SLCSD Board Meeting, July, 9 2024, 5:30 PM

001yeah what where's CHR oh all right good evening everybody Welcome to uh this meeting of the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education meeting um today is July 9th 2024 um just jumping into a few quick um recognitions for tonight um as always I want to recognize our association presidents um for classified assoc iation president buildings and grounds we have President Leo compo Child Nutrition president Tanya Slaughter Transportation president Chris krogue uh for the Salt Lake Education Association we have President James tobler who I think is represented by Mike and chelia tonight perfect and then for the Salt Lake Association of school administrators president Bri Deon I also do want to recognize that uh board member christe sweat and superintendent Grant are participating remotely this evening and with that we can jump into the

002Pledge of Allegiance who'll be led by Bryce pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all sorry thanks Bryce for leading Us in the pledge um up next we have our consent agenda um I'll entertain a motion from the board regarding the consent agenda I move that we approved the consent agenda as listed all right is there a second to the motion I'll second okay sorry any discussion yes board member Anderson and then Jenson I just wanted to say again I think your mic's working hello I just wanted to reiterate something I brought up on a few of consent agendas when we approve the school Financial reports that we've talked about how a lot of

003those funds you know if a school for instance receives a small Grant and they don't spend the whole thing down and there's $200 in there that in some cases that $200 is staying in there for you know more than 15 years and that we really want to encourage people to spend that money on students and our business administrator Allan has given a lot of clear direction as has others and Finance in the meeting about how that can be rolled into discretionary money and I did a little bit of a comparison between the first school financial report that I approved on consent and the current one we're approving today and only 10 of our 27 elementary schools show evidence of long-term spending that's only 37% of our schools and the average spending is only $1,000 with

004discretionary budgets as high as $882,000 and we have some schools that have spent as little as $1,000 in the past year on students so I really think that when we have student spending that's not going anywhere and it's not being rolled over discretion that is really something we need to look at because the money should be going to the kids who go to these schools Ash board member Jensen I appreciate your comment Ashley I had been looking at that as well and was concerned there are a number of schools that are around that 82,000 I think there's one that's even 88,000 um I also um wanted to look at exhibit 2b1 J that's mobile hotspots and it's um with T-Mobile I think that at some point we need to have a discussion or a conversation

005about what is the district's responsibility to provide internet Ser home internet service um the pandemic is behind us and when I look at that uh request it's $200,000 and to me $200,000 is significant I think that that's worth a conversation or a discussion um at the board to determine how we want to move forward on those kind of um requests I guess I'm thinking of that also I know this was a month ago but I had another request about um the student laptops that I think were 2.2 million um I think that all of that together is worth a conversation um what do you think Mr kley I because so much of that just focused around the one to one so I think you know we've been doing one to one for two years now

006uh I think a board report in a future board meeting about how's it going what's working what's maybe not working uh how much money are we spending on it is is would be a valid report for the board thank you and then um this is just a comment on this would be exhibit uh 2 B5 reclassification of an assistant manager and it was custodial and I don't have any problems when we're you know doing a job schedule review but when you're referring to the different salary schedules in your request for me as a board member it would be helpful if you gave a copy of that particular schedule um I mean I went through I know where the salary schedules are you know when we go to the district but there are well a lot

007of different SCH schules and it just seems like it would be an efficient use of time to just provide that schedule so that you can make the comparison and see oh okay they're moving it from this level to that level thank you Brad any other discussion points all right we will start with a roll call Vote with vice president Williams Bryce Williams yes Jenny Sika yes Ashley Anderson yes Nate Salazar yes Mohamed yes Brian Jensen yes Christy sweat yes thanks Christie all right that concludes our consent agenda for this evening and we will move on to the next portion of our agenda which is our request to speak um as you know the board has asked me to um to read a statement regarding guidelines uh for speaker public comment uh the board enjoys the

008opportunity 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 3 minutes the board will not allow public comments during board meetings that are slanderous obscene or otherwise violate state or federal law three employees Andor their representatives may not use the public comment period to address issues that should be raised through existing formal communication channels or establish grievance or negotiation procedures I'd also like to explain that un 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

009if 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 Brianna Taylor uh good evening members of the school board my name is Brie Taylor LOF my pronouns are they them and I'm here to discuss the plan changes to board policy G24 I have deep concerns about the potential repercussions of these changes and it occurred to me that many of you may not have ever spoken with someone who utilizes a G24 protection plan I would like to share my personal experience with this policy to highlight its importance I've been a teacher in this District since 2015 but I did not come out publicly and begin my transition until 2019 one factor in that timeline was not feeling safe

010to show up as who I am in the workplace especially after seeing other colleagues experience discrimination for their lgbtq plus identities I lived on both sides and know what it is like to navigate this District when I was perceived as cisgender compared to now as a transgender individual I cannot stress enough that not only is it specific policy for transgender and non-binary staff and students deeply needed but we need even more education awareness and support as a non-binary educator the original language of policy G24 provided clear and specific support to navigate the hostility and ignorance that transgender and non-binary binary folks face on a day-to-day basis I wish I didn't need a safety plan because of who I am be but after facing targeted harassment online from colleagues and community members the trust and sense

011of safety that the specific language of G24 created was crucial it allowed me to focus on my work and contribute fully to the school Community instead of being consumed with the stress and anxiety of wondering if I was safe I felt reassured that the district recognized and valued my identity which is something that generic inclusivity language could not have provided as effectively if the language becomes more generic I fear that future transgender and non-binary staff and students May face the same uncertainty and hesitation in seeking support visibility and acknowledgement are not just abstract Concepts they have real tangible effects on our daily lives seeing my identity explicitly mentioned in policy helped me feel seen and valued not just as an educator but as a person the policy did more than just protect me it fostered

012a culture of inclusivity and acceptance that benefits the entire School Community while I understand the need to comply with HB 261 we must advocate for interpretations that allow for specific protections within a broader inclusivity framework maintaining the explicit language in policy G24 demon demonstrates our District's commitment to Leading with integrity and supporting all individuals genuinely we know as Educators that a one-size fits-all approach is not best practice we Implement differentiation and know the importance of recognizing the individual needs of each student in our classrooms Salt Lake City School District aims to be the flagship District of our state to be a district Leading The Way with Integrity I hope you consider the precedent you set with each of these decisions because it will influence how other districts approach similar issues where we are called to

013defend the dignity safety and inclusion of communities that need us most thank you thank you thank [Applause] you our next speaker this evening is Riley pickle of course it is yes um hello board good evening my name is Ry pickle my pronouns are they she and I'm going into my third year as a high school educator in your District I am proud to work in a district that promotes inclusion and Equity I'm especially proud to work for an admin team at my site that supports and accept accepts me for who I am as a human while also pushing me to be a better teacher and recognizing me as the teacher that I already am which is a great one I'm not here to brag about how incredible my panther community is however in addition to

014being a proud educator I'm also a proud non-binary lesbian the G24 policy allows me to feel safe enough to be the teacher that I needed when I was a student and that our students need now that is why I feel the need to discuss the impact of what was recently changed in the policy as per your vote the board reviewed G24 because of HB 261 and ultimately voted to replace the language specific to my community to comply with the law language that was purposefully crafted to offer protections for all while intentionally naming those who are at a higher risk of harm in my opinion this policy did not promote differential treatment or engage in discriminatory practices as defined by HB 261 however understand that I am not a lawyer instead I will focus on what

015I do know as a language arts teacher language the Eraser of specific identities from the law has an impact we felt in the history books for decades I truly believe that we could have had visible language for our students and staff while being in compliance with the law but we chose not to while this seems small is the policy still includes those students even without explicitly naming them I am worried about what it means for the future of our district I worry about what else will be what else we will choose not to do at the expense of students who are dying at a high rate for a government who does not seem to care that they are dying in the first place in addition to language I know a lot about our awesome queer

016students my main concern is how this will affect them after the vote a few weeks ago as a very visibly queer educator I have the privilege of getting to know these high-risk students in hallways and their extracurriculars although I may not teach them in my class ever simply because we share community and queerness it is the greatest joy of my job to watch them be out and in a high school without shame where I never could have imagined doing that when I was 17 just 8 years ago they're incredibly Brave and resilient one of these students just graduated and luckily rid themselves of all their teachers but was kind enough to agree when I asked if she would let me read her reaction to G24 being changed I hope that you will take it into

017consideration when more bills are passed like HB 261 and that the board will listen and always seek out non-binary and trans Educators and students like myself in my amazing students before voting on issues that will affect us in the future she said quote school is already difficult as a trans student if I didn't have this while I was in school I wouldn't have made it please please please protect us as the non-binary adult that she trusted in a school that loved and accepted her for who she was in our amazing Flagship District I am also begging you please please please protect us thank you thank you that concludes our request to speak portion we're moving on now to our discussion agenda the first item is bonding discussion in Timeline uh Alan do you want to

018go ahead and introduce this to us please yes we have some some guests in the audience to help us with this conversation uh we've got Alex buckon from zans Public Finance and Ryan yki from uh Chapman and there are our um bond attorneys and we have Kye Gibb there from Y2 analytics that you heard from her the other board meeting they're here to um answer any questions if you three want to come up to this table just pull up an extra extra chair there um attached to the agenda and also in your handout is this calendar of things that need to happen between now and a November bond election and we're going to have Alex since since it's on Zion's letter head Alex pulls the Short Straw to kind of go through this and and

019maybe explain what some of these things are and answer any questions you may have sure okay do we want to put it up on the the screen or are we just doing this he'll be pretty small on the SC okay all right I should have brought my reading glasses to read my own print here then all right um well again my name is Alex buckton with Zion Bank Public Finance and appre appreciate the invitation to meet with you it's been a few months so it's great to be back uh along with uh my uh colleagues here um so we we had a draft calendar that we uh Ryan and I kind of went through and and uh nailed down a few dates um and so we can go through these um all of these dates

020are fit within the legal requirements um certain things have to be done within a certain timeline certain range between now and the November 5th election and and so all these dates uh fit within that um however that we do have some wiggle room so if we needed to adjust a few days here or there you know it certainly can be done so um you want me to just go kind of line by line then Alan yeah that'll be great okay so uh of course today we're having our meeting to uh to uh review this we had a a call a couple of weeks ago and um as of right now uh we have scheduled August 6th to adopt the election resolution um that has to be adopted within 75 days of the election uh or

021no sooner than 75 days uh before the election and so the actual kind of deadline for that would be on August 22nd but uh as of right now we've got it scheduled for August 6th it's kind of nice to have a little bit of again wiggle room so that if something needs to be adjusted or it doesn't happen on August 6 we still have time to come back to the board before August 22nd to adopt that um that of course would mean by that time we'd want to have everything kind of nailed down as far as the amount of bonds that the school district wants to uh pursue with the election and so we'd have a uh part of that resolution that Ryan would put together would also have uh some ballot proposition language included

022that would actually be part of that November 5th election um we'd also after that uh have a publication of a notice of public hearing that would need to be posted on the uh on the uh public notice website and uh also put in a public public location that's reasonably likely to be seen by residents of the district it used to be we put it in the newspaper that doesn't uh get the view viewership as it used to so now uh the law has been changed where you just have to post it in a location that's reasonably uh to be seen um September 2nd and and I'm going to go through these fairly quickly since there's kind of a lot to cover but if you have a question just chime in and and one of us

023can certainly answer that um September 2nd uh would be the last day that a eligible voter could file a request to the election officer to prepare an argument in favor or against the bond proposition several years ago uh new legislation came out to require arguments in favor and against the election and so sometimes we have somebody that files um a request to put something as a kind of a a argument uh against the election sometimes we don't we don't have to have one but uh but that would be the day that they would have to have filed a request and then September 6th uh would be the actual deadline to submit the argument against uh that same day on September 6th um the board would also o submit a argument in favor of the bond

024proposition eligible voters could do that as well but uh the board would uh would submit that um we would I would likely work with Allen to put that together or a member of the board or superintendent or we'd kind of work on that together but we'd need to have that put together 500 words or less as you see uh September 17th there' be a public hearing um that uh we would have already uh posted that publication of notice of public hearing that would take place on September 17th which is a regularly scheduled board meeting uh which is why we chose that day and again it fits within the legal parameters of the of the timeline uh between September 23rd and October 21st uh we would need to put together and mail out a voter information

025pamphlet or brochure um and uh again it would include a plan of finance and and uh we can uh help put that together along with uh probably staff of uh of the school district communication staff or marketing staff would help with that as well um so that everybody understands exactly what it is the school district is is looking to do with the election uh September 23rd is the last day uh for rebuttals on those prior arguments in favor or against so kind of a response to those uh would happen uh sometime at or before September 23rd uh October 1st would be another public essentially a public hearing we call it a public meeting but that would be when we'd actually um present the argument for and possibly against if there was one we would we

026would have a meeting specific to that and read through those and answer questions uh we have to we have to hold that and it can't be um it can't be before 6:00 p.m. so uh we have that scheduled again during a regularly scheduled board meeting on October 1st uh right around that same time we um we would begin the distribution of information brochures again I mentioned that the timeline is between September 23rd and October 21st so we're just saying hey right by the beginning of October we ought to have that brochure ready to go that we can disseminate to everybody all right next side of the page here um we've got is an optional meeting um a meeting with the Utah taxpayers Association that's not a legal requirement but as we mentioned in a previous

027uh our previous discussion a couple weeks ago having gone through this many times our group um I feel like it's always a good idea to get them up to speed on what it is the district's looking at doing they're going to weigh in on it regardless so we might as well be proactive set up a meeting with that group uh they appreciate it um we kind of you know can invite whoever wants to be there and we just let them know exactly what it is we're we're trying to uh accomplish and usually that is helpful uh when it comes time for them to decide kind of where they stand um and so I recommend that we we set up a time to meet with them but we do want to have everything lined up and

028we know exactly what we're doing before we meet with the taxpayers association um also in the beginning of October uh we would post the arguments and the rebuttal arguments um uh on the uh voter information website and the board's website um and so uh you know in the district's newsletter or other periodical if applicable so we can kind of determine where we're going to post all that but we want to make sure once again it's about getting the word out being very transparent to the voters and giving them all the information uh that they need to make their decision um October 10th we we post a notice of of bond election and uh once again on the notice uh public notice website in a public location reasonably likely to be seen um and so everybody

029knows that on November 5th Salt Lake School Districts is is having an election uh then of of course on November 5th would be the election day and uh a couple of weeks after that the board has a meeting scheduled on November 19th and that would be the last day essentially to um to cus the results of the election so we talked about that being a the likely day that we would canvas the results now there are there are other things that can be added to this calendar this is mostly outside of that tax payers association meeting this is mostly just what's required uh from a legal perspective certainly we always recommend you know public um open houses you know whether it be at the high schools or uh putting together you know fact sheets and

030having those available um you know you can have more meetings if you want like I say public open houses and things like that but this this is kind of the minimum requirement uh that we'd have to uh follow and we've got this guy here to make sure that we follow everything to the te right Ryan exactly okay so with that said um uh I if there's any questions on what I've gone over uh happy to answer those if either of you feel like I've skipped something or need to expound on something more please uh chime in but uh I turn it back over to you Alan yeah so I think the big thing to note is that August 6th date which will basically be when the board approves that yeah we're going to we're going

031to go out for Bond so we'll be working with this team to create you know one or a couple different bonding scenarios that the board will approve one of those on the August 6 meeting uh that approves the bond language is as we move forward and once that happens then the both the district and the board's role changes and so I want Ryan to kind of address from then what as board members what what can you do and what can you not do do you want to hand the mic to Brian sure so once you've decided to go forward with the ballot proposition or a bond election uh then as Alan says your role kind of changes because you right now you're kind of discussing what you want to do what's good what's bad everything

032at that point you become subject to um the political activities of public entities act um and so you have to be careful in what you do I'm going to tell you the NOS right now really fast and then we'll kind of talk about some other things first off the the issuer or board and the district can't expend public funds to advocate for the bond proposition okay so that can get really technical um you don't want anything used uh you don't want to come in and make copies on the The District's machines and go out and use that anything like that you can't be doing to Advocate you can give facts but you cannot Advocate the other thing that you really don't want to ever do is use your District or board email okay uh to

033Advocate that's so violation of the expenditures of public funds is a Class B misdemeanor um and it's on an individual basis okay and the email violation I think is up to a $250 fine for each instance but not to each address e that makes sense okay so generally what we would encourage you to do is anytime you're acting in your me or in your capacity as a board member that you be factual and neutral and not advocating one with way or the other okay any meetings any public forums that you have U these open houses that you do you can give out facts you can respond to questions with facts but it should not be vote for or vote against um now you could say we encourage you to make your views known and get

034out and vote but not telling them how to vote okay all this is when you're acting in your board capacity as representatives of the board or of the district okay no expenditures of public funds no emails biggest thing to be aware of is I'm guessing you often have constituents who email you with your board email address and they may ask you questions about that and your natural inclination is going to be to hit reply and you may have something in there that Advocates so you're really going to have to be careful with that um and it could be that at some point you may feel like I'm going to switch to my personal email account okay um if you're not acting in your board capacity if you're acting as a private citizen you have your

035free speech rights um but that needs to be made clear um that also deals with uh websites if you have a kind of a sub page on the board or the district website you can't Advocate there but if you have a separate private website um there's more freedom there so there are exceptions in here that are discussed there are some very particular details about when you can and can't provide a link as a district or a board that I'm not going to necessarily get into um you can we can discuss that later if you want but those are the highlights for you as board members on what you need to be focused in on uh and what you can and can't do once you've decided to go forward with that election any questions yes so

036when you talk about using funds when we have these open houses I mean there's expense to having an open house the janitorial services all of that sort of stuff so you're going to be keeping those open houses factual and not advocating okay so so as long as you're not as long as you're not advoc ating you can have you can have those okay the the board and the district Can U can actually uh go out and gather facts and information okay um using funds okay but as long as you don't turn that into advocacy you're okay okay that information can be provided to others who may use it in that role but you can't as a board yeah so I would just add when we talked about like the voter information brochure that gets sent

037out to everybody the district helps put that together we'll probably print it out on District paper and use District funds to create it but we'll make sure that it's a very neutral factual only information brochure nowhere will it say vote yes it'll say vote and they'll say here's here's the need here's the solution to the need and here's the cost you guys decide right and so we make sure that as we put all that information together if we put a factual sheet together a lot of districts like to just have like a onepage what's a bond what's the tax impact what's all that stuff will just be factual we can use District funds to print it out and to make it and we just have it at various uh you know keep it at schools

038or whatever and people can just grab one you know so so as long as it becomes it's a neutral like Ryan's talking about then we're okay if if somebody within the district like a a resident or a school teacher well I don't know school teacher but a private citizen wants to advocate for the dis for the bond and put a big vote Yes for the bond that's okay but they have to pay for it right I mean and maybe you can talk a little bit more about that cuz cuz you do you know one of the things that we'll probably work with you on is it is nice to put together an election committee that would be made up of some of you might be made up of you know some teachers might be made

039up some uh kind of U high-profile residents that like to be involved and so we like to get input and if another group wants to advocate for it or another group wants to spend money to say vote no Ryan can talk to that but um essentially that's okay as long as it's not you guys that are using the funds or your funds so do you want to talk about that well just maybe a slight addition to that is and likely not on your site so if Alex with Alex an example of a teacher if they want to support it that's great at their home or something but probably not in their classroom not a banner in the auditorium yeah exactly so that would be kind of the only caveat to that any other questions a

040question but it's really for probably Allan which is how would we communicate that out to teachers principles Etc right because the things you're talking about that would apply to us would apply to anyone who uses a district email so we wouldn't want a teacher to you know send out a mass message one way or the other yeah um again so last time the district bonded was in 1999 so none of us done this before but we will I'm sure send out Communications districtwide to all employees kind of laying out the the dues and the don't so they're aware of that because we we don't want things to fall apart because somebody didn't follow the rules and to follow up on Ashley's question are things like templated responses or emails ever suggested or recommended to employees

041or elected officials who are participating in this as to not accidentally advocate for something one way or the other you know I haven't necessarily seen that or had that come up um and that might be um yeah it might be a good thing to have um but again it's probably just for your District employees you wouldn't have to do necessarily outside colletive officials um I was thinking about us as elected official yeah you as an elected officials yeah I mean it could be okay or it could just be the guidelines of you know a simple thing of don't use your District email address or as or don't use your District or email as you're responding don't put your opinions within your schoolroom office on District sites you don't necessarily have to say this is how

042you have to respond but we I think we want to make sure that everybody understands too and with uh teachers and and uh School District employees that would like to see this Bond pass if their neighbor comes over and says hey what do you think about this that's they can express their opinion absolutely so it's just a matter of I think again the email you know in what form are you expressing your opinion are you you know where are you when you're doing it if you're at church and somebody comes up to you and says hey what do you think about this if you're in favor you can talk about that if you don't like it you can talk I mean so it's not it's not uh telling anybody that's involved with the district hey

043you can't say anything anything I just want to make sure that's clear because at the end of the day teachers and employees of the district and and of course parents and think those are the folks that really help pass an election if an election passes you know without that support it's very hard to pass an election board members support as well so um anyway we don't want to scare anybody off to share their opinions on the bond just just to to clarify again this is after a resolution has been passed so you don't have to worry about your emails right now but and you don't have to worry about a teacher sending a rogue email right now there's there's time to get all of this in place and make sure that those guidelines and restrictions

044are made clear BR thank you for that explanation Allan because I was sitting here thinking okay a month ago we had a presentation from why2 analytics and you were I mean one of the reasons you have been retained well not one the reason you have been retained is to help us be successful in bonding this we can see that there's a need for two new high schools and in that you were making suggestions of things to do to accomplish you know a bond passage navigating yeah okay so you're working with Chapman or whatever to make sure that we're not violating any regulations I will work very closely with Ryan to make sure that I'm not recommending anything that's illegal absolutely and we will work very closely with Ryan to make sure we don't send anything

045out that's illegal I have a question Ashley um you mentioned that the newspaper is not the most common way that it's reasonably seen anymore what is the most common way that notices are most reasonably seen um well of course the the Utah not notice public web s it is a must your your own website um you know putting something up on a on a door like the front door of the building here um what other what other public places can high schools grocery stores sometimes have the little Community bu libraries yeah libraries you know I mean again you know whether it's the voter information pamphlet that we made make extras and we place those strategically um you know at the end of the day I think the goal again is just to do the best

046job possible to get the word out we don't want anybody to go to the polls on November 5th and say whoa what's this you know then we haven't done our job as a district as a election committee is you know um and so you get the word out you get you get the facts out out there you talk about the need that uh that essentially you have the solution is the bond the cost of the bond you very transparent this is what's going to cost everybody and then you trust the voters to make the the I guess the right decision really so um but yeah the more we can get the word out in placing brochures you know onepage sheets at the schools and and again we just run them by this guy to make

047sure he agrees they're neutral and that they're just factual and that they're not trying to sway one way or the other we're just saying here it is and you guys decide um but you yeah and then you just trust the voters and just um to that point I think a lot of people have struggled since the the change um to where to actually post these um and this language is a little bit more forgiving than it was before but you can obviously do more than is legally required so if you feel like hey we still want to put it in the newspaper you can it's just not a legal obligation um the one thing that I would just mention on this is U so they created the class a notice um requirements recently and that's

048what this is this is a class A notice and so really it should be wherever you post have been posting your class A notices that would be the place to continue to do it Ryan can you give us a sense of what consequences or outcomes there could be if these laws are violated yeah I was going to kind of follow up because there was some concern that maybe you might affect the election and no in general unless there's sort of outrageous behavior on your part it should not affect the outcome of an otherwise authorized election usually what it would be is as I mentioned it's a Class B misdemeanor if you've got the expenditure of funds that you shouldn't have had or the the $250 fine and this has not been in place for a

049long time and there's not a lot of case law about some of these things um I'm guessing as you get down to some of the uh you know teachers and some of the staff that's not as involved as you are that there may be some more leniency in those circumstances than for those who are actually um more of the public official side so thank you I I will say there was a district I won't name but and I wasn't part of the bond election but recently there was a district that had a very slim margin of passing like very slim um and it was thought by many that the information they were Distributing was in favor of and uh at the end of the day nothing happened I suppose if anybody was super you know

050outrageously angry that they used District funds to essentially kind of sway the vote to a yes um they could have it could have gone to court and those kind of things but it never did I think that District might have been sweating it for a little for a couple weeks perhaps but at the end of the day nothing happened their election did pass by a narrow margin and they and they built the schools so um that's the only time I can think of recently that that has come up and it was like wow you know that was a little bit wasn't didn't seem to be as neutral as it maybe should have been but anyway question yeah so public spaces so uh could a district for example have banners like let's say at a corner

051of uh Liberty Park you know traffic is heavy out there is that okay or is it not if the banner was you know bond election get out and vote yeah you're fine I've I've seen districts do that quite a few times of you know you might even see it on the school side itself where it's just you know remember to vote okay something neutral like that yes you can do that um thank good right so how does this relate to like City Council Members or something like that because there are councilmen or Council women that you know those high schools are in their area and they may really see that there is this need for a high school or what can they what can they say is this something that has to be relayed through

052us to them or I don't want it to be that we haven't given notice to you know all of the impacted individuals is that our responsibility no I don't think so okay um yeah and I [Music] um you know I haven't actually had that question come up of does this apply to somebody trying to influence an election that is not their own election yeah um if they were to use their um City email address um there is a an exception for elected officials that may come into play there um uh but no it's it's not your responsibility it's their obligation as to comply with the act themselves we're just trying to educate you since you'll be the issuer of the bonds and the spotlight will truly be on you yeah as the issuers of the

053bonds in the public eye it is important that you stay neutral and abide by the laws here it's also important to between now and the time you decide whether or not to put a bond on the ballot to be reaching out to those other elected officials whose jurisdictions overlap with yours because they do outsized influence on their voters and it is not unprecedented for other governing entities elected officials to have a really negative impact on a bond election if they choose to come out in opposition so I would strongly recommend communicating with Salt Lake City Council Members sooner rather than later about the needs of the district the potential solution here and the course of action ahead just to make sure that you're identifying allies early on and doing your best to sideline potential opponents

054you can see where I was going absolutely yes I I I was going to say the same thing you know we talked about the election committee I mean the city council members those are those high-profile residents and taxpayers and voters that I was talking about so just from a personal opinion 100% those are the folks you want on your side and those are the ones you want advocating with their own money or you know not not as members you know not as part of the school district but advocating for yes votes because those are the ones you know often times that make a a big difference in getting something pasted any other questions I I do have okay so I appreciated how you gave this Legend at the bottom of your what did I miss

055what I just want to make sure that I understand the legend because yeah no I know it's showing you know different responsibilities and of course I key on key in on okay what's mine or so over on those dates over in the right hand I guess you'd call it a column you give like VA okay that's the business administrator I mean this is going to be part of his job or whatever but then there will be times when it says um Municipal advisor okay that's Zion bank or whatever but then it says SB so that's me and my colleagues um SB is also the superintendent should that be SD that's a that's a typo okay we ought to drop the B and just have her an S okay have her an okay just wanted make

056sure I that's good Y and then over on Friday October 4th it says um you know by this day we're going to post these arguments and rebuttal and all that stuff and CC is it's their responsibility are we talking about EC is that the election who is that whose job is oh that's you that's Chapman oh okay okay all right yeah this this guy's this guy is BC and CC how's that Bond counil okay AKA Chapman and Cutler so okay good I I appreciate you looking at this in fine detail okay so not everybody would catch that so no that's great yep so before we're done with the conversation the other part of the discussion is dollar Mount so Sam if you could pull up this [Applause] PowerPoint so between now and our next board

057meeting in August we'll need to kind of narrow this down well it's actually pretty narrow at the beginning um but so this but we we'll need to final it so uh Isaac and I met with the Architects so the The Architects that would be designing the two high schools are the same Architects that we hire to do the feasibility studies in that RFP process um it was written that whoever wins the feasibility study would also be the Architects to design the building so the Architects are already selected for these projects um we've been since the beginning using about a $300 million per School number um using the in in the feasibility study it had different options using the um the I don't remember the exact term the recommended option uh from them usually lowest price

058and least um disruptive to the student learning environment so the these prices are built on those um those recommendations uh we're still looking at $300 million um for each school so that's total cost architectural construction um utilities and whatever uh in addition um you know as I think we rebuild east and west or if we rebuild west and Highland um we also would like the students up at East High School to have a similar you know Athletic Facility as the two new high schools so there's uh Equity amongst the three so that's why we put on here at East High Fieldhouse uh at an estimated of 40,000 $40 million um other things we uh could bond for so as we're looking at the construction you know as we look at sustainability if for West High

059School we wanted to add solar to that project that's another $2.5 million uh solar for Highland another 2.5 and then ground Source heat pump so that's instead of using natural gas boilers uh using ground ground uh Source heat pumps for Highland notice West isn't on there because as we did a study West the the land around West does isn't conducive to ground store seat pumps so that's another 3 million so those are some sustainability things we could add to the bond which would then add to those projects and other sustainability projects you know as we have that goal for the board uh we can add either new or expansion solar to the following the auxiliary service building Indian Hills backman Highland Park horizonti Mountain View Whittier Bonville Bryant glendell Washington Clayton Northwest Northstar um there's

060also the hybrid electrification so one of the first in phase one we did a full electrification at uent and a hybrid electrification at bman and through that experience we determined that the additional cost for a full electrification really isn't worth um what you get out of it so we would recommend hybrid electrifications as similar to back which have kind of some backup uh gas boilers uh for hitting those peak times um so all these are an estimated cost of an additional $80 million and and that's to um meet those goals of the sustainability goals of the board so summary I mean I kind of put this out as the top three the 640 million those are kind of the non-negotiables those are the things that um we need to do then the sustainability projects are

061you know how does the feel as we work towards those goals or do we want to revisit those goals I mean if we're going to meet those deadlines that are in the the sustain the sustainability um resolu resolution thank you um this will kind of this this will almost be a must in order to meet those those deadlines or do we want to revisit those deadlines I got a question for you Alan maybe more for for miss gib I believe from Y2 um do you think that some of these addition projects or or recommendations would you know like sway the the results that you found in the initial surveys that you did so in the $750 million bond proposal that was tested in the survey and the focus groups we included those sustainability projects and

062I believe the Fieldhouse at East High as well so all of that was covered in that $750 million proposal that was presented to voters uh there were some dissenting opinions about the need for a Fieldhouse and whether that was an appropriate use of public funds okay uh but that the sustainability projects to improve efficiency throughout the district was something that voters really uh rallied behind so I I would say the only piece here that would give me pause from a voter perspective would be that Fieldhouse however to Allen's point I think to alienate those uh voters in the district who are loyal to East High would be a mistake as well so it's a it's a fine line to tread but I don't think that anything on this list is an immediate red flag okay

063thank you Ashley I have a question for Alan which is if you're looking at the district sustainability projects and you're looking at the cost one of the things we saw in this survey as kind of not an outlier but one of the more qualitative notes was about some of the elementary schools that are older and potentially needing to rebuild those if you look at the sustainability amounts and know that we didn't test for elementary schools could you explain for people who are listening how something like bonding also allows us to replenish cash reserves which is how elementary schools have been rebuilt in the past right so we have our Capital tax levy which keeps coming in and what a bond does is means okay we don't have to use that Levy for these projects we

064get this other source so as we continue year after year to get the tax levy in in and we can reserve those Cash Cash reserves which is what we've done for the last couple elementaries we've built is we haven't bonded for them we've used cash reserves so we build that up so that when it's time to replace a school um we we use our cash reserves for those buildings and then as a followup to that I mean what you're saying is the Edison and mear were built with cash reserves right those are the last two Elementary School cor and then also that we if I'm right about this we did a feasibility study for all of these things we know the cost of sustainability from mckinstry we know the cost of the high school rebuilds

065because we worked with the architectural firms but we don't know what the cost would be of an elementary school so we couldn't sufficiently have tested that in the same way right and and part two because we don't have any elementary schools that are on our kind of 10year plan for a rebuild because they still have plenty of useful life um but as we look at our you know beyond that that's when we look at those cash reserves if if we had to use cash reserves for these high schools at $300 million a piece you know we'd be like 50 years just to build up the reserves to build one of them so all those other projects wouldn't be able to happen because all of our money would go to these which is why bonding is

066so important here the to off offset the cash drain from our reserves to a bond and then we can use our reserves for the remaining capital projects which um will come up over this several years and which would eventually include obviously Elementary and or middle school I mean every building we have has an end of life right um so yeah so our our our plan is build those reserves so when those buildings are end of life we don't have to bond for every building that we're doing between now and you know 50 years from now and I do actually have one more question for you while I'm thinking about it which is part of the agenda item here talks about looking at architectural plans can you explain how we would move forward with paying for

067architectural plans if a bond resolution was approved by us and then ultimately not successful right so um what we're asking is some preliminary that that we approve a PO in the next board so the um Architects can start doing some preliminary work now where there a bond passes in November or not we still have these Capital needs so um again because they're they're not we wouldn't be doing full-blown design until we know whether election passes but it's kind of decide okay how many gyms do we want in a high school how many classrooms approximately what's the square footage and as we look at our um number of students that are projected what what are these buildings really going to look like and Architects can start um figuring that out and designing so we have a

068better idea of what that building actually looks like and that will give them a head start so if a bond passes in November then they really get into the design phase and hopefully get the bid package out you know in N 9 months to to 12 months after the bond election so we can you know because each year that passes is an inflationary increase so it's really to lay some groundwork so that they can really hit the ground running if a bond election passes in November thank you all right Alan thank you for the discussion so it's oh Brian go for it so in your estimate you've included 300 million for West High and 300 million for Highland High I don't have those different options in front of me and I mean it was several

069months ago but I'm remembering that there were several options that were more than 300 million so do we really think that we can get the high school built for $300 million yeah I mean clearly some of the trick with West is that'll be a multi- bid phase so um year one they'll bid like phase one and it's really the architect's best guess on what's going to happen with inflation I mean they have built some inflationary um factors into their estimates of $300 million um but it'll be hard to absolutely know until we get the bid packages back um if let's say 300 million wasn't enough we have other we have we can draw from our cash reserves there's other me methods that districts can uh borrow money that's not through a bond um if you

070know we had let's say we were 10 million shy we could we could borrow that 10 million through other means that's not a bond but you know the Architects are they're the experts on here so I'm I'm hoping that 300 million is a good solid number that we well I mean I am too I just don't want it to be that we get there and we find out more oh my gosh it's 50 million more or whatever are are we going to be able to come up with 50 million more from other sources or some of too all right let's look at the design all right maybe we start cutting some stuff back that brings the cost down so that there's there's other Revenue sources plus a design to you know control cost we can

071work with both of those that yeah um a $300 million price it feels pretty good in the ballpark okay it just doesn't seem like a good thing to not be able to build it and then the Public's looking and going we gave you this money and you or have to go for another bond election in a couple years cuz we didn't do enough which is you know why we're really um Wanted The Architects to look and say okay 300 is this realistic is this going to get the job done and and they're still saying yes that'll get the job done okay okay so then just note so next meeting um I'll work with this team to have um my guess is we might have two things to approve the 728 million see there or the

072640 and we can have that discussion at the next um meeting like kyne said um there was at at the 750 million that I mean it seemed like the people they surveyed really said just get it done and get it done right um is kind of the opinion I was getting so we'll have that discussion in August and then uh uh if the board's amable we'll approve a bond resolution going forward okay but we will be working with these three again um I was looking at some of the language some of the Articles you can find from when the 1999 Bond passed a lot of rules have changed since then thank you Alan thank you presenters for being here tonight thank you board for the good discussion thank you thank you thank you right um

073one thing I want to mention before I move to item number two um is that I didn't note that we had three other written public comments um from folks who weren't able to be here this evening it is in your folders board members if you'd like to see it um they are all regarding um policy G24 and I'll make sure to work with Dr Grant and Allen um that these are attached to our minutes as as well sorry for that oversight earlier um item number two on our discussion agenda is the 20 24 25 weapon detection system Staffing contract um I know we've talked about this at length um a number of times Bard um and if there's no further discussion I would entertain a motion to move this to the action agenda I have

074discussion please so I respect that there's a perception of safety that has been reported by some parents and a smaller share of students and teachers and I don't want to wish to diminish their experiences but I do want to make data driven choices and it's clear from the Articles we've been presented by school leadership and performance as well as the broader body of literature that Staffing these detectors detectors is not evidence-based and before we begin the discussion or as we begin I wanted to share my frustration that in August of last year I asked for two things if the contract was approved and one was an update on stag training which is the evidence-based threat assessment model that this body approved and for future decisions about this type of contract to include additional staff including

075the seal office rather than being made a b matter of Business Administration and really in my opinion neither of those things have occurred as I reviewed my notes to prepare it was clear to me that no one at the time objected to those requests but that after being raised a few times they wouldn't be undertaken and nor would my subsequent request to analyze tardies and academic impact s caused by the detectors so these topics would in my opinion have improved our ability to address the needs that are now outlined in this memo which are exclusive from weapons detectors and for instance it was news to me that we've had palamerican contractors patrolling the streets surrounding our schools something that I still don't understand why it's possible for a private provider to do rather than a

076school resource officer um we also could have been updated on the recent safe school conference where some of our West High leaders did share their view on why this is effective but we also could have heard about the data that a vast majority of students in the United States bringing weapons to school do so for their own protection a separate study presented to us by school leadership and performance also shared that view cautioning against making decisions around weapons detectors without investigating quote stressors unique to the school environment and to understand how students decisions to bring weapons are shaped by the school climate if we'd heard from additional staff we could have asked ourselves why in an effort to make school safer we're failing to consider that we can't close the loop on increasing safety when

077presented with a competing reality that students are bringing weapons to feel safe in my opinion it's an equally large mistake to look at tardies or to avoid looking at tardies in academic outcomes which are our primary charge as is whether the strategy runs against SE stag which I think we've already endorsed as a body the lack of followup on these requests makes me uncomfortable as does the fact that we still lack school safety legislation cost estimates we've been told we won't have those estimates until much later this year but our peer boards have been provided estimates up to $20 million in onetime costs and 9 million in annual costs and I continue to think it's irresponsible of us to review any contract without more comprehensive followup on some of these topics you Ash any other

078discussion moham yeah uh can you hear me okay great uh well you know already my frustration first you know I never wanted to vote um for us to approve that and uh sad reality you know the majority voted and we moved on um and in our last discussion there were conversations about you know the reputation of the fact that if we were to make a decision and then we go back and retract that decision is not uh good for the image of a district and to that I say you you know what's not good is the fact that the thing came at last minute in place in our laps and we were required to vote within a very short period of time now yes it is a lot of money absolutely am I in in

079favor of weapon detectors absolutely not and I'll never be because those are schools that's where kids go that's not an airport that's not like a private contractor uh uh government facility or so that's that's like a place where people go to and I was trying to figure out you know what are other things that we have not talked about when it comes to the issue of weapon detectors so there is an issue of invasion of privacy invasion of privacy for those students can actually lead into civil liberties issue so that's one and we did talk about the Discrimination yes we did get data and information but the reality is the schools are very packed thousands of students go in and out of school and these numbers that we get are not going to be accurate

080in terms of the reality of what the students are dealing with when they go through those weapon detectors and the other one is a psychological Stress and Anxiety you know some might say oh it's not much but to you know I'm talking from my own experience as a minority person when going through weapon detectors even though you know you are not carrying anything there is always this added stress and anxiety whether something is going to beep that's a system yes it is meant to detect weapons but nevertheless it has also faults that it can actually we heard about information that you know if you don't reset it then there is a chance of a weapon going through and to me you know if something has to be reset and reset so we can avoid such

081thing there is an issue there it is very sad I wish I wish personally that this contractor would have had the audacity to come and sit in front of us here and answer any questions that the public has or questions that the board has before it was just you know taken and placed in front of us and we had to vote for it and if I may add just one last thing is about the emotional Wellness of our kids we all know those of us who have kids kids already are dealing with so much since covid and then we go ahead and we add this stress I've heard from numerous teachers about how many students walk into the classroom and they are distracted because they had to move the computer because it went off because

082of their water bottle or something just so many things out there and I and yeah so I hope we all think about this before we take a vote thank you any further discussion bre um yes I just have a couple of things um and I don't want to repeat what has already been said um but I very much resonate with what uh board member Anderson and board member bade have said um one thing I do want to reiterate and own up to is a year ago when we uh voted on this contract I voted in approval of moving forward with a one-year contract with the understanding that we would have some more research we would have some more data um looking into this and um my constituents let me know that that's what they expected

083that's what they wanted and they were very upset and so as we move forward today um my vote um will be based on uh what constituents have said to me looking at what data we do have and uh the fact that I haven't been cons convinced that this is the best decision for our district moving forward for for our kids thank you Bryce any other discussion uh just a question when we had um the principles come uh last meeting or whenever we Al we obviously had good experiences in one school and bad experiences in the other this contract that we're trying to that we're discussing it has to be all three schools that'd be a question for Al so when we initially were looking into you know the weapons detectors we felt it was best

084that you don't pick one school and label it as the dangerous school or the bad school that it's best that they're in all three of our comprehensive high schools at the same time now if a school chooses to do something with their own funds then that can be a different discussion um but as far as the district goes I think the district's um stance is if we're going to do it we do it at all three now I I I do want to clarify that the the contract in discussion is the um the Personnel the Staffing now the the machines will still be there if if there's um nobody there to staff them uh you know schools can maybe figure out something with their current staff or if they want to use them for specific

085events or if there's certain chatter I mean so the machines will potentially still be there but there just won't be the the Staffing to demand them on a day-by-day basis I see or they can be stored as well yeah Bri well I appreciated the opportunity that we had to hear from those uh principles of the three high schools I mean to me um they are responsible for securing the schools and ensuring that excellence in learning and equity and safety is provided for their students and the challenge that I have is I would like to have seen more data but I also rely on what those principles are telling me and two of those uh principles were um specific in saying that they felt like that it had been uh positive and that it did provide

086um security to the schools and when the third principal was questioned on that the third principal didn't want to lose the opportunity of having that and was trying to consider you know how to improve it at that school so when I'm getting that sort of instruction for the safety of the schools under the responsibility of those principles I can't just dismiss that when those principles are telling me of what their experiences are so this is a really challenging situation for me it's challenging also because as I listen to the data that we did receive and you know when knives are coming through and you know people are like I don't know if you call it gaming the system testing the system whatever it is trying to get the knives through to prove their point to

087me that is a breach of contract that okay representations were made that it would pick up these sort of devices guns knives all of that sort of stuff so I would like to know if there is any plan on going back and revisiting and saying you did not provide the services that you agreed to provide under your contract the same goes with the pal America contract where at one high school they weren't getting the support that they needed from pal America it's time so to me those um contractual agreements with pal America need to be looked at too and if you hadn't provided the services that you contra raed we need to address that Ashley as a followup comment as we talk about hearing from administrators I do want to point out that one of

088the studies provided to us by school leadership and performance does show that even when unintended consequences and inefficacy of weapons detection are documented the use of weapons detectors persists because administrators perceive them as effective and the article goes on to state that administrators are more likely than any other educational group to claim that detection is effective even when they're presented with evidence to the contrary so I really question why we would be moving forward in the process when the very evidence we were presented calls into question the process that we've had in evaluating efficacy and who we've been able to hear from as opposed to who we haven't been able to hear from M um no it is nice to hear from the uh principles uh but the reality is principles are not doing walking

089every day through those detectors the reality is um you know uh they do not have to pull out their computers and have to you know walk through and probably get you know checked that's the reality we are dealing with I mean it is that's for them what they see based on the information but the reality too is we are the ones who are in direct contact with the community we are the ones who are in direct contact with the community the parents reach out to us the parents really get in touch with us teachers as a matter of fact get in touch with us and they are the ones who are in direct contact with the students and they can see what is happening out there you know so there is like so much out

090there I mean there is a violation of the contract and also there is the issue of turnover of the employees that's actually makes an issue even more you know problematic because of inconsistency and instability and you see new people every time and also the other problem we've had is like there were some staff members who actually were fired because they did not follow the rules so we are only going to be adding more coal to the fight over here the best thing we can do right now is we learn from our old mistakes and we move forward and that mistake that we made before of us signing a contract and spending you know over a million dollar of just like taxpayers money then you know we owe it to the students regardless of the data

091that we get that shows its positivity or so it's time but let's ask ourselves what would the students really say at the moment when they are about to walk through that weapon detectors because we have not I stood there at the schools and I talk to the kids when they walk through and there is not a single student out of those 12 students I talk to that Express a positive opinion thank you mohhamad there's no further comment or discussion um I'll seek a a motion to to move item number two 2024-25 weapon detection system Staffing contract to the action agenda I can make that motion uh I move let me get the wording right sorry I move that we uh take the 2425 weapon detection system Staffing contract to the action agenda I have a

092motion is there a second to the motion second motion and a second and any further discussion to the motion seeing none we'll start with a roll call Vote with board member sea uh board member Sika no Ashley Anderson no Nate Salazar yes moham no Brian Jensen yes Christy sweat yes Bryce Williams yes all right that motion passes we will revisit this once we get to the action agenda all right our third item on the discussion agenda is item number three debriefing after board professional development conferences this was uh an agenda item that we didn't get to um in a previous meeting and discussion at our board retreat um and is one that uh has come up to board leadership and the superintendent to the board um and something that's really important um as we attend

093uh various trainings and conferences whether that's through usba if it's through other organizations like nalo or through the national Schoolboard Association um what is our mechanism or structure uh for bringing back ideas best practices um to the district to the board table and so on and so board member Jensen this is something that you have brought to us and if you want to start the conversation that'd be awesome well thank you I when I raised this it seemed to me that when we are attending these different conferences and when we are using um uh taxpayer funds that we should have a way to report on what we have learned and how we can Implement um ideas and policies that have been adopted or created in other school districts with success so my understanding and talking

094with you uh president Salazar was in this meeting that we would um be looking at a way to actually provide a platform where we could um share what we've learned we have had um State Legislative audits that have occurred and when they do that they make suggestions I also think think that it's important for us to find other avenues to um help us address what we perceive are the needs in our particular district and to me when you attend those different conferences you gain a perspective or an awareness of um tools policies um mechanisms that should be considered in our district thank you Brian well I think there's a a lot of really different ways that we could do that number one and um I know in a conversation that Bryce and I had with

095Dr Grant um she had talked to a couple of other superintendents who had some um some recommendations or even a suggestion about how we might go about it based on what they do in their respective districts and Dr if you want to provide what that example was or or if there's multiple examples that you've gathered since we had that discussion sure I'd be glad to good evening everybody it's good to see you um greetings from Boston here as I attend a conference um I spoke with Rich NY the superintendent in Granite and he shared that um his team they create a Excel spreadsheet sort of document with all of the sessions listed that people people attend you just add on the sessions each day you attended and those that attended could then explain um what

096they got out of it give some notes of things they were attending to in each of the sessions and it is proved to be a useful document for them um as they're trying to share information with each other about what they found striking or interesting to consider for a different District um it also was nice because it shows how many different ideas there are out there and helps the Board sort of sort through what might be most important for our district to consider in the future so I could look at that more and find out some more information on that but I thought it was a nice way to in a um fairly simple structure capture a lot of that for everybody and then those ideas could be later brought up in board meetings as

097desired BR do you want to respond thank you Dr Grant I think that um it's important for us to remember that um as board members when you look at the handbook one of the responsibilities that we have accepted is to educate ourselves and to learn um how to be the most effective board member and to me one of the ways that we do this is by attending those conferences but if there isn't a way to report you really haven't accomplished very much I think that when Dr Grant is talking about a spreadsheet where you're actually um checking in and because I would think that the taxpayers would also want to know oh okay um my representative he went to this conference these are the um workshops that he attended um I think that that's valuable

098to have that as a public record um so that I am accountable to my constituents and that they can see that I am um earnestly endeavoring to try and find um best practices for the Salt Lake City School District so when you have a reporting system of course it's reflecting that but then to me you take that reporting system one step further and you have some way to evaluate it as a board and decide oh it looks like four board members or whatever have attended this and they really felt like this is something that merits a conversation with the board or at least a look to see if this is something that um would be beneficial for the Salt Lake City School District that's Bri any other board members thoughts on the discussion so far

099to this point and potentially um you know kind of the interface of a spreadsheet that Granite is using and if that's something that you think would work for us ni yeah I think I like the idea of the spreadsheet I think it's a a good accountability piece and everything that's that Brian is saying one other piece I thought that um maybe we could consider is um sometimes at those conferences or professional development opportunities um there is a little bit of downtime where we're sitting around and discussing and maybe that could be a place where we do a little bit of that and then that could trans uh be transported into the spreadsheet for further review or discussion but I think that helps a little bit yeah and that makes sense as long as we're doing

100it in groups so that we haven't created a a Corum yeah any other thoughts to this topic is this something that folks feel comfortable moving forward with absolutely okay Brian is there anything that you'd want to add to a process or a standard like this well up until now I have not um sent out um notes from different uh workshops that I've attended because I haven't felt like there was a procedure and I didn't want it to be that I was overstepping and you know board members are going well you know what's board member Jensen doing flooding me with you know all of these things but I think that it would be nice to have um the ability to um share with your colleagues oh hey you know what I went to this particular because

101when you go to those workshops a lot of times you know there's a PowerPoint or something like that and to me the PowerPoint can help another board member like look at it and go oh you know what that is something that you know I'd like a little bit more information on so is this something that we can just agree that we go ahead and forward those things to one another or is there a procedure that you want to have I mean for me there there are two or three that I think are really timely um that okay I'm I'm just going to give you an example and this isn't you know like we need to have a conversation about this or whatever but in our conference in April I went to a workshop and it

102was called harnessing the power of a Citizens long range planning committee okay I know that I think Bryce was at that particular meeting Allan was at that um particular Workshop uh superintendent Grant was at that Workshop um uh we sat by each other but anyway as we were listening to that I could see um real um benefits that could come from implementing that sort of thing right now I mean we just had a presentation on you know bonding we also had a presentation on weapons detector well if we had a long range planning committee that u a Citizens long range planning committee that would be a way that would help us address concerns that board member Anderson and well board member will and board member B you all said that your constituents were contacting you

103about this weapons detector well to me this could be a tool where okay if we have and I'm not advocating that okay this is what we got to do we got to go sit but it would at least be something worth looking at to see if this is a tool that could help us as we try and um address significant issues that impact the community um so to me that's just an example of wow yeah let's let's look at that I appreciate that Brian that that provides a lot of really good context too okay I'll send it to you not only to this p but and I would say feel free to send your learnings or your your attachments you know from from those experiences onto the board um but just make sure that you

104BCC everybody so we don't create that Quorum virtually as well so but um I don't know and Dr Grant um did um I guess former superintendent and I now um give you any insights on how that spreadsheet interfaces with board meetings and and the public discussion oh I'm sure it was similar to what Board of member Jensen is mentioning but I can follow up and learn some more about that I think it was um less of an accountability tool and more of an information sharing tool so that just the board could communicate with each other in a way that was simple okay but I'll check on that and find out more about how they manage and facilitate that and bring that to the group well well I think it'd be good to to get a

105process like this set up and make sure that it's vetted um so that we're not creating a public meeting on a spreadsheet as well and just verify that um but I I think it'd be good to come back um you know Dr Grant and Allan and um Bryce and I can come back and and maybe present something in a in a future board meeting about what this could look like and certainly prior to our next professional development opportunities that we have coming up next year thank you I really appreciate having this discussion I I think it's valuable thank you board member Jensen for bringing it to us um well with that and that'll move us to our action agenda um as you know we have one item on here uh the 2024 25 weapon detection

106system Staffing contract I'll seek a motion to approve or not to approve um that particular item [Music] can we add can we discuss it a little more once we've made the motion once we made the motion [Music] okay okay I will make the motion to approve the 2024 25 weapon detection detection system Staffing contract we have a motion is there a second to the motion I'll second thank you chrisy any discussion now we're open to more discussion M go um okay it's interesting if you look in this room here the three board members with kids at school have voted no so put yourself in the shoe of that parent whose kids go through those weapon detectors and they come back to you and tell you about it it's not once not twice not three times

107my kids have expressed actually an utter uh frustration with having those systems in there because what a system right now is detecting let's be realistic those things have been going through the school for years and years and years the important thing for our schools to be really safe is for us to actually invest that million dollar plus we can take that and invest it in way that we can have our schools be a small village where everyone can watch for each other that's what we need to do now if you have your vehicle if you drive in it and there is an engine light on are you just going to ignore that just like this [Laughter] lights yeah so if if the engine light is on in your vehicle you're going to make sure you

108take it to the mechanic and make sure it's taken care of is that right because you know it's unsafe for you to drive that vehicle and right now everyone of us here has had that red light on something is missing something is not right that is actually making us question even a little bit about this contract or this system now each one of us here and I beg of you those without kids at schools right now please think about that engine light on if you have like a bit of a a doubt or a question that's something is not right please listen to that because uh let's do it for the [Music] kids go first if you want oh I I just wanted to clarify um um the vote to for no it's not necessarily

109my feelings on it after um um the principles came with their data and their experiences through it I just felt that there was a bit of an inconsistency throughout it and so my thought Pro that's that's the reason of my question is is there a possibility for schools because of course West High had an awesome experience right at least the Staffing did Administration they they claim that it helped it it helped them and and so like why can't the schools itself choose whether if they want the Staffing or not because my vote is not for the detectors cuz I have people who actually are okay with the detectors um they it they claim that it helped them but also at the same time I have a lot of students who you know eventually they just

110go with the Motions they were Disturbed um you know your usual complaints of delay getting into classes all of that stuff it wasn't necessarily the stress factor that Muhammad's talking about but I I my vote of no was because of the inconsistency throughout I'm not going to pay put out this XX amount of money for the staffing to be inconsistent and only consistent in one area I don't think that's wise so thank you J Ashley so first I want to acknowledge that it's obviously heavy to discuss school safety as guns are the current leading cause of death for children and teens at the same time that gun violence is prevalent there's also no evidence concluding that anything other than gun control will prevent deaths specifically in the Western United States where suicides make up the

111largest share of adolescent deaths and extreme risk protection orders would be the most effective strategy to help our students the American Academy of Pediatrics has identified numerous State contributors to the death rate including legislation about firearm access Suicide Prevention and firearm safety measures and noticibly absent is weapons detection with all the Bluster around guns you'll be hardpressed to find any evidence that weapons detection works with the Secret Service the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Education finding that hardening measures like detectors do not meaningfully reduce risks to our children when compared to threat assessment remodeling buildings and updating door locks I stated in our August 15th meeting last year it's my opinion that our district decisions should follow the evidence but I didn't only look at my own research I asked staff

112to produce items that they felt could guide our decision-making only one article concluded that weapons detection can work but stated the effectiveness of detectors to achieve their operational aims depends on the training of school Personnel the overall state of building security EG unlocked or unsupervised doors or Windows and the consistency of implement ation it also means that all students must be searched with no exceptions made none of these elements are met in our current strategy due to the turnover from private contractors the age of our buildings the limitations of our cameras and the lack of follow-up searches reported in the qualitative sections of the district survey we were presented combined with ongoing analysis of the remaining literature from school leadership I referenced earlier as well as literature from the school shooting database which identifies that

113bottlenecking single entrances is a risk factor for gun violence I can't support the detectors on an ongoing basis and would ask how we can vote for something when the evidence we were presented and the publicly available data suggests we should use these funds differently more and more our national peers are phasing out evolved due to litigation after student injury and violent incidents but we are being asked to continue at why perhaps it's because the latest memo asks us to contract with pal Amic for additional kinds of safety support and I would argue this continues to be in part because the city has been unable to supply the number of school re offic resource officers outlined in our to do this work just as I did last August I'd ask why we're not working on thatou

114and ongoing strategies for other needs particularly with the looming legislative mandate unfunded to the tune of about $30 million I think if that's what we need and if those are the safety measures that we really need to look at or if any board members have questions about the ongoing nature of the contract we should revisit this discussion in good faith to not be about weapons detection but about the other authentic safety needs of our school I think we should stop throwing good money after bad and get to work on those problems any further discussion all right seeing none we'll um do a roll call vote starting with board member bade Mohammed no Brian Jensen yes Chris white yes Bryce Williams no Jenny no Ashley Anderson no Nate Salazar yes uh that motion fails and uh

115I think we'll have to work with Allan to figure out what our next steps might be but um thank you for the discussion I know it wasn't an easy one to have throughout the course of the last few months um but again just with other similar and more you know difficult conversations that we've had I appreciate oh I appreciate the cander and the the the level of of care that we have in our discussions Christie thanks so much Nate um I just I think that oh you rem muted yourself Christie sorry I just wanted to say that it's unfortunate that we get in these situations where we feel like we have to shame or blame one another for votes that we've made or you know going forward that you know all of us that sit

116on the board of education have different walks of life that we bring to that table I think that that's something that's a part of the Creed of being a board member is that you respect one another's opinions and you know whether they differ or they're the same and so I think that I'm hoping that going forward that are that these difficult conversations that we've had especially over the last couple of months that we can refrain from trying to um point out those differences that we just say okay we have differences of opinion and that we hopefully can continue to move forward once a board makes a decision then I think that it is important for us to look at data to make sure that there's accountability that's a part of the Creed of a board

117member but I also think that we have to take into consideration the people who are the boots on the ground so you know going forward and I hope that you know the superintendent and Allan can come back to us and let us know what are the next steps you know now that these detectors are in the schools and if the schools do want to go ahead and use them then what funds are they going to use and what people and what training are going to be you know allowed for all of that to happen thank you board member s um that concludes our action agenda uh superintendent do you have a report tonight just a couple of things to mention I have a Athletics update um this is long overdue but just to note that

118the Highland High School boys tennis team took State a few weeks ago so congratulations to them and another wonderful um movement I think is that West High School has received a bronze star for sportsmanship the Utah High School athletics Association is um promoting sportsmanship in a program called raise the bar and um West High has completed the first level of the sportsmanship requirements so one of to call that out one of the things I know we're going to work on in this next year is the uh our work around dignity and um Dr Taylor and others are encouraging our schools to compete with dignity so uh I admire that West high is moving in this Direction that's it everyone thanks thank you superintendent Allan I I know we put you on the spot a lot

119tonight but do you have a report specifically I was not able to attend our last RDA subcommittee but Allan and Christy were so I was going to ask if either of them had an update for that committee yes so during that meeting we had the solic city uh Redevelopment agency presented their plans for uh their next project which will be funded with uh as a um htrz zone so uh around mass transit zones uh which is funded through tax increment financing uh it's at the Rio Grand area so it's it's um a a total um revitalization of that area through uh arts and business projects um they're putting the final touches on that plan that will come to the state I think it's called a state htrz committee um within the next I haven't received

120a date but we since we we have two uh two members that sit on that committee two out of I believe 12 or 14 um so that will go to that committee within the coming months uh when they finalize uh their plan so that's um that was what they reported uh to us I'm just showing that I I don't know if any of that's on their website um it is yeah if you go to the ccda website and search their real grand project you can see some of that information thank you Jenny any board member reports no okay thank you m um well first of all um it was so wonderful to hear from uh the speakers today and I just want to let our lgbtq plus uh Community um you know uh to please

121feel that they are safe in this District um you know whatever policies out there might be placed just uh want you to know that you know the there is human side that is above those policies um you know uh and I'm so sorry that you had to be placed on the pedestal of political games sadly to say um but continue to plant you know a good seed every day and eventually we will see you know a field of good people uh that will continue to support human rights no matter what it is thank you thank you mam BR I don't have anything this week Ashley I made a home do it okay Brian I was just going to report that this Friday I will be attending the executive committee meeting of usba in my capacity

122there and I do think that it is um nice news that superintendent Rich NY was appointed as the senior advisor of Education to uh Governor Cox I think that this superintendent of the Granite school district will bring a lot of um knowledge and will really be an advocate for us with the governor I think that usba is happy with that appointment thank you Brian for your report and I don't have a report tonight either other than just to let the community know that this is our only meeting in July and so we'll be uh back in August um for our our school board meeting then um so I'll call the meeting adjourned thank you everybody thank you [Music] [Applause] okay