SLCSD Board Meeting, October 7, 2025 5:30 PM

001All right. Good evening everybody and welcome. Today is October 7th, 2025. Uh we are here for a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education business meeting. Uh the board does have a need to go into a closed executive session and I will look for a motion now. >> I I move that on October 7th, 2025, the board go into closed executive session to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual. >> I second. >> Is there any discussion to the motion? >> Seeing none, uh we'll start with a roll call vote with Amanda Longwell. Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> That motion passes. Uh we'll be

002back around 5:30 for the public meeting. Thank you. All right. Thank you everybody for joining us um and for allowing us extra time while we got uh re uh organized and set up after our closed executive session. Um the board does have a need to return to close session after the meeting and we'll make sure to to make that motion towards the end of the meeting. Um, again, today is October 7th, 2025. We are here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education business meeting. I do want to take just a few moments to recognize um folks who are in the room uh from our associations. We have buildings and grounds president Aaliyah. Child nutrition is President Tanya Slaughter. Transportation is Audrey Benali. For SLEA, we have President Mike Harmon.

003uh Vice President Chelsea Costa, who I am understanding is uh moving like on her way to DC for a conference with NEA. So, thank you Chelsea for representing us out in DC. Uh for our Salt Lake Association of School Administrators, uh we have President Tom Luthie and they are represented by Adrien Loato who's joining us virtually this evening. Um moving on to the pledge of allegiance, I've asked Jennifer New from the Salt Lake City Mayor's office to lead us in the pledge this evening. 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. Uh thank you. Up next is our consent agenda. Um, Vice President Jensen and I did receive requests to

004pull, excuse me, two items off of our consent agenda. And Ashley, I'm going to look at you. Did you need both of those items still or just uh the one on the minutes? >> I had two requests. >> Okay. >> I I understand that I only have one request, which was the minutes, but Amanda has others. >> Okay. Amanda, would you uh please let us know? Would you mind giving the motion with excluding the minutes piece um and then along with your two items that you wanted to to remove to action? >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of the board minutes from September 16. Um additionally, the LEA educator licensing and endorsement as well as the phase 2026 sustainability projects. those to be moved to the action agenda.

005>> Thank you, Amanda. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Okay, seeing none, we'll start with a roll call vote with board member F Jefferson. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, >> yes. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. Okay, that motion passes. Thank you, board. Uh we will now move on to our request to speak. We've got a full lineup this evening. Um our first speaker this evening is Jeremy Renoso. It sounds like it's not. One second, Sam. >> Okay, you should be good. >> Hello. Hello. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Jeremy Renoso and I'm here tonight as

006a kindergarten teacher to speak about what happens when we don't have enough professionals in our schools. Every day I see how shortages of teachers or aids are and support staff ripple through the system. When a classroom goes uncovered, when substitutes cancel or don't show up, students lose learning time. When staff support staff are stretched thin, we don't have enough or when we don't have enough paras. Safety and supervision become real concerns due to some crow crowded classrooms. I've had some sped colleagues who are repeatedly injured on the job and that is not okay. admin in my building have been so busy stepping in stepping in with supervision issues. And these gaps don't just create minor inconvenience, they create inequities because not every child has the same needs in each classroom and not every child has

007the same resources at home to make up for what's missing at school. The most important point I want to emphasize is this that staffing shortages directly affect student success. Admin cannot lead schools when they are overwhelmed and teachers cannot give their best instruction when they're covering for absent colleagues. Students can't focus when routines break down. This is not best practice and this is not developmentally appropriate. This is creating working conditions that are unsustainable and are burning out the people closest to our students, the teachers and parents who show up. This isn't just about numbers on a spreadsheet. It's about whether our people or our children feel supported and safe every day. I respectfully ask the board to consider how staffing is prioritized in upcoming decisions. Whether that means more competitive pay or stronger recruitment or

008retention supports, investing in people is investing in our students. We cannot provide strong schools without enough hands, hearts, and minds in the building. We must demand more from our state legislature. And when I when asked to speak when I asked to for my peers to come speak with me tonight, their first question was why? They aren't going to do anything about it. I think we should change that feeling of non-responsive leadership. Thank you for your continued commitment to our schools and our community. Please center the needs of our students and invest in our workforce. >> Thank you, Jeremy. All right, up next we have Yinloo. Please come on up. >> Good evening and members of the >> One second. I think we got to check the microphone on that. >> I I might need to

009just sit closer. That's all. We have a solution. Good evening, Superintendent Grant and members of the board. I am here tonight on behalf of a large group of concerned students, parents, and community members to urge you to keep the Chinese language program at West. We are very concerned by the potential elimination of this program and believe the decision is based on flawed and unrealistic criteria. First, the proposed enrollment goal of 180 students with a range of 32 to 35 per class is unattainable. Historically, the program has never reached this number. West High's overall enrollment has declined by about 500 students, and the assigned Chinese classroom itself has a maximum capacity of only 32 students. Setting an impossible goal ensures failure. Second, using a standard metric for class size in a language program is a mistake.

010Language learning is not like other core subjects. It requires smaller classes where students can practice speaking and receive the individual attention necessary to become proficient. The quality of our students education should be as valued as total enrollment numbers. The Chinese program has been a key part of the prestigious IB program at West. It has made meaningful and important contributions to IB and AP C scores that are consistently above the state average. Eliminating it would weaken one of West's flagship programs, forcing students to abandon their studies who have typically invested years in this language or even transfer schools in order to complete their IB diploma would be incredibly disruptive and detrimental to their academic success and mental health. Instead of cutting this program, we ask you to consider working with us to strengthen it. We have

011some possible solutions. The district could create a K12 dual language immersion track that feeds into West, a model protected by state law and proven successful across Utah. You could also consider making a work language a graduation requirement which would benefit all students and programs. The decision-making process so far has lacked transparency and community input, but our community is ready to help. To show our support, we have collected over 100 signatures from current students and families who are taking Chinese and we are pleading you to keep this program alive. The Chinese program is a vital asset to our students and our school and our school community. We respectively request a collaborative approach and solution and we urge you to preserve this program. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Our next speaker this evening is

012Jennifer Johnson. Hopefully the fe can you hear me? Okay. Okay. So, good evening members of the board and superintendent Grant. My name is Jennifer Johnson and I am a kindergarten through 2 grade essential elements teacher. I am here tonight to share my concern about the shortage and the crisis level aotments of special education pair professionals and the impact this has on classrooms like mine. The reality is this staffing is at a breaking point. I am allotted two pair professionals but the absence of even one adult due to illness training or injury creates a crisis across multiple e classrooms. Teachers and paras are stretched to the limit just to maintain safety supervision and instruction. My message is simple. Our students need consistent adequate paraprofessional support. When one person is gone, I must pull from another classroom,

013leaving both depleted. If no one is available, no adult gets lunch. Individualis individualized instruction stops and my classroom shifts from learning to daycare. That is not FAPE. Even with two pair of professionals, I only have 30 minutes of prep time a week during the club during the school day. I'm usually at school till 6:00, sometimes 7:00 p.m. every night preparing for my students. That is not nearly enough time to plan language arts, math, science, art, and more. Add in an IEP or eligibility meeting, and again, my classroom is left depleted. So, I ask you to act. Please support giving special education an adequate budget that ensures sustainable paraprofessional staffing. Prepare pair professionals who stay year after year are invaluable. Help us attract and retain them with support, respect, and fair compensation because their consistency directly

014impacts our students success. Special education is struggling in our district. It can do better. It must do better. Investing in paraprofessionals is investing in a strong in strong foundations for all students and in the future of our district. Thank you again for your time and for listening and thank you for your commitment to our schools and our district. >> Thank you, Jack. [Applause] >> Our next speaker this evening is Amanda Sutton. I am also here to talk about par profofessionals. I have taught first, second, and third grade at the open classroom. This is my 16th year. And every year that I can recall, we had used our land trust money, part of it at least, for pair professionals. When you look back at the impact of a pair of professional in the classroom, for me

015it that makes more of a difference than my class size even most years. If I have a quality, highly trained professional who's been working with me for three or four years like we have right now, she can accomplish so much with me. You can point at a kid, make eye contact, and she's on it. She knows what to do. You can hand the worksheet to her and say, "Can you take five minutes with him?" And he'll pull she'll pull him into the hallway and do five minutes. She's taught alongside me and she knows how to do quality tier 2 instruction with me. She's graduating from college. She needs health insurance. We're losing her. She'll be gone this year. And we have two PAR positions that we can't hire for. There's no one that wants the

016job. So, we're underst staffed on paras. We want them. We need them. The parents recognize the value of them. They have such an impact in our classrooms, but the turnover is so high. We were lucky to have this young woman for so many years while she completed her college education. But that is truly the exception to the rule. It is so hard to find a quality employee who will show up every day without PTO, without sick hours, without insurance, and do their best for these kids. I think that we need to look at how many schools are funding pair professionals through their land trust. See what kind of a priority it is for our schools. And if every single school is choosing to use their land trust money for this, I think the district should

017look at other funding sources, especially for contract pair professionals, that's the only way to get people who are high quality and can stay year after year. Thank you. >> Thank you, Amanda. [Applause] >> Our next speaker this evening is President Mike Harmon. Mike, >> thank you. Good evening members of the board, Superintendent Grant, business admin administrator at Kirstley. Um, as was mentioned, I'm Mike Carman, president of the SLIA. And as you know or may know, our mission is to empower educators to promote professional advancement, equity, and justice by representing, protecting, and improving the rights of members in our pursuit towards quality education for every student. I'm here tonight to introduce our new board watch program. Beginning this beginning this month, educators from across the district will be attending board meetings on a regular basis. We'll

018be taking notes, speaking on topics, as you've heard tonight, and sharing updates with our colleagues. Our goal is simple. It's to strengthen connections between the classroom and the decisions you're making in the boardroom. Educators want to understand the why behind the decisions that you're making. Want the board to hear from educators, not just administrative view and perspective. Board watch is not about criticism. It's about collaboration. It's about transparency and making sure that educator voices are part of the process as you make decisions and policies for our district. Our members care deeply about the district and our students. We want to work alongside you to celebrate success, tackle challenges, and ensure that our schools thrive. So tonight, we invite you to join us. We know that better decisions happen when the voice of educators are part

019of the conversation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. [Applause] >> All right, that concludes our request to speak portion of our agenda. Thank you um everybody who joined us this evening from our schools and from our community. Uh we really appreciate the feedback that you're bringing to us and uh the opportunity and time you're taking to join us um in these public meetings. Our next um portion of the agenda is our reports agenda. Uh the first item there is long-term school closure and district reconfiguration update. Dr. Grant, I'll turn the time over to you to introduce this. >> Thanks. Our G5 administrator Brian Connelly has a presentation. It's just a very short version of what you have in the memo. So, those of you that have links to the agenda, that memo is um linked

020there in the agenda with more information. But this will um present some of the aspects of that. And in talking with Brian, we're going to go because we have put in three different asks in um of the board. We're going to go individually and then have a chance to ask questions and then the next one and a chance to ask questions so that we can break them up that way and you can just focus on each one as we go through. Okay. Do you want me to ask? >> I do have Okay. just thank you for having me here tonight. Board members, uh, as Dr. Grant shared with you. Uh much of the information was uh sent out in the board packet. Uh the 20page in-depth study report will really be the uh this this

021is the shorter version, the abridged version of what you have seen already. Uh my name is Brian Connley, boundary and planning director for Salt Lake City School District. And we're going to get started with the study with uh the next slide which is our presentation overview. You'll see a just a b brief recap of the timeline and then the in-depth study process for innovations early college high school and nibbly park school and Washington uh Washington's magnet special enrollment pilot program. We'll then as Dr. Grant described. We're going to have a chance to uh field any questions. I'll I'll lean on the expertise of depending on the nature of the question from uh business administrator Kley to Dr. Grant to uh Dr. Ruiz whoever we might need to help answer some questions as we go along

022but we'll take those after each one of the three sections and then we'll also discuss next steps as well. So to begin with our timeline in August uh early August that I came to the board in the vote was to initiate process for the three schools that you're going to see described in the following uh slides. We did send notifications through our communications department to affected parents and stakeholders and then began an in-depth study uh including community comments. Those committee comments were sent to you through a link and cover up through September 30th. You'll get another update on those uh in about another two weeks and then another one uh in um mid uh mid November before it's time you'll have time to look at those before um you all make any decisions on what

023we have here. But those comments were listed and I did try to summarize the comments uh on that on the opening tab of that uh spreadsheet that I sent. Um in September we did do a Q&A time at each location and information session. Uh they were all evening events and uh had a chance to be there with um quite a number of you. Uh thank you for all of you that were able to come. I know sometimes um your lives and other commitments get in the way of being able to attend every single thing all the time, but anytime uh anytime we see board members present at our information sessions, we sure appreciate your uh really being able to see it from that from the perspective of what does it not just what is being

024said but also uh how what the what the sense of um engagement is from the community as well was some of their thoughts and feelings. So, thank you for coming. Next slide is our timeline. Uh we're right now on the in-depth study. That's what we're doing right now. There will be public comment on this. Uh we'll the public will obviously have a couple weeks to look over that report. Um and then in November, another public comment as well as a public hearing. And we're hoping for a board vote on November 18th. uh which falls well within the timeline that we've talked to you all about before. So our first we did an an in-depth study on u possible closure of innovations early college high school. The next slide please. And the slide after this one,

025if you'd uh basically gives you the uh shortened version of what you have in your in your in-depth study report. Innovations uh was established in 2012 and combined a blend of learning with early college opportunities uh allowing students to earn both high school and college credit. Uh the school was really aimed to accelerate learning and expand access to college and career pathways and uh and of course just like our other schools prepare students for post-secary success. Um about five years ago, as we all worked through the co uh co 19 pandemic, the school did enroll more students disengage from our traditional comprehensive high schools. And although blended learn uh learning practices remain based on um based on conversations and also observations at the school, innovations has not realized its vision of a robust early college

026experience. Next slide. Um, this is just a quick reminder that our administrative procedures for uh closure of a non-traditional or alternative high school uh which is where innovations falls under doesn't doesn't uh look the same as what you'd see if it were East West or Highland, a traditional comprehensive high school. And uh those criteria um that we look at according to those administrative procedures is whether the school is serving its intended purpose, its enrollment and whether it is fiscally responsible to maintain the site. Next slide. Concurrent enrollment. um it has not established concurrent enrollment as a central feature of its program and has consistently low participation rates. Uh in your uh in-depth study, there is a table that shows you yearbyear of what we have for those. Uh I believe it's on pages six and

027seven if you'd like to refer to those uh pages. Blended learning model that once defined innovations is no longer unique. Um, as these practices are now available at other high school settings, looks a little bit different now than it did uh 13 years ago at our high schools. And the school's enrollment has broadened to include disengaged students from traditional school settings. Next slide. So the decline in student enrollment as we dove into that um it has dropped from 429 students in 2017 to 95 this year. This uh this really limits staffing and on-site course options. Um much of the discussion as we w did our uh information session centered around uh that that enrollment concern and there have been efforts to stabilize the academic program and support students in making progress uh toward graduation or

028sorry the efforts to do those things have focused on really strengthening academic rigor and consistency. uh getting back on track with both both of those uh under the current um under the current leadership at at um innovations. Enrollment challenges stem from for a number of reasons. Um we have heard um uh a lot a lot of input on this and those reasons and while the school didn't focus on marketing as much as strengthening the academic component that was needed in order to draw students there were other factors too like district declines in overall enrollment expanded concurrent enrollment options at other schools uh at our high schools and uh reduced onampus course access to Salt Lake Community College. Next slide. Looking at the fiscal responsibility component, Innovations is housed um at Salt Lake's uh community colleges

029south campus. Uh that is Salt Lake Community uh Community Colleg's building that uh Innovations is housed in. Um the district does cover maintenance, operations, shared utility costs and uh of course we um have anywhere we have students we do have uh fixed administrative and staffing expenses uh front office person our principal uh positions like that. Declining enrollment has increased the per student operating costs. um not just cost of doing business I know has gone up in our schools cost of uh teaching and uh that but also just that per student operating cost uh cost the fewer students you have the more it costs uh per student to operate that does raise concerns about the school's long-term fiscal responsibility on the next slide some other additional factors that are named in the administrative procedures that again

030were applicable to innovations. Uh closure consideration were school enrollment and financial implications. Those are listed in those administrative procedures. Factors not applicable to innovations include the five that you see on the right hand side of the screen there. Uh for example, students uh are not sent to innovations early college high school for special programs like uh special education special program or a special program just for multil- language learners. The students that do have special education needs are served through IEPs at the school. And um same with our multil- language learners. multil- language learners are served through English language development or an u an ILP um if but that was only a couple students those students do receive those and that was that's just an example of the factors not applicable uh and can talk in

031more detail about the others if you'd like but the next slide would really give me a chance to take any questions from the board for me or the uh executive leadership of of our district that can answer some. >> Thank you, Brian. Annie, >> uh yeah, I w attended um the session in September about this and I've looked through the comments. Um it seems to me that although the initial purpose for early college um kind of has morphed and the blending learning has changed, there has been um a different need that has been met at innovations um with smaller class sizes and a little bit more individualized schedules and plans. Um, so my question basically is if the board were to move forward with your recommendation, what would be the transition plan to meet the

032needs of those students for smaller class sizes, maybe similarly engaged staff that they have relationships with, um, more flexible scheduling because some of the students go there because they have other rigorous is athletic or other engagements. >> Dr. Grant, >> I think I might take that one on. Um, we did not prepare for you transition plans for each of these programs that we're talking about tonight for tonight's conversation. And this one we're um still looking at and working on the best way to support kids. When we look at the standing, I think there are 95 students right now currently enrolled. I believe there are 51 who are currently freshman, sophomore, or junior students, which would mean our seniors would move on and then we'd have 51 students. I believe um that we would be providing

033a transition plan for. We would like to look at ways um that continue particularly the supports that they're provided. One of the things, one of the reasons for bringing this up to the board is that so much of what's provided at innovations is now provided in our comprehensive high schools or in our designated alternative high school setting at Horizonte. um which is tasked with similar things of providing personalized supports, smaller class sizes, um the online options that the students at innovations take either through the state online education program or through concurrent enrollment um kinds of options. and we'd want to figure out a way um to support them in that transition that would help them stay on track to graduation with their classes. We could do that by designating a staff member to take that

034on as um one of the transition plans, a counselor perhaps to take that on certainly to work with families and setting up their next year of education. um and also looking at placement within different schools, which school would serve them well that way and helping the families make those decisions. One of the things I think that's important to say and as Brian was giving us the history of innovations is that there really isn't a defined model of education right now at innovations. So our interest is not in taking the whole innovations program and recreating it at a different site. Um because that whole program isn't really a whole program. It's a it's something that the teachers and the administrator have brought together to provide a good strong academic program but is not a model that

035we want to replicate elsewhere. So our interest is not in doing a transition for the model but more doing a transition for the individual students. >> Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like because it's not a clear model, it's not like you would move the program. Um >> but it does seem like there the original purpose for which it was created um is can be met at comprehensive high schools. I just wonder maybe just for as part of the transition planning working with open classroom or other alternative schools >> or Slicky >> in order to to find maybe a smaller environment because that the parents that I um talked to liked the small classroom, the community feel >> that could get lost at a traditional comprehensive high school. And I do think the teachers have done

036a really nice job with personalized learning there and that's not quite as accessible in a comprehensive high school. So how we would try and support particularly around that aspect that's been available to them. >> Okay, that's more um part of the goals in horizonte to create more of that personalized learning approach. >> Any other questions from the board? Ashley? Yeah. Before you start the timer, I just want to clarify we're doing a round for every single recommendation. Is that true? >> Yes. Okay. So, that would be >> So, in looking at the presentation, I was a little bit surprised that facility capacity and design weren't considered because I know the space was funded by the district and designed for this precise purpose, right down to the number of parking spaces that we were able to

037negotiate with Slick. So, I'm wondering if the study would add those components between now and November when we vote on a final recommendation, ideally including the amount of money we've invested in that space. >> The fin So, I hear you saying both the physical space and then the financial arm of that as well. >> So, you'd like to know what the original investment was in the building. >> Yeah. And that that's part of facility design. Um what was the term of art? It was facility capacity and design is the terminology that you used and I think that those things are we have a lot of information about them because we funded the capacity and the design. So that could be available in November. >> Yeah. So that can be available. I think some of the

038reason uh it wasn't really addressed up to this point is it didn't seem like it was going to help make the decision. you know, what we what we paid for the building back when it was built didn't seem germanine to the conversation at hand, but we can absolutely bring that information forward. >> Thank you. Um, another question I had is at the community meeting, we heard from a school community council chair for a long time that the school's principal who has shared with the CTC stated to the SEC chair that the district understood enrollment was declining while they were course correcting after some of the issues that you've named in the longer report and that the district would be holding innovations harmless for that decreased enrollment. Yet now we're being told their enrollment is what's

039making them not sustainable. Can you speak to what the SEC chair reported >> to what um what the SEC chair said in that meeting? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um so so yeah that the concern was uh came down to a lot about uh we know we know that we're having fewer uh we know that with our fewer students we need to get more students. Um what was described by the SEC chair was when that concern was brought up, we have too few students that um the the leadership uh said we're not we're not going to worry about the number of students we have right now. Let's start getting the program back to being um uh more rigorous and more in line with what we think the original intent was with those. Um, I think that,

040um, a lot of that conversation came down to we really didn't advertise well for the school. We weren't marketed well. We weren't um, we didn't go out and and sell the school. Um when we look back over information um from past from uh past information from uh past administration. It was never really meant to be a school that would take students from um take students from East, West, and Highland. the goal wasn't to try to let's take those students from there and have a let's leave them with the problem of fewer students not us with the problem of fewer students. Um so I think that that was one piece of it that we when we looked into that wasn't the intent. We have seen percentage of students from outside our district um be higher there

041than in our other schools. But our the overall numbers are so low even though the percentage of students from maybe students that are coming to us from Granite or Davis or wherever they're coming to us from. Um while the percentage is higher, the number of students is so low uh there. And so that was um could we have marketed better? The intent wasn't to try to outmarket our traditional high our comprehensive high schools. Um it um could we have marketed better to those um to those areas outside? Um that is one argument that we did here and therefore we shouldn't have that be we should get to we shouldn't we shouldn't have the school considered for uh closure based on where the enrollment is. At the same time that that's happened and what's stated also

042in the report is we have schools in our valley itinerous new Ames Ames uh different schools that have between 400 and 700 students that are early college high schools um that um they did exist when when innovations opened. Um did they offer and were they as robust as they are now? that's um those schools have grown and developed that those pieces and so um going to those other areas and saying come to our school when that exists closer to their home where more of the the students are for Jordan district for Granite District for Davis district that um that that would have that that could have possibly helped would have though have been the difference between going from 400 down to 100 students. I don't I don't know if we would have made up 300

043with any sort of big push that way. Um the so the so the intent of not focusing on that also came at the time that we wrote G5 administrative procedures that look a whole lot different now than they did three years ago, two years ago. they have changed over that time and being more specific with what we are looking for isn't to try to punish schools but it is to say let's look at something a lot more uh less subjective and more objective for saying we want to study these schools further and so we are studying this school further based on the new APS that if a any school whether it's innovations or any other was told two years ago don't worry about size of school that's not a consideration. That was true two years

044ago. It's not true now. And so we've had to we've had to make that tough decision of saying we do have to consider and it was the same thing that you know with our with our elementary school closures that happened two years ago. Um we're in that same position. That used to not be the major consideration or one of the major considerations like it is now. So um yeah, we did hear that. we did hear uh about that piece of it. These the other factors that were on the slide earlier that we do think played into it um were um are described in greater detail in the report, but things like um uh the pieces like um expanded concurrent enrollment options at other schools around us, our own and in other districts, reduced onampus course

045access at Slick. Those kind of things are real shifts that have um that have made it more difficult for parents and students to choose innovations as a school that they want their child to go to when you have those others doing it. Well, >> I I think I understand your comments about impacting enrollment, but the original question was really just about the statement the SEC was told they would be held harmless and now they do not feel like they've been held harmless because their program may discontinue. So, are you saying, if I'm hearing correctly, that in response to the original question, the claim that innovations would be held harmless to the school community council was changed because of the G5 administrative procedures change. I as I looked back in through the the minutes and the

046agendas from the um school community council meetings in at innovations um sure I wasn't at those meetings obviously uh there wasn't a recorded um hey we're going to be held harmless on numbers there wasn't information in those minutes specifically to that there was a concern of what do we do for you know we're going to talk about our school and how do we uh how do we make it more viable? What do we got to do to make it more viable? And I do have um I do have those notes as well, not sitting right in front of me on this, but um just that if you and you can go to innovation's website and look back at those SEC minutes um that um that wasn't that that wasn't a piece that um readily raised

047up specifically to that in those minutes. That's helpful. Um, the last question I had about innovations is that a parent shared in the information meeting an inquiry about whether the district staff would consider operating this as a specialty program within a comprehensive high school. It sounds like from your earlier comments, Dr. Grant, that in November, we will not hear any recommendations other than for the school to be open or to close with individual student transition plans if it closed. >> That's right. as I yeah because there isn't a program that we see right now that is worth replicating in a different setting even as we want to provide supports for those students that are similar to but not exactly what they would get at innovations should it close yeah thank you >> I know Anna

048you good are there any other questions for the first round regarding innovations Right. >> So, Brian, I just wanted to ask you in your comments and I just needed clarification. Were you um indicating that the Salt Lake Community College that some of their courses aren't available the way that they used to be for the students when they or did I misunderstand that? Is part of the problem with this that they don't have the same kind of access to classes? >> Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Gran, did you want her? >> Sure, I can help with that one. Um, so there's two ways to take concurrent enrollment. Um, one which is most prevalent in our comprehensive high schools is to have a Salt Lake school Salt Lake City School District teacher >> teach that course. They've been certified

049to teach concurrent enrollment. When innovation started, we were providing concurrent enrollment within Slick itself. So they would walk over and attend the class and the district was paying the tuition for Slick. Not it wasn't under the financial model that we have now, which allows us to offer concurrent enrollment at a much reduced price. it was rather we were paying the ticket for them to attend those classes there. Over time that changed a little bit. But what happened with that slick campus, that particular campus, is they reduced the number of general education courses they offered and they focus their attention on creating an art campus there, which meant there were fewer classes that our kids could walk across the hall and step into to take um or to sign up for. So in order to take

050slick classes, they would have to do them at a different site. um or they could take concurrent enrollment the way we offer it in other high schools now. So um the model shifted, Slick shifted underneath it as the the model started with Slick providing more of those courses. They reduced the number of courses that were relevant to our kids which then made it a little more difficult for the whole model that was first proposed to unfold. I I do believe we have 16 current innovation students that are taking I think 19 different concurrent enrollment courses at one of our comprehensive high schools at either East West or Highland. So they're we have innovation students rough about 15 16 of them that are hopping on the bus going to Highland or hopping on the bus go

051and taking a concurrent class at our comprehensive high school. Um so we do have some of that traveling that way. Um and a very low percentage um that are taking concurrent enrollment through Slick. I think it's right around 13%. This last year was right around 13%. >> Thank you both for giving that explanation. That's what I was kind of gleaning out of >> the substantive report that you had given us. But I thought that it would be beneficial for the public to hear that the model has changed and and the interaction the district and the community college. It's not as it was when this was initiated. >> Yeah. >> And I was wrong. The number taking last year was 17%. But >> yeah, 17% of the innovation students did take a slick concurrent enrollment. >>

052Thanks, Brian. Are you done with your question? >> I have Charlotte and then Amanda. Well, I just I had I read that in your report and I looked to see when Slick opened their arts and media and where they started focusing more on arts and media and communications and >> I believe that was in 2013 but isn't that when innovation started or innovation started in 2012? >> 2012 and 2012. >> Yeah. So right after >> yeah it's Anyway, >> thanks Charlotte >> Amanda >> um I just wanted clarity on I remember whenever uh innovations opened and like the big media and excitement around the concept um and I guess my question is it is it accurate that from the beginning essentially it struggled to um develop into what it was hoped it like plan to

053be like does that make sense? >> Yeah. Yes, I think so. I think um even at its even at its high point, one one of those pieces you see in the early uh news articles, that whole idea of being able to take a uh to access Salt Lake Community College right there. Um is one of those pieces that's talked about even at its peak it was 33% of the students >> taking that. >> Yeah. Starting in 2012, it was a unique offering because it offered online education too. Um it was kind of doing anywhere, any place, anytime, any pace kind of learning was the idea. Um now we have so many online options that you can do that from any setting. >> So as the world developed, what innovations had been built for was kind

054of it its uniqueness was weakened. It became it was there you go out out yeah became a little outdated because it was offering a program that eventually more schools took up in the process at what you were getting at there board member >> well okay >> any other questions before we move on >> thank you board next portion of the study >> I believe we're speaking about nibly Mark seventh and eighth grade next. >> Yes. Um if you could go to in-depth study the U p slide 13 Sam there. Okay. And yeah might flip right over to 14 and we'll talk about about Nibi Park. Uh, our administrative procedures say that if the district determines adjustments to the grade levels served at the school are needed, the superintendent will make a recommendation to the board.

055Um, so the district consider is looking at historical enrollment trends at Nibi, residential patterns of students within the hillside middle school boundaries, uh, which is where the Nibi Park boundaries lie, and the school's capacity to provide a range of academic and elective offerings comparable to larger middle schools. Next slide. uh the school has not achieved the original goal of establishing a self- sustaining uh middle middle grade program. Uh the goal was 150 or more students and eight or more faculty members. Um and we also know that again Nibi Park does reside within the boundaries of Nibbi Park are within the boundaries of Hillside Middle School. middle. Many of the students who could attend Nibi Park are already enrolled in Hillside or Clayton, a few in other middle schools as well. Um, Nibi Park is not

056able to offer the same breadth of courses and elective opportunities that are available in other middle school grade settings. This has been a challenge of scale, not of teacher qualifications. And with that information, wanted to uh also just uh pages uh in the pages uh through 14 speak specifically toward Nibbi Park in the study. >> Yes. Start to get some Amanda. I'll just go first. Um just to uh h please point out what the um general consensus from the public and the um uh teachers and such were in regard to whether or not they support or do not support this closure. >> Okay. U Sam swiped my computer so I can't look at what I was ready to pull up. Just kidding, Sam. Um and but we do know that of the um that uh

057I want to say right around 20 between 20 and 25 comments 13 or 14 of them um and this is uh from employees and from uh staff but also from uh uh parents. The majority of the comments came in from parents, but we do have some from staff and third roughly uh half maybe a little bit more than half of them has said we support the idea of reconfiguration. It makes sense that nibbly be a K6 versus a K8 in large part because of uh what was mentioned on the previous slide there which uh one one of the recurring ones we saw was just unable to offer the same breadth of courses and elective opportunities. And again, people understand that's a challenge of scale and just having enough people to do those things. It's not

058about the teacher qualifications. uh because of the teachers who are qualified to do what they are doing there and working hard to do what they do there. Um just not the scale to support that. >> Ashley, I thought I saw your hand. >> Um so after the community meeting in Nibbly Park, I expressed some concerns about some misinformation that was presented in that meeting. There were three main concerns I had. One is that the community was told West ELP was included in the middle level report, which it was not. Um, and I identified that, you know, if you looked at West's course enrollment, you'd find last year more than 50 kids were missing a period because they didn't have sufficient middle level opportunities at the beginning of the year. So, it was concerning that they

059were told something that was not true. Um the second concern is that there was this ongoing discussion of a lack of enrollment in electives but never any kind of address that the district removed the 78 pod which include the seven eight elective classrooms from nibi and then also that there was an issue with teacher teacher lensure even though all the teachers are appropriately licensed to teach grades seven and eight. So, I received some responses to that personally, but I'm hoping you can speak to how those three items of misinformation were cleared up for the community who attended that public meeting. >> So, uh the to address the uh the high school or the west seventh and eighth grade program. First of all, um that there there there was a middle level review that was done

060in February, March of earlier this year. That middle level review was to try to focus our efforts on what we can do for our how do how can we better serve our middle level students. Um there was some discussion in those meetings about um uh seventh and eighth grade that wasn't included in the report. The report is out there for community to see from uh I believe it was can't remember which board meeting it was but there is a link to it that shows. So my apologies on on uh any sort of reference if uh with that not being in the report but that would be uh yeah Don Tiffany and I had um all worked on that report. That's what I had recalled and though there was discussion there wasn't. So, I encourage anyone

061to go look at that middle level report, see which art is on there. And uh with West 7th and eighth grade not being on there, that's my mistake. Um >> well, the report was more about middle schools than middle school programs, so didn't focus as much on seventh and eth was a misstatement about the West ELP, I believe. >> Yeah. Um and the the open class period for those students was also an option to take the S SOEP the state online education programs too in that open period. So hopefully that was used for some of the students that way. >> Yeah. And uh your question or your statement regarding uh uh t uh teacher qualifications. I do hope that um >> that was >> I'm going to say it was instead of a hope >>

062it was addressed. >> Yeah. >> I was there. >> Yeah. >> In that um the school principal reached out and spoke to the staff and then we clarified that. >> Okay. Yes. And and again in this report here we do want to stress that it was a challenge of scale but not of teacher qualifications with what's offered there. Um, and remind the last one you mentioned, I'm sorry, >> it's not the elective classroom space that was the pod that was removed from teachers. >> Uh, when when space in a school, um, I know, uh, principles ultimately have that charge of of saying, "Hey, first grade teacher, this is going to be the classroom you're using this year. Hey, sixth grade teacher. Here's your class, the classroom that you'll be mainly teaching from. Uh trying to

063do use effective use of space. I think with um as we've seen over the years at um Nibbi Park, um in the last five years, um the numbers have been between 50 and 70 students um in the seventh and eighth grade enrollment program or uh program. So, um, sometimes those tough decisions of we have, uh, yep, we we have a space here that's built for up to 150 students, but we only have 65 students. Um, we not having that space sit empty or not utilized effectively, I should say. I don't think it would ever sit empty. But how do you make most effective use of that if it is to bring in another uh teacher from another grade level to use one of those spaces so that they can keep class size um you know

064at a at a reasonable number. In the other piece, I think that um the school as a whole has uh and the number of classrooms that are in there have not been designated as um exclusively for one grade level or another. Though the uh the add-on to the building, the original intent was to uh house um middle a middle level program. That middle level program just never got to the size that it made effective use of that space totally. So, I don't know the specifics um of of uh when or why some of that space started getting used by by any any group of students other than seventh and eighth graders, but between um but between uh enrollment fluctuations and not full enrollment, I would have to look into it and have a more pointed

065conversation just with principal Green and say, "Tell me more about uh the space and and she's only been there a year and a half now. So, prior to that, I don't know how much information she would have, but Dr. Battle certainly would and I could talk to her about that as well. >> That's really helpful. I mean, the reason I ask is just that the the way in which this is framed matters to teachers. Like if your classroom with a stove had the stove removed and then you hear a big public presentation about how you don't offer FACS, >> that's very different than you can't offer it because it's not feasible for you to use that classroom anymore. So I think it matters to teachers that they are doing what they are supposed to do

066within a framework that they don't necessarily pick. Um, and your response led me to what my second question is, which is reconfiguration, if it's successful, would require creative and thoughtful redress for what was a multi-million dollar investment in the expansion of that building. Um, how will the final recommendations in November include a plan for that 78 pod if the reconfiguration occurs? You would like a plan for that 78 pod before at the November meeting? >> Allan looks like he's prepared. >> Well, I just I mean I have concerns. We don't want to get ahead of the game and spend resources to uh create a plan for usage not knowing what the ultimate vote would be. So I would be hesitant to say we will devise a plan for the usage of that space not knowing

067what the end result is going to be. And with that in mind, I think having some options of what could be true is really helpful in the ability to make an educated decision. Like if I know that's going to be sitting empty, >> you know, informal discussions, I think a good idea formulating an actual plan, I I think we'd wait till after the vote. >> Okay. Thank you. and board member Anderson, I will speak to um current principal and previous principal and get some more information about the historical piece of that that you asked about. >> Thank you. >> Annie, it's your time. >> Oh, yeah. I was just going to um state to board member Anderson and I do think that following the G5 protocol, it would be later and last meeting we did

068talk about feasibility studies and so forth that it could potentially be added to based on the board decision. But I did attend that meeting as well and I I did notice that it was um a small number of parents and students who attended and reading I just wanted to clarify that 19 of 25 comments are in favor of the reconfiguration. >> Thank you. >> I was off a few there so I appreciate it. And I do think that the discussions, the session that we had with Nibi Park in uh the spring, um I know I certainly know it's a community that cares a lot about their school, their community. I think a lot of the the discussion and questions and comments have come up from about March through um May, June, July, a until school

069hit. And I think um people have made some choices already of where their children are going. Um if it isn't Nibi Park School, obviously we have a smaller seventh grade class there. And that's just uh knowing knowing more from those other meetings earlier on too. Um, as a followup, I would just like to state that if there are public diff disagreements, like if there are people who do want to keep commenting, like you said, we'll look at those comments ongoing. >> Yes. >> So, if someone's listening to this and saying that's not true, the community doesn't believe that or whatever, you can submit your comment. >> My last slide will have that QR code of how they can do it online or uh there are forms in each of the offices of these schools that

070they can fill out. Um, but we'll move ahead now if that's okay with you. Board President, >> make sure that there's no other additional questions. Charlotte, >> just a comment. Uh, that middle school middle level report was in the February 18th, 2025 board meeting. >> Thank you. So, encourage anyone to take a look at that February 18th board meeting. It's in that agenda. Any other questions for Brian on this uh um phase or part two with Nibbly Park? Okay, we'll move on to Washington. Thank you, >> Sam. >> Okay. Um slide uh you can move to slide seven. Okay, the Yeah, next one. Slide 18. So um Washington magnet pilot uh magnet services for students in grade four began uh three years ago in the 22 23 year and grades four and five were in

071place uh two years ago um for the start of the 23 season uh school year, excuse me, thinking football and not not school. My apologies. Um at the April 16th uh 2024 board meeting, so about a year and a half ago, the board decided not to continue the pilot. Uh the board review program enrollment and financial implications of continuing the program. Um that information on enrollment and financial implications uh was prior to that uh so that April 16th, 2024 board meeting is where those uh figures were looked at. Um, no students were enrolled in grades four in grade four last year or sorry, two, yeah, last year. And only grades five and six were supported last year. This year it's just sixth grade. Uh, currently houses grade six for this school year. Next slide. Uh

072the change in the 2025 state law mandates that discontinuing special enrollment programs requires formal review and an affirmative vote of the board as these programs are not otherwise covered under exist existing provisions. Um subsequently the district is following the G5 process. Notifications have been sent. We have had we will have public comment periods. We have had an information session and a public hearing uh to come uh to consider the closure of the Washington magnet pilot. The factors that were considered on slide the next slide were again school enrollment and financial in implications um those were done um when uh in that April 2024 board meeting. uh factors not applicable to the magnet closure considerations are the five that you see bulleted over there. Um and uh that that information in your in on the study

073is on pages uh 15 through uh 20 or 15 through 17. Um, but there's also a couple maps on the uh in the appendix of your the last page is the last two uh maps, sorry, are the elementary schools with grades one through six magnet magnet program prior to fall of 2024 and where their locations were. And then the last map is where they currently are in case you had questions about our current magnet programs other than the sixth grade being uh finishing up at Washington Elementary this year. So next slide is just any questions you all have. >> Amanda, >> did you say my name? Sorry. >> Yes. Um, I guess to pose the question, it's been asked by the community, but um, can we choose to reop magnet program at Washington Elementary at

074some point if the board >> motions to do so at some point? >> Yes, at some point if the board wants to. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, would it be more responsible to work on all district program alignments, feeder patterns, as well as efficacy and demand for the current magnet elementary programs at the three established elementary sites before considering reopening a Washington magnet program? It's a lot of words. Does did you follow me? >> Yes, I think it would be worth looking at. There is uneven enrollment across the three programs that we provide right now in the elementary grades. So looking at that enrollment would be our first step before thinking about opening another four through six program. When Washington was created, it was created because we started testing kids in third grade to see

075if some students we missed in the early grades might be testing in. And so we tend to have if when we're testing third grade, we find more kids who test in. And so the Washington program was an attempt to provide additional spaces that way for that kind of second wave of students to move into. >> And the additional issue that if I understand correctly is um we have feeder pattern issues with some of our specialty programs like um and then also how they're structured. So, the the third elementary on the west side, I can't remember the name of it. >> Edison. Edison. >> Thank you. Um that ends at fifth grade typically, but um you're I guess looking at supporting for sixth grade for the magnet piece, but then does Edison also feed differently? Um

076it does have a complex feeder because Edison is a K through five. We chose to keep the sixth grade there so they could feed into they wouldn't be moving to a new school for sixth grade and then another school for their middle school program. Um so we did change that for the ELP program there and then we're working to grow the Edison program so the numbers are rather low in Emer at sorry Edison the Edison program so the numbers are lower at Edison that and then at the other two programs. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, um just to clarify, the third grade testing occurred and there was an influx, but that influx has faded or there are just enough spots at the other three special program magnet schools. what we did differently when we um

077couple of years ago had to close four elementaryaries. We use that as a chance to re figure particularly since we were closing the Hawthorne program um to to place these magnet programs across the district more evenly so they're more accessible and to purposely put one uh among our westside schools. Um so that changed kind of the whole placement scenario and um it made things a little different for Washington too. I'm trying to think Washington we decided in 24 that was after that was after the closures that we had done in January than Washington we talked about in April of that year. So the the context in which Washington sat changed a bit and there is room at Edison for those who in in third grade um to move into that. It doesn't always fit with

078their neighborhood. >> Yeah. >> And that's the challenge for a lot of parents. >> Yeah. I guess from a parent perspective, I mean that that vote has already passed, but it seems interesting to open Edison when there was already Washington. So, I think that's part of the frustration from that community. But um again, that decision was kind of already made and it sounds like this is just kind of a final protocol based on the new legislation. >> Yeah, it is. Um because the vote was not taken as a vote to close the program. The vote was a motion denied to continue the program. then there isn't an affirmative vote that is now required through the new school closure or program closure policy. So the state added program closure and said program closure has to if

079it's a special enrollment program it has to go through the same process as a school closure. So then with caution, we thought it wise to take it through the process even though the process is an awkward fit with where the Washington program sits >> having had a previous decision about it. So it's a little bit of an awkward fit for closure or closure process as stated. >> Any follow-up questions to that, Annie? Are you okay Charlotte? Um, well, it's more about enrollment at Edison, so maybe that's more appropriate for another time. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Charlotte, Ashley. >> Sure. Um, as a point of information for Annie's question, we also now cap classrooms in magnet, gifted, and talented options, which is unique from when this occurred. And so we might follow up more on

080that because that change contributes more to this issue I think than where the placement of the programs um because we were not capping when that pilot was initiated. >> Um after the Washington meeting I did hear a lot of concern about a comment um that was made that I believe Amanda was alluding to and I think we have a really good opportunity to clear it up um in the public meeting. Uh Dr. Dr. Grant, in the meeting you stated that this wasn't really a comprehensive study because, as you've just pointed out, it's a new legal hoop to reaffirm prior work of the board. And I don't know that you accurately stated that it wasn't a comprehensive study or wasn't a real study because the board could conclude at the end of the study a variety

081of brand new directions for magnet gifted and talented services, including a suggestion of studying feeder patterns among other topics. So, can you speak to that statement made in the meeting that it wasn't really a study and maybe clarify for families what you meant, which in my best guess, you meant legal ch changes made this study unique, but that the board could still offer new directions to reinstate a magnet or a variety of other directions. >> Yeah, thanks. I was trying to convey that the dis the board had already made the decision not to continue the program by not approving a motion to continue the program and that that had been done in April. The confusion then becomes now we're in so after that board decision the state put in new rules about what you do

082to close programs and since we still had a grade left in this program we were grandfathering out um we felt that it was appropriate to go through the process even though the process doesn't fit because the way we wrote this closure process first that G5 was approved before the most recent state law if I remember. Is that right, Christina? G5. We wrote the G5 policy before the new state law came in, but then we added a piece. So, we had to amend the process to include program closure, which was the state addition to this that said you have to close programs in the same way you close schools. So then we had to figure out what do we do with this program that's already grandfathering out and run it through a process that doesn't fit

083for that program. And that was what I was trying to convey to parents that it made it difficult to follow a full process looking at all these factors when the decision had been made previously. So what we were asking for from the board in this position now is an affirmative vote saying we are closing the program because state law requires a vote to close and that's what we were lacking before. >> That sounds like a lot. If let me know if you have questions >> or want to follow up on that. Ashley. Yeah, I would just say that the question in the public meeting or the public information meeting was if the board rejected that affirmative motion that you're referencing, what would be the potential outcomes? And the response was sort of there won't be

084any. But actually what it would mean is that there's still not an affirmative vote to close the program, but the program also doesn't exist. So what would need to be supplied in my understanding of the law and board norms would be we supplied new direction which could be a great variety of things. It could be reinstate the magnet. It could be study capping and see if there is a need for a location that can take surplus students. It could be look at the feeder patterns and the K5 Edison issue. it it just is unlikely to be continue a program for which there are no currently enrolled students. So that's what I was hoping to clarify. But simultaneously to say this was a real study because we're here talking about it, right? we've had how many

085minutes of exchange and that there is ongoing value of adding input because whether their affirmative vote would be successful or not to reaffirm what a past body did there's a whole bunch of input that could impact about magnet gifted and talented services which is worth referencing and to that end my last question is will a printed copy of that community feedback be be available to us or only the excel version of the document If you'd like a printed copy, we can give you that. Our plan was Brian had mentioned we wanted to give you a next update in two weeks, I believe. >> Uh, yes. I think I >> somewhere in there. And then >> I want to say, yeah, >> close period in time to give you those comments for the board meeting in

086the second board meeting in November. >> So, we were thinking to close it just before um Oh, there you go. >> Yeah. Here it is. >> The written comment forms received through noon on November 12th. So then we could print out the November 12th or we could print out a version beforehand, whichever you'd prefer as a board. >> The way we did it in the last um G5 process is it was between every meeting, new comments were printed and added. And obviously the binder would be less substantive, probably a folder and not a binder. Do you remember the binder? Um, >> but I that way we can see things as they're coming in and also just to use this as an opportunity to encourage people again that uh the public input does matter to other

087decisions we make regardless of if the outcome of a reconfiguration or closure is an individual's preferred outcome. >> Thank you. That's good information. >> Thanks, Ashley. And Annie, I I want to acknowledge you, but I also want to make sure that there aren't others who want to ask questions or speak. We'll move into round two. Oh, >> foss. Thank you. >> Just for uh just for clarification, um my understanding is that there was general lower enrollment in the district, which led to fewer students being sent to the magnet programs that were set up and that meant that it made more sense to consolidate the program that was at Washington and send those students to another program that already exists. >> You're asking us to come up with things we talked about two years ago. I'm

088afraid I don't remember all of that conversation. Um, you may be right on that. I there was a conversation about um a program at Edison versus a program at Washington and we were trying to make it accessible um to the schools there on the west side, one that sat more formally there um because we were also providing busing um within certain parameters around those different schools and wanted to >> make that make sense. in a way. So, we may have talked about the Washington program in those terms. I'm afraid I don't remember the details, but that makes some sense the way you're describing that. >> Okay. And that sort of answers my second question, which would be about um if the goal is not a Hawthorne style that has um a lot of magnet students

089in one school, but rather a broad integration of magnet students across the district, then um would Washington students in the magnet right now easily attend that other magnet service? And it sounds like yes, it would be um that's that's what would happen. >> Yes. >> Yeah. If classes get full in some schools, parents have the option to to enroll in classes in other schools. It just often is further away from their homes. >> Okay, that's helpful. >> Thank you, Foss. We'll move into round two. Annie, >> I have you. >> Okay. >> Um, any last minute or burning questions for Brian or Dr. Grant on this? >> Okay. >> I'll just say I would really encourage the public to comment. I think the board is trying to be transparent and open with our decision- making

090and the public informs that decision- making and so if you have something you're concerned about about these reconfigurations, please let us know so that we can address it. >> And thank you Annie and board. My last comment would be very similar and to emphasize what board member Anderson and board member Romano um have emphasized which is please please please public community teachers, students continue to reach out to us in these public information uh ways, opportunities, forms, the QR code that you see in front of you on the on the screen. And Brian, just to kind of circle back to the timeline, can you please describe our next steps for the community uh just one more time as we move into the next few meetings and and our process with this? >> Yeah, certainly. Uh our

091our goal is to offer multiple opportunities for uh parents, students, community members to provide input. Um oftentimes uh people will want to come uh to the uh upcoming public hearing on November 3rd uh at this board meeting. People want to come but u commitments in life make that difficult for some. That is one great way to make sure every board member hears what those comments are. The other way is what uh board member Anderson referred to and board member Romano all of you Roman uh board member Romano as well um about just look at this QR code use it if you're not a QR code person and you're saying I don't even know what to do with that QR code uh code you can provide written comment um but the school would have to receive

092it by noon on November 12th there are forms available at innovations Washington and Nibi Park. And uh whatever you write, just please write legibly because I then put it into the um into the spreadsheet. I'll I'll make sure that it gets uh written into there. So th that way when you uh so community members, I know it's powerful to talk to a board member that's in your area, but uh all seven board members love to hear from our community. So you can you can live in a certain area and say this is my board member but uh you put something in writing and and uh put it down on the comment form online or uh the hard copy and then you know seven people see it not just one or two people see it. So,

093uh, the next steps are just those. We do have upcoming, um, we do have upcoming opportunities, but a public comment periods at the beginning of board meetings that can be signed up for. We also have that public hearing on November 3rd. And, uh, we do want to have all the written comments by noon on November 12th so that we can get all that organized and in the board members hands before they make their decisions uh, through vote. hopefully on November 18th. >> Great. Thank you, Brian. >> Thank you, Dr. Grant. Thank you, board. >> Thank you. >> We will move on in our agenda. Um the next um item of um under our reports agenda is board organization memberships. Um this came about um and on our agenda through um a formal request of a

094few board members um who are interested in looking at uh cube in particular which um is a a I guess a sub commmittee or organization of NSBA um that's focused on urban schools. Um Brad and I had also heard from board members including ourselves um who wanted to weigh in on this that there's also other options out there that have a focus on either urban school or urban school transformation um but also benefits that could be brought to the district and the board as a whole. And so we just wanted to open up the conversation. Um, I would probably start with the the original requesters um to go ahead and start the conversation and chime in about cube in particular and uh we can see where the conversation goes from there. So, >> yeah, I'm

095happy to start. So, um since I've been on the board for four years, the uh cube organization or the cube conference um is something that I've been hearing about. I've inquired um a little bit over those years about the possibility of us taking a look taking a look at that. Um, one of the things that I'm thinking about is, um, just like with different schools h having different needs, I don't think that the Salt Lake City School District necessarily should or does align with all of the other, um, districts. And so I think with being an urban board, an urban district, there is some additional opportunities there to have that professional development, to get that education, to learn what's happening um, across the country and different states for other urban boards. And so I brought

096one I along with other folks brought this forward to say, "Hey, I think we should take a look at this. This might either be um two things. It could either be a better option for us or it could be an additional option for us to get some more training, some more development um to best serve our district." >> Thank you, Bryce. Ashley. >> Um, I too have been interested in participating in the Council on Urban Boards of Education or CUB. Uh, but my concern is that it would almost double our current professional development budget. Um, and I do think that CUB would actually serve us more effectively than NSBA alone for various reasons. Uh, but that's not an option. You have to continue paying NSBA dues, right, and become a member at the same time.

097So to me, it's a hard pill to swallow to spend more money on the board's professional development when we regularly hear, as we heard amply earlier, that there are ongoing needs in our schools staffing wise. At the same time, funding cube participation wouldn't necessarily come from ongoing resources that we'd use to pay staff because we all know we don't want to pay for staff members with one-time money and then find we have to have a reduction in force because we no longer have that money available. So Alan, can you speak at all to where the funding would come from if we did participate in an organization additional to NSBA? And if the answer is fund balance, what would that trade off with in the fund balance? >> So if it were to come from fund

098balance, things can't come from fund balance forever. So if if it was something, hey, let's try this for a couple years and let check it out, that could come from fund balance. I believe the the cost is $10,000ish uh per year. Um clearly that's $10,000 that then couldn't be used for other things, but like you said, fund balance, we're not going to put ongoing stuff in there without a plan to review it. And if we decide it needs to be an ongoing thing, then we have to look at enhanced revenue sources or stop doing something else to fund that particular item. Um not just with this, but with anything. Uh so I just want to throw out another option is we can attend the conferences they have for Q without being members. You pay the

099non-member rate if you know we wanted to try it out that way to send a couple board members the next time they have a conference to kind of see what it looks like and come back and report. So that's another So we we can participate in a conference without being members. Um there are other perks to being to membership to to Cube. Um but I just want to throw that out there that that's also an option. >> I didn't ask you this in advance because I just thought of it based on your response. But is that what Canyons and Ogden do or are they cube members? I >> I don't know what Ogden does, but I know Canyons did that this year. They went to the cube conference as kind of non noncube members to

100see it out, see what see what it was like. So knowing that peer districts are doing that option and knowing there's this balance of doubling our professional development budget along with sort of meeting some of the needs of an urban board which we are obviously a fully urban board as we're contiguous with an urban municipality. Um, but I think that would be probably the most prudent thing to do to support specific board members in attending a conference, especially when a board member like myself as one individual cannot go to NSBA at the time it is every year, but can go to Cube in the fall when it is held. That would be a better option for me personally. Um, which could also then benefit the board in making what would be a more challenging financial

101decision potentially in the future. and board member Anderson. My understanding is Ogden are members Ogden School District is a member of Cube um and have attended for I think the last three or so years. Any other questions and Brian go ahead? Alan, I appreciate um your suggestion there about Cube. the one thing or about attending Cube without actually having a membership. I also think that it's valuable though to look at some of those other organizations because there's the um Council of Great City Schools and they also have a division that is related to urban schools as well. So, it seems to me that if we're going to do this, we ought to be um researching it and determining where we're going to get the best bang for our buck um so to speak. Um I

102too would like to have the perspective of the urban schools. One of the things that I think that is helpful for people to understand is with our membership to NSBA and thank you for your clarification on that Alan. Um by our participation in USBA our participation in NSBA is not an additional expense. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. So, one of the benefits of being participants in USBA, and I think that it really is valuable for us to be participating in USBA, all of the other districts, school districts in the state of Utah, I believe, are participating in that. Um, and I think that it's valuable for us to have a voice there. That leads us to NSBA, but I also understand that added dimension of the urban school um instruction. But before we do

103that, I think it would be valuable to look at other programs. Thanks, Brian. Um I'll go ahead and and use my time to to kind of dovtail off of where you you left. Um, and it doesn't have to be the council of the great city schools, but but certainly something like that. Um, and what intrigues me the most, and I know that a previous board had discussed this, and Bryce, you probably remember this as well. Um, but I think there's a unique opportunity that we have with this particular conversation and how we move forward. Um, I'm not going to sugarcoat the challenges that we've had as a board over the last number of years. um compared to where we are now, I think is is a bonus and it's a a bright spot for us

104as a board and a district. Um which is why I think this topic is so cool and intriguing um because we have a huge opportunity to continue to grow, right? To continue to develop and evolve um from some of the really hard things that we've had to go through and whether that was caused ourselves or just part of the element of of being an a global crisis. But nonetheless, um there's a unique element with something like the Council of the Great City Schools that not only has this focus on like urban schools, but there's a curriculum based thing. their special education um that I think could benefit um not only the superintendent and her cabinet all the way down into the classroom, but there's also the board professional development piece and training um specifically around

105governance and how you connect governance, board goals to the actual day-to-day work and and all the way down that hierarchy. Um I think that's super unique um for me just as an individual board member um because my observations of being on the board the last six and a half years almost seven years um now with a a brand new board this year in many ways um I see all of us as wanting systemic level change and I think where we kind of get caught or where we get slowed down is when we're trying to tackle things um either at that micro or that meo level and this is the social worker Grammy, so you have to bear with me everybody. But but I think our charge is really at that macro level, at that systems

106level. And um I think some extra coaching and help um training, professional development, however we want to coin that to implement our governance structure and norms and build upon that as we move forward with looking at the systemic changes that we'd like to see. um from that larger scale instead of kind of chipping away at the the smaller pieces that are are in, you know, kind of in the wheelhouse of the superintendent and her team is a big benefit for us to consider while we continue to research this. Um so that's just my plug for um for something or a model or an organization or membership that can not only benefit us as a board but the district as a whole. So um question, how do we move forward with this? Do we want to

107like study it and then come back and have it as a discussion item? >> Yeah, I think this is just our first agenda. >> Yeah, this is just our first introduction of it. Um typically we we can do a number of things. We could take it to a study session. We could bring it back for discussion, but um Amanda, did you have something >> after you're done? >> Okay. But yeah, so so that process is kind Dr. real quick and then to Amanda. >> Uh I just wanted to know is there so with cube there's a way to try it on and see if we like it. >> Is there that with the council of great city schools? Is there anything that could look into it? And I think there's a couple things we'd have

108to consider to um that might prevent us from being a part of um council of the great city schools because I know they have like an enrollment criteria um that's really specific and I can't remember I didn't take a note on that but I know there's a threshold of enrollment that you need for membership or um to board member Anderson's previous comment about it being contiguous within an urban municipality. Um so there's a couple things we'd have to look into but I'm not aware of a try it on. I know that there's a an interest form that I think the district or the board could fill out. Um but those would be some next steps for a future discussion. Um and then Amanda, I think you were next. >> Yeah, I think um go back

109to my notes. Sorry. Um >> so I did some research on these different organizations. Allan shared um that we got a quote a few years ago that the cost to do the council of great city schools >> could be quite substantial. I don't say I'm not saying we don't consider it because looking at what it it could typically offer. I really like the the KPI benchmarking um the board superintendent alignment and it's got a lot more robust uh stuff like 3 to 4 day conferences, multi-week month academics, multi-day site reviews which is more robust than cube or an SBA, but cube itself also has um some really good things and it has more offerings as well throughout the year. Um, so I really like the suggestion if we can do it with both of maybe

110a couple go to each different ones and really see if if like you've identified CGCS as even an option. Um, so I think the costing was part of it and then ultimately I support looking at this too because um, you know, our state we do have a lot of districts but we don't have a lot of urban districts. So really being able to um collaborate with urban school districts would be very very valuable. >> Thank you, Amanda. Any other questions this first round? Because I saw Ashley's hand. Um we can move into the second move in the second. Ashley, >> I was just going to say the next considerations are financial to so to respond to Annie's question. I think what is prudent and I've shared this before is for the finance committee to discuss

111the costs because again cube almost doubles our PD budget. Council of great city schools more than doubles our PD budget and I think those conversations need to be had about what the trade-offs would be in the general fund and what the trade-offs would be in the general fund of even sending people to conferences and what the cap would be. I think that's a financial question where we would have to advise on the financial aspect before we continue with the other you know I can't think of a appropriate word ideological aspect >> pragmatic there you go >> thank you Ashley that's a good suggestion Brian >> so Ashley you're suggesting that we would refer this to the finance committee to do a financial review and then come back and um give us some recommendations and report.

112>> Yeah, because then I think also, you know, our business administrator, this estimate we have is from 2022. I guess it's a lot higher now as years have passed that inflation goes on. So that we would review what the real costs are in relationship to the real budget to make some type of recommendation about what you know what our advice would be financially. >> That makes sense to me that the finance committee would look at that and then come back to the board. >> Yeah. Do we want to provide that as direction to the superintendent and to our business administrator? >> Sure. >> Okay. Um, >> so to repeat, it looks like it's direction from the board to refer this topic to the finance committee and we will address that in an upcoming meeting. >>

113Yes. >> Correct. >> Excellent. Thank you, board. >> So, let the minutes show. >> Thank you, everybody. Uh, we'll move on to our next topic. Uh, we have the sustainability update. Um, BA Ksley, I'm going to go ahead and have you open this up for discussion with with Isaac. >> Right. So, invite uh Isaac Ael uh executive director facility services forward. So, this is our annual update on our uh sustainability uh projects. Um, and we'll let Isaac introduce the people the the person. I believe that's Morgan, right? Morgan, come on up and sit next to Isaac if you want to. Yeah, that works. >> Introduce her. >> Hello. >> Good evening, board members. Uh, thank you for this opportunity. Um, this is Morgan McMillan. She is our new energy and sustainability manager. She has been

114here since March. >> Is that correct? End of March. >> Um, we're excited to have her. um she brings a lot of interest and experience and expertise to this. Um she's going to be doing most of this presentation which I'm very grateful for. Uh before I turn it over to her, um I do want to say a couple things. Um our our presentation tonight has been based on our second phase or fiscal year 2026, not the overall work that the district has done. And that's on me. um me being out and giving Morgan direction to prepare for what we've done this last year and things. That's why it is the way it is. I do want to reiterate that the first phase is up and functional. We've had a couple challenges with the one school

115Uenta that we uh turned over to full electric operations. Um we're working through that with our contractor McKinstry who have been a great partner since the beginning of this. Um but uh they're working with us to ensure we have um warranties and coverage for the challenges that we've faced with that. Um but overall f fiscal year 25 investment or 24 was successful and Morgan's doing a great job of watching that to make sure that we're hitting our our points and the dollar amounts of savings that we're supposed to be doing for our telp. Um, the other thing I want to mention, um, and I'll geek out about this all you want, so I'll make it short. Um, there's been a lot of interest and discussion around ground source heat pumps. Um, my experience in ground

116source heat pumps is that from a new system, they are very sustainable. They're the cheapest option you can do in a new facility. um by investing a small amount upfront saves you 40 to 60% of your energy costs for the lifetime of that system. So it pays back itself over time very well. Uh it's been successfully implemented across the state. Um there are challenges with ground source because you have to have the right soil. You have to hit the right po price point of making sure that the tubes down in the ground don't have to be so deep. Otherwise, then it costs a lot of money and all these other things. The challenge we run into in our district is the the recommendations that we received from Mckin Street from the get-go that the goal

117has been to reduce our carbon emission as the number one goal um over everything else, which is great. Um, but as you look at trying to implement something into a into a system that isn't encompassing the entire HVAC and cooling system in a school, it can get really expensive really quickly. So Morgan's going to go into this a little bit as we go into this presentation, but I just kind of want to get give you those footnotes up front so you understand where our recommendations and and what the slides are talking about further into the presentation. But before I turn over to her again, we're really excited Morgan's here. She's been a great help to us and she's made huge strides in the short time that she's been here. >> Nice. Well, hi board. Um,

118good evening. Um, I'm Morgan McMillan, so the energy and sustainability manager for the district. Um, yeah, I'm excited to share these updates with you about this current and future project. Oh, you want me to >> just Yeah, sure. Um, so you've seen this slide before. Um, I think my predecessor showed this to you last year. Um, but I just wanted to include this again. Um, sustainability and energy management. It's a department of one. However, all of these different departments collaborate. Um, and it's been really nice to kind of step into this sustainable action plan that's been developed already. Um, it's really unique. So, uh, yeah, I think all of these different departments I work really closely with, um, it's been like a privilege to get to know them all and we all collaborate collectively on

119a shared goal, which is really nice and unique. So, I don't have too many updates about these departments. Um, but I have a few. The recycling um, has been popping up behind schools as as a question. Um our recycling guru Sam Mills uh he helps uh kind of contract with ACE our waste management facility. Um we are going through three streams of waste. So we have our landfill and our um brown uh brown or black bins. And then we have uh single stream recycling which is our plastics one and two uh metals aluminums. And then thirdly we have our paper recycling which is our most reliable form of recycling right now. Um non-contaminated. Um yeah, in addition to that, we're also still recycling larger metal items, um batteries, projectors, projector bulbs. So, um moving on,

120uh child nutrition, I've been working quite closely with Kelly Orton. Um we have a few really exciting projects going on. So, one, share tables, uh kind of developed in different schools. So, we've been deploying that into cafeterias, which has been um pretty successful overall. um reducing our food waste, which is uh key and really hard to do uh especially with younger age students. So um because they get contaminated quite quickly. Um additionally, Kelly and I have been working on a dishwear study. So beginning of the school year, we started our dishwear study just measuring single-use plastic versus our dishwashers. So what's the most beneficial to go I mean we have a landfill that has a life cycle of six years right now. So what makes the most sense for the district and um for our

121schools. So we've just been quantifying how many bags of trash we're collecting as we're leaving the cafeterias every day. Um our custodial is being a huge help in this. So um in addition to our um nutrition department. So, um, yeah, that's been really exciting. Um, transportation, I'm working quite closely with Ken Martinez. Um, we have those 12 electric buses. Um, some exciting news. Hopefully, we're going to get a um the Clean Heavy Duty Vehicle Act might be coming back. I don't know, but that's something I've been watching. Um, which is kind of exciting because if that does come back into funding, um, then we have the potential to get some, um, new electric buses. But um TBD on that just wanted to share that um we added a new solar canopy um number two uh

122in this last fiscal or 2025 fiscal year. Um still room for four additional buses. Um and then something else that I'm working with Ken on is our path to fleet electrification which is um kind of exciting. We're just measuring all of our buses aged, how what their carbon emissions are, um, and what their life cycle is. So, um, and we also just had some or received some new hybrid vehicles. So, that's kind of exciting. Um, in our education, uh, department, I've been working quite closely with teaching and learning. Uh this last year we completed power ed with Mckinry and that was towards the uh beginning of when I started here. Um I actually was able to get back into the classroom which is kind of fun because I used to teach at Emerson elementary school.

123Um I taught there for two years. Um yeah we had success in deploying these into multiple schools, multiple classrooms. Um, however, I think as we were looking at renewing this program, um, the costs associated with the program sort of outweighed the reviews. Um, so I think we've decided to switch gears, sort of like investigate additional collaborations. Um, one collaboration that I've been kind of working towards is um, with UKARES and they do the idle free program. So, I don't know if you're familiar with that, but um that's something we do in schools already. Um yeah, and then teaching and learning is still working on the Pebble um placebased experiential learning and um also getting a lot of um engagement through our high schools and green teams. So, that is exciting. Um moving on. So, uh,

124this was mentioned last year, um, from my predecessor mentioned this, um, but University of Utah was awarded a $6.5 million grant from the EPA. Um, with those dollars, they are allowed to give out grant money for clean air for schools. Um, Salt Lake City School District was the first to apply to for this grant. So, um, we've moved forward with installing air quality sensors and air quality radon monitors, um, in our schools, um, which is an exciting development that just happened in the last, um, couple months or so. Um, yeah, conducting energy assessments additionally. So, um, we have a a selected number of buildings that we're doing that in. Um and then also dist as part of that grant they're distributing high efficiency um HVAC mil MV uh filters for our schools. So that's all

125grant funded. So that's really exciting. Um another project I've been working on is uh with Salt Lake City Public Utility. So um a couple things have changed in uh actually in since in the last month. So, since August, um we're seeing two additional charges. So, an increase in our sewer rate. Um you probably are aware of this. And then, uh our flow charge. So, there's a new flow charge. Um there's a couple of things that I've been doing. So, one I've been working with our grounds. So, Dave Miller is amazing. Um we've been uh kind of working with Utah State. Dave and I have been working with Utah State um doing water checks. So, water checks is part of their program. uh Utah water savers and they have been coming to our facilities and just

126auditing the amount of water that we're using in our irrigation. >> Um which is kind of fun. Uh and it's interesting to see them do that because they they go around with like cups and catch um like the water coming out of sprinklers. So that's kind of that's kind of funny. Um but yeah, so and then the other thing that I'm working on is our uh rate air flow charge our rate reversal. So the fee reversal um with public utilities. So right now I've submitted for 20 buildings to get that fee reversal up until August of 2025. Um that in involves a couple of things. So uh they required a plan to separate the meters. So those 20 schools have culin commercial culinary lines um that are also tied in to our irrigation lines. Um

127the irrigation line and the culinary line are not separate in those 20 facilities. So um that was part of the fee reversal is to have a separated a separation plan for those two lines. So one for your irrigation meters um and one for your commercial building meters. so that the irrigation lines don't get charged that flow charge um which is key to try and get those um separated um so 2025 in review uh these are the schools that sort of started as I was so I I came into uh the school district I came back to the school district at end of March and so these schools were placed or these projects were placed in service as I was starting starting. Um, but we just received this from McKenry. This is the um uh um

128what do you call that? Oh my gosh, I'm blanking. But this is just their productivity report. That's what it is. Um and then uh so what we're seeing here is it comes on in end of March, uh April, May, and June. We're tracking what we expect to be tracking in terms of um a kilowatt KW production and um which is really exciting over 100%. And then the last couple of months we just had a Yingly fuse which was warrantied. Um and we were tracking that towards July and August. Um those fuses are being replaced I think by the end of this week which is um a good sign. >> Uh Yeah. So to continue 2025, um our utility savings and um our KW uh is tracking in what we expect it to be. So from

1292025 to $250,000 in utility savings um on these solar PVs, which is really exciting. And then we also had that weatherization part and the rate schedule change with Rocky Mountain Power. So $110,000 in um weatherization savings. Uh the weatherization part includes like garage doors um and doors in all of our facilities got a weather stripping. Uh in addition to that, a two-part ceiling installation between the ceiling and the roof. So, and then again that 66 6A schedule change with Rocky Mountain Power. Um, for F uh FY fiscal year 2026, I'm proposing three schools. Um, Bryant, Northwest, and Whittier. Bryant and Northwest are both roof expansions and Whittier um well rooftop arrays and Whittier is a expansion to the additional the already existing array. Um these three options seemed the most promising in this for us

130right now. um you know cost cost with kilowatt hours and um generated savings puts you at an ROI of 18 years which is um pretty good. So um and then addition to that we're looking at around a million dollars in IRA uh tax credits. So those have been saved until 2028 um which is great news. So, uh, in fiscal year 2026, we made some really great pro progress in NSIN and Woodyear. Um, I think overall we just wanted to do a deeper dive and kind of see this vision from 10,000 ft of ground source heat pumps. You know, these are new for our facility, for our district. Um I think overall we want to make the most responsible decision uh you know by working together and with Mckinstry um and work work with construction services

131and all these different partners and um departments. Um I want to emphasize that these two schools were picked because of their aging equipment. So um we're looking at the boiler age of the boiler, the lifespan of the BAS system and their controls. Um and yeah, Ensign I also want to emphasize that NSIN is a school that is does not have solar on the 20 on the bond list. So when we're looking at these schools, I think it's it would be a responsible decision to to look at, you know, the district as a collective and say, did did these simple paybacks make sense? Um, so we're looking at all options. I think like for like high efficiency replacements, and ground source heat pumps, which um, you know, there's a lot of pros and cons to ground

132source heat pumps. Like Isaac mentioned, they're highly highly efficient. They reduce long-term cost and utilities. Um, dropping your EUI of the building to 30 35%. Um, operationally, very low maintenance because of the ground loop is underground, not really uh directly direct from sun or it's uh avoiding sunlight. So, you're not really seeing that much deterioration of that ground loop over time. And it can last 50 to 100 years. So I mean operationally that's a long time that's going to outlast your building. Um yeah and I think also as much as I want to advocate for ground source heat pumps we do have to look that at this in a responsible way. Um looking at the simple payback without solar on enzyme um we're looking at 270 years right instead of a high efficiency replacement around

13378 years. Um, I think it's important to to ask ourselves too, are we doing a boiler boil just the boiler replacement but also replacing all the additional HVAC components that come with that. So, um, that's also something that we want to keep in mind as we're looking at this. >> Do you have anything to add here? >> I think that's good. We go on to >> Yeah. Um again, Whittier was another school that we selected um because of aging equipment. Uh Whittier is a school that has solar, so you're going to see a simple payback that's much um uh much more attractive. um in the next slide. So, um we're looking at like for like replacements, again, high efficiency replacements. Um comparing these costs with, um the remainder of HVAC costs, but ultimately the equipment

134is a need for the district. Um and then here we're going to see it here with uh electrification plus the solar. Um and your estimated payback is around uh 60 years. So, and we're including the IRA tax uh the IRA benefit here just for your information. >> I think that's all I wanted to talk about. >> Yeah. >> So, before we move on, I just want to uh reiterate um our district has a very aggressive sustainability goal, which we appreciate. Um, but we do need to have the conversation with the board of if if that's really it's very lofty to set that goal, but when you start looking at the cost involved to get to that point, is it really the the most sustainable thing to do? Um because when we're talking sustainability, we're talking

135we're trying to look at it from both uh carbon emission reduction, uh cost effectiveness and uh the reality of what we have in our existing systems that can be upgraded and what if we remove one piece of that, how much more of that has to be replaced before it's really effective in the way that it's planned to be. Um, a lot of other entities that have had lofty goals of this have breached conversations or made decisions to cut back from that 100% level to lower. And we're not coming here tonight to say that that's what we're we're asking you to make a decision on or even talk about that tonight. But, um, as we look at the sustainability goals for the district, we've spent about $40 million on the two phases or $49 million on

136the two phases that we've done so far. we uh our next step we've taken all the lowhanging fruit and said okay we've done those things that make the biggest impact and we can do it by uh financing those those uh exercises to um decrease our costs but we're actually we're paying for that by the savings in the energy. So we've already we've hit both of those levels that we can do that at. anything forward either has to come from the bond monies that we've got we've had approved which right now is just over $80 million which is really exciting and we can do a lot with that. Um, but the next step is once we take that next 60% swath out of the middle of that tree, now we got it that high-end stuff that

137there isn't a as much of a well there's no savings in doing it, but there is reduction in carbon emissions. But to take care of that top 20% of the that uh level of sustainability efforts, um we're looking at spending two to three times more than what we're going to spend on these first three phases. So, we just wanted to put that out there that that's a conversation we're going to have to have later on. Um, but as we're looking at these the bond projects that were initially noted in in the bond and recommended by McKinstry, as we look at the paybacks on these, they're they uh are grim in in a way in that we're saying let's put, you know, millions of dollars into a building that will reduce the carbon emissions, but we

138won't ever see the payback or we won't see near the majority of the payback in the lifetime of the existing building. Um, and again, the the two op or the three options we showed you, you can see that as you do them together with solar and ground source heat pumps, it's a much higher payback and a much better savings by doing that, but it's a higher cost to get to that level. Um, and then the other thing that I want you to think about is as you compare the two schools, Enzyme, which is up on the hill, we have to drill almost twice as deep to get to the source that we need to to make it effective. And the cost to do that is much higher. So, you're spending $1.5 million at one school

139and $900,000 to do the same thing because the other one's lower and you don't have to drill as far. So, those are two of the projects that are on the bond list. uh that are uh set for this year. Um we my recommendation is that we look at doing a high efficiency system at Enzyme rather than a ground source heat pump due to the the amount of cost uh that it'll take to get us there and consideration of the age of the current building. Now by doing that by doing like for high efficiency replacement that's going to extend the life of the building. Um, if I if I remember correctly, our boilers there are 23 years old. >> I I almost think that I I believe that they're older than that, >> maybe 27 years.

140The life of one is generally 25 to 30 years. So, we're we're at end of life for a lot of the equipment at the at both of these schools. Um but wittier because it already has some uh solar on top and by adding some additional we would say a huge savings there and we'll extend the life of the building where enzyme that that cost almost triples over overall to get to that same level of savings and reduction in carbon emissions. So my recommendation to the board is that we would do a high efficiency replacement of all the mechanical systems with the bond monies for um enzyme and continue with the results of the woodier for solar and ground source heat pumps. >> Yeah. Um the last thing I the last ite I wanted to include

141was just um the amount of rebates and IRA incentives that we've been working really hard uh to get to achieve. Uh this is a collaborative effort. So um it takes a lot of time to go into these buildings and make sure that the utility companies are auditing um all of our upgrades that we're doing and efficiencies. Um in total, I think in December we got a $1.2 $2 million check from the IRA from phase one and we're looking about looking at about $2 million from phase two which is fiscal year 2025. Um overall since I've started here uh we've received a three almost well $300,000 from Nbridge um gas utility company and about $25,000 from Rocky Mountain Power in rebates um which is really exciting. I always I like walking those checks up to the

142deal, which is great. Um, that's what I have for uh questions and comments. >> Thank you, Morgan. Thank you, Isaac, for all of your efforts to one put this together and to pick off pick up where Greg left off. Um, we appreciate it. And Alan, >> just want to add a couple things. I just kind of want to summarize some of the stuff Isaac said. So, previous conversations about these projects have been um they pay for themselves. we're at the end of that story and now we're we're paying in in some instances a lot of money to get these reductions in um carbon footprint and etc. So those are conversations we're going to be needing to have over the next while. Also Isaac, if if you have this kind of data off the top of

143your head, let us know. If not, we might need to bring it back. So you talked at the beginning about ground horse ground source heat pumps. Do you have the data like for Highland High School, how much additional that adds to the cost of the project and then with those percentage of savings that you have over years kind of how quickly that gets paid back. Do you have that with you? >> So the the ground source heat pump and sustainability plan for Highland ends up being about $7.5 million. It was there was uh two and a half million for solar and five million for ground source heat pumps. um because it's a new system and the area that's proposed to do the ground source that will cover about 50% of our uh facility needs for

144heating and cooling of the of the building. So 460,000 440,000 square feet of that we will cover with ground source heat pumps. The other half would be done by traditional systems. So, right off the bat, we would save um we would end up saving about 35% of the energy costs um for the building as a whole. Um and the payback on the payback on Highland because all we're measuring there is just the the ground source loops to be installed, not the entire system. Uh like we're talking about with these uh existing schools. Um the the payback is about eight years on >> how many? >> Eight. >> Yeah. On energy costs for Highland High School. >> Thank you. Any questions for Isaac, Morgan, or Alan? Um I saw Ashley's hand first. Annie, Charlotte, and Brian.

145I know you referenced this earlier, but if residents near schools like Washington Elementary is just one example, are curious about their solar outcomes, but they're not in this report because they were in a prior phase, how would they access that information? >> That's one of the things Morgan's been working on, and we're we're going to have a a page that they can go to that shows they can actually do it month by month or they can do it over the time of of the implementation of these, but we're still working on that. So, that I would say first of next year that we'll have that. >> I was hoping for the end of the year, but we we'll see. Um there's a couple of options that we're working on with dashboarding and I would love

146to see that on the district website um eventually. And uh it's been a conversation that we've been having with the high schools um when the students walk into the high school, they have that information on like a television, which would be really um fascinating. Um yeah, working with a couple of different options for dashboards. That's very cool. Um, and in the discussion about potential upgrades to Ensign, I know many residents would be very excited that we'd be investing in that elementary school community. Um, but I have expressed concerns in past public meetings that precinct 3 houses two of the oldest buildings in the district and feeds to another one of the oldest buildings in the district. And if we acknowledge that in the future the avenues would need potentially two new elementary schools, how do

147investments in things like geothermal engage with long-term facilities plans, including the need for elementary school rebuilds? In other words, what happens to upgrades in geothermal when buildings reach their end of life? So geothermal specifically uh for example enzyme if we said we're going to do a geothermal field there you can act the the field itself you can build on top of so if in 30 years we say okay it's time to rebuild the school or 10 years or I'm just throwing numbers out right but um when we rebuild that school you can actually say okay the field is over here but that doesn't limit us from not building on that we just have to build a a space over the top of it um for that to continue to function. As Morgan mentioned, those systems

148are at least 50. They're effective for at least 50 years, generally a lot longer than that because they're underground. It's PVC pipe that's pushing air in and pulling new air out. Um so that's the good news with with those. But the other thing is is um again we're trying to be we're trying to look at this from a a bigger perspective of is it really worth investing this much money for something that is only going to give us benefit for 10 15 years um and then we lose the the rest of that investment. So that's again the recommend why the recommendation of that school specifically. We can extend the life for another 30 years by upgrading the programming replacing the HVAC uh the HVAC the chiller the the boilers um at a much lower rate

149but we would still meet an efficiency of an additional 20% of where we're at right now. That would extend the life of that building. If you if it was still if it was more important that we want to ensure we reduce the carbon footprint by the proposed amount um that field could go in the loss of investment would be that equipment that we put into that building and then 15 20 years later we decide to get rid of that building. Doesn't mean we would just automatically bulldoze that stuff. We can utilize that at other buildings. One of the things we're working on with our facilities team is making sure we're identifying similar products at each location so it can be more of a plugandplay when we need to change things. Um, that's one thing that

150we'll uh, we talked about this in cabinet this morning. We'll be getting you guys a comprehensive plan and some updates really quickly. Um, but that's some of the conversation in that is making sure that we have a plan for these facilities that we can still make we can be responsive and fix something that's broke but know that we're not losing that investment. we can either move it somewhere else or uh well use it somewhere else or >> right I think also yeah looking at it from 10,000 ft up right we have a responsibility to this action plan I think um also a responsibility to the students in this district and I I think frankly the city like being the face of Salt Lake. So, um, yeah, kind of looking at it like that, I think,

151yeah, I lost my train of thought. >> It's intimidating up here sometimes. >> Yeah. Um, but, uh, I think, yeah, looking at it like from a responsible perspective too, we're kind of at a roadblock, right? Like we have this facility that we need we it's still functioning. We need it to function for x amount of years. We know that it has end of life equipment. Um, you know, this is expressed through our HVAC technicians and the people who are boots on the ground and we are are make trying to make a decision that's responsible for the district. You know, do we upgrade with a high efficiency boiler? Is it responsible to do a ground source heat pump or is it I mean is it responsible to keep kicking this aged equipment down the road and

152and because maybe we will be redist I don't I mean just throwing it out there but yeah so that's kind of what I was trying to say with our deeper dive into these two schools you know we're really looking at um simple payback and the ROI and um looking at the facilities and the maintenance and operational maintenance that it's taking to um keep these buildings running currently. So, >> one one thing that's been discussed over the last couple years, but I think is important now is some of the things we've looked at is we haven't put um solar panels on some top of the schools yet because the roof was 14 years old and to put something on the roof that's going to have to be removed in the next 10 years to put a

153new roof in, it's just not responsible. So that's where we're working with our sustainability group and Mckinstry, our contractor, to identify which are the next schools on that list because people ask all the time, well, why don't we have this yet? Why why haven't we received that? We've looked at what the roof age is. We've looked at um you know, the cycle of the buildings and we're identifying, well, we know this building has a 32y old boiler, so we know we're going to have to spend $300,000 on a boiler. So, let's put that higher on the list so we can upgrade that to one of these other options. >> I'll respond a little bit to the seed being planted and then I do have one more question. Um, I do think on face we should

154be submitting to committing to the carbon reductions which were set forth by the student advocates. I think that's an important part of what they were asking for. But I do think we as we consider ways to be responsible in thinking about the age of buildings that we're investing in and what's actually most ecologically sustainable in the long term regarding, you know, new builds. I do reiterate my ask that we receive some type of long-term facilities plan specifically for elementary and middle schools that looks at these needs in relationship to, you know, when are our buildings at end of life and what is the reasonable plan for those and how does that also interact with the report we'll receive next month about enrollment about how many of those buildings really can feasibly be operating. Um, but

155one more simple question I had was, are you looking at funding for food composting through Momentum, which is currently self-funded at some of our schools like Wasach and Bryant, or will those efforts continue to be focused on the dishwasher study you mentioned and share tables? >> Um, yeah. So, the compost programs um are kind of touchandgo. So, some some schools are uh committed to those and some schools are kind of trying to phase them out. Um, compost is really tricky because um, Salt Lake City doesn't really have a a true composting facility. Um, I I think we're more switching gears and focusing on um, like single-use dishwear and aged again aged appliances, right? We have a number of schools that have aged dishwashers and we're making that decision. Is it responsible for us to go

156to single use or is it responsible to put more money into preventative maintenance? Thank you, >> Ann. >> Yeah, I just want to um say amazing work. Great job. Um, I appreciate um the approach of walking that fine line, that balance between the long-term sustainable environmental goals as well as um, as board member Anderson was pointing out, our our building life and also the fact that we have students that we're trying to um, educate and that's the the teachers and students are the, you know, the the priority. Um I do have a question about the Salt Lake utilities fee reversal that you submitted. Um do you have a cost estimate of the initial change to separate those two flows? So, um, the sorry, a year ago, we came in with a budget asking for a

157budget amendment because our we had to double our our utility cost because the city had increased the water rate. So, that increased us by 100% that year. And then this year, the sewer rate, which is tied to the water rate because there's no way to measure sewage. they look off of your water meter usage that was going to the estimate was about 50% again. So within three years 150% increase on our utilities for water rates. Um each of these each of the 20 identified schools um will cost us uh somewhere in the 50 to $75,000 range per school to separate from a one meter system to a 2 meter. So we can measure the the use in the building versus outside the building because the majority of I mean if you look at our uses

158it's outside >> majority. So by reducing that um it's keeping us from ha it's stopping us from having to come back and say we need 50% more this year already for our utility costs because we've almost used all of all of them. And then uh it'll be about a half a million dollars a year to get through all of those schools uh for three years. about a half million >> to switch them over. Yeah. And then so you you're saying at least then we won't the cost savings per year. >> You don't know exactly, but it will probably >> it's it's going to stabilize us currently to our current budget. >> Um but it's uh the the potential savings over time. >> Yeah. >> Is that but it it depends on every rate change. Um,

159again, I don't want to make this a bad thing from the city. The this the city's been a great partner with us. We've met with the uh uh Lara Briefer, who's the director of public utilities, and her team, we've talked about these challenges. They've got a hard job to do, too. And uh they're working with us, which is what I want you to know is Morgan's worked really closely with them. We've actually gone out and measured the meters. We've looked at what the potential savings is on each of those. And um I mean I don't have exact numbers right now but we're working with their rate uh accountants to figure out what those savings are and we'll come back with a better presentation for that because it is a big heavy ask but the agreement

160has is for the reversal to happen is we have to agree to fix all 20 of those within three years. >> Okay. >> So >> great. Thanks >> Charlotte. Yeah. I could you clarify the three points that you're that you're looking at to make these decisions? You said the first one was carbon emissions reduction. The second was cost effectiveness. And the third one you said the reality of something and I didn't understand it. Could you clarify that third one? >> Was that the building the life of the building or >> um Sorry, I'm trying to go back to >> which portion of this. Um so in in our sustainability efforts the the focus is number one is always or on the initiative >> was um carbon carbon reduction energy usage and um utility reduction that

161make >> okay but I think you were talking about something else >> I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly but I I mean I I think >> it's definitely The co the cost of operation operational cost is something that we want to take into account too if that's what you were talking about. >> Yeah. >> Building life and operation. Okay. >> All right. Thanks. >> Let me go through the minutes next week and I'll reiterate with you. Sorry. >> I can go over them. >> Thanks, Charlotte. Brian. Well, you answered a number of my questions when you were explaining the factors that help you determine where you are going to do the solar panels and the board member Anderson raised the question of older buildings and the two buildings that are in her precinct.

162Um my second question goes to and in your report it refers to the solar panels. I think it was back in July or August it started to show that there was a decrease in the amount of power that you were receiving. I hope I was understanding this all correctly. I'm I'm not an engineer, but um down in one of the asterisks, it talks about how you determined that um Okay. They were called >> Yingly fuses or something like that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So the Yingly fuses, they weren't working and so you were able to get those replaced or whatever and it was all under warranty. And my question is, do these systems do they work well without like huge mainten maintenance costs? And how do we ensure that if these fuses are going out

163or whatever, can you get prolonged warranties or is that cost prohibit? I just don't want it to be that we are installing these things and then the maintenance of it ends up being overwhelming if that makes sense. >> So sorry with most systems there is maintenance that comes along with them, >> right? We do have a good warranty with and and a good partner with Mckinstry um in these processes. Um but at some point there will be maintenance on these. Um you know each of these systems we have we have a there's a financial obligation tied to these projects with Mckinstry for phase one and two or 2425 in that they guaranteed us so much savings. So, uh, th those numbers have to continue to to justify the telp funds that we we used. So,

164they're incentivized to ensure that we have a system that's going to last the time that that's uh proposed and that we're going to save them money that we were guaranteed to be able to make those payments. But after a three-year time frame, there are going to be things that we're going to have to do in-house to to maintain those. Um, the key component is having somebody like Morgan in her position that is watching these on a weekly and monthly basis to say, "Hey, we have an issue with this one. We need to take a look at it." And then getting our professionals over there. We have licensed electricians, licensed plumbers on on staff. This will be an additional thing that we have to ask them to look into and we're working on getting some training

165for them. Um, but that's part of the plan in this is that we will have to maintain the systems to make sure they're operating. efficiently. >> Well, that was one of the things that I liked seeing in the report was that it looked like this was being monitored and you were catching, >> excuse me, catching it and trying to address it. Uh I guess what my question is is the experience that you're having so far is that I mean this is successful um equipment and that it's performing the way that it should and that when a Yangly fuse goes out that's an exception or or something like how much is a Yangly fuse? Are they a lot of money? >> That's a good question. It's under warranty. Oh, okay. >> Um, but I can speak

166to that. I think about preventative maintenance, just like your prevent preventative maintenance of a car or a vehicle or a dishwasher, right? You're going to have to >> kind of budget or see that in the outcome, right? So, we're adding a bunch of new equipment onto our facilities. Um I think it's worth having that conversation of how are we going to maintenance these and who's um we do a number of trainings with our with facilities but um you know making sure that there's somebody that's um one monitoring it myself and two um you know capable of doing these repairs. Um but in terms of productivity I think we're seeing the production and the cost savings exactly what was promised and what was expected. So >> we're we're actually seeing much higher return than what was

167projected. >> I mean I think that was part of the you know the the knowledge that Mckinstry has is that we're going to tell you you're going to save at least this much with expectation of saving a lot more. Um and that's what all these numbers are showing us is that we are >> well it's always great to get better news. So thank you >> for once. Thank you Brian. Um any other questions? I know we have to kind of keep the Amanda Um, okay. I was trying to listen to that last bit while I was looking over the sustainability plan and the um sustainability >> resolution >> um resolution. Thank you. Um, okay. I'll try to move fast. So, I just wanted to point out and maybe it was said and I I missed

168it. Um, and I know that money is a significant component to this conversation. Um but when we're looking at ground source heat pump versus boiler conversations um it is more about the re the ROI and less about um in my opinion and again I have I haven't gotten extremely proficient in it but negates the sustain intention of the sustainability resolution again I won't underestimate the financial ramifications and everything you said totally get it um but I wanted to say that piece Um, let's see. So, how much did we receive from the U of 6.5 million EPA grant for that clean air? You said that we were the first applicants, but you didn't really identify how much we received from it. >> Um, we have I mean what we've received are air quality sensors, um, radon

169sensors. They're being deployed in every school and in addition to that, um, five years of HVAC filters. So financially, I mean, we're not really see seeing dollars, but it's more of the items and and also um like the the the measuring of the air quality, which is kind of is it part of the sustainable action plan for sure. >> Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Um and then I don't know if you guys have I presume you've looked at this. So in in the solar panels return on investment um in one of your slides you had anywhere from 13.1 to 20.7 years what is the typical lifespan of the actual solar panels and then uh that potential cost to replace them because the obviously the investment in the initial setup the ROI could be that time but

170then do the panels actually last that period of time or are we replacing panels while we're trying to get the return on investment. we're actually continually chasing the return on investment because you know what I mean. So I guess what's the typical lifespan of a solar panel to know how that relates to that? >> A typical solar panel right now is 25 to 30 years but the technology has gotten better. I mean yearover-year. Um so we have some that were installed a decade ago that they're probably producing 75% of what they were when they were installed 10 years ago. >> Awesome. Um, but the the newer ones, they have a a a warranty warrantied life of 25 years, but >> expect cost of installation that's already going to be paid for. It's just put replacing

171the panels from there on. >> Um, I had a question about SP, but then you guys answered it. Um, I am, and I just there's two points I wanted to make, but I want to make sure I didn't mix those two. one looking I was skimming the sustainability um resolution and the plan and it does talk about something that um I'm interested in seeing occurring that I haven't seen other than obviously with the new builds this will be done. Um but you're talking about the um metering and switching that out so that we're saving money not uh having it all go into the culinary cost and such. But um the other piece on that water savings is uh our landscaping. So we have a lot of green areas that we're not using those grassy areas

172that could be zero escape to reduce our water consumption there. So I guess my question there is the the plan uh and the resolution cover that piece. What um efforts have been made to tackle the zeroscaping? >> Yeah. Uh with Dave Miller, our grounds manager, has done a number of turf removal projects. Um, in addition to that, we're we're working on um identifying all of those areas that are kind of like a redundant areas, not only in water usage, but also in operational usage. So, taking into consideration how much time it takes to mow those areas or um uh weed whack edge, all of those things. It takes a lot of time and we have a limited uh grounds crew. So um and and many school buildings to get through. So um yeah, we're we're

173actively going through site by sight and trying to identify those spaces. Also working quite closely with um Stephanie Dwire with Utah State. Um she's sort of like a water conservation guru. Um and uh going through like a Google Maps photo and doing like site visits and trying to identify those spaces. Yeah. Um, >> when do you think you'll have an estimated breakdown of the zeroscaping solutions for each site? >> Um, I'm not sure. I think maybe I I could make a goal and and say outwardly that maybe like a a year from now would be a nice goal to have to have all those sites kind of um looked at at least and skimmed over and say, "Hey, I think we could make an adjustment here and and save water here." Um, that's just a

174conversation that Dave and I have been working through. >> There there have been efforts been made since since the implement implementation of the sustainability action plan. Um, we're we're saved millions of gallons each year uh of the practices that have already been implemented. Um, but the the we haven't focused on the the landscaping really at this point. We've just cut done what we could to cut back on water. >> I know you guys have done you've got a lot of fires you're dealing with just with the critical situation with >> the water supplies. Like that seems like that would be a a a critical area and I do support >> looking at maybe a study session um for a reassessing that 100% um sustainability goal. I just wanted to say that piece. >> Thank you,

175Amanda. Um, I'm going to go ahead and dovetail on that because that was my next question as we kind of wrap up this conversation if there's no more questions for the second round. I'm not seeing any. And my question is for the three of you, Isaac, Morgan, and Allan. Um, you know, you brought a an honest, you know, and very transparent, um, kind of reality check on our sustainability plan. What do we need to be anticipating as far as timeline for a study session or an ongoing conversation about um addressing and talking about those those realistic things that we have to be thinking about with the budget with the percentages that we're looking at and so on. >> Right. So Isaac can correct me if I'm wrong, but we have the money that was specifically

176from the bond for sustainability. So that's going to get us through the next um couple years. >> Yeah. Um it's after that that the critical conversations will need to happen. So, you know, we're not we're not going to say we need to stop everything because we have that bond money for these projects. Now, some of the um conversation will depend on maybe which buildings we do and what we do on on the buildings. So, it's not immediately urgent, but probably in the next year, we ought to um you know, if we don't come up with an end thing, at least have a study session to lay out lay out this a little bit more clearly and you know, what would it cost us to get to these goals by the the the deadlines and what

177are some alternatives that we could look at? Okay. So, we got some time >> just so in that report you were suggesting I thought like our thoughts about a comprehensive cost and sustainability review. Is that what we're getting at here? Is that at some point? >> Yes. >> We're going to need to have that. And I think that gets to what board member Longwell was also suggesting that we're going to need to have that at some point. >> Yeah, we need a deep dive. >> Round two. I would just offer that we can't really engage in this discussion until we also have a long-term facilities plan and until we have information about all of our facilities, we will continue to circle the drain on the same questions about what the plans especially for our oldest

178buildings and our elementary school rebuilds are. >> Thank you, Ashley. Um, thank you, Isaac. Oh, any question? >> Oh, I was just going to ask it sounded like Isaac is working on that and or what is the timeline for that? Just to respond to board member Anderson's question. >> So, I've been working on that for two years. >> Um, we we started that and then we went into the discussion of closing schools. Um, so it kind of offsets a few things, but um, our department will complete all of this year's annual assessments, but this Friday, so we'll we'll have and done our second full round of this since I've been here. Over the next month, we will be working on the data of those and the asks for each building. I will have an agenda

179or a >> table of contents uh, to Dr. grant for you guys to review by the end of this week so you guys can make sure that it has everything on there that you want to see in a comprehensive plan. Um the goal in the end is in my past experience I want to provide you a book that has at least one page of each facility talks about the age the square footage the good the bad the ugly about each one and then a recommendation for the you know the top 10% for for the next year action plan and then break that down over the next five years 10 years 50 years >> okay thank you >> thank you Isaac Morgan appreciate appreciate it. We'll move on to our discussion agenda. Um the first um

180item of business there is um item number one, diploma options. Dr. Grant. >> Yeah. Um Dr. Hall has done a great job pulling together for you um the information from surveys and focus groups around the diploma. So, in your board memo, which is exceedingly long and full of good information, um Dr. Hall laid that out really clearly. So, she's going to go through every page in excruciating detail here. >> I've prepared 115 slides. >> You've been hanging out with Alan. >> This is a good start, though. >> Yes. What did I do that it's not showing up there? Oh, that's pretty. >> Okay. Have you tried turning it off and on again now? What did I do? Oh, very good. Okay. Um, as the superintendent said, we did in fact uh send you and provide

181for you the results from our community survey. Uh, we had over 1500 parents respond. Oh, sorry. Uh, sorry, let me start from the top. When my slides get messed up, I get messed up. Um, so we had our focus group uh responses from our high schools and I'd like to thank Mr. Goodwin for his assistance with Dr. Ruiz and getting um all of our schools to discuss that with their student body organizations. So that was really helpful. We surveyed our students at all of the high schools. We had responses from all of the high schools. Over 1,500 students responded. So this was uh clearly a topic of some great interest to them. And we had over 600 parents who also responded. So in a a short amount of time, we were able to to create

182a lot of information that we are able to listen to and respond to. So just quickly, I'd like to do a review of where we have been and why uh how we got here. We actually started this conversation, if you'll remember, back in June. So we have been thinking about this and by the time we look at it again at our next board meeting for almost four months. And during that time we have thought about and changed some of the things that we have we have been thinking about. We have um expanded some ideas. We have changed some ideas. And I feel like we have really had a discussion about a lot of the different things that have been proposed and could be proposed and why they are proposed. So I appreciate this long attention

183to this. This is a very important discussion and just to remind all of us why we're having this discussion. Um we've looked at some information and for instance last year only about 20% of our seniors had a full schedule and what this means is that students are missing learning opportunities. They're missing opportunities for early college like concurrent enrollment classes. They are missing opportunities for CTE or any other electives. um all of those things that you get to do in high school that you may not ever get to do at any other time in your life. And we also have talked about the fact that requiring only the minimum does not necessarily reflect what our district believes about preparing students to have choices after they leave high school. So we're thinking about all of these things

184and we've we are here tonight to talk about two as I said we started with in one place and now we're ending with in a place where we're talking about two things. The first is increasing the graduation requirements for students and the second is proposing a diploma of distinction that would honor students that kind of go above and beyond. So, uh just a little bit of data. We've looked at at this before, but to remind us that at this point last year, um, over 56% of our students at West and 73% of our students at Highland and 61% of our students at East all earn 27 or more units for graduation. So, just a little sense of where we are as a district already with where credits are. Um, and another thing is just looking

185at some of the schools around us. We've talked about some of our surrounding districts that have required more units for graduation. And so I just pulled up some data and this is um our three schools and our required credits for last year's cohort. I tried to select student or schools that had about the same number of students and similar demographics. And this shows the percentage of students that graduated in 2024. And I've also included our multil- language learner graduation rates for 2024. And that is because, as you read in the uh survey data, that there were a lot of questions about whether or not things like increasing graduation rates would have a significantly greater impact on students who were acquiring English um than other students. And so I thought, well, let's just kind of take

186a look and see if that was a thing. And so, um, you can see that like I'm going to call Karns tomorrow and find out what they're doing because that's kind of an amazing statistic. But, um, in looking at that, their, um, graduation rates for schools or in districts with schools that required the 27 um, did not they are not significantly um, different than than ours. Um, I mean, it it's an an it's an anomaly. If you look at if you look at Karns and 81, that's high, but when you look at Taylor'sville, it's low. So, I think what this says, and this came up in a lot of the comments from the surveys, that when we look at or if we were to look at doing um additional units or adding additional units, one

187of the things that we need to do is make sure that we are watching and supporting all of our students to make sure that we don't create um disadvantage among our groups, but that we're really paying attention to all of our students and making sure that students are able to to uh graduate at all of them at the same rates. As I go through this, um, when you read all of the comments and and I did not give you all of the comments as as we always do, um, I summarized those for you around some of the major themes, but I noticed that there were several misconceptions or ideas around some of our requirements that were not accurate. So for the record, I want to start with correcting some of those misconceptions. And the first

188one is that if we were to increase graduation requirements, if the board were to decide that that is the direction to direct the district to go, that would not affect any current high school students. There was quite a bit of anger around you can't change the requirements on me right now. And I want to be very clear that that has never been the case. um that it would begin with the class of 2023 um or later as directed by the board, but no sooner than the next year's freshmen. Um we would also be looking at elective classes so students would be able to choose the classes that best met their post high school goals and it would not in any way affect the seminary program. Um I can't control that program. It is out of

189our jurisdiction being part of the church education system CES but this program would not affect that. We had talked about how students have the opportunity to earn if they take a full schedule all four years 32 credits or 28 if they take seminary every year. So we are being mindful of that in this program. So, with that being said, what are a couple of the things that the survey told us or informed us about how our communities are feeling about the graduation um requirements? Increasing graduation requirements. One of the things that came through uh clearly from both parents and students were concerns about stress um stress and anxiety about performing, about coming to school, about grades um and also about time for extra activities, whether it was work or other extracurricular activities that students felt

190like they needed to have for college. Many students and par uh parents did worry that this was unfair or difficult for disadvantaged students. Um, this put me into reading a lot of the research around um, high expectations and how when we hold high expectations for students and we talk about those expectations with clear positive language and that we are certain to support them and scaffold them that that students are able to rise to those. And it's very important for us as educators, for our teachers and our administrators to be able to say we believe that all of you can achieve these high standards. And so I understand that that's a concern, but I also truly believe that when we present our opportunities and options to students with uh faith and with um confidence that those

191are things that they can do that those students will rise to to that occasion. There were some students that worried that our low or minimum requirements did make the district look less rigorous. that was stated in um some of the student and parent comments. Um there were also comments around the fact that if we added more units, they really wanted those to be engaging classes that provided realworld um experiences to help them prepare for life after high school. Um straight by the numbers, I know I'd like you to hold your breath. this very surprising but many students did not favor the option of increasing I know I'm as surprised as you are um but uh you know 53 of them were not supportive 26 were a maybe only 20% of the students were really firmly

192committed to the idea that this was a good idea parents were a little bit more in favor um 42 were not supportive 24% were a maybe a maybe and 34% thought that this was um probably or definitely a good idea And we had some comments and I included um again many more of comments in the board packet, but just some that I thought we could highlight. Um low expectations don't foster engagement, keep our seniors in school. Um we should be prioritizing mental health and sense of belonging. Um some students already struggle to reach 24. If they want to go on, um let that be an option, but don't make everybody do it. So again, some very mixed feelings around um increasing graduation requirements. Diploma of distinction. Some clarifications. Again, I had some angry responses about

193requiring this at, you know, in the middle of the school year. Um this is an optional recognition. It would not affect um I mean, it's it's optional anyway, but it it would again go into effect um with the freshman of next year. um questions about the requirements or to clarify the requirements that um it would be a number of units completed and a GPA for all four years using non-weighted grades. That's going to come up to be an important um factor when we look at some of the comments or concerns that uh students had around this being a repetitive or duplicative um honor. Um there would not be required class selections. there was um a lot of question around you know are you going to require me to to take a language but maybe I

194don't want to take a language or I don't want to take more science then my friend take choir I mean let's let's do things again that feed our souls so we are we would not require any particular classes and a lot of that I'm now previewing what will come up in the comments is that many students said I already am um getting recognitions for IB already am getting recognitions for AP or for CE. Like I'm I'm getting these additional recognitions. This is this is about um recognitions for students that take any class that they want to take that it isn't necessarily that IB or that AP or that CE, but it's that student who might have a job outside of school and is working, but is also coming and taking and passing all of their

195classes and maintaining their GPA average. and we um would be able to honor them in this way and then as I just said provide recognitions beyond those specialized diplomas. So survey says um again concerns that this could be duplicative for some students. Um I I understand that perhaps if you had all of the cords and metals around your neck that could be very painful at graduation. will will suffer through that pain. I'm good with that. Um students and uh parents all liked the idea of it being an option. Um and there were comments from students that were um applying to competitive colleges that it could be another distinction or another thing that that could pull their application um out of out of the stack. Um there were several comments around making sure that whatever we

196do with it that we define what it is and what it means so that that's clear for employers and for colleges and they will know what it's what it means when it's displayed. And I thought that's that's a very interesting um comment because a lot of times we just would write that on a diploma but that doesn't necessarily say what that means to us. So, um, there were some good suggestions that we'll talk about, um, on a future slide, but also that idea of thinking about what that could look like on the diploma or transcript and on our district website so that it's easily findable and searchable. That would be that I felt like that was a really um, thoughtful forwardlooking suggestion. Um, another one both parents and students thought was um, very popular was

197tying a scholarship to this award in some way. So I thought well we can certainly look at some things like that as we move forward. Students were split. Um this is just around I I should have put this comment earlier but um the students who responded were split fairly evenly for between all the grades you know 21 23 24 26. So we had we had 9 10 11 and 12 all represented and all of as I said all of our schools were represented. So this information does reflect that. Um about 50% of the students said that they would probably or definitely try for a diploma of distinction and almost 30% more said that they would maybe try for it. So we have 79% of students who said yeah I would maybe probably try for that.

198I think just even being aware that um earning additional credits and keeping that GPA up would be an honor is something that you know we say often in education what gets tested gets taught like what we think about happens and so I I am pleased to think that that's something that that students are already thinking about. Um, this made me um laugh because uh 54% of parents thought that their student would probably or definitely try. Um, that sounds like my parents. They would definitely say that I would definitely be trying for this. Um, whether I thought I would or not. Um, and so again, we had fairly even um even statistics there. 79 78% thought that students would probably try for that and that parents would be aware of that. I asked about the GPA

199and what they thought was right. And this was really interesting. Um 26% and 27% thought 3.5 was the right GPA. We've looked at that um last time and we realized that 3.5 is actually really close to our district average GPA. And um slightly more people thought that 3.75 was the right place to hit. And I've got some comments that will um continue that conversation coming up. About um 66% of students supported this option at the end of the survey and 63% of the students support of the parents supported this option at the end of the survey. Probably or definitely. It's always kind of interesting to me when you say at the beginning of the survey, what do you think about this? And then as you go through the survey and you ask some more questions

200and people think about it a little bit more um that that number very often may change. And so as they begin to think about well yeah that might be something an employer or college would look at when I apply maybe that would be a good idea. So um we did see that there were some interesting suggestions for the diploma of distinction. Um I didn't include this with the um increased graduation requirement because there weren't any suggestions in this vein, but somebody suggested that instead of calling it a diploma of distinction, we move to more of the college system with the kumlad and the magna and the suma um with different tiers. >> Okay, another um great thing um creating distinctions for citizenship, service, biiteracy, and civic readiness. I thought that was fantastic since we're already

201doing 50% of those. We already have our seal of biiteracy and our seal of civic readiness. And so, um, I like the idea that and it feels very typical of this generation that it is more about what we can do that we want to be recognized for. And I I appreciate that about students. There was a suggestion to create a badge that students could add to their LinkedIn or to their um email signatures that would explain what this is. Um if you've seen those, I'm sure you've seen those in LinkedIn, but um you know, you you put the badge there and then if if you click on it, then it would take you to a page where that would be um explained so people would know what that was. Um some of the comments, don't

202make a new distinction if it's going to be super easy to get. Again, I appreciate that comment, right? I mean, if if we're going to do something, let's make it something important. Um, you know, a lot of students already saying we've got a lot of different opportunities for this. Um, I keep coming back to what is the percentage of students that participate in these programs and it isn't all students. And so opening up some avenues that might allow students to explore this, taking our general education program, um I think is is worth it. And then my student is is looking for ways to stand out on college education or college applications. And that came up several times as well. Communicating change. That's always one of the things that the board um asks. How are we

203preparing our communication plan? What does that look like? So, I always like to ask that if I'm putting a survey out about a change. And um far and away, email newsletters and parent square. Yay, Sam. Yay. Yandre. Very good. Here we are. They know what that is. Um those were our top choices. Um student information sessions with counselors, making sure it's communicated on the websites, having parent information meetings in the evenings, live or online. Those were the top ways that parents thought that we could best communicate changes forward um with things. So, I know that there was a lot of information in the survey and that there are probably other things that you'd like to discuss. I would put this up here. Um the board's asked for recommended action. Um the idea that you would

204move that to action next uh at the next meeting on the 21st. So, we have spoken about increasing our graduation requirements by three credits beginning with the class of 2023. Those would be elective classes that students would be able to choose what best met their goals for post high school. Um, and to establish a diploma of distinction, uh, to recognize students who earn 27 or more credits and have a GPA of 3.75 or higher. Uh, this would be unweighted grades and any credits would count. That being said, >> thank you, Dr. Hall. Um, we appreciate the efforts that you put into this. Um, I know we gave you some pretty clear direction about surveys and reaching out to students. Um, which is why Foss and you might have to forgive me later, but I think

205we have a huge benefit of having student board members as part of our team. and I'm wondering if um if we can start the conversation with you and I know that you've been talking to some of your peers um either about the survey or about the increase in credit, you know, exploration that we're looking at for high school diplomas and a diploma of distinction. So, I'm wondering if you have questions or comments that you'd like to start the conversation out with tonight. >> Uh yeah, thank you. Um, I had some comments and questions about um the focus on truency or like um not having full schedules for seniors versus matching fellow districts in order to uh provide advantages for college and whatnot. >> Um it seems like it's uh somewhat of a cultural norm in

206the schools at the moment for seniors to not take full schedules. And so I think one approach rather than raising the credit requirement could be focusing on shifting that culture so that seniors feel empowered to take on a full course load and take advantage of the resources that are available to them. Whereas I saw um in some of the comments also that they said those who are going to graduate and go above and beyond will do so anyway. But it's possible that raising the credit requirement for the base diploma would not encourage um students who are already at risk um to chase that uh graduation that based diploma um and would only make it more difficult um and so it seems like other approaches would be better to solve that issue such as working with

207underassmen earlier um to preempt possible issues in the future. At West we have um pack time which is for application for students. Um at other schools I assume there are similar programs or there could be similar programs um to address that. And then in terms of honors diplomas I think uh the general agreement seems to be that that would be a positive addition. I think having um the traditional like college um prefixes to those like uh sumakumlad type of uh things would help determine what it means to both employers and colleges um because it's just adopting something that already exists. Uh and then in terms of the comment on keeping um the 24 credit requirement being seen as less rigorous. Uh from my perspective, colleges look at your singular school context or your district context.

208And so if the district based diploma is 24 credits, that will not count against you. But a honors diploma might add something. And so I think um it would appear that keeping the base diploma where it is and adding that honors diploma with um kind of those three traditional sections would be the best course of action, but that's only my perspective. >> Thank you. >> Board members and Charlotte. >> Uh yeah, I agree with that assessment. I think um generally speaking, I mentioned this last time, I I've worked in college admissions as as an adviser for students applying to Ivy League colleges and generally speaking, I don't think the number of credits will change the college admissions perspective on academic rigor. Um so I although I do think it like you said um higher goals

209and supporting students for those goals I think that's really great I do overall think um it would be a net negative to increase the number of credits especially for vulnerable populations. Um and and based on what FA said and I do agree it would be nice to adopt the sumaku blah language. However, I think um including 3.5 GPA would maybe be too broad as we as you said, that's the average GPA. Um because generally there's a lot of grade inflation and if you're not waiting the grades anyway, I I do think maybe something 3.75 or above would be great. But um I'm assuming you'll have more of a proposal for when we vote next time or no. I think it would be helpful to get a sense of the board and what other information you

210like. I think what Tiffany's provided here is about all the information we're thinking we could gather. So, it's more about >> the board's desire and the two proposals are making the standard diploma increasing by three credits to 27 and the other is to do a diploma of distinction. So, unless there's something else kind of identified by the board, it's more about what the general desire of the board is >> and that. So >> Annie, if you have any more comments, >> Charlotte and then I have Amanda. >> Okay. >> And then Brian and Bryce and Ashley. >> So I I think I think I disagree a little bit on that. I think that um students can rise to the occasion and it's proven in in Karna's and um I also think that you know maybe

211right now if students are used to 24 and they're thinking oh it's going to go up it's just oh it's too overwhelming well it will be set and that will just be the new standard. it won't be as overwhelming mentally, you know, but um it's kind of like meeting a deadline, you know, sometimes you can't meet a deadline, but if they give you an extra week, you still can't meet, you know, it's about um I just really think that we need to um realize that all of our students should be able to and can can achieve. And um and I as far as it maybe it doesn't seem rigorous to a college, but it would it would look more rigorous to families who are looking at our district thinking, do I want my student to

212go there? you know, they might compare um so there's that kind of rigor. I I just I would like us to be able to set the bar a little higher, you know? I mean, in our in our sports and athletics, sometimes are disadvantaged or students that um don't always succeed do succeed really well when they have a high bar and they can meet goals. >> Thank you, Charlotte. Um I have Amanda and then Brian. >> Um I did have a question, but it got flushed out. Um, and part of it that I wanted to still point out, but for students who take seminary, it sounds like for all four years, the max credits that they can do, unless they're doing online classes on top of everything, is 28. So, we really should respectfully stop at

213a 28 credit max for um that piece, but obviously students can achieve well more beyond that. Um the the piece I wanted to kind of point out as well is um the the the whole concept in general is in a different various ways supports our board priorities. It you know by motivating students to take more classes it's motivating attendance. that's motivating the pathway concept and it's you know can motivate literacy through um accessing more academics. So I just wanted to point out that piece that it does play into our priorities um identified the by the board and then the final piece I wanted to say is that I'm in full support of two diploma concepts maintaining the 24 credits um and then having the second one being the 28 credits. The GPA piece I've been

214struggling with. I do like the idea of the kumladic um um overlay because that is a clearer communication as to what that means. But then the GPA um equivalent to what happens at a college level should also be equivalent to what we're doing at the high school level if we're going to play into that. So that would drive that GPA piece. But to reiterate, I'm 100% on board with two options. one is the 24 maintaining what we've always done and then doing the second which is that higher expectation and these kids are basically acknowledged for that extra effort that they're doing but the kiddos that are just needing to graduate and we've had kids graduate for years for 24 credits and they're not penalized they graduated so let them graduate um and not take that

215opportunity away from them so anyway >> Amanda I think Dr. clarifying questions, >> but sorry. Yes. >> So, the the second one was that the diploma of distinction or just having uh another standard diploma that had >> I I'm not labeling it a term. >> But basically, what the diploma of distinction is essentially what you guys have been talking about, the 28 credits, >> 27 >> with that potential GPA. >> Yeah, I did say 27. >> That was the minimum 27. >> That wasn't the distinction, right? that was just raising our >> No, it it was it was both and and it was it was for the reason that board member Longwell brought up the seminary piece. Um coming right up against that 28. We thought that we didn't want to go right to that

216roof with the 28 >> because you have four. You'd have to be 27. I apologize. Yeah. Yeah, >> but it is 32 and 28 >> and then so >> so ultimately that's that's the line I'm heading to options diploma's distinction whatever we determine for the exact credit amount and GPA piece >> if the board wanted to make it 28 >> um but maintaining the 24 the 24 credits as a base graduation concept >> thank you Amanda I have Brian and then Bryce >> I think the one slide that you had and it was probably three or four back talked about um preparing students for post high school. And to me that really is something that is one of our responsibilities is we are tasked with educating our students and preparing them for the world in

217which they're going to enter. whether it be college, whether it be a trade school, whether whatever course of action they decide to take. I think that by encouraging those increased credits, what we're really doing is we're being kind and trying to prepare them for what they're going to be presented with when they graduate from high school and make it so that they have the advantages that they would hope to have. And to me, that's part of our responsibility. I mean, if we look at this, this is more work that the district is taking on that they're saying, what we want to do is we want to give you more so that you are prepared. I I just think that that's a valuable perspective to focus on. Having said that, I also think that it's important

218to consider, and I've said this before in the past with other things, I don't think the house is on fire here. I think that we have time to really give thought to this. And an example of this would be I was at the Highland SEC meeting last Thursday and this came up as a part of their discussion and many of the parents were saying we were not aware of this survey. Now whether they didn't see it in parent square or whatever, it wasn't like they were upset. What they wanted to do was they wanted to participate in the survey and they were instructing Principal Chatterton, okay, please put it in the Rams newsletter. We want it on the school door. I mean, they wanted it everywhere so that they could really get an accurate I

219mean, I think it's great that we've heard from 650 parents, but I think that there really probably are a lot more parents that would like to weigh in. And in some of those comments that I saw, a couple of them were, it seems like we're rushing this. This is something that is significant. I don't want it to be that there's the perception that okay, we're rushing this through or we're sneaking that. No, we're not sneaking this through. We're not rushing this. What we're trying to do is find something that could really be a valuable tool in helping you be as successful as you can be when you graduate from high school. So, having said that, I think that we have more time um to look at this. >> Thank you, Brian, Bryce, and then Ashley.

220>> Yeah, I um was going to go a different direction with this, but after Brian's comments, um I'm going to say something before I say my original comments. Um I do think that's a valuable perspective, Brian, that um potentially spending some more time on it. I I know we've spent four or five months on it already. Um but again if the house is not on fire um maybe that is a perspective that we consider. Um what I was going to say is that I um very much agree with what with what Foss uh board member Romano and board member Longwell said um as well as other comments. I do think there is I'm very excited about the diploma of distinction. I think that's a really great opportunity um for students who might want something more

221or who need something more. Um that's a great opportunity and I would I would support that. Um, one thing I do not support is um, for a basic diploma going over 24 hours. Um, I do understand the argument of wanting to push and set expectations uh, post high school. Sorry, I'm going to get really passionate about this because this is really important to me. I think it is a huge mistake to do anything over 24 hours. There are people in my community who have they don't reach out to me a whole lot and there are people in my community who were scared of this over 24hour uh, credit requirement. I think we have to look at um different students, different communities, the different needs and the different experiences of our communities. And I think this

222would be doing harm to do anything over 24 hours straight or 24 credit hours um anytime soon. So, um whether we have to take a vote or if we're going to postpone and explore a little bit more, that's fine. But I will not support anything over 24 hours and I will stand by that. >> Ashley, >> I just have a few questions. If we do move forward with an honors diploma, how would we change other requirements for counselors or reduce other school specific commenations to sort of streamline counseling? As we've heard throughout these months of discussion that different information from counselors causes some issues at our high schools. >> I'm I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure I understand the question. >> If we move forward with an honors diploma, it would obviously change what counselors

223do, >> right? And what they would have to counsel on. like this is what you need for this diploma, this is what you need for this. And we've heard in this discussion items and other discussion items of late that sometimes the counseling staffs between our different comprehensive high schools do not necessarily share equivalent information. So would we make changes to our counseling practices to make an honors diploma optimally successful? >> I would assume that we would be able to provide all of that information. I think one of the things um that does streamline this option is that it isn't a particular class. Um it isn't completing a particular assessment. Um so really it's it's just making sure that students know if you hit this many credits you know as the board decides 27 28 you

224hit this GPA then that would drive that recognition um you know being being placed on your transcript and and anything else that we come with. So it isn't I I don't feel like it is a huge lift on the counseling side because there aren't options that that they would have to make sure students took two language classes or you know are you sure you took three IBS and did you pass the assessment and you know with the AP diploma you have to take the four classes and then the two classes and you have to get the right you know I mean there are a lot of moving parts to that one at East and and and with our IB diplomas at Western Highland. So, I think that that it is fairly straightforward and easy to

225communicate um at whatever level, you know, if the board approves this um it it really would be a this and a this equals this that A and B equals C. >> That's helpful. Um students in the focus group noted that classes need reform in what credits are awarded. that's their language. Um, so where will this conversation fall as I've asked a couple of times with weighted grade changes in terms of impacted cohorts? Because we know this change wouldn't go into effect until the next cohort if we decided at the next meeting. >> When are changes to grade waiting expected to happen? Because I think it's important that we roll out changes like this in tandem so that we do explain things really clearly. >> Absolutely. So, first again, um I'll go back to however um

226grades are weighted, it wouldn't affect this. This would be on a nonweighted grade. So, that I I just want to keep those two things very very different. >> Um the second thing that I'll say is that we are ready, I think, to roll out weighted grades as soon as we're working through some technical pieces with making sure that we can make that consistent across the district. But um those have been communicated uh specifically with West first. Um so I I think that that conversation is within weeks of reaching conclusion. But while that is one conversation over here on the table, um I don't think it would affect this because it would be on the unweighted GPA, >> right? And I think explaining that difference to parents when we're doing both changes obviously speaks to Brian's

227point of take the time to explain it >> so that people do not have the ongoing confusion. Um there was another student question I'm hoping we can answer. I don't know the answer to it. Do colleges have a track record of favoring a diploma of distinction? >> I would look at board member Roman first. think um that admissions data is published but I would say from internal admissions meetings. Yes. So, and and I would I would add to that. I had an an uncle who was a college admissions person at a UC school and he said sometimes it was really frustrating. This is the internal part that I probably shouldn't say that sometimes it was really frustrating because you would have a stack this high of 4.5, 18 extracurriculars, 17 things and literally you would

228feel like what you had to do was throw them up in the air and anybody who landed on the desk is who got in that year. >> And and I thought, well, that's a little bit cynical, but you know, I said, you've got all of these perfect applications. What can you do? And so I think that that's one of the the things my uncle has passed so I he won't keep you mad at me for telling that story. And this was a very long time ago. And if I said UC I really meant Texas. >> Yeah. >> But um >> you know I I mean I think that that came through with some of the comments like >> Yeah. It it gets down to very tiny things I think. >> Yeah. >> And the surveys

229that we looked at was obviously it was raw numbers and raw comments. So I'm curious how research and assessment staff feel about the significance of the sample? I know it's like 1500 you said which obviously is not the total of you know West High. So how do we feel about the sample that we got? And do the patterns tell us anything about differing views among the five different high schools we have? Were they aligned? Were they different? >> I didn't have time to break them down by the high schools. Um so I can't speak to that question as of tonight. for the sample size if we think that we've got you know it ends up being roughly about 18%. So for again the time that we had which was roughly a week that we ran

230through um I think that I would find that fairly significant across the board. Um the as you saw in the data it did skew heavily to west in terms of responses. Um that's not uncommon and um but but not so heavily that I feel like it was the only only West that responded. Every school responded and so um >> did that include Horizonte? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And and also our Salt Lake uh Center for Science Education. >> Yep. >> Actually, did you have one question? >> Yeah, I did. Um, the last thing to say is just that I'm struggling to balance some of the information we've received because I think you did really good work looking at stakeholder feedback and I'm concerned that some of the fears identified in that stakeholder feedback

231don't play out in the empirical data about high schools not just in Utah but other places. I do view that increasing elective credits could have a net benefit in increasing engagement and reducing absenteeism just on face. But I also don't want to add requirements that parents and students don't feel are helpful. So I'm just curious as a last question for you, Dr. Hall, because you're the expert in teaching and learning. Do you feel the survey responses align with what you think is actually the most effective decision for driving all students to maximizing the free resources a public education offers? >> That's a very very good question and I'd like to go back to what Mr. Goodwin said at the beginning of this which is we wouldn't need to have this conversation if we were able

232to change culture. I don't we we have looked at a lot of ways of changing culture and part of that culture is around attendance part of that culture is around engagement. Part of that culture is around um building internships and apprenticeships and real world opportunities for students to learn. Um, we had a a comment in there u about let's make sure that we have internships programs like they have in Germany so that we we come out with skills. I think that speaks to to board member Williams comment as well. Um there are many factors that go into what happens when we or or what we would hope would happen if we were to raise the number of credits for graduation. Ultimately, I think everything that's been said here tonight has value. Um, I think that

233there are students that have struggled to get to 24. Um, there is a lot of research around um, the expectations and when we raise the expectations, we raise the overall performance of all schools. So those, you know, those are two sides of the same continuum. So I I don't think that I am I I am not comfortable speaking for the will of the board or for um for the district on this side of the table about the answer to that question. But I would say that my colleagues in every other district on the Wasatch front have found value in this and that they have looked at the ways that they would increase the supports and scaffolds and the communication to make sure that students did have what they need in order to be able to

234graduate and to be successful. I think that that's one thing that we are continually working on in this district is making sure that we do identify and work toward um providing those sports. So, I think that that would be the answer that I would give that that all of these perspectives are incredibly valuable and whatever decision the board makes in this way will in some way benefit students. >> Thank you. >> I'll go ahead and use my time um now board and Dr. Hall. And what I'm observing is that I just love that all of us care about kids, right? Absolutely. >> Regardless of how we feel about the various options that you're presenting or where we might land in the future. >> Um, and I I say this and Bryce, thank you for your

235vulnerability because I'm feeling vulnerable now, too, about how I want to weigh in on this topic and on this conversation. And I say this knowing like full well if it was a 27 standard, there's no way I'd probably be at this table, right? Let's I'll be real and honest about that. Um because I was certainly um a vulnerable student um who didn't come prepared, you know, either to high school or middle school or elementary and all of those phases of my life. But nonetheless, um the culture piece of our conversation tonight is what I find most intriguing. And um I tend to as I've you know as I've become who I am and where I'm at right now, I've I've come to lean more towards um kind of the value statements that um that Charlotte

236and you have presented that students will rise to the occasion. Um, and I say that not only because of just my pathway to life, but um, some of my professional experiences. And it's kind of unique that, you know, diploma options and, um, our board organizations are on the same agenda tonight because one of the organizations I thought about talking about and did some additional research on was the National Center for Urban School Transformation. And um I didn't bring it up in the organizations portion of our agenda because there's not really a board focus um with that organization, but it's more direct in the classroom and teachers and administrators. Um but in my time in Granite School District, I did have the opportunity to go to three different encust conferences and that is all about promotion

237and helping and guiding and encouraging students to rise to the the higher standard. And the cultural piece to that is I don't think it's and to your point, Brian, it's not like a oh we're going to start this and the class of 2030 is going to do this. I think that this is a a cultural shift in our district and in our community, in our city, and in our state because I think encouraging kids to meet that standard doesn't just start next year. It starts in next year's kindergarten class and and onward, right? And so my question is more to to you and Dr. Grant and and to your point, Ashley, about counselors, right? like there's there's additional steps and work and strategy and funding that needs to go along with this in some ways.

238Where are we at with the cultural piece of of helping kids rise to that level and encouraging them knowing that it's it starts early on, right? Setting that standard and that expectation. >> I I really love the idea of thinking about this as a K12 >> conversation. Um, we know that there is a lot of research that points out that if um, students haven't decided by third grade that they're going to go to college, they probably will make another choice. That that's not to say that that's, you know, determinist and and that that's the beall end all, but that is one of the markers where students have kind of made that decision around their academic identity. Um, so when we think about this, I I think that when I I go into some of our

239elementary schools and or or middle schools or high schools and I hear um there's an amazing woman at at East High School who who says all the time that she's walking the halls looking for her scholars and her scholars are not in class at the moment, but her scholars are going to be in class. And um and I hear that language in kindergartens and I hear that language as students are moving and it it's one of the conversations that we really have around those important years of four five six. How do we make sure that that identity is is part of who they are? That when they move to middle school, they will challenge themselves with honors classes, that when they go to high school, that they understand that there is nothing that says that

240they can't take an honors class or an AP class or an IB class. I say all the time to sophomores, if you wake up tomorrow and you've had biology, you can start IB your junior year. that that is not something that is um off the table for you. Challenge, try those things. And we've also talked as the board, we've had many long nights, and I don't want to turn this into another um really really long night, but we've we've had long nights of talking about what's happened after COVID, what what has been the post-pandemic response to to education and what does that look like? And we also know that we have um changing priorities for students. We we see a lot of these things um happen and and so that idea every day that we

241all come to work and we come to the board and we are here at 9:10 on an on an evening. It's because we want to make sure that the students we release out into the world, into the wild after they graduate, are prepared and are ready and can do all of the things. My my tagline, if I have one on my grave, is students have choice, right? When they leave, they will have they will have a choice to do whatever they want. I don't care what it is. I just want them to be able to make the choice and not a decision that I've made. Make that choice for them. Thank you. Um before Annie, I know Dr. Grant, you had wanted to add something and then we'll move into the second round. >> Well,

242not after that lovely response. Um I actually just wanted to double down on what board member Anderson was saying about encouraging students to take advantage of the free opportunities in um K12 education. I think we leave a lot of money and a lot of credits and a lot of opportunity on the table in this district because we are not asking more of our students. And I worry about that a great deal when we have such opportunities and their later world depends on them having accessed those opportunities. And so I appreciated that remark that way about what we're trying to accomplish with some of this. So >> thank you. Um, let's move into the second round. I saw Annie's hand. Um, and Charlotte, are you >> I have just a quick question, but >> Okay. >>

243Yeah. >> Annie and then Charlotte. Amanda Foss. >> Okay. Um, so on my grave, you could put the quote, "A rising tide lifts all boats." I totally believe that and I believe in higher expectations for students. >> But I also believe that we are not the only tide. We are not the only component in this water in this lake. Their parents, their socioeconomic status, the federal government, all of the things happening all around them, social media, psychological well-being, there are many, many factors at play. And so I agree with board member Williams that given my precinct which includes East High School, Horizonte and Innovations which were very under representative >> under reppresented in this survey. East was only 18% or something of the respondents um and the communities that they serve. We don't know the

244demographics of the people who responded or what language of surveys they responded in. I know I had request you had said you were doing Spanish. I don't know what other languages they were in. But given that those demographics, I don't believe this is capturing the full picture of student need. And I think it would be great to have a rising tide that lifts all students, all boats. Love that idea. love raising expectations but if we don't have the resources to get the water higher I mean time is one resource maybe we we you said the house is not on fire but maybe one of the resources is time shifting that culture so if we decide now the culture we have five years to shift right and I think that's an important resource and an an

245important choice that we would make on multiple levels within the district. However, I don't know if I mean, we can barely staff the pair of professionals in the district. I mean, I mean, the SPED program needs help. There are already needs that are not being met. So, to commit to meeting this higher level need that would be a K through2 endeavor, I don't feel like is a responsible action for every student in every classroom in this district. Charlotte, >> I I wonder if we know how this might affect or could affect graduation rates in the other schools in in the other districts that did they raise their their credit hours >> recently? How long ago? Or >> do we know? >> I don't know. >> Yeah. I wonder if they have data that could could

246um give us some idea of how it might affect graduation rates. Um what could we learn from those other districts? That was all >> any response there something to take back. >> Okay, >> Amanda and then Fox. Um, so my questions are kind of along the lines of your last statement. Um, board member Romano. Question number one, with the increased demand for quality meaningful courses, um, so that students aren't being forced to take forced quote unquote to take filler classes to get the 27 credits. um what are we going to do to ensure there's enough quality options between AP CE basic classes etc that it's you know increased demand we need to have quality options if we're going to engage them and we have the attendance and stuff so as you guys are like looking

247at this discussion has there been discussion around what's going to be done to do that because like right now students are running into My daughter just ran into that this semester. Well, and it's not just it's happened before where she couldn't take a course that she wanted to. So, she had to come up with an alternate option which ended up working out for her. But that kind of can contribute to disillusionment with our students. So, one, has that been flushed out? And if not, as we go down this path, we need to like seriously look at that piece. But then additionally to that um also what about an FTE increase for um teachers so that that can support more course options um because if we're actually only looking at our high schools based on our

248um FTEES then the ability to provide more options for the students um you're limiting those schools from giving more options if their FTE allocation s are like stagnant because their numbers aren't changing or decreasing. So, kind of have this like double-edged thing here, a really great concept, but if we're not actually like back flushing it with the quality programs or enough teachers and stuff to to support a more dynamic program, um it's a it's a conversation we need to be having in tandem with this um increased credit potential. >> Sure. And I'll I'll just answer briefly. Um board member U business administrator Kley has just stepped out, but um we we do staff as if all of our classes were full for all the periods. Um so the the amount of staff would still be

249correct. But um the first question or your first comment about scheduling, that's actually that I called um Miss Pickle at West to talk about because there were some comments in the student focus questions that I wanted to make sure I understood and they described that exact piece. And so I said, "Now is that so is that that the class wasn't there or that it was a schedule conflict?" Because very often if you have a scheduling conflict um then the class is there and and it may may even have room in it, but if there's something else that you can only take that time, then you have to make that decision. So I know that that is something that my colleagues in school leadership and support are looking at with arena scheduling. Those are some things

250that we're looking at ways to um address those master schedule concerns to see if those things can be alleviated in some ways. But absolutely, you've hit two of the major things right on the on the nose that we know are are issues to be addressed. Absolutely. >> Thank you, Amanda. Um I would just like to comment on how if we looked at the graph in uh the presentation that you provided a large majority of students do more than the 24 credits required um and take enough credits to meet some proposed increase. However, if we cannot support students who are only achieving 24 to 25 credits or only scraping those credits at the very end, then I'm not confident that simply raising the requirements would help them. And I would point to um direct programs like

251the portrait of a graduate that's been um worked on recently um to better support student achievement and graduation rates by inspiring them uh without putting that requirement in place that could be an impediment to their success because I think that at the end of the day we want to make sure that students are qualified for their futures by helping them make it to graduation day. And we also want to ensure that they have a belief in their own capability. And so focusing on programs that even from uh K through 12 um make sure students make it to graduation because they believe that they can is the key. Um because that allows a student um to take whatever number of credits they uh feel is uh appropriate for their personal situation and ensures that they are

252confident in their own future which is the end goal is to provide them with the future that they want and deserve. you. Um, seeing no other comments, um, I'll just kind of circle this back to some logistics and what I feel like I'm hearing from the board. Um, and correct me if I'm wrong, colleagues, but there's a an essence of potentially needing some more time. And my question to you, Dr. Hall, or Dr. Grant, or both of you, is we have it scheduled for a final vote on this at our next meeting. Um, and I know that that was kind of prescribed based on a timeline of when we should be making this decision and if it was to pass that we would need to give enough time for schools and parents and families to

253prepare for this for the next school year. Um, but kind of hearing about some desire for more time. How do you feel about that timeline and where we might be for our next meeting? So, what I'm hearing is that, let me see how I say this. Is it the board's direction that perhaps I don't bring back August 21st the excuse me, October whatever month we're in, October 21st, that we don't discuss again raising the um graduation rate, but would you like to come back and make a decision on a diploma of distinction? >> I think what I'm asking is could >> Let me explain the timeline a little bit. The reason we said the end of October was that students freshmen begin to enroll when? >> Well, we're we're going to start working with that

254probably by December into January to make sure that we have >> So that's why we wanted to have an October decision was with the idea that we'd start with these freshmen coming up for fall. >> We can always push the date and start with the freshmen coming up in another year and a half instead. So, um, >> like Brian said, the house isn't on fire. We could start this at any time. We were thinking we could get the conversation and decision done in time to get next year's freshman going, >> right? >> Um, we might have a little wiggle room with that end of October or No. >> Yeah, we could probably do a little wiggle room, but >> Okay. But if there's if if we feel firmly about one half, I'm happy to take

255a half. >> I don't know that we feel firmly yet from what I heard among the board. But I leave it to board leadership to decide, but I that's what was driving our current timeline, which can always change. >> Can I ask a quick question? What are the main motions you need to have occur to help move this forward? I mean, basically, are we do I would assume are we doing staying with 24? No changes. >> It sounds like it's two parts, right? >> Sorry, what? >> It's two votes. >> Yeah. >> Two votes. >> What do you mean two votes? >> Well, it's a vote for the 24 credit >> rising it and then a vote for a diploma of distinction. >> Do you want to increase the standard diplomas, the number of credits

256required for a standard diploma? Kind of. Yes or no? Do you want to create a diploma of the distinction? Yes or no? And it would have to also include what those distinctions would be, what the board wants the distinctions to be. >> And I'd be curious if we would be already ready to make the motion on >> the maintaining the 24. >> Yes or no? >> And we can knock that one out unless people feel like >> I don't know if we need to make it because it's kind of already it's already there. Um, >> well, not really. >> Yeah, but you're saying just keep it how it is and we can vote next time on it. Is that what you're saying? >> What I'm saying is, well, the simple I guess maybe not so

257simple is what are what what do we need to do to move this forward? And if we're if good point question number one or motion number one would be um or decision number one is do we keep 24 credits as is, yes or no? or do we move 24 up to 27 and we eliminate the 24 credit option. So that's step one it sounds like and what I'm curious about is can we make that one tonight and then we go into the determining factor of the 27 credit discussion. Actually, I I see your hand, but I Amanda, I don't know if the board's ready to make that or any decision relative to that tonight potentially. But >> I wanted to offer that we don't need to decide anything if we're retaining the status quo of

258graduation requirements. That the only thing we need to act on is something that is a change from district practice. So >> to move to vote to reinforce that district practice is occurring is redundant and >> not necessary. Correct. Oh yeah, true. The clarity that we're keeping that >> Thank you, Ashley. I to me it goes to the house is not on fire and we've got the status here the status quo and I think we've had a really robust conversation and I think that there's significant interest in this from students from parents and I think that parents well I'm speaking for one high school but one high school was saying we want more time to look at the survey And I don't think that that's unreasonable. I I think that they thought it was valuable what

259they were hearing from the parents that had taken it and they wanted to be able to look at it. That that's my thought. >> And I think what I was trying to get at is like do we have to make this decision in our next board meeting? you know, like could we either take a couple more meetings or is it something that we want to reconsider for another year? Um, that was kind of where I was getting at. >> From my perspective, it sounds like the board is ready to vote on the diploma of distinction >> in the next board meeting. >> Okay, >> that's what I would say. >> No, Ashley's shaking. >> I would disagree with that. I think there's been questions posed here about what the diploma means, what it would mean

260for counseling, what it would mean for transition plans, and what actually makes a meaningful difference to students. And I think we should respond to those questions before we I don't think we need to rush to move forward just because there's not an appetite to move forward on changing the credits. I also think that the grade waiting conversation that does interact with this even though it's a different thing is is something else that we should continue to discuss how that's rolling out in relationship to what we do or do not do. >> I do think there is a danger of delaying the conversation further and we've already surveyed parents and students on it and like they said that stressed them out a lot. So, I don't know how long we want to if we want to

261push it a full year or how many more board meetings is reasonable. >> So, is it the board's direction that we maintain the agenda? Oh, Foss, real quick. >> Um, I would just like to clarify that it seems like um I I agree with your point that we definitely shouldn't kick it down the road for an entire year, but it seems like we would just take a couple more board meetings. It would go into effect next year, but it wouldn't the conversation wouldn't lapse for a cycle. >> It wouldn't go into effect until >> for the graduating class. >> I see. The requirements would change. I mean, the whatever the changes would be made >> for the students incoming of in a year, >> right? me a second to gather my thoughts >> because what

262I feel like >> make a motion right now, right? >> No, it's >> um I mean my thinking is that we maintain the agenda item for our next meeting. Um but that there's some pretty specific questions, Dr. Grant, or or thoughts that are coming that we still need to clarify um to give direction for you and Dr. called to bring back. Um, and I think it's a matter of raising the stand like the standard to 27 or not, I think is probably the big one that we need to examine. But to Ashley's point and and Brian's point about time and um, and the the things that you mentioned, Ashley, about I can't remember all three of them, but there was there were they were there counseling and weighted grades and all those things. um that

263I I think it'd be good to give direction to Dr. Hall and to Dr. Grant to help bring some additional information back about that before we make some solid decisions because I think we're still not in a bad way, but just thinking about this differently as individual board members and we need to find not necessarily consensus, but um I think there's just some unanswered questions that we need to >> Yeah, I have I've been taking notes. Would you like me to just sum those? >> So, if I were to straw poll right now, I believe that I have no appetite, no passable appetite for raising the minimum graduation requirements for next year. That that is a conversation that we would like to extend and maybe think about for a later class, 2031, 20 instead of

2642030. but that we may want to finish a conversation around the diploma of distinction with some questions around um what that might mean in terms of the GPA compared to some of the other ones. There was a question about perhaps using the same distinctions as the um kumlad and the suma and uh questions about whether or not it would have an effect on counselors and counseling and whether or not it would have an effect on weighted grades. Does that sound like >> I think course options adequate course options >> that sounds >> but not for the diploma of distinction. I wasn't quite sure what information would be valuable on that one. Amanda, just to you're talking about how many sections we have open for different classes or I'm not sure how to actually determine what

265classes engaging or not. >> True. And that's a good point, but I just know more often than not students um run into situations that they can't take classes that they want to. It's not necessarily a conflict um and that that's not in the slot. It's just that the classrooms are full, so they're just happen to take some random class that they really don't want to >> or their second favorite >> or they just don't go to school and we're trying to eliminate that problem, right? >> Yeah. >> So, wouldn't that be more of a problem if we required 27 credits than if it was an optional diploma of distinction? >> Sorry, what? >> Wouldn't that be more of a problem if we were requiring 27 credits than if it's an optional diploma of distinction? when

266she said there are classes that aren't full. >> Well, if we're motivating more hopefully motivating more students to take more courses, then there's a supply and demand issue potentially. So, are we offering enough courses to allow kids to >> take >> a robust thing like increasing our CE options because we obviously know our concurrent enrollment options. um there's room for expansion AP, you know, and then basic stuff, but it it is a problem. >> Thank you, Amanda. Um, does the board feel like Dr. Hall's summary of notes from our conversation should be the the focus of our conversation on the 21st and give that direction to the the superintendent. >> I had one more. I don't know if you said this and I missed it in the list, >> but we we got a little

267bit of input, you know, from our peer about college. Well, how colleges view a diploma of distinction, which is what several students asked about. I don't know if there's any actual like research on that. That's not something I have any information about on is this a valuable thing to do. >> The diploma of distinction. >> Yeah. >> Do do colleges favor it in a way that we know about and could anticipate benefits. >> Parents notice it. >> Okay. >> Right. Um, could you also look, is it possible to talk to the other districts, a few other districts to see if they had any data on graduation rates with increased credit requirements or are we we good with those directions? Dr. Graham. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um let's move on. Um but before we do, um

268when I was speaking, I thought my timer went off prematurely, but it was actually the timer that Brian and I keep for um >> the meeting uh time. >> So, we have extended um kind of the four to five hour time limit that we have as a as a norm as a board. Um, and so there's a couple of options and I don't want to move too hastily to just, you know, end the meeting. Um, that's not necessarily my thing to do as board president, but to help facilitate if we want to continue to move forward with the rest of the agenda or table some of these items knowing that we have three items on our action agenda that we still have to get to. So, um, I wanted to just throw that out there

269that we've reached our limit and we need to kind of decide how we want to move forward for the rest of the night. Bryce. Yeah, I'll just say the uh next item was an item that I requested. I would be comfortable moving it to next week if our agenda is not too packed for next meeting. Yes. >> I'm not coming next week. >> Okay. >> And then I guess a question for um for Miss Kindle with the two policies. Um I'm sorry I can't remember after reviewing those if we have a a time certain that we need to make a decision on those two um policies on our discussion agenda tonight. >> That shouldn't take too long. >> Absolutely not. We should get also minor changes. >> Yeah, I think they'll be quick. >> Okay.

270So, is the board comfortable, excuse me, um tableabling family school collaboration, B1 board of education legal status items to the next meeting and we'll move to P14. And >> point of order, >> yes, >> if you table it, you don't table it to a predetermined time. If you want to have someone move to reschedule it to the next meeting, you can do that. But tableabling, it would need to be lifted from the table, which would have to be done separately. >> Okay. So, to reframe my question, thank you, Ashley. Is the board comfortable rescheduling family school collaboration B1 to our next meeting >> or we could do B1. She said >> I think B1 will be quick. >> Okay. >> Just table reschedu. Yeah, reschedu >> reschedule or do it tonight. >> Reschedule family school

271collaborative >> but move forward with >> I would prefer to reschedule B1 as I had some feedback on that. Oh, >> okay. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Um >> in parliamentarian I think we need a formal vote to to move those to our next meeting or um is the discussion um good enough to to do that? >> You don't motion is we're going to table it. >> Okay, >> cool. So, let's uh go ahead and reschedule item number two and three from our discussion agenda. We'll move to P14 and our action agenda to to finish up the meeting. >> That's good. >> Um item number four, P14, administrative procedures salary uh supplement for highly needed educators shine program. I don't know who's >> Logan, is that you or Christina? Is that you? It's both. >>

272I wasn't sure if the subcommittee member was gonna run it, but we can run it. Um uh so in terms as you may recall at the last board meeting or um we approved the policy and so um according to standard practice um we always bring new administrative procedures to first subcommittee and then the entire board to make sure that the entire board agrees that the administrative procedures are appropriately implementing the vision of the board's policy. Um, in this case, um, the Utah State Board of Education Administrative Rules dictates, um, fairly clearly what we need to have in this policy. And indeed, they have, um, a model policy that we have adopted. Um, one of the things that we talked about, um, in this policy was whether or not we would choose to identify in the

273administrative procedures the areas of high need. Um and in talking with the subcommittee about um that option, whether we put it in the administrative procedures or whether or not HR sent out notification annually as to what those areas were um as well as posting them on the website in a separate document so that there wasn't ever going to be a time that the administrative procedures were out of date um in case someone didn't um uh update them. Um and I believe the subcommittee um indicated that they were fine not having the areas of high the high need areas specifically called out in the administrative procedures. Um but again these administrative procedures are not very different than the prior supplement um uh process that we have had for providing stipens to teachers in these areas. Um

274it's just with the change in the law and the title um it was a requirement that we create this policy and these administrative procedures. Um so hopefully that explains at least the process. Any questions about the specifics? Um I'm sure uh uh executive director Hall could answer. >> Amanda, >> I'm curious. I don't know a lot about this program. I'm curious um what has gone through to identify um what the high needs educators are um and where would we go about finding that information? Is that is that readily found somewhere on the web pages or anything on our district site? >> That wouldn't be readily found. Um, I've had the staff in the HR office and I have looked extensively at what are different metrics we could use to measure the um, areas that are

275highest needs. What we've looked at are um, times it takes to fill certain positions, number of applicants available for positions, um, number of available licensed educators in certain areas. Um and we've gone through the the gamut of what we've been looking at and consistently it comes up the special education, secondary mathematics, secondary science are uh the most high needs in creating this new policy and now the new administrative procedure. the state had said the state previously had run the TSSP program um where that would make and they defined in state code what uh areas were eligible for the previous TSSP supplement. Um and so now they've said it's now up to districts to be able to issue this. what I had uh personally come to the conclusion of I want this new policy and new

276procedure to mimic the previous one as much as possible so as to make sure that people who had previously received that TSSP award amount would continue to receive a TSSP award amount under our current provisions. And so I wanted to model it as closely as possible to make sure that the folks that were previously getting it this last year um didn't have the carpet pulled out from under them and were able to receive the same stipen. So that's where we stuck with those three areas of highest needs because it it really is um secondary mathematics, secondary science, and special education that we have the hardest time filling. Namely because there are more positions available in the state than we have licensed educators in those three areas. Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Any other

277questions for for Mr. Hall or Miss Kindle? Um, seeing none, I would entertain a motion to move this to the action agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion to second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll start with a roll call vote with board member Anderson. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Nate Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Ryan Chensen, yes. Amanda Longley, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> And Charlotte is absent, but the motion still passes. We'll move to our action agenda. Um the first item there is our board meeting minutes from September 16th. Is there a motion to address the um th that item? >> I would move to approve the minutes with four amendments. >> Okay. Um, one item D1 would ideally be amended to list the specific

278projects that Isaac discussed and identify that clarity was requested regarding athletic field funding progress so the board can adequately follow up. Item D2 should be amended to state that Dr. Hall presented two surveys as the content and attachments were different so the current statement is unclear. Item D5 does not capture the discussion that a feasibility study should be conducted concurrently to fulfill the requests beginning from 2024 that we have a comprehensive needs assessment on facilities and this direction of the board has you know been denied now for more than one full calendar year. Uh and last my board member report is not accurate. I did not encourage expanded access to high demand arts classes. My request was very specific that CTE staff the correct number of faculty to meet the high demand of CTE classes

279that are cross-listed with the arts, specifically photography, one of our highest sources of CTE enrollment. >> Is there a second to the motion? >> I'll second. >> Can I add something? >> We have a second now discussion. Right. >> There was just one more thing that needed to be added as a correction and that is when you look at the members that were in attendance, Annie Romano is not showing and Annie was there. We need to make sure that she is correctly showing. >> Thank you. >> I understand that we cannot make friendly amendments. So, I'll withdraw my motion. Um, and I will just restate >> that I would move that we approve the minutes with five amendments. First, that item D1 be amended to list the specific projects Isaac discussed and identify that clarity

280was requested regarding athletic field funding progress. Item D2 should be amended to state that Dr. Hall presented two surveys. Uh item D5 does not capture the discussion that a feasibility study should be conducted concurrently fulfilling requests beginning from 24 2024. Fourth, my board member report was specific not to high demand arts classes, but that CTE staff the correct number of faculty to meet the high demand of our CTE classes cross-listed with the arts, specifically photography. Oh, you know what? I have another one. So lucky for me, I scrolled five. None of the exhibits are attached to the minutes because the link is dead. Um, so this should be adjusted. And six, board member Romano's name should be added to those present in the meeting. >> I can second that. So, let me take my notes.

281Um, any discussion to the motion? Actually, >> the reason why I wanted to go ahead and make these amendments um despite the late hour is that I've noticed over my term of service that our minutes do not always have enough detail to capture our discussion of varied action items and at times this causes problems when our board makes requests or our opinions orformational requests about topics are not documented. Not infrequently, unanimous direction is also not documented. And very generally, I pulled this to action to just raise the issue that it's important that if we're not going to make the minutes more detailed with amendments such as these, that we should consider publishing our meeting transcripts so they're more easily searchable by both board members and the public. >> Any further discussion? Um, I will add,

282um, and I I know it's late and I'm also tired and I don't want to create any more tension around some of these issues at all for the board. Um, but I think some of the struggle that we're having, board member Anderson, is that um, feasibility study and the requests um, are coming from you as an individual board member and not from the board as a whole. And that's why we're taking some of the steps that >> and and this is also why we're trying to clarify what board direction is right now and moving that forward in a positive way. Um both in our practice tonight um moving forward until the ad hoc handbook committee can get together to look at what board direction is and how we define that um based on some of

283the concerns that you've raised. Um, so I I I hear where you're coming from and I know that we kind of addressed, you know, through Isaac's presentation on the sustainability piece that um that they're working on bringing that table of contents back to us. So we we are doing our best um I think to facilitate that, Brian and me with the district. Um, but I I just wanted to to note that for our board that there is some confusion about that amongst ourselves right now and that we want to work really really hard collectively to make sure that we can identify what those norms are moving forward. And >> I would um like to say I think that is true that it um maybe creating a norm for clear board direction is necessary. I would

284say that I disagree that it wasn't clear for the feasibility study in particular. I think that was a board direction and and most slash all of us agreed to that. Um but generally I do commend represent board member sorry Anderson for her attention to detail because every board needs someone like that. So >> thank you. >> Any further discussion? >> Amanda. Um, I guess it's hard for me to support the changes because I can't recollect all that stuff that occurred. So, that's a lot of detail to turn around and support into the minutes. Not to say that it didn't happen. I just can't recollect all that information. I do want to point out, and it's not a huge deal, but um, the minutes I'm seeing, it does show Annie present. So, I believe that piece

285was recorded. >> At the bottom, it's showing um, Mohamad at the bottom. >> Oh, >> and right there. >> Thank you, Helen. >> And the welcome thing. >> It has been updated. >> Yeah, the one I'm looking at. It's got the correct information. So, >> I think Helen knows >> I have too many. I'm sorry. >> Helen knows what I'm talking about without getting just whatever. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, seeing no further discussion, we'll move to a roll call vote. Um, starting with board member Romano. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Oh, Brian Jensen. Yes. >> Amanda Longwell Abstein. >> Bryce Williams. Yes. >> I was out of the room for part of that. So, uh, Charlotte Ferson, it's your call. Your vote. >> Yes. Ashley Anderson. Yes. >> N Salazar. Yes. Um, moving on

286to our >> I asked Ashley if you would because that went so quickly, would you mind emailing that list? >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Dr. grant. Um, our next item on the action agenda is the LEA educator licenses. Is there a motion to begin the discussion and ultimate decision? >> Um, I make the emotion um or emotion motion, whatever. I make a motion to approve the LEA educator licensing and endorsements for each person listed in exhibit 28 once they have complied with Utah board rule R277-301. >> Is there a second? I >> I second. >> Any further discussion? >> Okay, seeing none, uh we'll do a roll call vote starting with Vice President Jensen. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> Amanda Longwell, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Ferson, yes.

287>> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Thank you. Um, the third item is phase 2026 sustainability project item 13 from the consent agenda. Did I get that right? Yes. Is there a motion? >> I don't have an emo I keep saying a motion. I'm emotionally exhausted. I would have preferred even though we're going into motion is like um clarification as to what this is and I should have asked it before. Or I guess you could have the motion and then we could discuss it and then we could go on. But >> I move that we approve item 13 from the consent agenda, the guaranteed energy savings performance contract addendum. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? >> Alan. >> So as Isaac presented those those projects in there, this is the

288next contract with Mckenry to proceed forward with those projects. >> All right. Thank you. But that doesn't just to clarify does that does not include the enzyme projects. Those are future years. >> That includes the enzyme. But as I mean it it doesn't include exactly that we have to do you know we talked about ground source seat pumps and yes or no. So it's just we're contracting with them to guide us through those projects. >> Okay. So okay. Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with Bryce. >> Bryce Horns. Yes. >> Charlotte Feith Jefferson. Yes. >> Ashley Anderson. Yes. >> Nate Salazar. Yes. >> Annie Romano. Yes. >> Ryan Jensen. Yes. >> Amanda Long. Yes. >> Thank you, board. And last on our action agenda is P14. Uh

289that was moved from the action agenda. Is there a motion? >> I move that we approve the administrative procedures for P14 as posted. >> Second. Okay. >> Any further discussion? Seeing none. Uh, roll call vote starting with Charlotte, please. >> Charlotte Fe, Jefferson, yes. Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. Sorry. >> Ryan Jensen, yes. >> And Auga, yes. >> Rice Williams. >> All right, that motion passes. Thank you, board. Um, we do have board member reports or excuse me, superintendent report if needed first. How about if we go to a board member because I have to turn my computer back on. I'm sorry. >> Uh let's uh start with board member reports. >> Start over there. >> Okay, Amanda, we've moved back to the that side of the table. >> I

290will forgo my report for this evening. >> Thank you. >> I will also forego my report. >> I will not. Um the there's some calendar feedback that I received from Tanner Dance and other POPS groups that were hoping we could expedite the calendaring process so they can plan their activities for the next academic year. It's my understanding that it sounds like there was a delay while we were awaiting changes stemming from the legislature um to the written agreement and shared governance and that that calendar process should be expected to be sped along in subsequent three-year cycles. I also wanted to acknowledge the tremendous amount of feedback I've received from students and um parents in West High Chinese um pro the Chinese language program and it's my understanding that the schools are working toward a shared

291solution to sustain Chinese language uh instruction and I look forward to hearing more from people and hope those solutions meet their needs. I wanted to celebrate the achievement of um debate students receiving two tournament of champions bids before the month of September was through and many achievements of students at West High. I have a quick finance committee update. I wanted to let you know that we welcomed Bryce to the committee. We reviewed charter school financials. We discussed the adult education p budget which we had a speaker about. I'm happy to update any board members on that. We reviewed school carry for balances, the tax rate. We heard why there's a delay on the school cash receiping system while the finance team works very hard to make sure it's a system that works for us. And

292we received, which we're still waiting on the digital copy, um, a program summary document review. And so I'm happy to answer any questions about those, but I'll try to be brief. Um, I wanted to acknowledge that it's ban books week and that if you follow my social media, you can find some discussion of ban books. And the last update I had is that I requested some email correspondents be attached to our September minutes because it was referred to something but we didn't make it publicly available. It was my mistake that I did not simultaneously distribute that and ask Helen if it could be printed. I had prepared the correspondence for distribution so it could be attached um with my board member report, but the superintendent requested a memo be attached instead. So, I took her

293suggestion and I drafted a memo about my concerns and the purpose of that request to attach to the minutes. Sorry, I'm starting to lose my voice. I will distribute it now to comply with past practice and ask that my memo be attached to the minutes of this meeting, but don't need to discuss it at this time. Thank you. Um, I would just like to voice my support also of the Chinese program advocacy as it has been an incredibly valuable resource for many of my peers at West and I assume uh throughout the district. >> Thank you, Brian. >> I will try and keep mine very brief. I've cut out a couple, but there are two that I do need to report on. Three of us attended the USBA regional meeting on September 17th. I appreciate

294those that were in attendance. The reason that I think that this is also important is we have three board members who have probably not done master board certification. And I am just reminding you that the year is coming to an end. We're in October. You've got a couple of months to get it done. Um Annie, Charlotte, Amanda, if you have any questions, I'm happy to help you know where to um go. Um last year, I believe um the Salt Lake City School District was recognized as everyone having um pass or met that masterboard requirement. So, I think that that's something that would be valuable for us to all do. The other um one that I do need to report on. In our last board meeting, I told you how I had attended a meeting at

295the mayor's office, board leadership attended. Um and there were two subsequent meetings that were scheduled and I appreciated general Jennifer Newell. Looks like she had to leave. Um but she scheduled a follow-up meeting after I had raised concerns about um the proposed roundabout at the intersection of 21st South and 17th East um in light of the rebuild of Highland High and concerns that I have been hearing from parents um in that meeting which I attended on September 30th. Um Jennifer Newell was there. Uh Sarah Young and other council members were there and recognized the um importance of making sure that the community is made aware of this. Um Sarah Young said that she is working with her constituents. What I did want to emphasize in that meeting was that is a city project and I

296do not want there to be any confusion later on with parents coming to the school saying how did you let this roundabout happen? This is and I'm not trying to talk about whether a roundabout is good or not. I'm just trying to make that we understand there are two thing two entities here. Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake City School District and the Highland Rebuild is moving forward. But please keep in mind that that roundabout comes right where you have an entrance to the high school and where they have now put in another traffic facilitation right by the seminary building. So anyway, they're aware of all of those things. That's my report. >> Thanks Annie. >> Uh yeah, I'll be brief. Um I was able to go to a couple elementary schools in precinct

2975. I met with Dr. Vanessa Jordan and was just learning a lot about the magnet program and all of the um great things happening there. I met with Dr. McKay and um Nicole Suchi at Emerson and I would like to commend um the facilities team. I was there during I happened to be there during a capital projects meeting that I was able to sit on and it was really great to hear um how they were doing their review process. Um and um like to give a shout out to all the custodial staff um that had the custodial appreciation day including Simona Chavez who uh walked us through Emerson Elementary School and did a great job um talking about how her staff keeps it operational and clean. Also wanted to give a shout out to uh

298SLEA and their participation today and looking forward to their future participation. Charlotte. >> Um, I had I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to go to the US B, USBA, sorry, USBA leadership um, training academy they called it. So, it was an intense um full day of learning and then the next day they had ED talks. But um yeah, that was great. And I I went to a few classes sessions, breakout sessions about highly effective cohesive boards, how to build consensus around best practices, um how to tie board work to mission and vision and board ethics and strategies for navigating legal trouble. Um we um met the new state superintendent and had I went to a class there about um the USB dashboard and then Q&As's around that. So that was really interesting, Dr.

299Molly Hart. And then um I found it very interesting. we had um the office of the legislative auditor general come and speak to us um and I guess it was the first time they've ever come to a USBA conference or leadership training. So that was really good because there's a lot of things coming from the legislature that we we are aware of and concerned about. So um I I will put this all into writing and share it with everybody. So um oh also I um I I helped facilitate or get a board get a meeting together with the urban Indian center and to talk about renewing theirou with the district and that's something that I really care about and I want to make sure that we are um really serving and supporting our native students.

300>> Thank you, Charlotte. I'll also be brief um and highlight that um I got to attend the leadership academy alongside Charlotte and Dr. Grant. Um I learned that Charlotte's a heck of a card player, but nonetheless um the focus we went to a lot of the same sessions. Um I went to a couple of different ones that Charlotte may not have attended around AI um that I found really intriguing. Um and Charlotte and I had discussed with Dr. Grant that perhaps we um agenda um a discussion about our our learnings and and bring that back to the board similar to what we do in with USBA when we attend or NSBA when we attend that conference. And I'll leave my report there. Dr. Grant, you're >> couple good news pieces to shout out. Adam Escen

301was recognized by the University of Utah College of Fine Arts as a distinguished alumni in arts education. Um, Adam's been a teacher and a school administrator and now directs our fine arts and extended learning programs. Um, he's passionate about the whole child aspect of learning and um wants students to not only be em uh academically capable but socially and emotionally grounded, making schools a place where they will find authentic relationships in real world learning and purposeful instruction. And congratulations to Adam for his recognition of his work. Um, one more is the West High School Navy JOTC boys varsity, girls varsity, and co-ed varsity orientering teams took first place in the orientering the state competition. Um, they have won the state competition four times over the last several years. I don't know if you guys know

302what orienteering it is, but I think it's one of the coolest things going where they have to run races, but they are given clues and you have to use a um >> Compass is the word to find your way. This is a little ironic, huh? This is why I'm an observer from afar. Um they use a compass to get to one spot that gives them the directions to go to the other spot and they have to find it and it's cross country so often in the woods >> and sort of thing and it's orienteering with a compass as well as racing. >> Great. >> Sounds fun. >> It's kind of a cool sport. Yeah. Anyway, >> it's awesome. >> Cool. Uh special recognition to senior Lavine Fouay who won the girls varsity 6 and a

303halfk race to senior Zach Swinson who won the boys varsity 8k race and senior Alexander Paige um who won the co-ed junior varsity 6 and a halfk race. So nicely done west high school. And I need to apologize to Ashley Anderson in my email. I meant to say I would write the memo and so my apologies for that. Um that my suggestion was that I write the memo anyway we can chat about later. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um important uh we do have any for a close session. Um knowing that the late hour we could push that to another time but I I know uh if we want to we could go there. >> Okay. I move that the board return to close executive session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or

304mental health of an individ of an individual and that the board adjurnn immediately upon the conclusion of the closed session. >> I second. >> Any discussion? Okay, seeing none, uh we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson. >> Ashley Anderson, yes. >> Salazar, yes. >> Annie Romano, yes. >> Brian Jensen, yes. >> And Longo, yes. >> Bryce Williams, yes. >> Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. >> Thank you everybody for joining us tonight. Let's see. the hands of it.