I think maybe a way to do this would be to take the vote to direct us to um do what you're asking to place the students. Um and Dr. Taylor, can you please correct me if this is not possible? Um we'd have 52 students in um sophomores, juniors, and seniors that we would place or we would encourage to
170attend because we'd be offering them the supports there. East High, would that be a problem? >> Okay. Um, and because we [clears throat] haven't planned that out tonight, it would be to um come back to you in January. um hopefully in January, maybe by the second meeting, not the first meeting, but the second meeting in January with a plan of what that would look like more directly and have you weigh in on that plan. Meaning, um here's what we would think to create East High and have you weigh in on that so that it meets the needs that you're talking about here. you would give us the direction to close the school and serve the students at East High School under certain kinds of conditions because we can't define all that tonight. We would come
171back to you at a later time to try and define that. Is that Did I just confuse people with that or >> Okay, >> I don't know. How much time does Annie have? >> She has seven seconds. [laughter] really quick. >> Okay. I I think that would be a great plan. And just to explain, I would suggest East High School because of the current enrollment numbers there, the vicinity to the current um innovations building as well as the fact that the other comprehensive high schools are undergoing construction in future years. And it would be nice to have stability. >> That makes sense. >> Um I had Brian and then Bryce. I got cut off in my last comments, but um I'm now going to pick up on the conversation that has continued and to me
172this has been really valuable because what it demonstrates is I was talking about kicking the can and I don't think we were kicking the can in this last conversation in In this last round, what we were trying to do was figure out how to address a really per perp perplexing problem. And I think that we've come up with a viable solution. I I mean, there are pieces that we have to figure out. To me, that demonstrates that the board is working together and trying to um accomplish a a difficult assignment. Um, having said that, I I hope that the community picks up on that we are trying to address the needs of each individual student while preserving. I mean, board member Romano, you were talking about all students that we have to remember all the
173students while we're focusing on every student. And I think that this has been to me a really positive exchange. And I think that it does allay some of the concerns that families would have when they were faced with closure and experienced it where it was, oh, here they go. They're doing what they do. They just postpone. And I don't think we're postponing. I think we're trying to take this head on. Thank you, >> Bryce. >> Yeah. I um also appreciate the conversation we've had in this this last round. Um but I will say I do not feel comfortable taking a vote on this tonight. Um if we are going to look at other potential options, it feels very rushed to me. Um kind of our practice has been as we've addressed other issues that we
174take some time on these and I just feel like it's a completely different conversation now. So I would not be voting in support of making a decision around closure tonight. Um, but I do think the conversation that we are having is productive and would like to see where it goes. >> Thank you, Bryce. Um, Amanda. >> Yeah. Um, I guess off of yours, but others I'm comfortable taking a vote. Obviously, once the vote's done, then we make decisions on the details. So, that part I'm not concerned about. Um I I do want to reiterate a comment that um Bryce had said before kind of taking your wording but then basically the suggestion to move the program to East High School alone I feel like using your words is an erosion of choice. I I'm not
175comfortable with that at all. I mean if I were if I had a child at Innovations and the district was like this is moving to to East High School um there's [clears throat] no >> there would be choice. Okay, >> there's always open enroll wherever they want. It's just whether or not we would >> create something particular at East to serve the bulk of students who may want to go there. >> Okay. >> And it wouldn't be a mandate of any kind. >> Is that what you're >> That's what I was kind of concerned about is this is just moving there and and so that I was like no. [laughter] Um and then >> sorry I don't want to I want to be careful not to steal your time but also to >> clarify um
176my sense of it would be it would be an option to continue the community >> um and the the the >> the way schools offered in terms of the classes and things within a a school setting at a site. um that would be offered but would not be required for students. >> And it would be curious um in that which again could be discussed at a later point um that I know at Highland High School there's been efforts um to do co-taught classrooms >> and other um types of [laughter] programs because of their special education programs and u basically the diverse learners. And so if if with innovations a lot of the student feedback and community feedback was just this alternative approach that if we're going to move it to a school that we should
177be moving it to a school that has already like kind of got a progressive approach in teaching the diverse learners and having those supports. So that plug before I run out of time. Um, and then, uh, [laughter] and I don't know if I understood what was being said correctly or not, but I I would lean heavily on, um, Brian's suggestion on um, that we have a a counselor that's dedicated to these innovations students in that process into whatever school they go to, you know, and then kind of supporting that counselor at the designated high school because if we just move it to the high school that they're moving to for that counselor to handle it, that counselor's not um necessarily privy to that experience and then they've got they're buried in their large case load
178already. Um and so ensuring we have that dedicated counselor to help that transition go well. That communication, all those pieces that you talked about, I think is um perfect um for that transition and working in tandem with the counselor at the the the high school that they choose to go to. Um, but then they're kind of like that case work, that child's case worker, so to speak, through that transition. Um, I think that's that would be um a critical point on helping that transition go well. >> Charlie. >> Yeah. Um, I just wanted to circle back to the the the faculty, the teachers. Um, we said that they would be able to go stay in the district, right? Okay. And so, um, would some of them be able to go to East with that cohort
179of students? And I'm just wondering how that would work. >> Um, I don't know. And I would not guarantee that right now because um I don't think that would be the best way to do the program. I mean we wouldn't just be moving that group of teachers to East High. That doesn't serve East High nor does I think it's in this program. We'd have to think more clearly about what courses and how to structure that kind of thing within East High School. Um I I agree with that perspective. I think that's a good insight to make going forwards with like a recommendation in the future. Um because at that point the only in terms of financial savings that it seems like we would be making is losing administrative staff um for those students and like
180basic overhead heating costs and whatnot for the the building. if we were to move teachers into East High School, but also it might be of use to place a small priority on those teachers if they're being moved somewhere else in the district to put them at East High School because that would um allow student and teacher relationships to continue which were valuable to innovation students. I don't know whether that's acceptable in terms of hiring standards but it might be helpful to students. >> Um it would be nice to make that kind of thing happen. And I think to promise it would be a big mistake in on our part unless we're trying to just move the program to a different school site. So I don't have enough information to be able to respond very well
181on that option, but I take the and this is what we noted from the public comments of the families, right, is that they had relationships [clears throat] with the teachers and that's really what mattered so much. And to be clear, not to hire uh extra teachers. Yes. DC high school, but just within any attrition within the teacher population. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um I think my questions are more logistical this evening and there's been a lot thrown on the table, so to speak. Um and and obviously well-intentioned and meaningful. Um I find it very meaningful. Um but I know that there's some implications that are at play um you know about how we move forward in particular um in in what I stated at the beginning when we got to the discussion agenda was
182that per our policy per state code we have to take a vote tonight um one way or the other I can't predict which what direction the board's votes will will take us but um but Bryce I I just wanted to let you know and the rest of the board know that we do have to take a vote but you get to vote however you want. So, [laughter] um I just wanted to to clarify that and um and maybe Dr. Grant or or executive director Connley could um elaborate on what the implications might be if we didn't take a vote tonight. >> So, that would mean the program would continue. It'd be same thing if the board voted against closing against the recommendation to close, which would mean the program would just continue. Um, again, that
183that would just be a board's affirmative vote that they want to continue a small high school. Um, they want to, I believe from your comments, recruit in ways that make it somewhat sustainable, though I'm not sure in a declining enrollment world how much that would be possible. Um and um it would be trying to think about how to make it work because we'd be serving really I think smaller than 300. I mean I think it would be not that many um that would come. It just I think it's tough um with half the population graduating and we have 50. We may be able to add another 50, maybe another hundred. But what we're offering, as you've all noted, is a program that's not that different than what's available in other settings in our district. So
184then trying to recruit something that's not that different. The other thing you could do as a board is direct us to do something wholly different, which I think would take a number of years to create and establish. Um, I'm not sure. I have an immediate sense of what that would be. So that's I think where we would be. So there is the choice to not vote. Um it would mean the school would continue next year. Um or a vote to not do the recommendation would also have that same effect. >> Okay. And I'm I'm seeing hands. Ashley and Annie. Um we've exhausted our time. So I'm [clears throat] >> just going to make a motion. >> Okay. Please. Um, I would move for the purposes of continuing the discussion because with a motion we can
185continue discussing both here and on action that we move item 1C, potential closure of innovations early college high school to the action agenda. >> Second. >> We got a motion and a second on the table. Uh, further discussion. Um, I would I love how everyone is gloming on to the east idea. But [laughter] because that's my alma mater, love east. But I I do think it would be prudent if we were to discuss the closure of innovations to make a broader recommendation that is not so specific and detailed about east that we can then address in January. So, I would prefer that tonight we discuss yes, we're making a decision to for the long-term closure of innovations and to replace that with a specific program or pot of students at a comprehensive high school which
186we will then decide later on. That's just I want to clarify. Thank you, Annie. Ashley, >> um to discuss the motion, I think that again for the timeline for families, we do have to vote now. So, it's unfortunate that then we couldn't have more discussion to to build some consensus until January. I am happy that at least some peers support this idea because I did hear it initiated in a public information meeting and I do find it to be a legitimately good compromise to strike in the position that we're in. But I want to acknowledge this does present my ongoing desire at least for some more fully realized recommendations as we have these um complex closure conversations. And those could include being given options at times. I think if the recommendations presented to us accounted
187for some of these options we discussed tonight or some of the other conversations staff had had, we could have worked in advance a little bit to build some of consensus and also then we could publicly post those recommendations on the agenda to receive some more public feedback. So to that end, um when we do get to the action agenda, if this motion is successful, I do think it's important that we um find a way to move any action clearly and communicate effectively with families. And I'd prefer that that motion include um giving families an option to participate or sorry, faculty and families via the SCT and SEC in a decision about the future of innovations as a program despite the closure of the physical high school. If that is the way the vote goes, I
188think it's not necessarily ideal that families who've been communicating with us throughout this process are now not able to weigh in on their viewpoint on this particular option. But I would personally heir on the side of families appreciating some sort of stable transition option in favor of just outright closure. I just would, you know, choose to believe that that is the case. And so I would I support discussing it on action as board member Romano suggested as so long as that language includes including the SCT and SEC in the transition planning for a potential program housed in a comprehensive high school. >> Thank you, Ashley. Um any other discussion for the motion? Okay, seeing none, we'll start with a roll call vote with board member Longwell. >> I vote yes. >> Bryce Williams, no. Charlotte
189Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nick Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> That motion passes. We will revisit this. Um, I do want to give a quick time check. Um, we are uh 15 minutes to our three-hour marker and about um an hour away from our 4 hour marker. So, um, let's keep that in mind. Um, we typically go to four anyhow. Um, so our next discussion agenda item is a strategic plan for student achievement revisions. Uh, Dr. Grant, I'll turn the introduction over to you. >> And Dr. Reese is coming up to present this. Again, um, we don't have a presentation. We've talked about this a few times and the memo there um, explains provides the information the board members requested. Dr. Ruiz, take it away. >>
190Yeah. So now you have received a clean copy for our proposal for December and you've also received a memo with hopefully previous concerns addressed up to this point. So tonight we are asking for your approval um for the strategic plan for student achievement. Um what questions do you have? >> We'll go ahead and open up the discussion. Any board members want to speak to uh what we received attached to our agenda on the the final version of our strategic plan? Amanda, >> go ahead. Um [sighs] go through my notes here. Um I wanted to emphasize gratitude in pillar one educational equity, access, and student support that by 2029 the 10% achievement gap between subgroups. So, it specifically identified subgroups um to ensure that we are looking at all of our um subgroups as we're looking
191at these achievement um objectives is the way that I read it. So, I'm I'm glad that it's pared out that way. Um and uh again in the objective 1.3 where it says uh resulting in measurable reduction in chronic absenteeism across all student groups. So it said that just that extra emphasis that we're looking at it um because what's happening across the board isn't necessarily directly reflective what's happening in a particular subgroup. So then we can actually hopefully isolate what the contributing factors are. Um in general I'm supportive of the plan. I do have some just thoughts that could be looked at later on given this is a live document. I'm gonna quit pushing for what I continue to push for. Um but I would say that in objective 1.3, one of the sub bullets, it
192says uh reach 90% participation among families and community members in ongoing attendance initiatives. I would suggest down the road um when we do another rendition that we add in teachers. So it would be reach 90% participation among teachers, families and community members. So it's a whole um >> team effort. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Um, let's see. Uh, skipping ahead. Um, pillar two, student achievement, prek through 12 and transitions. I think one of the thing that I struggled with when I was going through it is like some did pillars did a really I know they're kind of um assigned out. Some pillars did a good job of that subgroup um component and others didn't really dive into it. And I would just ask that um there would be that consist consistency in approach. Um for
193example in the objective 2.2 improve grade level proficiency. Um it's just 70% of students will blah blah blah or 65 students will blah blah blah. if there could be a way to integrate maybe another one that's like a 10% growth in each subgroup or like some kind of subgroup piece there so that we're actually analyzing what our subgroups are doing not our students in general which you know can uh leave our at risk students out of that um analysis and work on their improvement. Um >> okay love on the objective 3.4 for just the 100% of students on a career college pathway. Um, and this stackable credential. I've said it before, say it again. Um, and I know that it's being worked on, but we really, really, really need to expand our CE options because
194I know students want to use it, but like we really don't have as robust as options as it wouldn't be nice to have for our students. Um, let me see. That might be I'm not done yet. Um, and then in the highly qual qualified staff piece, um, it's kind of a reiteration of what I had already talked about in the HR report, but um, so we've got the supporting our grow your own program, teachers p profession pathways, um, time it takes to to fill open positions, the piece that's lacking there. um we can hire qualified staff, but if we aren't um if we have absences in those classrooms um then those highly qualified staff equates to not much because our subfill rates for all 92.8% or subfill rates for special education teachers 84.5% subfill rate
195for special education pair is 76.6%. So qualified staff if they're not in tenants and they're not getting good subs in place or subs at all um that's problematic in that highly qualified staff piece as well as the attendance piece and so many other areas. So just extra emphasis there. So those were just kind of my comments in just how we can work on expanding this to really encompass all of our students and teachers. Um but again overall it reads really clean. and it flows really well and I know it's a live document so I don't necessarily need to be hung up on any particular thing. So um great work. It was it's like I said easy to read is easy to implement. So that's that was helpful. So thank you. >> Thanks Amanda. Any other
196questions comments on this topic Ashley? I appreciate the changes that were made to reflect the ongoing tension between the CTE requirements and IB students specifically at West. Um I'm not sure about Highland, but would deduce there were the same things. I think as we move forward, this conversation will just necessarily intersect with the ongoing dialogue throughout the winter and spring that we'll have about graduation requirements where, you know, if we don't increase our graduation requirements, it will be very difficult to see more students completing more CTE classes than the minimum required by the state. So I think as we look toward what this strategic plan means, we just should remember that it will continue to reinvigorate and intersect with those other areas of dialogue that we have to have in the new year. And I
197appreciate um the change, not just making it, but specifically documenting that in no way does this conflict with IB and we want to continue to support those students. Um so that responded to the concerns I had about the amendments and would be generally supportive of moving the strategic plan forward. >> Thanks, Ashley. Any questions, comments? Okay, seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to move this to the action agenda. >> I move that we so moved. >> Second. >> Or that works. That works. >> Any discussion to the motion. Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Williams. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Mate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Judson, yes. Manua. Yes. >> That motion passes. Thank you,
198Dr. >> Thank you. >> Uh we'll move on to um item number three, which is board policy and administrative procedure for G30 public education hotline and reporting. Miss Kindle, thank you. Um hello. This is a policy that I proposed to the policy subcommittee at the its last meeting. Um, uh, Utah administrative rule R277123 changed in September and it required ELEAs to have a policy regarding the public education hotline and how it would handle um, reports or complaints that had been referred from USB back to the school district. Um, and it's something that is an ongoing um that we have to notate in an ongoing manner every time we receive one of those hotline complaints as to whether or not we have a policy in process in place. So that is why I took the unusual
199step of creating both a policy and administrative procedure at one time. Normally we would do a policy um and once that policy was approved we would bring back administrative procedures um to the board. But in so far as this was a new requirement um and we were certifying to USB um each time we were responding to one of those referrals that we did in fact not have a policy um I thought it was important to bring back both um to bring to the subcommittee both the policy um and the administrative procedures. So um the administrative procedures outline um exactly what's required in that administrative rule that we have within a policy um specifically um how we will respond that there's confidentiality that we will reach out to um any reporter at least twice and document
200those referrals if it's not an anonymous report um pursuant to um existing um practices is um board leadership and the superintendent are always notified about those complaints um in talking with the superintendent and business administrator Kursley. Since um business administrator Kursley um currently has the fraud abuse um complaint forms that go to him, we thought this would be something that we um could wrap into that process and that um in addition to uh board leadership and the superintendent receiving those, the business administrator could receive those um and work with the superintendent to delegate um the complaint or investigation of any complaint. complaint to the appropriate personnel. Um the reason for suggesting that um business administrator Kersley and the superintendent get a chance to review um the submission of the response before it's due has to
201do with the fact that um uh the Qualrix form that USB requires that we fill out in responding to any of these types of complaints um is very specific and um we have to have you know do you have the policy? um has the board been trained on this um specific answers to those. So, one um it's important that leadership feel that our response and investigation are complete and thorough. Um but it's also important that then we can talk with the person who will be responding to say you're going to have to answer these questions and these are where these things are so they're informed in making the final recommendation. So, I brought this to the board policy subcommittee uh at its last meeting um and they were supportive of um the board approving the
202policy and administrative procedures so we could come in alignment with that new rule. >> Thank you, M. Kindle. Um does anybody from the subcommittee policy subcommittee want to weigh in first? Otherwise, I'll just open it up to the whole board. I think you've given a very accurate explanation and we don't [snorts] need to spend more time. >> Okay. >> Any questions or discussion for Miss Kindle? Amanda, >> I'm going go back to my notes. Sorry. I did email Christina. Um, and you did reply, which I appreciate. I I don't have any reason not to support it. Um but the question that I had for Christina was uh basically why why isn't there some kind of guidance in there on um this information being shared with the board and obviously there's some situations that are where
203some of these complaints aren't even relevant to the district. Um, so that wouldn't make sense, but I would say that um, again, it's not contingent on my support of it, but um, we've had situations off and on uh, where there has been concern or frustration that some information hasn't made it to the board. So, not having a um, um, it clarified as to what level it should be shared to the board and left to discretionary leaves room for frustrations. So I would just say maybe on the next rendition and other relevant policies if there could be a guideline built in place that this triggers communicate being shared with the entire board um then that could help mitigate the frustrations of why wasn't this shared and eliminate that discretionary issue. So just kind of a feedback
204in a future request. >> Thank you. >> I don't know how we respond to that but actually because this is new. Um, is the expectation that the policy subcommittee will look at this again using any feedback or is the expectation that we move this forward to comply with like a timeline in the law? >> Um, so we're out of compliance now by not having a policy and procedure. So, um, my preference would be that it be approved. Um, of course, administrative procedures once approved by the board can be changed at any time. Um so obviously we can um take that feedback and adjust it and the superintendent could approve it so we could make changes at any point in time. I think um just for purposes of clarification for anyone listening um we get a
205wide variety of complaints that are referred to the district um through that hotline complaint. Some are, you know, this person is doing something and I saw that that maybe they worked in your district, right? And and in fact, they don't work in the district any longer or um they're just complaints that, you know, maybe a student did this or an individual, you know, teacher or staff member did this and and so those types of complaints that we get with frequency, my response to board member Longwell was those aren't the types of things that we would be sharing with the entire board. And in fact, it's given the nature of the Qualrix form, it's just it's very hard to even get that information summarized and back. So, I said that past practice had always been any
206sort of systemic complaints or complaints against um one of the board's employees. Typically, the board then discusses that, but otherwise, um they're they're typically um complaints that don't rise to the level of bringing them to the board's attention. But if you want more direction in an AP then certainly, you know, we can always amend that at any time. >> Thank you, Miss Kindle. >> Thank you. >> We talked about that, >> Charlotte. >> Well, maybe we could add that what you just said, the types of complaints that would um go to the entire board, you know, being higher level or systemic or employees of the board. concerning employees of the board. >> We could certainly do that >> in the future >> when we get to action. [clears throat] >> Okay. Yeah, that's true. >>
207Any other comments, questions? >> Okay. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to move um this discussion agenda item to the the action agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? Okay. Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with Charlotte. Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Armanato, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> All right, that motion passes. We'll move on to item number four. Um, student board member process [clears throat] A and B. Miss Kindle, >> still here, still me. Um so after the last board meeting in which um the subcommittee had um proposed sort of giving special consideration to schools that hadn't um uh had a board member in a while and
208the discussion of the board as a whole um seemed to be somewhat supportive of adding a second board member um a second student board member. I apologize. Um when this came back to the subcommittee um the subcommittee um supported that idea of having a second student board member so long as um the second student board member was not from the same school as the first student board member. Um, we also thought about the fact that by having two student board members who were um continuously assigned to show up to board meetings that if one wasn't available um that that wouldn't be such a detriment to the board that we would still need to maintain an alternate um we would just have, you know, uh one student board member at a particular meeting if they both
209couldn't be there. So we did remove the option for having a alternate um but we um but the subcommittee uh directed that we would have the two student board members um and just for the board's awareness um the recruitment for student board members all the advertisement go out in January. So, if this is what you wanted to do for the next school year, um this would need to be approved so that schools could understand that they would be um that there would be two student board member positions for the 2627 school year. Um and as you know, the board approved all the other changes with the supports for students who are applying. So, all of that is would still be in effect. This would just be adding a second student board member. >> Any discussion?
210Um, just as a member of the policy committee, just wanted to let you know that at first we did think, well, maybe we would need a an alternate, but for simplicity's sake, we thought maybe two board members would be would suffice. >> Thank you, Charlotte. Any other discussion, questions, comments? Okay, seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to move this to the action agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson. >> Ash Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Long, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe, Jefferson, yes. >> All right, that motion passes. Thank you. Uh, one more, Miss Kindle. I'm so sorry, but board policy B2, board meetings,
211>> third time being the charm. So, uh, board policy B2. At the last board meeting, um I was given direction to update the board handbook regarding um the process for um some uh deidentified uh safe school case student cases um to be discussed by the board in close session. Um in looking at the handbook um there didn't seem to be a good fit to put it in the handbook. And so even though that was the board's direction, um, in looking at board policy B2, it seemed to fit more seamlessly in there. Board policy B2 already had a closed meetings section. It also already had the consent agenda pieces where it talks about if people want to pull things off of consent, you have to give 24 hours notice. It talked about um the idea of
212two board members getting something on an agenda by putting it forward. So, this seemed like the best place to um put it was in B2. Um I fully support you telling the superintendent she should terminate me for overriding the board's directive to [laughter] put it in the handbook. So, feel free to include that in your motion. Um but this is um so I brought this to the subcommittee and they supported putting it here as opposed to um in the handbook. So that is why it is here. Um it is um as uh board member Fif Jefferson indicated a little bit lengthy in the wording but it does convey I think what the board wanted to in some of the other sections are wording to are wordy too about the um you know the time frames
213and how many board members. One of the things that the subcommittee felt was important as opposed to um uh saying, you know, they shall notify board leadership by Friday was giving a little bit more flexibility. So, we changed those shalls that I had originally written to they should notify board leadership. Um um so there might be a little flexibility built in without a a hard and fast deadline. >> Thank you, Miss Kindle. >> Sure. >> Any comments, questions, discussion? All right, I'll entertain a motion to move this to the action agenda. >> Moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. Thank you, Annie. Thank you, Amanda. Um, any further discussion to the motion? >> Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote. Uh, starting with board member >> F Jefferson. Charlotte, >>
214starting with you to move to action. >> Move it to action. >> Charlotte F Jefferson. Yes. >> Ashley Henderson. Yes. >> Nate Salazar. Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Ryan Jensen. Yes. >> Amanda Long. Yes. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> All right. That motion passes. Uh we are now to the discussion or the action agenda, excuse me. Um our first item of business here is the Washington Magnet 46 closure. Um I will entertain a motion to um to further our discussions and and decision tonight. I make a motion to uh discontinue grades four through six magnet services at Washington Elementary School uh with the contingency that we do an annual review of optional and specialized programs in the district >> of districtwide programs. >> Districtwide programs. >> Yeah. >> I second. >> We have a
215motion and a second on the table. Discussion to the motion. Um, just with the direction for the annual review, I would uh as not in the nitty-gritty of the district for a school program versus a district-wide program, I would think that we could do an annual review together of of additional programs >> we do do. So, this is one thing to consider, which would be a little different than what you've agreed to. So you don't >> We do optional specialized programs every other year. >> We could do districtwide programs on the off years if you're interested in that >> or we could do it every year. However you'd like to move that forward. I would think every year, but >> my thought would be every purely because our declining enrollments are so um a lot
216each year and so with how quickly things are changing, we need to be looking at things on a regular basis. Okay. >> Thank you, Amanda. And that fits with the motion that you made, too. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion to the motion? Okay. Um being that these are big decisions that we have to make on these first three items, um I will do a call out vote um similar to what we did um a couple of years ago when we did school closures. Um so I'll call your name and then you can state your vote. Um Annie Romano, >> yes. >> Brian Jensen, >> yes. Um, and I just want to say I appreciate um the feedback that we've received and there has been comments about the prior board vote, but that vote was
217made and as a result of that vote, no other children were brought into the program. There's no children there. So, >> thank you. >> Yes. Okay. Amanda Longwell. >> Amanda Longwell. Yes. >> Bryce Williams. >> No. >> Charlotte F. Jefferson. >> Yes. >> Ashley Anderson. >> Abstain. >> Nate Salazar. Yes. That motion passes. Thank you, board. Our next item is um Nibi Park uh grade level reconfiguration. I'll entertain a motion. I move to um reconfigure Nibbly Park School from a K through 8 school to a K through six elementary school. Second. Have a motion to second. Discussion to the motion, please. Seeing none, I'll go ahead and do the the vote call outs. Annie Romano, >> yes. Brian Jensen, >> yes. >> Amanda [clears throat] Longwell, >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, >> yes.
218>> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, >> yes. >> Ashley Anderson, >> yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. That passes. Our next um item of business is Innovations um Early College High School. I move that the board approve the long-term closure of Innovations Early College High School pursuant to the G5 process and the recommendation of the superintendent and her staff. With this recommendation, the board further directs the superintendent and staff to collaborate with the current innovations school collaboration team and school community council to determine a placement for innovation students as part of a program within an existing comprehensive high school where students can continue their academic progress with continuity of counselors and faculty as possible. If approved, this item would be returned to the board at our second January meeting in 2026 with an update on the establishment of
219an innovations program, also to be reported to the board the following year in January 2027. >> May I ask for an amendment on that exceptional motion? It just to give us time to collaborate. I'm wondering if we could move it maybe to February. So, we had we've got two weeks before the holiday and then those weeks in January. I'm just wondering with trying to get material to the board the week before the board meeting, we wouldn't have very much time to collaborate with families and with if we could perhaps move that to a February meeting. >> Um, I have a question before I restate the same words [laughter] and um, my question would be if I say it would be returned to us at our second January meeting as well as in February 2026. That
220way we would know there had been what progress had been made in January. >> Okay. to thus allow for feedback and avoid some of the confusion of trying to vote in February unseen or discuss in February unseen dependent on what you produce. >> Thank you. >> So I'm going to just say that again everyone. >> Um ask a question really quick Ashley. Sorry. >> Um I guess point of order or point of whatever the clarity thing is. >> Are you asking for point of order or point of information? >> Point of information. >> Okay. >> Or cl whatever. you [laughter] put the word in, I'll like ask the question. Um, on the G5, I was trying to pull it up really quick, but with it being a uh basically a school closure, um, the G5,
221if I remember correctly, without getting to it quickly, um, we have to have the boundary um thing. >> We have no boundaries for this school. So, that's irrelevant to this decision. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Okay. >> Thank you for the point of clarification. All right. Um, so with a slight modification, I would move that the board approve the long-term closure of Innovations Early College High School pursuant to the G5 process and the recommendation of the superintendent and her staff. With this recommendation, the board further directs the superintendent and staff to collaborate with the current innovations school collaboration team and school community council to determine a placement for innovation students as part of a program within an existing comprehensive high school where students can continue their academic progress with continuity of counselors and
222faculty as possible. If approved, this item would be returned to the board at our second January meeting as well as in February 2026. And an update on the establishment of an innovations program would also be reported to the board uh the following year in January 2027. >> Thank you for the motion. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion to the motion? Bryce. >> Yeah, just want to make a quick comment. I do appreciate um like I said before the conversation that's been happening. However, I feel like the information is too new, so I will not be supporting it. >> Thank you, Bryce. Ashley, >> I would just speak to the same thing. I realize again as I shared, I have an ongoing desire for some recommendations that come to us with a range of options
223that help us make decisions that do strike a balance between what we're hearing in the community and what um is initially recommended by staff. and acknowledging that that's an imperfect way to go about it. I continue to heir on the side of families preferring ultimately that an option be provided, especially an option that is collaborative with their existing faculty and student bodies um and family bodies as opposed to a potential outright closure. And so for that reason, you know, I make the motion and I support it, though I respect that it does feel new. Thank you, Ashley. Annie. Yeah, I just want to express my appreciation to the innovations faculty teaching, you know, the teachers and administration for all of their hard work in providing this um unique model that is blended learning and self-paced
224and trying to get ear, you know, college credits. Um and also express um you know regret that in a perfect world we would have the resources and you know all of the things in order to sustain multiple unique school models but because of the world we're living in which is very imperfect um I do think the best way to go forward rather than kicking the can down the road is to consider all students in the district as well as well as every student at innovations and come up with a kind of compromised model to allow um them to continue to learn but um in in a more sustainable um long-term environment in a comprehensive high school. So, just wanted to state that. >> Thank you, Annie. Amanda, >> thank you for your comments, Annie. That
225was well said. Um and I I I know we need to make the decision. and I really really struggle with the closure of innovation again because it's a high school. Um and for the reasons I've already stated um but we all know that our our enrollment numbers are drastically declining so we have to make the hard decisions. Um otherwise it's detrimental to more students than um not. So um just to that community like however tonight goes know that this hasn't come with a lot of thought inside these board meetings and a lot outside and a lot of research um trying to figure out um if there are different ways to um make the pain um I guess less so so we we've got your back depending whichever way it goes we'll do our best to
226support you. Thank you, Amanda. Brian, >> I want to thank the board members for their comments. I also want to thank innovations again for all the work that you have done over many years. I really want to thank the board this evening for the way that we were able to work together and um accomplish a solution to a like I said a perplexing problem that I think all of us have spent a great amount of time considering and to me that was a really positive experience to see how we can work together to find solutions. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Any comments or questions? All right, seeing none, um I'll do the call out vote. Annie Romano, >> yes. >> Brian Jensen, >> yes. >> Amanda Longwell, >> yes. >> Bryce Williams, >> no. >>
227Charlotte F Jefferson, >> yes. >> Ashley Anderson, >> yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. All right, that motion passes. Thank you, Dr. Grant. We look forward to ongoing conversations. um in January and February. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um our next item of business on the action agenda is the strategic plan for student achievement revisions. I'll entertain a motion. >> I move that we approve the strategic plan for student achievement revisions as posted in exhibit 32. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion to the motion? Okay. Seeing none, uh we'll do a roll call vote starting uh with Annie Romano. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Jensen, yes. and along. Yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte F. Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. That passes. Um, our next action agenda item is
228board policy and administrative procedure for G30, public education hotline and reporting. >> I move that we approve um board policy and administrative procedure for G30 for the hotline reporting. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> Second. Any discussion to the motion? Okay, seeing none, uh we'll do roll call vote starting with uh Vice President Jensen. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longway, yes. >> Bryce Hines, yes. >> Charlotte Fe, Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Thank you. Our next item is student board member process. I move that we approve the student board member process uh including amendments to B1 board of education legal status responsibility and ethics and B1 student board member application guidelines as attached in exhibit 3E4 second. All right motion in
229a second Charlotte. Any discussion to the motion? Okay, seeing none, uh we'll start a roll call vote with board member Longwell. >> Amanda Longley. Yes. Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe, Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> That passes. Um, our final item on the action agenda is board policy B2, schoolboard meetings. >> I move that we approve board policy B2, school board meetings. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion to the motion? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Williams. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Mandala, yes. >> That motion passes. Thank
230you, board. Um, we will now move on to our superintendent report. >> Oh, did I miss something? >> Can I just interject something really quick? Okay, this goes back to the reports and this was my mistake. This would have been covered in the um state land trusts. So, this would be Dr. Taylor. Um, I had made a note in my comments and I missed it, but in the assignments for board member review, there are some board members that have 11 schools and some that have nine. It seems to me like it would be beneficial to look at that and have it be that everyone's doing 10 or and I think that it would work that way the way that I'm looking at it. >> Thank you. >> I think that was a yes. Is that
231right, Dr. Taylor? You'll take a look at that. Thank you. [laughter] >> All right. Dr. Grant, superintendent report. >> Yeah. Just um again to say thank you to you as board members. um uh on these votes and for your care and again your time and um particularly in listening and hearing from the community um and being part of those conversations. I know it was a lot of time for you and I appreciate the attention you've given to that in in those kind of consequential decisions that you make as a board. Um, a couple of pieces of good news. Our social studies teachers are part of a national group that works on college and career and civic um, improvement and readiness. And as part of that, our social studies teachers created four different lessons that have
232been approved by this national organization. Um these are inquiry lessons that are will be approved and published by the group C3 teachers and they explore ideas of patriotism in four different contexts of education, wartime, protest and poetry to help our students understand democracy better. So I appreciate that our teachers are doing that kind of work, that kind of intellectual building around the curriculum and and what's offered that way. Um, also our early childhood program is starting with the parents as teachers program. If you um get a chance ever to talk to parents who have young children, the parents as teachers program is a really good program for parents with young children. It introduces them to how to work with your child academically when they're young, how to interact with them, how to think about learning
233um in ways that help parents become teachers to their children, particularly in those early years. It's a really important class. So, encouraging parents to be part of that is a good one in our um early childhood programs. Bringing that up again. Um, I want to mention that our um, when we're looking at our priorities around attendance and literacy and college and career pathways, our schools are doing work on each of those. I hope you're [snorts] getting a chance to notice how much attention schools are giving to attendance and working hard to raise attendance. This is the crux of it all is to get kids in school so they learn. I just really appreciate the efforts schools are making and the efforts um our leaders in the district are making to support that work. And I
234don't know if you've seen in social media or around at schools, schools are earning lovely plastic gold trophies for their efforts each month and um making some fun out of this effort to improve attendance. I just really appreciate the work going on that way in our schools and and the cleverness that people are coming up with with different kinds of incentives and programs to again get students in the habit of coming to school every day. Um, one last thing to note that public education hotline conversation that we had as part of those requirements. Um, board members need to be trained in the public education and I'll send that link out directly to you. If you could just complete that training. It's an online training as board members. Um, and then we could report each time
235we get a complaint. It asks, "Are your board members trained?" And when we hear from you, then we can say, "Yes, they all been trained because they're amazing. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Grant. I'm going to look to Alan. Allan, do you have a BA report? Okay, >> Charlotte, we'll go ahead and start board member reports with you tonight. >> I'll pass. >> Uh, I'll be brief. Uh, I would just like to give a shout out to the principles um into precinct 5 who are doing innovative things for attendance. they've seen some of the um creative prizes and things they're doing with different classroom and uh tardies and attendance. Um also excited for East High basketball that is underway. Um and looking forward to also the the spring musical that will be in
236February, which is High School Musical. Um, so yeah, uh, hopefully everyone can support East activities as they go forward. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Well, Annie, you just, uh, spoke about High School Musical, and I was going to say that I was excited that they're doing that and it is, um, February 18th through the 24th. But I think one of the really kind of fun things about this the cast in the play because there are people that come to East High and they want to go on tours of East High. So they're now working it so that some of the cast members will take them on the tour. So I I think that's really kind of a fun approach to this whole thing. And it's the 20th anniversary of the movie next year when they're
237putting on the play. >> Yeah. >> I was a senior at East when they filmed it. >> Seriously. >> Yeah. >> Um along with East High, I really do want to thank the East High PTA. They do remarkable work in supporting things like um High School Musical. I mean I I think there were 75 families that had a Thanksgiving because of um the PTA at East High and I mean it will be the same sort of thing for Christmas and all of the and I know that those things happen in the other high schools and I want to thank those parents in those PTAs and PTO's that really our schools are a wonderful place because of the work that they're doing and I want to acknowledge that. Um, finally, I want to thank many of
238you and I'm not the USBA taskmaster anymore, but several of you have told me that you completed your thank you for doing that. We want to be able to stand up in that, you know, annual meeting. Um, along that line, there is a policy seminar tomorrow, 11:00 a.m. You all would have received an email with a link. Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. And [clears throat] Charlotte, let me know. I'm going to switch back to Charlotte. You had a report. >> Yeah. I There was something I wanted to say. I just wanted to give a shout out to the new band teacher at Glendel Middle School, um Sam Noise. He is doing an incredible job trying to fill some big shoes of the former um orchestra and band and choir teacher there. and he's he's also
239started a oh they've already had concerts and the parents were like wow and the students were impressed and they're having some more another concert on the 13th of December and um I think that's right that date might be wrong anyway um but he also Alo started a mariachi band in in the after school program. So he's he's started off um very strong and I just want to give a shout out Sam Noise >> uh um [clears throat] over at West Height. Our newsies set has now come down but it was a great show. I was not able to go because of uh a sickness, but everyone that went thought it was fantastic. Ashley may have gone. You could perhaps give a review. Um also, demolition progress has been underway. Um the noise is um very
240manageable and it looks like it's going well. Uh and just today I saw that some of our sports teams are, you know, continuing on the west side of 300 West. I saw our winter track team practicing actively in our tech gym and of course uh best of luck to our West High choir in their upcoming visit to New York City. Uh it was wonderful to listen to them this evening and I'm glad that they'll be sharing a piece of our district's excellence in art at a national level. >> Thank you. Um I have a few updates in the finance committee uh Squire which is the company who does our external audit one of many audit functions that the district has um they presented to us and they'll share those findings with the whole board in
241January as usual. I wanted to acknowledge that for the 48th I'm looking to you if that's the correct number the 48th year in a row our business office has received commenation for excellent financial reporting and we hear most often um from the business office through our business administrator but much of the work of receiving that number 48 is shouldered by Christy Hart and so I wanted to recognize Christy Hart and thank her for her services to the district. [applause] Um we did additional work as a committee to prepare to open the budget book uh in January and we will meet once again before the end of the year regarding the direction that was given to us um addressing title one school staffing. We um had delegated uh I think I told you this before but
242as a reminder we had delegated to SCTs to begin to discuss a zerobased budgeting activity that would inform our work that has been directed to them but we will not hear back from them until January. Is that accurate? >> January. See, you did have an update. Um, uh, West High announced their Sterling scholars, including our student board member, um, Foss Goodwin, who represents West in the field of dance. [applause] I wanted to wish all the seniors who were selected at West, as well as East and Highland, uh, luck in the state level of that Sterling Scholar process. There are always a large number of achievements at West, um, too many to regularly name, but I did want to congratulate Fra Barnard and her students on a successful model United Nations excursion. Um, I try to
243share as many student achievements as I can on my personal social media, but please feel free to tell me if there's something I missed. I wanted to additionally thank um, students from Mr. Dimmick's class in US government at East High who invited me to speak to their class yesterday morning advocating um, for literacy. And then the USBA is advocating for us to celebrate special education day. Um, I put a call out on social media about who I should be celebrating in tonight's board member report, who's doing great work in providing special education services. And I received a request from Laura Hamilton at NSING Elementary, um, to ask me to celebrate Miriam Gersf, who's an academic interventionist, and also Heather Miles, who is the resource teacher at NSIN Elementary. Obviously, I could name many individuals, um,
244but it's just an opportunity to celebrate special education day and the many, um, faculty who provide special education services to students. Yeah, I uh just have a comment. I don't have any updates. Um so I want to actually it's a shout out. I want to give a shout out to this board. Um despite being the dissenting vote on a lot of things tonight, I just really um appreciate the respect, the decorum and the dignity that we have as a group of 10. So thank you for that. Thank you, Bryce. >> Um okay, so attended the finance committee meeting. Uh it was actually stretch of two hours because we have so many different topics to discuss and even with that we ran out of time. So we're looking at doing some additional ones to make sure
245that we um make a quality effort to hit all the components especially as we get ready to uh go into building the uh budget book for the next school year. Um I sat down with associate superintendent Ruiz. Did I say that right? Probably say it wrong all the time. um to review um the portrait of a graduate so I could better wrap my head around it. I do recommend for those who are still trying to wrap their head around it to sit down with her because it was a very helpful conversation for me to better understand how it builds into the current um strategic plan and doesn't create additional burden for lack of better words. Um, but the clarity piece, it really kind of it pulled all the pieces together so I could actually see
246how it integrates in with what we're already doing, not adding more to. Um, and then just going back to Dear Dear Drake and the East High School FOB, um, [clears throat] he reached out to me and personally invited me to come to um, the ribbon cutting on Monday. Um and just he he recorded a video of himself um using the fob for the first time in the elevator opening and him screaming with excitement and then going through the ribbon ceremony. Had his really good friend with him um that she was uh excited as well and um I don't know it's just it's wonderful to see students advocate um for themselves and that resounding effort and just I have to say it again. Um but Isaac, thank you immensely for you and your team for not
247only hearing him whenever he first brought it up um last school year adding it into this schedule which made it happen so quickly um but then doing it even faster than you thought that you would. He is just over the moon excited. So thank you for making a difference in his and future students lives. Um uh tomorrow I'll be I'm planning on attending the USBA policy webinar listening in on that. um um Friday morning's the legislative breakfast with um state legislators and state board members. Look forward to attending that and having that conversation. Um today I joined in on the NSBA policy webinar on IDA. So it's kind of poignant that you uh commented on special education day. that was um uh with all of the um uncertainties at a federal level and the potential
248for special education to be moved under the DHS and what implications that has for special education. There's a lot of people that are um on edge and nervous about it. Um the thing that I want to emphasize is the law still exists no matter where they're situated. So um districts, board members, um etc. need to still be diligent about properly serving our students. And one of the things that they did uh they covered a lot of really good things, but they they emphasized which is very valid in our state is um states have um rules that we need to comply to as well. And most of Utah's states regarding our students with disabilities mirror the federal laws. So even while the federal government's getting doing something um we also have this obligation at a state
249level and just obviously just an obligation to our students as well. So, um we need to continue to do our due diligence to serve our students with disabilities properly. So, that's it. >> Thank you, Amanda. Um I'll be pretty brief in in mind as well. Um Brian, thank you for mentioning the master board certification and for those of us that that completed the the steps that we needed to to to hopefully be in compliance. I was trying to look for the numbers that are publicly stated, but I I don't think they're up yet. But nonetheless, um, thank you for mentioning that and for everybody's participation. Um, I also want to take a moment to send some thanks out to the community um, in a role that I play outside of my role as a board
250member and board president um, with the Frank Cordova Foundation. Um, I also want to thank the Salt Lake City School District um, about 13 years ago. I helped start this foundation um, with Frank's family. He passed away from cancer about 14 years ago now. Um, and this year uh, was our biggest year yet. Um, we delivered turkeys to to five um Salt Lake City School District schools. Um, I want to give some shout outs to um to James Yapias, to Mike Harmon. Mike, thank you for helping coordinate these efforts with us um for the YW.C.A, which impacts a lot of our students and families as well. Um, obviously the principles and um staff at Liberty, Franklin, Glendale, the Glendale CLC, and Nibi Park. Um it's just such a a really rich and exciting opportunity that
251we have um to give back during the holidays. Um and Heather, thank you for your donation, too. I saw that on our [laughter] on our work there, too. But um but yes, it's a whole community effort. Um so, thank you for indulging the Salt Lake City School District in this effort that I've been a part of. um even before I was a board member um and give a shout out to the foundation board itself in particular Gregorio Cordova um who took over as president um a couple years ago after I stepped down as president of the foundation. So thank you which leads me into my last um not necessarily update but just a wish to everybody that you have a wonderful holiday season however you celebrate the holidays with your friends and families. Um, speaking
252for myself, I know um that a lot of us, everybody has things outside of their work and outside of their elected or appointed positions um that are hard and challenging, right? And and that's been kind of amplified in in a hard and challenging year just in our own country and in our own world. Um so I really wish everybody the best this holiday season. um take some time off, relax, um enjoy and celebrate um everything that you're grateful for. And um to all of our students, um teachers, um you and your families, I hope you all do the same. And we'll see you all again in 2026. Thank you. I'll call the meeting adjourned. >> You know, I couldn't be this It's just everything.