001Thank you for joining us this evening. We're here this evening um today is May 6th, 2025 for the purpose of a public school board meeting and I want to welcome all of you that are joining us and those that will be joining us a little bit later. We do have the need for an executive close session and I'll entertain a motion. I move that on May 6, 2025, the board go into closed executive session to discuss the character, professional competence, or the physical or mental health of an individual. I second. We have a motion and a second on the table. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll start with a roll call vote. Amanda Longwell, yes. Bryce Williams, yes. Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. Ashley Anderson, yes. Brian Jensen, yes. It appears that the motion passes and we
002will move into close session and we will be back um in 30 minutes. It's It's a lot of pressure. [Music] One, two, three. One. I'm just going to go because they're all standing. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. All right, I am going to go ahead and welcome everyone to our school board meeting. It is May 6, 2025. Um, I appreciate everyone being here. We have our mariachi group from Escalante here and I am going to have them because they're standing ready to perform. They're going to perform and then after they've performed we'll go back and proceed with our pledge of allegiance and our recognitions. And I'm going to go out in the audience so I can enjoy this. I hope you'll join me. Superintendent board vice president. I'm going to turn the time over to one
003of the teachers to introduce the group and also what they'll be playing as well as the names of the other two teachers. Good evening board. My name is Cali Wilhoy and I am one of the choir teachers in the Salt Lake City School District. However, today I have the opportunity to be one of the teachers that supports our Escalante sixth grade mariachi ensemble led by Abby Trevinho and of course Kip Dr. Kip Peterson who is our band teacher who has really done a beautiful job working with our trumpets. Um we're going to play three pieces for you today. We're going to play las manas which is just a very traditional welcome birthday song that you will perhaps recognize followed by deolores as well as we'll finish then with karinho. These are all sixth grade musicians.
004A lot of them are playing their instrument for the first time this year. So a lot of first year instrumentalists definitely the first time we've had um mariachi here at Escalante. And we are just really tickled to get to perform for you today. We hope that you enjoy. [Applause] One, two, three. One. [Music] again. He was so strong. He [Music] was in the [Music] season in your hands. [Music] again. Heat. [Applause] One, two, three. [Music] One. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] One, two, ready, go. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Holy. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Can we have a photo? Can everyone squish together as much as possible? I know you have lots of space. That's a good idea. Some friends on the
005front row. We're gonna have the administration join as well as squish. Squish as much as possible, friends, just so we can get everyone's nice faces in there. My friend here, can you stand or go behind him? and that looks great. So sorry. On the count of three, everyone say, what should we say? Ready? One, two, three. [Music] Thank you. Good job. [Applause] Good job. Excellent. [Music] Nice job. Well, we got a little bit ahead of ourselves in the agenda. We have a bit of a switch from part of a recognition to the rest of our welcome. I uh should introduce myself. My name is Brian Jensen. I am the vice president of the Salt Lake City School Board. Um President Nate Salazar has asked to be excused this evening and board member B um tells
006us that he will be arriving late today. Um so with that I do want to go ahead and recognize um our association presidents and for buildings and grounds we have President Ilia Okampo Child Nutrition President Tanya Slaughter. Um Mike Carman, I see that you're here for SEA. Um, and then with Slassa, we have, and I wrote it down, Ryan Hunt, you're representing us today, I understand, or representing SLAs. Thank you, Ryan. Um, with that, I'm going to go ahead and ask board member Longwell if you would lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we're going to move into the second part of our
007recognitions and that is the West High Mouth Matt Counts team. Okay, I'll be humming mariachi music for the next few days. That was wonderful. Um, thank you board members. uh uh Alan Kirstley and Dr. Grant for the opportunity to share more excellent news from our math community. Um as you know, we've kept you informed about the math counts events that we've been supporting for our sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in the math count competition series. Um more good news, uh state competition was Saturday, uh March 22nd. That's right, Saturday. Saturday event for our students and teachers. It was held at the Salt Lake Community College Taylorville location. And I'm going to let Dr. Allison Espinosa, our point person for the math counts competition and district math coach, um, tell you a little bit more. Good
008evening. Thank you again for for giving me some time here uh, today just to celebrate our students who competed in math counts and different math competitions and uh, the teachers that support them. Yeah. So, uh, you may remember that I was here in March, as Holly mentioned, where we, um, shared some news about the nine schools that we had that competed in our Salt Lake City School District competition. Um, and you may remember at that time I spoke about how for some of our schools, uh, participation was a culminating event in our in our district competition. And for others, it was a stepping stone. And we were, um, fortunate that we had students from two of our schools, West and Whittier, that went on to participate in the state um, competition. And tonight I'm gonna
009introduce you to um the coach for the West High School team. Um and I'll let him share some some of the specifics about his his students performance. Um so you also may remember Todd Vaudrey. Um this is a reintroduction for him as well. So I believe he was in uh here I believe in March as well uh where he was recognized as being a presidential award uh winner the presidential award for excellence in math and science teaching or PA award. Um, and so he is the West High School coach for the math counts team or their math competition team in general. Um, he's been doing this for eight years at West and, uh, I think he brings students to the state competition just about every year. And because his students, uh, performed so highly, I'll
010let him share those specifics, at the state competition this year, he actually gets to go on for the third time next week to be the Utah coach at the national competition in Washington DC. So, we're super excited for him and and the students that he gets to bring with him as well as other students that performed well uh in the state to that national competition. Um I believe is it the 11th and 12th? I'll let him he might have some more information about that, but that's coming up um in Washington DC. So, we're super excited about that. So, I'm going to introduce you here to Todd Vadri who is the West High School Math Counts Coach. Thank you. Um I wish more of the students could come and by more I mean some of them.
011They're very busy helpers. Um, and they couldn't necessarily make the schedule work with uh the the end of school right here. But it's nice to be back in front of you and to be able to honor my students who really this is more about all of them. I wish I could take more credit for the successes they've had, but really they come as very brilliant mathematicians and most of them aren't even my personal students until they get to high school. Um, we kind of had a interesting year this year. At the beginning, we didn't even have a math coach in there. Um, and I want to throw a shout out to a ninth grade student, um, Ian Kim, who was a math counts, um, uh, a prior math leite, um, who kind of kept it
012going when the school wasn't even sure if we were going to fund the math counts or or whatnot. So, um, we had 10 students go to the state competition. Uh we had a team of four um who were Ashida and Adua uh Mandal. Uh we had Ethan Kim and Frederick Pow. They were four four team members and they came in first place uh between all the students in the state which is like there's some heavy competition in Utah. Um we are quite good at mathematics here. And then we had six who came as individuals and um Audi Naga Lingum um placed in the top 10 even though um she wasn't even part of the math counts team like that was amazing. So we expect great things from her in the future in years. Um, in
013addition to math counts, uh, a lot of these same students, we got through the state math competition and West High took first place with Ashida, Aduita, and, uh, Tana Shetty, who's a ninth grader, um, in the junior division. So, kind of the middle school category. And recently um a Sheeta Mandal uh she was she got invited to the USA or USA JMO which is the the middle school version that's just one step down from the math Olympics for the entire United States. Um and she she could go on to be part of that up to her senior year. So she has a few more years of that. Um hopefully great. um accomplishments from all of them and again I wish you could see them because they are uh cream of the crop and and I
014want to thank the district for having such strong support for mathematics where we can make these great things happen. So as Allison mentioned we're going uh on Saturday I'm flying out with uh four uh sixth through 8th graders right here. Uh the way the team is made is we take the top four performers in the entire state. I wish I could take the four from Salt Lake City School District, but we have uh Ashida Mandal and then we have two students from Waterford and one student from Wasatch Junior High and we come together and we compete in Utah and hopefully we'll do pretty well as a state. Um but Ashida was the top performing student in the math counts round and so uh we're going to let her carry the banner for us. um to
015represent Salt Lake City School District this year and thank you for supporting them. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. That's really wonderful to hear about that math counts team. And I was going to say as the mariachi band was leaving and then got focused, I thought it was so timely that they were performing after we had Cinco de Mayo yesterday. I mean, perfect. Um, wonderful to hear from them. Okay. Um, we're now going to be moving on to the consent agenda and I have had a request to pull two items off the consent agenda. specifically the human resource services report and the 2026 school land trust school improvement plans. Given that I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda excluding items 2B7 and I and 2B10 which will be moved to the action agenda.
016I move to approve the remainder of the consent agenda as posted, sending items 2B7 and 2B10 to action. I second. Is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion, I will go ahead with a vote. Ashley Anderson. Ashley Anderson, yes. Brian Jensen, yes. Amanda Long, yes. Grace Williams, yes. Charlotte Feith Jefferson. Yes. We will now move those two items to the action agenda. Okay. Um as we are now moving into our request to speak. That's right. There's a guideline that I need to read. And here it is. The board enjoys the opportunity to hear from the public during the comment portion of its meetings. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to remind you of our board rules governing your comments. Number one, the total time reserved for public comment is not to exceed
01715 minutes with all speakers or groups limited to three minutes. Two, the board will not allow public comments during board meetings that are slanderous, obscene, or otherwise violate state or violate state or federal law. Three, employees and or their representatives may not use the public comment period to address issues that should be raised through existing formal communication channels or established grievance or negotiation procedures. I'd also like to explain that unless the speaker's topic is already on the agenda, state law prohibits the board from taking action on items raised during the public comment period. However, if it seems appropriate to the circumstances, I may direct district staff to follow up with the speaker on the topic discussed. Now, go ahead. I am not seeing a list of those that are on Okay. Oh, here we go.
018I'm sorry. Our first speaker is Kyle Dipmer. Okay. I have my emotional support ELA teacher with me. Okay. If that's all right. All right. Um, good evening, esteemed members of the board. Uh, my name is Kyle Dmer, longtime listener, first- time caller, and I wanted to say that so far I've been enjoying the newscast on your latest season on YouTube. Um, I'm the SIC chair at Highland High School and my purpose here tonight is to address an earlier decision that was made in haste with some bad information in the hope that you'll take the opportunity to thoughtfully address and rectify the situation. In all fairness, the board was having to make the best decisions they could with limited data in a chaotic time. That said, this is in regarding to the policy uh to forbid
019high schools from having shortened days in their schedules. Uh, as a science teacher, I feel that the spirit and context of decisions are often more important than the texts themselves. So, I did some background research that I felt was necessary to bring to the board as only two of you were present at the time of the original decision. The year was 2021. CO was still going strong, but thankfully we'd pass the point of finding gradually less and less appropriate alternatives for toilet paper. SLCSD committees consisting of administrators, board members, and district personnel have been working for years on whether and how to adopt a shifted schedule for high school students to address mental health concerns with a focus on decreasing suicidality in the population by moving the start times to 8:45. In April 2021 board
020meeting, Principal Chatterton, long mayhem of Highland High School, go Rams, represented the recommendation of the committee that the late start be adopted in high schools across the district with short days every Friday for teachers to engage in professional learning community groups. Board members ask some basic follow-up questions and then vote unanimously to adopt the proposal. The very next board meeting on May 4th, 2021, the interim superintendent and various area directors approached the board with an urgent problem. The only possible way that high schools could meet the thousand hours of seat time required by the district by holding full days of school for 5 days a week or by extending school hours 28 minutes each day for the remainder. Board members shared their concerns that this change went against the recommendations of the PLC model in
021all of their trainings, as well as the emphatic requirements stated by administrators that had implemented PLC model successfully. District personnel assured the board this was the only way that high schools could possibly meet seat time requirements and very graciously decided an hour of time out of the school day every week for all high school teachers to meet was not a big deal. Facing united front from district personnel, the board voted to adopt the alteration of the policy. Although notably this time barely passing with a vote of four to three, there was were no dissenting voices from the room outside of those on the board. Interestingly, administrative committee members were not brought in to address this necessary amendment, and they were actually not made aware that there was a discussion or a decision at all, adding
022to the lack of clear communication to district personnel on the matter. The published wording of district policy I5 was not changed to reflect the new language, directly leading to the calendars adopted over the following year to be out of compliance with board policy, eventually resulting in one of the major problems with shared governance cited by the state audit. We have been operating with short days on most Fridays. I have I believe I'm next on the speaking agenda. Emily Paxton. Oh, you're number five. I'm number five. Well, go ahead. Okay. Well, uh, since this was well written as the language arts support uh person, I moved to seed my time to Kyle to finish. Okay. Or I can read it if you don't want. Not doing very well in the first place. All right. Anyway, so
023um, uh, facing United Front from district personnel, the board voted to adopt the policy four to three. So the only there were no dissending of voices. Um administrative committee members were not brought in to address this necessary amendment. They were actually not made aware there was a discussion or decision at all. Oh, I talked about that part. Okay, I lost my place. Ah, thank you. See, that's why I have you present. Little bouncing ball like a karaoke machine. Uh we have been operating with short days on most Fridays at the high school level with our district approved calendars for every year, including this one since the current policy was voted on by the board. I feel at this time is important to note that while we are admittedly unknowingly out of compliance with board policy
024with regards to early outs this year, we are actually providing the thousand hours of seat time at all of our high schools. It turns out that the basis for all of this could have been addressed by something with which every math and science teacher is quite familiar. You have to check your work and I would strongly recommend that you get Audrey Bliss to check it too. In hindsight, it seems the urgency and constraint described back in 2021 were based on incorrect information. Many of us are making the best decisions we could with limited data in a chaotic time. As a science teacher, I ask that you be willing to adapt when the evidence calls for it. And for those who may feel their hands are tied, you are the ones holding the rope. Board policy
025is yours to shape. If you believe PLC time is valuable, then it is within your power to make space for it throughout weekly shortened days. I will conclude with the most forceful mic drop a high schooler is capable of. Um, yeah. Thank you. Our next speaker is Aaron MP Baxter. Well, um I I respect the rules and I saw on the agenda that you were all talking about repurposing of elementary schools that have been closed and the one I wanted to talk about is not on the list. So, I will hold my thoughts for a better time. Thank you. Appreciate your recognition of that. Okay, our third speaker is Ame. I hope I'm saying that right. A M EI. Okay, we'll go ahead with Josh Stewart and if May does come, we'll move back. Good
026evening. Uh, in 1985, former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Roslin led their first week-long affordable housing renovation in New New York City. Their project would bring new life to a beautiful 1902 six-story 19-unit apartment building that was missing chunks of roof and flooring and in dire conditions. Two years later, 19 families uh moved into this affordable co-op. Nancy Montinez, who raised three children there and was one of the original residents, said of Jimmy Carter, "I feel like he partnered with my with me in my life to give me a place of stability and build a home and family. I mean, New York's no longer affordable, and it wasn't affordable then either. Over the next 40 years, Jimmy and Roslin worked to help bring affordable housing to families across the US, partnering with Habitat for
027Humanity. So, despite adding thousands of new housing units and over 14,000 people to Salt Lake City in the past 10 years, the school district has had to close four elementary schools. Salt Lake City's failed housing policy and the governor's progrowth uh prospicy has created a city with fewer and fewer children. The the board recently approved building a new west high on the east side of Third West. Sports facilities will be on the west side of Third West where the school currently exists. With roughly 20 acres on the west side of the block, the district can both save the historic 1921 portion of the West High and also have the needed sports facilities. The Salt Lake School Board Bo board has a unique opportunity to lease or sell this historic 1921 portion of West High, about
02810% of the 20 acres that are there, and allow it to be adapted to child-friendly family housing. This is a win-win for both the district and the community as more families can raise children in the area. The district can be sustainable in preserving a beautiful legacy building with all its embedded energy and the district can generate additional revenue rather than tear down the building to build a parking lot. The uh the building can become a beacon of the district's commitment to a childfriendly future. The mission statement of the school district emphasizes collaboration with families and community to respond effectively to needs. There is a need for a new high school and there is also a need for child-friendly housing in this area. As an architect, it is easy to see how this historic 1921 building
029with its large windows and high floor tofloor heights make it perfect for adaptive reuse. The board can begin today by requesting proposals from local and national nonprofits and adaptive reuse experts and developers that have decades of experience taking legacy buildings and bringing them new life. like Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter who didn't limit the good that they did to their work in the White House. The school board can lease or sell this building and work in concert with adaptive reuse professionals to find a symbi symbiotic win-win at this legacy site. There is time as the new school is constructed to work out the terms of this adaptive reuse. Anyway, and you should have some information in your packets as well. Thank you. Thank you. We do have that information board in your packet. Okay. Well, I
030will ask one more time. Is Amay here? Okay. If not, um we're now going to move on to the next portion of our agenda. Um and that's the reports agenda. But before I go into that, I do want to say that we have a time certain uh that will be at 7:15 for special public comment on school property use. So um business administrator Kley, I'm going to ask you to tell me when it's 7:14 so that we will be ready at 7:15 for that time certain public comment. Um and then as we do move forward with this um reports um section, if we get done with the reports, then I think that we'll move um forward into the um discussion portion of the agenda if it's before the time certain. Um, and having outlined that,
031I do want to say that I have enlisted Christina Kindle, our general counsel, to help with any parliamentarian questions. And I have Bryce Williams, who's helping with the keeping track of our time. And then I would just like to because I think sometimes it's valuable in the board meeting to just remember what our procedure or process is. So when we've listened to these reports, each board member has the opportunity to ask questions. In that first round, you have three minutes. In the second round, you have two minutes. The way that I will be conducting that is when a board member speaks they have their three minutes but and they can ask additional questions but after that three minutes then we'll move to the next board member who has indicated they wanted to speak. Okay. Um,
032on our reports agenda, the first one that we have is the general fund and special revenue fund budgets. And I think this is administrator Kersley, you're responding to that, unless superintendent wants to take on the budget presentation. Okay. All right. So, today's the the next and almost final step of of uh approving our budget for next year. Uh today we're going to review both the general fund and then our special revenue funds. Uh I've got 29 slides. Um and there are some slides I'm not going to spend hardly any time on. They're there for reference. If at any point during the presentation a board member would like to stop and discuss any of the slides in a little more detail and ask some questions, please stop me and and I'll be happy to do that.
033So first we're going to cover the general fund. Uh the general fund's purpose is to account for anything that's not required to be uh recorded in some other fund. So, it's kind of the catchall everything else fund. Uh, just a couple highlights for the budget. Um, as we talked in earlier meetings, we plan on um uh applying the certified tax rate for next year, which is no no tax increase. Um, we are um planning on receiving an increase from the basic rate um which is offset by a decrease in the state WPU fund. So as revenue increases that we get from the basic rate then um the state money we get from the WPU decreases because the basic rate and the and the state funding is what generates the revenue from the the weighted pupil
034unit. So both of those kind of go up and down depending on you know offsetting each other. So in total that we get the weighted pupil unit. Uh the legislature this year um increased the value of the weighted pil unit by 4%. Um, so that was there there's a law on the books that says they have to increase it by an a 5-year average inflationary rate uh for next year. That was 4%. Um, in past years, the legislature also has maybe added some additional discretionary increase to the weighted pup unit. Uh, for this last legislative session, they only increased it by the required mandatory uh inflationary rate. uh in addition so so we'll get some additional money from the weighted people unit but they also changed how well they basically did away with the it's
035a funding source called the professional staff cost formula where districts were allocated additional revenue for um educators who had higher degrees um master's degree doctor degree etc. um that money has been moved to um a discretionary pot of money and is allocated throughout the state on a per pupil um basis. What that means for the Salt Lake City School District is we will receive a $ 1.5 million decrease in those fundings for the district. A couple expenditure highlights. So the budget uh includes step lane and cost of living salary increases. uh 10% increase to the cost of health and accident insurance premiums. Um also just noting, you know, special education expenditures continue to exceed the state and federal um special education revenue uh by millions of dollars the proposed budget allocates. So last year we
036allocated an ongoing $1 million out of minimum school to special ed. Next year's budget allocates an additional million dollars out of the minimum school program to special ed to help cover that difference. Um, so it'll be some still be some one-time differences we're making up in special education. Uh, but we need to kind of step up and figure out, you know, how can we address these uh long-term ongoing. Um, we don't have the revenues to take care of that all in one year, but we we're stepping up each year to kind of address those issues. Uh, a couple fund balance highlights. So, um, unassigned fund balance, as you'll see on the on the sheets, uh, goes to $0. That's a requirement by law. Uh, we don't anticipate that we'll actually use our unreserved fund balance
037to zero. [Music] Um, but just I just wanted you to note that you might see a zero there and be alarmed. Why are we spending so much more money than we have? Just know that there is that law on the books that says we can't show an unreserved fund balance greater than um zero. In addition, we are we have a uh fund balance reserve for economic stabilization and by state law that's not to exceed 5% of the total general fund balance and the budget for next year can you you'll see a slight decrease because our overall budget is going down somewhat due to er funds uh going away. Um but we're maintaining that 5% cap in that um economic stabilization uh piece of the fund balance. Uh this is just to kind of help. So
038when we talk about functions and you'll see the budget is set up in you know functions the main obviously the main function that we do is instruction but there are many other functions that are required to run a school district um support services administration etc. Um these are just the definitions of what those functions are. So as you as you look at budgets, you kind of have an understanding of what type of expenditures are in each of those functions. Uh this is the budget. This shows actual expenditures for three years, revised budget for current year, and then the proposed budget for next year. Uh we won't spend a lot of time on this because it's small and there's a lot of numbers, but uh for reference, it's there in the future, and that's what you'll
039see in the budget book when we when we get it all finished for next board meeting. Uh and then so we talked about functions. Here's the same information but it's presented by object. Object as you can see there's salaries, benefits, some equipment, etc. So it's just presenting the information in a different way but the overall budget is the same. May yes, Brian, just a quick uh question or request for you, Alan, to clarify. I emailed you about this, but I think it would be good for the public to also hear this explanation as to um go ahead and I worded it, but basically if we look at the 23 to 24 salaries at that uh 184 million marker and then in 2526 we're at 188 million. Um when we've closed four schools, we've had some
040consolidation and all that. So if you could explain to the public um why those numbers haven't decreased dramatically. Right. So at the same time while we may be decreasing our full FTE full-time equivalent so that's number of employees we have through school consolidation. Um and just as we're losing students you know the number of teachers we need decreases. Um so what this shows is the salary increases are outpacing any reduction we would see overall reduction in salaries and benefits. Um what this doesn't show is had we not done those consolidations and reductions that the expenditures would actually be higher than they currently are. Um, you know, that's that that's a lot more detail than we get into in the budget document, but it just shows, you know, someone might say, "Oh, if you have fewer
041employees, you should have less less salaries, right?" But as salaries have increased, the legislaturator's done a good job of working on that educator salary adjustment, increasing that. Um, so just the the increases we're showing are outpacing any out offsetting and outpacing any offsets we would see through reduction in in staff. Uh here's a chart just showing kind of historical and what the budget shows. So there in the blue is the revenue line in the orange are our expenditures and transfers out and then our gray down there at the bottom is our fund balance. Uh historically our revenues have slightly outpaced our expenditures as you can see in our in our budget. Um that will flip but that has largely to do with that. remember we had fund balance that um was going to zero. So
042we need to show we're expending that a little bit more because we have to spend we have to budget down those reserves. Um so the key is watch the historical trends. There there can be issues uh where we might need to spend onetime funds. Um especially if we get federal reductions and we may have to figure out how to address those. Uh so um we can ease into maybe what the the federal reductions could be. So those could be areas when we use fund balance to help ease those those effects. But you can see at the end even the budget we still have an overall. So I talked about unreserved fund balance. That's one category of fund balance. As this shows, we're still showing a budget next year of $76 million in the fund balance
043that's reserved or assigned to other different areas, but can be used in u in case of economic downturn. What this pie chart shows us is the expenditures by function. So the total, and this is in the general fund again, the total general fund expenditure budget for next year is $290 million. they're going to see 55% of that goes into instruction. Instruction is actual activities in the classroom. So, teacher salary, pair of professionals, uh supplies in the classroom, etc. Uh and our next biggest one is um you know 10% of operations and maintenance of school buildings. That's going to be your custodial, your your repairs, your your utilities, etc. But everything that's kind of in the shade blue, we So we have our instruction at 55%, our support services for students. So that's going to be
044counselors, other health professionals that work with students. And then we have our support services, instructional um staff. So that 9.2% of our expenditures go to there. And that's going to be your academic coaches, your professional development. So between student and teacher support you can see we're doing let's see 55 you know 70ish% of our expenditures are going to either support students or teachers either directly or indirectly and those other items uh are the other other functions that are necessary to run a school district. Uh you can note that um you know district administration and central services you know those are relatively small slices of that pie. So we're doing a good job of keeping our resources in in the schools as best we can. So then we talked about so that was function here's the
045same information by object code. Uh and you see 90.6% of our expenditures are in salaries and benefits. Uh it makes it a little bit difficult when we're maybe having a downturn on revenue of okay what are we going to cut? It's, as you can see, it's almost impossible to cut things due to a a decrease in revenue without affecting people. Um, as that is the vast majority of our expenditures. Any questions on the general fund before I move on to special revenue funds? And we can also have time for questions at the end as well. Okay. So, special revenue funds, the purpose of special revenue funds are to account for resources which are required to be accounted for separately. So child nutrition is one of our special revenue funds. We have to report that separately
046because it has a specific revenue source that can only be used for child nutrition. So we we have to report that separate and and and demonstrate that we're not mingling uh that and and losing the purpose of those revenue sources. Uh again, so our child nutrition fund, they provide school lunch, breakfast, after school snacks, fresh fruits and vegetable programs. Uh currently there are no property taxes in these funds and they are funded by um meal sales and federal and state reimbursements. Um we don't anticip we are not proposing any increase in the meal prices for 2526. Uh note that the student lump lunch prices have not increased since 2012 2013. Uh as we continue with inflationary increases I don't know that that can hold forever. Um but some of the trick is so few percentage
047of our students are on the paid lunch that you know increasing it by 25 cents doesn't do much to the bottom line but that is something that we need to continually be aware of that you know as we need maybe additional resources that's one source of additional resources. It's the only one we can really control because we can't control reimbursement rates from the federal or state government. Again, this is the um child nutrition fund budget. Uh it's by object code. Uh here we'll we'll cover the chart. Uh if you look back in the actual 2122, there you see in the blue that the revenues exceeded expenditures by uh some three-ish million. A lot of that is a result of an infusion of federal money coming in as we're trying to get out of out of
048the pandemic uh and addressing the the inflationary um increases to to food costs. Um that money has gone away and there you you see since 2223 our expenditures have actually outpaced our revenues. Um this is one that I I do have concerns on how we're going to you know manage this budget. Uh we'll be working with the director over the child nutrition fund to determine how best to to manage this so we can get that budget balanced. Uh there is still um some fund fund balance available. So um it's not crisis mode yet, but we need to change that trajectory so we can bring those uh revenue expenditures more in balance. In the child nutrition fund, you can see it's kind of split. The bulk of our I mean the majority is 44.5% of our
049expenditures go to purchasing food. And then the second big piece are salary and benefits to to prepare and serve that food. Um again between those two that's largely what our expenditures are. Um so when we address how do we you know balance our expenditures with our with our revenues. Um you know do you buy less food? Do you have less people. Um there's there's significant challenges that we'll be facing with this in the in the near future. Student activities fund. So the student activities fund accounts for uh the receipts and dispersements of monies for um student activities and organizations at the individual schools. Revenue sources are student fees, fundraisers, gate receipts, and donations. Um this is this is the fund that each month that the one of the financial reports is showing kind of the
050um it's it's the report called school financial reports. It's a report you get every month that just shows what their beginning balance was, what revenues have come in, what expenditures and ending balance. Again, here's the uh actuals and the budgets. uh those budgets are a little harder to peg because it might depend on what activities the the students at the school choose to do for fundraising for for whatever. Um but we do our best to kind of look at his history and um and project forward. Here we see our student activities largely historically and continue going forward. uh revenues and expenditures will um balance out uh maintaining a slight um fund balance of $3 million for those uh times when maybe expenditures exceed for one time more than we anticipated. Here we have this uh
051this fund by object code. Um since these are kind of they're they're not a guaranteed ongoing source as they are ticket sales, fundraising, etc. You don't see a lot of salaries in here, which makes sense. Um, so the biggest portion is supplies and materials. As the student groups do a particular fundraiser or activity for something, then they they spend that on the supplies needed for those activities. Pastor Taxes Fund. This would be board member Anderson's favorite fund. Uh the purpose of this fund is to account for property taxes levied by the district but remitted directly to other entities. Uh incremental taxes are remitted to the appropriate government agencies um for example Salt Lake City um community redevelopment agency, the inland port authority um etc. The amount remitted is determined uh through agreement mandate or even
052law. Uh also in this fund is accounted for charter school local replacement funds which are remitted to the state board of education then distributed to the appropriate charter school. Um so all those when people look at their their tax notice that comes to them from the county there is going to be a charter school levy. Um just know that that goes to the state board of education then allocated out to the charter schools. Yes. But we don't um taxpayers will not see the incremental taxes listed on their I mean the the the in the other projects on their yes property tax notice. Yeah. As a charter school levy is is broken out on the notice. The incremental taxes are not. So, it is um kind of a misconception that as a a a homeowner would
053see this tax and think it's all coming to the district to educate the kids. Um there's a good chunk of that money that gets de uh diverted off for these um development projects. Um and there's there's no way of the taxpayer the effect of how much they're actually paying into the project versus how much of their money comes to the school district. Okay. uh just an explanation of what tax increment financing is. So when a project comes online where um whether it's uh this a Salt Lake redevelopment project or a statemandated one um the property taxes that we get gets frozen at a at a base amount. So that represents the blue section of this chart. So the district would continue to receive um property taxes generated by that base taxable value as the the
054development grows and the in and the um taxable value of an area increases. That's that yellow triangle. So that's the portion that gets peeled off and gets um diverted off to these development projects. Um then as you see in year in for this example, this project would last 23 years. projects last all different um number of years depends on the agreement. Then in theory at the end of the project all that taxable value would come back to the school district. Uh here's currently the budget. So it's hard to to set a budget for this one. So really the budget for next year is simply what current year's actual is. There you can see that those the amount of money that uh is being diverted off by tax increment financing continues to grow relatively largely each
055year. Um and that's as those values of those areas grow that the more the increment grows and the more areas we have that are funded by tax increment financing is also affecting that growth. Um there you see it broken out. You have your charter school levy which actually remains relatively constant throughout the years. It's that tax increment um paid to other entities that uh continues to grow. Uh here's just the chart showing that that growth. You've got your blue line which is total revenue coming in. Um then you have your gray line which is tax increment which basically mimics the blue line uh and just offset by that three three-ish million dollars down below in the orange which is the charter school levy. And since all the money passes through there's no money left over
056for a fund balance. So that's always going to be zero. I'm going to take my second, I guess. So for the public's purpose, if I'm looking at the um general fud fund budget, and you got your revenues, which are the property taxes, um for perspective, um let me look at that other one real quick. So you're can you scroll back to the uh pass through how much we're passing on? So I can look at that on that screen compared to what I'm looking at on my other um so for example 2022 to 2023 it was 30 million that we were um having to pass on um where next year it's estimated to be at 40 million but in um our property taxes were 145 million um that were our revenues and we've only increased 425
0572026 to 155 million 10 million. So basically that increase is kind of going elsewhere. So you're looking at the general fund. So these are not included in the general fund projects fund. But in perspective though I mean we're only increasing by 10 million over that time period where there's 40 million being diverted elsewhere instead of being able to be put into our general fund for our needs. Correct. Thank you. Uh, next fund, the Salt Lake Education Foundation. This fund is to account for financial resources collected and spent by the district's 501c3. Uh, revenues are generated through donations from community members and businesses and are used to augment sources resources for educational, physical, and social needs of students. Uh, this is their budget. So, I just want to note that this budget in this fund is
058the amount of money they generate through donations and and other development that they do. The district in the general fund um pays for largely their their operations, their director, their their office staff. There's there's one or two office staff that the board the foundation's board has allowed to be in here because they're above and beyond what the district um has or or chose to to fund. But the majority of their operations is included over there in the general fund. Uh it's under one of those functions is community um community something or other. Those expenditures will be included in here. So this is just the money that they the revenue that they get through donations and then they use to pass through onto the schools or whatever projects that the foundation is funding. You can see
059that I mean their their revenues, expenditures can alter quite a bit depending on is there a specific project they're fundraising for and if so they go out they generate those funds through uh donations, community partnerships and then they spend the money on that and then maybe it goes down to a more more even level. So you can see actually white variations in in their fund. uh they continue to I mean they've they do have a fund balance uh it's you know in this chart of vary between 3.9 and 4.9 million again for the same reason we have fund balances in others just to cover those cases of economic downturn or un unexpected expenditures there the pie chart of the foundation is actually quite diverse the most diverse one we have is they're spending their money
060on on on many different things um which is I I think very telling on just they're involved in a lot of different activities at the foundation. Um so next steps for the 2526 budget. Um I sent out an email last weekish or so about if any board members would like to come in and meet and go over some detailed budget discussions. I've got one meeting set up tomorrow with board member Longwell. Uh if any others want to come in, just let me know. We'll schedule some time that that works. Uh in our next board meeting on May 20th, we'll have the full budget book. Uh and we'll probably review a few things. Um not too indepth on the budget. Uh but the budget will be then available on our website after that point for the
061public to to review. And then on June 3rd, we'll have our budget hearing and then board action on both the revised current year or 2425 budget and then the proposed 2526 budget as well as approval of the 25 tax rate which again is going to be the certified tax rate which is no tax increase. And with that are there any questions? Thank you. Um, I have a couple questions. So, you mentioned uh things that would get covered by the general fund based on federal cuts. So, when we're talking about child nutrition, some things we just manage and others are reimbured from the federal level like our fresh fruits and vegetables program or breakfast in the classroom. Can those programs be floated by the general fund or are they more likely to go away? In reality,
062those are probably programs that if the federal funding got cut that those programs would go away. It's a discussion we would have faced with it, but as the business administrator, um, I would lean towards those were programs that would go away. Okay. And then, um, also in that special budget, as we look at the student fee collection, last year, we had a big conversation in the finance subcommittee related to that document about improving our like tap to pay platforms and making it easier for people to pay for things. Where are we on that? So, we're there's a couple different things. We're doing a the one car I call it the one car to rule the mall, which isn't so much geared as tap to pay, but geared to um enter the building where secured access
063to ride the bus and and pay and and note that they have a bus pass. Uh we did talk about getting a a system where a parent can go online and pay for everything and it's all right there. Uh we've actually we've run into a little bit of challenge on it. Um but I know Christy Hart's still working through that. July 1 is the is the target? July. So So July 1, uh our finance director, Chris Har's working on that to have that effective so it hopefully eases the burden on parents and where they go to pay their fees. That's great. And then my last question is in our property use discussions that have been ongoing, we've talked a lot about philanthropic contributions from the foundation. So based on what you shared, this shows us
064the total amount that they've raised not just for operations but for all the philanthropy. Is that true? That is correct. And so what is the do we know two things like one the total amount and it's probably on there I just can't see it on the screen anymore that the foundation raised last year and then do we also know the greatest amount the foundation's raised all time in a year for philanthropy. Yeah. So last year you can see they brought in $2.9 million of revenue. Um that includes both their donations which is that $2.3 million and then they they invest it and earn interest. Um I'm I'm going to guess on the highest because I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I believe it was in the $4 million range. Okay. Uh
065I when they So the foundation raised the funds for the um the the community centers CLC's and so that's one that they build up and raise the funds and then we build it and then the funds uh get spent down. So if if I were to look historically, you're going to see that's probably when their their big one is. I think the last one was the Liberty CLC. Yeah, that's what I would guess. And then with that $2.9 million, if that's what was raised, what's the net for philanthropy if you deduct all the operational costs? Do we know that? I can't figure that out. Yes. So, since operations costs aren't in here, I and they're not broken out in any of the presentations I have. I don't have that right in front of me, but
066I could get that um outside of this meeting. You can talk about in a small group meeting. We can absolutely we can. Are there any further questions? I do have one question. Um, could you go back to slide number nine? I just want to make sure that I'm understanding it and you were explaining it. So when we look at the general fund and you were saying that we need to look at things in a his Oh, was that number nine? What I want to see is where and I thought when I was looking at it in there we okay um that we want to be looking at things also in a historical context and that sort of thing. So when I am looking at this the blue line is the revenue correct correct um so
067this year there's been quite a decrease from the 2024 25 revised. Can you just help me understand that? Yeah. So, it's it's going to be built of a couple of things. Number one is next year we don't know what the carryover is. You know, when we talk about school carryover and just other carryover, okay, so we budget that they're going to spend all of their money. Okay. But we but we know that they won't. Okay. So, more will probably be added back into that. So probably what you'll see is as you look at that 25 26 dips down when we actually get you know revised numbers you're going to see that either level out or you know it's you're not going to see that drastic of a dip. In addition we have uh grants some
068of them are federal some are state that we anticipate might continue on to next year but it's there's not a guarantee. We still have to go through an application process and so forth. So some of those we don't budget for because we wait until we actually get the grant award from the state and then we we build it into the revised budget. So those are a couple of things. Um in addition when we do our budget we have to estimate some stuff and when we are doing our estimate estimates we like to be conservative because I'd much rather come to the board and say we estimated our revenues and they're actually higher than we estimated or we estimated our expenditures and they actually came in lower. That's a better thing to tell the board than
069say we estimated wrong and we don't have enough money. Right. So we we are conservative when we do our budget estimates to and and that's also somewhat that you see in that reflection of the downturn. Okay. So what you're telling me is there are some factors that will play into this that will probably adjust that up some. I guess when I was talking about historical context, it's not because you were explaining earlier how there are some changes that are happening that are resulting in some decrease. Do you see this trend I mean is this going to be significant? I anticipate what you might end up seeing when actuals all come in is flat. Okay. um where our increases that we're getting are offset by our decreases and you're going to see a flat a flat
070revenue line. No, I appreciate that explanation. Okay, seeing no further questions, um we will move um on to our next report on the agenda, the strategic plan for student achievement pillar one report and update. And I believe we're probably a little over 30 minutes before our time certain. Yeah, it's 6:41. So, a little over 30. Okay. [Music] Good evening. Good evening. This is not an exciting topic like the budget is, but While Dr. Taylor is getting ready, I would just ask that if you have a question, would you just mind raising your hand so that I could acknowledge to just kind of keep track of who's asking questions? Thank you. In your board packet, you you received a cover letter as well as the presentation itself. What we're talking about is the strategic plan for
071student success, pillar one, education, equity, access, and student support. We always like to include the mission and the vision, especially when you look at the aspect of equity being embedded in our vision statement. Excellence and equity, every student, every classroom, every day. This is pillar one, educational equity, access, and student support. The goal is for Salt Lake City School District will ensure unobstructed interest into involvement and full engagement of all learners in school programs and activities. The purpose of this overview is to supply you with the information to make sure that all information is available for you to support informed decision- making. Our first objective access to effective programs. The focus of that is to eliminate barriers preventing students from accessing appropriate programs and opportunities. The measurement tools for that would be regular educational opportunity
072audits, balanced master schedules, co-design individual learning plans, the CCR stands for college and career readiness plans, quarterly student transition activities. When you look at the implementation and outcomes, one of the strategies that was suggested was audits and PLC's, SIC's, SEC's. This was targeted for 25 26. The goal is for the achievement gap to be narrowed down to 10%. The metrics will be end of the year accountability measures, balanced master schedules. The goal for that was this year 2024 25% electives 7 through 12 and full core access for K through 6. The metrics for that schedules and sampling that means taking a random sampling of those schedules and reviewing them. ILP CCRs co-design the target year for that is 26 27 90% of those to meet academic standards. The metrics for that would be the end
073of the year accountability measures transition activities targeted for 25 26 80% participation. The metric for that would be transition activity reports. When you look at objective two, full engagement and effective programs, we want to remove barriers that limit full student engagement and school experiences. Provide enrichment experiences for all our elementary kids. We won't buy annual MTSS self assessments consistent PBIS implementation student services council SSC best practices the implementation and the metrics for that enrichment in 2526 one activity per quarter MTSS 2425 55% of schools score 2.0 0 by 2029. PBIS 2425 90% of schools score 18 plus by 2029. SSC practices 2425 increased documentation and delivery of instru of interventions. Under the second goal, which is equitable treatment, the Salt Lake City School District will foster environments where all individuals feel accepted, valued, and safe,
074free from fear, humiliation, or disregard. Focus there is to address student needs so they feel safe and confident in school. That's through our seal signature pack pack practices, excuse me, trauma-informed approaches and anti-harassment trainings, access to mental health and nursing services, social work access. In terms of 23 24 seal practices will increase to increase student belonging trauma-informed instruction through trainings through 23 and 24 improved access and belonging. Anti-harassment 23 24 full fewer bullying harassment incidents. Mental health teams implemented this year 24 25 increased timely access to those services. nursing services 2627 expanded support and coordination and social work services in 2627 to improve student mental well-being. And the next three slides are really simply just them lined up by the years. So you can see implementation in terms of 23 24 what took place implementation
0752425 the red are those modifications we will have to make and implement next year. When you look at the MTSS self- assessment goal, we were planning to do that via survey, but we didn't include notice to parents for that survey. So, we have to notify the parents, share the questions as part of our registration process, and that will take place next year. Support SEC best practices. There is a canvas training course for our SEC's as well as a folder in our district document center that encompasses all the resources available for SEC's. So they'll have access to that create mental health teams at all schools. The teams have been created. We're in the process of ga gathering the information on that right now. And 2526 we will begin educational opportunity audits. We will begin the scheduling
076of quarterly student transition activities. That's for our schools in terms of like sixth grade to seventh grade or fifth grade to sixth grade for those schools that are transition in from 8th grade to 9th grade and then from college to from senior senior year to college or subsequent uh access to those post-secary experiences provide elementary students with enrichment experiences. implement co-design ILPs and CCRs. And I've been hearing name changes with that. It won't be the green screen anymore. Expand nursing services districtwide. Enhance access to social workers. That means scheduling for that midcycle for closing and next steps. We want to implement midcycle review checkpoints in 2527 progress monitoring via dashboards and reports and pulls from from the strategic plan. I listed those reports. SEAL walkthrough summaries, school enrichment activity report, our school transition activity report,
077unified insights, behavior reports, our logs from there, mental health service reports, health services reports, and our power school dashboards. Also, professional learning and community engagement. Any questions? Um, I think maybe you uh already answered the question, but I was wondering if those objectives had been met, but it was the red, those in red that had not yet been had not yet been met. And we've we would transition those until this current the upcoming school year and have those provisions in place to meet those. And then I had one other question. Could you go back? Um, oh, the educational opportunity audits. Could you tell us a little bit more about that? What are they? What are they? Well, we will be forming a committee to to draft those. You can get them pre- purchased, but what
078we would like to do is have something a unique instrument for Salt Lake City School District. So in working with the administrators and the appropriate teams, we will form a draft for that document and we will review schools and sites to make sure that those things equity is embedded in their actions as well as access. Thank you, Ashley Anderson. Board member Anderson, I don't care. Well, you anything will do. Um, so one of the things you referred to in the presentation is access to effective programs. I understand there was some recent legislation that is meant to have districts supporting students who want to pursue the GRE. Are we implementing any to do with legislation like that as part of what access to an effective program for some students might be? Can I seek clarity for
079a second? Yeah. Are we really referring to the GED? The GRE. GRE. Oh, GED. Yes. We're not G I Roi RE and I mean GED. Gotcha. Cover because that makes significantly more sense. celebrate them to graduate. Could you imagine set the bar there? Yeah. Um I'll just give you a quick response and we are planning to bring um a full presentation to you a little bit later. But this is a new program that the state has approved that allows juniors and seniors who meet certain specific requirements um but and who are also missing certain specific core credits to take all or sections of the GED test and use that towards their high school diploma. So we are um preparing our plan that has to be approved by the state. Horizonte has led out and has
080become an approved testing center. So, we have a lot of those steps in place. I'll bring a full report to you later, but um this is something that we will be working with counselors and with administrators and with families so that they are aware if they qualify that this is something that they'll be able to um participate in and we'll roll out for the coming school year. For the coming school year, correct? Yeah, that's great. I know that will help a lot of um people in my precinct who've had you know issues with withdrawal or wanting to complete an alternative way. So this is really great a very great update. Um another thing referenced in the presentation was the balanced schedule and I've heard kind of two primary critiques of that schedule and one is
081that it provides very minimal recess time for elementary students and the second is that it's caused a loss of planning time for teachers across grade levels. And so to the former point, I'm curious how we're acknowledging that sufficient recess underlies the student engagement and ensuring that our balanced schedule attempts are not compromising the students experience. And to the latter point, I'm wondering how we'll plan to review that balanced schedule to hear feedback in the new committee structure, which I understand would replace SIC's in the contract that we ratified on the consent agenda. Okay. First portion I would say when you look at the extended day remember unstructured recess is for 20 minutes. They can in they can insert structured recess or organized play depending on the run of the classroom. So if they want to
082do an additional session that deals with an organized play session that can be done to enrich kids activities and keep them moving. It can be even be embedded as part of the SAL processes. So I think if we approach it in a flexible creative manner we can address those needs and maximize our kids' experiences. That's the first one. Now the second question I I think and I'm really hesitant until we do our training on the changes in the written agreement to go into a deep dive and addressing that because it's all new for well it's new for all of us right now. It's fresh off the presses just adopted tonight and we have Thursday set up to train administrators. So, we'll be working with HR on Thursday and I would like the opportunity to come
083back to address that question. That's totally reasonable. And to follow up on the answer about recess, it's my understanding that 20 minutes is the minimum required by the state, but is not the maximum allowed as long as we are meeting sufficient minutes and hours of the school year. So, am I right in understanding you that we only allow 20 minutes? No, we haven't addressed that. That's addressed in the school day reports. So, the schools address those perspective recesses. We just built a perspective schedule on 20 minutes for recess and a 30-minute lunch, but that's flexible with the school. We just did it to model. Okay. I would just add for everyone that I've heard a little bit about recess from the community and so there's seems to be some misconceptions about exactly what this means
084or schools are interpreting very differently how to roll it out and simply because it relates to this master schedule or a balanced schedule. I think it's a good time to bring that up. Um there's a lot of dashboards referenced here. Are those dashboards and reports available for board member review andor are any of them publicly available? I would say most of them contain student identifiable information. So they wouldn't be public facing. They' be accessible by district employees. We can provide summations or we can provide that to an appropriate level for the board. Sure. That's great. And then the last question is as we're looking at student experience, have the board's existing student conduct policies or harassment policies been used as we're looking at compliance with these goals and measuring outcomes at all? Yes, ma'am. We
085have a matrix that's embedded in the district document center for resources for administrators to refer to that we use in terms of discipline and prescriptive actions as well as interventions. That's great. Thank you so much. Charlotte, I just wanted to ask is is the 20 minute um recess that's for elementary. That's elementary. Okay. All right. So you're saying that in elementary schools in each you can h you can have additional um movement or recess. It's just unstructured or wait is that what you it would be better for it to be structured because then it would count toward your the instructional hours for the school. Oh okay. But they could have additional structured recess time. Yes ma'am. Okay. Board member Longwell. Thank you. Um, let me go to my notes. Hold on a second. Um, one
086of the I I understand this document exists before I became a board member. So, um, we're working I'm work trying to work within the parameters of what's already been established as it's ebbing and flowing. Um but one of the um things that uh tends to stand out to me is a lot of the um ways that things are monitored um or managed are what is um easily um assessed by the for in regard to the general student population. um it doesn't directly correlate typically to our students with disabilities that um are in our self-contained units um and they don't do standardized testing or we don't do standardized assessments and such. So, you know, we you've got the two pieces here, the removing barriers to access, um where it's commented on, um ensuring elementary students receive
087instruction in all core areas. And the secondary students experience greater access to electives, um datadriven school improvement planning, um co-designing learning for college career readiness plans. I guess my question is um what concerted effort is being done to ensure that our um students with intellectual delays, individuals that are on that utilize the DM um and that can't be assessed typical ways that we are ensuring that they also are receiving an increased access to these um items and we're removing their barriers to these items. items. Does that make sense? Yes, ma'am. Um, I would say that when you look at the end of the year assessments and that includes our our alternative assessments that are issued for our students with disabil students with disabilities, those groups are tracked when we look at our kids, our schools
088going to CSI status or TSI status. We're tracking those things too. So that's why you will see those achievement gaps for lack of a better way to say it closed or shortened because we will be tracking those access. And I think when we look at the mainstreaming activities that we're looking toward, the work that teaching and learning is doing with the training aspects between the general ed teacher and our special education teachers, the co-eing model that we would look at avenues to track those things in order to make sure that we're providing access for those students. And I guess to um push out there is um figuring out tangible data points that can be tracked that isn't a school doesn't need to get to the point that they become a TSI school um before they're
089more highly monitored. Um, and uh that I mean I know it's more complicated with kids that are on IEPs and all of that, but if we can figure out ways that it can be um assessed in a proactive way versus a reactive way, that that would be preferred. So noted board member Longwell, we'll make sure that when we bring back revisions or requests for mod modifications, that'll be included. Thank you. Are there any more questions? Oh, remember Jefferson? Um, in in relation to the Could you go back to the slide that Longwell was um referencing about students? Okay. Is it the removing? No. if they feel it's more about school climate. Um, maybe it's forward. Okay. Yeah. The fostering environment. So, is this the equitable treatment? Does this have to do with a school climate
090and how students do they they are they surveyed on this? Yes, ma'am. There are two current tools that one will be the seal survey as well as a school climate survey that's done by USB that we utilize to kind of track this information. And what time what part of the year are those surveys done? Is it done annually? It's done annually and if I'm remembering correctly around this time of the year. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I did have a couple of questions. The first one was, could you explain to me what seel signature practices what that entails? Oh man, those are SEAL which are social emotional learning signature plan practice like the warm welcome. Okay. Things like that. Those are our signatur. That's what we're referring to. Okay. Thank you. Then the next one, there
091was a reference to supporting SEC best practices. Yes. And that there are instructions for them. Is did I understand you correctly? That's correct. We have a folder in the district document center for SSC's as well as a canvas course that Dr. Alan Martin has developed that has those embedded best practices for SEC's that'll take them all the way from how to create minutes the flowchart for it the steps in it all the way through completion. Uh superintendent Grant I'm just wondering because I know that you do some meetings with SEC's and things like that. Um, I'm just reflecting on my experience in schools and sometimes I don't think the SEC's are getting that training even though that we have it there and I think that that's a really valuable piece. Um, I'm just wondering if
092there's a way that we could ensure that they're getting that instruction because I think SEC's play an important role. Let me apologize. It might be my southern accent. So, I apologize for it. It's SSC that I'm referring to, not the SEC. I know we got all these acronyms. Yes. Education ease. Forgive me. So the student services committee that takes on issues of discipline and um challenges within the needed within usually revolving around individual students. Okay. So I'm thinking okay and I might have said it because I know I I get to talk and I might have said it. Okay. Yeah. I thought that's what I heard. Okay. So thank you. We are ensuring that the others are getting their instruction. Yes. Okay. Great. Oh, and on on that, may I ask follow up on that?
093Um, what are the SSC's committees? Who are what is the makeup of those committees? That's individual school level. You'll have administration representative, teachers represented. Well, hopefully they have a counselor on there also as well as special education teachers. Okay. All right. Are there any other questions? Do we need to move to a second round or are we I think we've taken care of our questions. All right. Um now looking like so it's 7:04. Mhm. Um, so you could either move on to the next thing, talk about it, or you could saunter for 10 minutes. Personal privilege. Yes. I wanted to ask for a personal privilege before the public comment period begins because in our last discussion about the item we're seeking public comment regarding. I referred um to some inaccurate information where there were a
094couple of publications that inaccurately stated that West High formally housed a welding program and that was an error on various communication sources which at varying points referred to a faculty member as a West High educator when they were in fact only a Highland High educator. So, I wanted before that public comment period began to correct my error on this topic on the record so there wasn't any misinformation spread in our discussion. So, I just wanted to say that quickly. Thank you, board member Anderson. So, we now have it looks like seven minutes. Is it 10? 10 minutes. What? Yeah. Okay. You're saying you your preference would be to wait, Amanda, before we start. And is that your preferences? Okay. All right. We'll have a 10m minute recess. Yeah, exactly. [Music] I mean, it probably doesn't
095[Music] even mean The statute says I mean that's fine. will [Music] happen. And by the way, I mean, I'm actually whatever your mental health is, you just [Music] I bought the little I walk [Music] now, too. I'm I'm a junior and even next year I mean the goal of our program is to be sustainable. [Music] You probably love it. I got overwhelmed. Oh, [Music] that's a little I know. Look at you. I [Music] know. Please don't go. All right. [Music] Question is there. And so you like [Music] Oh god. All right. [Music] [Applause] I'm going to Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, we can do it. It's like this one here. At least [Music] It's on this TV, but it doesn't show and it's not on our screen. [Music] Okay. All right. Okay. Great. So, I don't
096know which. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and reconvene for our time certain. Okay, I'm going to give you uh some speaker guidelines for our special public comment. Um, now is the time for the special public comment period on the district's proposed uses for certain of its properties. Tonight's public comment will focus on the district's proposal to use the site of the former Riley Elementary School for the proposed career and technical center and also to use various district sites to address our high school athletic field needs. Thank you all for coming out tonight to provide your thoughts on these recommendations. Each speaker will be allotted three minutes to address the board. Alan Kersley, our board ad business administrator, will be keeping time on the clock. Can you put the clock up there, Alan? Okay. Please
097watch the clock and when there are 15 seconds left for the previous speaker, you can approach the center table and fill out the signup sheet. After signing up, please move to the podium to give your remarks. And if you could begin by stating your name, that would be helpful. We'll look forward to hearing from you. Is there someone that's ready to begin the process? Everybody go. Okay, we all have a thing to say. Thank you for signing in. Now we've got the process started. Thank you. Right. Good evening everyone. I'm Jen Oscerson. Last time I stood before you, it was about Bryant and here we are again. I first want to say thank you. Since we've been uh since I was here, it sounds like the PE equipment situation, even though our track meet didn't
098have jerseys, uh is going to get resolved hopefully by next year. Hopefully, we'll have 1:1 laptops next year. Everything, you know, when my daughter doesn't get get it, but I'm still here fighting for that next generation. And that involves not overlooking Bryant. When you look at all of these options for field places, for upgrades, for all of those things, Wasatch and Bryant are your oldest schools in the district. What can we do with our properties to help? We want to be part of this. We want to be innovative. We want to have upgrades and we don't want to wait another 30 years to get another scrap of budget. I mean, I think it was 30 years ago that we got 4.5 million. 20 years ago, whatever. What? How far is that getting us? A new,
099maybe a really outdated theater at this point, maybe some outdated things, but I think our windows are still original. I think we still have quite a few original things like tile and dating. And I wonder if there's lead paint. So to be quite honest, I really hope that as you decide these make these decisions about CTE, moving that to and keeping that operational is another expense for the district. Another reason to not fund the stuff you have. Take care of our students, take care of our buildings, and please invest in Central City. Maybe you can be watching and when you see that um the speaker's um getting close then you you can approach and start signing in. All right. Hello you guys. Uh my name is Denise Hefner. I am the welding teacher uh that
100you referred to earlier. Um so yeah, happy to be here. Uh thanks for this opportunity to speak. Um the first thing what I was going to address was a correction of what was mentioned last month. Um, I have been a welding teacher in our district for 17 years and all 17 years has been at Highland High School. Okay. Um, some of that confusion may have come from the fact that I was a student at West High School. Um, so yeah, I was a student there from uh 1996 to 2000. So dating myself. Um, and when I was there, I took the welding program. Um, but the welding program was actually at the old tech center. Um, the old tech center was on about 13 South and Major Street. Um, shortly after, uh, I graduated, the
101new tech center was built, but welding was intentionally excluded from that building. Um, I was told at that time they didn't want the dirty trades in the new building and so welding was moved to Highland and autoc collision was put at East. Um, there are substantial challenges with the welding program being housed at Highland. The current shop was never designed or intended for welding class. It's undersized and it's broken into several different rooms creating blind spaces everywhere. Uh the setup has also created major equity issues across the three high schools. Highland students do not travel so they have an extra 20 to 30 minutes of class time daily. Uh due to this um the classes are blocked out for each school so they do not overlap when we have alternate schedules like assemblies and such.
102Uh this limits the class periods that are available for each school for students to take welding. However, my upper level classes must be combined, which makes the difference in arrival and leave times very difficult to manage for myself and for the students. Um, welding instruction would be far more effective if housed at a centralized purpose-built location that ensures equitable access for all students. When I first began teaching in 2008, I had a total of 82 students. As of this school year, enrollment has grown to 314. [Laughter] making welding the largest CTE program offered by the tech center. We provide entry, intermediate, and advanced instruction with advanced offered as concurrent enrollment through Slick. We also run Skills USA, CTSO with part participation at state and national levels. Um, and a number of pathway completers grows each
103year. Uh, there is an overwhelming demand for welding from both students and the welding industry. According to the American Welding Society, the US is currently short 400,000 welders. Neighboring districts are actively addressing industry demand. May I finish? I'm on the last sentence here. Um, Granite School District supports welding at three of their nine comprehensive high schools and just added a fourth in the brand new Cypress School. They've also added machining program at the GTI, fully supported by industry partners. Salt Lake students deserve the same level of access to high-quality CTE programming. Uh if the program isn't included in the Highland rebuild plans and designs, which it currently is not, and isn't relocated at a tech center, then the critical quest question remains, where does welding go? Thank you. My name is Russell Ascrin. I have
104two children currently enrolled in the district. My son's going to complete Miss Heavner's welding pathway next year. Go Red. Right. So, uh, however, I want to take a little different tack than, um, Miss Heavner did because I'm opposed to this to the establishment of a standalone CTE center. CTE programs need to be embedded in comprehensive high schools, schools where students can complete their entire education at one place. So distribute the various CTE programs among the schools and encourage students who are pursuing a pathway to actually do all of their classwork at that facility. Develop robust programs that will truly prepare people for workforce readiness at graduation. Those programs will become real points of pride for that school. The students will come to own those programs. The standalone model, which is decades old, perpetuates the idea
105that CTE is second class. It continues the problems of the current model. As Miss Heavner noted, "My son loses 20 to 25 minutes of class time every day due to bus travel. His welding class doesn't meet the last school, the last week of the school year. My son doesn't regularly attend Highland because his special ed program was only available at East when he started. So, he can't participate in any of the after-school hours that Miss Heavner offers for students to to weld with. The the standalone model also doesn't foster maker spaces that have become really common in technical education where students spend their own time under some guidance experimenting and making their own things and figuring out what it is that they really want to do. The standalone facility will be owned by the district
106and not by the students. The students will merely visit it. Which again perpetuates the idea that CTE education is second class. I think we think too small about our schools and about our students and how we prepare them for their lives when we simply repeat the models of the present. We need to change the way we do. There are lots of examples of the kind of program we could have. If you are unsure of what these are, I recommend that you read Randy Wineartens opinion piece in the New York Times today where she talks about this issue. Thank you. Hello, my name is Julia Lion. I know many of you. Good to see you again. Um, this is my first time in this new building. I am the Wasach Elementary PTA president. I think we
107can all agree in this big, beautiful building that buildings matter. Modern new facilities can make it easier to work and learn, right? We know that. Science tells us that. I hope this building is inspiring you to think about the future. But I worry we are failing as a community once again to think strategically about the future of the oldest buildings in this district. Those buildings are the closest schools to this beautiful new building. What schools are they? Wasach Elementary and Bryant Middle School. Wasach built in 1976 is the oldest elementary school in the district. Bryant built in 1979 is the oldest middle school in the district. When was PTA leaders met with Alan Kersley last year, we discussed how passing the bond would free up money for a potential renovation of our school. Nobody made
108any promises, but it gave me a tiny bit of hope. Tonight's discussion about athletic fields leaves me extremely concerned that the district is once again improving other school facilities with no plan in how they are going to invest in our school. When will it be Wasach's turn? Will it ever be Wasach's turn? While a new CTE center is an interesting idea, what about investing in the schools we already have? I will have two students at West next year. I do support finding space for student athletes, but if all the district's money is invested in the same schools year after year, where does it leave the rest of us? I am not suggesting that Wasatch's field should be turned into high school fields. Not at all. I'm questioning where and how the money will be spent.
109The district should create a plan for how and when they will improve Wasatch and Bryant, the oldest schools in the district. And your national blue ribbon winner 2023. Don't the kids in our neighborhood in the central city, Nate Ashley? Don't the kids in our neighborhood matter, too? Thank you. [Applause] Can I just sign it after so I don't miss anything? Hello. Um, I'm Ella Francon. I'm a current student at West High and a captain on the West High School's robotics team and I'm here to talk about the CTC center and various classes. So, my experience is I've taken almost every single computer science course offered at West. Um, I'm taking more next year and then I've also taken computer science classes at the CTC and I've taken robotics at West. And I'm here to say
110that I totally understand that some programs cannot just be at each high school. I'm not exactly familiar with the fire sciences program or nursing or veterinary science, which I know we don't even offer. So, I have friends who are taking it next year, I think, in the Jordan school district and taking classes that will count for credits in our district because we don't even offer anything near close to veterinary science. But it's really important that we look at each CTC I mean each CTE pathway individually and figuring out where it should go and how it would affect students. Computer science is nationally recognized by so many CEOs and so many uh industry leaders in all fields as being one of the most important subjects and it's very important that every school student learns it. That's
111why we have the computer and technology.5 credit that's mandatory and I would really encourage us to look into having CS be offered at all schools with our onetoone device policy. It's extremely easy to do computer science at any school as it requires no extra like the really only accommodation is occasionally downloading the software programs onto student laptops which is not too difficult. Um, and in terms of other programs like if we were ever veterinary science or fire science, it makes sense have it a centralized location. But I think there are programs and I'm here to talk specifically about West High's robotics programs that need to stay at West High. West High has a robotics team that as of this year and kind of last year is the best in the entire state. We are beating
112Waterford High Schools, which if you didn't know is a private school that costs 30 grand a year to send a senior and we cost none. Our robotics team also has zero required fees to participate. Um, we are now the best in the state by large landslide. I'm urging all of you to come and visit our facilities and to try and learn about what our program needs. Currently, we work out of a renovated classroom that last year failed the fire inspection three to four times um because the modifications that had to be made in order to have it weren't really considered. We now have outlets that are properly within fire code, thankfully. Um, but even with this and the small space we have, we also drive our robot in a foyer, so like a hallway since
113we don't have proper fields. And everyone might say, "Oh, well, we should build it at an elementary school." We would never ever ever plan on putting the football field 10 minutes away permanently. And the same has to be true for robotics. If we do not have a robotics shop at West High, the program will die. The best team in the entire state will die and students will not have an chance to learn robotics at school where they learn better. I could talk about it at other times, but having CTE classes at your high school, you get closer with the teacher, you get closer with your classmates, and you just learn more. And West High Robotics needs it to survive. Thank you. [Applause] I'll sign after Good evening. Mike, my name is Mike Harmon. Um, so
114as we're talking about spaces, I just wanted to throw out there that we definitely use some family support space at some of our buildings. Superintendent and I talked briefly about this, but I wanted to throw on everyone's radar like having a space where families could come that need showering, laundry facilities, other community support, maybe partnering like with Head Start or something where they're running other programs. We could find a space, they could run it, but we get to provide the facility and the space for it. So, our families need, we have a lot of families experiencing homelessness right now. We're seeing more and more of that. The gentleman earlier talked about lack of affordable housing. Um, we're seeing a higher number of kids experiencing that situation. So, as a district, if we provide some space
115for that, I think that would be an awesome thing to do. And I also wanted to thank everyone for the approving the written agreements tonight and the work that everyone did on the negotiations. I missed that opportunity earlier. So, thank you all for that. Hi, thank you. My name is Aaron Torres. Uh, I waited until the end because I'm not sure I found out about this meeting about an hour ago and I'm not positive my comments uh fit the agenda well, but I thought I'll drop in anyway just to share them. I sent a letter to the uh to the council um uh recently, a couple weeks ago, regarding uh Rosen Heights Elementary School and the uh the restructuring of that property. Um some of my concerns with that and I wanted to share that.
116I haven't had a response, so I thought I'd share at least a few of those primary concerns with you really quick. Since Rosland Heights was abandoned about 20 years ago, and I say abandoned because I've been a neighbor to Rosen, a direct adjoining property owner to Rosen Heights. It's felt like it was abandoned for the last 20 years. Um I I really don't uh think the district has done a great job caring for the property during those 20 years. Um, overall there's been a lot of uh ongoing issues with the property, a lot of crime, a lot of uh property damage, and in general just neglect of that property. And while some of it's understandable, um, like I said, overall the the district just has not been a good neighbor. Um, and taking care of
117that property. Uh, and I bring that up because now as the uh, property is getting a significant investment to uh, put a soccer, lacrosse, and many tennis courts, uh, last I saw it was up to about $10 million they're spending on the property. Um, while uh in many ways I support that, I've talked to many of my neighbors that support the changes in that, the concern comes primarily with uh a lack of communication. We were promised a lot of communication upfront on the project. Um, and I feel like that communication has been uh poor at best. My primary concern going forward is the security of the property and what the plans are for securing the property. Like I said, for 20 years, the property was anything but secure. Um, and now that there's a significant
118investment going into the property, um, I I feel like there's a a lot of opportunity to improve that, to um, set up um, engineered fixes to ensure that the property is secure going into the into its new use. Um, but there's been no communication on that. We've seen nothing about it. and and uh admittedly I have to do more research on finding out who I can talk to and and the appropriate forums to address that um because I have a lot of ideas on how to secure the property. Um I want to bring that to the to the council. Um and then one other with my remaining 20 seconds, one other issue uh that came up kind of out of the blue um as you'll be familiar with was the lighting on the property at
119the last minute. um another three $400,000 or something like that was approved to install 60 70 foot high lights um that are directly uh adjacent to uh many of those property owners. And again, just a lot of concern about how those lights are going to be used um and the the the um what policies and procedures are going to be put in place because they, as you can imagine, no one's too thrilled about having lights shining over their houses and these are lights that are shining directly onto the property. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Good evening. My name is an and I mainly am here with questions about what is the plan. I brought this cool flyer you all mailed me. I scanned the QR code and it went to the website
120and I still don't know what the plan is. I don't know how much money is being spent on um the fields like I are they getting rid of West CTE like I don't even understand what the plan is and how much money is going to be dedicated to each thing. Where are the students going for what sporting events? When reading the bulleted list, I'm just making guess for West High School. Would they then be going to Mary W Jackson? And for what events and what sports and what fields and how much is being dedicated for what time period? I would guess Bachmann and Clayton would take the east or the um Highland, but Glendel Middle School is like four miles from west. What fields are being used there or what sporting events? Do these students
121get bus? Are they getting bust in by the city? Are they getting busy by the school district? What's the timing? And if I'm a parent, I'm getting ready to send my student to West High School next year as a ninth grader. If she wants to participate in sports, how do I plan to pick her up? Does she take the city bus home? Does she take the school district bus home? Where do I get her? How much does this cost for parents? All I see is a list of bulleted things. And the CTE center on your flyer, it just says operating three community learning centers. Is this the CTE or are they all going to this one place at Riley? If you have a flyer and you tell me to go scan to get more information
122and I go to your website and I see the exact same thing, where do I go to get the information? The bottom of the flyer says, "Our district is building for the future. What does that future look like?" Again, I have a student who's going into 9th grade at West. I have a student who's currently in fourth. And I'm not alone. A lot of parents are making decisions to pull their kids out of this school district and send them to other places because they can imagine what that school looks like. I work in higher education so I'm very familiar with CTE, concurrent enrollment and those uh conditions of how you make those um arrangements and I don't know what they are here at this school district and I know more about other school districts outside
123of where I live and I find that a problem. So, I would just like to know what is the plan, how much money is being spent, and what do we know to make informed decisions of where to send our students. Thank you. [Applause] Is there anyone else that would like to speak? We can't speak twice, right? About a separate motivation. No, just the one time. I want to thank each of you for participating and uh superintendent, one of the things that I heard and hear was maybe with our um QR code and the reference to the um district page, maybe if we can be giving more information um as it evolves. I know that this is an evolving process, but it seems like that would help answer some of these questions. I think that's a
124good idea. We'll do that. All right. Um we're now going to move on to the next portion of our agenda and that is the discussion agenda. Um we will and before we do that, thank you again for um letting us hear from you. I appreciate that. Um first on the discussion agenda is the administrator on special assignment. Thank you. Um we don't have another presentation on this so much. Um it's just a reminder about this position as we talked about it last time. So I am asking the board for an additional temporary position within the district office because we have a unique opportunity to move forward with our inclusion work particularly that around co-eing and pushing students in rather than pulling them out in order to serve them. One of the things we've been after
125as a district since signing our inclusion resolution is getting to the place where we provide greater inclusion in our district. And this is one way we are going about doing that is to bring in somebody who's got real expertise. Um the role is one that would work with leaders in the school district uh to improve our practices across all of our schools. So they would be training principles and assistant principles in inclusion practices um and sitting here at the district office in order to do that working with our special education and general education teams under the teaching and learning umbrella. There were a couple of outstanding questions on this one that board members raised over the last um few days that I wanted to address. The first was about whether or not this um crossed
126over into the challenge of maintenance of effort required on federal programs that the spending is consistent over time. I know the board received um a statement from outside council uh Joan Anderson about that providing some information. Allan, because this is a financial piece around how we expend funds and use particularly federal funds, anything else you'd want to say about maintenance of effort that would respond to board member questions? I just maybe ask if there are questions about maintenance of effort that we can address. I don't have a I'm sorry. May I? Yes. Board member. No question, but could you I guess pointing out that the it was identified that there was no um let me get my wording correct no significant concerns with maintenance of effort in regard to this proposition. So that is correct.
127The other question was about cost especially when we are um when schools are losing enrollment and therefore are losing um funding. So they have uh a number of schools have lost FTE because of that decrease in enrollment and consequent decrease in state and federal funding. Um I wanted to address this in two ways. One is that this is a temporary position. So that's purposeful in what we're trying to accomplish. Um the other is that it's almost apples and oranges to think about using trying to address these questions from a school level. So we could send funding to a school. It would fund perhaps a person and a half at the school level and we'd be serving a single school. What we're after with this role is systemic change. We're trying to change practices across the
128district that's done by somebody placed at the district level able to work with the leadership team to make that happen. If it's placed at a school level and you know there are a lot of reasons to try and continue the funding at schools, we just are unable to do the systemic pieces that we want to accomplish with the placement with this administrator on special assignment role um who is focused on again that training and development and overseeing how we're growing as a district in this way. So, um, Alan, anything else you'd want to speak to in about costs? And yeah, I mean, we we talked a little bit about fund balances. You know, fund balances are kind of one-time costs. Fund one-time costs are easier to address than ongoing costs. If you, let's say, we
129decided to decrease the class sizes, decrease our our ratios, those are going to be ongoing costs. and those require ongoing revenue sources. Whereas targeted one-time costs that are done, you know, expent and then gone and you don't have to worry about, well, what do you do 5 years from now, 10 years from now, uh are easier. We we have a lot more flexibility on how we might fund and and address those expenditures. With that, I think we can turn to board discussion. Board member Anderson, that answered um a lot of my questions. I'm glad we got the um you know the word on maintenance of effort and in thinking about our inclusivity resolution. I've been thinking about all the cuts that happened when Esther was concluded and specifically the reduction of our behavior specialist team
130that went from 8 to four and I'm wondering Dr. Grant, can you identify how we plan to grow back those permanent supports in our building especially when it's staff who are really critical to rolling out any effort for inclusion behavior specialists? I think actually we need even more than we had before. Uh, I think that's one of the primary requests that I hear from teachers is ongoing support about student behaviors. That will actually take um more than just the budget we have to address because there'd be so many new positions. I think it's worth not only trying to re refund those find a way to again fund let me say it that way those four positions but to increase them because the demand is great. Um, as uh, business administrator Kursley and I have talked,
131uh, our interest would be to bring to the board over time, uh, a list of priorities such as behavior specialists that have come up to the board um, to look at possibly raising taxes in order to fund those kind of positions. with the bond that is now will soon be hitting families on their tax bill and they generously supported in this last year. Um, I know we've spoken with board members about this that it feels um inappropriate and wrong at this time to move forward with a tax increase in November, but to bring to you after this November a plan for what we would like to see increased and what the costs would be so we can address those kind of things. I think that's a pretty critical one on the list. Um, and as
132we talked about cost, you answered um, part of my question, but I'm also wondering why we didn't consider a teacher on special assignment who in modeling our bar model would at a much lower cost be able to provide a relief to a special educator who could provide the same sort of services that an administrator could provide because the I think there are the teachers would be good at serving teachers with that kind of profession. profal development. Um we had a unique we have a unique opportunity with an individual who's willing to take this role um that brings an expertise in that administrative role that can speak to administrators. so can serve across the district to look at schools to take an assessment of what's going well and what isn't what we need to address as
133a district and then actually work with administrators as a group but also one-on-one in the training and um because of the expertise and respect accorded um I think this person can have a huge effect that way we shaped the role around that administrative work the leadership ersship work rather than the teacher um professional development and training work. This may have answered my last question, but I did get a call right before the meeting, so I couldn't pass this along in advance, but they asked about a job that the board approved last year for an existing temporary assignment for an administrator. And that job related to principal mentorship. And so their question was um one if the board had received any updates on our existing special assignments and the potential conclusion of some of those temporary
134contracts before we enter new ones, but also if that role was about principal mentorship, why couldn't an existing administrator on special assignment complete some of this workload for no additional cost? Why couldn't an administrator within the district right now complete this already? We approved an administrator on temporary assignment last year for this year which include the role included principal mentorship. So their question is why can't that administrator who's already on special assignment working with administrators absorb some of this work at no additional cost to us. So we can bring back to the board a response to the question about where we are in the process on that if the board would like. So we can bring that to a future meeting or conversation. Um this work of blending special education and general education of of
135getting that right is unique. It's actually um it requires an expertise. It requires years of having worked in those kind of situations to bring that about. And I think um with the way the roles have been set out that we need somebody who brings a different kind of perspective to the role um and certainly a different ability in order to get us further as a district. Thank you. Thanks board member Anderson. Board member Longwell. Um I have to say um um I'm really grateful for how this conversation is playing out. Um it's very informative and uh clarifies why this role is so unique um and valid and um has a high potential for moving us further along on this um systemic approach versus um tackling things on an individual basis which um may like you
136said help one school or maybe a child or two. Um this is a great opportunity um in my mind as well um to really try to figure out how to systemically um improve things for all of our students um access to academics and improve programming and improve collaboration with the different general education and special education. And there's a lot of areas that have had um um challenges that parents of students with disabilities have been very um frustrated about through the years. Like there's a a large group of us that have talked through the years and support each other. Um, and so seeing just kind of this opportunity come up, having this conversation for it, and really h finding a way to um tackle this from a systemic approach versus an individualized approach. Um I'm just
137elated um and I'm truly hopeful that um my fellow board members can um support it to um really tap into this unique opportunity that uh can get us closer to uh honoring the inclusive schools resolution that was really um written to do innovative work. Um and this is a way to work on this innovatively. So, I had a lot more to say, but I like I said, I'm grateful for the tone of this conversation and the the way that the different pieces that have been kind of fleshed out already. So, thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? All right. Um, then I'll entertain a motion to move this item to the action agenda. I'll make a I will sorry. Um I'll make a motion to move the administrator on special assignment to the
138action agenda. I'll second. All right, we'll take a roll call vote. Um board member Williams. Bryce Williams. Yes. Who comes next? I'm throwing Charlotte Fe Jefferson. Yes. Ashley Anderson. Yes. Is that me next? Amanda Longwell. Yes. Ryan Jensen. Yes. Okay. Now moved to that to the action agenda and we will move on to our next item on the discussion agenda, charter school reports. Superintendent, since we have please come up. Um, I'm trying to see. Oh, there is Britney. Okay. Sorry, I didn't see you there, Britney. Um, so we have the open classroom report. Um, Principal Pitts here to present. Thank you for doing this. Um, one of the things that's been impressive about this board is that they have put this on the agenda. It has been a long time since we've heard a formal
139report from our charter schools. So glad to have you here. Well, I don't want to take the credit for putting us on the agenda. Whoever that goes to, thank you though. Yes. Thank you, um, Vice President Jensen, Superintendent Grant Ford, and Business Administrator Allen. Uh we're we're so happy to present um on open classroom charter school and I brought with me Amanda who is a first second grade blended classroom teacher at the open classroom and okay I guess I'll give a thumbs up to change the slide. So um our charter journey we were authorized as a program in Salt Lake City School District almost 50 years ago in uh 1977 the first class started. It was a group of parents who wanted to be involved in their child's education who went to the superintendent and
140said, "We have this idea for a program or a school." And the superintendent said, "That's awesome. You get me the families and I'll give you the space." And that's how open classroom started almost 50 years ago. And it was in 2006 when the school district formally chartered us as a school. And at that time, we were serving preschool through sixth grade. And shortly after we um voted to advance into seventh grade and then the next year into 8th grade. And so we've grown into a preschool through 8th grade program serving students ages 3 to 14 years old. So it's a very fun environment um there. Um, our mission at the open classroom is a parent cooperative learning community in which teachers and parents collaborate to educate the whole child and empower lifelong learners. Our vision,
141the open classroom, inspires authentic learning by engaging everyone in dynamic and evolving practices in a welcoming environment. And I I do want to point out that Open Classroom is a title one school serving students um from Davis County, Salt Lake County, Tilla, Wasach, and Utah County. Our our furthest family travels 73 miles from Goan every day. And mom actually moved her entire practice to Salt Lake City so that they can bring their children to open classroom. So we we have a large spread and we bring in many students from outside Salt Lake City School District into our um amazing district there. here. I'd like to speak a little bit about um academic growth and achievement recent um 20 from our 2024 um academic year and we have 59.5% of our third graders reading on level
142last year and we have made some phenomenal gains in our rise um testing in our ELA. our school rose up 2.7% to 46.5%. Um and in our math we ra rose 5.1% to reach 36.5% achievement on our um rise testing there and in 2024 we saw huge successes as well um when we look at our school MGP our median growth percentage and in math our schoolwide was 58.6 6. Our ELA was 48 and our science was 61. So our our our teachers are working hard and that's from preschool where we don't take um end of year high stakes testing but are very much a part of our school success as our students go from preschool through um middle school. And I'd like to specifically point out some highlights with our MGPS at Open Classroom, but
143because unfortunately um being a charter school in the state size, we're our own LEA and I find that sometimes our achievements, our data, and what we're working on um fails to make it to um board level reports to you guys when you look at the school district data. um sometimes we're not lumped in there by fault of no one, but it's it's hard to remember that we're out there and we're a part of you guys. So, our our middle school um sixth grades 6th through 8 um every single one of our subjects um in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade um reached at least a 54 or higher MGP. And that was the work of two teachers and who taught our science, language arts, and math. um phenomenal teachers to point out. Chantel Murakami, her sixth
144grade language arts 56, 7th grade language arts 57 MGP and eighth grade 54.5 and in math her eighth grade MGP 74 and 7th grade 54.5 and Lena Foster the other teacher at the time. Um we've now subsequently grown to three, so that is a plus. Um year after year we've increased enrollment and increased FTE at our school. But Lena, who's a phenomenal science teacher as well and math teacher, her sixth grade math MGP was 80 and her science sixth grade MGP was 54. 7th grade was 79 and 8th grade was 65. Um, wonderful things. Our fifth grade as well, language arts and math scored 50 or higher on their MGPS as well. Um, and we owe a lot of that success to the foundations of our early childhood prek through third grade as well. Um
145we um we are currently not in school improvement status in any um categories. Our I'd like to talk about some student group trends at our school. Our students with disabilities last year made a 12.18% increase um in their achievement points and our multi-racial subgroup made a 9.08% increase as well. Um, schoolwide we made a 66% overall increase on the accountability. We know the goal was one, but um, we felt like we made some great gains and are making some great trends um, at Open Classroom in serving all students. All right. Um, we're working to close achievement gaps at open classroom as you've seen with some of our accountability data. um some additional de data by improving um instruction through PLC's are uh 75.4% 4% of our MLL students met growth on WEDA. Um identified needs
146from past evaluations. U math instruction focus on student groups and that's students with disabilities and Hispanics. So we are aware of um areas, our subgroups, our student groups that we want to keep close attention to where we qualify um with student groups at Open Classroom. And we're working to increase our interventions and supports, have those fully implemented with our tier 2 and tier three supports at Open Classroom. Open classroom as a culture of continuous improvement. Um we conduct our annual comprehensive needs assessment just like all other schools in the district and we've identified some strategic areas where we're focusing in our school improvement plan. that is student discourse and academic conversations to 50% which also award strategic goal um schoolwide enhancement of PLC's tier 2 interventions and supports for all students our science curriculum um
147resource aotment and an attention to attendance at open classroom um being a large commuter school we tend to have a high rate of tardies and absences. Um, but yet we've still managed to make quite a bit of gains. I I constantly tell the community, imagine if your child was there every day and not missing 45 plus days of school, which is um about 60% of our school. So, attendance is one of our biggest strategic focuses to increase the increase the culture of attending school. Um, let's talk about operational excellence. We comply with financial audits. uh we keep a healthy reserve and budget stability and a large part of our um a big chunk comes from parents and I'll I'll address parents more a little bit but our parents for open education is our fund um
148through the Salt Lake Foundation or education foundation all of our contributions are handled through the foundation we're very appreciative of that and so we can keep track and document all of the funds that come in and where those are intended to be spent at Open Classroom. Um we've been working hard the last couple years, this is my second year at Open Classroom, um to increase enrollment and in the fall of 2023, we were at 262 students and we're um currently looking at 307 students for this coming fall. So I um we're hoping to maintain that trend uh to reach our full charter of 400 students very soon. um right about time or shortly after it's time to actually recharter in two years. So we are working to increase that fa uh facility maintenance and safety.
149We've scored 100% on our 2024 risk management um thank you um board for the support that you've given our school um and allowing us to occupy um the building that we're in. Um we have met full legal and regul regulatory compliance as well. I work in conjunction with um the various department directors at the district to make sure our asurances and legal compliances are all done and and we've been able to fully be in compliance there. Family and community partnerships. We have a big partnership with Wasatch Garden and we have an amazing um community garden at our school that you're welcome to come by and see anytime a picture there. Um we also received grant through the Beverly Taylor Sornson Arts program. So I I failed to put that on my slide, but I wanted
150to acknowledge um BTS for the support of arts at our school which funds a music program. So if you ever want to hear um why Red Hot Chili Peppers or um you know Yeah, come to our our middle school rock ensembles. Um, our our biggest asset, our biggest community partnership is our parents. We are chartered as a parent co-op school and our parents are committed to be involved at school um with their time, their resources, and their expertise in their fields. Our our biggest asset at Open Classroom are our families. we who co-op during the day. Generally parents um dedicate about three hours a week for each of their ch child at open classroom in the class in in the school um serving on committees um helping with all of the functions at open classroom.
151Um we have a phenomenal afterchool program um which we have afterare. We our peak this year we had 53 students enrolled in our afterare program and we were proud to have that fully staffed with six um staff members so that we had space where anybody that wanted and needed that option available at open classroom. We run an ultimate frisbee program, archery, soccer, basketball, and our middle school students have been allowed recently to um participate through Bryant, so just down the street. So those students who, you know, look for the traditional sports programs but prefer the amazing program of open classroom have that opportunity to be engaged and we had several students take advantage of that. So again, another thank you um for that opportunity. All right, looking towards the future, like I said, we are
152looking to reach harder in two years and our academic and program programmatic priorities include continuation of our blended classroom model, um the enhancement of our middle school program, the enhancement of our preschool pri program, which again um we are, um increasing from 25 students this year to we already have 40 enrolled for next year for our preschool. Um so that's another program that we're managing to grow which will ultimately feed into our school. Um hopefully they continue to attend open classroom and also the USPE personalized competency based learning framework which if you read that framework written by the state you might mistake reading our ch school charter um almost identical. So um it's a great opportunity to receive um further um support from the state not only through manpower but also financially um through grants
153available from their PCBL framework model. Um enrollment increase we're shooting towards 400 our charter um we recharter in the 2627 school year. So we've already started to form those that committee that will um spearhead the rechartering process. um inclusion and equity initiatives as well. um sped support in the classrooms. Not only with the pull out, but we um being a unique school, we are able to offer a lot of pushin u model as well with our sped teachers and providing supports for our special education students in the general ed classrooms and our strategic um improvement targets as well outlined in our school improvement plan which um focus in the areas of enhancing student learning through tier 1, tier 2, tier three instruction. um improving teaching practices, increasing student discourse and academic conversations to 50%. And
154our um student groups and closing those achievement gaps and also positive school environment um which is um focusing on attendance rates. That is the biggest need we have. All right. Um and like I said, I brought Amanda, so any questions? We can turn the mic over to Amanda. Um but no, we're happy to um take any questions and again we're thank you for we're very appreciative of your ongoing support of our program at Open Classroom. Do we have any questions? Member Longwell, I'm trying to not open my mouth until you say I can. Um I appreciate the points you made regarding students with disabilities. I'm sure if you pay attention, I talk about it a lot. Um, and it's great that you've got that 12.18 12.18% 12.18% increase in the achievement points. What I'm curious
155about is, and I recognize um due to fural laws and such, you may not be able to get whittle down too far, but of your student population, you know, you're over 300 students. Now, I was looking at uh our current populations and our uh other schools. Um so about what percentage of your student population would be classified as students with disabilities if you know off the top of your head. And then secondly um do you have students um more complex like with intellectual delays, multiple disability category like medically fragile or where are the majority of your students with disabilities kind of um falling? Okay. Um, to answer your first question, as far as a percent, um, if I were to roughly estimate, I would say close to 20% of our students have IEPs. Um, ranging
156from speech only to um, intensive one-to-one supports. Um, medically fragile students. Um, no, we have a couple health care plans, but um, we haven't necess we haven't had that. Um the general um IEPs are written for in the areas of specific learning disability. Um off the top of my head I yeah I'm comfortable saying that but um multiple areas though we have multiple students with speech and um academic services as well. So it's a pretty good mix of students with IEPs. Okay. Um and then secondly um how does your school uh function generally with with this population? Do you have self-contained units? Are your students for the most part uh integrated within the general education community? No. Set no. Could I point of order? Can I double check with our general counsel? I'm concerned that
157we're risking Furpa violations by talking about specific student demographics in this way when it's not at a small level. May I ask general counsel? So I'm not sure what the end size is here. He said 20% of the student population of 300 students are students with disabilities. I think we're okay. Thank you. So to repeat my question, um do you have self-contained units? Are students for the most part integrated with the student population other than like resource classrooms? Like what's your like structure in general for these? Yeah, our structure in general, we employ one full-time elementary special education teacher, one full-time middle school special education teacher, and a 0.5 speech language pathologist at our school. And generally students um receive like I said receive pull out services and in pushin services but no self-contained right
158we don't have a self-contained classroom. Thank you. Thank you Christina. Any other questions? Well thank you. I I think it's really been valuable to We haven't heard about the open classroom for a significant amount of time and I think it's really valuable to have that information. Thank you. You you'll be hearing a lot of us in the next couple years. Okay. In a good way. Yeah. We appreciate the work you're doing. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Applause] Principal Brittany Powell of our Slicky Summit Lake Campus for Science Education along with teachers in support. Oh, I don't know if I'm smart enough to do this. Sam, there we go. Good evening, board members, Superintendent Grant. Thank you so much for allowing me to come tonight to share about Slick's work. Um, I'm
159really excited to get to tell you about the things that we do at our school. Uh, our in 2007, the charter was authorized and in fall of08, Slickie launched. We ran grades six through eight. At that time, students didn't want to leave our campus. And so in 2009, we began the expansion into high school. In an effort to expand programming for more students, we partnered with Bryant Middle School and phased out our middle school programming on our Rose Park campus and shifted to only supporting grades 9 through 12 in Rose Park. Throughout our time, we have received many noteworthy recognitions. We've received we received national recognition as a gold level school of opportunity by the National Education Policy Center. We've been on the AP honor role. We are recognized as a be best high school
160by US News and World Report. And we're also a top performing high school for Salt Lake City School District and consistently have high graduation rates. At Slicky, we develop the character and skills necessary to change reality. We are courageous and persistent problem solvers. We take healthy risks. We make mistakes and learn from our mistakes. We care about the quality of our work. We use professional language and kindness to develop communities. We take care of our abundant resources and use them to serve our school community and beyond. We use our curiosity, imagination, and adaptability to direct ourselves in our quest as learners, critical thinkers, and ethical world citizens. Citizens, excuse me. These are the foundational tenets that make Slickie Slicky. Science and math. All students take math and science every year. Science is taught as an
161extended period. We're a physics first high school, followed then by chemistry, biology, and a science elective student senior year. Our classes are not tracked. Students are scheduled into their classes based on grade level bands, which means all students have access to rigorous curriculum. We're an inclusion model school, which means our classrooms are co-taught classrooms with push-in supports. Students in heterogeneously grouped classes are a beautiful thing for so many reasons. Research shows that students social networks, especially friendships that cross socioeconomic lines, can play a powerful role in promoting upward social mobility. One of the most meaningful aspects of Slick's Draact model is that it creates space for students to build genuine friendships with peers that they might not otherwise have connected with. They don't just sit side by side. They learn to listen, to value, and
162be shaped by the lived experiences of others who are different from themselves. Experiential learning is a pivotal part of the work we do. Students participate in real world experiences beyond the walls of their classrooms. Outdoor learning like camping, hiking, biking, kaying, snowshoeing, climbing, cross-country skiing, and more. Students have participated in the Utah legislative sessions. We do lab visits to the University of Utah and students engage with the community through service learning. Teacher teaming is another critical component of our efforts. Teachers work in teams for crosscurricular integration and projectbased learning. Excuse me. Additionally, they work on teams to provide multi-tered systems of student support. Our 11th grade team carried out an urban equity tree project that spanned biology, social studies, and the language arts classes. It culminated in tree planting at Slickie, which we lovingly named
163the Slickie Forest. It's pretty awesome if you ever want to visit. Our 10th grade team planned a crosscurricular gems project that spanned math, science, and social studies that culminated in a commerce of gems where students utilize mathematical concepts to construct gems. Had documented the chemistry of the composition of their gems and then auctioned them off. This got a little wild. Who knew paper gems could become so valuable? But I guess that's capitalism for you. We utilize teacher leaders on our campus. One teacher leader spearheads experiential learning through um organization capacity building of teachers and the managing of resources. Another teacher works as a collaborative coach with any teachers in our school um but especially with our newer teachers or teachers who are new to Slickie. She also organizes and manages our quarterly colleague observations. So
164all the teachers in our building go and observe one another each quarter. Um, and those observations are centered around a focus from our school improvement plan. Our other teacher leader has a focus on community partnerships. She's cultivated numerous opportunities and powerful pathways for students through the development and fostering of these partnerships. We continue to strengthen programming and outcomes through vertical alignment, which allows us to build both academic and soft skills by aligning curriculum and instruction. Our goal is to have demographics that mirror the school districts. We remain within a good range and we work hard to recruit a diverse student body. We are a title one school. Um so our minority population is 53%. 21% of our students are multil- language learners. 23% of our students are um classified as having a disability. 2% of
165our students are experiencing homelessness. 45% of our students are from socially uh socioeconomic um challenged households and 29% of our students are from non-English backgrounds. Well-being has been a strong focus of the work we do at Slickie. Our schoolwide goal is that 85% of our students um experience positive well-being all or most of the time. And you can see we're quite close to that. Um, we work in a partnership with the University of Utah to get this information for students. And I love that it's broken out this way and looking at student joy. To me, that's a really important part of school connectedness, purpose, efficacy, and then our total. Um, and we break this down by grade level. This helps us work on targets of what we're going to do across those grade levels to
166meet the needs of students. Our school utilizes a framework called ruler where we ask, it fits really well with us being a science school because we ask our students and teachers to become emotional scientists. Um, where we ask them to recognize, understand, label, express, and regulate those emotions. We teach teachers and students different tools, including the mood meter, charters, meta moments, not that's not our school charter. It's just a different tool. Um, and the blueprint. Um, as I mentioned before, we partner with the University of Utah to have tier 2 and tier three mental health services available directly on our campus. And then we've also um partnered with Promise Partnership to work on community schools initiatives. And with them, we work to ensure um students needs are met and that we cultivate community partnerships that
167serve the needs of both our students and families. um as as okay, I'm just going to go back to my time as a classroom teacher just a little bit. And I love I love being in the classroom. I love working directly with students in that capacity. And as a classroom teacher, on the first day of school, as I was welcoming students into that space, I would always tell my students that by the end of this year, I certainly want us to be better mathematicians, better scientists, um better writers, readers, historians, but that if at the end of our time together, we were not better human beings, then we would have failed. At Slicky, we strive to support students in their growth as whole human beings. We support them in getting out of their comfort zones
168to take healthy risks. Support them in making connections with others and applying their learning in different ways. We define experiential learning as learning by doing and then reflecting upon what one has done and learned from that experience. So to give you some examples of what this looks like, our chemistry students engage in an overarching unit called down the drain in which they look at what's in our water and what's going down the drain. They gather water samples and test them. They bike down the Jordan River and work with the lo the local water um reclamation plant. It has a very unique smell if you ever want to go visit. Um but they do that to understand the process of filtering that water. They kayak the Great Salt Lake and take samples to see the results
169of the plant's work. And then this project culminates with them presenting at a symposium on the chemistry of what's in their water. Several of our science classes took students snowshoeing to learn how to conduct conduct a variety of water sampling or water quality tests and then examine how land use impacts that water quality. Our service leadership did a project in the fall focused on people experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake. They did in-depth learning about the issue and worked closely with a local nonprofit, the Crossroads Urban Center. They developed and implemented their own actions to have an impact on the issue. And then they went to the legislature and spoke on the issue and engaged in a letterw writing campaign to share potential solutions. I'll talk a little bit about our growth and achievement. Our atrisisk
170populations are exceeding their anticipated growth measure. Something that we are deeply committed to focusing on at our campus is continuing to bolster the work with multil- language learners. Particularly um we have seen a strong group of long-term multil- language learners where they have been receiving um alternative language services for almost their entire academic career. So, um, that's one of our huge areas of focus. In the past, it's also been on ensuring our students with disabilities are making the expected growth, which they are. Um, this is growth broken down by ethnicity. I feel like you can read the graphs so I don't have to like go through them all. Okay. And then here's growth by content area. Then when we move into ACT, uh these are ACT scores by content area. And this is the percent
171of students scoring an 18 or higher on the ACT. And finally, these are our graduation rates. I also sent some additional data, and I didn't see it posted on the website for other supplementary graphs that you can look at. I had a lot of graphs. They're kind of fun. I have a a graph guru who helps me in my graph making needs. So, I'll make sure those get resent so that you can have access to those. Um, our inclusion model applies to all facets of our programming, whether that's overnight trips, our archery team, the musical. We don't have a traditional student government, but we do have an inclusive peer leadership class that any student can take, and they plan schoolwide activities, initiatives, and service projects. It's so awesome to witness these kids come together. They
172are kids from all walks of life who would not connect in lots of ways and they plan prom and it's a really fun prom and I'm not a prom person but it's like a really fun moving prom to be at and they plan different things to really unify our community and to make sure students are seen. Um I want to talk a little bit about what um has led to the vision we have around closing achievement gaps at Slickie. When the school originally expanded into high school, we had our first group of ninth graders and they were kind of struggling to meet the expectations of moving from high or from middle school to high school. And you're like earning credits that you have to have to graduate. The founding principal, Larry Madden, visited their language
173arts class to kind of give them a pep talk in his very Larry Madden way and help them understand the importance of their efforts. He said something along the lines of, "Look around. These are the students who are going to graduate with you. You all need to help each other get there." And one of the students said something like, "Let's just face it, Mr. Madden. Like, some of us aren't going to graduate, and that's just reality." And Larry looked at the student and was like, "Well, then we need to change reality." And I think he left that classroom like leaping down the school hallways and piouetting into classrooms being like we're going to change reality. He even had some students make a beautiful bulletin board about it. It was a whole thing. But this phrase
174has become a widespread slickism and it is held as a deeply rooted belief by our faculty, staff and students. We believe all students, all students can learn, achieve, and succeed. And we work to provide them the individualized supports um that they need to do so. Our teachers, I don't think I've ever worked with um more relentless people, and that's our teachers, counselors, and staff. The concept of change reality resonates with so many people because it might mean for students changing their own reality. It might be finding ways to support others in changing their reality. And it could also mean seeing broader systems that need to be changed. Change reality invites action and empowerment. Our seniors at Slickie all take senior seminar in which they get extensive support in completing college applications. All of our seniors
175complete at least one college application during Yuka and many of them do a lot. Um they get support on scholarship applications, FASA completion, resume building, and creating post high school plans. A lot of them start on the post high school plans. We encourage that because we know they're going to hit roadblocks along the way. And when they have a community that can still help them figure out how to navigate those blocks, um they are much more likely to continue down the path of those post high school plans. They also engage in a final capstone project in which they either do something to deepen or expand their own learning or they do something to have an impact on the school, local or global communities. Uh we do a senior showcase. Um board member Jensen often comes
176to that. You're all welcome to. Oh, sorry. Uh and uh sorry, you're in the wrong seat. So I totally looked at you wrong. Williams. Yes. Thanks. Wow. Okay. Um but Bryce often comes to those and it's awesome to have him there. And then I'll talk about this. Actually, I'm going to talk about him next. Um there's another opportunity to see our senior showcase projects on the second to last day of school because our students work really hard all the way through the second to last day of school. All students work on endofear projects and on the second to last day of school we hold a schoolwide project symposium in which students present their culminating project. The expectations of this symposium communicates to our students that every day counts and we persist until the very end.
177Okay. Well, the last day of school, we let them celebrate. Um, but the symposium is an inspiring showcase of student skills, collaborative problem solving and learning. We have a culture of continuous a strong culture of continuous improvement. Um, our teachers engage in ongoing professional development. Like I already mentioned, they engage in colleague observations and we uh they work in PLC teams um based on grade level and department. Um we do a lot of crosscurricular work together. We have a strong focus on differentiation. Um these are often designed and led by our teacher leaders and we have a high level of collaboration to design and implement student supports. Um, we have a really great parent community at Slickie and one of the ways they're highly involved is through our school community council and we really strive
178to make school community council a place that is representative of our families. Um, we have 20 seats on that council. We intentionally make it large because that puts the onus on us to get people in those seats and and it's a really beautiful space to be in. Actually, our council, what I love and appreciate about them is they're not afraid to have difficult conversations. And I think what I appreciate very most about them is their ability to see beyond their own child and consider the wider range of needs that exist within the school community. And they have a very strong spirit of coming together to support students and the school. It's pretty amazing. And then of course at the heart of continuous improvement is our students. They drive a lot of what we do at
179the school which is amazing. So when you have a small school community and students want to take on different initiatives, they have the voice and power to do that. Um our peer leadership does a lot of that work. They build school culture. They provide social opportunities. They plan and um conduct service projects. our alumni. We do alumni work where we actually bring back alumni every year to work with our seniors. Um, and they do a lot of discussion on post high school. And then as I already mentioned the end of year symposium, we meet expectations in financial audits, have strong reserves and budget stability. We're continually working on enrollment and outreach. I kind of think about this. This is one of our issues is like to know us is to love us for sure. Um
180but we do have to constantly work on people knowing us so that they have access. That's a challenge. Um our enrollment while stable has never reached what it was prior to shifting the middle school off of our campus. Um so that's a challenge that we're facing. We have a great facility that is wellmaintained and we are a safe campus for students to be at. We are in full legal and regulatory compliance and our last accredititation c certification was issued um in the summer of 23. Partnerships are crucial for the work that we're able to do with students. I'll just highlight a few examples, but we value all of our partnerships. We partner with a number of departments at the University of Utah, including biology, physics, geology, human genetics, education, educational psychology, and clinical and translation
181science. and we're building a partnership with the architecture department. These partnerships have led to a variety of opportunities for our students, including lab internships and the building of this is a real thing, cosmic ray detectors that our students have been constructing on our campus and will be installed in the near future. Um, we have a really great partnership with Hawkwatch International. They've partnered with our AP stats class. The students in that class hike the goshoot mountains. They catch hawks in their hands. You should go to our website and take a look. It's pretty awesome. They band them, take their measurements, and then release them back into the wild. And then they learn their statistics through the migration data collection that they've engaged in. Promise Partnership has been partnering with us on our community schools initiatives,
182which include the utilization of experiential learning. And I could go on and on because each of these partnerships is a robust one that supports student learning in deeply meaningful and transformative ways. Slicky's model is an equity centered model. It is called the Salt Lake Center for Science Education because we are committed to sharing and supporting this kind of work in other schools. We have long been a place that supports innovative practice, professional development, mentorship, and we are a hub of outreach. Slicky is those tenants that I shared earlier. Students engage in extra math and science. Students classes are not tracked, but instead are inclusive where all students access rigorous curriculum. Students engage in extensive experiential learning. Teachers work together. You cannot be in a silo at our school. it's not possible. They work together in
183cross-disciplinary teams in order to support students needs and orchestrate projectbased learning. Teachers take on teacher leadership roles within the building. And our programming has a strong building through intentional vertical alignment. Our work with Slickie Bryant has shown that you can take the tenants of this work and you can successfully implement them in a boundary school and also achieve great success. Slicky Bryant achieved the most growth last year. This year we've also witnessed the fragility of this partnership as that campus has undergone a year of transitions. A school can include various aspects of the tenants of our model to support their vision. For a school to be slicky, the foundational tenants need to be implemented with fidelity. And I know Dr. Taylor will be sharing a report with you regarding the status of the slickie of
184Slickie Bryant in the near future. I just want to close by saying I love being a part of Salt Lake City School District. I student taught in this district. I taught at Escalante Elementary for my first number of years. And I've continued at Salt Lake Center for Science Education as a teacher. I've coached in this district and I'm now an administrator. I love this district. You're not getting rid of me. I have had the privilege of working with some of the very best teachers who leverage their autonomy to provide students with highly engaging student centered learning. Our parents are incredibly supportive of the work we do and our students are phenomenal. What I love about the students who come to our school is they build this beautiful culture that allows everyone to be their unique
185selves. And I'm not saying everything's perfect. We have to help kids solve issues, right? But the vibe at the school is like, I get to come and be my strange little self and you get to come and be your strange little self. And we're just all kind of cool with that. And that's pretty amazing for a high school to have that culture. Whenever we have visitors to our school, they are always struck by the warmth that they feel at our school. So, I just want to personally thank you for supporting the work that we do. If you've visited our campus, thank you. And if you'd ever like to come on by, I'm happy to take you on a tour. You get to see some cool things like a 3D printer that prints clay. And I
186can say those words and then when you actually see it, it's so weird. Um, but it's amazing. It's amazing to see in action and we would welcome you to visit. Thank you so much for the time and if you have questions, I'm happy to do my best to field them. Thank you for that presentation. Are there any questions? I have a question for our business administrator. Not you covered everything asked at open classroom that I would want to ask about when we review our requirements in code that were circulated to us. I know we're obligated to review the school's programming which we did tonight and it was really helpful in understanding what both open classroom and slickie are offering but they don't give us an understanding of how the charters fit into our overall district
187budget which is part of our charge um because we've chartered them. So, because it's budgeting season, I did speak briefly with um our business administrator about this, and he tended to agree it's a missing piece of our finance committee discussions, and that the next appropriate place to have further dialogue about that would be the finance committee. You can correct me if I'm wrong. And seeing a half nod, that seems like a yes. If it was amendable, I would suggest um Vice President Jensen that the board direct the next finance subcommittee meeting to review the financial audits of the two charters who graciously presented to us today. Thank you. Um, are there any other questions? Oh, board member Williams. Yeah. Um, I don't necessarily have a question. I just want to make a comment. Um, everything
188Principal Pal said about the vibes 100%. I somewhat frequently am over at Slickie and anytime I'm there, I just feel like it's a very welcoming um, community that I really appreciate. I would encourage the board uh to join me in attending the showcase um at the end of the year. That's I have attended it every year that I've been on the board and it's something I look forward to every year. Um I'm also going to do something that's um going to embarrass one of our teachers and I'm I'm sorry Nikki that I'm going to do this but I just got I just got a word tonight. Um, so Nikki Hack, one of our outstanding science educators, has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Utah Governor's Medal for Science and Technology in the K12
189Education category. This is Utah's highest civilian award recognizing distinguished service and significant contributions to science and technology. So I just wanted to congratulate [Applause] member. Yeah, I just wanted to thank both of the charter schools for presenting today and um I um I really love how uh Slickie is is integrated or really a part of the community. It feels like, you know, um I know that when I was the editor of a Westside newspaper that several students, um well, there were articles and and the student seminar and um so they knew about our our local publications and um and then also open classroom. I want to give a shout out to Chantel Marakami. She's a great teacher and it's awesome that I like to see the growth that you've you've um achieved. Um I also
190have a question for them. How can we emulate this on a larger scale? I know that's it's like comparing apples to oranges, but what I'm saying is I think you do you do a good service. Um, yeah, if we could emulate some aspects of of these schools, that would be great. Thank you. I just want to add how exciting it is to hear from both of these charter schools. And I would just say with personal experience because I was teaching at Newman Elementary which shares a campus with you and it was really wonderful that those children would have opportunities to go to Slicky. I took my sixth grade students there when I was teaching sixth grade. I took my third grade students there. You're wonderful with all ages and thank you. And I also want
191to thank the principal at uh the open classroom. I worked with him at Newman Elementary as well. To me, it's really valuable to celebrate the success of the charter schools that we do have here. Um are there any other Oh, Amanda, I'm sorry. No, you're fine. Yeah. Okay. Opportunity to talk to you. Thank you. Um I a couple of comments and then questions. I mean, if I'm going to Q&A the other, I'll Q&A you as well. Um, I do want to say like I mean the vibes and stuff, you as a principal, the way that you exude yourself and that energy and the um your vibe when you're the leadership of a school, I'm sure that you know you're a strong reason as to why that uh culture is the way it is. Um, I
192can hear it in your voice and your excitement and your passion. So, you know, kudos to you. It's it's really fun to hear your presentation just that how much you're expressing just that joy and what you do. Um, and I wanted to comment on how uh phenomenal it is that your graduation rate is 97%. That's a really high rate and that's phenomenal. Um, I am curious. I was trying to dig through the little data I had in your slideshow and maybe I missed it. What is the total number of students that you have at your site? We have around 350 students right now. We're chartered for up to 450. There was extra room built in when we um worked on the expansion with Slicky Bryant. Prior to that expansion, we were usually right around 400
193is kind of the ideal. Okay. Uh thank you. Um, and so in relation to students with disabilities, if you're saying 23% of your population were students with disabilities, that would put you around 7980. Um, and then I guess similar to my other question, what is the um general makeup of your students with disability population? Mild, moderate, a lot of intellectual delays, you know, what is like the bulk of your student population? And then in conjunction to that question, do you have self-contained classrooms or is it like what's the structure there? So we also have a range of disabilities represented. I I think our highest group is SLD. Um but as a charter school, we provide the full continuum of services. So we do have students who are uh self-contained, but we provide that within an
194inclusion model. Can you explain what that inclusion model is? Mhm. It means that so self-contained is a number of minutes that students need services provided. It's not a place in the building and so we ensure that they're getting their IEP minutes met by push-in services and then they take a directed studies class. But a lot of our classrooms are co-taught or have additional paraprofessional support right within the classroom. Thank you. Yes. Um uh I I was curious about the breakdown um of the school population, the student population between campuses. You said there were there's I mean you have a lot of um diverse learners and I I just do you have a breakdown of that in compared to the middle school campus? Yeah. Oh, like um I don't have their demographics. They're for sure on
195Salt Lake District's website. Um, but I would say they do have higher levels of um, socially economic or e socioeconomic disadvantaged households at Slicky Bryant. That was one of the reasons that we wanted to partner with that school is a barrier for kids accessing a charter school is they've got to know about it, right? Because they have to put in an application to be included in the lottery. And so we wanted to ensure that more families knew that this was a pathway that their students could access. And particularly we wanted to make sure that historically marginalized families had more access to that. But the all the stats that you reported today is a combination. No, those are specific to our campus. I see. Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. Yep. Are there any other questions
196or comments? All right. Um, thank you. Thank you very much. While the board doesn't need to act on this agenda item, there are a couple of things that I do want to um address with us. And the first one would be uh board member Anderson's request that we um give direction to the finance committee to look at that. And I think that that's appropriate. How does the rest of the board feel on that? It's appropriate. Yes. Okay. So, we'll anticipate that you'll look at that and then we'd receive some sort of a report from the finance committee on that. Okay. Um, I think the district would like direction from the board that we're comfortable documenting the review because we've reviewed it and the effective operation of our two charter schools. Uh, is the board willing
197to give the direction to Dr. Taylor to place a memo on the next consent agenda documenting those items? And those items would be the annual review and the determination that the charters are operating effectively and in compliance with state law. Yes. Okay. So, we can get that on the next consent agenda. Great. That would be great. All right. We're now um done with the discussion portion of our agenda and we'll be moving to our action agenda. Okay. Try and keep this moving along. So I think that we had a couple of things um that we've moved to the action agenda. The first one would be um with regard to the human resource services report um that we moved from the consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion regarding the human resource services report. Is there anyone
198that could make a motion to approve? Somebody p somebody pulled it off the consent agenda. Um yes. Can that individual I guess address that or make that motion? I pulled it off. So I am not supportive of it. So I would not move to move it forward. Would you be willing to provide clarification in in our procedures? I would discuss it when we after the motion is made. Is there anyone that can make a motion to move this forward? I I'll make a motion to move to approve the human resources report. Thank you, Amanda. I will second that. We are now going to have Oh, we should have a discussion. Thank you, Ashley. Of course. Um, so I just wanted to share that in our procedures, I think there's a lot of confusion among faculty
199about what circumstances require an open posting, what qualifies for an appointment, and about the fairness and transparency with which some of our openings have been handled. And so, as I mentioned last month, I would implore us to make a more transparent appointment process that concludes earlier in the spring as our neighboring districts do where we announce simultaneous to the community and you know the board what how we're moving forward with the bulk of our administrative appointments rather than have a cascading process which can cause a lot of confusion. Um, several of the hires on this particular list did not follow such a clear or transparent process and it was publicized widely before being ratified by the board and in some cases they go against the express wishes of the faculty in specific school buildings and
200those complaints have not been resolved. So personally I cannot vote to ratify this batch of appointments. Does anyone else have thoughts? Could I ask a question? Yes. Um, you said that in other districts they they do it much earlier in the year and more all at once rather than Okay. Yeah. Um that's interesting. Yes. Um so that is I wonder is that considered best practice? I mean it's do you It's always useful to get hiring done as early as possible. The hiring window starts January Februaryish as those pieces are um as people see the openings. administrative appointments are are difficult. Um, our next door neighbor at Granite gives a substantial tens of thousands of dollars um payment to people who let them know very early on in the process that they are leaving the district.
201There are a number of positions that we hear about later in the year, so we fill them as quickly as we can. um we have a rather solid turnaround rate for those positions, but knowing of those positions and board member Anderson is right. When we appoint someone somewhere or move people through a hiring process to another school, it often creates openings in the school that we then have to fill. So there are um cascading pieces that way. There are also some district appointments that have moved administrators into district roles. Um that's difficult. We we try and do that quickly. Um there were some we needed some board approval on pieces of the district to move some of those. But board member Anderson is right. We need to get earlier and earlier. One of the goals
202then is that you're capturing the bulk of the talent pool that's available at that time. So the earlier we're able to hire um sometimes we may have a richer pool of applicants to draw from that way. We've tried to up the cost a little bit to try and incentivize people to let us know early. Um what we learned in some other studies is you really have to get up into high numbers to incentivize change. So, um, granite is as much as I've heard a rumor is like 60% of your annual salary. Yeah. That you get as a bonus, which is a lot. And so, districts have different ways of incentivizing that kind of information flow to be able to stay at the front end of hiring. Thank you for that explanation. Uh, Superintendent Grant, I
203guess I was just reflecting and I mean I I was a teacher, but the incentive that you had was $500 and that's not enough. Not enough for a lot of teachers. I think that it has increased. Have you increased it to $1,000? We temporarily increased it with the school closure so we could know sooner. Okay. Uh, and that was a that was a one year. Okay. So, we're at 500. Great. All right. So, I think that does create some challenges. Well, if I may. Yes. Just philosophical, you know, we have limited resources and I think generally we like to put as many of our resources into our employees that are going to work for us, not necessarily our employees that are going to leave. So, it's finding that that balance. Um, so just just so
204you know, if we have future discussions where my opinion lies. Well, I think it's valuable to hear, you know, what we're faced with here. Okay. Without um Oh, did you have something with me Longwell? I guess I'm curious, Ashley. Is it more about um well timing can be part of it but is it is more of I'm hearing more of the concern maybe the lack of transparency as well as the lack of the wishes of the schools or is it more than that and I guess what solutions have you contemplated doable solutions maybe that you're thinking do you want me to answer that if you can stay away personal issues in answering that. Are you able to do that? I would say that I I don't need I don't feel a particular answer other than
205the explanation I previously gave. All right. Okay. If there isn't um further discussion, um we'll move forward with a board member or vote, a board vote. And we'll begin with board member Mike Jefferson. So, we're moving to approve the human resources report. All right. Well, can I make a my vote and then a a comment or explain? I don't know. I I think you've already had the opportunity to make a comment, but Okay. Um, okay. Um, Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. Ashley Anderson, no. Brian Jensen, yes. Amanda Longwell, yes. Bryce Williams, abstain. All right. So, we're now going to move to the next item on the action agenda and that was another item that was pulled from the consent agenda and this is with regard to the school plan trust school improvement plans. Um, I'm going
206to entertain a motion to approve the school land trust school improvement plans contingent upon the revisions the board Well, we're going to need to have a discussion probably about this. Um, but revisions the board would like to see made to the plan. Is there someone that can make a motion to approve or do we need to discuss this before? We can discuss after the motion. I think we can discuss it. Yeah. Well, I guess I'll tackle the motion then. So, see if I can word this right. Help me along based on our discussion. Um I bet uh so I make a motion to approve the 2526 land trust school improvement plans with the uh contingency that the um reviewed recommendations are integrated into the plans before they are formalized and submitted to the state. Does
207that cover it? I think that would cover it. I'm going to ask our parliamentarian. Do you think that that covers it? Uh, probably not. So, probably it would be best if I mean that motion can stand now if there wants to be a second, but maybe then someone could move to amend that motion and add some clarity to what it should be subsequent to the discussion. Okay, we can do that subsequent to the discussion. Correct. Okay, so we'll vote on this. Okay, if we've got to correct it, if we've got to correct it, I'll just Yes, we do have to have a second. Okay. Well, and I could just pull that motion because well, she's mentioning that what we want to get on record are the changes the board would like so that we can
208delineate those changes in the motion. So, after a discussion here, um we can get a record of what the board would like in terms of changes to those plans before submission and we can include that as an amendment to the discussion. you know, a do sorry, amendment to the motion. Um, you know, change A would be this and B would be this and C would be so that there's just some clarity on what those expectations that the board's provided us that we would then follow up on. And that makes sense. So, I'll leave that to somebody else to make the amendment because I I'm good on my end. Okay. Okay. Are you seeking discussion? Yes. Okay. Um, I wanted to share that I was concerned that as of this morning, a majority of board members
209hadn't completed the forms and so many of those reports in fact are still outstanding. So, I personally cannot see confirmation among my peers of which schools are in compliance. The format we utilize for approving these plans requires multiple board members to read them to asssure the compliance. And yet, many of the posted plans still have aspects that are not compliant in two main categories. either they have an incorrect composition in their SEC or there are questions about who is eligible as a parent and who is eligible as an employee to serve and there are at least um three that I can see that are not compliant but I also am relying on other board members to have completed their forms and because those forms are not completed I'm not exactly sure what we'd be directing
210in the motion to be revised as I don't know which plans need to be revised um so because I do rely on our system to ensure that board members have provided me with feedback to advance only plans that conform with statute. I would suggest not advancing those plans today, allowing that completion to take place and either requesting permission to approve them late or requesting that we have an emergency meeting to approve them on the correct date when we actually can have people have submitted their information in advance. Board member Williams, I would just um second everything that board member Anderson said. That was my observation this morning as well. Board member Pat Jefferson, I I agree with that. If if it's possible um to hold a special meeting and make sure that all the board
211members have done their due diligence. Um either a special meeting or ask for a extension of the deadline. Well, I appreciate all of these comments because I expressed the same concern to Superintendent Grant. Um that and I don't know if the system is not making it so that I can see that um board members have completed it. Um, without getting into that discussion right now, I think that it's best that we consider that there are board members that have not completed um the review and we now need to look to scheduling a special an emergency meeting or is there a way possibly And maybe Christina can weigh in on this that we can [Music] approve I don't know if you'd be comfortable with this as a board but to improve the those being submitted pending
212board review and um any updates that are needed as you mentioned board member Anderson. Is there a way to maybe I want to ask Christina is that kind of thing possible? Well, I guess what I'm not clear on is if the board would be comfortable with that because they wouldn't know what corrections had been made or that all the were that the reports were done. So, there wouldn't be a subsequent conversation in which we could get their feedback saying that they approved the plans. I mean, right now they're due on May 15th. So, we have nine days as a district to turn them in without an extension. And you you could set a different meeting if you had an idea as to when the other board members would be approving it and then just do
213an electronic meeting to approve just the plan. That's a possibility rather than convening is to do an electronic meeting. wouldn't be an emergency meeting, but you would just send another meeting. Christine, um Marriott, is there a way to extend? Um I I would be happy to reach out to the state and request an extension, but I don't know if that's a possibility. Um what would happen if we miss the deadline? Thank you. Um what I believe will happen if we miss the deadline is um then we don't have confidence that the funding will be awarded to the schools on the timeline of being available on July 1st to begin funding for the next year. It doesn't necessarily mean the funding won't come to the district schools, but it won't be on that timeline of approval
214or submission by May 15th for funding by July 1st. So, it behooves us to get these approved before the 15th. Yeah. And if they were not if if they gave us an extension, fine. If they didn't give us an extension, what that would mean likely is that additional time before the funding would be available to us to access to use for the purposes in the plans. And we're talking about the land trust portion only. Uh the state has a separate deadline for the school improvement plans of June 30th. So, we have more time on the school improvement plan, but uh the council signature form is related to the land trust plans. Yeah, business administrator Kley. So, let me just address the financing piece. So, it wouldn't be unprecedented for us to have stuff in late
215and we receive our aotment from the state a month later than than maybe the standard. uh if we were um cash poor and had a cash flow problem, then that would be a concern. But we don't have a cash flow problem and during the summer we're not really expending money at the school level anyway because it's summer. Um and so, uh if the only consequence is a potentially month or two delay in receiving the the allotment from the state, uh that's not really a financial issue we're concerned about. Vice President Judson, if the if board member Longwell would like consider rescending her motion, I think you do have clear direction that you need to explore the opportunities with board leadership offline about a couple of things, including that, you know, why these weren't finished, right?
216And then additionally determining whether an electronic meeting is necessary or whether another solution can take place. Board member putting it on maybe May 20th agenda or something. Well, board member Anderson, I guess one of the things that has been going through my mind is I mean, you have raised the question as to why, you know, some of it was not completed, but maybe in saying that we need to have an electronic meeting emphasizes the fact that this is work that needs to be done and um we're having our learning curve here and um next year it will be done or um I don't know how the board feels about that but uh discussing the motion that we would have an electronic meeting prior to uh the 15th of May. How do how do you all
217feel about that? Personally, I'm fine with it, but I've been kind of waiting for a comment as well. I'm absolutely fine resending my motion. It was purely to get the conversation started. Anyway, um but I did want to say two things like one um the way that the uh review process is um done, it's done in a casual manner that it doesn't necessarily directly communicate to the counterpart that's reviewing schools if the other person has completed theirs. Because for example, I just communicate directly with Lissan through email and that's how I've completed all mine. I haven't gone through checking the thing. So if we need to actually do a more transparent way that makes it very clear whether or not both board members have completed theirs, whether it's completing the actual form like I've seen
218you do on one of the ones that we share. Um then we need to implement that process for that clarity piece on whether or not they have been completed by both parties clearly. And then secondly, if we happen to run into a situation where um a board member um is not um completing them that we have a backup plan. If we have to have two individuals to review these school, then who's the third that would be the backup to ensure that we can get that done in time. So those are just a a thought to for to ensure that we are all on the same page because none of mine the only person that knows I've completed mine is Lisan and then so then the other part and see that's what I was thinking. I
219was thinking that there are things that aren't showing that we can't see. Um, Superintendent Grant, would you direct us to the because I believe it's important for you to direct staff instead of us directing staff. Christina, if you wanted to add to the conversation, please. I I just need as the parliamentarian to indicate that um I need help with this. Thank you. Um to if board member Longwell is attempting to withdraw her motion or resent her motion, you need to clarify and ask the board whether there's an objection to withdrawing the motion and then pause and then hear whether there's an objection to withdrawing the motion and if not then state that the motion has been withdrawn. board. Is there an objection to board me board member Longwell withdrawing her motion? No. All right. And
220you have to speak with Okay. The motion has now been rescended. Okay. We now have that on the record. President Jensen, would you like a former motion or do you feel you have sufficient direction moving forward? I would like the motion. I would move that um the board direct board leadership along with the superintendent to determine an electronic meeting date or pending a request for a delay from the C board of education regarding the 2526 land trust plans. May I just clarify? pending a request for delay so that we would ask to be able to submit them later and if that were granted we would not do an electronic meeting but instead put it on a next Okay, correct. Thanks. I can second that. Okay, we have a motion. It's been seconded. We will now
221vote on that motion. Um board member Longwell. Amanda Longwell. Yes. Bryce Williams. Yes. Charlotte Fe Jefferson. Yes. Ashley Anderson. Yes. Ryan Jensen. Yes. Thank you. All right. There's Let's see. We moved one other item. Administrator. The administrator on special assignment to the action agenda. Is there someone that can make a motion regarding the administrator on special assignment? I would be happy to unless Charlotte's going to say it. Go ahead. I move that we um move the approve. Oh, approve. We're on the action and we've already moved it to the action. Sorry. Oh, okay. I move that we approve the special the administrator on special assignment. I second. There's been a motion and a second. We'll now take a board vote. Discussion. Oh, discussion. Correct. Um, I just wanted to share that when our reorganization passed,
222we were told the new structure being approved would allow the work of equity to be threaded through the district and that our district had the expertise for such equity work. And this is one example I feel of how the structure that was approved has not allowed work on equity issues to happen without requiring new hires, um, which I was concerned about in our original discussion of votes. I'm concerned that we're now approving the third administrator on special assignments since I joined the board, which feels like a slippery slope when our school buildings continue to cry out for the day-to-day support they need, and almost every school in my area has had staffing cuts this year, as well as district level cuts to academic um coaches and specialists. I'm worried those cuts are in part funding
223ongoing administrative growth. And with that in mind, I cannot support an administrative role in addition at this time. Is there further discussion? Yes, please. Member Lwell, thank you. Um, so first off, currently the position is meant to only be in a place a couple of years based on a unique opportunity that's currently available. Um, and as as BA Allen pointed out, uh, with one-timeish funds, um, it's easier to, uh, work with that than ongoing because it's it's a short-term position. Um, it's a unique way to make more headway in honoring the inclusive schools resolution, which was reaffirmed in 2022 unanimously, and it was unanimously supported when it was originally issued. I think four years before that, I can't remember the year. Um we've identified uh one of the main concerns previously about maintenance of effort.
224It's not a significant concern. Um and so that uh concern has been uh mitigated. Um, additionally with when it comes to monies, when reviewing the lands trust goals and the SIP goals, um, where those land trust goals give extra monies to schools to determine how they want to handle them, as well as title one, uh, funds are given to schools to determine how they are wanting to utilize them. Most of those are based on um general assessments that the student with disability population um especially more severe students aren't a part of. Um and so those funds are generally allocated to more towards the general education population and like I'll leave that as it is. Um, looking at tonight's 2526 proposed budget, the total estimated revenues in the general fund is $285 million. Um, presume the
225gross cost of this position for just a couple of years is 200k. That is 0.00007 of $285 million. And additionally with the approved ORC chart and more recent charge recent changes we rift the school family collaboration coordinator and subsequent decreased district salary the equity equity director role changed from executive director to director and relevant compensation is decreased in its respectful salary lane. The assessment director three changed to supervisor and it salary lane decreased and changed as well. Um the equity 21 day secretary role was rifted. The legal council position has changed to compliance officer and its salary has sub subsequently changed as well decreased. Um, all of the above and more than all of the above more than offset the cost of this proposed administrator on a special assignment position which as before was explained
226that this is a unique opportunity to coach and support our principles in better inclusive practices due to this very very limited and unique opportunity. So that's my piece. I really hope that um again my coord members support and realize how um unique and priceless and needed this opportunity is. Great time. Um board member Mike Jefferson. Um, I just wanted to comment that in reviewing Glendel's school improvement plan, they specifically mentioned that they really needed coaching um, for special ed teachers and to improve it's part of their school improvement plan. It's like really needed. And so anyway, it's I know this is needed. Um, and since it's temporary, you know, I feel okay doing that. Thank you, board member Williams. Yeah, I think we're in a really tough spot right now. Um, I definitely see the
227the need for efforts or supports um to do more of this inclusion work and um I definitely respect that. I also um echo what uh board member Anderson had said as well is that you know I've brought forward a number of items around um things that are needed in our schools family school collaboration specialists pair professionals um those types of uh interventions and so um this is a a really tough decision and I it shouldn't be a tough decision to be made but it is a tough decision to be made so I just want to vocalize again um that if we are creating these, you know, special administrator um on assignment positions, we need to think very clearly about the other asks that our teachers and um administrators are asking for. Thank you, board member
228Williams. Is there any other discussion? Then we'll move forward with a board vote and we will be starting with board member Anderson. And excuse me that I have to step out right after I vote. Ashley Anderson, no. Brian Jensen, yes. Amanda Longwell, yes. Bryce Williams, yes. Charlotte Fe Jefferson, yes. The motion passes. All right. I think that brings us to the end of our discussion agenda. We will now move into the superintendent report and then our business man administrator report and board member reports. Um, just one reminder to the board, you have these plans that you've just been reviewing. We're putting another batch of plans on your plate, which are the PBIS, the positive behavior intervention, and support plans. No, they're just the PBS. There's no I in these particular plans. That's a different thing.
229Ah, okay. The positive the positive behavior plans. They deal with smoking and sensation. Dr. Taylor, those are going out today. Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning. I'm I'm not going to put anything else on them tonight. That's probably a good idea. So, these will go out to board members tomorrow morning for your review. Um we'll ask for your review within two weeks. in order to complete those and then we would put them on consent for approval pending board approval in the next two weeks. So, um just wanted to give you a heads up about that. I want to be quick about this in terms of we have a lot of um students that I want to call out for their exceptional achievements. We had the state debate tournament last Friday. Um, Caitlyn Graciano placed fourth in the
230original category. Credence Nell and Ben Gleason placed fourth in the public forum affir affirmative teams. Uh, Arthur Garrett ah whose mother just left and um Dylan Song placed first in public forum affirmative teams. Uh Finn Little, Ella Leonard, Mason Leel, Finn Huddling rounded out the teams and did a great job ranking the top half of student speakers in the state debate tournament. We also had Utah History Day where a number of students um won awards. Their teacher is Shannon Herbert. Um, there are students from Clayton who qualified for the National History Day competition back in at the University of Maryland. Um, these are Anna Peterson, Millie Bean, Ruby Thomas, and Annette Harmon for their group documentary Downwinders: Cancer in the Clouds. Norah Helms uh won for her individual website, The Strike for Justice and Jobs.
231I think these sound really cool, thoughtful students doing this work. Peter Lmark, Max Francis, and Desmond Quintona for their group website minutes. Two additional students uh were recognized with special awards in the junior individual documentary Jesse Selman for Downwinders um nuclear testing in the West and its lingering effects. And from Northwest Middle School, Hadassa Rodriguez was a junior in individual exhibit finalist for her project, the East LA walkouts, the awakening of the Chuco movement movement. Her teacher was Sarah Posie. Um, couple of other things to note. The seal of civic readiness showcase. I don't know if you realize as board members when we talk about being a flagship district, this is a place where we stake a claim. Our team created the seal of civic readiness, the first in the state where we can award
232this and um note on students transcripts that they have completed the program around civic readiness. They're going to be honored at graduation. They wear a purple cord I believe Dr. Hall um with that. And so there was the showcase that was held here at the district on the 22nd. I know some board members were there. Uh it's linked to our strategic plan for student um achievement. It was led by Desessie Olsen who is our teacher on special assignment working in social studies and um was the lead on helping this supported by Anna Christensen, Holly Reynolds and Suzanne Arthur. 87 students from East, Horizonte, and West achieved this award that will be posted on their transcript. Um, so exciting about that. And the civic leadership team is committed to making the program accessible. Um, 8% of
233students had IEPs or 504s and 14% were English learners. as we grow to expand that program to more students. One more thing to call out and I know board member Anderson had attended this was the moon mission symposium. You've heard of this. This is the virtual reality program in our middle schools where they learn STEM content through virtual reality. Um really actually a remarkable project with Uplift Aerospace. They have an astronaut who was here um yesterday and celebrated with the students their accomplishments. The middle school students each wrote essays about um space travel. Those essays are going to be written on metal that will survive on the moon and will be taken in the next moon mission to the moon and left there. So, our middle school students who were part of this can look
234up at the moon for the rest of their lives and know that a piece of their writing is sitting there. Um, also, five students were um chosen for their quality work and we'll head to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch a rocket launch. So, this has been a really special program, just remarkable what Uplift Aerospace has done to create this opportunity. I think it's a once in a-lifetime one. Um, and led to by our CT director, Laura Dezo, which has um, been supporting this work. So, cheers all around to those students and to our faculty who support this remarkable work. Thank you. Thank you. Business administrator Kley, do you have a report? Yes, report on a few things. Uh first we had a Utah Association of School Business Officials, our annual spring conference
235midappril where we heard from representatives from the state board of education where again we went over the financial pieces of the last legislative session and and both the pros and the cons of what happened there. Uh we heard from the state tax commission there are new rules of when we do truth and taxation. Since we talked about we're not um having a tax increase this year, there will be no need for tooth and taxation. But in the future, if there if we do um go through that process, there's there's new rules that we'll need to follow. Uh in addition, um myself, our financial adviser, Alex Buckton, and a representative from Mckinstry uh did a presentation on how we've leveraged our for um our Tel loans to help pay for those sustainability projects. Uh in addition,
236uh board member Anderson and I, uh participated in a HTRZ committee last week, uh housing transit reinvestment zone and um this is for the the Rio Grand area. Uh I think I I feel for the first time members of the committee were listening to us. Uh they actually reduced the ask of um tax increment over 28 years by $200 million based on feedback that uh board member Anderson and I gave. Uh and with with feeling heard and some of the support um that uh project area was voted on. It was approved unanimously. Uh, and one last thing, and we're going to invite again our financial adviser, Alex Buckton from Science Public Finance to come to our next board meeting to go in depth on this a little bit, but the district has received for its
237uh, bond sale, upcoming bond sale, a trip AAA rating on both for Moody's and Fitch. Uh, and our upcoming bond sale is tenerally scheduled for um, the 21st of this month. All right. [Applause] Okay, we now have the opportunity to give board member reports. Um, board member Jefferson. Okay. Um, I'll make mine short and sweet. I um I appreciated and um the opportunity to go to two open public comment sessions on the rebuilds of West and Highland. So it was about accessibility and um board member Longwell was also in attendance. So yes, and um it was good to hear from from the people who attended those um and I think it really they just they want to be heard and they want to have their um concerns um noted and I'm glad that we've added
238some more meetings for that. Board member Williams. Yeah, sorry. Mine's not going to be as short, but I'll try to get through really quickly. Um, board member Anderson asked me to just um share two things since she had to step out. Um, one is around debate, which the superintendent um already mentioned, and then the second was to mention that uh West High Choir had straight superiors at state as its and um as did some um instrumental performances as well. A couple of things on my end that I wanted to share. um one was um to congratulate and hype up the um seal of civic readiness. I had the opportunity to give a very short keynote at that event and was very impressed in all the projects and um things that students were working on. Um,
239as many folks may know, in my day job, I work in community engagement and um, civic engagement. And I've been having conversations with Susanna Arthur and how to kind of expand that opportunity to more of a university level. And so, that's something I'm committed um, to doing moving forward and very excited about it. Um, the last two weeks there seems like there's been a lot going on in the district. So, I also attended the uh, Stoddler um, signing event as well. Um that same night um along with uh board member 5 Jefferson and the superintendent, we also attended the uh celebration of Northwest Northwest Middle School. Um I have never seen such a packed auditorium at Northwest Middle School as I did that night. And it was just very um heartwarming to see something like
240that um in precinct one. And then finally, uh, last Friday, I was invited and as was the rest of the board, um, to connect with, uh, Ella Franzen and the West High Robotics team. Um, I am completely blown away and amazed, uh, by the work that they are doing. They were sharing things that I had to um, later go home and look up because I didn't quite understand what they were saying, but they are a fantastic group. Um, and uh, one of the things I wanted to share, and um, Ella brought it up in her um, open comment tonight, is I think there's um, something really to be said about um, keeping some of those um, um, options available at um, the local high schools. Um, the West Robotics team is very um, I'm trying
241to think the word. There's a community there's a special community there that would be taken away if that was moved out of West High School. So, that's something I'd like board members to think about um as we move forward. Thank you. May I interject that actually the plan is to keep robotics at each each of the high schools. Um Okay. But also, what do you mean by each? It's currently only at one high school. Three at three comprehensive high schools. So, you'll be building a robotics lab at East High and Highland High. That's the plan is to hold some robotics classes there. Yeah. Thank you. Board member Longwell, I'll keep mine short. I'm impressed that you made it to as many events that you did, Bryce. I the ones I made it to by the
242time Friday came, I was like, "Husband, you're watching the kids. I'm going to the bed." Um, just summation, I am grateful for those who made it to the accessibility meetings at Highland High School and West High School. Uh, like Charlotte, it was great to hear the discourse that occurred. um for the Highland High School meeting for those parents who uh uh with students with disabilities that didn't get a chance to be have their questions um be um raised and discussed um know that those uh questions are being reviewed um by the district and by the architects um and are being considered as we're looking at the plans. Um, I'm hoping to receive a an analysis of all the questions submitted. Um, so I'm grateful that you were able to take time out of your busy
243days. I know it's really hard for those families that have more complex situations. Um, and just thank you all for what you're doing. It's inspirational hearing all the different things that you guys are doing to engage with the community. You're you're motivating. Thank you, board member Longwell. Uh mine will just be very short. Uh first of all, I just wanted to thank uh the board members for your your thoughtfulness with the passing of my father. I'm the last three weeks have been um busy to say the least. And there are um emails that I want um people to know that I will be answering that I will be working on. Um, I have had focus on helping my father with some end of life challenges and I appreciate the work that you've been doing um
244here. One comment that I did want to make to um Dr. Grant, um this would be in regards to our land trust. It seems like this might be something that would be good for us to look at um on a future agenda. um the process of ensuring that and maybe this would be timely in January or something like that when we know that these um SIP plans are being worked on and the land trust plans are being worked on because I've been to several SEC meetings where I see those schools, they're working hard on this And I think it's important for us and I had expressed to you some concerns that I I wasn't seeing that these things I was having a hard time finding them in my emails. I think that other board members
245may have been having some challenge. I'm not trying to discount, but I think that it would be beneficial for us to have some kind of um training or at least um review of how to um accommodate this so that we're not in this situation again. Maybe some small group meetings even with Yeah, I think with hands-on and maybe if we could get Dr. Taylor and his staff, you know, working with us because it sounds like we have communications going to him and then we also see that there are some that are showing up in emails just so that we have a consistent process. I I think that would be valuable. Thank you, Brian. I agree is getting a better process in place would be a lot make it a lot smoother. So, we're spending less
246time being lost and trying to get that clarification before we even dive in. Okay. Well, and with that, I am going to adjourn the the board meeting and I get to hammer that gavvel. There you go. Thank you. Oops. No. Oh, and I would love to I have kind of similar well I don't have similar reasons where I am but I'm like last week meetings and I was like looking today I'm like I love that like