001I'm going to come and then I went on The Everyone would. >> All right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us. Uh today is October 21st, 2025. We're here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education business meeting. Um before we get started, I just want to um give a few welcoming remarks and welcome our classified association groups who are with us this evening. Uh for buildings and grounds, we have President Aaliyah Compo. For child nutrition, we have President Tanya Slaughter. For transportation, we have Audrea Benali. Audrey Benali, excuse me. For SLEA, we have President Mike Harmon and Vice President Chelsea A Costa. Thank you for joining us. I hope DC was was good. >> Perfect. >> And then for SLAsa, um, we have President Tom Luthie.
002So, thank you for joining us this evening and for all you do for our employees u within your your respective groups. Um, up next we have the Pledge of Allegiance and I've asked Christy Hart, director of finance to lead us in the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America >> and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank you. Um before I move into the consent agenda, I just want to make an announcement um about our next board meeting. So, we typically meet on Tuesdays, but due to the election on November 4th, we have moved our board meeting night to Monday, November 3rd. I'll go ahead and make that announcement again at the end of the
003meeting, knowing that some people join us at the beginning who aren't here at the end and vice versa. So, just wanted to take that little point of privilege to make that announcement. Um, up next, we have our consent agenda. Um, there was a board member request to remove items 1A and 1B. 1A, Hughes General Contractors Incorporated, and item 1B, Hogan and Associates Incorporated, to the action agenda for further discussion. Um, if that could be incorporated into the motion, that would be possible. >> I move um that we send items 1 A and B as posted to the action agenda and all remaining items uh posted two to six to consent to that. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> Can second. All right. Any discussion to the motion? >> I have one item.
004>> Ashley, >> I just have one question. I mean, the purchase orders under $50,000. There's no utility um to pull them to discuss given that they've already been spent, but I was curious about the expense um and inquired via email on the dignity index printing. And I'm wondering what printing we're doing for the value of $28,000. >> I can answer that. We're printing um the dignity cards one through eight, the scale on the dignity index. We're printing both adult cards and youth cards. So, schools have some of those that are some of the smaller ones. We're also printing um poster size versions for schools to place in the buildings. We're also printing um some school signs that say we are a dignity school. That could be outside. Actually, we're not printing those. They have been
005printed. We also printed those. So, um, the first round we did in 2023, so we're printing some more or we printed, sorry, some more. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? Seeing none, we'll start with a roll call vote with board member Williams. >> Price Williams. Yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson. Yes. Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Chensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> All right, that motion passes and we'll revisit items 1 A and 1B at the end of the meeting on the action agenda. Um, moving along to our request to speak. Um, there is a statement that the board has asked me to read. Um, tonight is also a unique night uh because we have our regularly scheduled request to speak and we
006also have a school and program closure reconfiguration uh request to speak that folks have signed up for. Um, we will go ahead with our regularly scheduled request to speak and sign up um as soon as soon after I read this statement. The board enjoys the opportunity to hear from the public during the comment portion of its meetings. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to remind you of our board rules governing your comments. The total time reserved for public comment is not to exceed 15 minutes with all speakers or groups limited to 3 minutes. The board will not allow public comments during board meetings that are slanderous, obscene, or otherwise violate state or federal law. Employees and or their representatives may not use the public comment period to address issues that should
007be raised through existing formal communication channels or establish grievance or negotiation procedures. I'd also like to explain that unless the speaker's topic is already on the agenda, state law prohibits the board from taking action on items raised during the public comment period. However, if it seems appropriate to the circumstances, I may direct district staff to follow up with a speaker on the topic discussed. All right. Our first um speaker this evening for our our request to speak is Amy Owen. All right. We will I'll announce her name at the end. Is Zachary Swenson here? Zachary. Okay. Um, let's see. Lucia C. She thank you. Come on up. >> Would you like me to stand? >> You could stand at the podium or you could sit at the table. Whatever is most comfortable for you. I
008will stand right here then. >> When would you like me to begin? >> As soon as you begin, the timer starts. >> You may need to pull that microphone down just a little closer so we can hear you well. >> All right. Well, first of all, my name is Lu Xiao Xi and I am the sophomore class president at West High School and I am here to advocate for the Chinese program and the NJOTC program at West. But first, I want to thank the district for providing this excellent opportunity to speak. You've made it possible for students to achieve the highest level of education and we are truly grateful for that. But unfortunately, the opportunities for students have been decreasing as West High's programs are threatening to close. The Chinese program at West is one
009of the main language classes at West and a popular choice for the IB diploma program. However, last year all Chinese pro programs, including the AP and IB classes, were scheduled to terminate due to lack of funding. Almost 2,000 people have signed the petition to save Chinese. If there are struggles to keep the program alive at West, let us, dedicated students of West, support you in solving these issues. If there is a shortage of funds, give us a chance to help you fund raise to keep this program alive. It is our duty as well to create a welcoming environment at West High School. I also want to talk about the transfer of West Tide JOTC program. Yes, it is a program about becoming enlisted in the military. That is one choice. It has helped students with
010military interest find their sense of place at West High School for the past 32 years. Because it is more than just a class or a program. It's a family. It's a family that has fostered students that are not only prepared in multiple career branches outside of the military, but most importantly, it builds leaders inside of students. It helps these students become leaders that are willing to help and serve their communities that they love. And that is what our instructors want. They want to see the growth of leadership, of discipline, and in passion in students. Yet, we have been informed by Dr. Grant that JOTC is scheduled to be moved in 2028 to the CTC center far away from West. But unlike the Chinese program, it isn't a funding issue. In fact, the program stopped receiving
011funding from the district years ago and is completely government funded currently. We are left oblivious as to why the program is no longer going to be tolerated at West. Let us help you solve these issues that you may see. We want to continue the positive culture that JOTC has established at West. If there are any concerns you may have with a program, we would be glad to address them because we don't wish for West to lose such valuable programs. We, like you, wish that West High School, like a loving mother, can continue to grow and prosper our family without having to abandon its children. And we as students believe we can make this dream possible. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Before we move on to the school and program closure,
012is Amy Owen here yet? Zachary Swinson. Okay, we will move on. Um, moving into our request to speak on school and program closure reconfiguration. Our first speaker is Greg Allen Gerber. Greg, please join us. Thank you. >> President Salzar, board members. Thank you. My name is My name is Greg Gerber. I'm a proud father of a junior at Innovations High School. Her name is Livia. I want to begin by thanking you for this opportunity to speak, your leadership, and giving the community a chance to to speak up about this issue. I come tonight humbled and grateful and driven by a deep belief in in the possibility um in the possibility that we we not give up on our students. Um three weeks before the school year began, our family learned that Innovations were was being
013looked at to close. Shocked is an understatement. Um we chose Innovations years ago, vetting through many schools because of its unique structure. Um it it guides and nurtures self-directed motivated learners who thrive in flexible auto autonomous and early access uh schools. Um and it's working for Livia. Uh Livia has straight A's. She's prepared to take her first uh sole community college courses and she's on track to graduate early. Something simply could not be accomplished in uh the traditional school. Um now innovation serves students like Livby uh I call them rainbow unicorns right um they're unique yes uh there are many of them out there um they don't neatly fit into standardized models who but um they can excel when given the right environment and here's the reality uh if we close the school we don't
014just take away a building we take away a pathway pathway to these unique unicorns um now I I don't want disregard their headwinds uh in this decision-making too. You know, limited access to to uh Sole Community College courses until junior year. Uh lacking solely community acu class access during school normal school hours. Communication gaps between Salt Lake Community College and staff and declining enrollment are big issues. Uh I recognize, but these are problems to solve. They're not reasons to quit. Closing innovations doesn't address these issues. it simply walks away from them. Um, uh, principal Laura and her team at innovations have been working tirelessly at rebuilding this, uh, infrastructure at the school and and their mission. Uh, they brought in passionate teachers to line with the program. Uh, they've created an environment for motivated learners
015like Livia. What they need uh, what they need isn't closure. They need support. I I propose that the uh solid community college access to innovation students be rem uh let let us help remove some of the barriers, increase funding, invest in strategic outreach to students like her uh and ensure clear transparent communication to uh families. With my remaining moments, um I will say this, I believe in you uh and I believe that you want the best for the students. I believe you want to invest in their futures, not limit their options. And I believe you have a chance to choose courage over convenience. On behalf of my daughter, her peers, and future students we haven't met yet, don't close this door. Be relentless. Don't Don't give up on these kids. Don't give up on the
016spirit of innovation. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Craig. [Applause] Our next speaker this evening is Kevin Carose. Dr. Carose, are you with us this evening? Karen Gomez. Hi, good evening. My name is Karen Gomez. It's good to see you again. Um, Miss Grant, Dr. Grant, I actually was at one of the first meetings at Innovations High School. I really didn't have much of a speech prepared. Just more of a commentary to say that uh with Innovations, just like um Greg has mentioned, Innovations has been one of the greatest schools that I personally um as a parent just feel like it's exactly what these kids need. I know my son, he excels and these students need something just as it was touched upon. The students need a place where they can really really
017learn and excel. This independent study uh just a place where they can just be a big part of I know with my son um he is a junior this year and he also is going to graduate soon as well is the teacher relationships with the students. I think that is very important. I didn't realize how important it was until when he was in junior when he was in junior high. That's how we found about innovations. I didn't even know about innovations until he was at a dual immersion academy is when that's when we got in touch with it with one of his teachers who knew what his challenges were, who knew something he needed, something better, something out there for him to really exceed and to really, you know, encompass learning. And when innovations, he
018really took off with it. And then just the teachers, they just know, hey, you know, what do you need? What can I help you with? And that's something that with innovations, all the students that go there really, really need. And also for the future students that want to come to innovations because I do know a group and also some others and other some students as well that do want to come to innovations. They just need an opportunity. And with this school closing, I just feel like it's going to close up another school. I know innovations is one of many other schools out there, but really it's just these kids want innovations. Yes, there's other schools out there. Yes, there's other opportunities, but innovations is what they these kids really want. Yes, there's other schools, but
019me as a parent, the way his innovations has really excelled and exceeded for my son. It's really helped him and really challenged him. The way I see him grow, the way I see him and he's just there studying and just wanting to be at school and even the afterchool activities where he can just be like he wants to go to school. He wants to be there and I just see it in his face and he's just like, you know, I really like where I'm at. And that's what I want for my future student, my daughter also who's in eighth grade. She wants to go to innovations too because, you know, it really gives them a chance to grow and also with not just the concurrent enrollment, it gives them that opportunity. most stu classes or
020I'm sorry most schools don't have that opportunity and I feel like innovation really touches on that especially like I said with the teachers and the students the teachers really know their students and I think that's important and that's really crucial in their learning and it gives them the opportunity to grow and really expand and really figure out and learn about themselves where they want to go and where they want to be when they grow up or finish or graduate and it just gives them that I guess what I'm trying to say is it just gives them that opportunity, that open door that they need to really excel in what their careers are going to be in their futures. Thank you. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> Our next speaker is Mike Harmon. Mike, please join us.
021>> Good evening. So, I've mentioned this to Dr. Grant to Mr. hall. But as we look at these, as you're making decisions about the long-term closures, if that's the decision that you make, I certainly hope that you can help our employees feel in short they will have a position. When we did the closures before, we guaranteed everyone a position. And I know that's always hard when you're looking at the making these decisions because often it's a financial decision, but for our employees, which are most some of our most valued assets, we need to ensure that both our educators and our education support professionals go into this decision. if you make the decision to close these facilities knowing that they will have a position and that they're not worried about their livelihood because that is important.
022So I just as the board makes those things I hope you will direct the superintendent in if you make that decision to make sure that we have those people and they have long long-term positions. Thank you. >> Thank you Mike. Thanks Mike. >> I will give one more opportunity for Kevin. All right, we will move on to our reports agenda. And thank you everybody for taking the time um to come speak with us, especially our students. Thank you for taking the time. And I know it's not easy, but sophomore class president, you probably given a speech or two, so thank you for joining us. We really appreciate the efforts that you're making. Um up next in our reports agenda, um is our fall enrollment review. Dr. Grant, is there anything that you wanted to to
023share before we begin? Okay, you're up, Sam. And thank you for the rulers. >> Just making sure she gets the camera turned around here. >> Well, perhaps Sam, >> if you could explain where this report is accessible. >> Yep, for sure. >> Okay. So, each of you should have um one of these documents and then you should have a ruler. Those rulers are not to be used for sword fighting in case you have temptation. Um, and in the document or in the agenda, there's a link to a spreadsheet that contains the majority of these reports. There's a few that I've added since we posted the agenda. Um, and we will get those posted at the end of the day or at the by tomorrow. And um, so a couple of things I want to recognize
024first before I get into these numbers u is first that the express gratitude for the office staff of our schools. This is that first part of the year is a herculean effort and when we're enrolling thousands and thousands of students there's thousands and thousands of data errors and they are um magnificent in getting those put in order. Then I also brought two of my staff. We have Veronica Veronica Garcia over here. She's one of our network services administrators and Sean Considine. He's our new student information business analyst. they are. So, I put together the reports. These are the day-to-day people that help the schools get everything in order for our finalized submission. So, we'd like to thank them. And Veronica's covering for me back there in case we have a technical glitch. So, so I'd
025like to talk first about the the enrollment summary if we're on that first page. Um that um a lot of these numbers tell a story. They tell what could be but not necessarily why. The usually we come up with questions after the fact. So I've um written down a few observations uh on this page. So first this first page is just a summary. It lists enrollment and all of our demographic summaries for every school and every um district program that we have. So the first item that I'd like to note is our enrollment. Our October one count enrollment is listed here as 18264. I'm going to make one little correction is actually 18265. That one student is at uh Sky View Academy. I don't include them on this report. So, we usually have about one
026student there each year. So out of 18264, we are down um about about n 915 students from October 1 of 2024. That's a that's a pretty big drop. In the past, um we've had some significant dips, but not that big. Um I have another page that will talk about what our average um loss rate is or decrease rate. Um we have four elementary schools that are below 300 students. Um those are Escalante, Franklin, Northstar, and Washington. Um on a brighter side, we had three schools increase. Rose Park increased by 13%. Uh Metallark increased by 7% and NSING by 8%. Um so you can look at those numbers there. Um on the decline we're I kind of look at those schools that are um decreasing by 10% or more. Every school pretty much except for these
027u had some sort of a decrease somewhere between zero and 10%. But of of significant note is um we had Washington decreased by 21% Bryant Sixie Bryant increased by 11 decreased by 11%. Dworth decreased by 10%. Innovations is down by 39%. Liberty is down by 12%. Highland Park is down by 10%. Overall, the district decreased enrollment by 4.77%. And at the elementary level, it decreased by 4.39%. At the middle school level, 3.45% and at the high school level, 5 uh 85%. Um, of significant note on this summary as well is our decrease in our low income number. Uh this is one that caught our eye initially. We're down um from last year 7 about 7%. But a significant decrease in um the the high schools is down about 12%. And the middle schools were down
028a little bit farther as well. So where the elementary stayed pretty much the same. And I'm going to talk a little bit more on the low income on another page. Yes, >> Sam, I'm sorry to interrupt. just you were naming those percentage drops. Are those available within these charts? >> There they're they're not. I just have a comparison from Well, actually, I do. There is a there is a comparison chart you'll be able to see. >> Okay. >> Yep. Yep. >> I know that people were trying to capture what you were saying and >> Oh, sorry. I'll go I'll go slower, but yes, I do. I just wanted to kind of give you notes of of where those were. >> Okay. >> Um and then lastly on this one, this one shows us that we
029have 83 non-English languages spoken in the district. and that breakdown of a on a school by school basis. I'd like to switch over to the enrollment by grade. Again, this will facilitate um the same information as the summary except it breaks it down by grade and some observations that I've made there. So, while you're flipping, I'm going to give you that. Um there's there was a 10 plus% decrease in the following grades 10th grade, 11th grade, and second grade. >> Um those are important to see where we um where our trends of enrollment will go in the future. Eighth grade had about a a 9% decrease, which means that next year, unless there's some increased enrollment, that will flow over into ninth grade. >> Did you just say eighth grade? >> Eighth grade. Yes. >>
030Got it. >> Was about 9%. Yep. And the only grade level that we had an increase was 12th grade. That increased about 2.65%. Typically, we have a decline in 12th grade because of early graduation and other factors. Now, I haven't I I went through all of the individual grades as well and just wanted to look at some significant numbers, but there were a lot. It's all it's it kind of fluctuates all over the place. But um some grade levels of note, Bachmann first grade is down 27%. Newman first grade is down 22%. Nibbly Park uh 7th grade is down 55%. Liberty fifth grade is down 43%. However, metallark third grade is up 73%. And Emerson and Nside sixth grade was up about 70%. And what we were saying and what we saw from last year.
031So those are kind of the differences what you see from that enrollment summary to the enrollment by grade. Just helps us look at that. The next page is the five-year enrollment report. This one takes it the enrollment the October one enrollment from um October 2020 through um October 2025. And you can see that that in the graph on the right that steep decline of where we're of where the district has been going. Not a surprise to us. Um these are just some quick notes that that I've made. Um elementary schools on average decrease by 246 students per year over that five-year period. That's on average or overall it's a decrease of 12% from 2020 to 2025. The middle schools on average decrease 129 students per year with an overall decrease of about 20%. And then
032our high schools decrease on average about 200 students per year with an overall u decrease of 13.9%. So, I had to I used a chat GP to help check my numbers here on this as well. But if we if our decline stays consistent with what we've seen here um and just keeps that in five years from now, we can expect to be about 15,000 students in this district. Just to kind of give you what that rate is looking like and what it would predict in the future. Now that is just a straight we know with enrollment that all things do not generally remain consistent but that's the trajectory. >> You said by 2029 >> in yeah five years. Yep. 2020. So 2030. Yeah. >> It would be down to 15,000 >> 15,000 students is what
033the calculation said. Now that factor could change for a number of reasons but that's if that those averages stay the same. Okay, our next page, this is the one, Dr. Grant, that does have that um kind of percentages on it for you. It's this five-year demographic trends. So, these ones um I didn't have I didn't have 2020 ready, so I just did 21 through 25. Um so you can look there the m our um under reppresented um populations or minority groups those stay fairly consistent across the five years um while our multilanguage or ELLL English language learners has actually increased by f about 5% since 2021. Some of that could be that we're doing better at documenting those and getting that information in the system by October one. That could be a factor. Um it
034could also be a factor that we are just receiving more English learners in our district. Our students with disabilities over the five years has increased by almost 2%. So 12.55% in 2122 and to 14.2.28%. Our homeless population has decreased about.3%. Over the over the course of the five years again that could that something so small could be simply a documentation issue. Um as well and then low income. Um, I was a little surprised by this year's low income percentage, but as I looked back at 2122, >> that low income percent was 49.71%. Um, and we but I believe if I remember correctly, that year we may have had um a data entry issue that year. So that may be low um in error. Sam, >> yes. >> You mentioned the percentages of multil- language learners.
035Are the actual numbers increasing at the same rate or as the district shrinks to the same number of students stay? Is it staying fairly steady um and they become a higher percentage >> as our district? Good question. or is it actually >> increasing >> as a raw number? >> That's a great question. I need to look that one up. >> Okay. >> For you. But um I just thought that was interesting. So you're right. It could be the fact that the district is shrinking but our English language learners are staying. That's our >> It's a steady population. Steady a lot. Or are we actually increasing? >> Yeah, that's that's a great angle to look at. I I will do that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Then our next page is our optional school programs.
036So these are programs that schools um they're not district promoted. They are optional that the schools can participate in and I believe I have them all. So um as you look at these the schools that have optional school programs are Clayton which has a um so they have a DLI as well but CNA is their optional school program. And a few years ago, they switched to a whole school CNA program. So, pretty much everybody who's not in ELP is in their um CNA program. Now, we have a couple students that are just listed DLI there. Um and that is I think a coding issue in in our student information system. >> C. >> Oh, sorry. You know what? CNA >> curriculum and assessment. >> Curriculum assessment. curriculum assessment >> curriculum assessment model and then DLI
037is dual language and then um magnet I've got magnet ELP the the new term that we're using are magnet programs in the district um then uh at East High we have our AP diploma program these are students that are searching for an advanced placement diploma um we have a few students that are enrolled in DLI courses is the way we look at that is if the course in our student information system is um coded as a dual language immersion course and then um at NSIN elementary we have the curriculum assessment CNA program and that's been there for a number of years um and then at Highland and West you can see that both of those schools have an international balorate program >> point of clarification >> yes Um, I just wanted to clarify for colleagues
038that when you're looking at NSING's CNA program and you see that low class size, it's not standalone classrooms. So, first and second would be blended and the total is 26 and so forth. So, if you're looking at that number standalone, you would be misled. It just doesn't fit into the system. >> Yeah. So, these these are students that are coded as being in the program. And then you have your again Highland and West international bal laora and west high has um a magnet gifted and talented in their seventh and eighth grade that shows that enrollment there. Dr. Hall, could you explain what are optional school programs for us? >> An optional program is a program that the school has decided that wants to put into place. It is funded by the school. It is um
039needed to be in the old days when we had sic and had to be approved through those processes so that it could function at the school. So some of our examples would be the CN C program. Is that the one that you're asking about? >> Yes. And So there are no others at West High School was one question up here. >> Um so at West High School the IV program would be considered an optional program. Um it has two programs within it. It has the career diploma program and the regular diploma program. So both of those but that isn't >> Thank you. the Clayton ELP, magnet ELP. Um, so our West 7th and ETH program, which was started many, many years ago at roughly the same time, both Clayton and Hillside also decided that they
040would incorporate a magnet program at their schools. Um, so that both of those schools have a program. Glendale also has some magnet classes. They don't do it as formally as But students do need to in the magnet program test into the magnet program as opposed to our honors program which is student choice. >> Okay. So point of clarification, the reason why hillside is not on this list is because they are funded by the district. >> No, I'm not sure what you're looking at. >> So magnet ELP is a district program. this. The reason they're not on this list is because they do not have an optional school program. >> Okay. >> Did you have a question? >> Um, >> yeah. >> Or do I misunderstand? >> Wait, she said Hillside, >> right? >> Is is
041Hillside optional school? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Sorry. >> Then that was then that was an error on my part. >> I just have we have the way we code it in the in the student information system. We may need to change that is a magnet ELP program. It's the same code. We may need to look at that because based off numbers they could be blending that into their honors program size of the school. So we may need to parse that out a little bit. >> I think that's probably what happened. So the honors program is kind of standard across the board. All our middle schools have that. But one of the things that happens when you have a smaller school, you have a magnet program and an honors program and a neighborhood program. So
042now all of a sudden I have three math classes. I have math class. Let's not use math. That's a bad example. Let's use language arts. I have honors, I have a magnet, and I have a regular, but my schedule may not allow me to have that without a bunch of them being singletons. And so, I might only have one period of magnet, but that conflicts with orchestra. So, they may put some classes together so that that doesn't happen, which make it harder to see when we report. So, I'll take a look at that. >> Yeah. and and you can see the hillside magnet ELP on the the regular enrollment reports. So that was just maybe a confusion on my part. >> Thank you. >> And did that answer your question? >> Yeah, I was just
043confused which qualified as a >> um I was just wondering for a little bit of clarification on uh it says there are less than 10 students in the IB program both at West High and Highland. Um, to my understanding, it's not possible to be in the IB program until you're a junior or a senior. I was just wondering how that's counted. >> So, again, we look at um and and that's a great point. I'll talk to the less than 10 because this is a public report. Our data governance plan talks about not identifying u uh samples underneath 10 students. Um, but this one again looks at students that are enrolled in IB courses. So, it's possible that a student um in ninth grade was enrolled in one of those courses either accidentally or intentionally or
044whatever and that's why it's showing up on this report. >> Okay, that clarifies. Thank you. >> All right, our next page is our multilanguage learner report. And one thing that we'll notice if you if you've gone back and looked at pre previous years, I think we have some system coding issues that we need to fix um in this area. Primarily, we've gone up in our our overall percentage of students um that are multil- language or English learners. So to 30.8% from last year. But as we look at this float not tested line, these are students. So float stands for primary home language other than English. And that is usually identified either through a home language survey or um during registration the families put in what languages they speak, what is their native language or what
045or what is their parents native language. Those are identified. That's how we identify someone who may be a non-native English-speaking um student. Um and usually if they're not tested or doesn't don't have a weed screener um they fall into this category. Um last year as I looked at the report this number was about um 126 students in the district but over on this float not um was was about 300 students. So I'm thinking that some of those float not tested are really students that were had answered the question primary home language other than English but they were tested and deemed not ELLL. they're not or multil- language learners. So sometimes we have families who have an English-speaking parent and a non-English-speaking parent and so they are fluent in both languages. Um they would be uh
046assessed and probably fall under that. These yes they are float but they're not a English language learner. So that gives you a kind of an idea of what that looks like. All of the other numbers though stay pretty consistent from year to year. Any questions on that? >> Um, I have a question. Shouldn't hypothetically, shouldn't we see some of these numbers decreasing over grade level? Okay, this maybe is a silly question, but hypothetically as students go through the ELELLL program, they transition out of some of those classes by the time they're in upper grades. >> So, yeah. So, hypothetically, yes, you'd see that. And theoretically what the way you would look at this report to observe that is um as they go through you've got float not tested and one two three four five are
047their um their levels their testing levels. So um five is generally fluent um and then once they hit fluent they go into monitoring for four years. Four years right Dr. Hall? Four years. And so that's what you see the fluent and monitoring students in there. So a lot of them may roll over into that as well. So you should So our first grade, if we look at first grade overall in the elementary schools, we see 895 students that tested at a level one this year or or their last WEDA test. We'll say it. It could have been at the end of last year or a WEDA screener. that could be as a result of more multil- language learners moving in or some other factor. >> Okay, so that's how you would read that. >> All
048right, our next report is our homeless report. There are a number of ways that students and Mr. Mr. Harmon can speak more to this. Um, but there are a number of ways that um would a student would qualify as homeless, usually through the McKenna Vento process to identify those and and even families that live together um be due to hardship um can qualify for Mckin Vento. Um, and overall this is down, we've hovered over the last few years, as we saw that other page, around 3 something%. This one's down slightly this year to 2.85. And in my conversations with uh Mr. Harmon and Miss Basket, we have we're trying to figure that one out. We're not sure what the what the cause of that one is yet. All right. Our next is our low income
049and this is the uh report that um really caught my eye because of the the decrease this year. Typically on October one we've been around 50 plus% of our student population is low income. Uh but this year we fell below that and significantly that kind of caught my eye were the um was the high schools that dropped to 38.1% where last year they were just about 50%. um what we've been able to determine. So, first of all, just to kind of give you students apply for free and reduced meals at the beginning of the year, and they can apply any time during the year. Those who were listed as economically disadvantaged the prior year have a 30-day grace period that happen at the beginning of the year with their previous status. So that overlaps right
050at the October one reporting time depending on when school starts. So if we look back at the 21 year, it could have been that the way school started in that 30-day grace period because there's always a dip right after October 1 because all of that grace period families will not apply till after the grace period ends. Sometimes we'll see that. >> So that could be a cause of the dip. But I wanted to look at um this. So overall we're down about 7% um and 12% in the high schools. We were able to look at um about a,085 students. This is the difference that I'm seeing from last year to this year. About,085 students who were marked as economically disadvantaged last year um who were not this year. And we I looked at how many
051of those families or students applied and I'm only seeing about 255 of those students that have been applied for for free in reduced lunch. So I sent this information to Mr. Orton in our child nutrition department to kind of look into that and we're still analyzing that data to see if um maybe some of these families transitioned into our community eligible provision schools. So as you look at this report you'll see that some of our schools are listed as 100% lowincome. This is somewhat inaccurate um from the standpoint of they they usually have a high percent high percentage of economically disadvantaged anyway. But if a stool school qualifies at I believe it is about 60% of um direct certification. So direct certification for free and reduced meals comes from a number of ways. Foster care,
052the SNAP program and a number Mr. Orton can talk more about that than I can. But if they qualify, then the school could qualify for this community eligible provision program which provides free meals for all students. When that happens, we don't have those families apply for free and reduced meals. So we we don't get a perfect um count of what percentage of economically disadvantaged that is. We sometimes were given an average. So sometimes it's around 93 or 95% that you could look at those, but that's why you see that. So some of those thou 10,085 students may have moved into these schools and no longer need to apply, but they would also be included in that that 100% anyway. So we're still looking at why that drop is there. Any questions on that? Okay. The
053There's a lot of questions from this that say that make you want to look deeper. We don't have all those those answers take a little bit of time. Um as you look at the next report, we call it our ethnicity report or um minority, we also use the term underrepresented groups. Overall remain consistent um from last year to this year. Again, a decrease in population. overall population with a consistent means that our minority population is staying or underrepresented populations stay the predominant group in our or populations in our district. So we are still a majority minority district and as you see that you can see the counts of each race and ethnicity. Now this is declared based upon the federal race and ethnicity standards. Sometimes there's confusion around that because we ask is a student
054Hispanic or not. That's the federal ethnicity question. >> And then race. Um Hispanic, for example, is not included in the federal definition of race. That is Asian, white, black, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, um American Indian, Alaskan Native, those. But when we report on here, if a family has marked that their student is um Hispanic on their ethnicity, we only report that they're Hispanic. So that's what we see here. We don't report that if they chose a separate race just to kind of keep the numbers clean. Otherwise, we would see someone selected Hispanic and um white, for example, if they're and we see that typically from like someone from Europe would be his might speak Spanish or and then or be Hispanic and white if they're that's their ancestry. So, that's just kind of giving and then
055we have multi-racial in there where families may declare and this is a choice. Families aren't required to answer this question during registration and that's by federal law. we can't require them to do it. However, school districts are required to report that to the state board of education. So, if a family does not report that information, the schools have to report it by observation. So, and there's a little check box in our system that says we've we've said the student is this race and we've reported it by observation. All right, our next one. I I really need a bigger piece of paper for um or a magnifying glass. >> This this one is hard to get on one single sheet of pages, but these are just all of the languages that we have in the district.
056The 83 that we've been looking at and what the breakdown is. A lot of them you can see that they're less than 10. So, we have small pockets here and there. Obviously, English is our predominant and Spanish is our second top language that we have spoken in the district where our next um top language in here just scanning through is above 100 which is Arabic. So as you look at that All right, any questions on that? Okay, our next report is called the student distribution by school and area. Normally we don't have this one ready by our first one because addresses are a pain in the neck. Sorry. >> They they really are. Every system looks at them. But my team pulled a herculean effort and we got them done. So I want to talk
057about how this report reads. So as you read the left column, this is the enrollment school andor program. And this tells you what the October one enrollment is for that school and where all of those students come from. So if you look at Backman, that first line, we see that their enrollment of October one was 351 um students and 219 of those students live in Bachman's boundary. Okay? And then you would go across horizontally to see where else they come from. Now, if we look at Bachmann again, we would go back through and look um vertically and see where all of the students that live in Bachman's boundary have gone. Okay. So, we can look at overall at the bottom of that line, there's 219 students that live in Bachman boundary that attend Backman, >>
058but there's a hundred >> this way. >> Yeah. Yeah. I would look at it like this. Okay. >> So, if you're going >> No. >> Yeah. Very clean. attend these >> other schools. >> There's 337 that live in the >> Okay. >> Yes. Thank you. So, yes, just to repeat that. So, overall at the very bottom, we have 337 resident students that we've identified. This doesn't mean that there's only 337. It just means these are 337 Salt Lake City School District students. Um and out of that 337 students that live in Bachman's boundary, we have um 118 that have transferred to some other school. And that's what that distribution is. So as you move across that report, you can see that we have on the far right our out of district students that we have,
0591300 students that um enroll from Granite District. we send some of our students over there as well. Um, and then this the last two columns. So, if you read horizontally, there's a transfer in that shows how many students from other school boundaries are attending that school. So if we look at Bachmann again, although they had 118 of their students transfer out, they had 132 students from other school boundaries transfer in for a net gain of 14 students. Now, one thing I would like to point out is if you look at Emerson, the Emerson line, and I keep this report consistent um just just for conversation, but um if you look at that, Emerson shows that we have let's see my I should have brought my ruler up here 35 students or sorry, 162 students transfer
060in. Okay, so that can be a little misleading because Emerson is a special ed hub school. Thank you. Emerson's a special ed hub school. So technically those students are there, that is their home school because we the as a district have placed them there. But based upon their address, they live outside that school boundary. Now, if you come down to Rose Park, this is one that caught my eye. Um, as we look at Rose Park, um, vertically, where am I? Here, right here. We have students in that boundary, that have transferred out for and only 88 that have transferred in for a net loss of 163. My thought on that one without fully verifying is that most a lot of those students are over at Newman in the DLI program. that would have moved from
061like that that boundary change where we took Jackson and shifted some of that into Rose Park's area and then but some of those went to Newman because of DLI. So we're working on validating that one. Any other questions on this? You can spend hours on this report this page. >> Yeah. So I was going to ask a question. anywhere in this report. We aren't really able to see students who live in these boundaries but have transferred out of district. >> I have another report for you. >> Oh, okay. >> I have another report for you. So, you're right on top of it. Okay. >> Well, wait a minute. We have those the out of district. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we have we have students that are we have students that are out of district that
062attend our school, >> but I have another report that we went through >> to try and help with that. >> Okay. >> Um, so the next page on this report is our prek report. So, whenever we report October one numbers and this is done at the state board of education, prek are not included. Okay, prek is a separate funding stream and so they're not included in our official counts. So we break this report out. So we have an official prek report but not official Salt Lake City School District enrollment. So if we look at that 18264, that's really 18264 plus 513. Okay, is how many students we have in our buildings. The next page is an average CLA elementary class size report. Um, this is will show you what we're looking at. And I'm only
063looking at general ed home room classes to identify this one. I didn't I don't include our self-contained classrooms because they kind of skew the numbers a little bit because what we're trying to present here is an accurate number of what those home room classroom sizes really look like. um across the board. In the electronic copy of the report that was sent out, there is also an average secondary class size based upon their like core classes um that have a subject area of math, science, social studies, and and language arts. Not all the electives. I didn't include this in this one because it would have added a lot of pages to it, but it is in the electronic copy. Now I I made it on one note here. Um from 2425 at the elementary level we
064have 34 less sections or classes than we did in 2425. Home room classes. So that's a decrease of of those classrooms. >> You're saying in one year? >> In one year. Yep. Yep. So we we declined 900 students. That would that would be if we our our board directed student to teacher ratio for uh K through three is 25 to one and four through six is 28 to one. Kind of look at what how many classrooms on average. Now schools can choose a little bit of a different configuration but that's how we project. Okay. The next page, this was a request that we had come in, is just to kind of give you some sideby-side comparisons of what we project, what the actual end of year ADM was, enrollment, and October one. So, let me
065I'm going to define ADM, which is average daily membership. So, it really is how many students on average of over the course of a year or a course of a time frame are enrolled in a school. This is solely based upon entry date and exit date in the school. It has nothing to do with attendance. That's average daily attendance if we were to calculate that. So ADM is what the WPU is funded off of. Um and that is primarily handled at the in our July one report that that is a summary of the whole year. So in and so I'm going just look at the second column in um 2024 our end of year average daily membership was 18,852. Now that's a sum of three different measures. There is our regular kind of a regular
066school program our our general membership plus our self-contained membership because that's funded a little separately or a little differently. and then our youth and care um students. That's the total combination. So if you look at some reports from USB, you might see a lower number than that 18852. That's because it's usually just reporting our general ed population rather than our self-contained and resource students um who are not self-contained are included in the general ed population generally. So, so if you look at that, that was our end of year. Then last year we did our enrollment projections and we projected this year that we would be at 18 816 ADM um as of our October one enrollment. So that is just a a straight count of students, right, that were enrolled on October one. That was
067the 18264. But our average daily membership of an or average enrollment from the first day of school to October 1 was 18,041. We can expect that number to decrease by the end of the year. Okay. So that number will most likely be closer to 17,000 by the end of the year. >> Which number? >> So our our endofear average daily membership will be closer. I I have I haven't run any type of projections on this yet. I just calculated what the ADM was, but given in historical years that drops fairly significantly throughout the rest of the year. >> So the number at the bottom of the second column. >> Yes. So the the the the number at the bottom of um the four the far right column. >> Oh, the far right. Okay. >> Far
068right column is what our average daily membership was on October one. So 18,000 total students. And again, that is our general ed plus our self-contained plus our youth and care. Um, and that's 18,000. And typically that will decline from October 1 to um July 1. And typically that will be closer to somewhere between 18 and 17, probably closer past the 175 mark. I don't I don't see it being higher than 175. And that's just me using my Johnny Carson 3x5 Q. >> So that's because they move or transfer out of the district. >> That's that's just because of our mobility rate. >> So that's just to give you a side by side of what we've what we project versus what and that that projected ADM is what we use for staffing as well. Um and
069then we compare and we look at this and we had used the October one ADM to make any adjustments. So Sam, >> yes. >> So this report doesn't show 2025 end of year ADM. Do we not have that number yet? >> Sorry, that's a mislabel. >> So should that 2024? >> That should be 2025 ADF. >> Oh, that's >> that's because I think I think O when I'm doing October 1, I think October 1, 2024. October 1, 2025. And thank you for catching me on that. I'll fix that. That is it is the correct number for 2025. ADM the 2425 school year. >> It's a pretty good prediction there, Sam. >> I I mean, you can hold me on it, I guess, and see what But I my guess is that's where we're going to
070be. >> The next page is a new report, and this is where Veronica and Shawn really put in. They may have they may have cursed my name a few times for putting them on this project, but um because of such such a large dip in enrollment, we looked at all the students who were enrolled in 2425 that could have returned. So I included se I excluded seniors, right? Because they would have moved on. Um so this would have been K through 11th grade. There were we identified about 1,500 students that were enrolled last year that did not return. And so we're able to see through the USB data gateway where students are. We can't see everything, but we can see what schools they've enrolled in. Um, so we broke down the different districts where these
0711500 students went and if their zip code changed or not with the idea that the zip code, if they moved, they moved, right? And looking at if their zip code did not change, potentially following up and saying, why did these students move? What what was the um issue? but not the issue but the reason why they changed uh school districts. Um and then out of that we have 507 out of those 1500 that we just don't know. They don't they're no longer enrolled in in Utah. So we have no idea where they went. Now out of the 398 students whose zip code did not change, 149 of those students were out of district students anyway. Will you repeat that? >> So, if you look down the second column there, >> yeah, >> there's 398 students
072who are no longer enrolled in Salt Lake District this year. Um, but their zip code, according to what we had last year and what's showing in the data gateway this year did not change. And so, but out of those 398, we looked at their addresses from last year, and those addresses are outside of Salt Lake City School District boundaries. So, >> how many? >> 149. >> Oh, I see. >> Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, 149. Which means that as we're looking at, you know, why students might leave Salt Lake School District. Um, that number may be that those 149 just decided to they may have changed levels and wanted to go to the school next to their home, whatever. We can we can think of a number of of reasons why but that just kind of
073gives you some food for thought of where some of our students are going. You can look at and I want to look at Granite District for example um you know the overall 354 students um went to Granite District um but 112 of those uh students their zip code didn't change. So most likely they're in that 149 of um students that did not move. They just went to a school school closer to them. Um and overall just a reminder that we still receive three or 1300 students from Granite just about annually over a thousand. Now this isn't the total number of students that leave Salt Lake District and go to Granite. This are these are just the students that were enrolled last year and went to Granite. >> So we don't have a total net between
074Granite's 1300 of >> Yeah. Yeah. I I don't have that yet because um every at the end of every year they send us a bill and we send them a bill and then we're able to identify those what that net change is. >> Do you know last year what it was? >> Not not off the top of my head. >> Sam, if I could just ask, you've got Washington School District here. 29 students didn't change zip code and yet are enrolled in St. George. >> Yeah, Alan caught that one when we looked at it yesterday as well. And the only thing we can think of, I wanted to leave it. I have actually have it as a talking point right here. So, thank you for helping me. >> Um, so as you look at that,
075we don't know why that is. The only thing I can think of is that Washington has an online school. >> Oh, I see. Okay. >> So, if a student fully enrolls in Washington K12 online, >> they can claim them as a a membership and they can be living right here in our boundaries. So, that's a possibility. have to do more research to finalize that. But um >> Washington K12, it's a K12 online. So, >> yep. All right. And so this report, that's the last page of this. This report is available for all of you and all employees at this point in the district document center um underneath the information s section and demographic reports and then the year. You'll be able to access that and it has all of the where all these reports have
076the less than 10. You'll be able to see the real numbers. Those are internal reports for us to use for decision-making purposes and conversations. Are there any questions overall? >> Yeah. So, we'll start with Ashley and then Amanda. >> So, I have a series of questions, but first I wanted to thank you for the preparation of the digital version of this. It has some features that definitely make it more legible. So if people are, you know, trying to follow along, I'd recommend looking at it on a desktop. It's really easy to use. I do always find that school choice, which is the policy of the state, makes this report really challenging to parse. But one thing that I additionally find challenging is the average class size. So most of them are hovering pretty low. But
077if I was to see 27 as an average, that seems kind of acceptable, close to what the FTE is for higher grades and for lower grades. But it also means that there's probably a class size hovering above 30. that's contributing to the average. So, do we know the frequency of classrooms that serve more than student 30 students at a time as well as this average size? >> I can find that. I don't have it off the top of my >> Okay. So, I I would just request I think the frequency of those large classrooms is useful to know. Um my second question is how much do these decreases align with what was in our applied economics report? Like does it seem like the declines are matching up with what we predicted? >> Yes. >> Okay.
078>> Yeah, they they they seem pretty significant. think um I don't have that report memorized. >> Oh yes, me neither. >> But um but we were as we approached this year starting to get to that 16 or 17,000 16,000 range and again projections are really hard when you get more than five years out. They become real fuzzy, >> right? >> so because it seems pretty accurate, I mean obviously that's of concern. And one concern I have looking at the ADM report is that a little back of the envelope math, only 20% of our elementary schools and 11% of the secondary schools have a projected daily membership that is at or above the number they were staffed for. So that means by the numbers, 80% of our elementary schools and 89% of our secondary schools are
079overstaffed compared to the number of actual students. Yet we're hearing that schools need more staff. Right? So I guess my question that I would direct to you Dr. Grant is how are we paying for this discrepancy between the projected ADM and the actual and what are the financial tradeoffs of investing in the this number of school sites that are drastically in some cases under capacity. >> I'm going to turn to Allan to explain the discretionary funding available to schools. >> Yeah, the trick with staffing on um estimates is we're always going to be off. One trick that we do use is when we allocate the staffing, we round down. And so that gives us a little pool of excess FTE that are not allocated through the process that when we get to this or if
080there's a a specific need at a school, we can um reach into that pool and allocate some more FTE to address specific needs. um in in a case where you know let's say because the rounding issue is going to vary each year depending on how how the numbers play out. Um what we don't do so when we get the October one counts let's say there's a school that would merit additional FTE because their October one counts were were higher than than anticipated we would allocate them an FTE but if their actual is lower we do not remove an FTE from that school. So there where you get to your question of okay so you're overstaffed based on the formula. So between the pool and just you know again this is why we have a healthy
081fund balance to address that because in theory then once we go through it again hopefully you kind of selforrect and so it's not an ongoing forever it's a one year you know depending on how off Sam's numbers might be. Um, so the closer the numbers that Sam has are to actual, then the less overstaffing that we would have to worry about, but we always keep kind of that fund balance to help. So it's like, oh no, we've overstaffed by five. We don't have the money to cover it. We don't want to get ourselves in that type of situation. We want to be able to say, we understand that we'll float this these five FTE for the year and then we um do our projections for next year. Hopefully we we get spot on. >> And
082what would be the trade-offs of continuing to use the fund balance to address under capacity schools over time. >> Yeah. So eventually fun fund balance is kind of one time. So eventually if you kept digging into it, it's going to run out and then you are going to have a problem where we have to let people go because we don't have the funds to keep paying them. So that the trade-off, you know, you got the the long long term that model would not work. That's why we need to, you know, we always review and and and look each year and hopefully uh hone in and get it right. >> In thinking about that and looking at this again, only Mountain View is at capacity even with all of this movement of specialty programs and school
083closure. So, I'm wondering how we intend to build trust in our G5 process when closure that was promised to the community to rightsize schools has not right-sized schools. So, Dr. Grant, I'm wondering if you can speak to how we plan to address longterm the sufficient capacity of some of these buildings. >> I think that question means how do we plan to address school closure in the future >> or how do we plan to invest in small schools and normalize the staffing of the kinds of numbers we can reasonably predict? But we we essentially told the community we would reboundry close schools, we would rightsize the school buildings, but all but one of these schools is remains under capacity and we predict further decline. So what are the options we're planning to consider you know for
084either investing in small schools and ensuring that we can continue to staff for low populations and lower FTE by the minimum school program number or you know what what does the future look like with this many schools under capacity. So in looking at the drops which are considerable this year and in talking with Sam and Alan about this um what I would like to suggest to the board is that we look especially Sam's comment when he said we have lost more students this year than any previous year. So the decline was greater than we've seen typically. What we don't know is if that's a stable drop or if there's where the numbers will end up like next year. So, >> um what I would like to suggest is that we hold on looking at school
085closures in the immediate 12 months ahead and instead look to see what the numbers look like at the next October one count. and then after that make a decision to bring forward possible recommendations for closure. I am not sure that we can finance with the declining numbers a small schools model across the district. We've talked previously about the challenges academically to support that and we did when we did school closures a couple of years ago. Um, but to look at that model, I'm not sure how districts have been able to pull that off and we can research that more in the coming years, particularly these numbers as the numbers we see them right now, which are pretty stunning. So, I don't have a direct answer about a small schools model across the whole district. Um,
086but I would like to consider and if the board approves kind of or um suggest, you know, agrees with this recommendation that I would not bring to the board a recommendation to study schools for closure until the fall of 2027. So the fall of 26, a year from now, we'd look at these October one counts and see if they've continued to drop or stabilized at these numbers or with any luck if they've grown. Um and then given a couple of years of looking at these numbers then be able to say this is where I think they will be and so I would like to propose the um study of some schools for closure. >> Um to your point that we don't have all of the numbers in hand. Several months ago we requested a refresher
087report from applied economics. Do we have that report as part of this? >> We don't have it yet. It is in works. We anticipate that'll be in January, early February is when they said they would be able to complete it. >> Great. Um, my last question with my remaining time, I don't know how much I have left, is how are we using this information to plan the high school rebuilds, making sure they are housing the correct number of anticipated students. >> Yeah. When we looked because you're going to have some variables. Um I think I don't know but I think we're going to see drops because people are going to say oh I don't want to deal with construction years but then we'll see a rebound. So it's trying to guess what what the population
088does but we have used those numbers as we're planning the overall student capacity of both Highland and West in in the rebuild. So we've we've used those numbers not just the numbers of today but the projections. Now you don't want to end up with a brand new school and then you have to put some portables there. So 10 years from now, will will our new high schools be maybe a little under capacity? It it's very possible. Um but it's kind of making the risk. You want a a building that's a little under capacity or a building that's over capacity. >> And I'd like to go ahead. >> I was just going to say, do I have time left? >> You do. 50 seconds. >> You can help. >> Um I would No, it's okay. I
089was just going to say my last comment is that it's really hard for me to look at Bryant losing 103 inboundary students and using the ruler seeing that the majority of losses are from my precinct. And I think we need to take a real look at big substantial drops like that before we even talk about like closing schools or financial models and looking into why that is happening because that level of drop is so significant. Also significant in my precinct is that NSI and Wasatch trade equal numbers of students, but Wasatch still has a net negative change from the boundary. And that indicates to me that in some ways the way the boundaries are drawn is continuing to pit these schools against one another. And one note I wanted to make is listening to some
090of our peer board granite discussion on um their enrollment and their plans. I hear them talking about how they need to um kind of poach students from our district. And I've heard that conversation from our district as well. We hope Granite students can be attracted to these nearby boundary schools and kids are not being born at the same rate and we need to have this conversation in a way that is not being crabs in a bucket and a lot of this continues to be crabs in a bucket when we look at schools in this way. Um especially when we put the pit them against each other and especially when it was like an eitheror choice in the last G5. So I think the way we look at these numbers needs to be focused on how
091we support these schools with substantial drops and exploring the reasons why that is happening rather than just moving the numbers around. If I could add too to your question about um class sizes and the capacity piece. When we looked at school closure, we were looking less at the number of classrooms per versus the capacity of the building than the idea of trying to get grade levels that didn't have singletons of one classroom in that grade and things like that. If we look at it by that measure, we did rightsize more because there were fewer of those singletons and problems like that versus looking at it as versus the capacity of the building to hold if that makes sense. >> Okay, >> Amanda. >> Um, just two comments I guess. Um, just to reiterate, thanks for
092the detail in what was provided. It's very helpful getting this vast array of perspective of our enrollment numbers and all of our student populations and all of our grades. Um, a point that I wanted to to to point out um as a uh an area that if it's not already aware, hopefully it can raise levels of an area to pay attention to. Um but going back to the five-year demographic trends and you uh identified the minority um language learners, students with disabilities, homeless, low-inccome and you identified that our students with disabilities um actually increased from just under 13% and is now at 14.28%. Um, I want to emphasize that this coincided with the bill that was passed um in March of 2022, went into effect May 4 of 2022 that increased the WPU cap funding
093cap for students with disabilities from 12.18% to 14%. um and to have these numbers directly correlate with that um that date and time that that opened up more funding for um students that were identified as students with disabilities. Uh we need to pay attention more closely to uh ensuring that we're properly um child find like we're we're finding all children that are eligible and not potentially um hindering that because we have now capped out on our extra funding dollars. >> Does that make sense? So, um, just as we're looking at those different programs and really working with principles, teachers, etc., there there was a time where teachers felt like they didn't really have that avenue um to get the children tested to get the services they needed. Um, and that bill fortunately opened up funding
094for more percentage of our students. So I wouldn't say I would presume it's not necessarily a increase of students with disabilities in our class. I mean in our our district potentially an increase identified students. So um just ensuring we're doing our due diligence to serve all of our students that need the services properly. >> Thanks Amanda. Annie, >> um I think this is a a really important report and thank you for all of your efforts and your team for putting this together. Um just a question. Um maybe Mr. Olsen can talk to this a little bit, but how is this communicated across the district? I know that might seem silly, but I think oftenimes when we interact with community members and other people in the district who are upset about school closures or upset about
095a lower number of FTEEs or something, they're not aware of the demographics and our enrollment numbers. Is this ever communicated out, for example, in in any messaging to parents or community members? >> Let me take that one on. Um, we have not typically communicated to the community about the drop in enrollment from my understanding partly because it's not a great news story. >> No. >> Um, but I think what you're raising is really important and it's one of the reasons I appreciate being able to speak to the question of school closure tonight because I think our community has to see what's happening and to understand that this is in our future. I'm watching school closures happen in all the districts near us. Um, and families are furious. They're furious and they think somebody's gaming things
096or cooking the books or something in this. And I I want our community to know these numbers so that when we do need to bring up the worst decision making around closing schools that there's an understanding of why that would even be on the table. And part of it may be a calculation of what this means financially um for schools across the district especially since um this drop in low income is another one to to really note. It may be just people are not completing the forms and so we're not accurately measuring the number of low-income students in our district. The problem is that the number of low-income students in our district is directly tied to our title one funding allocation from the federal government. So we will be getting less title one allocation in
097the future based on these numbers which just means less money for our schools. So there's a large story about enrollment drop. There's also the story of resources dropping. And I I do want the community to see these numbers and we'll have to think about and um our executive director Yandre Chatwin can help us think about how we do communicate the reality of what's happening in Salt Lake. It's a it's a tough news story, but I also want people to understand and and maybe when the de demographic reports come, they tend to give us some reasons why, right? that that help us understand why the numbers have switched that way and maybe we make more of it when that comes in so we can explain to the community. But that sort of broad understanding will be
098important when these hard decisions of funding. I mean I say that about the drop in title one because I want schools to know that there's going to be a drop in title one funding that we just don't have any control over that. Um so it's a really important question about messaging and how to speak to the community about these changes. >> Yeah, I guess I just want to state as a member of the community, I think it's really eye opening and important to understand this and as a parent of students in the district, I do not think this is frequently talked about and I would love to see it become more of on on the conversation. Um just generally explaining you know the housing costs are high, number of children being born is low, number
099of families moving in the district are low. Number of students who are going to online options continue to increase. Um title one funding is going down. Um we are capping out on our student with disabilities funding. So, I think understanding that dynamic, although it's somewhat depressing, really can inform um some decisions that are being made on a district level and on an administrative level. So, just wanted to emphasize that. >> Thanks, Annie. Charlotte, >> um, did I understand, did I hear you correctly when you said you would be asking the families whose zip codes did not change, like maybe ask them why they left? >> Yeah. So, we >> in the past, we've sent out some surveys. I we haven't we don't have any plans today as of right now, but that is something that
100we could do and see figure out why we why, you know, potentially why they left. >> I think that would be important. Um is I think we we really do need to know um why they're why, you know, they're leaving and um yeah, I think we that would be really informative. >> Thank you, Charlotte. Are there any other questions for Sam before we move on in our report section or to the second round? >> Sam, thank you very >> one disclaimer. >> Brian, real quick and and then >> Okay, Sam. Um, when you're putting together your projections, and I know that that must be incredibly difficult, and I would echo what everyone else has said. Thank you for the work that goes into projecting, but and also putting together this report. How nuanced is that?
101What what are you using to help you with your projections? >> That that is a great question. So, I'll I'll be fully transparent. I am not a statistician by trade. >> Yeah. >> But I've learned this process. I I I did uh score well in my college statistics course in case you're wondering. So >> but the way we look at this and I was taught this by my predecessor as well. Um so we look to project forward we look back historically and so we look at the ADM for every school um for every grade back three years. Sometimes we look back five years. Um and so we we get out of that what's called a cohort survival rate. So that is a probability of students in first grade. What's the probability that they're going to
102return to second grade? That's what that number comes. So we look at three years. And if that number seems wonky at three years, I'll calculate five years back just to see what happens. The three-year model seems to be more accurate over time. We will have anomalies like this where the I think the average loss for the district over the last five years was about 600 students. Well, we're 300 students more than that right now. So those those type of things are hard to predict, >> right? >> Just like we look at kindergarten and some of our other transition years, um it's hard to predict kindergarten. We look back and just look at historically and say, "Okay, here's a model. what's our percentages and here's what we're going to predict best guess. But we can't really
103use birth rates in Salt Lake City because we have hospitals right here, but those individuals are being born and they're and they're outside of the district. So those are really hard numbers to use to predict anything. So we just look backwards to predict forward. So it's it's free. And then and then what we've done is we've hired companies like Davis Demographics and um Applied Economics to help verify those numbers to see if if uh they're on point. >> Thank you for that explanation. And I think that it to me it kind of supports um the superintendent's thinking that we wait a year because is this an is this an anomaly or is this something that is going to continue? Um, and I may be out in left field, but so I'm looking at the enrollment
104in summary. And when you had us look at that when you listed the schools that were having significant declines and I mean it was Escalante, Franklin, um, Northstar Washington. I'm going back and I know that my experience is now three years ago. Yeah. three years ago when I was in the classroom. But one of the things that I saw happening at Newman Elementary, a lot of those families that live there, they don't own that home. They're renting that home and they don't want to leave Newman Elementary. But the land owner has now seen that, oh my gosh, I can sell this house for $700,000 or what. Do you see what I'm saying? Are we building that into what we're trying to figure out here, too? Because to me, a lot of this is reflective of
105what I was seeing at because five of those schools are in that general area. Yeah, I think if you to to answer your question, if we look at Newman's numbers now, if you remove the DLI program, the dual language immersion program out of Newman, their enrollment would be 140. >> Yeah. >> Right. Similar to the Benyan enrollment when they were closed. So, I think those are those are factors. When I do projections, I don't I don't look at that. >> Okay. >> I also don't jump on projections when there's a new construction. I usually wait a year for that. Okay. >> Because typically we've had some apartments come in and they're and they're low-income housing and the principal has called me and said, "We want to include this." And I say, "We're going to wait."
106Because typically what we see is people move from one apartment complex to another. We're not bringing more in. So what we want to see is what the actual numbers are than um than guessing as much as we can. But that's where the demographers come into this because they do a lot more. I'm just looking straight numbers and math calculations, right? Um they they'll come in and they'll look at what's new construction, what's the um gentrification of an area and and they build all those factors into their report to better help us understand uh the movement of our populations and what our enrollment might look like in the future. >> Thank you. I think like you say there's apartment moving but the thing that I'm concerned about is the number of actual homes that can be
107rented. I think that that's also declining because it's not accessible for them to rent those homes. >> I agree. >> Anybody else in the first round? And real quick second. Um yeah, I was just going to say um I do think also it's important to note the number of people moving out of the district, number of students. I think it's um common, at least in my observational data, that we think, oh great, a a family's having another child. Great. That's going to add to the district. But the larger the family gets, I think the more likely they are to move out of the district to get a larger home for a lower price. So I do think sometimes we'll lose families with higher number of children in chunks. Um so that's difficult. But I just
108also would like to say um because my last um comment was a little Debbie Downer that I do want the district and the students and the families and the teachers and everyone in the community to know regardless of number of students. The board is committed to excellent education for every student that is in the district and will continue to seek academic excellence and special programs in order for our district to offer robust academic opportunities for the students living in the district and those who choose to transfer in. >> Thanks. >> Okay, >> second round Brian and then Ashley. So, I guess I would just follow up that and then Ashley's comments. When we're looking at these schools and the class size, to me, this really is going to require a significant study. Um, because to
109me, when you look at this, there are so many factors that come into play because we're we're grappling with the challenge of we need more counselors in the schools. So then you think, okay, now we have schools where there are only, you know, 15 children in a class or something like that. There are so many of those factors that would need to be considered in Ashley's question of right sizing because that right sizing yes it's the number of students in the classroom but it's also the counselors that can provide the service the paraprofessionals all of those other things that we're being asked so I mean this is going to be like a big picture um review. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Brian. Ashley. >> Yeah. So, I wanted to clarify. It sounds like January or
110February is when we'll be talking about this again. Um and between now and then, I think that in the past, the finance subcommittee when it was comprised of myself and um board member Swat and board member Bade, we talked a lot about normalizing title one staffing to account for some of these um some of these capacity issues. And I know we can't actually make direction because this is a report and not a discussion, but I would like to consider that the committee could continue talking about normalizing staffing in particularly in light of knowing that closures would not be recommended. That some action has to be taken because it's definitely not an anomaly. It's a 10-year trend of decline. There is an maybe an anomaly in terms of the amount of one jump, but the the
111slope is very clear. And one other thing I would hope that we talk about in January or February um would especially be those secondary numbers because once we see those declines in high school, we're very very elementary school focused district and I support that. I understand why people with young children are much, you know, more likely to be involved dayto-day. But at the secondary level are things would change like UHSAA divisions, you know, things that really matter to people that we're not talking about. And if we see high school decline substantially, we really need to reflect on what that means because the majority of our students, what a comprehensive high school, and what a comprehensive high school requires is a very substantial number of kids. Um, and we're already not in the biggest division. So,
112we have two in 4A and one in 5A. If we continue to tick down, we need to really reflect on some of the consequences of that. >> Thank you, board member Anderson. I do want to note that um in our little calendaring system that we've adopted as a board norm that um the superintendent and I both have January, February to review the applied economics refresh and I do just want to get a temperature from the board maybe with a straw poll. Do we want to include um the secondary numbers as board member Anderson is requesting? >> Yes. >> Okay. Dr. Grant, is that clear direction for you and your team to look at secondary numbers along with the applied economics refresh or Sam? Does is that not something that's included in the >> It will
113be included in there. It'll be it will look at the entire district and based upon their pre previous report, they break out elementary, middle, and high into separate sections. So, >> you're going to hear from me again in terms of what do you want to know with those secondary numbers? I think we just need to talk about what the secondary numbers would mean. You know, if uh if East High is expected to have X number of students, what does that mean for East High? Especially as we've heard from a number of students advocating regularly for Chinese. As enrollment ticks down, so do available options for for teaching and learning. And so we need to talk about really directly the consequences for the declining enrollment >> across the district and especially >> rather than focusing on
114what we seem to have focused on more which is elementary school decline because of there are more of them than secondary schools. >> I see what you're saying. Thanks. >> Is that clear? >> Yes. >> Amanda. Yes. Um and I would like to suggest that maybe a way to build up to that would be getting um the secondary principles and uh counselors etc feedback on um things that they have run into as we've run into declining enrollment and the concerns there because I think that that could bring in a lot of um helpful perspective that we can then use in that dialogue um because I think that you know Ashley's had a very good point but they can really help flush out hopefully a majority of those areas that we really need to dive into
115because like Ashley said like if we want a comprehensive school we need to actually have the numbers to have a comprehensive school but with the declining enrollment and then we're looking at the diploma increasing credit requirements is that going to turn around and decrease the the offerings to our students and then it makes it even harder to meet a higher credit requirement. So it's kind of it's all layered. So anyway, like reaching out to them and then we can get some feedback from board members, etc. >> Um, Dr. Grant, is that something that you feel like you can >> for? >> Okay. And board, we're on board with that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. Sam, any closing remarks? >> I just had one disclaimer. So we on the agenda and this
116this is a draft report. I'm going to label it that way. For the last two plus weeks, my head have been straight in these numbers. So you begin to see what you want to see, right? Sometimes. So if you see things that look weird or whatever, let me know. As we since this is really the first time publicly that people have seen this, if there are things that need to be corrected, we'll we'll have a review period internally and then we'll post it on the website like we do every year. So thank you. All right, moving into our next reports agenda item. We have the strategic plan pillar two, review of 202425 student end of year testing data. Dr. Gra. >> And Dr. Patrick Jeff, our newest assessment and evaluation director, is here to give
117these numbers. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, as I plug in my computer, uh, Dr. Grant graciously introduced me. I'm Patrick, Dr. Patrick Jeff. Uh, I'm returning to the district after 15 years. I started in data and assessment here after being a middle school teacher. And after I left the district, I spent a few years as a a principal and assistant principal um in high school, middle school, and elementary, both here and in Oregon. And I'm excited to be back and share this data with you today. Um, I shared uh the slides with you and I'm going to highlight some of the major items that are in there to help direct your attention. >> Yep. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. Um, I'd like to thank my team uh for the amount of time and effort they
118put into creating the displays that you have today. Um, it's a talented team and they deserve credit publicly for the work that they've done. Uh, this is our achievement data relative to pillar two of the strategic plan. um specifically at the to give you an idea of how our students are performing and I'll share this information um through the variety of different assessments that we have. It's important to remember that the majority of this data is cross-sectional in nature which means it's the students who are available in that year. So as you look at trends remember it's the students who were present in that year and doesn't account for students coming in and out except for the places where I'll highlight um between stable and migrant. We will be looking at Acadians, NEUA, which is
119our newest, one of our newer assessments, RISE, weed to Access, Utah Aspire Plus, and ACT. And I'll um talk a little bit about each of the assessments as I go. It's important to note quickly that some of the information that you've expected to see is probably not available. Uh the ELA data from the growth data for ELA, English Language Arts, is not available from the state. Um we're expecting it um late October, early November. That's what we what has been shared with us. And school report card um will be publicly available from what I understand um early February, but that may change depending on uh how the uh Utah State Board of Educa Education does their business. The first place that I want to focus your attention is on our median growth percentile. And this
120is interesting for a number of reasons because it takes a look at students growth at the school level relative to other students who started in a similar place. So it accounts for many of the different problems that we have looking at at assessment. A typical growth would be 50%. This is one of those that's a part of the statistical averages. So anything near 50% would be considered normal. If a school's has a median growth percentile, a percentage higher than 50%, then they're overperforming what you would expect. And those that are less may signal lower growth and it may be a place that support could be um brought to bear. And remember that these charts as we look at these different schools account for the starting plate of where starting place where students were and the
121change over the next course of the year. for this one. This looks at our school from last year, schools from last year to this year changes using Aspire, Utah Aspire Plus and RISE data. So, it's our third grade and up accountability data that the state uses. And I'd like to highlight a few of the schools that have had um particular success. Please notice Whittier in the middle. Um on this particular chart along the bottom is the percentage of free and reduced lunch. So, measure of the poverty status within the school. And then the median growth percentile for that for those schools. Any blowing that you see is in an upward trajectory shows a school that is increasing their um median growth percentiles. >> Dr. Jeff, could you explain what upward means with the square and
122the circle? >> Absolutely. So if you look carefully, the circles are 2024 data and the dots that are squares are 2025. So anything that rises relative to the y ais would be an increase in their margin of their um median growth percentile. Any movement that's left to right would be a change in their um free and reduced percentage of students who are free and reduced. Does that help clarify? >> Thank you. >> Um I'd also like to point out Indian Hills. It's had a an amazing growth um from last year to this year. I'm going to include one that wasn't in the original. This one, it takes that group of of our schools that are 100% considered 100% free introduced that Sam talked about earlier and almost all of them have had an upward upward
123movement in the percentage of students who are demonstrating growth. This next one, the four quadrants, um, again a little bit on the complicated side. This is a combination of the proficiency that students have demonstrated. So those that have demonstrated proficiency relative to the standards at their grade level um compared to the growth for for those students. And typically what we find is that if a school has high growth one year, their growth will be lower the next year but will have higher proficiency. So, an easy way to think about it is that schools generally will move from red over to the right to that orange color and then we'll oftentimes move either to the blue or to the green to the next year. So, those schools that have had high growth but still low percent
124um percent proficient, we'd expect to see them move upward the following year. And that's bared out year-over-year. When we talk about Aadians, this is our both our reading and our math assessment in K3. I'd like to point out that we've had an increase in the uh percentage of students who are reading on grade level from 2024 with a percentage of 42.7% to last year 45.4%. And five of our schools are being recognized by the Utah State Board of Education for um over 70% of their students reading on grade level. And that's Bonavville, Enzyme, Indian Hills, Uenta, and Wasach. As we look at the individual charts for a reading in aa for a cadence reading, it's important to note that again, this is cross-sectional. So from year to year, these students change. But what we do
125note is that over the course of the year, our students do improve. Along with that, if you look at the disagregations, you can see that there are that generally our students tend um to have some successes. there are still some areas of weakness that we still need to spend time on. The story is very much the same for Aadian math. Over the course of time, the students tend to do better. And again, um as you look at the subgroups, you can see they stay relatively stable over time. Our reading assessment for 412, this is a slightly different uh story because we've had three assessments in four years. So, it's hard to it's hard to compare these yeartoear. Uh two years ago we used reading inventory which we'd used for years prior to 2024. It was
126discontinued by the publisher. Um in 2024 HM reading assessment was used for one year and then last year we started with the NWA measure for academic uh progress. Um what's interesting about that particular assessment is it does have a continuous measure from year to year which will give us some uh which will give us better information about growth over time. I have a few charts on that, but I um again they're hard to compare from year to year because the change of assessments and the way that they measure things. Next, I'd like to draw attention to RISE. These are our uh the standardized tests that align with the Utah State uh uh core subjects. And a reminder that ELA scores for 2025 haven't been released. Interestingly, as we look at proficiency among our across the
127entire district, we are seeing a slight increase over time in each of those uh in each of those subject areas. I'd also like to note especially um that we are having some success with uh in each of our rise groups among some of our subgroups. More importantly, when we look at mobility with RISE, we find that students who stay within our district tend to score much better than those who who leave our district. And what's important to note about this mobility is these are students who stay within the same school. So if you move within the district, you wouldn't be counted as part of the stable. You'd be part of the mobile. You can see that for ELA, math, and science, students tend to outperform when they stay at the same school. Weed is particularly
128interesting for us. Um remember WEDA is the uh assessment that we use to measure English language acquisition and it looks at reading and listening which are modalities for accessing information and speaking and writing for the production of information. I did include some information about what our ELLL population relative to the rest of the district looks like over the last three years. Um and from 2023 to 2025 we have had a material increase in the number of students who are classified as ELLL to answer a question that was posed earlier um not just as a percentage increase. So we are seeing an actual increase in the number over those over those three years even while uh demographic the enrollment within the district is dropping. On the next slide, this is important to note. Um, when we
129look at the percentage of students who have met growth over time, we're seeing an uptick year-to-year, but I'd like to highlight fourth grade in particular, the number of students who met their target. Not only is this um the test continues to become more difficult as the as they move through school because the uh um difficulty of language increases, but the jump from third grade to fourth grade is particularly impressive. So seeing a 67% of our students making it there is a place that our teachers definitely deserve credit for the efforts that they've made. Along with that, on the next one, we can look at the percentages over time. I've included this one because in 2022 there was a change in from 2022 to 2023 there was a change in the accountability manual from the state
130which changed the numbers that that we've seen. Also um there was a change in the number of students that we saw coming into the district. The next chart over indicates the percentage of each level on the WEDA and the percentage of those students who have made um the growth that's the target for them. And remember, the lower the number, the lower their uh ac their English ability is um on the aggregate. This next one takes a look at four selected grades within the district from last year. And the first bar on top is the composite score, which is the combined score. The next two are the reading ac or excuse me the information acquisition reading and listening and the bottom two are writing and speaking. And you notice that as students mature in our system
131they tend to speak and write better and that's directly connected to the goal object the objective of the board to increase productive academic conversation within the classroom. So it's one of the places that we are seeing some um some benefit happening. The last one on WEDA is the percentage of each of those categories as based on the WEDA for the last three years. And the last two assessments we'll talk about are Utah Aspire Plus and the ACT. And it's important to note that both of them are more measures of college readiness than they are measurements of students academic ability relative to Utah State standards. with the interesting note that for Utah Aspire Plus there are Utah core test items but we don't know what they are or which questions are being asked. So, as we
132look at these percentages, these are the percentage of students that are considered on track to be college ready. And again, ELA data for 2025 hasn't been released by the state. And for Aspire, we're just testing 9 and 10th grade. Um, while it's interesting to know whether students are um on track for college preparation, it's become apparent, especially at the state level, that it's not as useful it was. And starting next year, we will have Rise for 9 and 10. So we'll be able to look at that data in a more consistent way. Something I'd like to point out on Aspire is um our students with disabilities last year had an had an increase along with our uh students who are multiling language learners in math and especially in reading. That was something that was particularly
133interesting to me when I was looking at this data science. We see a similar story and again when we look at mobility within the district. So, if you were in a middle school in Salt Lake District and then stayed at your high school, um those students tend to score better than those students who are new to new to our schools. You see that in math, English language arts, reading, and science. The last item is ACT, which is strictly a college readiness assessment. And remember that if someone is considered proficient on this, then they are on track to be ready for college as measured by ACT. There are four subtests, English, math, reading, and science. And what's interesting to me as I look at these, we tend to do really well in reading and English on
134these tests. Um, and I know that we've had that the district has had a focus on literacy within the high school ranks. So, it's this is something I I find to be very interesting. Also notice that when we take a look at our subgroups, our especially our multi- language learners last year had an uptick in their uh in their composits and also subgroups as you look through the data. If have questions, I'm happy to entertain them. I know it's a lot of data. It's very dense and um after listening to Sam, it's probably a lot of numbers all at once. >> Annie, did I see your hand? And then Ashley and Amanda. >> Um I was concerned a little bit about the East High School um Aadians numbers. >> Um and I'm I'm just wondering
135if you a lot of these other numbers weren't weren't um divided out by school. Um but I represent East High School and I'm moder. So, um I'm just wondering what trends you are seeing in the East High School um testing generally because we we can't tell on like the ACT or Aspire Plus. >> No, that that's a good question. It's not something I I include in this report and if it's something the board was interested, I'd be happy to provide it. >> Okay. >> I'd like >> Okay. Um being that I've heard a couple of comments. Do folks want that included in in some kind of followup or memo. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> happy to do that. >> Thank you. >> Of course. >> Um up next we had Ashley and then Amanda. >>
136So as you pointed out the amount of data is immense. Um and you know some things jump out and one thing that jumps out to me is that we see you know certain school scores increasing at the same rate or capacity or amount that other schools scores are decreasing. And in other examples, some of the big jumps seem to be correlated if not caused by the movement of magnet gifted and talented programs, some of which have been discontinued. Um, in other charts, we see what we identify as subgroups by state classifications. There's been an increase in achievement in one subject, but decreased achievement in another subject. So, obviously, you know, there's a lot of information that could be discussed. But with all that variability in mind, I'm wondering as a question for the superintendent, do
137you have a sense of what steps the district has taken which have made a difference, a positive difference, whether things like letters are seeing real returns for students equivalently? And also what are the action steps that would need to be taken to ensure there's appropriate support for schools that are demonstrating academic need here? and what steps would be taken to ensure commenation and modeling from the exemplary schools which was asked of us in our recent state audit. >> There are things that we were doing. I'd like to bring that back to the board on a board agenda and talk through all those since we were prepared for a data meeting rather than talking about the interventions and plans. But I would like to put that on the future agenda if we could >> to follow
138up. I would think, you know, looking at the data, I understood this as a strategic plan report. So, we'd be saying, how does this meet what's happening in the strategic plan? We were given one example by Dr. Jeff, right? This shows us that we have met this academic talk goal that's part of the strategic plan, but what we haven't done is identified what resources as part of the plan and what other areas of that pillar this is showing evidence of improvement because we also do see some declines. So I mean it really asks the question is the strategic plan working and I would hope that if we have a report on a strategic plan the information is then tied back to that like what improvements do we see what resources need to be added um
139because otherwise these are numbers on a screen you know we could talk about them a lot of different ways but if we don't talk about what we intend to do >> and how what we intend to do ties to the plan I think we're a little bit at a loss so I I would be okay with bringing it back and clarifying. That's kind of what I'm looking for personally. >> Yeah, I agree. And also just like you said, um possibly highlighting the schools that have the most need, >> Amanda, before I get to you, Dr. Grant, is the conversation up to this point kind of targeted at what you were wanting to bring back to us at a future time? >> Yes. >> Okay. Do you know a time frame of when you might want
140to do that? >> Do you have a projection on when we'll get that ELA data from the state? >> What the state has shared with us is a target of late January, early February, but it's a promise at this point. And again, it's subject to the business of the Utah State Board. Um, there is a state assessments director meeting on Thursday and I may get more information there and I'd be happy to share whatever I hear there with you. Would that be okay for the board if we wait until that data comes in to follow up on this or >> given that literacy is, you know, our number one priority, I think obviously having the ELA data is relevant to assessing board goals and priorities. >> I also mentioned something and Dr. Jeff, you could
141probably respond to this. the movement of schools. The problem with this MGP is that it's all relative. Meaning as a school increases, somebody else has to drop. >> Correct. >> In a way, >> you make can you explain that better than I can? I mean, you can can doing that. >> It it's a percentile measure and so all of the all of the schools um are measured relative to each other. So it starts out with students who start out um whether it's RISE or it's Aspire what their previous score was and then they're grouped together and then based on their grouping did they grow relative to um did they grow within that group. So if there's a positive growth and this is where it gets really complicated because the states made it really complicated over
142the last couple of years. um using the data from that of whether they've um had an increase in their um score via the scale score relative to the proficiency that they lay out. Um then they essentially get coded as a one in the data set. So everybody who has a one within the data set moves forward one. I know it's getting a little technical. Um for every for every school that moves forward 1% because of the way that percentiles work, there has to be one that moves down. And that's the reason why when that uh slide that I showed earlier with the um I'm jumping back to it. There are a lot of >> this one. >> So we tend to see schools that have growth a lot of growth in one year and the
143next year we'll see an increase in the amount of proficiency and we'll see that go back and forth. So their percentile growth will be lower next year because there's less room for them to move because their proficiency has gone up. So per while percentile growth is interesting to look um from year to year. Remember that it is relative to everybody else. It's not a it's not a criterion measure. Proficiency is the one that is a criterion measure. But again many of our students come to us with needs that where they aren't proficient. So we do need to look at growth. >> This is true when you look at districts too and rate them on a growth scale. as one goes up, others go down to keep that average at 50 in a sense if I'm
144not >> correct. >> Okay. >> Ideally, everybody would be at the 50th percentile because everybody is doing really, really well. So, nobody's doing better, nobody's doing worse. >> Okay. >> Just to note, um Brian, I will make sure to ask for an update sometime in December, Dr. Grant, about >> I think we were saying February, maybe. >> Oh, I know. Just to see where we're at getting that. Oh, an update on when we would schedule. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. Um, Amanda. >> Yes. >> Um, okay. I'm gonna go back to my notes. Sorry. Um, on the WEDA testing, maybe I missed it, but I was curious. Um, obviously you broke it down K through 12. Um, what I was wondering was is it snapshot data or is it track data like following a specific
145student from K through 12 to actually determine like if we're showing those gains or just you know randomly I'm presuming that we're showing quality gains. >> Yeah. So every year the a student has a percentage of growth that they're supposed to meet from the state. So, it's from last year to this year, but it is cross-sectional in just the year that we're looking at. So, we're not we don't have a longitudinal um sort of measure of how students do over time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um and I would I would say if there's a way to do that that we try to extract that data because that will also lend itself to Ashley's point in looking at our strategic plan and seeing if we're actually accomplishing the goals that were set
146forth. Um, and then you did note and point out that uh the students with disabilities have improved scores in the Aspire Plus. Um, what I'm curious about is do we know and maybe this will go into Dr. Grant's presentation on the things that you're doing to improve things. So I'll just add this to your list of things to cover. Um I would like to know the wise like what if we have identified what are the contributing factors that have increased that like increased co- teaching programs if there's increased inclusion efforts if there's increased you know just what is it that we think that might be contributing to that which it's great but if we can figure out how to replicate it if it's a sound approach then maybe we can see even more gains in
147the future and then um my gener questions were what did we learn from the data points which obviously in the presentation you learned stuff um concerns a lot of good things um just emphasizing what's already been said the concerns and next steps that's been well thought out and talked about here um and u I guess has there been much thought put into and it overlaps again what's already stated um what's needed to to increase the percentages for all groups so that we can that we know that we're on the trajectory to meeting our strategic plan goals because these are the data and it's showing us where we're we're good, we're not good, and we got our different problems are. But then we got to kind of like obviously hone into now what do we do
148to like improve the trajectory for everybody? So, I don't know if you have answers for that or if it's a rhetorical question that will be presented at a later date. Um, and then um repeating something that said been said earlier, but are all the teachers set up to help um these students all of the students meet their benchmarks? So, as we're looking at like the student data, um, and if we can kind of go into this while you're the work you're doing to that has contributed to these accomplishments or what we need to do to work on it. also um diving into what we have done or need to do to support our teachers and our buildings so that we can help propel that trajectory even more as we're kind of flushing through all of
149these data points and gearing up for those bigger conversations. So, I don't know if you have the answers now. I'm not worried about it now. I know we've got more meetings, but those are some things that are kind of on my mind. >> Thank you. I think we add that to the report that we would bring back to the board on this. Are there any other questions for Dr. Jeff? >> Dr. Jeff, thank you and welcome back. >> Thank you. It's glad to be here. Appreciate it. >> All right, moving along. Um item number three, transportation report. This was a board member request uh from board member Anderson. Uh BA Ksley, do you want to introduce this for us? >> Right. So, we got some questions, both this one and then the next agenda item
150from board members. Uh we've got Isaac Ael u executive director of auxiliary services is going to uh present the information that was was requested and um he I've asked him to kind of go through it as quickly as possible. So if he's rushing just you know >> tell him to slow down >> and then if at the end if there's additional follow-up questions then please feel free to ask them. >> Thanks Alan. >> Good evening board members. I apologize that I'm up here again. Um, uh, >> Ken Ken Martinez, our, uh, transportation director, he's been working some really long hours, and I didn't even want to attempt to ask him to come late and do this because he's 5 to 3:30 basically every day right now trying to keep things going. So, I appreciate his
151efforts and everything that he put into this presentation. And the next one, um, most of this is towards questions that were we received from many of you. Um the first few here are just to remind everybody of what the state guidelines are for transportation. We have to follow these rather strictly unless we want to end up coming to you as a board saying will you fund this because the state only reimburses if we follow these regulations. Um transportation costs uh the the lower five four columns those are actual costs for the last four years. um budget 2526, that's what's budgeted this year. Um but we try to keep under that as much as possible. Um so that's the difference of 8 million versus the 7.1 or 7.8. Uh we do have a few additional routes
152this year. Um those were based off of uh requests and needs. um one reset uh for the uh reset program for the um elementary reset program uh up at Enzyme. Um and the reason that one we were asked to add that one because the kids are so young and there's only a few of them that it was more efficient to move them this way rather than trying to find public transit or other entity or other ways to do that by reimbursing parents of getting the students there. Um but overall we have 72 routes, 161 runs. Uh the difference between a route and a run is each route is a morning or a first run and then a second run. So for the 8 a.m. school and then for the 8:45 school and then in the
153afternoon there's another route of two run two runs. Um this is a breakdown of this year's cost estimates for the programs and everything that we do. neighborhood transportation, which is our general gened, uh, along with all the other activities and and programs that we're supporting through our transportation plan. Um, several questions came up about some incidents that happened the first week of school. And I kind of want to touch base on this. It's important to note that um I I will never transportation will always do the best we can to provide the services to the students. But the challenge we have especially the first week of school is a lot of students aren't even enrolled in the school until the first day of school. And uh the two major incidents that happened that that first
154day of school um the the students that uh were dropped off where the routing showed the parents weren't aware that the route had changed. So they were waiting in another location rather than where the map showed that they would be dropped off. The other challenge was is both of those students were driven to school and were so the bus driver wasn't privy to who they were and where they needed to go afterwards. Now, I'm not trying to say that's the parents fault. There's there's there's things that we can do to do better. Um, we're going to talk, we've already talked about processes to make sure that we have plans in place, how we're going to keep track with those students and and do better job of uh communicating with the parents uh when routes change
155and make sure that they are aware of the Zoom program. And we're really going to do some uh work on letting them know beforehand that the routes are online. It shows where the stops are. It shows what the approximate routes and times. Um, but it is a new system. And this is only our second year in the system. Um along with that same incident, uh it even though it happened, it did turn into a good thing because Zoom is a AI system that tells us this is the most efficient route. Um we did find that where that assigned drop was wasn't the best place for it and it took some personal ingenuity to say, okay, this is how we're going to change the route to get that to work going forward. So we did change
156that route on day two of of the uh school year. Um hazardous routes. Um we have several uh items and questions about this. Hazardous routes are based on uh designations of streets and speeds and uh calming measures that may or may not be available. Um we do have a process in place that anybody that requests a a you know they're concerned about a a route or a a place where students are crossing, they can make a request. our transportation director. Um he will then present that to the traffic safety committee for the school district and then that decision or recommendation's taken to Alan Kursley uh for final approval or recommendation to proceed with that. Um make sure I get everything on there. Um there was once we did have that one route this year. The
157biggest change was, you know, there was a lot of back and forth of why did we stop this stop one route, >> the courtesy route. The biggest the biggest issue is that that route added 12 to 15 minutes to the afternoon route. Uh and it affected it more negatively affected the students that actually qualified for transportation and required the route to be changed. That was the recommendation of removing it. And the biggest thing that I want you to take away from this entire thing is two to five minutes of a ch route change can negatively or positively affect the next route or run that we're assigned. Um so we're doing our best to narrow that gap knowing that there are traffic challenges and things that run into run in our way daily. Um uh one
158of the questions was how much does it save? Uh the estimate based on the number of routes and and everything and stops were uh by removing one stop it saves about $14,300. Again, it's not a huge dollar savings when you look at the overall budget, but the bigger impact is that fun two to five minutes or 10 to 15 minutes on a route that really changes the creates a huge impact on our transportation system and either can potentially require us to have another bus added or not. Um, we do we did implement the exception request uh this year. Um, if anybody would like to make a request, uh, they're directed to our website. Right on the This is a copy of the website. When you get there, it says transportation at the bottom. You click
159that red line. And then the first thing that shows is the reason for the request. And we line out what the state guidelines are that says, do you live this far away? If not, why are you requesting this? And and all of those requirements. It's basically four clicks to make the request. Um, and then that is turned that goes directly to our director of transportation, Ken Martinez. He reviews those. Um, and I believe the numbers are on the next on one of these pages, but we've had 41 requests this year and 32 of those were approved. Um, >> and those are space available. >> Yeah, it's all based on >> on space available in the buses that would ride those. Yes, it it's all contingent on if we have availability on the bus. That's the
160only reason we would re we will only deny for two reasons. One is because we don't have enough enough uh availability on the bus. And second is if you're asking us to add an additional stop or change the route to allow that to happen. Um this year, uh transportation is difficult in that we we do the best we can reacting to a lot of things. um this next year. We know we have one route going away. There's big decisions to be made by the board and we're anticip trying to make anticipated uh predictions on what we're going to do, but really for us in transportation, it's we don't know what the next year is going to look like until about February, March, and then we make our recommendations and go from there. But based off
161of it right now, if we lose one route, um it it would basically be moved to another if if the decisions made by the board to to move that direction. But there is a potential of saving that. Um and then the other thing that I would like to highlight on this is it changes from day to day um on a route. One day you may have 23 kids get on a on a bus at one route and the next day it's 29 or the next day it's 11. Um there's a lot of different reasons for that, but that's what we're doing is u trying to balance all of those unknowns. Um the biggest challenge I I mentioned at the first of this that Ken Ken's working very hard and I appreciate all of his and
162his team's efforts. Um the biggest challenge that we have in in in transportation is drivers. Uh we are one of the highest paid hourly drivers uh for our drivers. But the challenge is is we we have a difficult time recruiting or keeping people in our district because they can go other places and work get a full-time contract rather than a halftime or three/4er time because those are the ones that we offer. Um it's just that's the reality of it. We can find people um but we usually take one step forward, one step back or two steps forward, two steps back. Um, right now currently we're short five drivers, which means there's five routes every day that we're having to pull people from the office or the mechanic shop to drive those routes. Um, which is
163one of the reasons why Ken's been up and at him early and late every day. Um, so that is the key points in a nutshell. I apologize, but I'm following my supervisor's lead of making this quick and painless if I can. any questions or concerns that I can answer? >> Actually, >> I have questions. Um, and I just want to say when I ask these questions, it's not because I don't understand how hard everybody's working. It's we represent the community that drives or rides on the bus. And so, we sometimes hear different things than staff here. And I do think that this is perfectly timed report because it is school bus safety week and USBA invited us to celebrate that. and they gave us some reminders of things to do like exercise caution when driving
164near school buses or walking your school buses and also thank your bus driver if you are a rider because obviously they're very highly valued member of a school community and a district community. Um thank you also for speaking to incidents and how we're working to give appropriate responses to families. I know that was a problem at the start of the year. Um, I'm concerned that an impact, a bigger impact than the courtesy stops is the growth of specialty program busing. And like you pointed out, that's not your choice. So, I'm wondering, Dr. Grant, um, why did the district opt to grow by four magnet gifted and talented routes and three DLI routes when our population is decreasing and we're facing this driver shortage? >> Yeah. Part of that was because of the placement of the
165programs was new. So that we were trying to create accessibility for students across the district. We placed the DLI schools from north to south. There's one north, there's one in the central, there's one south. We did the ELP programs from east to west. There's one east, there's one central, there's one west. So then we created areas that we would um funnel students in from those different areas into those programs. And wanted to offer um busing to those programs to increase access to all of them and assure that it's always a question the board can take up as we go forward. Um I can't remember what the promise was when we made that change. Um do you happen to remember was it for three years that we would offer that busing? So, we're in year three.
166>> So, there's there's two two things going on here. There's the um grandfathered out due to school closure >> routes that are I believe that's three years >> um then then those go away. Okay. >> But the permanent is those if you live in the quadrant and you go to the um the DI or um >> ELP >> DLP program in that quadrant >> and live without side of one and a half miles, >> right? then we we would transport you because that was really a discussion of access to these programs that those families who don't have the ability to get their kid to these programs, we want to make sure that they also have access to those district programs. >> I would think um to follow up and then resume my questions, I didn't
167understand the only three-year part was only applicable to certain grandfathered routes and not the DI routes. So, I would suggest that we review what that was. I don't know that community members know what what the plan is for their bus. >> Okay. >> Um, additionally, my question is, what is the average wrership for those magnet and DI buses as compared to average neighborhood ridership? And if that's a Ken question, I think we could follow up, you know, another way. >> Yeah, I I can definitely follow up on that. Um, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I believe it was I mean, most of our routes are >> 50% full or more. >> Okay. Um, and I'm wondering the magnet routes show that they are increased even though Washington's route is being
168discontinued. How are magnet routes increasing year-over-year even though their number of magnets is staying the same or decreasing? Um so the magnet specifically uh we had because we have these boundaries of all certain schools going to an assigned space uh we found that we couldn't do the full run in a 45minute run. So we ended up splitting two of those to um into a small van and a bus. So they're going out farther to pick up two to five students and which is it doesn't re it doesn't represent that it's just a van ride. We just look at it as a run or a route. Um but that was the increases by making them more efficient of shortening the route so we could use those big buses on other things and then use the vans
169to pick up smaller amounts of people that are so we're not driving so much in a big vehicle. >> I think in the same way we could follow up on wrership. We might be able to follow up on parsing some of that more so we understand the efficiencies. Um, >> why are we busing elementary reset but we still aren't able to provide a van or a bus to secondary reset? >> Just a decision we made to try and increase as access for the younger kids. the older kids have access to tracks and to UTA which um with their passes and a track stop right there by horizonte which is housing both the middle school and the high school reset programs. They have alternatives and the elementary children do not. And um that is a great
170segue to my next question which is how are we promoting the use of those UTA passes for field trips knowing that the driver shortage has been a real challenge for schools to actually be able to get a bus for a field trip. >> So the challenge with the field trips is um the full-size route of a UTA route um we we have convenience routing for vans and things like that but for a full-size bus that's a different story. Um, two things that I want you guys to be aware of is our drivers are required to have a a passenger endorsement where UTA drivers are not required to have that and their buses also don't meet the safety requirements that our school buses have to do. So, when there is a request from our transportation department
171for a field trip, specifically large groups of people, we if we can't, first of all, we do everything we can to meet that need as long as they give us enough time to plan for it. Um, if we can't do it, we refer them to the contractors that can do that. But currently, we don't recommend or contact UTA for those services because of those uh concerns that our transportation department has based on licensing and the the requirement of the safety that's not on those buses. >> Okay. Um, and then why are we Well, the wrership question, I'm just going to have to follow up, right? Because you just don't know the average wrership for different routes. Um I think just to summarize one of my general concerns is that the would someone give me 10
172seconds to just say my general concern? The my general concern would be the board did not have a role in approving these different sites. But now we are footing the bill and meeting other consequences for neighborhood students who are having their stops gone and who have additional costs and additional routes. And I'm just generally concerned about the balance of not having a role in that approval process, but then being the ones who are paying the bill and watching some of our members of our community pay the price of not no longer having a route. So I think we need to continue to explore those ELP DLI routes and the implications of them and potentially their writership. >> Thank you, Annie. >> Yeah. Uh, thank you and thank you to Ken Martinez for all of his
173hard work and all of the bus drivers. Could you just um I think I kind of know the answer to this, but I just want to review how many bus drivers we currently have and if they're all part-time or if there are any FTEEs and why our district cannot offer FTE positions to bus drivers. >> So, currently we have uh 70 70 FTE 70 benefited positions. They're either 0.5 or 75 for drivers. The full the FTEES that we have, we have the director, two route coordinators, one for sped and one for general ed, uh two administrative support, and then the uh five or so mechanics and and shop staff. Um everybody else is on that 50 or 30 hour. They can obviously work more hours, but we don't um we don't offer full-time positions right
174now. Um a lot of other districts uh have a three- tiered system that allows the bus drivers to be more efficient through the day, having three runs in the morning and three runs in the afternoon. We have two two start and end times. So that's a two uh run system. Um so that's the challenge. we we can work to find ways to, you know, utilize them more for field trips and other things like that. But that's the biggest thing right now is it is a funding. It is an increase in funding and that's not what I'm asking for. >> Yeah. So, just the start and end times. We only have two options, which doesn't allow as much for full-time drivers because a full-time driver would need >> three >> generally. Yes. To keep to keep
175busy for maybe have a field trip or something. Okay. Um, but you said we have >> Yeah, I just want to clarif that is if we had a full-time eight hour contract, we need to guarantee that that driver has eight hours of work to do. And with the the two-tier, it's hard to guarantee those eight hours. I mean, they might be able to pick up field trips and and activity bus routes and stuff to get the eight hours, but it's that guaranteed piece that we struggle with. >> Okay. So, so we have 70 part-time Uh there's 50, 30 hour, and 20 20 hour >> 40 20our range. >> Yeah. >> So they're they're contracted benefited, but they're not 40 hours a week contracted. They're um between the 30 and 20 hour a week. I I'm
176sure this has been looked at, but I'm just asking to see if there's a way to more effectively use who we have with the driver shortages or convert positions to full-time, if that ever makes sense. I'm sure it's been looked at, but I'm just going to ask it >> that there are ways to do it. Um but without knowing more of what the you know what are the the plans are I mean there's we've talked about some scenarios of well what if they do recess duty or what if we do these other things how could we get them to that that place but again it is a budget it is a budget increase to do any of that because you're both increasing the number of hours you're guaranteeing them and the ben the cost and
177benefits for the for that. Now, it's great if we could do that, but the that's the biggest challenge right now is we train people, we'll we'll keep them for a while. And the other thing is is most of our drivers are either retirees or people that aren't interested in full-time because we do have quite a few that don't want full-time hours. Um, but that's the biggest challenge is we'll get somebody, we'll train them, we'll we'll keep them on for two two and a half years, and then they'll say, "Well, I've got a full-time at another district." >> Okay. And the other question I have is how um is safe like the the location of bus stops, how do we guarantee safety for students um like in cooperation with the city like the location and the
178lighting and all those things especially during winter hours when it's darker in the early morning. >> So we we do coordinate with uh so the city provides the the crossing guards. We have a group in their compliance division that we coordinate that between compliance and their transportation department. Uh we have a committee that meets and discusses that. Um and then uh transportation does the studies makes the recommend final recommendation of yes or no. Uh, but we make the request and that's generally through Brian Connley, uh, our director of boundary and I'm sorry I forget his whole title, but >> okay, >> the great guy. >> Okay, >> are there any other questions? Amanda, >> so just wanted to emphasize express thank you to Ken. He's been fabulous through this through other um items. Um, so
179very much appreciated. Uh maybe you commented and I missed it. Um but I noticed in the presentation it talked about funded routes. Um I did a quick search and apparent I assuming I got the correct information. Utah code F53F2 402 and 403 says that covers up 85% of qualified transportation expenses blah blah blah. So um you're stating that 2526 is about just over like 8.1 million. um is the budget. I'm wondering of this uh funding reimbursement, whatever it is about how much the state covers of that 8.1 million. >> That's a great question, Alan. >> Well, I first want to address that 85%. That's a goal. The state's never met that funding um obligation. So that's I might have to send you in an email the breakout between local local funding and state funding because
180I don't have it right in front of me. >> Okay. I take it out. Um and then um you commented on the benefits and how because we only have two routes in the morning and two in the evening, we can't guarantee the eight hours to provide the benefits. Um I I I presume that the public system needs to function the same way as others. But um in the benefits world um the general rule of thumb is that if an employee works 30 hours or more, they technically could be eligible for benefits health insurance specifically. So a lot of private companies align their benefit eligibility to that. Obviously there can be other variables. So I don't know how that compares to a school district and you can educate me there. But if it's really comes down
181to our policy is deterring that as a barrier to benefiting these individuals that run two routes that equate to 30 hours a week. Um then could that be an avenue that we could look at to resolve that issue? >> Yeah, actually with transportation we have kind of some unique calculations we do. So we look because let's say I'm a 0.5 contracted driver. So, I I'm contracted to work 20 hours a week, but I also pick up a bunch of field trips and activity routes. So, we'll look at their previous year total hours worked and calculate an FTE. Um, which clearly if they've picked up any additional routes is going to be higher than their 0.5. And that's the FTE that we'll use to calculate their benefits. >> And I believe with our system, Logan, that
182anyone does a 75 FT or above gets the same benefit as a full-time Okay. So 75 is really the marker in that regard. So >> we may have more accessing that than uh we the one FTE allocation implies because it's really >> Yeah. So, as we continue this conversation, we we want to really look at historically um you know, that calculated FTE, what has it been and what's the risk of maybe adding a 8 hour guarantee if we're super close to an eight hours anyway on a regular basis. So, those are kind of some of the things we need to be looking at. >> Well, and and yeah, we we need to flush it out. There's obviously some extra variables here that is not being stated if you're looking at 75 benefits versus an 8
183hour employee benefits. But um I think that in relation to this reimbursement to actually know what our net costs actually are in relation to the bigger budget as we're making these decisions to figure out what we can do to um improve um appealing or pulling in more bus drivers. Those are all obvious um factors that are relevant to the conversation versus this $8 million that actually isn't our net cost, >> right? Because if we had the three tier busing, then that would solve a lot of issues. But in lie of not three- tier busing, we need to look at what other options do we have to u maybe add in some eight hour contracts. >> But going back to my original question, you're saying eight hours. So, is it eight hours because the district can
184say you cannot get health insurance until you had eight hours because in the private industry it's 30 hours or more? >> No, it's really just um you know if the Granite District is offering an 8 hour bus driver contract and the Salt Lake district is offering at max a six-hour a day bus driver contract. People like that safe guarantee of I can go and work full-time at Granite, whereas I'm only guaranteed this the 30 hours a week at at um Salt Lake. So, it's just more attractive to have that full-time package, a guaranteed package. Um, so that's something we can look at to see is it possible to create, you know, again, not everybody wants a full-time contract, but is it possible to create some with minimal risk to the district that there might not
185be 40 hours of work in a week, but there's maybe really close to 40 hours >> of that and there's benefits even if you don't have the 40 because it's really down to contractual language >> that maybe they want the benefits. They don't ne >> like what you're saying 0 75 and above the benefit cost is the same. >> Yeah. So it's it's the cell. It's how the language is written in the contracts. It's all these things that we need to be looking at because if we're we're we're functioning off of this is what we're doing, but we could actually do it differently. Then that could be how we we whittle away at these problems. >> Yeah. Correct. >> Thanks. >> But are they paid hourly? >> What's that? >> They're paid hourly, right? >>
186Yes. >> Okay. So that has to do with it, too. Well, and it can help because if they have to run overtime, then they get overtime pay. >> Boss, >> um I just had a question about um the allocation of athletics buses. Um currently, I know that at least at West High School, uh there's a very small population that uses the athletics buses. Um, when I've used it, it's maybe two students, maybe one other student, usually one other student. And of course, that's very necessary for those students, I assume, to have that option. However, I wonder whether it would be possible to move the leaving times of those buses, which tend to be around 5:15, 5:30, um a little bit later because for most practices, practices for sports might be getting out um at the
187same time that the buses themselves are leaving. So, while that wouldn't improve the um allocation of buses, it would improve the efficiency for students and like the usability of the system. I I'll go back and talk to Ken about that, but those afterhour routes are set by we coordinate with the administrators of what and the athletic directors of when those need to be and we base it off of that. So that's just sounds like just a communication item of how we can improve that. >> There any other questions for Isaac? Um, anybody want to speak in the first round, Charlotte? And then we'll move to second round with Dash. Thank you. >> No, I just wanted to thank all the bus drivers and um and Ken, you know, for doing all of this. So, since
188it's bus driver week, but also just I >> it's it's a big it's a big job. I know how loud those buses can get and rowdy and um yeah. >> Thank you. >> Round two, Ashley. >> Yeah. Um, so based on the conversation, I started thinking about how anecdotally only other districts which are larger and are able to offer some more hours are still reporting these driver shortages in their discussions. So, I'd be curious if when you follow up to the writership questions, which I can send to you and Ken, um maybe we could also get some other comparables of other districts, because I would guess that the shortage is much more ubiquitous than we are making it out to be um a little bit. And I think it may require different flexibility on our
189part than just financial flexibility because if the shortage persists, it's always going to be a given restraint. And I think that that's true for many schools. Um but I had two more questions that came to mind during the discussion and one is in these totals and total costs are the hub routes and other required routes for students with disabilities included or is that only in the subsequent report and then also how will the additional athletics buses to Dworth Rosewood and Glendale be feasible with these constraints and what will be the updated costs and number of routes with those totals. So the first portion of your question, those are included in the general ed routes number there. We can we can break that down further for you though. >> Well, I think that this is helpful
190to confirm that these are general ed. Thank you. >> Um, as far as the other, we are working with uh the school administrators and athletic directors. Uh, we've talked to several coaches who have said, I'm willing I'm willing to be the driver for my for my team if that will work out. There's some muddy gray areas there we need to work out between different contracts and duties. Um, but we've had a lot of input of how people are willing to make that work. Um, and it it's going to come down to communication, coordination, and training. Those are the three things that we'll be focusing on to get get that taken care of for the spring. I do think if we can deal with whatever gray area you're talking about and promote teachers who do have
191a CDL license who are working as coaches, there are many successful models of that where the coach is driving the bus, at least at West High School, I'm looking at you to confirm that that's actually successful. >> That is accurate. At least our cross country coach does have a license to drive the bus. It's been very successful. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, >> President Salazar. I just want to kind of hit a little bit on more on Ashley's first comment of it's not nec it's not a Salt Lake City school district bus driver shortage problem. It's actually nationwide and really what you see is here along the Wasatch front is we'll make adjustments to our salaries to our benefit package and then we'll steal some from our surrounding districts and then the
192next year they'll turn around and and one up us and so it's just this back and forth. So she makes a very important point that there's only so many bus drivers to be had >> to so to that point and to what Ashley or board member Anderson is saying this flexibility also could be in different start times if necessary just saying is that what we're talking about >> if if you look at ways because if you can increase the number of drivers that exist. How do you reduce the number of routes that you need? Start times is one of those options. >> Okay. I'm not saying we're going to talk. I'm just asking. >> I'll speak to the I'm a big advocate of late start and I was a very active parent during the time
193in which we talked about going from three- tier to two-tier busing. Um, and it was my understanding at that time that the move to two-tier busing was also a financial necessity in many ways. Um, when I'm talking about flexibility, I in no way am talking about um diminishing or changing the start times that the board has committed to. What I'm talking about is things like coaches who have a CDL or the way in which we offer field trips and normalize some of those processes. >> Okay? >> I'm talking about flexibility in our organization. Although that's certainly one thing that people could advocate for, I am strongly opposed to concluding late start. Personally, >> Annie and Ashley, Amanda, >> I just want to emphasize that yes, it's a shortage problem and just in the employee HR
194world, I can empathize with Logan and his team and that we still do have a labor shortage right now. So hopefully when we can kind of course correct and we have more available personnel to work with all of our positions including busing that will help rectify part of that. But we've been in a very extremely long labor shortage. Um that once we come out of it then hopefully that will also that it doesn't negate the need to reassess our um benefit financial packages etc. um regardless of the shortage or anyway I just wanted to emphasize yes but it's not the only national problem regarding labor shortages >> thanks >> any last questions otherwise we can move on to the special education transportation >> report >> uh have we asked the the former employees who have
195moved on why they left or are we just guessing? >> No. Uh Ken generally asks why they're leaving. >> Oh yeah. >> Uh we we do have quite a few again retirees that their health and other challenges deal with that. But but our more cons those that are staying in the in the field that generally are going somewhere that they've it's because there is a full contract for them to go go to. >> Okay. >> Isaac, we'll move on to special education. >> Yes. um spe special ed uh several questions about transportation for that as well. Um out of the 72 routes that I've shared so far um 38 of those routes are sped routes. Um of the 38 routes, there are 25 buses that have a bus attendant and an aid on those bus
196or a nurse on those. Um the one that we have one with a nurse on it and that is specifically for one student uh that requires specific skill set. Um but uh the other 13 uh routes that are considered part of sped that only have a driver on them. Um there's been some concern and question about how we what training and special information that our drivers have. Um it I want to be clear that we there's certain requirements that we have to follow to make sure that our student uh information is kept private and not shared with everybody. So up to this point our our drivers have not been part of an IEP because the IEP is done at the school with the school staff. Um what happens is once the an IEP committee meets
197comes up with their plan they report that to a a I'm sorry, a consultant, a sped consultant who then communicates to our uh sped route supervisor. Um she is the one that maintains that information and passes on only information that the driver needs about specific students. Uh we've looked at way we've worked with uh Erin Anderson and her team and Dr. hall and uh come tried to come up with a plan to better assess this and implement. Uh the issue we've run into is the information that we want to share with the drivers currently is only available in a book and we can't have that just sitting on the on the buses. So we're working with Zoom, our technology group, to figure out a way to store that in the system that other people don't
198have access to. But we haven't been able to do that yet. So, right currently, right now, Cynthia is communicating as each each new student comes and goes that the information is shared with the with the driver and the aid if if an aid is assigned to the route that they're added on. One of the questions that's come up is how do you decide if there's an aid or not? We don't decide that. We just tell them what routes are available and what resources we have. If we don't have if there isn't room on a bus or we don't have an aid, then that discussion goes to okay, we need to get another aid and create another route uh because we don't have enough space on a bus. But we try to do everything we can
199within the constraints of the resources that we currently have. Um we've had quite a few uh concerns with air conditioning and heat sensitivity. Our district, we have seven air conditioned buses or vans in our fleet. Um that's about 100 vehicles and seven of them have air conditioning. Um that's par for most of the districts surrounding us. Um we currently have three students that we have been identified and we we've been instructed to provide resources for heat sensitivities. um and they are all assigned to an air conditioned bus, but that doesn't necess necessarily equate that they're on that air conditioned bus because they have maintenance and mechanical issues and things like that. So we do have a backup uh of providing ice packs a vest ice pack that is provided to the family um that they
200can freeze give put on the child in the morning and then when it gets to the school the instructors are supposed to take those and put them in the fridge and and freeze them again for the ride home. Um that those have been declined by some but um that is our secondary option right now. We have investigated other options over the over the last few years. They tried some uh electric systems, but it's basically a swamp cooler that you put in front or next to the child, which doesn't work any better because when you're above 90°, swamp coolers are pointless. Um, but with that said, uh, from the time that this re information was requested, we we measured that there were four school days that exceeded 90 degrees the the beginning of the school year.
201Uh, of those four days, two of them hit 100 degrees that students were on buses. Um, our goal is to keep routes around 30 minutes full. We try to give 45 minutes between the first run and the second run. Um, a lot of some of our routes do run up to the 42 45 minute range, but our goal is to try to keep those at 30 minutes per route. Uh, we've broken it down to show what what students are averaging on their routes. Um but out of the 415 students transported on sped um the longest ride is 45 minutes in the AM and 42 minutes in the PM. Um approximately 90 students of that uh their longest ride is less than 15 minutes. Um but again that's based on location where their assigned school is
202or their uh program that they're in. Um the number of students that are along that route. if there's an aid required or not and things of that nature. Uh we do allow siblings to ride on the sped bus if there is space. Um and uh we have obviously set strict standards of behavior and uh safety for those. Uh but they are allowed as long as there's space. Um tracking and support. One of the biggest reasons we went to Zoom uh is because if the students tap on and off each day, the parents can see exactly where their student is, if they got on the bus, if they got off the bus where they were supposed to, all of those things. There's a lot more to that that allows efficiencies and programming for routing and things
203like that. But again, that's a it was implemented last year. We're fine-tuning that and we're excited for the opportunities of an additional accessories that are in that that'll come here pretty quickly. um any parent concerns that have to do with a sped student, they're more than welcome to reach out to our transportation department and talk to Cynthia, who is our sped uh route coordinator or supervisor. Um but again, most of that goes through the teacher and the IEP uh group at the school and then is communicated to our our group for implementation. Sorry I made that short and really short, but those are the highlights of the memo that I sent last week. >> I have >> questions or concerns. >> Brian, first >> yes. Um, just two quick questions. And maybe I'm not seeing
204it in the reports, but did you give a breakout of how much of the because I think you said that of the $8 million sp is included in that. >> Yeah. >> Did you give a Did you break out how much is sped? I mean, you gave it for DLI and projected cost. >> That's part of the general the general the $5.3 million in there, but we can break that down further. >> Okay. That would be helpful. Okay. Yeah, we're I mean 72 routes, 38 of them. So you're you know we're close to 45% of the budget. >> 45% of the cost. Okay. And then in your um report you were ask answering those questions about time on the bus and all of those sorts of things. And this is more anecdotal, but when I
205was traveling to school as a school teacher, there was a stop and it was halfway to Newman. So, it wasn't in the Newman neighbor. I just don't want people going, "Well, where was this?" Um, but there was a stop for a special ed student and it seemed like because of course when the school bus stops then the sign goes out and I mean all of this traffic is being backed up. But I was watching and it seemed like sometimes it took a long time for that student to get there. Do you have problems with that that extends the amount of time that students are on the bus? Do you understand what I'm saying? >> SPE sped routes are a little different because there is no uh distance requirements for those. Okay. >> So we pick
206them up at their location generally. >> Right. I understand that. And this was you know at this home And some of some of them I I would say yes and some of them are no because if you know somebody in a wheelchair getting on the bus it's going to take at least twice as long than somebody just stepping on the front of the bus. Um but again it's there's it's a communication with the parents and the families of the students as well. Um because we have all the time we'll have you know if somebody's sick uh we'll we'll come by and wait for them or try and contact them and reach out and find out what's going on if we need to wait for them. Uh but we we're again we're following a pretty tight
207schedule. So um for example, if we have five students on a sped bus and now we're adding a sixth, we have to communicate with all the other families in that group on that route and communicate and say, "Look, we're adding another student on the route. It's going to add five minutes to the route. Um and it we're going to fit them in between this location and this location. So, your pickup and drop off times are going to be different going forward, but we communicate with every one of them 72 hours in advance to make that change. Um, so >> hoping that answers your question, but it's still pretty vague. >> I want to appear that I of course I understand that it takes more time with people that are in wheelchairs and have >> different
208disabilities, but what I was referring to was there was no activity. I mean, it was like the bus driver was honking trying to see, are you coming? Do do you understand what I'm saying? >> Um, >> is there like communication that goes back and forth that says, you know, my my child's not going to be able to do it today or my child's having a hard time. Um, >> ideally, yes. Our our bus drivers don't call our bus drivers aren't in direct contact with the parents. So generally it's on the radio calling dispatch dispatch communicating with Cynthia or contacting the parents the home and trying to find out what's going on because the last thing we want to do is just say oh they're late and take off and leave them. So >> yeah. Okay.
209I was just trying to understand that. >> And if you don't mind um part of that is um it takes especially with more complex kids or even less like there's a lot of complexities to getting the child out the door. Oh yeah, that's what I was trying to understand. >> Yeah. And so there could be the variables of maybe they're not there and you're trying to juggle that and there's other variables. I've been behind school buses that have been in similar circumstances and they're just kind of patiently and kindly waiting for um the parent or caregiver to bring the student out to the bus. So I would presume to answer your question, yeah, it's going to delay the route time and such, but It's okay a definite component of busing more complex students. >> Amanda,
210did you have questions for >> Oh, yes. I I can go last, though. >> Were there others? I've only seen Brian's hand at this point, so the floor is yours. >> All right. Are you ready? >> Sure. Shoot. >> Do the best I can. First and foremost, thank you very much to everybody that put the effort together to work on this. I know there were a lot of components uh between your department and with Tiffany Hall and Aaron Anderson and whomever else. Um I I do appreciate that um you did put in your notes that um there was work over the summer to improve the process and to ensure it's consistent. So, um, you're trying to ramp up processes and improve those procedures and structure to, um, improve these components for our kids. Um, so
211I'm going to I'll try to move fast because I've got a lot. Um, I did I thank you for pointing out the 90 days during the school year. Obviously, students with disabilities also where ride the bus um during the summer for ESY, which has a lot many more hot days. Um, do we know why the 13 buses that are considered to be special education routes do not have support staff? >> Those students generally are behave have behavioral challenges. Um, where the other the ones with AIDS are more severe or medical challenges? >> No, I mean the ones that the 13 buses that do not have support staff on the bus. So, if they have behavior issues and medical needs, they probably have a support staff person on there. >> No. many that have behavioral needs
212at a certain >> at a specific level that's just a driver, not a driver and an aid. >> Okay. So, if it's kind of a a not as complicated of a situation, then you're not putting them with an aid, >> right? It's just it wouldn't have been in their IEP. So, >> um Okay. If it wasn't in their IEP, we wouldn't have I mean, it's possible that somebody who doesn't have an attendant in their IEP could end up on a bus with an attendant because that's the route they're on. >> Okay? >> But the 13 that don't have an attendant wouldn't have students that don't have an attendant in their IEP. >> Okay. I'm taking notes as we go, so apologies. Although I I also do want to say at the district level, IEP decisions
213like this are made by the school teams at the schools. And so like I don't have a list that I can look at and say, you know, what are the attendants? But >> yeah, fair enough. >> Yeah. When when the school IEP team makes that decision, that's communicated to transportation. >> Um Okay. Um and this will probably go back and forth, Tiffany, so you can walk back and forth if you want to. Um, do you know when Zoom will be fully implemented to do quality tracking of our students with disabilities and their arrival time and departure times and everything else? >> So, the tracking system is actually fully functional right now. The challenge is making sure every student has their the appropriate pass. Um, we're still working on that. We didn't want them do a
214hard line and say, "Okay, if you don't have your pass, you can't get on or off the bus." So right now we're just trying to educate them that it's important to do that. We've sent communication to the parents explaining the benefits of them doing that and trying to encourage them to follow that process. >> And I would suggest what they do in the lunches uh with kids with um more complex disabilities is if the bus drivers can kind of help um navigate that pass checkin checkout I presume is what it is um to be able to track that. Um there's a lot of language that says a bus is routed or scheduled for when we're talking about the time that they're um should be on these routes or arriving or departing the schools. Um that
215that doesn't actually go into what's actually happening. So this could be a discussion at a later time once we figure out this tracking piece. Um, but that's a piece that I really want to flush out is how well we're actually monitoring what's actually happening, not what they're routed or scheduled for. So, nothing that I need an answer for at this point. Just a point I wanted to make >> if I if I can share. >> Absolutely. >> Any any route that we're that's reported to us that it's continually late or having a challenge, we work with the administrator to note, make sure they're informing us of of any issue they have and then we're evaluating those as we go. Um, generally, you know, you you draw a program and add five or six minutes to
216give you some cushion, but on a daily basis, there are certain routes that, you know, at 3:00 in the afternoon, there's always a, you know, backup of traffic in a certain area. Um, but that's really what the process right now, trying to identify which ones aren't on the schedule that was planned and then try to resolve them from there. >> Yeah. And that would be great to do because there's been times in the past Can I finish my statement and then I'll take round two whenever it's ready. Um, in the past whenever a parent let me know what that um a a bus was intentionally dropping being off kids after the main bus drop off and then picking them up intentionally early to avoid the crowds, which actually runs into impacting their education. That's been
217a while. So, it's just one of those it didn't get ironed out until they brought it to me as a community advocate. So, just a piece to kind of keep in mind. I'll quit asking questions this round, but Tiffany's welcome. >> Yeah, I'll just say that um we were made aware of that school and we have we have spoken with the teachers that were requesting that >> to remind them that all of our students get a full school day and that's been adjusted and addressed. Thank you for for that. >> Is there anybody that wants to speak to round one of this topic? If not, Amanda, you have two more minutes. >> Okay. Um, so in the language, it stated that the bus attendant when included in the IP provides dot dot dot. Um, I
218did ask how many in the last two years has a bus attendant been included in the IP? Obviously, it's hard to do that. Um, you guys answered that kind of as a sideline when I was asking follow-up questions. So is a bus support person the same thing as a bus attendant want to >> and I guess here I'll keep going on my question so it kind of will flush out the point of all this. So if it is not then if a if a bus attendant is not listed on the IEP then the student's IEP will not drive an assurance that a bus support person will be on the bus properly supporting the student in addition to the bus driver um is my point because the language is that the bus attendant has to be
219on the IEP but if that what when you're working with an IEP if the language actually isn't stating specifically the right language it doesn't actually drive the support that the student's supposed to be getting. Um, and then the followup to that question would be where on the IEP would the bus attendant um, be found? Um, and is it written in that way or that terminology like a behavior support person or a medical support person? The reason I asked this is as we've been kind of having these conversations and gearing up for this meeting, I reached out to several parents that I know that use busing and have kids that um either definitively need support um for one reason or the other. And you know, do you have bus attendant on your IEP? Do you do
220you feel that your child needs that support on the bus? has it been um offered to you? Are you aware of this? Do you feel it's even necessary for your child? Is this a non-issue? And ultimately, what I got was no, I have not been offered. I don't know that this exists. Yes, my child needs a support person. They're visually impaired. They have stab instability issues. They have whatever it is. So, um I know that we're kind of ironing things out. I I appreciate that piece, but the the the the question, but the bigger point and question is what's being done to bring this down to the parents and the IEP team and all of those individuals to ensure that they even know that this is a thing. So, the first part of the the
221question about the two job titles, I I I think that that's just two job titles, but I'm going to confir I mean like not different job titles, but it's the same thing and we're just calling it two different names. I'll make sure that that's the case, but I I I don't think we have two different things. Um the second thing around the conversations that had happened in the IEPS again school level teams I know that when they talk about transportation the same conversation about what sort of support is needed in the classroom would be had around what sort of support is needed to make the transportation also work and also be safe. Um, I know that it would be different for the bus versus kind of what happens in the classroom. So, just because you
222have a onetoone aid or a small group aid in a classroom doesn't necessarily mean that you would have that same attendant on a bus. It would depend on those needs that that are being um drawn and maybe the age of the child. I mean, perhaps a student who is, as you gave the example, visually impaired might need one uh support as they're younger, but wouldn't need that as they're older. Those conversations would happen in the IEP team meeting. Um, which again, we don't have district representation at or, you know, we are not the district doesn't push into those conversations, so I can't speak to what that looks like exactly. Um, we will continue to ask the questions about making sure people are aware of the range that would be appropriate for that conversation to happen
223in their IEPs. But I know that that is a part that happens after you've talked about what's needed in the classroom. And if transportation becomes a part of the IEP, then that would be the next part of that conversation. >> Wonderful. Thank you. I would say, can I finish? Sorry. Can I steal 30 seconds from somebody? >> Okay. >> Um, >> and then I have Annie. >> Okay. Um, just throwing it out there. I don't need this answered now, but when will more air conditioned buses be ordered? We know we have um environmental heating occurring and then kids with sensitivities. But then uh my question I'd be curious about is where can we find the written policies and procedures regarding this? uh what all we've discussed is transportation plan for lack of better words. Is
224there a written policy or protocol? >> Right now it's a working policy. We're trying to wait through that and make sure that we're covering everything and then we'll work together to put that into writing and make sure it's distributed wherever it needs to go. >> Been formally in place for a long time. >> Yeah. Do do you have kind of a a rough timeline on when you think you might have a rough draft concept? >> You know, um this is part of that larger document that we are working to create so that everything is in one place and consistent. Um I have sort of a goal in working with Miss Anderson and with Mr. Ael to have some things done around December, January, February. Um it's a lot to write down. Yes. And um so
225we're we're working through that um kind of with the things that as they come up. So I it is a chapter in the book that we are writing. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate it. >> Thank you, Amanda. And >> um this might pertain to Dr. Hall. Sorry. Um but just a followup on IEP discussions. Um, I have been part of several IP discussions and there have been district representatives there, um, district employees. Um, so I'm wondering if those district employees andor just administrators overall can receive any communication about special education, transportation, and the possibility of having a support person or attendant when necessary. >> Yeah. And and I just want to be clear that sometimes there will be district people there. Sometimes it's the um school special education consultant who's often there. Uh it
226could be Miss Anderson. It could be Miss Kindle. It could be somebody else. The I guess I should make a finer point to that distinction which is they can't contribute or they aren't part of making that IEP decision. When the decision is made and signed, they aren't part of the signatory process or the decision-making process. But the second part of that about um what does that look like in terms of clarifying what options are available and when it's appropriate to offer certain things like that, that would be actually something that we'd want to communicate out through the school administrators who represent the school district in those IEP meetings. That's actually where the appropriate place for that information to come from in an IEP meeting would be. >> So yeah, absolutely. >> Great. I I just
227um as a rep representing parents with students with special needs, often times they don't know what they don't know. And I think um myself, I'm a kind of intense personality who's a big advocate for my child, but I know not every parent is that way or comfortable being that way in IEP meetings, right? So I do think it would be very beneficial for school administrators to have that directive. >> Is that something we can ask? >> I I mean I I believe that school administrators are aware of the fact that we can do that at part of the conversation is always to make sure to to look at what is appropriate and to say you know is this needed is it not needed you know what what are needed. So I I know the administrators
228are aware of this and and when it's appropriate, they should bring it into the IEP conversation as that happens. Again, I can certainly make sure that that's clarified in their training that we do throughout the year. Absolutely. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions for Isaac and Dr. Hall at this point? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um before we move on to discussion, I do want to circle back um to our public comment on school closure and grade reconfiguration. I did confirm with Helen that um Dr. Kevin Karus did submit in writing um his public comments for this evening's um discussion or public comment period for that topic. um it's been distributed to the board members in print and I'll just make sure and ask that we include that
229in our minutes um for this meeting. Um the second piece before we move on to the discussion agenda um we are again running short on time. Uh Brian, I'm not quite sure where we're at with that, but nonetheless, I'd like to propose that we uh push diploma options for a couple of reasons. one obviously for time. Um we are um awaiting a a pending request from board member Anderson and board member FC Jefferson on diploma options. We have it tenatively scheduled to be a study session on the 18th. Um so with the board's approval with this proposal, I'd like to suggest that we we do move that to the 18th so that we can get to items number two and three and of course our action agenda. Are folks on the board comfortable with that
230with a thumbs up? >> Yeah. Okay. >> We're 43 minutes from a 4-hour meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we'll move on to item number two, uh, which is family school collaboration. Um, this is generated through board member request as well. Um, we've had a study session on this topic. Um, I know there's been a lot of information gathered and generated. Um, since we've had that study session, it was time to bring it back. Um, I'm going to lean on board member Williams because this is something that was really important to you, which is why you made that request. Um, to just kind of pick up the conversation of where we left it off and how we might want to move forward. Bryce. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Um, so I do appreciate the materials
231that were presented. Um, it's a very eclectic uh collection of, you know, the support systems that are out there. I do think one thing that is not in the presentation that I was hoping to have is more around the family school collaboration specialist positions. Um I mean it looks like Dr. Ruiz is ready to present. So maybe letting her do that and then maybe I'll have some followup from there. >> Maybe what we do is just go to that >> that back part on the we do have the financial numbers on that >> at the very end. >> Yeah. So maybe we could if board members are would you like to go through the presentation highlights just some of the pieces as a reminder of what was in the longer memo? >> I think that'd
232be helpful especially having a new board as well. >> Great. Okay. Sorry to jump again. >> Thank you. I don't know. Oh, there it is. Okay. Okay. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to share an update on our family school and commun and community collaboration efforts. This is my most favorite topic. Um, and I want to thank our teams, especially from Dr. Hall's team, and Dr. Taylor's team, the communications team that really helped me put all of this information together in a memo for you. Um, so our focus this year is clear, strengthening partnerships that directly support student learning and well-being. And while this is not a strategic plan pillar three report um these contributions or collaboration efforts will be framed around our three priorities from our strategic plan pillar three. Okay. So
233as I mentioned this presentation highlights three priorities shaping our work right now. deepening family engagement, strengthening community partnerships, and building public trust through clear, consistent communication. Together, these efforts form the foundation for a more connected, supportive learning community. Our first priority focuses on family engagement. We're creating stronger connections between families and schools, through participation in SEC and PTAs, through volunteer opportunities and through greater attendance at SCPs. We're also preparing staff to respond to family needs quickly. So, every interaction leads to connection and support. Why it matters? When families feel genuinely involved, students do better. academically, socially, and emotionally. Family engagement builds trust and reinforces the idea that learning is a share effort between school and home. Looking ahead, we're refining how we measure engagement so schools can track participation consistently. We're continuing to provide tools
234and professional learning that help staff design meaningful family learning sessions. And we are expanding outreach to make engagement accessible for our multilingual families as well as our refugee families. We see this work in action across the district. Schools are linking family events directly to learning through literacy nights, STEM nights, and college and career events. Title One funds are supporting parent learning sessions on academic progress and available resources through SLF and CLC programs. Families are also receiving health services, internet access, and emergency assistance that help them stay connected. Families are also contributing to decision making. They're part of SEC and land trust planning, offering feedback through surveys and participating in superintendent meetings. We're also seeing more families of students with disabilities joining in PTA and SEC. Family resource centers continue to provide a place where families
235can access information, support, and advocacy. Our second priority centers on partnerships with the broader community. These collaborations extend what schools can offer, especially in areas like health, wellness, and enrichment. We're aligning community partnerships with each school's goals so that resources directly support student success. We're focusing on clearer alignment between school needs and available community resources. We're also raising awareness so staff and families know what supports are available and how to access them. When schools and community organizations work in sync, students benefit from stronger, more coordinated support. The work is also about creating inclusive school cultures. Paris Square is helping families and staff communicate easily with automatic translation and two-way messaging. Schools are using SEAL practices and the dignity framework to build respectful welcoming environments. Supports like food pantries, clothing drives, and school-based clinics make these
236values tangible for families. We're continuing to partner with refugee services, afterchool programs, and community groups that help families overcome barriers. Family resource centers serve as hubs for connection, support, and learning. Transportation assistance enrichment programs further expand access to opportunities. Our third priority focuses on communication. Consistent, transparent messaging builds confidence and reinforces trust across the community. We're sharing positive stories every week that highlight student success and innovation. A new communication council will bring together district and community partners to coordinate outreach efforts. We're collecting real- time feedback to better understand how families and the public experience our schools. We're helping schools tell their own stories and share what's working in their communities. And by coordinating engagement, communication, and partnership work, we can make a stronger, more unified impact. In summary, our next steps focus on building leadership
237capacity, expanding training, and improving access. Flexible scheduling, multilingual communication, and childcare options make engagement more accessible. Staff development continues to emphasize responsive, compassionate service to our families. And I understand that a few years ago we were funding some positions on family school collaboration um specialists. There were five FTEEs that were earmarked for this purpose at the cost of $410,000. Now the board asked administrator Kersley to provide kind of a breakdown cost of what it will be if we were to add this kind of position to every elementary school. Um total of 22 schools and what it will cost if we just added them to our to our title one elementary schools which are 14 schools. So here you could see the breakdown of the cost associated with these positions that we had a few years
238ago for this purpose. Okay. So this work represents a collective commitment to partnership that strengthen learning and build trust across our district. I welcome the board's insight on how we can continue to deepen family voice, expand collaboration, and strengthen communication across our schools. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Go back a slide and leave us there with that funding. >> You bet. >> Thank you, >> Bryce. Do you want to start us off? You need a minute to gather your thoughts. A second. Okay. Are there any other questions from board me? Alan, >> I might want to just go through this schedule a little bit. So, what it looks like back in 2017 18, these five positions were created uh to put a school uh family and school collaboration specialist at five schools. Uh and again,
239I wasn't involved in the conversation. My understanding is the intent was they'd be there at at one of those five schools for a couple years, build some capacity for this collaboration, then rotate to different schools and and do that. Um, my understanding is they never actually rotated and they they stayed at the the initial schools they were at. Um, so a couple years ago it was determined to um end because to to end those positions. Uh, but I just want to note the funding hasn't been earmarked to anything else. So other than my fund balance. So the the funding is it's it's there. So what this schedule shows is um using the current salary schedule where those positions were on the current at least current salary schedule and I've used top step and I've used
240um an insurance uh plan if they were had the family plan. So really I'm trying to say what's the maximum cost here um you know if someone didn't take insurance or if they are unsle that would go down. But I wanted to this is the total the maximum price. So you see there for one employee total salary and benefits $82,000. So the previous you know five FTE is a total of $410. If we looked at you know did you put one of these at um at all of our elementary schools that' be cost of you know taking the 82,000 times our 22 elementary schools 1.8 million. All right maybe you just looked at if you put one at our 14 title one schools and that's that 1.15 million. So that's just this schedule I put
241together in a nutshell. Thanks, Alan. I had Annie's hand and then Bryce, are you ready after that? >> Sure. Okay. >> Um, I had a quick question. In the report, it mentioned home visits. Can you tell a little bit more about It sounds like that was kind of sporadic. Was it just a few schools or administrators or how was that happening? >> I am not sure about how that happened. Does anyone know about home visits? Yandi Dr. Taylor probably have more information, but it is school dependent. Um, and some of our schools uh do it based on their school's needs. For example, at Liberty Elementary this year, they looked at their chronic uh absentee data from last year and they looked at which families would be coming back to Liberty this year. So they made
242it a priority to visit those families in advance of the school year to um talk about the importance of coming to school to make sure families had resources if if that might have been a barrier to attendance um and to to follow up. I know I've as just anecdotally speaking with different principles um they they target that differently per school, but that's just one example of a principal using data to meet student needs through those school visits, the home visits, excuse me. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, another question I had was, um, it looks like based on our numbers, possibly Title One funds may go down. How will this affect the current um, process? Like, you know, would that eliminate a certain number of >> So, these these positions were never funded with federal title
243one dollars. They were funded with property tax dollars. >> Yeah. I'm not necessarily talking about this position. I'm just talking about with other activities that were funded by title one that she mentioned in her >> and I can answer that. So title one part A requires that we set aside one 1% of the total budget that comes to our district for parent engagement. So it depends on the amount. So it will never go away completely because that's a requirement that we set aside at least 1%. Um, however, the amount may decrease depending on the amount that we received districtwide. >> Okay, thank you. >> Um, and then the last uh thing I had was kind of this community partnership idea, which was priority number two. um in the community partnership. I just I'm wondering how
244um community members who do not have students at that school are engaged in order to help with school needs. I recently went to the Liberty Wells Community Council meeting and the majority of those community council members are do not are not parents of students in the district but are interested in helping the district and you know we're saying how much they miss Hawthorne Elementary and being involved in the school. So I'm wondering if there are opportunities for community members to you know provide additional scaffolding for this process. I can share a little bit about how we've been doing that and some things we're working on as well. Um, one way we've been trying to build build that is through this actually through the neighborhood community council. So whenever we do have big updates um we
245send information to the chairs of those um community councils. Um, same periodically when there's a a subject that is of great interest to many constituencies, um, we reach out to the Salt Lake Community Network, which is the group, it's a group made up of the chairs of all the community councils. Uh, we presented there just last week. Um, and and we we keep pretty close communication with them. Um, Dr. Du mentioned that we'll be starting a communications council. Um, we referenced that in our last strategic plan update. First meeting is 1st of November, first week of November. and we're looking forward to that. So, the purpose of this um because I know board member Romano, you weren't here for those conversations, is to bring um a handful of community partners who share constituencies with the
246district. So, these are organizations that are also serving communities. We're we started out with just a handful of groups just to make sure we're we're building and then, you know, we can always scale and invite other partners, but figure starting with a small group will um help us get our get our feet on the ground. Um and the idea is to collaborate with those groups um both in information sharing and also in um in in addressing needs that that are in the community whether that be informing another trusted voice about resources that the families they work with need or informing them about district programs that aren't well known. >> Okay. And also, do you have a volunt Sorry. >> Um, this also might >> be uh pertinent to um Logan. >> Um, is is there
247like a a clear volunteer process? If the if there is a community member who's maybe not part of an organization, maybe they're not part of the designated partner organization, but they want to contribute and be engaged in the school. Is there a volunteer process that is clear? I mean, I know you have to go fingerprint and do all of those things, but is there any sort of training or how would that work? >> That's a great question. Um, our volunteers are actually managed through our Salt Lake Education Foundation. So, I'm not positioned to speak super well on that, but I'm I'm happy to look for information and have that shared through the superintendent to all board members if that's all right. >> Yeah, that would be great. But also, I think that would be important
248for those community >> councils and those communications things because it's a catchall for for people, individuals, not just organizations. >> True. Thank you, >> Amanda. >> Um, all right. I was trying to put my thoughts together, so this is going to be a little choppy. Um, first when I was kind of reading through all of the different ways that um, the schools engage with their community communities, it was really fun to see this mass compilation of wonderful concepts and approaches throughout the district and it really is a beautiful thing. Um, my um, I guess question to that is or push for this would be what could be done to share that out? ensure it's shared out and accessed by schools so that they can see the fun activities and approaches like through the PTAs, through
249PTO's, through the principles, everything of these neat things occurring that they don't need to reinvent concepts. They can tap tack tack onto them quite easily. Um, the other piece I wanted to point out, um, it's something that we've talked about off and on, but you have in here as page 13 survey title one elementary and middle school teachers and administrators. The topic was needs based resource allocation. What would most improve your ability to support high quality instruction at your school? What student centered support would most impact your ability to teach more effectively? They had a few other things that they commented on, but the thematic things that we've kind of talked about over and over and over that isn't unique to just title one even I'm sure yeah I'm going to slaughter this so I
250apologize um co-eing or pushin support training for supporting teachers in high need settings consistent access to pair of professionals or aids more support for building strong co-eing and inclusion models greater access a pair of professionals or aids. Um, I just want to emphasize the need is real and the need is title one all the way through. These are what helps teachers be successful in their classroom and we've got to figure out how to provide that support to help our teachers be successful so our students can be successful. So, I don't really have much beyond that, but thanks. >> Thanks, Amanda. Bryce. >> Yeah. Um, again, thank you. I really do appreciate just seeing the collective efforts and programs and opportunities that are available. Um, I want to be very clear, and I' I've said this
251multiple times, I was very much opposed to the the elimination of the specialist, and that was not a decision the board made. That was a decision the former interim superintendent made. Um, so I want to make sure that the public um understands that that was not a board decision. Um, I appreciate also having this uh budget uh analysis in front of us and do find some comfort knowing that the uh funding u has not been earmarked for any anywhere else. Um that that gives me some hope that there's maybe something we can do uh with that. Um, so you know, this is a topic that I um asked for back in the spring and we've been spending different uh meetings or study sessions, things of that nature talking um about it. And in that time,
252I've been having conversations with um community members, with uh staff at schools both in precinct one and precinct 2. And this is something um as board member Longwell said, like there is a need. These are things um that our teachers need. Um, you know, as we're having this conversation tonight and thinking through it a little bit more, I'm still very adamant about some variation of a family school collaboration specialist, though I am thinking it might need to be thought out a little bit more and maybe a little bit different um than what it was before. I do um I did not realize with the five original specialists that the intent was for it to u move around to different schools. And so I think that's a conversation um we need to have as well. Um,
253so I have lots of thoughts, lots of um things pondering in my head right now, but I'm almost wondering um and not to um board member Longwell to take away from what you're saying because I do believe um this is a a thing we should think of outside of title one um as well, but I'm almost wondering if maybe um the finance committee takes a look at this um in terms of um title one staffing and see what the board's appetite would be with that. And I think yeah, go ahead, Ashley. >> I agree with that. I think um just to give some background, this presentation and the idea of a family school collaboration specialist is linked to a number of aspects of our strategic plan and also our board goal of reducing chronic absenteeism.
254So I think it's really important we allocate resources to this area. I also think in the meantime, we have learned that capacity building does not work. We need people who work in our buildings and serve students from the first bell to the last bell on the days that they are there. And I think the challenge becomes the formula and the schedule that can honor by the math as we learned today. 80% of our elementary schools are by the state formula overstaffed and 89% of our secondary schools are overstaffed. from our enrollment report if you compare the two um average daily memberships. So, it's why I agree ultimately that the larger issue is about how to make an investment in title one schools that we know are going to stay small and that require normalized staffing
255with concentrated investments from potential sources like property tax growth. I don't know if we've been told where that's being allocated. And also revisiting where our savings went from the funding of all day kindergarten when that was funded by the state. we'd previously been funding it. We can talk about different things about how money has been used for purposes exactly like this when it's outside of the minimum school program. And with all those background factors in mind, I think it is prudent for the committee to discuss um the financial aspects of it because we'd be first in the tradeoffs to ensure that we have both equity and efficiency in our next budget cycle. And I also think it connects to our discussion on school discretionary funds. I don't know if others agree, but um as I'm
256going through all this, I'm realizing that we have a new board member who also doesn't have a memo produced by the finance committee that's specifically about these financial trade-offs uniquely for title one and special education and the need to really make some specific priorities given the reduction of federal funds and also that we are no longer a cashrich district. We are no longer as cashrich as we once were. So, I'll circulate that to you because it's been discussed in prior meetings. But, in other words, I support what um Bryce is suggesting that we take a look at this in a committee that could could dedicate the time to discussing all of those varied aspects and trade-offs as well as revenue sources. >> Thank you, board member Anderson. I'm going to go ahead and chime in
257and use my time as well. Um, I I think it's also pretty clear that I was a huge proponent and supporter of family school collaboration and would be moving forward. I agree that the finance committee should take this on for a number of different reasons and I remember in our study session, you know, Mike, you and a number of teachers from Rose Park um talked about the needs outside of a singular specialist, right? There's counseling support, there's special education support, there's the push in support that Amanda's talking about, all the aspects that Ashley's talking about, and I'm also thinking about what we um what Dr. Jeff presented on relative to proficiency and growth and the academic element. And not only is there like the social and emotional well-being of a student, um but there's also
258the academic, you know, elements that we need to be supporting students at to make sure that they're successful and moving on. And so I I do agree that um that we should have the finance committee look at this a little bit more closely and and bring it back to us. Any other in the first round? Alan, >> and I may want the finance committee to ponder that we might need to add more meetings in our standard five. Um, just I because I think both President Salazar and board member Anderson have hit on very important that this conversation is one piece of a bigger picture and to really look at that big picture is going to take more than the one hour that we try and get in every other every couple of months along with
259the other stuff that we're we're also addressing. >> Thank you. of already counting potentially two agenda items for the next finance committee and three uh when we look back to the next meeting. So um we'll move into the second round. Annie, I saw your hand. >> Yeah. I would just um like to ask how much money is currently earmarked. It's this 410 was the current earmarked number. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um and I would just agree. I would love for the finance committee to meet on this since I'm not a member of the finance committee. I would just like to say I think it would be uh very wise to maybe you know decide and on what the goal is, what the position would be and um what metrics we would use exactly and then
260maybe start with a smaller number that could possibly share schools that are nearby and then scale up um based on effectiveness. But I do think it's important to um consider all of the specialist needs and the trade-offs like Ashley um stated. So maybe some possible different configurations of what would that look like to have another pair professional at this school for this reason and then a shared maybe.5 FTE community collaboration specialist or something. I think I'll expand on that too, Annie, is that we also need to consider that each school will and most likely have very different needs and requests. So, I I think it'd be good to keep that in mind and what those fluctuations of budget and resources might look like, too. Any other comments or questions for round two? True. >> I
261just wanted to mention that I have heard um that the family school collaboration specialists um really are most effective when they're when they stay at that one school to develop trusted relationships with families um particularly with um I guess for lack of a better word minority families that um you know may not speak English as a first language and that don't know how to navigate the system the the school system and um those trusted relationships are key. >> Thank you Charlotte Amanda and then Brian. >> Oh Brian you go first. >> Go ahead. Well, um I just wanted to point out like data wise, um when we're talking title one schools, if I'm looking at the low-inccome report that was putting our title one schools at the 100% uh marker that indicates title one and
262then we look over at the MGP by free and reduced flunge status on low growth, low proficiency and high growth, low proficiency. But basically the schools that are falling in the more at risk categories so to speak are the very schools that we're talking about essentially right now. Um so whether it's this family school collaboration specialist or whatever that um is however it's structured in line with the survey where they're asking for these supports um when it comes to the performance out of these schools. is obviously a a strong need to provide whatever it is to help them in their growth and in the goals and the objectives so we can help them meet the pillar goals that we've established. So that's it. >> Thanks Amanda. Brian, >> I certainly would support that um study
263being done by the finance committee. I think that that is critical for us to understand and then we can make some informed decisions here. And as I've said in the past, I will leave it to you and rely on your um conscientious study of that. I do think that there's a second piece to this and that part and I don't want it to be that I am kicking a dead horse but oh for over a year I have been talking about the possibility of looking at having some sort of community committee that we worked with as a board. I've referred to how I attended a um conference and other districts were using that committee very beneficially. And when I hear um Annie telling us that she's been to a Liberty um >> Wells. Yeah. Okay.
264and you have all of these community members that are there saying, "What can we do?" I think that we're being approached on many levels by our community. And I think that we have a remarkable resource out there that is coming to us and saying, "We're ready to roll up our sleeves." I think it wouldn't um I don't think we would be fulfilling our duties if we didn't respond to that request that we're receiving from our community. Um I see some thumbs up from >> me. >> I think that that's something that we need to also pursue. Um study session I that's one proposal. I think there are other things, but I would like to see this on our agenda at some level. >> Brian, is that not the kind of what Yandre was talking about?
265Is that the same thing or similar? >> I think that that's a piece of what we're talking about, but I think that there is more to this. And what I would like to do is look at that um those programs that have been used in other districts throughout the country where they are taking community members um creating a committee that I mean they don't run the board of education or anything like that but what they do is they um engage and offer um support, offer ideas. Um they have resources. I think it would be really um prudent for us to look at that. >> Dr. Graham. >> Oh, I think Foss was raising. Were you raising your hand there, Fos? >> Yeah, go for it, Foss. I'd just like to say that this sort of
266program to have the schools cooperating with the community seems like exactly uh the sort of thing that we should be working on um in terms of creating positive cultures for students. Um ensuring that they feel like the school is a part of their community. It's not something that they're going to that's outside of. Um, and in particular something like uh working with community organization groups um you know I imagine that that might be stronger for elementary grades and middle school rather than high school. But building that sort of thing um at a young age and feeling like your community and your school are one thing is perfect initiative. >> Thank you Dr. I just wanted as the board thinks about this to be thinking if you would will you go back a slide there Dr.
267Ru. >> So these are ways that we can improve what we're doing. I would like the board to have a clear sense of what they would want to accomplish with this position. Um because there can be a lot of different things and I think if if we're thinking um and as finance committee takes this up if we're think thinking of an allocation. I think we should have very clear goals. One of the challenges with the last version of this was that we were um spending these funds for a handful of schools without clarity of what they were doing and um perhaps a lack of oversight over that to make sure that that's what we were accomplishing. But I also think if the board's going to move forward to fund something like this, we'd want real
268clarity about the accomplishments you'd like it to make that way. So just to be thinking about that as we're looking at this, particularly as we're looking at tradeoffs for other um allocations to support schools. >> Thank you, Dr. Grant. Um just to recap things so that we can move on to the next item. One, thank you Dr. Ruiz, thank you Bryce for bringing this up and for the conversation that we've had. Um, what I'm gathering is that we will have the finance committee take this on. Um, and I don't want to leave Brian your piece un unsaid um or followed up on relative to engaging with the community. And I want to remind our board and ourselves and I reminded myself of this before I said it and going to say it is that we
269went through our um evaluation process and community engagement was one of the key things that we all identified through that process as something that we could and should improve on. And so I think thinking about what you said, Brian, in that framework makes a lot of sense in collaboration with what the finance committee produces um at some point along with being really specific um to Dr. Grant's point about what our aim is. So um are we we good with the direction of moving that forward? >> Can I just double check with Bryce? Has this conversation covered I mean clearly it's not done but have we accomplished here kind of what your intention was? >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Okay. >> So, can I just clarify with the finance committee, they'll also be kind of incorporating
270the thoughts that Superintendent Grant raised in how we develop these positions or whatever. >> Thank you everybody. Um, moving on to item number three of our discussion agenda. We have B1, Board of Education, Legal Status, Responsibilities, and Ethics. This was pushed from our last meeting to this one due to time constraints. Um I think it's prudent upon us to maybe see if Miss Kindle could come up or if somebody from the policy committee uh would want to recap um why this is on our agenda. It's a simple thing that we have to do tonight with it. But if there's any discussion or followup that's needed, we we'd hear it now. >> Well, okay. As a member of the policy policy committee, I would say that the reason that we had scheduled it for this evening
271and generally it would come up in January is we have a new board member. It seems like this would be an appropriate time to do the training. Um >> there's a different >> This is the assistant board member application. >> Oh, the application part. Okay. All right. because we talked about the other as well. I guess that's coming in another meeting. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I can just give a quick update. Um this was just on the agenda for as part of its normal review schedule. Um and in terms of the B1 policy, there really weren't any changes except for we did include um some language that had been discussed as part of the board norms. And then um um we had the conversation about um uh selecting student board members and of course
272the conversation came up about how the district had previously used a rotation between high schools. Um and the subcommittee members felt that they did not want to go back to that rotation. Um they did however want to um say that the selection committee should um provide special consideration to any schools um that hadn't had a board member within the past three years who um and also one of the things that we talked about was that um West High does a very good job of supporting students um and preparing them in terms of assisting um with applications or um preparing for interviews. issues and we just um wanted to make sure that all schools were on a level playing field with that. So while the administr the student board member guidelines previously directed principles to um
273communicate that um the application process was open. Um, we've now added pieces that say that the principles shall designate someone to assist students in completing that application and perhaps preparing for any interview if they were selected for an interview. So, those were the only changes that were made by the committee or that the committee is recommending. >> Ashley, >> I actually oppose part of these changes and due to the late hour, I be pretty frank about it. I think the student member application should be merit-based and I think the proposed new language really incorrectly assumes that one high school would always outperform another. And unfortunately, you know, it kind of ignores some of the past dialogue that's been had about this. And in my opinion, if board members really believe we need to make a
274statement encouraging a committee to look at applicants from other schools, that would actually be caused to look at what we find to be the discrepancies between our secondary schools rather than encouraging a committee to deny a qualified applicant the opportunity to serve. I think it's almost a little bit like telling on ourselves um especially in the context of a change like this being rejected by prior boards. I think that if we really believe that, we should mine that deeply rather than encourage the committee to change their application process. Um, and I also think if we truly wanted to make the student board member role more accessible to a wider variety of applicants, there are actions we could take that are more meaningful than policy language. We've had past members who were not able to serve
275because they could not attend because they did not have access to a car. and our meetings run late and you cannot use your accessible transit pass and I am an adult woman who gets scolded for walking home. Okay. So, I think to ensure that they're broadly representative is an issue of board behavior and action and changing this language would make no difference other than potentially disadvantaging some qualified student applicants based on where they attend school. And I do want to say we've actually had a tremendous amount of Westside representation on our student board. We've had a Rose Park student attending Innovations, a West Point student attending West, two Avenue students attending West, and I believe the fifth was from Fair Park, though I couldn't confirm that. So, I just I really oppose making a change
276without actually mining why we think that change would be necessary. >> Okay. Um I was I'm on the policy committee also. I'm new, so I don't know the full history. Maybe I should do a little research on that. But I I um just want to provide an alternate perspective. Um I do think it is very important and within the board scope to be concerned about any discrepancies between secondary schools and I think we I would like to plan to do that in future discussion agendas particularly with East High and that's why I requested this the testing data. Um, and because that's the precinct I represent, and I've had a lot of constituents talk to me about how they feel that East is being uh declining or whatever. Um, that being said, I do think that
277that is a very long-term and large project to be had that I don't think is going to be ignored, but I do think in the meantime, having student representation from either Highland or East on the board would be important. Um, so while I agree that it should be merit-based, I think as we all know, equality and equity are not the same thing. and the opportunities that West students have because there's a huge IB population with um maybe increased possibility or being encouraged to apply leads to an over representation of that school. So I'm just the reason why we said that was because we want there to be equity across the schools that there is a counselor who is helping if there's a student who perhaps is not um as prepared but is possibly qualified. We
278would want that student to also have an opportunity. Amanda. >> Um, so the comment that I had was kind of along these lines, but thinking of it a little bit differently. We have an extra seat over there. >> Can we squeeze in another one? Can we have three school board members? because when we only have one representative for um our high schools, it Foss and others have done a great job of really trying to flush out information, but it's I presume difficult to get all comprehensive high schools feedback um when you're tasked at. That's a big um task when you're trying to get yourself through school at the same time and be at these meetings. And we have talked some of us um as board members in some of the board trainings that we've been
279and they've talked about adding more board members I mean students school board members to the table. I find a lot of value in that. I mean so why don't we just add more to the table. >> Bryson then I wanted to make a comment too. >> Yeah. >> Unless we're going to make the same comment. It might be. >> It might be. Um my my question or my thought is that and correct me if I'm wrong, but um isn't there an alternate student board member usually selected in the process as well? >> Yes, there is. >> So, I'm almost wondering if maybe we utilize them in a different way. Maybe that would bring another student voice to the table. >> Mine's very similar to that, Bryce. And I'm I think you and I were in
280the same session at a USBA annual conference where Provo district presented um and they presented their model of having two Charlotte, you were there too, two student board members. They actually kind of run and facilitate a student committee that meets before each schoolboard meeting in some capacity. Um and they bring those kinds of thoughts and and perspectives not only to that committee but to the boardroom as well. And so I'm wondering if that's something that we might want to consider too knowing that we got that extra seat. Um Allen's all alone on the left side, but >> I couldn't >> but nonetheless um it did seem like a pretty comprehensive model that Provo has with their student board members um all the way down to how they select them um and and how they participate.
281And I I think there's actually a board member from a elected provo school board member that um is a part of that or facilitates that process in coordination with the district. Um so I'm wondering if that's something we might want to consider too. I know this is way off topic from what what the policy subcommittee put together, Miss Kindle and policy committee, but just as the conversation's moved this direction, I wanted to share that. >> Okay. Sorry. Just >> hold on one second. Anybody in the first round? Charlotte. So, as a policy committee member, um I just wanted to say that this was sort of um like a compromise type of thing. It it was um we didn't want to bring back a rotating thing. Um, but we wanted to try to make it a
282little bit to have representation from other schools um, be more possible by just adding that that little clause there, you know. Um, but um, I'm all in favor of having like two board members or and a council of students. I don't know. I think it's great if I was really impressed with the students that we heard from Provo and it would be great to emulate that here. >> Brian and then we'll move into the second round with Annie and Ash. >> The time is late. That buzzer was for the four hours. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time but as a policy committee we we discussed this at length and we did talk about that rotation system that has been something in the past and we weren't looking at that to your
283point um Ashley about merit. Okay. What we were trying to do was maintain that merit but have it be that the committee was also considering as part of their decision >> um where the representatives had been from. the line that was added about the principal that goes to all of those secondary schools. So that all of the schools were having that instruction that they were to be um supporting that student board member application process. It seems that there could be um some strengthening of that in some of the other high schools to help those students that are interested in doing it. There may be students out there in some of these others high schools that truly by merit should be the one that's on the committee, but they're just not being directed in that way.
284So that's what we were trying to accomplish with um the revisions to the board policy. >> Thank you um Annie and then Ashley in the second round. >> Um I just am going to point out I'm I'm opposed to the language of merit. I just think that that is the wrong language to use. Um, I I do think we could define what merit means. And I think in this in this instance, it would obviously include multiple measures of socioeconomic diversity, perspective, maybe academic merit, whatever, emotional maturity, all sorts of things. But I'm I I think it's unfair to simply state it's by merit when we are up here based on boundaries. Like we we all represent precincts to get the entire district perspective. yet we're not willing to allow the in district perspective from a
285student boundary or student precinct, shall we say? So, I agree. I'm I'm open to adding another board member, but I believe that this language makes sense given the student population and the need for diversity of voices. >> Ashley, >> sure. Um, I definitely support the changes to the language regarding notification and support. I think that that is actually what the critical issue is, that not all students are equally supported to apply because certainly the applicants and board members we've had served from West represent a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, and they are in no way homogeneous. So, I just sort of reject that outright. But this is also why I support topical modifications to our process and the supports we reasonably offer student board members. Again, we've had student
286board members from specific schools apply and be selected based on their applications and materials and they're not able to attend because they cannot leave at 9:44 p.m. without access to a vehicle. So unless we really change the structure of what we're doing, we are essentially just denying schools from one or denying applications from one school over another, which could really impact students college transcripts, scholarships, or other opportunities that they are the most deserving of per the committee's instruction and existing selection criteria. I would also offer as a point of information that our student board members have the opportunity already to serve in different capacities with our state board where they are supported in obtaining feedback not only from our peer district schools but from their peers across the state. So I think I definitely support
287if we want to try to add a second board member and prioritize a balance of voices in that way. Um I think that if we don't meaningfully address the supports we offer or the structures or length of our meetings, we will actually see that we continue to be in the same pattern and that is not productive I think based on anyone's goals. >> Thank you. F >> um I have a couple of things that are vaguely related to several different comments um that have been made. Uh so pardon if they feel a little disjointed. Um, in terms of West High representation, I think it also should be acknowledged that West High is the largest high school and with with reference to access, it's um one of the closest in terms of the distance that students
288would need to travel. However, I do agree that especially because West High has represented um significantly in the past, there's um more opportunity for students to be aware of the opportunity. Um I was because um Lily was at my school last year. Um and so I think that's a good sort of solution to make sure that there's a specific uh person identified at each high school that's making sure uh people have resources to complete applications and are aware that the application itself exists. Um, I would also say that I'm not currently talking to my alternate. Um, but I probably should be because that would double the amount of insights on high school um, information that I have access to. Um and also uh just having more people on the board or having some sort of
289subcommittee of students maybe through Zoom or something like that so that people that are not able to attend here um would be able to give some input. Um but the more people the more experience is provided like um I think there are two different ways to look at it. there's both the value that um a student board member such as myself is able to add to the board, but also providing a board position uh adds value to the student board member as well. Like this is an educational opportunity as well as an opportunity for me to provide something. Um so the more people the more positions that are open um the more people can have that experience can get that education in you know being in this environment whatever many things that may provide in
290terms of being an being an experience. >> Thank you folks. Um, so I'm just about access. Ashley, I was going to mention the Zoom option, which I think is valuable, but in addition, we could talk as a board about um transportation if necessary. Thank you. Um, well, I think that kind of concludes our discussion for this evening. Um, don't go anywhere yet, Miss Kindle. I know that there's a requested board action in your memo. Um, I'm just wondering, and I don't want to diminish the hard work that the policy subcommittee put into this either, um, but I'm wondering if this is something that the board would feel comfortable um, presenting a motion to move to action and for potential further discussion or decision um, while we look at some of the other more broad um,
291suggestions and recommendations and examples that we discussed tonight um, at a future time. Is it a problem if we don't make this decision tonight? Can we take our time to iron this out? Um, certainly you can. I mean, obviously, um, we'll be starting the new process for a new board member. So, if you wanted that at least the pieces with regard to designating someone to assist students with that um application process and resources um that would be great to have for the next round coming up even if it's the one subp part that board member Anderson disagrees with even if you struck that piece. But certainly um you the board can choose to send this back to subcommittee for further discussion or revision or the board can just assign it for you know future discussions.
292Um so it really is just getting if you want additional support for the next round um at those other at all three high schools that designation then it would be helpful to have a decision at least on that piece. And obviously your board policy um none of this affects that. there weren't those changes in the board policy. So, I don't know if you'd like to make separate motions or a motion on some pieces and not others, if that makes sense. >> There are options you're saying. >> Yep. >> And I'm open to a partial motion if others are. >> I don't want to force it if we're want to push it, but it seems prudent to help support the language that helps support more kids accessing it. >> Is there a motion on the table?
293Oh, we'll see how all this goes. I mean, >> I I would say you can tell me if this is sufficient and I'll resend if it's not. >> Okay. >> That I would move that we place B1, Board of Education, legal status, responsibilities, and ethics on the action agenda with the amendment that the red line regarding preferential applications be deleted. That's >> Is there a second to the motion? >> I'll second. Okay. Um, any further discussion? Okay, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with Charlotte. >> No, actually interesting. Yes. >> Dazer. Yes. >> Annie Romano. No. >> Brian Chensson. No. >> Amanda Longley. Yes. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> Okay, that motion passes. We'll revisit this on the action agenda. Um on the action agenda, we have three items. Um we have
294item 1A, um Hughes General Contractors Incorporated. Item 1B, Hogan and Associates Incorporated and the most recent topic of B1. Um that we just move to action. Is there a motion regarding item 1A and 1B? Ashley, >> I would move that we approve 1A and 1B as posted. And I just have discussion clarifying questions for Mr. Ael. >> Is there a second? >> Or Allan. I second. >> All right. Um please continue with discussion. >> Yeah. So again, I don't know if it's our business administrator or auxiliary services who would best answer the question. I'm just hoping to clarify for the public rather than, you know, silently consenting on these that these two purchase orders indicate there's an increase for the athletic temporary fields at West and Highland. Is that correct? First of all, >> so
295I want to clarify. So those increases were already approved by the board, but I do want to clarify those projects are not coming out of bond funds. those are coming out of uh district funds and possibly we'll we'll have some donations and and fundraising efforts for some of those projects as well. >> And that's what I was hoping to clarify with you. So, if you remember a few meetings ago, we had a conversation and there was some confusion about what SLF was fundraising for. If you go back and you listen to all the meetings, the indication was it was any and all athletic fields once the project total was determined. So now it seems like we have a project total and SLE would begin their fundraising but these POS say it's coming out of capital
296right because again it's not a bonded project it's a temporary project that's adjacent to the rebuilds but funded from capital. If SLF was fundraising for these projects how would that capital fund be reimbursed? What's the process? >> Yeah so in the past when SLF is uh raised funds for capital they transfer the money to the capital fund of the district. So the expenditures stay in the capital fund and then we end up with an additional revenue source of donations. >> And so that means when we approve this, we're approving it simultaneous to the ongoing direction that SLF is fundraising for as much of the total of the temporary fields as possible. >> Yeah, I just want to reiterate that the change orders for the temporary fields was already approved back on the June 17th uh
297board meeting. So really what we're approving now is the increase for the construction of the building. >> The increase of the construction of the building. Can you explain what that means? >> So the original purchase order was set up for some preliminary um um CMGC. I think I wrote it down somewhere. Construction manager general contractor expenses. So the original PO was set up and approved by the board in February. And then we did a change order to this because it's all the same the same contractor. So we did and instead of creating different purchase orders for the same contractor, we've just put it all on the same purchase order. So then on the June 17th, there was a change order for the temporary field costs and that was approved on that board meeting. And now
298as we nearing the end of the design phase or whatever phase we're in, Isaac, and we have a better idea of what the total cost of the building, now we're saying, okay, now let's increase the PO to cover the total cost of the of the construction of the building. >> Okay, that makes sense to me. And um then I would just reiterate because the direction to SLF was again to fund for as much of the total as possible that it would be ideal if our board representatives who are part of this left board are able to report on you know different organizations fund different sports and different organizations fund different neighborhoods and to make sure that we are maximizing the investment on this um and that we're getting reports on how close are we to
299what that total is now that we know you know more of where we are. And my last question here is there's some um stress about the completion of the Rosewood field. Are we on track to is this related to Rosewood specifically? And if so, are we on track to complete that field using these additional resources? >> Yeah. Again, so the resources we're approving tonight aren't going towards the field. Okay. >> Because that was resources that were already approved in a previous meeting. >> Got it. But overall the field the field are on track. We've had some delays on field today >> that they'll start tomorrow. Um so the track and everything will be ready for spring. >> Okay. That's very exciting. And I think knowing we want those community updates and we're getting them. I
300don't typically like to pull things from consent, right? It's not quick. It's not efficient. it's 10 p.m. Um, but I think when we're making changes like this, it can be helpful even if there's like an attachment that describes, you know, some of what you're talking about because I would say the community cares more about these things than they do about a majority of our consent items. So, I'll get questions about it. I wanted to dedicate the time to talking about it and then I appreciate having the time to do that. So, thank you. >> Actually, Dr. I want to clarify because I think this has come up a couple of times and board member Antserson, you've raised that we directed SLF to do something. I don't have any record of the board directing SLF nor
301I do I understand that there's ever a precedent for this board to direct SLF which has its own board. Um >> so that I think we need to question. And the second thing is I don't have any recollection nor does anybody else I have talked with including SLF that there was any promise to fund raise for all fields. SLF has made their priorities based on what we were asking generally to align their work and it is around funding for the CTC center, funding for the Glendel field which was presented when we first presented this that SLF would help with that because it was the McBride field and they had a connection already with McBride to help us fund raise toward that field. And the third one is for the um health clinics in the high
302schools. So um this idea that we were going to fundra for all of them, nobody else has that understanding. Ashley, >> um yeah, I would just respond to that. I did email information about all of the meetings where this was referenced, the timeline, the discussion, and that it was stated specifically that the athletic fields plural would be fundraised for by SLF. And you're correct. The board doesn't direct that. But we were told by staff that that's what would occur. And then it was never specified that it would be only Glendale. And I've emailed that. So what I can do is just circulate that to everybody um because it's it's just frankly what we were told. Additionally, we were told that fundraising on Glendale had commenced because the Glendale campus had its total the soonest because
303we approved it the soonest. And the supposition then is that the rest of the fundraising would begin when a total was obtained for the next batch of projects that we approved because we approved them in sequence. Um so I did send very long email dates and dates of meetings, times of meetings, additional um notes I offered with the time signatures of the discussion items and I can just circulate that for everybody. That's fine. >> Yeah, I'd like to see that because that isn't >> Yeah, because I I mean, send it again because I remember watching one and I'm sure I got it from you uh where I was quoted as well, I wasn't quoted because I said that we we >> I quoted you, okay? >> You know, that we'd be looking for um you
304know, partnerships for all of them, partnerships with either donors or the city. And so one thing we did with those rosewood fields is we've partnered with the city um to you know help defay the cost on that. So um the statement of partner with other entities is still valid even though we maybe say isn't per specifically raising funds for that. Will we always accept a donation for anything? Absolutely. >> Thank you. Any further discussion Brian? I just wanted to interject that being on that SLF U board and Bryce and Nate, you're there as well. The understanding that I have had was each of us were assigned to a specific area. Um, I was assigned to the CTE. Then we have the health clinic. >> The health clinic. >> Your CT. >> Oh, your CT. Excuse
305me. Right. Anyway, we each have our own specific areas. Okay. >> Thank you. Any further discussion, >> Amanda? Um, I just wanted to uh it might be redundant but emphasize that the increase request for the West High School rebuild and the Highland High School rebuild that is increasing the cost uh so marketkedly is um well not related to the fields but related to the second round of the rebuild phases for Highland High School and West High School. Those are coming out of bond bond funds which is the largest portion of both of those dollar amounts. >> I want to emphasize we're not asking for an increase to the PO because we missed the mark when we set up the PO. It's I mean this was the plan all along. We set up the purchase order
306originally for initial costs and now as we get further down the process we're we're increasing that PO to cover the cost of what we know now. >> Right. Thank you. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, I'll ask for a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Anna Longo, yes. >> Price Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe, Jefferson, yes. >> Thank you. Um, our last item on our action agenda is item B1. I'll entertain a motion to start the discussion. I move that we approve policy B1, Board of Education, Legal Status, Responsibilities, and Ethics, with the amendments previously discussed. >> Second. >> Can we have any discussion on this? >> We will. >> Okay. >> And was it
307Amanda that second? >> I think there was two of us. >> Maybe I'll take it. >> Okay. All right. I have a a motion from um Ashley and a second from Amanda. Um I'll open it up for discussion. Okay. I just want a point of information. There has not been a student board member who is not part of the West IB program since 2019. >> Point of information. >> Are you honoring the point of information? >> Yes. >> The we had a student from Innovations within that time frame. So that's not accurate. >> Okay. >> And we did have another young lady >> kind of both. Wasn't she both? She was an innovation student and like all innovation students, she did um her sports with her boundary school. >> Okay. >> She did cheerleading with
308her boundary school but was a West High student. >> Okay. When I was research an innovation student. >> Okay. When I was researching it mentioned all since 2019 all of the board members have been from West, but maybe it was an innovation west student. So that's just my discussion. We have five high schools and if one high school has been representing for four out of the last five years, I think it's crucial that we have the the opportunity for that to be a point of consideration in the selection. >> Additional point of information, >> please. >> If the time was 2019, we also did have a student who had to withdraw, I believe, who was from East High. So, I think that >> Oh, horizontal. >> Horizont horizont. >> Well, there was horizonte, but there
309was also there may have been >> and that may have been 20. It's it's challenging to parse because for example um some of us could be off the board and Foss will remain on the board until he graduates. So what I'm trying to say is there's a big span and it's hard to balance by years. But I think the confusion about that speaks to the idea we talk about some of that aspect more while agreeing to the supports that we unanimously support. I think that would be most productive to continue the dialogue effectively. Um and also it was a horizonte student that we did have um for a couple of meetings. Um I didn't raise that in the discussion. Um but the reasons that she did have to step aside were a lot of what
310we talked about transportation um availability of time and schedule um and ultimately just concerns from her foster parents at the time about how late she was participating in. So there's a lot of what we discussed tonight is very relevant to um some of the challenges that our students board members have faced in the past. thoughts. Um and to the point of um probably over representation from West um I do feel like it would be unfair to a student like let's say it's it's been five years although we've established it maybe it wasn't it wasn't um let's say that it's been five years then there's another student who appears to be in some way merit qualified it's not their fault that they are at a disadvantage for selection. It's because of the past and the way
311that the schools themselves are being supported. So, it feels like the best way to go about it equitably for that student of that year who's it's not their fault that people were selected in the past. It would be better to increase like support for each school. >> I feel like this is an affirmative action discussion. >> Honestly, it really mirrors a lot of discussions that have been happening. So, in my opinion, it is equable. >> We've been doing this a lot and it's 10:05. We have to speak through the chair and only add our comments when we're called upon to discuss the item. >> Um, is there any further discussion? Amanda. >> Um, I just want to emphasize my interest is not to um eliminate the ability to consider or to give better access to
312all of our comprehensive stu high school students to participate in this. My interest is adding more to the table so that that helps accomplish I believe what you're trying to accomplish whether it's two or three. So that's my interest is that we, you know, whether it goes back to the policy committee on how it's written or we bring it back as a discussion or a study session, but I would strongly advocate my and the reason I'm I'm proposing removing that link that specific language, but any other to help benefit the process is my personal interest in the goal of at least adding one more active student u board member to the table each night. So I want to accomplish I think what you guys are wanting to accomplish but by adding a another body to
313the table. >> We're still in the first round. Any other discussion on the first round? >> Seeing none thoughts go to the second. >> Um that just gave me the idea that um maybe the middle ground would be that we do have two student board members but they can't be from the same school. >> Correct. Any other discussion? Okay. Um, seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with Annie. >> Annie Romano, no. >> Brian Jensen, no. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte F. Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Salazar, yes. That motion passes. Um, we will move on to um our superintendent report and board member reports. >> None tonight. >> Um, I've been asked to start on this end of the table again. So, Amanda, you're up
314for a board member report. >> Last time. Um, okay. Let me get my calendar up here. Give me a second. >> Do you want me to go while you're pulling it up? >> You go ahead and I'll be next. Um, so West High Mountain Viking, which is not a UHSA sanctioned sport, but is a growing and popular club, placed third at state. Um, West women's soccer won their first playoff game since, I believe, 2011. And no matter the date, the impressive growth of that team is worthy of congratulations. West High cross country, of which our student board member is a member, qualified for state, and they have JV finals also coming up. West volleyball continues to have a strong record. And West High football is ranked first among all of the 5A schools, showing a
315tremendous amount of growth in West's athletics. If I did not mention your team or your activity, I do try to get to all sports during the year. So, please invite me to events. I would love to celebrate your achievements um in academic achievements and other activities. The list of National Merit Scholarship finalists from West continues to be a very impressive number of students. And I would invite anyone um to join me for a West High Choir event this Thursday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. In elements of board business, we have not had a finance committee meeting, although we will be adding several to our schedule. And we also used to add on to that the tax increment financing designate committee, but because it's no longer added on, we have not convened. And I think it
316is prudent that we schedule a tax increment financing committee meeting ahead of the legislative session um with Charlotte and Allan and myself. And I did attend another My County Rec Pass working group meeting today as part of my role on the Salt Lake City Parks Advisory Board um to share feedback on how to communicate that opportunity with more students. And um the last couple of notes, I attended an NSBA webinar on air quality indoors, which I found very informative, and I look forward to considering what I learned as we hear about recommended capital improvements next year and consider the benefits of the rebuild. In terms of indoor air quality, I did also attend two interim legislative meetings. And of the many topics presented, I was most interested in the chronic absenteeism legislation being put forward
317by Senator Filillmore. And I look forward to talking about other legislation at JLC on Friday. Thank you. Actually, Amanda, >> I won't sound that pulled together, but I will try. Um, I wanted to emphasize to the community, to the teachers, the SLEA, that I'm not here right now. Hopefully, you're listening that we heard uh your concerns regarding um special education paras and we have been talking about it. Um, and there will be future conversations about that. Um, for those who were not aware, um, Unified Sports, they, um, made it, Highland High School and East High School made it, um, to the state championship, um, at the Real Salt Lake Stadium, and that was on October 9th. Um, I think they both placed well, but I cannot recollectuh what their placements were. Um on the uh
318to-do um I got to figure out how to accomplish on Thursday. We've got Dworth, Nibbly Park, and HP SEC's all happening between 3:30 and 5:15. So see how many I can hit. Um and then um uh Francis Battle is being awarded the president's award um Friday night at the NAACP Salt Lake. um, Branch Freedom Banquet. So, congratulations to her. I'm excited to participate in that. Um, let's see. Halloween's coming. Let's see how sugary high all of our kids become. Um, and then before the next board meeting, let's see. Oh, shoot. Nope, it's not done. Um last year Highland High School hosted the um one table together and they are now hosting it at West High School. I believe it is on November 11th. So it's exciting that they are now um um doing that event
319over there because that was a fabulous event. Um and I'll leave it at that. >> Yeah, I'll go uh just two quick things. Um one Thursday the human sexuality committee uh will meet. So, I hope to have more of a report next board meeting. And then, uh, this coming Sat or yeah, this upcoming Saturday morning, I will be participating with Rose Park Elementary and Rose Park Community Learning Center. They're doing a pave the pavement um project. Um, so, uh, at the intersection of 900 West and 800 North, just trying to bring some more um, visibility to that intersection there. And it's very much needed and I'm excited to get out there and do some painting. >> Thank you, Fox. Do you have any reports to give? >> Um, no particular reports. Although I did uh
320notice during the reports on school scores that sixth and 12th graders tended to have unusually uh low scores for those end of year testing um tests. Um which I feel fairly confident in assuming but not knowing that that might have to do with them being at the end of their career within that section of the school. um system and uh just since it's my understanding that those scores are somewhat related to um the financial support for schools, their testing is related to that. I don't know whether that's true. Um it would be help to emphasize for those uh students that um they should care about those scores because they do have an impact on their fellow students who are also going through the school. >> Thank you. Brian, >> in light of the time I'm
321relying on the other board members who have shared many of the things that I had noted. Thank you. >> Annie, >> I will also pass because of time. I just wanted to say that I am making the rounds to the schools in my precinct and um I attended the SEC meeting at Glendel. Well, it's it was the Mountain View um SEC meeting and then visited Franklin and um got to speak with the principal and the office staff and um I am going to visit Park View. Well, I did visit Park View, but they invited me to come along with a story walk um at at the wetlands that are nearby. So, um, planning to do that on Thursday and I'll be making rounds to all the schools. >> Thank you. The only thing that I
322will just reannounce is that our next school board meeting on November 3rd is on a Monday, not on a Tuesday, um, because of our elections. So, um, please get out there and vote. Um it's always a really really important duty that we have um to get out there and participate in the civic process to elect new elected officials. Uh we do have a need for close session and I'll entertain a motion. >> I move that the board enter close executive session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual as well as pending or reasonably imminent litigation and that the board adjurnn immediately upon the conclusion of the close session. >> I second a motion in a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll start with a roll call vote with
323Amanda. >> Yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Excellent. That motion passes. Thank you, community. Um, all of the folks that are still here with us for all of your work and dedication to our students. >> I don't know, I think, but I'll give you my Okay. Right. >> You're supposed to read the rules. Take that. >> Yeah.