SLCSD Board Meeting, January 21, 2025 5:30 PM

001all right thank you everybody for joining us today is January 21st 2025 we are here for the purposes of a school board meeting of the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education the board does have a need for a closed executive session and I would entertain a motion now I'll a motion I motion on January 21st 2025 I move that the board go into close executive session to discuss the character professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual and pending a reasonably imminent litigation second motion a second on the table is there any discussion all right seeing none we'll have a roll call vote starting with Bryce Williams Bryce Williams yes Charlotte F Jefferson yes asherson yes Nate Salazar yes moham yes Brian shenson yes Amanda lwell yes that motion passes we'll

002go ahead and enter um our Clos executive session room and be back by 5:30 [Laughter] good de I'll see you in a bit I'll see you in a bit that's [Music] it that's the only thing I need it right now [Music] [Laughter] wait a minute wait a minute for yeah I know then p we all right thank you everybody welcome back um to the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education a public meeting we'll go ahead and convene that now today is January 21st 2025 um we're here for the purposes of a Salt Lake City School District Board of Education meeting um our first opening items this evening of course we want to welcome everybody um with that I would want to recognize our association leaders who are with us this evening or viewing

003online for buildings and grounds we have President AO compo for Child Nutrition we have President t Slaughter for transportation we have President Chris cro for the Salt Lake Education Association for Leia we have President Mike Haron vice president chelia Costa they're both here um and for the Salt Lake Association of school administrators we have President Adrien labado um thank you so much for joining us this evening um up next we have the Pledge of Allegiance and I'll go ahead and lead us in the pledge this evening to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you all right moving on to our next item is our recognitions uh superintendent we have uh Greg planter uh

004the new assistant principal W your Elementary would you like to introduce us to to Greg we can't hear you Logan are you introducing Greg or is thank you and welcome Greg good to see you here more than happy to introduce Greg Greg is coming to us as assistant principal at Whittier Elementary um from Granite School District where he's been very successful in help School turnaround efforts um and uh has already gotten off to a really good start since uh the beginning of the year and uh he really good things and so I just want to welcome and support Mr Greg planter as the new assistant principal at Whittier Elementary so please join me Greg do you want to stand up and say hello or anything yeah come on if you come to the microphone yeah

005just that one or this one either either one any of the four out there um yeah I just want to say uh the word that I kept kind of reusing with Dr Grant um with all of the interview committees that I was able to check back in with um was just excited I'm super excited to be a part of the work that um Dr Delon is doing over at Whittier um it's been a lot of fun just to jump in and to make relationships to jump into classrooms and to see the the incredible work that those teachers and students are doing so um I'm going to keep being excited that's me we are very glad to have you Greg thank you yes you welcome thanks all right up next we have Utah outstanding high school

006biology teacher Dr Grant Candace Penrod our Direct CT um of science will come up I just want to remark on this again um we've had quite a string of board meetings where we have celebrated our remarkable teachers so take it away Candace thank you um hello board I'm happy to be with you here this evening I'm Candace Penrod District science supervisor I'm here with my fellow colleague um Erin cpra who works at West High School and we are here this evening to recognize her accomplishments the Utah Science teaching Association recognized Aaron Capra from West High School as the outstanding Utah biology science teacher for 2025 this award was given for her exemplary work in supporting and improving Science Education in secondary biology classrooms and in providing proven leadership across the school in the district I

007have been in Erin's classroom I've seen her at work I've I've seen her engaging with students of all ability levels and she has been an exemplary teacher in so many ways we are very lucky to have her um just so you know she's also a Nels a Nels fellow which is a really big deal yes and um we landed her seven years ago and she really has um just really impacted a lot of students and teachers here in Salt Lake City School District so is with great honor and appreciation that I would like to um recognize Aaron and her accomplishments and there is a certificate somewhere floating around that is going to materialize certificate it's okay stud schol helina Tech medine wants a few words if she can we're going to find it well as

008a former student of Miss capras I know firsthand how thoroughly she represents everything that this recognition stands for um she I mean I recall how our lessons were not only observational but introspective and analytical and they've still stuck with me and I learned so much Beyond biology that year so thank you so much and glad to see you receiving [Applause] [Music] this hone picture I a picture the goodl looking folks we squish together still this looks great okay every [Applause] two right moving along in our agenda thank you Aaron for all of your efforts and everything do to impact students lives um we have our consent agenda next and I'll entertain a motion oh Char before we do that motion may I say something yeah okay um I just wanted to say that to Echo

009what you just said she has impacted students lives well helina right you are going to be majoring in BIO or chemistry biochemistry what is your major yes biochemistry and she's definitely responsible for developing not only an interest in science and biology specifically but just for learning as a whole so okay so I just wanted to mention that as well I move that we accept the consent agenda as posted is there a second to the motion um sorry I don't know if it's appro to do it yet but I would like to modify that I would like to have to move to the discussion agenda or the um well I think we would have to go through with the first motion on the table and then in the discussion we can modify the can I just

010withdraw my motion I withdraw the motion man would like to make a motion thank you Ashley so I make a motion to approve all of the consent agenda with the exception of um two a which is the December 3rd meeting minutes I was not an attendance oh I wasn't a board member at the time um and then um number five The Joint educator evaluation Committee Member request I I move that those get moved to the action agenda thank you to the action agenda otherwise um I mooved to approve everything else second we got a motion and a second on the table any further discussion all right seeing none we'll start with a roll call Vote with board member Charlotte F Jefferson board member F Jefferson yes Ashley Anderson yes Nate Salazar yes moham deade yes

011Ryan Jetson yes Amanda Longwell yes Bryce Williams yes all right that motion passes thank you and we'll revisit to a in item five um in the action J at in the meeting thank you all right moving along um our next um portion of the agenda is our request to speak uh portion of the agenda and I do have some guidelines that the board has asked me to read um before each public comment period 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 one the total time reserved for public comment is not to exceed 15 minutes with all speakers or groups limited to three minutes two the board

012will not allow public comments during board meetings that are slanderous obscene or otherwise violate state or federal law three employees and or their representatives may not use the public comment period to address issues that should be raised through existing ing 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 our first Speaker this evening is Tessa Stewart thank you Tessa thank you yes my name is Tessa Stewart and I'm a parent of children here in the school district including two daughters whove had

013Miss cpra also as a biology teacher and she's incredible we're really grateful to her and to the other good teachers at West High and at Bryant and at wasat and I would like to begin by thanking you on the board for serving and an elected office I'm sure it is not easy and I appreciate your willingness to serve I'm here just to express deep concerns about what's happening with principal Jared Wright at West High School I'm just really troubled by this decision by the lack of transparency surrounding the matter and even just broader Dynamics at play in The District I strongly support Dr wri as I mentioned I have two students at West and he's been a great leader he's been a great Advocate I was just talking with someone in the audience everyone here

014today has a story of how Jared Wright has impacted their own students he's been responsive and available and I can't think of anyone who cares more or has been more invested or is a better advocate for those kids at West High one one point of evidence is this uh petition this that's going around has 1500 signatures we've just been given such little information and I understand this is a Personnel issue and you know the response is always these are private matters but this is a really drastic decision what are the underlying issues why don't we know anything you've removed a beloved principal from our school and we don't know anything this really has fractured the community at West and it just feels like it's been done in secrecy and I don't feel like it's been

015done to protect Dr Wright but to protect the district we just don't get a lot of communication so my my remarks here and I know I'm almost well running out of time is twofold how much we love Dr Wright and please communicate better with us I I noted on the agenda tonight it looks like a reorganization of the district and that seems like something of significance it's going before the board it can't just be done by Dr Grant unilaterally but we know nothing about that you know the agenda comes out over the weekend a three-day weekend and again I appreciate all your service on the board but it would be great if we could get some kind of a a newsletter here's what's coming up at board meetings you know let us know how you

016feel we just we just don't hear much and it would be nice to be as involved at the district level as we are with our own schools we're the ones with children we're the ones with children in this district and at these schools and and we just aren't getting information so very quickly if I can just I began my remarks by thanking all of you for your public service and I genuinely mean that and I hope that you'll honor that responsibility by advocating and representing the interests of the voters who have entrusted you with this office and just to reiterate what that means to me tonight is our support of Dr Jared Wright and to please be more transparent and proactive in how you communicate with us thank you thank [Applause] you our next speaker

017this evening is Jason Wheeler yes my name is Jason Wheeler thank you for the opportunity to to visit with you this evening and hi Echo test his remarks as well also here to to speak about principal right um I have three kids that are at West High well two at West High and one that's graduated from West High they love the school and uh and my wife Cara is from Nebraska and this is relevant because I don't know how many of you watched the football game last night I didn't but in the '90s Nebraska had like a really really exceptional football team and uh their coach Tom Osborne retired after being coached there for I think 30 years or something and uh since then they have fired four successive football coaches that they now owe

018over $32 million to um looking kind of chasing for that National Championship playoff game again and um I had no idea what a big deal football was in Nebraska until I married my wife and and her parents gifted me a uh a Nebraska sweater and and I was walking around in Utah and everybody's like wow you're a Nebraska fan and and little did I know that that it was such a big thing but um where I'm going with this I think is obvious and that that is that West High has had uh multiple administrators over the last several years and uh and I don't think what West High needs right now as a new principle um that's that's not going to get Wes the success that that you're chasing as a school district that that

019the board hopes for it students um West needs a principal that loves the students that's committed to the students that's committed to the teachers The Faculty the staff there um that's committed to community service that's committed to uh you know being at the late night games and late night activities and and even the stuff that's not very interesting and I have witnessed principle right um at so many events supporting students and know that you will be hard pressed in search for a new principal to find anybody that is more committed and more dedicated to that school and to this community than Dr Wright um so you know we obviously can only speak to what we know I know that the board and the and the district are aware of things that we are not aware

020of as parents and and I understand that and acknowledge that um but I can speak to what I know and that is that I know what I've seen from Principal Wright and that he is an exceptional leader and principal of West High School thank you than our next and final speaker this evening is ran zir as you wish I I went to the right doesn't mean anything uh hello my name is ran zamir and I I started serving on the SEC for West when Dr Wright started as principal for those of us who know I have had four kids go through West one last one yay um so my oldest started with Dr Wright as as his uh teacher and we all know what happens to a district to a board to a principal to

021a school when teacher progresses and becomes principal and Jo joins that school um there was a lot of turbulence before Dr Wright came with uh principal Ford and the intern principal before that and now we're back in a lot of turbulence right before when we are looking at building a new school uh as an SEC member I can attest we've seen progress year over-ear through covid in attendance in graduation rates in uh college acceptances which are amazing all of you that know the population at West and seeing more and more uh college applications and acceptances there are always reasons we're not prevy to personal reasons and we understand due process as an SEC we were not aware of any due process before we got the abru notice there's also due process before as well as

022after and we we ask that uh the board the district share more with us we've had board members at our SEC meetings we've had District Representatives come and it has been a the same motor stop arendi when we're told we can't say anything it's hard for us as a group as NCC which are responsible to approve uh trust lands to review and provide you recommendations on sa on safety on the safety plan the communication plan we have a lot to do and we're really wored that this move is taking West backwards the way the move was done when we speak to teachers when we have teachers who participate on the SEC who would want to become the next principal of West if this is how principles are uh disposed and we hope they're not we

023really really really want to understand better so we can be better parents of our kids at West so we can be better SEC members but it starts with better communication and a process a process is not only one that serves the need of one constituent like the district the process also has to serve the needs of the parents the board and and and SEC and other groups that support the board's Endeavors it is so hard when when we look at the progress when we look at a person that every day would be at West every night would be meeting with us so it's hard for us to understand how that could be thrown away way especially at a time when the school is is back on track and we're going to a rebuild of the

024whole school so we implore you uh reinstate or bring back Dr Wright to West thank [Applause] you all right thank you everybody um that concludes our request to speak portion of the agenda this evening uh we'll move on to our discussion agenda um the first item there is a board member reports on the Utah School Board Association state conference that we had um in the first week of January uh this is something that board members we've discussed um over the years just a simple what is your like number one kind of highlight or thing that you would want to report out on based on your participation in the event I know not everybody was there for uh for personal or family reasons as well but um but if board members do want to take that

025time that would be be really awesome to hear Bryce yeah um there were a number of sessions uh that were available at the conference I think the session that stood out uh to me the most was actually uh the session that our student board member uh participated in for the public uh to note there are a number of districts that do have student board representatives and then um actually probably more that do not um what we were able to see um is just the different structure some uh districts have one student board member like we do others have two um some other districts have a uh student advisory Council uh where a number of uh student Representatives discuss issues that are pertinent to the school um I was particularly interested in this session uh because

026back in April of last year at the national Schoolboard Association um I actually went to a session on this uh with a um school out of Oregon um and I was very intrigued by the um student advisory Council and having more student voices represented in happenings in the district um one of the things I I I can't remember who I was talking to now maybe it was Dr Grant I don't know um but I actually think it would be something to consider and maybe having two student board members moving forward we have a another seat um here at the table and um just something I know we can't make any decisions on that um tonight and it probably needs further um discussion but very interested in adding student voices uh to District decisions and really

027thinking about um that student advisory Council model thank you br anybody else report out on Charlotte yeah I I too was really impressed with that presentation and was really excited about how we can better utilize our student school board members and get them more involved and have them I mean for instance one student was doing a um podcast to let her school know what's going on with the district District so just I think more information is is better you know and I think that would be great coming from a student you know the student rep I also enjoyed um the timing of the of the the convention because you know I'm a new board member and I have so much to learn so it's just it was really great to to learn a a lot

028about different topics um special ed and um legislative things that are coming up you know um with having to do with public education we got to talk to or hear from the new the governor Cox's new adviser on education what is his name again yeah Rich NY so that was that was enlightening um and good to hear and he gave us all his contact info phone number and email and so you know call him up I know right thank you Charlotte Amanda or Ashley Brian helina so going back to the student panel that I was at um I think well I also served on the um State student advisory Council and I think it's really interesting um because I mean I think I know everything when it comes to like being a student in Utah

029but when you talk to people from like other districts and stuff it's really interesting to see the differences that they have for example online school is totally different in other districts and just little things like that where you don't even know what you don't know um and that would be really interesting to see even within our district like what little things that I might not know um especially if we're discussing making student board member selection rotational throughout the schools this might be another way to to utilize that um so that I guess we wouldn't have to worry about that by having multiple members and if we did have an sa then it could be appointed members or just interested students to open it up to more voices thank you to share something um the best

030presentation I attended was about our budget and uh our business administrator did perform fifth place in a cahoot highly competitive cahoot and I would suggest that for those who've never had a chance to serve in the finance committee or have questions about our budget um as we enter the budget cycle you might want to consider emailing um the superintendent or ba from cash School District who presented that because the questions are incredibly informative and show how much information you may be missing from our from our budget and how it could influence you in the budget cycle the second thing I'd clarify um is we're going to receive a lot of questions about the legislative cycle and um or sorry the legislative session and I think one thing important that happens at usba is that it's

031the first meeting of the joint legislative Comm committee and for those listening The Joint legislative committee is a committee of the school boards Association and the superintendent Association that convenes every Friday to discuss Bill files and so um by default our board as members would have the position that usba has on a certain bill so if there are bills that you're interested in it's helpful if you send messages to us about those before Friday so we can inform the discussion that happens in jlc and also that often you may not hear us take a position on a specific bill here but it's because in those meetings on Friday our representative from shared region um Jennifer Partridge who's in the Provo School District she'll represent us with those votes and usba and USSA then Lobby on

032behalf of those causes so you may not hear as much legislative discussion in our regular board meetings but it doesn't mean we're not involved in the bills that impact public education and it may be helpful um for the public listening or for people in the audience to understand how that process works where all school boards convene with certain representatives to make decisions about what bills to support what bills to oppose and what bills to remain neutral on so again if you have feedback you're more than welcome to email us certainly because we represent you in education also your you know state senator and house representative but if you do that um at a certain time of the week it helps us to kind of advocate for those decisions with our region rep Amanda I'm gonna

033follow up with what Ashley was commenting on she and I were kind of talking about this a little bit but this basically did O to what she said but to add on um for the public members that are um feeling very strongly against or for bills that may be helpful or harmful to our district our teachers our students um you can also advocate for or against those directly with the legislature um and the more voices to do that the better versus um just leaning on us and usba Etc to do that um so if you need help um knowing how to navigate that and how to start that conversation definitely reach out um uh the accounting piece I believe I made it through to the similar session on the budget and um there was a

034a point made in there uh where there was kind of a friendly audit with the school secretaries um to kind of just help them make sure that they are learning how to do their books or kind of tweaking it I don't know how we're doing it in our district but it was a really interesting friendly way that that was done to kind of help um expand their knowledge base and of course I went to the special education one cuz even I've been talking special education for years you can always learn more so um it was really good it was really informative thank you thank you um first Ashley you covered Jac very well and I was going to take a minute and just share that with you for the last two years I was a

035voting member of jlc and if we're speaking to the public that really is valuable if you will will um express your concerns about different pieces of legislation so that it can be um advocated for in those jlc meetings um then I would go on to say being uh on that usba board it's really great to hear that it was um providing you with classes that were beneficial um the USB board worked on that for a year you know to provide those sorts of classes and I think that those presenters that you were hearing from are really highly qualified and some of them do it you know nationally and things like that so thank you for being there I think that it's really important that we do attend I mean that to me that's one of

036our responsibilities is to get that professional development it helps us be more effective board members so thank you for that um for me the classes that I thought were uh beneficial there was um a class on the legal issues that we will be faced with in the coming year and I thought that that was very very beneficial it also ties in with jlc to some extent but it also is looking at it on a broader scale with cases that have been determined by the Supreme Court and appell at courts that will have an impact on aspects of Education in the state of Utah so for me that was very beneficial then Charlotte you have already talked about uh the opportunity that we had to speak with Richard NY the governor's um educational advisor I think

037it is really remarkable that the governor chose Richard NY as his advisor I mean this is an individual with Incredible credentials who served as the superintendent of the Granite school district for a number of years and successfully guided that District but who is if I were to think of a spokesman for Education um whispering in the governor's ear that's who I would want um finally I appreciated that um class on specialed as well because I'm not as familiar with it so I appreciated the comments that you um provided in that session thank you Amanda thanks Brian and mohhamad I know you were in St George at a soccer tournament with your kiddos I'm sorry I won't call on you unless you have have something you want to add based on previous experiences it was very

038cold when I was there yes thank you you're welcome um you know all of the things that were highlights for me have already been spoken so I'll be brief but um the student board member session that I went to um that helina was a part of in the Q&A and just seeing the different variations and models um you know I think all the things that Bryce you know touched on in Charlotte I would Echo and and agree with are things that we could could and should be looking at um like student um advisory councils across district and maybe the second board member and how to incorporate helina and student voice into our work more um and then the special ed one as well was super super beneficial um it was just an opportunity for me

039to sharpen my knowledge after all these years um learn some new things and also you know I thought they just gave a great presentation on the role of a board member um not only in special ed cases and um special ed engagement um with the district but just at being a board member in general um boundaries and liabilities you know things that we need to be looking out for um and then of just the overall Spirit of inclusion and Equity um I thought was really powerful in that that session that we went to so Dr Grant or VA kirley anything that you would like to share based on your experience too since you attended with us I'll go first okay so as part of you uh this usba meeting we also hold our um uaso

040meaning and we we U asbo Utah associate Association of school business officials so in the presentation there we had a presentation from the legislative fiscal analyst um and you know we've been hearing this in the in the press as we start this legislative session which starts today that uh it's going to be a lean Revenue year um they're expecting more and more of education but they'll I mean it seems like the focus is going to be on tax cuts versus uh Al additional resources to um to education so I just kind of want to throw that out there as a setting expectation of what's to come over the next 45 days and and how it will affect us and and our budgets going forward I also enjoyed you know I I I was way behind

041in the Cahoots game but I I I made some gains there near the end and almost almost got on the podium um but it's always interesting and informative to hear what other districts do with their budget and how they maybe look at things a little bit different so you can you know kind of say how can we apply this in in our process as well thank you um the sessions you named were the same ones I was going to name I appreciated that Amanda was encouraging us to the special education session particularly because it took the look from the board's perspective about how to manage that and how to see special education as a board member um which is different than how I look at as a superintendent how our director of special education looks

042that um the work our teachers need to do in the classroom so appreciated that session I do I would like to um take up Bryce as you suggest the look at um adding another board member and considering that there were a lot of good reasons why on that one I also appreciated that the board member is part of the high school school government um wherever they're from and that that has some real value in connecting and um hearing from other students in the school as well as having a voice in that and being able to share back and forth uh I always find with conferences that um there's a few highlights in the sessions and then there are others that I forget what they were about but the meaningful part to me is spending time

043with colleagues particularly having time in between the meetings with other superintendents across the state certainly talking about the legislative session that's coming up and what's facing districts across the state but that time together to share as Alan said what different districts are doing how we're um all facing such similar challenges and can share so much that way so that is particularly valuable thank you Dr Grant Charlotte looks like you oh something else you wanted to add I just I wanted to mention that I was really inspired by the keynote speaker um he's a member of The Piano Guys so he was the chist of the piano guys what Steven sharp Nelson but he he was very engaging but also he talked about how to avoid burnout how he as a performer has to avoid burnout

044and I think our teachers our board members our District staff we can all this will help it's to remember the why to remember our why and and to connect with others there were a few things like con and have meaningful relationships and connect with others that help you do the work and remember your why thank you Charlotte and thank you board members for um thinking about those highlights um you know I think to the public this is just our our um you know effort to let you know that we're attending these awesome professional development opportunities and that we're we're taking things back and we're seeing how they can apply to the work that we do that benefits not only our schools but you know our students and our community for the better so thank you

045for for um allowing us the time to do that um we'll move on to our next uh discussion agenda item which is our board meeting structure um board members as you know there was a doodle poll that um was generated um and sent out within the last week that we've all had the chance to um to you know fill out and ideally we have some results um I believe that um is Tiffany going to share the results with us or we just uh because I don't have the final results I know we were waiting on a couple other folks the last couple of days we just got our final two sets of results in tonight this will not be pretty this is going to be just raw right out of the um Microsoft forms but

046um we had everybody respond thank you and what we asked were if you would um please is that big enough that you can see it from where you are um to rank the options for board meetings and study sessions that were outlined in the January 7th meeting and we asked you to put your most preferred option at top so what this shows is that the first choice for almost everybody was to do two business meetings a month with any St study sessions scheduled to begin at 4:00 before that was the most popular choice with the second you see how the pattern goes it just goes down from there um as we look at then some of the possibilities because ranking is one piece but if we can't get people you know if our board can't

047attend we can't do that option so each one of these um had the extremely somewhat uh possible option or or a difficult or just a flat out I could not make that work with my with my life or my world so um how possible would it be for you to attend a board meeting beginning at 4 p.m. 57 4 out of seven people said that would be extremely possible two people somewhat possible one person would be somewhat difficult but everybody could make that happen nobody said that was not possible um the next option was how possible would it be to study this uh to attend a study session at lunch during the week and again kind of uh broken up here in in the same types of categories um two people could 100% make lunch

048options work three people that would somewhat be possible nobody said it was really difficult but for two people that would not be a possible option and you know just as a reminder this is when we talk about study sessions those more informal sessions where you have an opportunity to talk or maybe to walk around or to have some people come in and talk about different sorts of things so we'd also looked at well could we do that on a Saturday what would that look like um nobody said that was extremely possible um nobody's favorite option but for some people three people somewhat possible and then two people somewhat difficult and then two people for whom that would not be a possibility and then attending for a whole day that was a suggestion made thinking about

049how maybe some rural districts do things uh that have to drive very far that's a way that they will sometimes conduct their board meetings so two people extremely possible two people somewhat possible and three people said that that would not be possible for them to do a full day session um we had some additional comments and I'll be happy to um share those with you they are not marked by names but those are the comments we asked if there were any additional comments um and that is the overall I will take the final now that we have all seven responses and PDF this and send it to um everyone and attach it to the minutes so that you have the final and complete form but that is um the the overall look that we have

050is there anything that you need to see again or questions that you have before I sit down take this away I personally don't and um maybe we can start the discussion Brett I'm wondering Tiffany if you could just read the comments because what I have in mind I just have five of them and I can't really see oh okay just there were only five people who made a comment oh okay so then we do have what we have received we have there aren't any additional comments no there there were five comments um but we do have all seven board members okay all um data thank you that's a great clarification thank you Dr Hall for um for being the The Keeper of the data on this one you bet I'll get that over to you

051in the PDF appreciate it um you know so I'm actually GNA kind of start the conversation with you board member Anderson if that's okay to see if this survey I know you recommended that the interim First Step would be to to conduct you know a survey or a doodle poll like this um before we made you know significant changes to structure yeah I mean I think the survey shows that we definitely don't need an ad hoc committee that comes to a pretty clear conclusion which is that we should resume the practice of study session prior to the meeting seeing that everyone said it is possible and one person may have some degree of difficulty but given that it's not every meeting it also seems reasonable great thank you Ashley are there any other comments to

052the meeting structure and the results that we are seeing um wait it would not be every meeting that was just a clarification oh just as needed oh just as needed okay well and typically as we do it now we have one of our meetings that is a business meeting and the other that is a study session but with business items so what this would mean is that that study session would be conducted prior to the business eliminating some of the confusion and my only other comment would be if if we do proceed to move forward in that direction as Dr Hall pointed out study sessions are intended on some level to be more informal and allow for the kinds of discussions that we haven't been able to have so it also recommend that we continue

053to conform with all the public requirements of study session and anyone's welcome to listen but we consider using also an alternative space or configuration of this space that is more conducive to the actual intent of what a study session is exactly thank you for clarifying that Amanda I'm actually missed the first slide and I was trying to like scroll back scroll back um my biggest thing is and it's repetitive but ultimately UR that every single meeting it's set up in a way that we can take things to action and make decisions instead of being held to only being able to make those decisions one time per month because it slowed down the decision making doing it um the other way so I just strongly strongly am asking for that to um be the ongoing or

054the future structure I'll go ahead and speak up to you and I agree with you um I think when we switched over you know I think there was an honest um attempt to to kind of separate the two but the nature of our of our work is one where we sometimes have to be making decisions on study session meeting times right and so I think this gives us a good opportunity to to still conduct the business of the board and the district um while also being able to schedule study sessions on important topics that we need to discuss um and strategize on how we bring them to a business meeting or a more formal decision process any other question comments Brian well I've just been trying to keep track of all of the minuts all

055of the time and everything and you know knew at that part but I did want to interject I think it's really um positive to see that the board recognizes that a study session is valuable and it's valuable to have two business meetings so that we're a able to accommodate what you're talking about as well Amanda because in those business meetings we can move things to action and those sorts of things I think that this is getting back to a productive way to be able to address all of the needs of the district whether it's looking at something and studying it specifically or addressing ing a business matter that has to be done in a timely way so thank you all for figuring out that I mean wow don't you think that's kind of great that

056you know in a doodle poll we were able to say we're going to make this work yes thank you Brian if there's no other comments I would entertain okay um I and I'll say what motion you want to entertain first and I'll say my I was just I was just going to say I would entertain a motion um regarding board me structure to approve a board meeting structure with oh you want to move it to action yeah that's kind of okay I'm going to ask my last question and then I'll move to ask it um just keeping in mind our guidelines if anybody wants to speak in the first round we're going to jump to the second so Ashley you'll have two minutes in the second round okay my only question is when do you

057intend to begin this practice so for instance this morning in agenda setting we discussed the need for a study session on a specific topic but we only uh agenda two business meetings are you suggesting that we would move that study session to for p.m for one of those meetings and proceed yeah so we would update the board on that I would suggest that if we adopt this tonight that that would be what we do for February and moving forward okay perfect so um with that I move that we um send the proposed meeting structure for study sessions to the action agenda I second okay let me just make my notes here and Sh a second all right is there any so I have a motion from Ashley to move this to the study or to

058the excuse me to the action agenda um with a second from Charlotte is there any discussion to the motion all right seeing none we'll do a roll call vote starting with board member Anderson Ashley Anderson yes Salazar yes Mohamed yes Brian Jensen yes Amanda longell yes Bryce Williams yes Charlotte F Jefferson yes that motion passes uh we'll revisit this on the action agenda okay moving along um we have our our board committee assignments um Sam do you mind popping up the the document that we've been working with um so while that's populating um just so you all know from the public and from the board um vice president Jensen and I uh we met um after our last board meeting to kind of you know draft so to speak folks into certain positions um based

059on our discussion and based on a few kind of you know precedents you know making sure that there is a somebody and focusing on the policy and the the finance committee making sure that there was somebody on both of those committees who had previously been on that committee for continuity sake um otherwise we did our best to to kind of fill this out based on people's interests uh we know that we still need to fill out the usba um delegates and assembly all of that stuff but we iron that out during the usba um conference that we were just at but nonetheless um Sam do you mind kind of scrolling up on that um so we can kind of see where we're looking at so board policy committee uh we're recommending that oh gosh here's

060my timer I feel you Brian guys just give us a second atast it nice oh yeah there we go is the timer get a Time lie almost okay oh there we go cool thank you Bryce um for the board policy thank you committee um we have um recommended Brian Jensen to remain there Bryce Williams would be a remaining member as well and adding um Charlotte F Jefferson to that um based on our previous conversation we all more or less agreed that the board handbook committee ad hoc committee would be part of it would be this the same committee as the policy committee uh for Charter School boards um we are recommending that we let that one go from board assignment um being that there aren't responsibilities outlined in either of the charters that we have

061um Alan and I just want to comment that the two charters that are chartered by the district don't have boards this is the board of those two Charter yes thank um so we've recommended to eliminate that um the board finance committee um Ashley Anderson would be our remaining continuity member um I would join that committee along with Amanda um if you scroll up again Sam for us um human sexuality um we would have Bryce and Charlotte um representatives to city council meeting would be board leadership with me and Brian and Ashley um who's kind of representing um I we've been going back and forth on the name but um right now we've kind of settled on tax increment financing committee um so as the representative one of the representatives to that um you know would

062participate in those meetings with the city council and the mayor um tax increment financing committee um we've proposed Charlotte and Ashley um the Ed Foundation board um again has traditionally been board leadership at least in my experience and then um Bryce through his recommendation um would like to continue to participate in that so we felt like that was a good thing after talking with the superintendent who also talked with um James our um Salt Lake Education Foundation director who also agreed that that would be um more than welcome um relative to our Salt Lake County Recreation appointee um Ashley you expressed interest in that um in our last meeting so we' we've um added you there and then for Traffic Safety and Transportation uh we have Muhammad and Amanda and for our Wellness committee we

063also have Mohammad and Amanda oh my gosh thanks BR um so that's the the makeup as we have it um I would open it up for a discussion to see how folks feel about it right yeah um I just wanted to make a comment I don't have any heartburn I I know it takes a lot to make considerations um with Who board leadership wants to put in these um various committees one thing I I would like to share and maybe I just want to say it for public record and maybe it comes up again in two years is um I have been on the um policy committee for almost four years now and have not had an opportunity to um be on the finance committee um again I don't have any heartburn with it but

064I would like that opportunity um maybe in two years if we could just put that on the record I know um I was the hold over the last two years ago on the um finance committee um but just um I'm I'm cool with it I'm not going to I I appreciate it um but just want to state that maybe in two years I can have that opportunity uh for the remainder two years of my current term thanks Ashley I have a comment and a question and the first is about the Salt Lake County wreck I know Charlotte was also interested in doing that but Express there may be a cont conf lict of Interest so I thought perhaps we could pursue that um conversation to see if she wanted to do it because my other

065question about the Tiff committee is simply that um we've typically extended the finance committee to hold those meetings so we've held finance and then two finance committee members have stayed as the designes so I'm certainly happy for Charlotte to do it um we would need to reconsider what our practice is but I didn't know if Allan had opinions on that that you may want to solicit offline as you continue to finalize this thank you Ashley Charlotte do you have any thoughts um yeah I I had realize that my I didn't I don't know if this is a conflict of interest but my sister works for the county so in the in the mayor's office you know so um I I don't know if that's a conflict of interest or not that would be a a

066question for Christina but um I'm not I don't have my heart set on that um but so you usually have your finance committee meeting and then go straight into the but then one person leaves okay um and it doesn't matter either way I'm just saying maybe that's something we talk about um and make sure you know that we we revise how we're doing it because of course I'm happy to do that with anyone I'm happy to talk with tax increment finan with any person I I really would like to learn more about it um and am interested in it um so I'm happy with that assignment Amanda well I was just going to say if Charlotte wasn't dead said on it it would be lovely to be part of it being I am on the

067finance committee um and they it seems like they do tie in um but again I'm not going to wrestle you for it if you really are passionate about it I can my turn and I'll just say as part of the budget and we can even do it sooner if wanted um the whole we can do a presentation on tax increment financing for the full board um just to kind of go through the basics of what that is and how it affects the Sol City School [Laughter] District I um I I had a question about the city council um could you scroll down just a little bit please say Sam so representatives to City Council meetings and are these um will you be going to the CRA meetings no this is um a meeting that consists

068of our board leadership um the tax increment finance committee representative um which has historically been Ashley over these last couple of years um with um the chair and the vice chair of the city council um and the mayor and the mayor's um liaison to the school district um Jennifer okay and so it's it's not um you know a meeting that they would normally be hosting with us but more of a private meeting between leaderships to talk about um things that we have common interests in and decisions that we might need to make collectively okay well it almost makes sense for that committee those representatives to also be on the tax increment financing committee because they're related and I don't know no I hear you're going I'm sure you have your I I um reasoning I

069think based on my experience too you know Ashley's attendance is quite strong when it comes to those Tiff committee meetings and of course um with the council meetings that we we do have um and so I think you're there more or less you know as a team with Ashley but um Ashley would would take that first kind of role so to speak um in the hierarchy between the two of you if that makes sense to attend those meetings and then if she is unable to attend then we would invite you um in her absence that's how that would work because we can't have three meetings uh we can't have three board members or three City Council Members otherwise that would violate an open public meeting acts and you usually have the president and the vice

070president okay well um we're happy to make changes if you I don't I don't know I mean I'm going to be oh yeah so you're on the finance committee I will be on the policy so if you're open to letting me take your Tif spot I'll trade you a traffic safety or a wellness committee you know um I'm happy with this and but we could let's see what is the assignment one year uh two no the tax increment financing is one year it says well that's how often you meet I think right oh once a year is that what that is that when needed is kind of taking over the one year oh this is not the term this is how often you meet okay they're all twoe terms and then that's kind of oh

071okay sorry um we can arm wrestle over it no if you if you no you keep it all done you if you're interested in it you keep it I'm not gonna I am I am good cool hey um seeing that there aren't too many changes to the list the other thing that we were talking about in our last meeting is um potentially eliminating a few of these committees um just based on um you know our participation not being relevant relative to you know statute or written into certain bylaws of certain committees or groups um so I would like to revisit that um as well um it was my understanding um and of course we kind of did that with a couple of these like with the charter school boards and the ad hoc board um

072policy handbook committee um but nonetheless there was a couple more um obviously we also talked about the Salt Lake County Recreation um but being that there was um you know some motivation and some you know desire to continue with that I think it was transportation and wellness were the other two committees that we were looking at and human sexuality so does the board want to weigh in on those committees as well and maintaining them or or letting them go and Sam if you could scroll up a little bit so we can see or down sorry thanks um I'll yeah my question just Remains the Same that I think it's fine to keep them I think the broader question that I expressed in the last meeting is simply what is the if there is not a

073role for board members you know in the committee what is the welcoming practice of a board member attending a committee because what I expressed is you know these committees but also other issue areas where we've not established a committee like sustainability there's still been a lot of interest in board member participation so that some board members are more aware of what's going on um in our schools so I again I've never heard anyone that they would like to hear less from the board or see the board participating less so I think it's a reasonable practice to continue these things I think the question is you know what is the practice of board member attendance or how we are welcomed into any committee where we're being invited by staff members or faculty members to attend and

074participate and I have a maybe just a question about whether it would be appropriate for um with the Transportation traffic safety and transportation committee if we had board members um I know there are ad hoc meetings being um being held when there are safety issues around uh specific schools would that maybe they could I don't know if they want to invite board members but maybe that could be a substitution for the committee instead just to invite board members from th those areas to come and be on that ad hoc committee yeah I think that would be an invitation from probably whoever is running those ad hoc committees to the superintend or to the or yeah from the city at in this case but um probably to board leadership and administration then we would make those

075assignments as needed just kind of my my thinking on that but I'm also hearing from the board just generally that we would more or less like to keep these committees and not eliminate any others that we have already identified Brian is that your take as well that's what I'm hearing is that okay so it seems like um there aren't any substantive changes to the roster and I think we could adopt this tonight if we wanted to or just move forward as we need to I don't know if we need to formally adopt it but it never hurts to just to make sure that we're we're doing our due diligence I move that we send the board committee assignments to action before we do that can we just go look quickly at that usba and just

076clarify that I S I sent out an email to you where I was trying to explain that Jennifer Partridge is now our usba representative and okay if you look at that and it's probably hard for you to see but in that first box it says usba region 7 that's the region we are now in because we're not a single District region anymore we're in a multi-district because of our student enrollment so we are now in region 7 and Jennifer's understanding Ashley was that okay the region has two delegates to the delegate assembly and that you are going to be one of those delegates okay so I think that we can put in that space that Ashley Anderson and Alan I think that you were the one that was helping make the changes in that so

077could you say us region seven delegate assembly representative and then Ashley that fit on one page okay okay okay assembly delegate yeah there you go assembly delegate usba region 7 assembly delegate okay then that next box it says usba delegate assembly but that's where every District gets to have in those multi-district they get to have a delegate okay and my understanding was that you had Charlotte was it you that um you remember when we were in that meeting okay all right so is it Nate and Bryce because okay because because Jennifer didn't have notes on that so I'm just trying to have it be I mean we were there but I just want to make sure that we got it so it's Nate and Bryce and then the AL okay and then everyone is going

078to be an alternate if we can't go okay thank you well I think that settles the the roster um and we can make those changes and certainly have them present um in our minutes when we produce those um that'd be awesome and Ashley do you want to go ahead with your motion yeah I and I won't say what we're amending until it's on action meaning like what needs to be added between now and then but I will simply move that we send the board committee assignments to the action agenda I'll second all right we got a motion to second on the table any further discussion to the motion see oh it was BR um seeing none uh we'll do a roll call vote starting with former B home de bid no Brian Brian Jensen yes

079Amanda Longwell yes Bryce Williams yes Charlotte F Jefferson yes Ashley Anderson yes Nate Salazar yes all right we'll revisit that on um the action agenda as well uh moving along uh to the Board calendar in our discussion um agenda um that's our next topic we could pull that up enlarge it perfect all right so we um there they are perfect thank you Sam Allan um we wanted to kind of clarify the the board meetings uh calendar over the next couple of years um this is kind of the importance of what we do and just kind of scheduling things out there's a couple of things that um uh former vice president Williams and I had presented um before the the beginning of the new year um where we decided to wait one of those being um

080a potential all day um Retreat that the the board would have um in June um and then I know Brian and I have been talking in our new leadership um you know team here that there's value in having um you know some training professional development that we'd like to propose to the board as well and potentially scheduling that um in this discussion tonight but um those are the the two lingering things that I think were really important then of course just making sure um that our November 6th meeting or yeah our November 6th meeting in 24 um doesn't fall on an election night if there is one I don't believe that 25 25 sorry where so this oh it's not there this displayed yet so go to the next one there okay um 25 November

0814th um making sure that that's not an election night um we've tried to avoid having Schoolboard meetings on those types of nights so just keeping those things in mind um when I looked I didn't think that it was but I could be wrong Nate yes um I don't have anything specific to those particular items I do have a question on the July 8th meeting I know that there's a typical trend on uh the day of the month that they occur however July 8th is right after a holiday um can we move it to the following Tuesday so that it's kind of buffered from the July 4th and the July 24th holidays that would be my request I don't see why we couldn't um if that's something that you want to I mean you're proposing it

082so let's keep that on the table for sure um but it is really close you're right about thatly after the July 4th weekend so let's move it one more week Mo that to the July 15th I think that's the following one Amanda can you repeat that and the microphone thank you I was always told I was a loud mouth as a kid uh basically the July 8th 2025 board meeting currently falls on the Tuesday following the weekend of July 4th so it's a holiday weekend where most people are wanting to enjoy their holiday weekend um so having a board meeting right after it would be um kind of hard for I think everybody in this room including all of us um so bumping it one more week and then that gives also gives us a

083buffer from the July 24th holiday as well so people can enjoy their holidays and not be fretting so much about the board meeting that's good thank you so just looking at um the Salt Lake County website they do have listed a municipal general election day on November 4th yeah so it might be wise to move that to push that to um the next week as well other we have put it either on a Monday or on a Wednesday that same week um I was going to make a comment on that Monday Wednesday um practice that we've had in the past um this is a a personal thing um so I can try to work around it but I'm going to um be teaching on Wednesday nights moving forward in the fall so if we do

084move it to a different day of the week I'd prefer Monday or a different day okay so far what I'm hearing is um two recommendations to move the July 8th meeting to July 15th and to focus our November our first meeting in November to be on November 3rd Monday November third any discussion or thoughts on a um an all day Retreat um in our June meetings because back to the previous page there thanks Sam oh there you are BR one of the things that I was concerned about was we have new board members and I wanted you to be able to see these dates so that you could you know start populating your calendar or whatever um we had had a conversation about having a board retreat on June 17th um that is not going

085to work for me um I I don't know where The Other Board member new board members are um but when you bring up an all day it would need to be a different day than the 17th I wouldn't be able to do it I wouldn't be able to do a retreat on that day would a Saturday be a option for an all day Retreat yes I've been on other boards where those are typically done on a Saturday given um the length yes and our that's good idea so I think and Brian like would the 21st be out of the RM of possibility as well based on Conflict for the 17 sorry I was using restroom um I've already indicated via email that I cannot do Saturdays in June but I would also encourage that we

086solve this the same way we solved the last problem we had which is send a survey about it instead of using board meeting time yeah that sounds good and revisit this at our next meeting cool let's do that and we'll populate um suggestions that have already been made and and um and present that to you all as well all right we'll move on um our next agenda item this evening is Elementary ELP superintendent we are gonna have Tiffany and Alex come up here to present for us excent I was just to say can we sit down [Laughter] please that's what they're I was I was going to be a sport you can each have your own microphone there and everything oh my gosh I'm this is luxurious just pull that over that's a good question

087I just like to point out that Mr plant's touched my computer now [Laughter] I'm do you need me to go grab mine I don't know and we'll make sure Sam doesn't touch mine yes no offense complely delightful thank you you know how sometimes you have too many tabs open and you think it's your mind but it's actually a computer I think that's where I'm at right now okay we now I have two of these okay okay all right would you like me to wait another minute before we get started for everybody to return or charge okay very good um we are very excited to be here give our annual report on our gifted and talented programs in the Salt Lake City School District I have Dr Alex Parsons here um who is our supervisor over

088this program and who has done remarkable work in year and a half two years how long have you been here I'm rounding out my third year is this third wow time you're having a good time whoever said wow yeah uh when when I ask people they both say I've been here forever and I just showed up so I don't know what that means it's it's great so we've we've uh had a lot of opportunities to move forward this been so much fun and make make changes and do creative things with these programs so our goals tonight are to give you some updates about the advanced academics and mentoring program the amp program as well as our magnet gifted and talented program and then also to talk about recruitment retention and how we are working to

089reach underserve populations in the district and we have a couple of next steps as we go through um some of these pieces as well and to start out this presentation one of the things that we wanted to be able to provide to the board is some context of how we use a specific assessment to identify our students it is called the cognitive abilities test shorthand for Kat so whenever you see the Kat reference it's an acronym and that's what's this specific assessment unlike academic measures it is intended to measure reasoning abilities there are three domains that it's intended to measure verbal which is most most commonly associated with literacy skills but also um it's called in the literature sequential reasoning so like whenever you're hearing something and you're visualizing something in your head the idea

090that a story has a beginning middle or end if that's how you think and that's how you organize information you would be a high verbal learner um quantitative which is most commonly associated with math but it's also associated with the way that we can utilize ize the language of numbers to be able to make meaning this is where charts graphs people who prefer to show their learning in that kind of way would do very well and then nonverbal which is commonly considered our spatial reasoning so those are the people who like to draw pictures or models or build pictoral representations of their learning they tend to be strong non-verbal Learners and so as you can tell from that description it's not inherently the same thing as academic success there is some overlap but it is

091not intended to measure academic success it's intended to measure thinking skills which one of those people would be the best parallel Parker I would say I would say a nonverbal which is which is um I would say it's my strength but not someone else's I don't know why why I always wonder about that I think somebody said that at a conference once um the first program that we're going to talk about is the advanced academic and mentoring program and this is an enrichment program that students are invited to participate in throughout the um throughout the school day in their week at their School site so these programs exist at every one of our schools every one of our elementary schools and they are really being developed under Dr Parson's mentoring to help create academic identity

092and recognition in all of our students so they are a flexible grouping to help bring in students in these three areas that Dr Parson has just described and provide them with opportunities to really shine in areas that they enjoy or that they um have an aptitude for and so just an uh an update if you're not aware of the Staffing model for amp and also the work that we've been doing to modernize and further evolve the the program um it is a 0.5 FTE at each Elementary School and so if a teacher is a 1.0 FTE then they serve as the amp teacher at two schools if they're just a05 then they're the ampty drug one School uh the timeline and you know what this is proof that I have been here for three years

093um because in the 23 24 school year is whenever I started exploring with uh like some early Pilots of identification models um we're going to go over the identification shifts that we've been working on in the next slide and so that was the of me trying to reach out to the community to see how has the how has the model been serving our community in what ways can we make adjustments to that model to better serve our community and you know the beginnings of some pilots in the last school year or this school year uh as an amp team we decided to move forward with a full team pilot of widening identification and tightening services that seems like how can that happen to both widen identification and tighten services but it's very possible what we're

094talking about with the flexible model um and then every subsequent school year will be a further refinement of that of figuring out how to be supportive of the model to find Value in all of our Stak ERS teachers students parents principes classroom teachers um to talk about that identification shift the prior amp identification and not to call you out board member Jensen but I do know that you were a teacher um at an ele school so you are very familiar with the old model and so you can just nod your head right along with me um but the way that it was is that we tested our kids at the beginning of fourth grade and then we waited for the data to come come in and then we set one static group based upon their

095results because you do get seven different subscores when you give all three domains and if you noticed that overall composite of vqn verbal quantitative non-verbal is what we identified from and that one static group that was identified was the group that carried from fourth to sixth grade um that caused uh some some barriers of implementation if we're testing kids at the beginning of the year waiting for the data to come back setting the groups it means that we have a delay of services and so one of the things that we did was first of all shift the testing to happen at the end of third grade so then once the kids come back in fourth grade we have the data in hand we can make groups we can get we can get started as quickly

096as possible with the kind of Enrichment Services that our kids need um another shift that we made group-wide this year is instead of having one static group we have three groups based upon those three domains that I'm talk that I talked about earlier so we look at our scores we filter them based upon the verbal results and we identify a verbally strong group to be able to provide verbally strong enrichments too and so that's where again capitalizing upon that utilization of sequential thinking how do you apply that to mathematics how do you make that even stronger in literacy those kinds of enrichments same thing with quantitative students and as you notice in verbal and quantitative because I pointed out that uh they do tend to align with some of our academic areas in comparison to

097non-verbal in the state of Utah we cannot exclude children based upon their academic scores but we can include them and so what we've tried this year is looking at things like how did a student do how did student do on the verbal section of the coat pick some of our tops scoring verbal kids but then also look at our tops scoring literacy kids and see is there anyone that we missed that would also possibly benefit from this enrichment as well and so again that's a utilization of how we're including kids appropriately and legally but being able to acknowledge that someone who's great at literacy may not want to go to a math enrichment and that's totally fantastic we want to see that diversity in our student population that diversity in thought same with the quantitative

098section um where we do have the opportunity of then also looking at the site level how can we provide some inclusion space using math scores both quantitative scores on the coat and the math scores that are provided at the site level non-verbal doesn't have that comparable assessment because of the spatial reasoning we don't tend to academically assess that but uh there are many studies that show that nonverbal and our data supports this that that is a high-scoring area in our underserved kids and so that's a really great opportunity to have really positive conversations about these are the kinds of stems what do you see in your students who do you think would be a really good fit that maybe wasn't on their aame the day they took the test and so then they have that

099inclusion opportunity and then further uh one of the things that is added in if time permitting is that the amp teachers have if they have space Talent Development groups which is based upon student interest or other data examples of that are the teller of tales competition um where it was who wants to sign up who wants to give that a go and we were like welcome come on aboard um the book club I put club and quotation marks because it's not inherently a club but it's an amp teacher who has provided um uh reading time during ELD minutes so while some of our ELD ones twos and threes are providing are getting their language development services um he went out into the classrooms and said hey here's the book that we're about to read who

100wants to come read this with me and the and and some of our kids who still need English language development but not in the same way as some of our um multilanguage Learners were like sign me up and he was was actually able to get a group of 16 fifth and sixth grade boys to sign up to all read a book together and so then they had this really great time reading a book together and then he repeated that cycle that's what I mean about how we're using data but also um soliciting the idea that students opinions and students desires have a place in the educational decisions that they make for themselves and we are here to be supportive of that so that is the that is if you can tell the essence of identification

101remains but that's what I mean about widening identification narrowing to be able to provide more targeted Services we get to look at the group of kids in front of us and provide very direct Services based upon how we identified them with multiple groups just a little bit of the statistics that we have in our amp uh system I had a follow-up question about what our percentages look like compared to our overall District percentages so if you look very small there um it's larger for you I hope the small number following the percentage is the district percentage and so our amp uh programs include from 5 to 15% of the students in a Grade uh fourth fifth and sixth at every school and that has a lot to do with the size of the school sometimes

102there are some other physical limitations if the classroom is smaller if the classroom is larger but overall and especially with the flexible groups Dr Parsons is just described cried we are really trying to push that up into that upper 15% or perhaps more further especially with the Open Access programs that are being provided to students again so that we can help students create that positive academic identity that having the opportunity to be um in an enrichment program can bring to them the groups that we have here uh generally our our um amp groups average about 25 to 30 students in a grade um at a time for fourth grade and and as we move this up in some schools through fifth and sixth grade those groups continue to get larger so looking at our overall

103populations we have a couple of groups that their student count is very low um We are continuing to work on Outreach and inclusion to make sure that we have all of our students represented but as you know if the number is less than nine we don't include that in a public report but but in looking at whether or not we are moving toward matching our goal is to have our special programs match the demographics of our district as a whole across the board that is the goal and as we continue to uh look at that historically and nationally we know that certain groups have always been overidentified or or more identified based on this and so using these new identification um methods and really increasing that Outreach we are beginning to see in the first

104year of this program a move toward greater matching of many of our demographic groups in the amp program so we'll keep an eye on that over the next couple of years I think those are the numbers to watch as we move toward matching those two demographics what these numbers mean s before we move to magnet I had a question about what those amp numbers mean are you talking about just students in a group or any student who participated like if I did storytelling am I counted there or is that only group in this in these in these percentages it's just the identified children like who we flagged in power school as receiving amp services so it would be the kids in that V group or Q group our Open Access ones considering it is the

105as we're exploring figuring out our time and space within a point5 FTE while still providing identified Services as per usbe um the they are not being flagged in power school right now we're just documenting them at the site level to be able to celebrate it in those ways you're doing even better I know we are we actually are um but and we're going to continue to do better because uh the feedback I've received overall has been generally very positive like the amp teachers feel excited to know more of their school community and they can see how their job has actually become easier because when you have a group of students that needs something specific and you give them that something specific like it it fits and so hopefully we'll get even better as we keep

106on trying Dr and Dr Hall I have a Manda the question and then board member B yeah if you're okay with me jumping in now jump on the Ashley bandwagon of let's tackle amp before we move on to ELP um so bear with me um so I guess the first question I have I've got several so I apologize I'll try to move quick um on the coat um like how precise is the um coat testing for k um through third uh the the validity and reliability of the coat does peak around fourth fifth grade like at the end of third and then the peak ends at sixth grade and so for our younger grades the validity is still like if I remember correctly from the last time I checked the manual still like within an

107acceptable range to be able to be used for them for for that grade otherwise the co like the company would pull that assessment if it reached like a really low reliability level like a 05 like 50% or something like that um but as we know assessments for younger kids are always very difficult um no matter the assessment the coat is no different which is why we utilize the coat both in kindergarten and third grade to be able to capture whenever that Peak begins um and then uh I guess part of that would just be um hopefully you're kind of looking at that in alternative ways instead of just relying on a data point that's not necessarily reliable um secondly um my other question is it's great that you've got these um amp Staffing plan p

108in all of the elementary schools I actually um was not aware so I guess as parents in these communities you first point of contact could be the principles but how else is this actually being I guess marketed so that parents even understand that this is going on to help our kids um Excel versus just just generally expecting the general supports I guess yeah that's a great question and I mean I'm not going to overly belabor the point that communication on a very large scale is always going to be very difficult and at any given point Point things that we do to help Elevate that we have started to do to help Elevate the presence of the amp teacher is now that we do districtwide testing for kindergarteners and third graders um those families are all

109notified like they don't need to sign up to take the coat anymore which is something that was started about like 3 years ago as well and so they get notified of the assessment we also have a beginning of school year flyer that we provide to all of our schools to be able to distribute in whatever packet they they send home understanding that our parents are experiencing a deluge of Flyers whenever it's the beginning of the school year um we do advertise the difference on our website that's one of the reasons why I personally was like no we need to talk about AMP first before we talk about magnet because I do feel like we tend to have a magnet first amp second kind of conversation when in reality the the dispersal of services is thanks

110to the amp team and the hard work that they do um the amp team members also participate in their school level committees like I have multiple amp team members who are on their sic or participate on their secc there are some of them who are teaching at the school that their kids are at and so it's a variety of things similar to any other like when we look across the entire District the kind of Engagement that we see across our teachers and um and and yeah anytime I have something really big I do try to send it to yandre and her departments to be able to add it into Peach jar I believe that our Middle School testing was just pushed out and I really appreciate their department and the advice feedback and help that

111they gave us to retool our website to make it more clear the different services that we're providing the different facets of services that we're providing thank you Nate may I have one more sorry sorry yes um and then I'll I'll just wrap it up but basically um you know I I like what you're saying where you're kind of looking at like you can't exclude but you can't include it's phenomenal I guess my bigger question is the individuals um that are doing these evaluations and uh identifying potential students that could be participating in these um going into students with disabilities how um what training is being done to ensure these individuals even understand how to consider the student population especially the more complex ones like that may be non-verbal but have very high um skills that

112could really like have benefit for this because sometimes there's that tendency of I just don't know how so I don't consider them or they're special education students so I don't consider them so maybe you don't have that answer but that's something that really with and it will be a repetitive thing that you know when you're talking in Prior me before I've even been on the board this will be a repetitive question essentially is what are we doing to actually make this be um accessible and approachable and uh these kids being considered in these different programs because these kids even if they're extremely complex have great great skills so I think that that's a very reasonable question I think that I'm going to be I'm going to give you a synopsis and if you want to

113know more I think that's I'm always available well I'm not about to be always available but I'll be very a available in in the soon future um to be able to have a conversation about this in a study session if that's what you're interested in I actually think that what the question that you ask is fair and I think that um the amount like the perception the feelings the belief the knowledge base around gifted and talented and advanced academics is a slow burn for people who have not spent a lot of time thinking about it and how to understand that all like students can be seen for individual things within them like they can both need a lot of help in something and really shine in something else like an example of that is at

114one of our schools a student who scored so well in the quantitative version but she is not a good reader at all and she's in fifth grade and she hasn't been a good reader since the beginning and having and and for me that embedded learning in the moments from that particular team member to help them see how to navigate those conversations with the different people um to be able to have um an open-heart and open mind about what that student does bring to the table considering we do like to think of mathematical understanding and literacy as very entangled and uh that student has been participating in the quantitative enrichment um I have heard informal reports from both the amp teacher and the site principles that her attitude about learning has changed like who she is

115like for the rest of the day is now different just because we were able to give her that chance to see herself as something more than just someone who can't read and um that's the power of this but it is a slow burn and part of it is even figuring out that Nuance of the difference between all of the different domains and the different talents that exist out there and how do we how do we unraid those to be able to even look at those before we even start with how to accommodate or modify our instruction and my team I am very proud of my amp team they have worked really hard they have understood from the beginning whenever I've shown up that we are on a learning journey together and we spend a lot

116of meeting time together um thinking about this sorting through it I'm not going to say that the problem is fully solved but they understand that priority and they are and they are critically examining their job in a way that I'm very happy with to think about how to help the students in front of them be seen thank you and to add to that I would say I really appreciate Dr Parsons because she came in to challenge that and to really um as as our department as a whole have been working um with the special education department over this last year to really begin to to see where are the questions we need to ask what are the ways that we need to to think about inclusion as um the first step that all students are

117at this level and then we decide you know where where do we go from there as a as a next step for all of our students and um you came in armed with a an armful of research articles print this big and I don't think that that department sort of knew what hit them for the first 18 months but but now that is really a a part of their conversations in challenging that culture and that bias around that's on the other side of the hall you know we don't we don't go there and we we all of the halls and all of the students are our halls and our students and that's and even understanding our role in we're the ones thinking about this how do we help other people in the building who haven't

118been thinking about this think about it as well and that's an even that's another step in this journey so again that was already too long of an answer but I we have been well thinking about that and I have even more details if you're curious at a different time the public appreciate it as well I um Dr Hall Dr Barson thank you so much for everything you're doing you know I really appreciate it um of course as I'm looking at these numbers um I look at the uh blacks and Indigenous um communities that mean we have less than nine is that's why less than 10 so it could be nine who knows it's a number what I can tell you is it's not zero and it's not 10 okay so it could be one all

119right so um of course uh my question will go to the same I mean um you know looking at the total and not being able to have you know 10 or more it really is um uh disheartening I would say um and I'm just trying to understand what is it that we are doing to make sure that these groups you know know about not only know but also uh soliciting them to enroll their kids uh in in in these programs that's one and two um is there new way we are doing things or is it still the same way of advertising the information and Outreach and so I'm just trying trying to see if if we have changed method of uh doing Outreach you know looking at the numbers that we have here yeah and

120you know I would always say that I agree with you until we have comparable percentages I'm not going to be satisfied either yeah um and one of the things that we have been doing to help uh is that we have been working on examining in what ways do we make parents do the lift for us in comparison to US just doing the lift for them which is why we do grade wide testing for kindergarten and third grade we notify parents we give them an opt out opportunity versus an opin which is what we used to do um and when we identify kids in comparison to years past where we required like this this chain of parental consent we let them know this is where your child is going to be receiving an enrichment if you

121don't want that let us know if not we're writing um and we're going to re and we're going to give them like based upon the data the the service that they deserve and and we give that to them with plenty of notice both through um a handout it or through parent Square we've we've been utilizing all of the comparable Communications that our district has been doing to create those Parallels for consistency with our parents and I think that that's part of that ongoing conversation I would say that for those specific two if I went out out anecdotally to my amp teachers and said like these numbers are low um they would probably push back and say it's dependent upon what they log in power school come to my classroom and see and you'll see representation

122of the school inside my classroom um of course I can't go with that I go with the numbers that power school provides me but I do think that they are very mindful of the impact and the power that they have whenever they recruit students in a positive way of saying of like reaching out to students having those conversations with teachers of this is what I'm looking for where do you see this in your classroom and being able to be that proactive advocate for children not just providing an identified service but being an being an advocate for their school location and that's something that I've been stressing that I can hope that as we move forward in that direction we'll see these numbers change now um this is not a comparative of last year in comparison

123to our magnet numbers on the later slide and so that's one of the reasons why we don't see the shifts and so I do want to acknowledge that but um even then if we use magnet um the shifts in magnet demographics and think about that progress that we could be making an amp that aren't represented in the slide then we could be hopeful that next year these numbers are going to be even better go I think there are two other things that I have heard just as I've walked through amp classrooms um when the amp teachers are recruiting students for their uh Talent Development groups you know when they're they're talking to to teachers about what kinds of students they're looking for they're not just saying you know give me your your good readers that

124have been you know reading Harry Potter since kindergarten or whatever who are the ones that make you happy yeah who are the ones that make you happy let's take those away from you no but but it's you know who are the ones that have the good negotiating skills who are the ones that can you know talk a group into to really doing something that they want so they're beginning to phrase it in ways that don't necessarily sound academically the same right it's not um so it's not just reading Harry Potter but but who can um figure out that business plan and really sell a business um that is a completely different thing so teachers are to expand the way that they look at their students and say okay now wait a minute this is not

125a student who likes to read like I like to read but they certainly have this verbal skill or this ability to to process charts and graphs and information like that quickly and then do something with it and so that might not be framed in the same academic language so that's a teacher driven way I think the second um thing that I see coming up as a result of both the talent development and the the shift to really saying to kids you don't want to read Harry Potter that's okay today for the next six weeks we're doing robots um is that there has been an attitude sometimes and I won't say every student or every school or every teacher but sometimes the kids have thought and I know this because my own nephew said this when

126he was in fourth grade why would I want to go in there and do more harder work like that doesn't seem very fun to me I I am not interested in participating because I'm going to go in there and they're going to make me do more of this stuff that I already don't care for that much here but now when it is going to be fun and exciting now all of a sudden I think that there's some of that self- advocacy or that uh willingness that we're going to again be seeing really um make some changes over the next couple of years because that classroom is now the place to be not where you know a certain group of kids go and then they're going to read quietly together because isn't that fun yeah so

127much fun so um an example of that first of of the first point um that we'll get a good laugh over and then we'll move to magnet um is a amp teacher who had been filling out some get to know use and one of uh the students at her school wrote like to The Prompt what are you good at and one of her students wrote I'm really good at talking back um and and of course yeah yes yes our kids are just great I love them and and of course like she had come to me and been like like what do I do with this and I'm like well being really good at talking back is not a bad thing it's just how she's choosing to utilize it the student is choosing to utilize it

128that's that's the misplaced thing and so let's think about like all the places where a good comeback is exactly what we want to need and the confidence of that student should should be encouraged and enhanced and not you know sit and be still and don't make history yeah and especially considering that student uh I then learned is actually very good at talking back and so all right now we're going to talk back and move right on to magnet um again our magnet program is our full day program uh we have three sites and two sites in a uh change over position in a magnet program nationally we're looking for about 3 to six% of a population um within an area to be identified for that and this is to really help meet those specific needs

129of those students yep a reminder of our program model for magnet um we do have I'm going to go from the bottom and work up we do have two locations that are phasing out that's our nibbly Park program that is our magnet Dei combo um they currently have grades 1 through six and we're going to be phasing out one grade per year and like we've stopped recruiting for that program and the kids who are receiving that service are going to maintain that service until they're done Washington is also phasing out right now they currently have a fifth and sixth grade next year they will only have a sixth grade we we did not recruit for that location this year for then the program to be done the year after um and what is new is

130our area model so our three magnet locations for elementary are Whittier Indian Hills and Edison and what we did to help with the communications with families who again to that idea of how much burden do we put on parents where we would say Hey you qualify for magnet where would you like to go and the it's up to the parents to do that research in that lift to be able to provide the most preent and the quickest information that area model help will help us in the future with um with assignments so parents know my student is qualified this is where I'm from this is where I'm appointed and then be able to make a decision from there um and the the feeder elementary schools for each of the three locations are provided on that

131slide so for example if you s if your student is currently a Rose Park student then when your student qualifies you know that you are headed to Edison and especially for our underserved populations that was a really positive change because they would just know that something happened but they wouldn't know where to go and then all of a sudden they'd show up at Whittier and uh Dr Deon would be like hey Alex why is this kid like what am I supposed to do with this student I'm like oh that's a great question let's say qualify ify so register them that's what you should do and this way it provides a little bit more consistency a little bit more streamlining for our parents in our community that's also the the standard with our neighbors specifically like

132Granite to the South canyons and uh Davis so we're you're digging into this sorry just for clarity for the public the the your your title is ELP and then it says magnet gifted and talented just for the Public's Clarity that's the one and the same it used to be ELP and it changed to magnet gifted and talented correct so it used to be magnet ELP so it was melp but then it was also neighborhood ELP which is nelp which is very clear very very well articulated and so ELP is the name of the overall Department um and magnet gifted and talented is specifically the full day service amp is the enrichment at each Elementary service to provide a little bit more differentiation between what they do and why they do what they do so those

133are kind of yes and the the nibbly park ELP DLI we left for historical names that's that's what we've called because it was it was they've always had that slash in their title so as they phase out we just love that thanks thank you for that clarification we're going to go through magnet identification oh I'm sorry one more clarifying question um is so is amp um a pullout program it is so it used I mean on a more back in the day it was the E neighborhood neighborhood where they pulled the students out okay okay now keep in mind the answer is a little bit more complicated it depends on what's needed um pull out is for the older grades what we tend to do to have those small group enrichments um there's also for

134our younger groups and our Discovery groups there tends to be a little bit more um whole group pushing to be able to provide some of those basic thinking skills to our youngest Learners it's a little bit different depending upon the school the needs the size the bandwidth within a 0.5 FTE teacher but essentially yes it's the pullout the part-time pullout all right we're going to go over magnet identification very quickly and talk about some changes that we've made for the future yes um in Prior years as I've said we are still we did districtwide Kindergarten and third grade assessments we are still continuing to do that and students who met a set criteria were invited um regardless of enrollment capacity um this caused quite a few uh problems the first one is that the first

135concern is that it tends to have a fluctuation of over identification in some areas and an underidentification in others um to do well on a coat you have to be ready to do well on a test um and so that does cause discrepancies in identification and um leaving some of our talent behind in some areas uh and as we said from the prior from two prior slides if our goal is 3 to 6% sometimes up to 20% is a little excessive in in some of our hotspot areas another concern is that it provided a lot of hangtime of communication with families like we would reach out then they could sit on it they could reach out which is great but it also means that principes can't make decisions about their buildings we can't communicate to

136teachers about the class sizes that they're going to have to be able to prep for parents want to make informed decisions about their children and those class sizes is is a big part of that conversation of knowing what they're walking into and so it left my department looking like we're withholding information um that is making it harder for everyone to make decisions when in reality we're trying to give some more opportunity for parents to come and go as they please and so that was a concern that especially last year was uh was very obvious and and we want to be responsive to our community we want to be responsive to the feedback that we receive um Middle School magnet uh if students are qualified for Elementary Magnet then they can head on to Middle School

137magnet we also provide testing for kids who haven't been invited if they want to give it a go we also have honors classes at all of our our middle school so that they don't have to get a qualifying score in a Kat to have a high rigor class they can sign up for honors science if they want um and so that is our Middle School identification structure so looking at that are coming off last year I asked Dr Parsons to research the other options that districts are using to make sure that they're supporting timely and consistent identification practices and communication and so uh moving forward we're going to be using a model that is kind of the same structure that Davis and granite and Jordan and canyons the districts on the wasach front are most

138commonly using yes I'm very appreciative of the collabor the collaboration that our um neighbors have been able to provide to us so as I said we're still going to do districtwide kindergarten and third grade um assessments especially considering as pointed out that third grade assessment isn't just used for magnet it's also used for amp and so it's actually a very vital resource for us um and then what we would do is we would look at the top scores of each area and then invite students up to the set enrollment limit so for Edison we would look at the kids in the Edison area identify the top kids in that area to join the Edison location same with Whittier same with Indian Hills um and then we would create a weight list of the next following

139kids because as I've always said I've said it many times to y'all so this is going to be a broken record our attrition rate is is pretty pretty substantial for people who opt in to magnet and so of course that weight list would be needed to be able to maintain a reasonable class size while still allowing some breathing space for that attrition that we experience every single year of people who have qualifying kids but love their neighborhood school and I'm very supportive of their love of their neighborhood school so that and so then as students opt out that as they're invited and they opt out then that weight list would be then populated to try to Main maintain a class size in that magnet classroom um our new to District students so if they weren't

140with us for kindergarten and third grade we're still going to continue to assess them because we want to make sure that they have a comparable opportunity we don't want to punish them just because they weren't enrolled with us in third grade and by then though when they're new to District we already have a classroom running and so then they would be populated appropriately in the wait list because essentially the invitations have already been sent and we've already been moving on Middle School no changes if you've been invited you're invited if you want honors you you have honors if you want to take the test you have the test available to you so statistically a quick look at our magnet programs um the first chart the top chart are our classroom sizes AC crossed at our

141magnet schools and the last column is the overall District uh classroom size just so you get a comparison some are a little over some are under you'll notice that we have a small fifth grade classroom at Edison missed uh listed there at the end of summer we had an acceptance of 10 we did have a very short recruitment period for this program last year we feel like um this year having more time to recruit for that more energy to spend on that um that will help at this point the fourth and fifth grade class have been combined so that is a fourth and fifth grade split at 15 so we do not have a class of five out there that is what's happened there a couple of statistics of notes um while we are still

142looking um board member bade at our students who are black and Indigenous and Pacific Islander in our magnet programs the uh Hispanic or the number of Hispanic students has more than doubled this year in identification the number of lowincome students and the number of students who are English language Learners have D more than doubled um from last year to this year as we continue to work on that identification process in ways that make the most sense for students so again this is not our final answer we will continue to work on this our goal is for our program def demographics to meet our district demographics thank you um statistically in terms of magnet performance we're required by um legislation to tell you that our magnet students achieve well yep and have over time and there

143we are yep um programming updates statistically at the middle school um these are you we have programs at Clayton Hillside and then West has a 78 program at their school so there are our numbers West is our our larger program the of the three of them so those are our participants but as Dr Parsons have said we also offer a lot of opportunities for students who want to take an honors class or to push into some um courses in other ways to make sure that they're fully enriched during Middle School yeah hey Charlotte we're actually going to interesting time we're going to hold questions till the end of the presentation thank you they figured out that if you ask us questions in the middle we don't count that as time and we just talk okay

144um recruitment retention and reaching underserved populations yes um I am going to acknowledge that I've already included components of this and so our feelings about our inclusion efforts are are well established already in this presentation um and I I would attribute those feelings of of seeking inclusion specifically to the way that we're examining identification and the way that we're trying to pair services to that identification it's allowing opportunities for a student to be good at something and not good at something else and still deserve an enrichment in that area and to be able to explore that Nuance of each individual human being um also with our inclusion efforts of we've had multiple students from our Hub specifically mainly our Hub Behavior classrooms who have who have qualified for um both amp and magnet and again

145as she's pointed out as Dr Hall's pointed out we've been working very hard with our sped departments to be able to figure out the most appropriate uh balance of both services like acknowledging that the students need both and so what is the most appropriate venue to be able to provide how do we provide those support So students can get both and and meet our legal requirements around our IEPs and our 504s absolutely so that you know and that is a balance and it's a lot of conversation and we appreciate the special education department really reaching out to have those conversations with us and I would even say that applies to our students who are multi-language Learners as well they deserve their English language support while also deserving an enrichment as well so this isn't just

146a sped versus uh ELP or gift a talented conversation it's with all of our special services how do we make sure that our students get to see themselves in a variety of ways and that and we're working we've made great growth this year towards that okay our new program yes let's talk about Magneta Edison um as Dr Hall's pointed out we had a we had a short Runway because I don't know if you remember this time last year um but I had a few months to get the pro once once the decision was made to get a program up and up up and running while also helping multiple programs move and so uh I would say that to help our underserved students see themselves in that Runway that I had 79 students identified with a

14775% identifi uh participation rate great statistic I am personally giving myself a pat on the back for that one um on top of everything else um from those 79 58 made it uh and are currently enrolled as we speak those 58 have been like we have continued to identify kids since then 79 is just the number that we closed out the summer with especially now that uh people are aware of the program and are able to see the things that the program offers uh as pointed out though our fifth grade is small and that's because we are parents were worried about the transition between grades five and six especially if they're in the north west feeder area and so especially considering transportation is different for Middle School what to do why am I going to

148move my child to one school for one year and then immediately turn around and move them again to then move them again and I I think that's a very valid concern for our parents and so that's why in that fourth and fifth grade we see those lower numbers like I believe that I invited 18 fourth graders and and eight of them came and or 10 of them came and so that's a result of the feedback that we received about the ambiguity of uh Middle School alignment and so the solution that we have uh brought forward that we have made is to create a 56 split at Edison to be able to provide that continuity after those students who are in magnet for that that sixth grade split they can still go to Glendale because Glendale

149will still accept them as seventh graders but it aligns with the other magnet opportunities outside of our uh across our district specifically at West Clayton Hillside or even the kinds of advanced courses that they provide at Northwest and so it doesn't take an option off of the table to be able to provide that for our students it be able it makes it so that there's multiple options for those students who are in that program that maybe weren't bound to Glendale Middle School to begin with um the teacher who is who would be taking that on she was the sixth grade magnet teacher at Whittier for years and so she's very familiar with sixth grade curriculum she's very qualified and very willing um she the the administrative team there is very supportive parents have indicated that

150they would appreciate this to be able to understand the decisions that they're making to be able to opt in and as of right now especially considering the 56 split would be representative of the FTE it's a budget neutral option um and then of course as usual their student achievement will be evaluated we won't forget about that and you got two thumbs up from Ella as well yes yes yep yeah yep um and then other successes uh that that's the that's the numbers side of it um I would say that the program at Edison has been a fantastic success the magnet teachers there have understood that it is not just them benefiting from being at Edison it is also their job to provide a benefit to the Edison Community they provide in schoolwide Access of supports

151and extensions like during the intervention blocks and whenever there's a student who is in the neighborhood classroom but is a potentially showing to be ready for partial inclusion um they have those really great conversations about the entire population to be able to have this reciprocal benefit and it's helped uh it's helped to start some tough conversations about what does it mean to both meet a basic education and still provide enrichments for students who are traditionally underserved in Title One settings and so the kinds of conversations that I have every every single time I come to Edison they have an open heart and open mind full credit the Edison team the administrators and the teachers are the ones who get they understood the brief and they are rising to the occasion and they're doing a really

152great job of as I pointed out earlier doing what they need to do to see their students as they are and being able to provide those really great opportunities to them so that's the qualitative side of it um and I'm I'm very excited about all of our magnet programs but especially considering the new ones whenever you can see smiles and happiness instead of like franticness about being new it's always to me a success especially when the kids are happy and thriving so thank you Dr Hall and Dr Parsons um I do want to note to the board and to the public that um vice president Jensen and I are trying to end this portion of the agenda um and certainly this topic by 8 so we can get on to um the the final discussion

153agenda so if you haven't had the chance to speak yet um and you want to um we would want to move to um the second round and make sure that we all have that chance but we are trying to to end this portion of the discussion this topic Anyway by 8 o'clock I would I would say for me I asked one clarifying question about a slide I didn't feel I used my first round and I have a substantial quantity of questions about this presentation I feel more comfortable concluding this presentation and then moving on to other business if that's what we need to do but I think this warrants a substantial amount of discussion I understand that and I think just knowing the the desire to have shorter meetings um you know Bryce or Brian

154and I felt sorry BR you're over there Brian and I felt like um questions that were asked um during the discussion um counted as the first round of questions um and we're going to stick with that but nonetheless um if folks haven't had the chance to speak yet um I would just want to see if folks want to defer and we can move on to the second round for the two-minute portion okay seeing none we'll move to the two-minute portion the second round um Ashley or excuse me Charlotte for your first second round and then Ashley I um I was wondering if I um I'd can I make a motion right now or no I mean you you can but um knowing that the recommendation is to not have any significant decision on on the

155the topic okay well I'm wondering if we I liked the idea of having a study session on this topic I'm very interested in it and I don't know if other board members are too but just wanted to mention that Ashley um yeah so in reviewing the presentation I appreciate that Dr Hall was able to answer many of my questions in advance um and the biggest concern I had reviewing the presentation was the per pupil costs that Dr H provided for the magnet and neighborhood classrooms and in some sites our district is now spending $2,000 more per pupil on students in magnet classrooms than neighborhood and I think the spending difference is an important inequity and I want to know um first if this identification and capping is intended to solve the problem on some level

156with class sizes because before putting that question to you I know a couple of things and one is that this is not to say that students students in magnet classrooms are getting $2,000 more of a service or books or whatever right it's a class-size difference and that's the cost of a teacher um and I know Dr Hall will also be quick to point out that the Extended Learning Program budget is now considered distinct from a school's basic Staffing which perhaps did not used to be the case but I additionally want to clarify that this is all coming from the same big wpu bucket as general education so if we've separated out the budgets the money is still coming from the same bucket and I think it's not funded in an alternative way like a title

157program or a state Grant so I think it's really important that in this meeting we clarify um whether these changes are intended to close that Gap and also discuss as a board what other steps we need to take to ensure Equitable Equitable spending because I certainly think we should continue offering gifted and talented services and magnet is one part of that amp is obviously a really growing part that's very important but I question whether students in a magnet classroom really deserve an investment of $2,000 more than their peers in neighborhood classrooms and to that end one of the other questions I have is about this decision at Edison um I expressed to Dr Hall that I know there's a body of fifth graders at Edison who transfer to Franklin at some point because they do

158not want to start middle school early and this is something reported by that teaching team and so I'm wondering how we're providing a solution for one group but we're not able to respond to the neighborhood group so I'll I'll take the first question first which if I'm hearing that you would like in a study group to study some different models for providing gift and talented services that are not a full day magnet program we are happy to bring you uh in a study session some ways that would be not um a three school full day pullout magnet service model um if if that is the concern of the board that this model is no longer the one that you would like to support I believe that is a study session that would take uh some

159more conversation we're happy to have that conversation um the second one we have not had that same report that there are students transferring to Franklin and in fact when I looked at the data of the number of students who are um in the Edison boundary that are at Franklin um there are twice as many students that are in the Franklin boundary that are at Edison than there are the other way around and and while I don't have a number if they are all in the sixth grade I would assume that because there that is a a k6 school that those 11 students would be throughout several of the grades so I cannot respond to that as I have no data that substantiates that that is what H is happening so I apologize but I could

160follow up with the remainder of my time that I think it's important we talk to teaching teams about that because that's what they're reporting and I think based on Edison's class sizes it could really be all 11 and we also won't ever capture in those entries without just asking the teachers because uh there are students who are certainly enrolled at Edison who may not live in either boundary and may be there from kindergarten through fifth grade and then still transfer to Franklin because they recognize the feeder patterns not what they wanted um to the point about the study session uh can you just respond to the initial question which is not do we change the model it's is this cap on classes intended to bridge what is a big spending Gap no uh if you

161would look at the the difference in size between classes so for instance um some of our smaller magnet magnet classes are in our second grades at um pry year nibi and I know that nibbly is phasing out um and Edison and they are smaller than our average District sizes but we also have some that are larger so really what we're we're wanting to do is be able to make those identification commitments sooner so that parents have the information um we do believe that that will help increase the number of families that might say yes instead of while they're waiting for an answer from us make other decisions or or choose alternate paths but it is not a way of saying um you know this this will this might um help bring us toward a mean

162so that we don't have a class that might be substantially larger than either our district average or any other classroom in the magnet program and to improve the speed that we're able to allow families to make decisions so the answer would be no I think that the combination of that answer of the answers that she's given to your question is that um magnet is a service model amongst many and the cap is intended to or the the cap identification instead of the way that we did it before is intended to create a little bit more clarity around the procedures to figure out how is magnets still continuing to serve us because again as Dr Hall pointed out we have wide variety of classroom sizes even within the same program and location and so like in

163some ways we need to ask the question of should we try to force magnets to be a certain size just to make it financially responsible or should we be a little bit more shrewd of how is it serving us and so um that's why the answer is no is because we're trying to clean up some of our procedures to be able to be a little bit more intuitive of the way we answer these questions BR this be our last question for this topic Y and I'll be really quick I initially had a question and a comment now it's kind of two comments um but my initial question was similar to board member Anderson's with the uh Edison Franklin I think you started address that maybe that comes further with a study session and some more

164data so thank you for that um the second piece I just wanted to express uh gratitude for the Edison magnet program um for very for a very long time the residents at the west side of Salt Lake City have asked for something like that I'm very um appreciative and grateful and I think there's work that we can still do around that um the other thing I was going to say is um something that I was hearing around this time last year and over the summer was the concern about uh where do people go for sixth grade and I appreciate that that's starting to be thought about so thank you thank you and to your question or potential motion there Charlotte if you want to submit um an agenda item request for study session topic to

165Brian and I through our formal processes to get agenda items on the agenda we would welcome that okay thank you we End discussion on this excuse me may I ask a question that's a point of clarification if Charlotte asks and receives a second in this meeting that complies with the formal request does it not um I would assume that it would but a formal an email documentation would be beneficial for Brian and I okay thank you um moving on uh superintendent the floor is yours for the final discussion agenda H I'll ask Sam to load the PowerPoint there um I appreciated the chance to speak to the board this last week in small groups and um individually about this proposal for district Department reorganization the board has asked for this proposal and um so I'm

166pleas chance to give that and to provide um a plan for moving forward I also want to mention in this I shared with the board first um I want to be able to provide if I could this presentation all at once and the reason why as I know there are people in the district who want to know what my recommendation is um and so I'd like to share that with the community um as well as uh much of the reasoning as can fit in here in the conversation Behind these changes um so if you don't mind having the questions at the end also based on your early feedback changed a couple of items in this proposal um so just want to share those with you that are a little bit different than we talked about

167um simple changes but I I think important so I want to start first Sam if we put at the next Slide the what's guiding the principles here um and and I know board this is a refresher for you a bit but I I think it's important for the community to hear because this affects people's placement in the district and I know uh a number of folks are interested in the background of this as well so um first is our understanding that the core our core work is um about teaching and learning and it's about school leadership these are the features that make up what we do in order to be successful as a district to get initiatives done um we must focus on teaching and on leadership from from the district office and so our

168district needs to be built around that as well as all the pieces that we need to put together and I've spoken um since my early months in this role about the need for coherence across our district and a desire to align our systems and our processes and our resources and our expectations um within the district to create more clarity for those working but also just to make us stronger that way there is also the district um literature that shows that when you're focused on teaching and learning certainly but also particularly on the work of principles um because they are the ones carrying the bulk of this and they know this being in this position in the middle between the district and um the classrooms that they are carrying the bulk of the work in terms

169of our expectations of what is happening in schools and so um what I have done is focused a lot on putting programs in the leadership Department because of the connection with schools because of the connection with principles um and and I argue in this that um it makes a lot of of our work Stronger by creating those expectations the any line of authority has within it um the accountability feature of some uh supervisor overseeing another overseeing another it also has the feature of providing supports to those who are in those positions um and focusing on teaching and Leadership I think creates some um stronger attention to some of the pieces in our district next one Sam the the other piece here is that um Equity is a shared responsibility in our district and I shared

170this with the board when I first came in um and was interviewed this expectation I would have that Equity isn't housed in just one office but that it is an expectation of all of the Departments Within organization and that everybody takes responsibility that way um I have chosen not to reestablish the educ to continue with the educational equity and student services office have largely moved those departments into the school leadership Department um and it is because of uh my theory of action there are couple schools of thought on this one is that that you create more attention and emphasis on Equity if you create a separate Equity office uh and and there's wisdom in that you can signal that Equity is important to you you raise it up that way um to make it part

171of what you're doing in the district the other school of thought is that you embedded in your work and in the expectations that you have of District leaders of school leaders and that by linking the work within Equity with the accountability structures in leadership that you're actually driving it into schools more effectively because of that work one of the big difficulties with bureaucracies is working across silos so by embedding work um within fewer silos you reduce that friction and the difficulty of getting people working across those silos together um also this sense of shared responsibility as we um this proposal doesn't carry on the educational Equity office it still maintains a position of educational Equity that I'll talk about um but it also makes it a shared responsibility the ecaps that we have for leaders

172say that Equity is present in all aspects of leadership that's already one of the expectations we have of leaders in the same way we ensure Equitable access to resources for students in order to for their success so this is part of what we do as a district it's um an expectation of all leaders District leaders School leaders that Equity is part of their role um in this and the third one there Sam is that my aim in this is to have clear accountability expectations as well as support one of the good examples that Dr Taylor was giving was that um we may require of the principles that they um do an equity audit so we have this accountability function about that but we may not be required providing them the support to know how to

173do that how to make that happen so this idea of accountability with support and Trust we're trying to build trust between the district office and our schools that comes from keeping our word it also comes from providing um the resources people need to get their jobs done uh and having an alignment with accountability and support in the in the structure of our organization and and what we're doing um so trying to rebuild what I have said many times is the social contract that we have with each other and um so this idea of accountability also coming with support and then with trust um matters for what what we're doing so want to mention too before I get into the actual changes is that um there is no one single District structure every district has chosen

174their own and uh even with that they change it at times and then um there is always some morphing in this but this has been in studying the district now for a year and a half this is my view of how we organize the office to meet the challenges we have now and to more effectively again um create those expectations around coherence in what we're trying to build across our district thanks Sam so educational equity and student support department would now largely sit within the school leadership and support support department so we are looking to rename the school leadership and performance Department as school leadership and support again because we're moving Support Services in there student support and school Support Services as well as this focus on providing principles with support so trying to capture

175that in the name um so we would move the office of the student services and counseling including counseling nursing sro's and I'm going to speak separately about SRO in a minute and McKinny vento to the school leadership and support dep um Department with director Mindy hll reporting to executive director Taylor um one of the things I'm excited about here and especially after talking with um director hom doll is linking the work having the work of counseling nursing mckin vento at the table with the school leadership Department to raise those issues and make sure they're on the plates of um our school leaders so that is working both ways so councelors will have the opportunity to speak more directly to their needs and what they need to have happen with school leaders um School leaders and

176that work the aims of the district will I believe con um be communicated more clearly with our counselors um our nursing staff our social workers in that um are there in um director Hall's office also to move the office of multi-tiered systems of support and social emotional learning including safe schools and behavior Specialists to the school leadership and support department with Ali Martin reporting to executive director Taylor in the same way well this is a little bit similar and a little different in that again I want the accountability structures in there and these issues at the table in speaking with our our area directors and our principles about the work the other piece of this is that um alli's work has become so focused on safe schools and behavior Specialists and the demands of the

177legislature around the guardian Bill and what's expected on school safety she's um also the liaison with the school safety Specialists um that are part of that legislative bill or are part of the legislative work and are certainly captured with more demands in the guardianship so putting that in school leadership with Dr Taylor who is um my representative on school safety as it relates to the work within schools uh I think is pretty important there was a recommendation from the board that we look at changing the title here from mtss seel director um I talked with Dr Martin and she suggested preventive Services as a way to frame this department which makes some sense to me that we're trying to prevent poor behaviors we're trying to prevent any safety issues um we're trying to prevent um

178what else would we have there that she's working on with people trying to work with schools around their multi-tier systems of support and their positive behavior intervention and support to put in place good tier one programs that serve kids and prevent a lot of behavior challenges and and things so um that may be where we want to move and um I would make that part of the recommendation here I know that we're going to talk about this again at the next board meeting next one Sam um move the office of educational equity and access to the school leadership Department uh with a new director to be hired who would report to executive director Taylor this again too is the work of attendance early warning systems uh My Brother's Keeper the work around Latinos in Action

179all these pieces where we're trying to increase access again giving that Equity piece a more direct line to our principles into school leadership whereas where the work needs to happen at that school level um also with this there was a a question and a good recommendation to consider there had been conversation about moving um laury pincus's work with title six and American Indian education perhaps to uh a different area in the school leadership department but it originally um reported to educational equity and access I think we'll keep that I think that was a good recommendation to relook at that I talked to um Dr Taylor this is where I'm actually excited about the placement of equity within School leadership is that one of the challenges with creating a separate office where you have a conglomerate

180of um actions that need to be taken by the district you've got uh all of the work around counseling and social workers you've got the work around American indine and education you've got the workaround attendants and things what what can happen is that some of those um actions are sidelined are almost pushed to the side because they're not in the core work they don't have access to getting in the core work I think moving um Indian education with this educational Equity office into school leadership grants more access to the core work that way and I think will strengthen our ability of our schools with the supports that we provide the professional development the training and things um to better serve our indigenous community that that's an area where we need some work and I think

181this actually could be a way to um improve what we're doing for American Indian students um the one change would would be to move translation services not into school leadership but to community Communications and community relations uh with bog monk reporting to executive director Chatwin um this makes a lot of sense they're already in contact as so much of the work that yandre leads us around our communication strategies with our community the one thing I wanted to point out with sro's with the increasing emphasis on school safety and how we're managing that I'd like to suggest the sro's report directly to Dr Taylor um because of his management of that thanks Sam um in a similar way uh of focusing on school leadership placing special education in the teaching and learning Department um I think

182in really brings together some important pieces here that we would move the office of special item 504 to teaching and learning and director Anderson senior director Aon Anderson will report to executive director Hall um I think this in increases our um I'm glad to hear that Amanda um I actually think one of the challenges we have as um any of us will recognize and you in particular Amanda will recognize is inclusive education which relies on General Ed teachers and their knowledge of and comfort with special education and working together at in special education pushin kind of situations rather than pull out situations so the teaching that goes on in special education I think will benefit by being in the teaching and learning Department I think the teachers in General Ed in particular will benefit by

183having special education there and the professional development and training that um Tiffany's office provides that way I'm excited about what we can do this way because of the size of Tiffany's office I am recommending we reorganize the department to create more layers of bureaucracy which I don't often want to do but what we're trying to do is prevent um so many direct reports special education is a huge part of what we do that alone is placing a lot of work um certainly Aaron carries a a great deal of that um but it's placing a lot of work on Tiffany's shoulders so in order to make her Department more manageable I am suggesting that we create some new lines of people within her Department which would mean elevating them into director two positions um and then

184having some direct reports underneath them so promoting literacy director from a director 3 to two with two direct reports underneath that is a literacy specialist if approved by um the board and that is uh Monty Ike's work with refugees and uh World languages and alternative language Services promoting the stem mathematics director from a supervisor to director two with two director reports those two direct reports would be um Candace Penrod our science um director and then our science supervisor and digital teaching and learning with Sally wary in there um promote the Fine Art supervisor to an enriched learning office um with three direct reports this is social studies with desie olssen it is um our Audrey w with um our early childhood education and the third one is our health with Katie ARA um would be

185under that one and then um because montye has taken on new responsibilities since being named a coordinator and also is um supervising two Refugee support positions um promoting him from coordinator to supervisor and then um as suggested here and we've talked about previously create a new literacy supervisor position reporting to Dr Maloof next one there Sam there is one change here too in that um the reorganization of evaluation and assessment this was a team that was reporting to Dr Hall I'd like to create two separate offices with a shared supervisor um we see the work as two different kinds of things that there are people doing the data collect collection and input who would work with the it office um they do the testing support and data collection then there is the team that does

186the data output in the reports in the program evaluations and surveys and who are putting together the powerbi structures for principles to have easy access to reports that they want for their schools putting the evaluation and Data Insights team in school leadership putting the assessment in the it office and creating a shared supervisor that would sit in um the school leadership department and then lastly we have an open associate superintendent position that I have talked with you about about wanting to reclassify as a chief of Chief of Staff my goal here is to increase um what I'm able to accomplish uh particularly around implementation and getting that done um and having somebody who can do the project management pieces that I'd like to see happen in the district and really focusing on that kind of

187work focusing more on the processes than um program management that would come with an Associate superintendent position and then the last one there Sam just a discussion with what time we might have got a a few minutes but it's an important topic and we'll open up the floor for discussion any questions for Anderson um I'm going to go through this more quickly than I would otherwise which I have to admit I think is a disservice to this discussion um my largest concern with the proposal is the perception that growing district offices rather than growing schools is really a big problem in education so I feel that any proposed organization that promotes a handful of high level administrators and adds new administrative jobs is not really what I hear the public asking for which is a

188more streamlined office to shift Staffing to our schools so the cost Savings of this comes out to be about 1 and a half FTE so I just want to share my appetite for an reorganization that's a little bit more radical in terms of diverting more funding to the basic staffing needs of our schools where we have a shrinking population but we continue to see diverse students with a range of needs and we need to really solidify that Staffing um with that context in mind I have a question but I have more comments for so I'll just try to put a strong bookmark on this which is I've heard a lot about how this would benefit Administration and reports and the layers of Administrators here in the office but I'm wondering what it does directly to

189impact students in the classroom positively and what immediate benefits classrooms would see if such a reorganization was approved um a related part of that concern is with the educational Equity piece I appreciate the idea that Equity would be considered part of everything but I'm of two minds on this and on the one hand I would like to ensure there remain of voice for student services on the executive cabinet because if we claim to be a student centered District I'm curious how we could do that without having a department leader who would speak directly to student supports in the given structure and on the other hand if we collapse some of those structures systematically I'm more comfortable doing that if we see a greater cost savings that gets reinvested directly in services for students so to

190reiterate I think saving 1.5 FTE is not enough to pass more support to school buildings and risk losing that important voice on the cabinet um the last topic I'd raise is my concern about assessment um the first is that I'm concerned this change was made to assessment already prior to the board's approval and then that decision was paused while the rest of the plan came together so I want to present a scenario that I hear coming up since this assessment move has happened um if a principal has a question about an assessment they would have previously reached out to the department director but since that job hasn't been filled this year there's been kind of tension in my interpretation of the scenario between two halves of assessment there are analysts who can prepare reports but

191may not know about the components and then there are staff who are versed in the assessment but they're no longer in clear communication and it creates the potential for inaccurate reporting in our schools and them not having timely information to support students and have discussions in plc's so again I want to Circle back to how the change in assessment has given direct benefits to students compared to the prior model um the last thing I would offer is that I think we have a lot to learn from our peers as we go through this process um most of them take a long time to decide on a reorganization others as quick as four months but I think we could also learn from our peers in Provo they rolled out their recent organization in two phases and

192had a very good public facing um idea about how that would go out so people knew what to expect I think if we establish some of these decisions in phases we may be able to learn from some of the you know shortcomings or concerns we have or phase it out in suchu way that we could make really effective decisions so again I can go back to what my questions are but for the sake of time I said it all at once um I'd prefer to go back and forth and you know have some more of those questions answered um there was the one question that I think you highlighted there Ashley about the effect on schools I think this gets back to that conversation about the core work of what we do which is did

193teaching and learning piece and the school leadership piece what I'm trying to create within the district is a way to get the work into the classrooms I mean that is the purpose of creating this kind of structure is to get the work into classrooms I believe that our students will be well served by having student services connected to the work of schools rather than in a separate office which has to ask permission to work with um the school leadership department and again cross that Silo so when we're talking about uh accountability it is it is making a simplified accountability structure for what we ask for from our principles and the other half of that is the support which is we're providing them the training the professional development um the connections with our directors who are

194running these departments to get better at providing those services in schools to students so to me it is about creating that in schools it's not about trying to simplify my life or simplify the executive director's lives to serve their work in fact I think I have made some extra work for a couple of our executive directors but rather that we're trying to to create what is the Great Gulf between a district and the schools we're trying to shrink that Gulf by creating these lines that I think have more presence and talking with um people just quickly to let some folks know about these changes before presenting them publicly they said I like the idea of bringing my my office and the concerns I have to the table with school leadership and having that part of

195the regular conversations that happen with the school leadership team so um in that way I actually see the benefits of creating it this way Amanda um I guess let see if I can word this so in general I support this structure change I mean from conversations it sounds like you've spoken to your staff to like understand different perspectives in how this structure would be beneficial for how the district office should better serve our student populations I agree with Ashley and that would be nice to be able to put more money into the schools but if we can increase our Effectiveness as a district office then that benefit um has its value in different ways um and obviously tonight we're not going to be approving the org chart this is not a finite we're not ending

196this conversation tonight um I think that this presentation is great because now the community is seeing a little bit of it hopefully we can kind of push out a um actual structured org chart picture so people can see how that lays out so the community can provide their feedback the teachers the family communities Etc so that when we bring it back to a board discussion we've got a more well-rounded input into this and the concerns before we um finalize but I mean simply put I see your vision and uh I strongly support what you're doing thank you any other comments on Miss first round maybe um so you've you've talked to your department some of your staff so all the senior staff the executive leaders and I spoke to just a handful of people um

197who would be moving offices I didn't get to everybody that would be moved with those offices so okay I was in you know I'm not able to do that I asked them to share this with their teams so there'd be a little heads up on this before it went public this evening okay and have you yeah I think that it would be good to have a more public a little bit um Broad the public engagement on it I don't know or or maybe not public but the schools and all the principles and and maybe some of the teachers um who would be who are doing the work of you know this um and I encourage teachers and principals to weigh in on this over the next couple of weeks before we meet again and um

198to share that with me if that or with board members okay certainly with their desires this way um there are a couple pieces to that um you know we um we have a structure so that leaders are over their departments and have some ability to structure their department to get their work done in the same way principles are over schools and have some ability to structure their schools to get work done I would submit that um a superintendent with cabinet has an ability to structure the department to get the work done I'm not um I I do want to hear from people I think there their perspective is the P the perspective from the position they're in rather than the perspective of looking across the district at what is valuable across the district and how

199we're trying to align all the resources and services and systems that way across so looking at some of that are there other questions over there okay sorry did you have some other thoughts or so this is saving this this reor would save the district um I think we came to it about uh it comes in under budget so I'm not adding to the budget I am adding one position A literacy person but also removing an executive director position so not really increasing the size of the district office um making some changes across that way um there were also a couple of um let's see there are an uh administrative assistant position that we're not rehiring for in that Brian I appreciate Amanda's comment about the charts and that sort of thing I think that that

200is another way to engage um well we have a lot of visual Learners out there and I think that helps a lot of people I appreciate Ashley's comments about Provo and maybe when we um get into this next phase of discussion we can look at I don't know if you have examples Ashley or but you know how that was done so that we really do that this or whatever and make sure that we've looked at everything the one concern that I have is the and I know that I've expressed this to you before superintendent Grant but the chief of staff um when we hired you as a superintendent one of the things that I was anxious about and that's when I was a new board member and had joined the board and had seen that

201we had had a situation where there had been a number of superintendant and what I was anxious to um avoid or at least um prepare a mechanism to ensure continuity in superintendence was having that associate superintendent and I'm not saying that that individual has to be the next superintendent but I think it's a really valuable um piece to be discussing where we have an individual who is working side by side with you on that level who well heaven forbid if something were to happen to you I certainly would never want that to happen but I mean things do happen and to me that's part of this conversation in reorganization is how do we provide for that um succession piece and my understanding when we were um visiting with you and appointing you as the superintendent

202was this is something that we need to have in place as well is the associate superintendent and that succession piece so and you know what I forgot to push the time button on me and I'm sure that I'm almost so I'm done with my time your 10 minutes over I don't think I went want round two just there okay um are there any folks that want to speak this okay we move on to round two um so to your point Brian uh in regard to whenever you hired um superintendent Grant I wasn't here for part of that but from my understanding there were and I've seen it there were parameters put in place with the expectation of an associate superintendent position to accomplish what you guys were all seeking um what I sought out after

203this agenda was posted was what is in the job description requirements of a superintendent um and what what's the licensing cred like requirements what's the experience requirements and all of that and like to me uh basically the way to accomplish that Chief of Staff position or really any person that is eligible to be considered for that that and it can be the chief of staff is ensuring that we are requiring the correct credentials experiences experience licensing that gives them access to do what you're wanting so it's less about the title more about the job description and the the licensing and education and the all of that stuff that opens up that ability to fulfill that need does that make sense I I feel like in a lot of the conversations we get stuck on the

204the the the title when it's really about the what are we trying to accomplish it and ensuring that that job description of that person is fulfilling that need which I think superintendent Grant has expressed in different conversations essentially she's wanting that person that can be side by side and do all these things that we're wanting but we're accomplishing that step and roll through what's required in the job description so Amanda Ashley um yeah I would speak to the same topic um I am supportive of what Brian had stated and I think the board had unanimously agreed at multiple intervals that associate superintendent is what we're looking for um to Amanda's point the reason why there would be a pay difference in the reorganization draft presented to us tonight is because the job description is not

205the same and a person who would go for a chief of staff role is not the same as what an associate superintend endent fulfills and I'm not comfortable approving the reorganization in any form without an associate superintendent as I expressed in our conversations together um and I I think this is true of Salt Lake District Salt Lake District has never elevated an associate superintendent into the superintendency so associate superintendent roles have not typically been that um and and it would be a person that I would hire and I don't know that you want to elevate the person that I would hire I think you want to elevate the person you would hire into that role um also as we discussed that that secession planning I mean I would love to come to an agreement on

206the secession planning that was able to fulfill both of our needs in this role rather than just the secession planning needs um but it um there are senior leaders in the district um particularly Dr Hall and Dr Taylor who are in the positions that you would look to for succession planning as a board um and those positions as well as other senior leaders in the district that we would look at as the bench that we'd want to draw from overtime are important um to consider in this as well any other comments in the second round helina sorry just to clarify for myself um is this I guess a defined role although it hasn't been fulfilled or is it still in the process of being established the ass which one the associate superintendent and Chief of

207Staff I'm proposing a new role which is Chief of Staff that has not been um it's not been called that though there have been people in the district who have served in that role in the chief of sta sort of function where they're doing a lot of um project management work rather than direct line Authority associate superintendants have typically been used to oversee some programs like overseeing teaching and learning or something like that um I'm proposing something different with this so there is an open position now for an associate superintendent I would still want to Define that role and probably not use an old job description for that since the world has changed since we last filled that um um but have not brought that forward of what that would look like as an associate

208superintendent okay but there has been one in the district in the past yeah they're often two of them actually what what's awkward about this too is that our executive directors in the district used to be called as associate superintendents too um particularly those over school leadership and teaching and learning um the change was made to give everybody the executive director title which is a little bit unusual for districts usually those are an associate or an assistant superintendent role depending on how the districts kind of create and structure the organization hey can I make one more comment please um let me make sure that nobody else um Charlotte and then um could we get a job description for the the chief of staff yes okay yep that would be helpful I can share that with you

209associate superintendent I don't have one developed that I've developed so I'd be really hesitant to I mean I could it would take me a little time to develop that they would um look rather similar one is more senior in rank than the other and how I sort of see the way I would like to establish the office um maybe just the way of the other for that would help people better understand the differences and compared to how other individuals in the district can also apply for that position or um and I know our district never had a um a chief of staff uh but I think it is you know um I personally you know trust uh superintendent Grant you know that she sees the organizational charge she knows what she wants to happen within

210the district and you know it is worth giving it at least a year to see you know if it works great and if it's not then Dr Grant will have the opportunity to re-evaluate you know if we should keep that position or put in an associate superintendent uh that's you know uh and personally you know again it's not the title it's more the uh the responsibilities that that individual is going to have to make sure the mission of uh student achievement plan is taken care of and that's my uh my suggestion there thank you last com yeah just one comment I um hear what Mohammad I hear what you're saying I also mostly support this proposal I do think there's um value in continuing the discussion and hearing from community members as well um I

211did want to just address one thing that you said in regards to maybe giving it a try for a year I'm a little concerned about creating a position just for a year um okay that's but um anyways I just think contining the conversation is good great I'm thank you board I'm going to go ahead and call the discussion right there there um we do have to move on we have a few action agenda items um that we got to get to and to reconvene our close session as well so um but just so the public knows and so you all know as a board too this is on our agenda for our next board meeting as well where we can can continue the conversation and if you have other questions for Dr Grant um please

212uh filter those for away um between our two meetings um moving on to our action agenda um unless there's you good with that yeah okay cool um moving on to our action agenda we had two items pulled um from the action agenda item um number two which is the board meeting minutes from December 3rd 2024 and item number five The Joint educator evaluation um Committee Member request and so um Amanda I would open it up to you or to any other board member to make a motion so we can have that conversation um I would like the motion separate is so my first comment so if somebody wants to make the motion for the board minutes let's handle that separately please um I move that we accept the board meeting minutes from December 3D as

213posted on the consent agenda I'll second we got a motion and a second on the table any discussion okay seeing none we'll um start with a roll call vote um starting with vice president Jensen Brian Jensen yes Amanda Longwell abstain Bryce Williams yes Charlotte F Jefferson yes Ashley Anderson yes Nate Salazar yes Mohamed yes okay that motion carries um entertain a second motion for the second item item number five um I make a motion to help me with my motions um I basically my goal is let's move it to uh the next um board meeting for uh discussion not the consent agenda so that um the je conversation can be um discussed more than just a consent especially when we're for the sake of time tonight if I'm move to approve it now are you

214comfortable discussing it on the motion as permitted by parliamentary procedures sure okay I move that we accept the joint educator evaluation Committee Member request as posted on the consent agenda got a motion is there a second can you clarify what you're asking I'm moving to approve it as it was posted Amanda has a discussion she'd like to provide about it and so I'm moving it so we can proceed but still has the chance to comment whatever it is she'd like to comment okay second got a motion to second on the table I'll turn the time over to you Amanda for the first round um I guess my my comments regarding the The Joint let me write read it out joint educator evaluation committee is basically um do we need to make this decision tonight um

215I did reach out and um it's it it does have an equal it does meet the minimum requirements as far as equal number of parents teachers and administrators it doesn't necessarily um have a good cross-section of our district as far as um throughout the district and different representatives of different student populations um so I'm concerned about that it's it is newer so it's something I'm not going to be hung up on this time round but as we like progress with this um committee something that uh should be worked on uh to ensure that it's uh really done with Integrity um so I that's those are kind of my two main points is um if we're going to do a committee um if we just focus on the bare minimum then we're actually missing out on

216opportunity to do right for our students and the intention of um the item so I guess those are my comments any further discussion to the motion to approve that particular item Mana thank you for your comments but I'm going to call it for a vote um so we'll do a roll call vote um starting with you Amanda you're next on the list so ianda long well I'll vote Yes Bryce Williams yes Charlotte F Jefferson yes Ashley Anderson yes Salazar yes Mohamed yes Ian Jen yes just um to note Amanda I want you to know that we've recorded that um request uh I know that you connected with Nate Elkins on that um and so with Logan Hall here as our HR Director too that is there putting that and I think as our team generally

217across the board your request to um make committees more conscientiously reflect more populations in the district is a good recommendation so thank you for that I just wanted to let you know that didn't just land in nothingness but actually lands with us so thanks thank you thank you superintendent and Amanda as well um our next item on the action agenda is our board meeting structure um I think it's pretty clear um which direction we'd like to go and I'd entertain a motion we also have our committee assignments so I would actually move that we accept the study session um model as discussed and also the committee assignments as amended by Allan I'll second any discussion to combining both of those agenda items address support to seeing none start with the roll call Vote with board

218member Williams Bryce Williams yes Charlotte F Jefferson yes Ashley Anderson yes Nate Salazar yes mam yes Brian Jensen yes Amanda Longwell yes that motion passes um we are nearing the 9:00 hour is there um folks that have significant reports that they like to give or could we move past that and okay we we'll go ahead and do our normal structure just um we'll keep it pretty brief and quick as we can um Charlotte moham and then I just want to mention one thing um the president just rescinded the special status that schools had um for safety for students who are undocumented so that ice may enter our schools I want you to know that our legal team is working on um some information uh with our Communications team to share with our community um undocumented

219students are still deserving of the right of education and are not to be prevented from getting an education um and what this means for our schools we hope is absolutely nothing but also just want to share um with our community that we ask parents who may be affected families who may be affected to make sure they are providing emergency plans and emergency contacts with their schools um and that they encourage them to reach out to nonprofit organizations for further information and Community organizations and then just to let our teachers and our principes know that we'll be sending further information we are restricted of course in with this move in what we can do but we will share information about how we expect our community to handle things that may come up so I just wanted

220to let everybody know since that change was made today M did you have a report well um on that part there thank you Dr Grant for letting us know um you know from an immigrant to other immigrants I understand and I feel your pain because you come to this country so you can uh live uh the American dream and give an opportunity to your families here and back home uh so that they can be taken care of it is so sad to see such things you know happen even within our education system those are kids they deserve equal education and God you know their parents sacrifice everything that they have so that they can make sure their kids grow and get a better education and take care of their parents and I just want to

221let every immigrant here know and everyone in our schools know that they are in safe place please please I beg of you to reach out to each of your board members because this is just so unjust this is not what represents this country this is not what represents the country for immigrants and this is not what represents exactly the war that are said in the Statue of Liberty this is a country for people from all walk of life and my heart is just absolutely shattered and disgusting what I'm seeing happening right now Brian did you have a report you know what I'll keep it really brief because I know that what I'm what I'm going to do here is just I was the usba representative I'm not anymore I can see that everyone is getting

222the email but I just want you to be aware that there is a jlc meeting on Friday the 24th okay there is also a meeting and I'm not I'm kind of just winding this down but I'm just letting you know that there's also you can go the night before to a zoom meeting you can see all of this in your memo um we talked about the importance of jlc and then finally there's and I'm telling you this because we're not going to have another board meeting before this and that would be usba day on the hill and they really have asked us to support them in that and you can get your details in the memo it's on the 27th of January and thank you to all those sec's out there that I've been visiting

223and your hard work helina Ashley um I'll be really quick because we still have a student in the audience I wanted to share that many students came to speak to us several meetings ago about the maximum fees and issues they were having with competitions and trips and so I talked to um Allan about that and wrote up kind of a summary of how some student clubs have had a lot of success leveraging Foundation support to solve that Gap and that is going to be in the greater Avenues Community Council newsletter so that students who are living in the greater Avenues will have that response but I'll also try to publish it on my social media and try to give a better explanation to students who reach out to me about how they can solve the

224problems that they presented to us several meetings ago um also congratulations to women's basketball at West who is currently an undefeated team um I would have waited to to bring this up but I did make did make a commitment to um the teachers at Rose Park Elementary that I would um briefly address this so I had a meeting with them uh last Friday there were about a dozen uh teachers that I met with um they just shared a number of things that are going on in their profession and their life um concerns with some of the legislative things that are coming forward um but also um some concerns about not meeting uh the diverse needs of students um in our Westside schools um I did let superintendent Grant know that I had had this meeting

225um and I'm working to find a time where I can meet with her one-onone to address the concerns um and then from there I can bring those to the board as a whole but um I just wanted to thank those dozen teachers for um spending a couple of hours with me last Friday and um they did ask me a couple of questions that I'm still pondering on and wanted to let them know if they are listening and still thinking about those questions thank you um I'll yeah I'll cut it in half um one uh I basically we we should be commenting again the Genevie Curtis celebration of all of the levity that we've been dealing with like the Genevie Curtis that was well-run well done the family was um just very grateful for um that

226uh opportunity to come together massive showing so well done all that accomplished that um and I would be remiss not to comment about the um Hillside students passing um that is just I can't even imagine what that family and that Community is going through anytime I talk about a child or something passing I just like I can't um but I wanted to uh share the principal's comment um when I reached out to her um from Principal Janelle Rodriguez um she said that I'm thoroughly impressed with our student services department with their support from the moment we reached out to notify them sorry they were able to send support immediately for our staff coach me through the steps and send documents on steps and things to do they also sent a crisis team of social workers

227to Hillside today to support students and continue the process of support with this being my first incident I have felt 100 100% supported and guided for that I thank you so for all those that helped accomplish that support for that school um it obviously her wet words express it better than I could ever um thank you thank you Amanda um I'll keep mine very brief as well um vice president Jensen and I along with the superintendent and um SLE director James yapias had the opportunity along with um a few members from the S board to attend um the NAACP um Dr Martin Luther King lunch in yesterday um to celebrate the Life and Legacy of Dr King um it was a wonderful event there was a lot of great representation throughout our community and state

228um scholarships were awarded um recognitions for law enforcement officers were were given out as well um we had a great you know speaker um who joined us as well and um it was really fun the connection for me obviously having followed and and living by the tenants of Dr King in the modes of nonviolence um through persistent struggle that um that we've all had to engage in over the years um there was a a salient quote that I actually keep in in my home and read every day when I um getting ready for the day which is a threat to Justice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere um and with that I would seek a motion to enter our closed executive session okay on on January 21st 2025 oh I move that the board

229return to the close Ed it executive session to discuss one the character professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual and to pending or reasonably imminent leg litigation and that the board adjourns immediately upon the conclusion of its Clos session by second a motion in a second any discussion seeing none we'll do a roll call vote starting uh with board member Charlotte Charlotte F jepperson yes Ashley erson yes it yes Mohamad yes Brian Jensen yes Amanda Longwell yes Bryce Williams yes that concludes our public meeting thank you everybody for joining us in person and online