Welcome to the Jordan School District Board of Education study session. Today is Tuesday, January 26th and we are grateful for those who are joining us um both those who are presenting today and also those of you who are joining online. We are going to jump right into tonight's session with um agenda item 1A the student and employee health and wellness update. We will turn it to Dr. Anderson and Dr. McKinley Withers. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here with you this afternoon. We're looking forward to talking a little more about this. And just like every elite athlete has their signature move, it goes to reason that every elite district has one of their signature moves. I believe one of our signature moves in in this district is taking care of people and uh the wellness that we offer to both students and staff. And so we're here to talk a little bit about that today and also give you an update on health and wellness day which is coming up here very soon. That uh we have Travis Hamlin here, director of student services and McKinley with us, our suicide prevention specialist and I like to call our wellness guru. So thanks for having us here. I wanted to jump in and just provide some context for some of the large overarching uh systems that we have of support for our students. Uh there's quite a comprehensive list here, but each of these are essential components to the wellness of all of our students. Um we have school psychologists in every one of our schools. Uh school counselors in every one of our schools. Um and we have school-based mental health therapists as well. Those those three uh positions make up a a mental health team in our secondary schools. Uh very strong support there in our schools for students. um that makes constitutes a full mental health team that really helps uh provide the necessary mental health and uh supports for our students in a variety of different ways. Um we have our Jordan family education center. This is its 46th year in Jordan School District and we really are unique in that offering uh free services for our patrons and students. Um we have an early intervention warning system with panorama student feedback surveys that are conducted where we learn about uh the social emotional wellness of students. We have comprehensive school counseling program where everything from mental health to graduation and careers and all of those things are are supported. Uh our district mental health team of course is a part of that. Um, and we have a lot of behavior support and training that we conduct throughout the year to all of our groups in mental health. Um, and to administrators and and whoever will honestly listen that we'll be able to train and help with that. Um, we work on multi-tered systems of support and positive behavior interventions and supports as well. Uh, we have a strong crisis response and support team from the district level that we work out with schools when there's a crisis. Uh we have teen centers, we have at risk supports for all of our atrisisk students from homeless to gang uh to migrant to whatever the need might be, youth and care. Uh those kind of supports. Uh school safety supports. Uh we have social emotional supports, prevention supports, wellness supports in general and community and family mental health supports. Uh in addition uh we have a lot a full spectrum of supports that we offer to students and patrons uh in our district as well as employees. Um and we just appreciate so much the efforts of the board. Uh without your support none of many if not all of these supports would not be possible. I just personally want to thank you uh as always for your ongoing support uh for our mental health efforts and for our our students. And uh with that, I'm going to kick it over to M Dr. Withers who is really the guru when it comes to all things wellness. Okay. Wow. Um well, I also am very grateful to be here. Um, and uh, it's just an honor to be among people who care about something that I care about a lot. So, uh, and that is very well reflected in this district. I like to say that, you know, our most common wellness intervention is probably actually regular school. Um, because that really does take care of so many basic needs. Um, so the things that we've put in place are kind of layered on top of that. Uh, but many students get uh their their wellness from everyday interactions from everyday employees. So there's there's not a single job in this district that doesn't support well-being. Um so within the context of uh what we work on uh in health and wellness uh I've broken it down into three categories. Um and it's changed a lot. It's grown a lot since we've started. Um so in in the prevention realm um we do support through a state uh prevention grant uh the implementation of social and emotional wellness curriculum in uh schools. Um and we also uh support schools in uh SAFEUT is an app uh it's very pervasive. It's a state funded thing. Um but there also is an intervention side of that. So students can do anonymous tips um through SAFEUT and uh they can also have a chat with a crisis worker. Um but when there is a need for school-based or even after hours intervention that's channeled through uh the structure that we've set up for safe UT bark uh is a content monitoring software. So students when they are issued a Chromebook um and through their schoolisssued Google account uh those accounts are monitored by Bark um in case there is questionable content or if a student is typing uh some suicidal thoughts or they're in a severe conflict, they're threatening someone, there is that software where uh essentially is scanned by an artificial intelligence and then it's funneled to uh one particular team member within health and wellness who uh has a background in mental health who can support schools in intervening when we catch something. So, we're trying to proactively monitor uh if there are students who are suffering uh or who need additional support. Um it can be really scary to talk to an adult. Um so, if they are talking with friends in a chat or they're on a Google doc, um there have been hundreds of interventions through through those two platforms. So, those are really important to have and those those are an addition to what Travis mentioned uh the Panorama early warning system. Um having that uh that data and multiple sources of data so that we can know if a student is struggling and we can proactively check in and make sure that they get the help that that they need. I want to be sensitive to time, but just jumping in there. We know without a doubt that both Safe UT and Bark have literally saved lives in our in our school district of students that were were just about to take their lives. So, >> it's literal saving of lives. >> Yeah. And there's no price tag for that. So um and then also within that uh just leading the suicide, bullying and violence prevention planning at the at the school level. Um and then we also uh a new addition. Um we're adding additional attendance supports and that is within health and wellness because that really is you know a huge aspect of uh students attendance. under mental health services. So, uh this this term at the top is is the name of a role in the school. That also is called a school-based therapist or mental health therapist or social worker. Uh we've called them clinical support staff. So these are Doppler licensed uh mental health professionals um who are school-based and with parent permission meet with students uh who have mental health concerns that are clinically relevant. Uh so that means they're uh they need a a higher tier of support. Um, and then as part of the clinical support staff who are school-based, um, school-based services are not always the best fit for, uh, mental health services. Um, so we have a long-standing now partnership with now 24 local mental health agencies and we utilize grant funding uh to refer students to local mental health providers uh when we identify a student who is in need of mental health services that are prohibiting their access to their schooling uh and their well-being. um we sponsor those students in getting access to that care um to one of our partnered providers. Um and I have some numbers on that. Um that's we call it MAP for short, the mental health access program. Um we also promote uh a virtual parent mental health series. Um and this is again an addition to the amazing work at the Jordan Family Education Center. Um, but almost every night there's a different topic covered and those are going out uh monthly. So there's a monthly calendar, but even if you miss the live event where you can ask questions about the topic at hand, and really there's I I don't think there's a topic that uh isn't covered by that series. Um, parents can access the platform and watch recorded uh um how to handle suicidal ideiation in the home, how to uh support a student with ADHD. It's it's uh it's a broad list of topics and if you'd like to see them, I can share them with you. Um and you can actually just get them at our website, too. It's right on the the parent resource page. Um and then in the wellness category uh there are uh a subset of our employee wellness offers um including employee wellness reps is what we call it. So schools can nominate someone who kind of embodies well-being uh at work and that person is nominated by their principal to be an employee wellness rep. They advertise wellness offerings. They help communicate, you know, especially around wellness day. They clarify things about what's what employees can and what employees can take advantage of. Um, we also work on wellness day, which we'll talk about. Um, and support the implementation of wellness rooms that have become pretty pervasive throughout our district. Um, and we'd love to keep seeing those pop up where where they can. Um, and then we support, again, this is tied to prevention, but it's also addressing wellness. Uh, if there's one thing that a school district can be really effective at, uh, when it comes to supporting the social, emotional, and physical well-being, it's teaching. It's teaching skills. Um, so those skilluing curriculum offerings are really important to supporting our student well-being. So, here's just a little brief snapshot of some of the data just to kind of give you more of a concrete look at what this is looking like. Um, right now there are 21 school-based therapists. Some of our high schools have used their own funds to hire another because they've seen the value. Um and uh we've started to survey parents who have whose students have received school-based mental health services. And in those feedback surveys, 94.4% agree or strongly agree. And we have a many other questions. Um but I thought this one was interesting. uh if we're wondering if it affects school success. The question was, "School-based mental health therapy has been helpful for my student and their school success." So, 94% of parents who have utilized that service, which they're all busy, they all have full case loads, uh are seeing the benefit. And what's even more interesting is you can tell it's students actually responding when we look at this survey data because 94.6% 6% of students uh agree or strongly agree that meeting with my school therapist has been helpful to me at school. Um and >> ask it quick. Will we have access to this slide deck? >> No. >> No. I was going to say the same thing. >> I just people ask me all of the time for data that supports if our investments are helping. So I don't know if take a picture. >> No, we get we'll get that uploaded. Okay, perfect. Sorry, carry on. I didn't mean to. >> No, you're okay. And I can share additional data now. >> Okay, thanks. >> On that same topic, um the mental health access program, this is shocking. Uh but we started it in 2019, which was great timing. Uh because then we had a tool that could be used throughout the pandemic. Um but 3,26 referrals have been made to partnered mental health providers. Um and that is uh a huge reduction in many of the barriers for these families. Cost is prohibitive and and even knowing where to go. Uh so by meeting with our team, making a recommendation for what's a good fit, matching that with a partnered provider, reducing the wait time, and also covering the cost. It's had a big impact. Um, Bark and Safe UT. Uh, this is just from this year. Um, Bark has had 2,669 severe alerts uh this school year. Those have all been reviewed and someone when it is necessary has done something to intervene. Um, and SAFEUT, we've uh our schools have received 153 alerts throughout this this school year. So, that's August to January. Um, and 32 schools in our district are utilizing a a a chosen uh social emotional wellness curriculum that that school has chosen. Um, and then uh in our wellness rooms, there have been 23,236 visits. Um, and those are brief visits. The goal is to practice self-regulation and return to learn. Um, and 86% of students after that brief visit, uh, we prefer and, uh, try and get all of our wellness rooms to use 10-minute timers. Self-regulation is a is a quick experience. Um, if something else is needed, then they might meet with someone or um, but 86% of students after that brief intervention left feeling ready to return to class. So that also has a significant impact on their learning um and their well-being. So I have to start this slide with a caveat of I didn't have much to do with this. This is uh a lot of these highlights are other people's work, especially the board, the leadership of the district, but I wanted to highlight it just to put it in context of if we're going to talk about employee wellness, there's been a lot of progress in this district specifically and we are carrying that very well. Um, so adding maternity and paternity leave, changing leave to annual leave, all leave to annual leave, addressing the substitute shortage, uh, maximizing the allowable PD days, um, and in the research on employee well-being, efficacy, feeling capable of doing the job at hand is a huge component. So, our district has a very robust system of support for our educators. So that's specialists and administrators in teaching and learning. That's in student services. There's there's a whole system that goes into people's experiences of workplace well-being. Um and uh we also I already mentioned the employee wellness reps. Uh we do offer afterchool PD opportunities. We actually have a class right now uh out at South Jordan Middle School. Um, it's an eight session class called mindfulness-based stress reduction. If you were to try and take this class in the community or through someone else, it would cost you $700. Um, but we filled it up. Uh, so we have 25 educators who have opted into eight 2hour sessions after school with a full day retreat on a Saturday. Um, and it filled up fast. Um, so people really have been responding well to our we've we've had hundreds of our educators take the InFocus educator well-being course. Um, this is our second cohort of mindfulness-based stress reduction. We just offered a new course through BYU called mindfulness for humans. There's a professor out there that uh is well known in the in the mindfulness community and uh offers that asynchronously. So, we've had um I think up to now, we just offered it. I think we've had 38 people enroll in an after hours asynchronous mindfulness course for their own well-being. Um and then also on PD days, on training days, staff meetings, we there's a lot of PD happening, professional development uh around employee well-being. Um and then also the wellness day. So I wanted to start wellness day by just >> can I can I add one? >> Yeah. >> So I mean because we've done so much I think we just forget everything we did but I think really what helps uh our mental health of our teachers especially is our risk policy um reduction in force where we'll put them as a part-time substitute teacher if we need to while we try to place them. So they don't have that fear of numbers going down in the school then they're going to lose their job. they just might have to be replaced which is in and of itself is replace is stressful but I think that's another one we should add to the list there's probably a dozen more >> yeah probably yeah so that was just you know highle overview and I I like that you highlighted that um because really it comes down to what are the intentional ways that we come together to care for employees and I see that I see that in this district and that's beautiful um so the the student curriculum on wellness Today, I just wanted to hit the highlights here. Um, we chose a framework uh called stressbusters. Um, and there are actually more stress busters from the evidence-based framework. We chose five that were particularly relevant that you can do from home. Um, so those are supportive relationships, balanced nutrition, quality sleep, mindfulness practices, and physical activity. Within each of those stress busters, we have at least five activity ideas for parents and families for each stress buster. So, I don't think you could do it all in a day. I really don't. But, uh, so you'd have 25 activities per grade level uh if you did all of the stress busters. Um, and that is parentled. Um, and you can review the the stressbusters content. Um we actually this year also just in addition um with the wellness day student curriculum um the Salt Lake County uh recreation system has expanded some of their hours within our district because we have a wellness day um and every child in and adolescent can get a free my county wreck pass. So they expanded their offers so that students could also go and partake of activities at the county rec centers in our district. So, that's also a cool addition, little partnership that hopefully will continue to grow over the years. Um, and then this is a a list of some of the employee offers for Wellness Day. Um, it's just been growing and growing. You can review all of the events and offers um for Wellness Day. We have a lot of local partners, some that were just arranged today that aren't on this list. Um, but those are all housed on the on the website at wellness day.jordist.org. Um, we've got some fun stuff. Uh, this year the addition of Topgolf is a highlight. Um, and they have a whole floor for Jordan District uh, on wellness day which is really fun. uh and at the Megaplex bowling alley and Deltton Lanes and uh it's just cool to see so many people come together with their badges on and having a good time and getting to know each other better and improving their wellness. >> I would add to that that each of these almost every one of these activities that you see up there represents a business or a member of the community that is supporting Jordan School District and we've we have yard signs that they would post outside their businesses. you'll probably see them during the week of wellness that it's just a a really good reinforcement to our teachers and our well all of our employees that the community backs what Jordan District is doing. That's gratifying to see. >> If I could jump in um in addition maybe an overarching thing that is really uh impressive as I interact with uh colleagues in mental health across the country, Jordan district is really a unicorn. uh we do things that no one else in this country is doing for mental health. Um and and it is so awesome to be able to go and we're recruiting or we're having meetings with uh professionals throughout the country of just how unique and how awesome we are. When we tell them the things that we do, they're like, "You do what in a school district?" And it is really amazing how really unique we are in this country uh for pro providing the resources and mental health >> that's thanks to >> well also so I think that that's my content so uh I'm open for questions I'll I'll ask something. Um, President George mentioned that she has lots of requests or concerns or emails from people who are questioning or doubting. Um I and I've and I've heard some of these too receive some of these comments and I don't think it's necessarily questioning things like Mike mentioned like this product this piece of software saved actually saved x number of lives. I don't think it's questioning those types of things. I think some of the questions are maybe the extent of mental health, wellness, you know, all all of these different things that the school district is offering. Some people see that as awesome and great, like was just mentioned. Some people see it as potentially a waste of taxpayer money that that there are some things that the school district shouldn't be doing, shouldn't be spending taxpayer funds on that maybe that's something that that is handled in the home or by parents. Um, how would you address concerns like that among our constituents? One thing I might say there is that I don't feel that when things are happening in the home that we're saying no no let us do that instead we'll take over what you were already doing. I think what we're trying to do is fill gaps where they exist and make sure that the work we do is directly related to helping support a student in their learning. Even with the foundation, there are times where we ask ourselves frequently, is this request within our mission as a foundation? And then we actually sometimes I'm as proud of the moments that we say no as the moments where we say yes because it it's a clearly defined mission. So, um I think that's a fair question to ask. Are we doing more than we should or more than we need to? But we we never try to do this instead of what's happening. It's always to try to fill gaps and where we see that students do need help in order to be successful at school. That's the particular um focus. Um it's a hard it's a question you have to continue to ask yourself. You can't just say, "Oh, well, we already decided that this is right." because society shifts, need shift, needs shift and those needs are also very individualized by by students. >> I may also add that it's always done in in collaboration with the family with the parent. um when we offer services that could be you know useful for their child, it's always with their permission and all with their buy in and full, you know, we're really transparent about what goes on and what happens there. So, it's there to support what already is happening in the home, but also filling those gaps that Dr. Godfrey um referred to and with parents always involved. >> As Bryce always says, I'll die on this hill. So, I will die on this hill. Um, I have gone from seeing a suicide cluster in my own school to teachers stressed out and we can't hire people because they're leaving so too too quickly. Um, students bullying and and the effect that they have in our schools and and have gone to now we see, you know, when we have an opening of we get 50 people to apply, we have definitely see a decrease in suicide. Um, I don't know how you measure a life in taxpayer money, but I know for a fact that these programs have saved two of my kids. Now, I don't know if I saved him from suicide, but they had some serious challenges that teachers, by the way, noticed because teachers had received training. I couldn't notice as a father in my home what was happening to my kids because I didn't have the training. But our superintendent and this department arranged some training that paid off in my family. That's worth every penny of taxpayer money. And and I'd like to say too, thank you Darl. Um, no student is forced to participate. And I think that um public funds spent on prevention or and early intervention are well spent. And not every dollar is preventing a suicide, but I think that early intervention in mental health issues in helping um students and families to manage difficult um mental health issues and and the district doesn't deal with the most difficult types of things, but things that we can help with, I think it pays off. Um, but it's hard with intervention to tell exactly how much money it has saved until you stop intervening and then you see the big problems blossom. I think if that makes any sense. So, >> I'd like to add my two cents. Um, I think that what Jordan School District does, uh, they do it very well in partnering with parents with our mental health and wellness. Um, I know that I have really appreciated our school counselors. Um, my students haven't consistently gone to the counselors, but because she is there at the school, she's observed them and been able to tell me about a moment where they were really upset and she was there at recess and she was able to help them. And so, I'm really glad that she was able to at least connect with me and let me know what was going on because I was not personally there at school. I strongly believe in the saying that um it takes a village to raise a child and I think that's what public education is doing. Unfortunately, I don't think society's really grasped on or we've kind of let go of this saying. Um but I think this is our village. public education is a village helping parents know uh giving them resources, helping us know how to parent our kids because I get stuck sometimes as a parent and I don't know where to turn and I really appreciate um the village that is my public school and the people who are there who do have training and resources and can point me in the right direction and then I can figure out what's best for me and my family. So I I strongly stand behind our mental health and wellness >> and and I just want to say a few years ago I did go to a parenting class that came on the high viz yellow postcard and it was fantastic. It was very helpful as far as um strategies and parenting and I really enjoyed it. So, >> and my clarification would be, I appreciate their perspective, but we're not solving your problem, Mom and Dad. It's not what we're doing. We're not putting taxpayer resources in place to solve your problem. We're solving our challenges. These are school issues. And if they help at home, fantastic. That's a great benefit. But our motive isn't to solve mom and dad's issues. Our motive is to solve our issues. And so the real question is, are we using our resources appropriately to solve our challenges? And anyone who doesn't believe that mental health is an issue in our schools just needs to visit a school. >> Yeah. >> Just talk to your child, a teacher, anyone associated with our schools and you will realize that we have mental health issues in our schools and that's all we're trying to solve. And if it helps parents, fantastic. But that's we're not trying to take upon ourselves the duty of parents. We're just trying to solve the challenge we face when they walk in our door and they are now our responsibility. And we'll gladly help them while they're with us so that when they leave us, they're better off. >> Well, I have a couple of questions. First of all, an apology, Mr. Hamblin. I'm so sorry that I didn't welcome you to the table. I was had my nose in my computer looking at notes and I missed that. So, welcome and thank you for being here. Every time you're here, I feel like I learn. Um, so one other perspective. First of all, can I just say I know that I've referenced that I have questions. People come to me with questions. I will say that easily double that amount of questions saying is this really effective. I've had more than double that of people coming back to me with their story. And I have been so grateful to not only have heard the anecdotal stories from my own constituents and neighbors and friends, but um my own family of times that these things have been a blessing to them and and we've heard that today. So I just want to make sure that I'm not putting out this negative narrative that all I'm hearing is bad. Um, so one thing that really excites me about these slides that are just filled with opportunities, um, is I always ask this question, so I'm going to be really predictable and ask again. How does the water get to the end of the row? Meaning, how do people know what the resources are and how to access them when they need them? So, I'm going to ask that more specifically. I love the idea of having a wellness rep in the building. That's awesome. How does the wellness rep know the opportunities that they should be sharing with their building? >> So, we maintain contact with the wellness reps. They get together in person a couple times a year and they also have uh an email network. So, and the advantage of that is, you know, you're less likely to open an email from the district, but if it's from the person, you know, uh you you probably are a lot more likely. Um, so that's how that that network spreads or that the word spreads through through the wellness reps. As far as how parents um find out about offers and what's on the table, uh there's many many different avenues that that happens. Um we use parent square at the district level for those parent seminars that that has really increased our engagement. Um I've seen a huge change with uh our screening mental health screening offerings. uh those went from us trying really hard to fill all of our spots uh to them filling up uh pretty quickly. Um so that network work and communications is amazing at crafting messages, getting the word out uh when we need to spread the word. And then schools also uh like uh Travis pointed out, they have a school mental health team. They're often running parent events on their own. They'll do I mean we just attended one out at uh one of our schools and uh so schools also will be communicating their own programming their own offers within the context of what is provided at the district level. We also communicate communicate rather frequently with administrators as well and provide resources for them that they can share out not only to their staff but and students but also to parents through the j the jam. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um and then one question that I have heard or maybe the only negative that I've ever heard about our health and wellness day is like is this really an educational day for students? So, can I make the request that we make the curriculum for parents, the stress busters? It sounds awesome, like impossible to miss. So, send it out everywhere possible. Make it a pinned banner on the Jordan website. I love going to the health and wellness site of Jordan school district, but before I was a board member, I didn't know that I needed to find a different website to get different resources from Jordan. I always thought, well, they're all on the Jordan website, and that's not the case. So, I always am going to beg that we make those connections really easy to find. So, I don't know. You You guys know best how to do that, but that would be my request. Just that you cannot miss this. It wasn't an email that I didn't have time to open. Like, it was 27 different avenues and I couldn't miss it. I see nods. So, >> yeah, we we sent an email out today. Um, but people probably missed it. So, we'll send some other stuff out and we'll have it on. Yeah, we'll advertise it lots of different ways. >> Perfect. Thank you. And then just one last just piggybacking on this conversation about funding that I want to highlight maybe for people listening or people who are concerned about taxpayer dollars is what a partnership these programs are. It was really fun this year during the high school charity drive to see a high school choose to sponsor MAP um and and have all of the funds they raise go towards that. You mentioned grants. So I think we've talked about JF today. Um all of all of these groups working together and so I think it's important for us not only to acknowledge the efforts that are coming into this. This is not just the school board's initiative, but like a massive partnership, a village to to reference what Miss Barrow said. So, I'm really grateful that there are many interested parties because really health and wellness is a part of a community and and we do need to be tapping into those resources. So, I don't know if any of them listen to this, but it is so nice to see columns of business partners who are saying, "How can we help teachers? How can we be a part of Health and Wellness Day?" Um, I I hope that that message will come through louder than some of the messages they're about to hear during the legislative session. So, thank you for finding those resources. >> It's a good point. And there are even small individual businesses, someone who does nails out of their home that said it's free for teachers all day today or for employees all day today, things like that. So that community aspect is important. and referencing something that uh McKinley said earlier and just thinking about making sure that people don't miss the information about the home lessons. Maybe we will just have each school send those out as well because a school email carries a different weight than a district email sometimes with we'll we'll work with schools to be sure we send that out as well because we don't want anyone to miss it. It's too good. And there's so much variety. Like U McKinley said, it's you could take all day and and still not complete all of the activities there. Some of which can be deceptively simple. It isn't uh you know, sometimes it's just pausing and taking time to do some really essential things that can really boost that can really boost wellness. You said some additional activities were approved today. Are there any spoilers you can share for those who are uh just as a as a prize for those who are listening to board meeting? You know, >> um >> both of them. >> Just uh holiday holiday oil is going to offer a free uh coffee or soda this year. Um >> fantastic. >> Cuz that's often a there's there's some people that are like, I like the swig thing, but I'm a coffee person, so this year there will be the free free coffee at holiday. And holiday does have Sprite Zero, >> which >> which is rare. >> To which I say Holiday celebrate. >> They also have mixins as well. Little known fact. So you can make your own swig. >> Turn around. It's right there on the counter. >> Get your car wash for $5 this week or that week of health and wellness at holiday. Is >> awesome. >> Not going to not going to work. >> That's This is This is the holiday offer. No. Yeah. >> I guess. That's that >> was on the docket. >> Yeah, they Anyway, >> if board members haven't been to it, um you need to go see it like I did a few years ago and took my wife and she's super busy this time of the year and that's hard for me to get a day off. Uh but um we've both arranged to be there all day long cuz it's just it's a great time really for board members too to meet everybody and talk to them and listen to what they have to say and it's a good it's a good event. If you wanted to get a high yield, high impact uh time, Mountain Ridge High School is our hub for the wellness fair and we'll have a lot of activities there, but that's where it will have the the booths and the vendors that show up that will actually give you health services there. It's great. It's a it's a great place to to plan around your day. and and we as McKinley said, we have a full level of Top Golf reserved and we have three 2-hour time slots where we have that whole level reserved just for employees. So, if you want uh to stop by, there'll be bays and bays of six to eight employees um together. So, if you want to connect with employees, that's another opportunity to do that. If you >> which one >> it's the >> Murray Murray >> Top Golf. Yeah. In Murray there. And what are the Do you Do you know you remember the times? >> Yeah. There I did >> 9 and there a lot of them. Yeah. 9 11 and or >> 11:30 and then what 2 hour there's there's contact us for the time on the wellness day website. We have so many. >> Yeah. There's so many things. I have lost track of the >> just Google specific >> when you wellness day website. What is it? It didn't come up when I Googled it.org. >> That's another day because I was at student health and wellness. That's not it though. >> Yeah, it's wellness day.jordan district.org and that's another good uh maybe we can look at boosting that and seeing how we can get a Google >> and and there's a link to it in the gem. Also, >> some of the employees have said in the past that things fill up super fast. Have we been able to address that? Is that just always going to be a >> I think that will still be there are so many available >> of stuff. It seems like every year there's more and more and more stuff. >> That's why we have six sound baths instead of one. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Good. >> That's that's a lot of sound baths. So I mean that alone is uh you know that's there were two last year and they filled up but we we also don't know what people will choose. So as we gather information we know what fills up so then we just expand those. >> It's never been a complaint. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I will say this compared to where we've been we've just expanded it every year to the point where like each year we say well we're probably at our threshold or you know we've maxed we've redlined our ability to offer more. And yet businesses show up more. The foundation finds more more offers. McKinley scour it and finds more opportunities. So we have more than ever before by a wide margin. You >> remember that first year when a whole bunch of teachers didn't want to do this and they took their professional days off and some sat in their office. I went around from school to school and it was full of people sitting around and I just don't see that anymore. They see the benefit. So, >> let's contact whoever owns the car wash at the JLC and say, "Give us a code." >> I was looking forward to the car wash, but that's okay. I'm glad they came through because, you know, a free >> There's actually a dog wash there, too, so we could do that. >> Do we have any sense of the percentage of employees that do at least an activity or an event? >> Great question. Yeah. Well, the one number we do have is we have a prize drawing. Um, and we have our wellness challenge where they report what they did and uh we extend that so that it's not only what you do on wellness day, but we're trying to encourage sustainable habits and offerings because there's stuff going on all the time. Um but last year it was over a thousand people turned in a response voluntarily that they had participated. Um which is pretty good uh for uh survey volunteer things. We don't we don't get that kind of response from other >> and and knowing that there's something there for everybody literally because that's also one of the days that if you just you just need a day off, you can take one of your annual leave days and it's guiltfree. No substitute required, nothing. It's just it's a day that you can take off without any stress. >> And can you still go into the classroom or office and work? >> Yes. Early on. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> I always get before and after photos from at least a couple of people. This was my office or classroom before. This is my officer classroom after we really want to encourage uh we want to be sure there are plenty of activities for people to interact interact with each other. um sometimes they they they don't engage in in activities, but um based on the surveys and just observing, we've we've been filling up our activities and I think we'll with Topgolf, we'll have even more interaction this year than we've had. >> There's a great promo video for Topgolf if you haven't checked it out already on wellness day.jordist.org. >> Yeah, be sure to do that. Yeah. Can I come back to your question, Mr. Barnett? >> I had one more followup, but yeah, go ahead. >> Oh, okay. Well, I I think it it is a valid concern if you don't have an operational understanding of what these services actually look like. Um because when you when you consider what it would be like to be a child who has who doesn't have access to their mind, it's really hard to be successful in school. And we live in a time when broadly culturally speaking, it's not a stress-free world out there. And as educators who are preparing students for an unpredictable future, it's my opinion that we have a responsibility to build their skills to navigate an unpredictable world. If you were to fast forward our these students forward 20 years and say, "What is it that you need? what what what do you need to navigate the world of 20 years from now? We can't answer that question with full confidence except for in one area which is I do know how to manage my stress. I know how to relate to people and have quality relationships. We know that that will pay off. That is an investment in our future and it goes far beyond just whether or not it's relevant to their school experience. it is relevant for their entire life and those skills are fundamental. That's what employers are wanting from employees is th that subset of skills is the foundation of what makes a human productive uh in the world. So that's my take on that. Yeah, >> I I appreciate that and all the feedback. My my original question was as a board member, how can I respond to the concerns that that I have heard um regarding using funds for mental health things and I received lots of good feedback um we're filling gaps. the we're not replacing parenting, but we're filling gaps and we are in involving the parents at all levels and we're solving our problems. And if it helps you at home, great. Those those kinds of things. But I did have one other question maybe kind of related to what you just mentioned. You mentioned the the ability to manage stress is a a worthwhile characteristic or ability, I guess. And I some of the recent study that I've done on this topic, it's been a little while so I can't remember everything, but but I remember this term that was used. It was called a helicopter parent. Maybe you've probably heard that, I'm guessing. Yeah. this parent that just kind of hovers over their child all the time trying to prevent any possible problem, trying to prevent any stress, any anxiety. And the conclusion was that's not good for children. That's not that's not a good way to grow up for someone to be trying to prevent every negative thing from ever happening to you. And so I was I was wondering along these lines of managing stress. Is is that the focus or or are we also trying to prevent stress? Because there's a big difference I think if we're helping someone manage it or if we're trying to prevent stress. So maybe you could talk a little bit about that as far as our offerings go. >> Yeah, I think that's a that's a valid question. I think a a really easy example of that would come back to a wellness room intervention where you could assume, oh, this kid's going to escape class and not learn anything for a while and they're going to go be there and we're going to keep them from sitting in the discomfort of being in class. However, when structured well, uh it is not the job of a wellness room coordinator, facilitator to remove the stress. It is still a self- selected, it's a practice where we're allowing students chances to manage the stress on their own. Um but it's we're not removing it from them. So, they have the stressful experience and then they practice self-regulating. It's not the person doing it. They choose a tool, they take a timer, they set the 10-minute timer, and then they self-regulate and then they return to class. So, that's not avoidance. And you're you're right, avoiding stress can make it worse over time, but our staff is is well equipped to understand that. the mental health world does know that uh what reduces anxiety is actually exposure to that anxiety in a safe context. So it's a practice over time where you're exposed to the thing that makes you anxious but you practice dealing with it and then it reduces over time. If you just avoid it, it gets bigger and it gets harder to manage. So the interventions are structured and supported to allow people to still have their feelings uh and learn how to navigate it. That's that's why our to engage our tagline for health and wellness is to engage individuals in sustaining their well-being. We aren't doing wellness for them. We are engaging them and giving them the tools so that they can navigate their challenges. And that's a really important caveat. Sometimes they just don't have the tools to navigate difficult situations. And the more proactive we can be by having curriculum supports, by having intentional wellness room interventions, that builds their skill set so that they can stay in class. That's our goal. We want more time to be in class. But when that's not possible, you structure the intervention so that that becomes comfortable over time and then they can manage it themselves. >> I I would hate to ask someone 20 years from now, what what what do you wish you had? And they said, I wish I knew how to deal with all the stresses of life >> because I didn't get that. I was prevented from learning those skills because I never experienced a lot of stress. So yeah, that it sounds like we're doing great. >> Well, and that that really is I I mean when we don't address it proactively and as a system, it really becomes more of what you're describing because you're just left to your own devices and if you can't figure it out, you're punished for it. But if we're actually intentionally building that skill set as a whole system, then I now know how to manage me and that has an impact on every single person that I interact with. And I would add that we have a great resource for our parents and our community at the Jordan Family Ed. We we offer 25 classes a quarter. That's the average number that we offer. everything from counseling to intake meetings to see what parents want. It's all a free resource for our parents. Uh they can go, it's all housed by our clinical by our our mental health staff. Uh we do classes that are weekly. We have quarterly long classes on topics from parenting to illegal substances to to whatever the 25 different classes. Um, and that's an amazing resource for our community and that information is mailed out quarterly to every home. I've heard McKinley speak a number of times about leaning into work and leaning into the things that are required of you to help reduce stress as opposed to stepping away. if you step away, it should be to only enough to restore yourself so that you're prepared to be at your best to tackle things. Um, but I' I've heard him speak with student body presidents about it and employee groups about it that sometimes the best thing you can do is just take things head-on. And that's why those before and after photos are uh heartwarming because it's work that has been, you know, hanging out and uh um creating stress and then they they have the time to really dive into it. And so I I'm not sure if we answered your question adequately. So I want to come back to your question about how much employees are involved in activities. We don't necessarily define success by how many employees are involved in the activities because it's one aspect of what they might choose to do. So we we don't know exactly how many are involved. The survey results and just observation and the number of slots that fill up suggests that that many employees are involved. But are there did you have more you have a a question an aspect of the question we didn't fully address? >> Well, I think it's hard to measure how many individuals individual employees are taking part when there's even if you were to take a count at every activity, right? Some may go to multiple things. So, if we're satisfied with the participation as measured by not enough space, right? then maybe that's a clue we need more, right? Because we have more participation. It's not necessarily successive program, but just how do we continue improving upon the good thing that we have? Is there opportunity? Cuz I would ask, you know, and this is maybe too big of a question for today, but a lot of from what I understand, a lot of our health and wellness is fairly new to the district. This has been evolving over the last few years. And so the question that comes to my mind is where do we need to focus next? How do we continue to stay current? What um if anything is needed from the board and this could be a conversation for another day, but I want to keep it going. And so if that's tweaking activities or somehow getting more involved or whatever, that's kind of where that question was coming from. I appreciate that. We've uh the committee meets mostly mo through most of the year. The health and wellness committee meets monthly. We discuss health and wellness day every week in cabinet meeting throughout the year just to be sure that we're talking about things. Some activities fall off if they're not available or they're not popular and then we expand the ones that are. We try to get broader variety. um while still allowing for flexibility. The question was asked by a board member after year 1. How are you going to keep this exciting? Because it was a surprise that year. We announced it less than a month before the day happened. So your question is aligned with what we've been trying to do is really be very intentional about it year after year. Be curious about what people need. be intentional about the plan so that we are united in offering what employees need. So it it has shifted and evolved and grown um since its inception and I appreciate that question because the need shift and and this is an area where we don't want to get complacent. >> Yes. And I think also going beyond the health and wellness day, the the mental health of our students and how that changes and evolves, whether it's with AI or are we supporting our students who are in virtual schools, how are they accessing mental health? So just now that we've got a great foundation, where's kind of the next? >> Can I speak to that briefly, but just I mean I have my opinion. >> I know I'm putting you on the spot. >> No, no, not at all. I'm happy to be in the spot and on the spot for that. Um, but uh as as it currently is uh whether or not there is time dedicated to that skill building uh social and emotional skills and whether or not a school has a curriculum is still it depends. uh and I think systematizing that so that it's built into uh and there is dedicated time for uh a that type of skill building uh would be huge and that's true also when it comes back to how uh wellness rooms might be executed. Uh for the most part they're really good. um and just as a as a system coming together so that we can address a lot of those really like you said new components of the school experience. We've learned a lot over the years and I think we're at a point where we could come together to coordinate and dedicate time and space. Uh because it is I mean I look behind me and I see a pillar student and staff wellness. Uh, and like I said, the most common wellness intervention is still regular school, but we're at a tipping point as a culture where we really do need to build foundational skills again. Uh, because people aren't getting it in the regular world. Um, and there's a lot of reasons for that that we don't have to discuss, but systematizing, creating the expectation and the dedicated time for that would be a huge step towards I think really honoring uh the a shift in what uh or not just a shift but an enhancement to the direction we're already heading. So, you'd like to see a decrease in the variability of our practices, whether it's from school to school or having a district-wide social and emotional wellness curriculum. >> Yes. >> Interesting. Thank you. >> I am curious. Uh you mentioned wellness reps in the building that you are keeping in contact with. Who are those wellness reps? Who what falls under that umbrella? >> Those are just peer support. So they're just I selected by their principal and again this is another if if a school nominates a rep we will support the rep. Um so it's uh most of our schools do have an employee wellness rep and it's it's not like another job but it's really a contact point where we can facilitate and and that's employee wellness rep. So just keeping in mind student wellness is is much more of a all hands- on deck situation. This this rep it is not their job to manage all of the student wellness. That's the principal, assistant principal, counselor, psychologist, mental health team, all of that. So that's an employee wellness rep. It's just meant to be a peer support for their fellow employees. >> Okay. I am curious if or what kind of training if any wellness room facilitators get how are they chosen does it depend based on the school do you know >> yes so we do offer PLC's to wellness room facilitators um and in as far as we know who they are we we support those we have a a staff member uh who is very passionate about wellness rooms. So she'll gets she gets to know those wellness room coordinators. But again I think uh some coordination there uh s systematically uh could benefit our that program in particular. >> I think this is an example of where we've experimented with various things in schools. experiment sounds like where we have innovated in different schools and tried new things and found that they work and then they kind of spread and then you reach a point where okay we want it's it's it's like with with in the classroom where we wanted a guaranteed viable curriculum where we say we know that this is important and we want everyone to have to know what to expect and this is the baseline And with it being one of our pillars, we we we try different things and then we we we we unite and we come together to be sure that hey every student in Jordan school district receives this level and this kind of support in a wellness room in uh at in the elementary, middle, and high and and so it does become systematized. So, um, I appreciate this discussion. As McKinley said a couple of times, none of this happens without board support and direction and vision. And it's exciting what we what we have in place. And I think it's really exciting where go from here to just make it more a part of who we are and what students can expect everywhere they go. >> I have one more question. Oh, maybe two. Um, last year some curriculum for the uh social emotional wellness came to the board and it's then I found out that different schools, it's a sightbased decision. Different schools are using different things. And I'm just wondering how do we follow up on a sitebased decision like that? How do we know the curriculum is working? How do we know that they're actually even using the curriculum or they've chosen a program? How do you follow up on a sitebased decision like that? That's that's something we've been talking about just like you said at what point do we systematize and I think those will be discussions we'll be bringing back with the board about what we what we need to do next. >> Much harder to say hey you pick and go for it than hey this is what you're doing but both have their pros and cons. >> Sure. And I think there's a there are phases of implementation where you do where you take different approaches. Sometimes it's appropriate to give schools that autonomy and sometimes it's it's it's helpful to schools when everyone's united in what they're doing. So it's it's finding that balance and deciding when to do what. >> Thank you. And then my second question doesn't need an answer, but what are we doing on the wellness day for people who are working and don't get to enjoy that like this team and your team and you guys really need it and I know many people at Mountain Ridge um work to host that. So, are you doing something for them? And you don't have to answer that, but >> I think attending the joint legislative committee is well wellness adjacent, isn't it? I >> that's why there's so many people fighting to be on that team. >> We we we we do work to accommodate to give people some time. Um and and that's that's why we don't do the meal on that day >> and and the board provides funding for that meal. That goes a long long way. it really. So we try to be flexible. First of all, we try to make sure that we reduce duties as much as possible so that as the the smallest number of people as possible are working that actually have responsibilities that day and then we make accommodations for those who are responsible for making things happen. >> They just need to remember that they need to check out their own willingness. >> We they're ve they're very supportive and intentional on that. So, thanks. >> Thank you for being here for the obvious work that has gone into this. We look forward to all the fun stories after. Okay, let's move on to item 1B. Um, we have a summer project that we wanted to revisit today. So, we will turn it over to Mr. Brian Barnett and Dr. Godfrey. >> Okay. Thank you. Are we on B or C? >> And and the print and the um >> are are switched. >> Oh, the board book >> and the board book are >> That explains the confusion. >> I apologize. What do people at home have? The board book version, right? >> Okay, I'll follow that. So, if you're at home, item 1B. >> Okay, thank you. facilities committee was asked to uh reconsider the auditorium upgrades at Elkridge Middle School sound and lighting. Just a a quick bit of history. Um well, first of all, we did review it last Thursday as a facilities committee and we were all comfortable um approving it again or recommending it again to for reconsideration. But if you remember, and maybe I'm hoping I remember this correctly, this particular item was originally at least half of it, I think, was originally included in our summer project list. We we approved half of it and then after the fact, we removed it in favor of the Daybreak remodel. Am I Am I remembering that properly? >> Yes. >> Okay. And so that's the history and we were asked to reconsider it. I I wanted Anthony to kind of describe maybe why we should reconsider it, some of the needs there, some of the the use of that building. And then I I also mentioned it to to Bryce, the chair of the finance committee. And then if Bryce is willing or wants to maybe speak to it from a finance committee perspective after that, that'd be great. Elkridge is uh is in need of the lighting more than the sound, but it's in need of both. And doing both at the same time makes sense just financially. It has become more of a hub. It's used more frequently for district events. So, it gets high traffic from us beyond school use. They also, if any of you have ever seen performing arts, they are have a really robust performing arts program and the intent bringing things forward from a staff perspective. Now the board of course is at the center of this. We are only in here as support for your process. But there was never an intention that Daybreak had to substitute for a different project. It's that we're able to do all of that. Daybreak can be in addition to whatever the summer projects were. So they would just auxiliary services would um is suggesting that we go out to to bid on that project as well as the other summer projects that have been proposed um and that we move. >> So are their lights not working? They're just outdated >> or repair is the way that that was described. So they they don't function the way that they should and um there were some >> joke among the people that run them. >> Yeah. So they they they don't work the way that they should and um replacing them is the best option and they're also just outdated outdated and in poor repair. So, um, there will be a broad benefit to updating Elk Ridg's equipment beyond, uh, beyond just school use, although there will be plenty of that. >> So, what we're looking at tonight is, um, just the lighting or the full project. >> I think they would bid that out for both. Um, and it just it's kind of being able to do both at the same time makes sense financially and logistically. But they'll have a price. It'll be the same way. You know, you can choose this one or that one or both like they will frequently. But we can't choose unless we actually have a bid in front of us. So, what we're looking for tonight is board action to go out and do a bid that would include both the sound and the lighting. >> Would that be a bid that would separate the two? In the event it comes back higher than expected, we could choose one and not the other. >> Right. >> I would appreciate that. >> So, it'll be separated out. You'll also have a bid for doing it together. And there's some design work involved. That's why they're asking because there's a cost involved with designing it, but it will need it sooner or later and it's just it's something that's used heavily beyond the school. But even if it were just used by the school, it's antiquated and in poor repair. So, I move that we instruct staff to go out for a bid for Elkridge Auditorium, including bid options that would allow sound and equipment to be updated. >> I second. >> Sound and lighting. Sound and lighting. >> Okay. We have a motion by Mr. Dunford, second by Mr. Barnett that we pursue a bid for both sound and lighting at Elkridge Middle School. Um, is there discussion? I was just curious if our virtual high school plans on holding graduation there since it's right across the street from JLC. Is that kind of the plan now to use that Elkridge Auditorium? I haven't asked them, but I think that's a logical assumption. It's part of the reason that the JLC location is so was so attractive to me is number one that it's central and number two that it's across from a school. So there are added amenities available if we need them. A gym, auditorium, that sort of thing. >> The sound and lighting wouldn't be done by graduation this year, right? >> Not by this year. No, it wouldn't probably even be started by graduation. >> Summer of 26. It's >> my concern is it is finance going to bring us a revised budget? Uh my only concern with doing this is that the budget comes in, we're over, and then we knock something off list that already been kind of approved. So, our finances haven't changed. The budget's still the budget, but this is now we have information to choose which is our greatest priority. Well, and don't we have additional information since we did the ACER on what our actual numbers are versus estimated when we determine that budget or No, we have >> Yes, we do, but that's not necessarily how we chose our budget. >> We don't we don't depend on updated actual expenditures to propose a budget. And the reality is that's a budget proposal. We can do anything we want. We just can't do everything that we want. And so if this board says, "Okay, they proposed this budget for these reasons," but there's always we're going to we're going to go over the budget knowing what the consequences will be. I mean, the consequences are still the consequences, and we can remind you where we are on our budget forever reason, but this is just to get it as an option to move forward when all the bids come in. >> Can I speak in hypotheticals just for my understanding? Let's say, and you might have to help me get the language right here, John, is let's say we had a certain dollar amount of reserves in our capital fund, and when the actual spend came in, that reserve went up, which could persuade me as a board member that maybe dipping into the reserves for this project is not so scary after all. That's a fair hypothetical. and and the timeline is such that the this bid they have to design it and then do the bid. So this bid will likely come in after you have information on all those other projects. So it may just be what did all these other projects cost? What do we have in reserve? Um, so now a month or two after we've reviewed all the summer projects and approved those, you you'll have this one in mind. Uh, and and then you'll be able to say, "Oh, we we're spending less than we thought we were, and we have a little more than we thought we'd have, so let's move ahead now that we have this bid in April." Or you may say, "Hey, we can't even do all the initial projects we were hoping to do. Maybe we only do lights or you know whatever it is. >> Now we can make a decision. >> So I think the timing will be such that you're you're able to make a well-informed decision without sacrificing other projects. This isn't going to jump ahead of any project. >> One year a project came back so expensive and we just concluded it's just not worth that price tag and we dropped the project and we had allotted you know a significant amount for it. So, if that happens again this year, once again, we could say, I I can't justify approving that project given that price tag, but this one I would love to substitute it for. So, my I am open to this. I'd like to hear more about our financial perspective as well as um the urgency here. My concern is the precedent that this sets where we prioritized and there were projects that we had to unfortunately say not this year. Why in this case are we saying please come back let take a second look but we're not doing that for anyone else. Like are we creating an environment where everybody's going to say no doesn't really mean no. >> Oh no. Go ahead. I was going to say if my recollection is we had actually said yes on them first and so to me in a sense we're just bringing it back because the daybreak was kind of the surprise not so much this one. >> I would agree with that. It's it's because staff was concerned that there was a miscommunication that daybreak needed to take the place of something else instead of saying we've done the summer project process. Now here's this additional daybreak need that the board has asked for and that can happen in addition to what you've already decided. And so we didn't want Daybreak to do what Daryl referenced earlier and bump something that had already been approved by the board. And they staff was worried that there was perhaps a miscommunication. So it's it's not that hey there's this other thing that maybe you should add. It's we want to honor your initial decision through a clarification about what what the board's able to do when you added Daybreak to a list of priorities. >> Okay, >> that's helpful. And I love that someone felt like even though a decision had been made, maybe there was information they didn't have at the time, I'm going to run it through the proper channels. I will convince facilities committee that it's legitimate enough to bring it to the board, which they did, and the board then moved forward. I if that happens every year, I'm very content. I'm not >> because I don't ever want anyone to feel like we had all the information at the time. Um, we did our very best, but if you have information that we didn't at the time, go through the proper channels. I don't think Brian would have brought this to the board had he not been convinced that that probably would have changed the board's decision if they had that information at the time. I I love that. I I I applaud it. I wouldn't want this happening every year. I'm with Miss George. I This is a bad precedence and only because of the Daybreak situation. Would I vote yes. Um there there got to be an evaluation of all the projects at the same time. I can't even remember everything on the list. And so like um I think this is I hope this is very unique and very rare. But >> help knowing this was the next one and if we have the bandwidth >> and that the daybreak situation that's why I'll vote yes. But >> it's a fair concern to say hey do we have project creep here? Are we just because that has happened over the years either from you know from various sources to say oh hey here's an here's an another emergency. It was the the board has decided this the board asked about this other and we worried that we hadn't made it clear that you can do all of this and the emergency project you don't have to bump another project in order to accomplish the project that you wanted to add um just in terms of design and that sort of thing. at least getting the ball rolling on giving the board the full range of options of everything you had chosen to do as well as the the daybreak project that became became urgent. >> I would be okay to make it a practice to take another item or two on the list that wouldn't normally be approved and have them as alternates, but coming back I hope is super rare. And you remember that that's hard to do without giving away prices amounts. Yeah. >> So it's a guess here. If we say, well, we'll add one more. Then it's pretty obvious what that one more was. >> So we really have to say, okay, this is a guess here. We'll kind of stop here because we can't publicly announce what each one of these projects. So that's the challenge in that. We can't just say, oh, let's add one more because we could do at 1.6 million without revealing things we shouldn't be revealing at that moment. And maybe that discussion is we know we need to do all the projects we're bidding out. We agree need to be done. It's just on what timeline based on what we can afford and the and the relative urgency. Also, I I have definitive word that yes, the graduation is at Elkridge across the street from So, >> so bring your flashlights that night. I think there was never a board decision made where we said yes to this one if you bump that one. And I really appreciate that our staff are so cognizant of our desire to stick to a budget. And I think that's really what we're talking about here. Um but I just want that to feel really clear. I'm always open to hearing of urgent needs. I just want to understand the circumstances that merit an urgent need. And in this case, I think yeah, we took an urgent need and staff wanted to make sure that we could do all of it. So, I'm comfortable with this one. Okay. Are we ready for a vote? Okay. All those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. >> And any opposed? Okay. That motion passes unanimously. Let's move on to item 1C on the digital document. Now I'm nervous. Um, which is a discussion on the enrollment considerations document that we've seen several times. This was brought up in comment last business meeting and so we wanted to circle back to the conversation. So we will turn it to Mr. Barnett and Dr. Anderson. >> Thank you. Yeah. Um, a few board meetings ago, we agreed to take some time to review maybe some or or clarify some language in our enrollment triggers uh enrollment trigger point document. Just to give again some background, this document we we recently created to give uh us a framework under which we could consistently operate with regards to dealing with among other things some of the edge cases of increasing enrollment and decreasing enrollment. And the document includes a variety of options that we listed as potential solutions to these types of situations where a school is above or below a certain capacity threshold. Among those are, you know, permitting, portables, remodeling, boundary changes and it was the option of boundary changes that kind of exposed some of the confusion in this document. It was interpreted differently amongst us as board members specifically uh on how we should handle the situation where facilities committee is discussing a potential boundary change or closure of school that uh that are in a board member's district but that board member is not a member of the facilities committee. I wanted to share two examples. The first one was the facilities committee uh discussed an overenrollment situation at Aspen Elementary and after our meeting and our discussion, our recommendation was to do nothing this year. I I relayed that information to Bryce um who's the board member over Aspen Elementary via an email and he responded that he had been expected to be invited to the facilities committee meeting rather than notified after the fact. The second example was facilities committee discussed an underenrollment situation in the West Jordan High School feeder. Lisa, the board member over some of those schools uh was invited to attend the facilities committee meeting and Daryl was asked to sit out. Daryl was unhappy that he as a member of facilities committee was not allowed to participate in that discussion. So regardless of how we handled these particular situations, there was someone who was a a little disappointed or unhappy about how it was handled. Um, so I'd like to solve the problem and I'll give you my take on it uh on a on a potential way to handle it and then open it up for other opinions. I did want to also mention that policy A13 which deals with school consolidation and closure states the following. Facilities committee notifies all board members of schools being discussed and involves the board member representing the affected schools in the discussions. So that's in policy. Whenever a facilities committee is discussing a a potential closure of a school, the facilities committee is obligated to to let the board know. And typically the board already knows because we have received that assignment from the board, but it also says um that we involve it uses the word involve, which is kind of vague, might be ambiguous. We involve the board member representing the affected schools in the discussions. Um, and if you've looked at the trigger point document that that is uploaded uh on board book, there's just one little change that Mike and I have talked about to change I think the word contact to consult with something is that yeah so we're using the word involve and consult and those can be interpreted differently. Um, but whatever solution we come to, I'd like the solution to be broadly applied or broadly applicable to all committee work, not just this particular instance. So, we establish board committees and assign a chair and a and all of the committee members. They're assigned to a particular role. And as a board, we task these committees to do work outside of board meetings to do research, study, discuss, debate, and then come back to the board with the recommendation. to me as I was thinking about it, it it seemed to defeat the purpose of delegating work to committees um to create a scenario that would allow a non committee member to bump a committee member out of his assignment. So yeah, this this idea of the committee is talking about something that directly affects one of my schools. So, I want to be on that committee temporarily. That that seemed a little off to me to ask a committee member who had been assigned to that committee to step out of his role to allow someone who had an interest in something they were discussing. you know, if I if I had an interest in something that was that was being discussed in finance committee and I asked a member of that committee to step out so I could step in, it it just I don't know, it seemed like a little bit of a slippery slope. So, I wanted to avoid that. My my proposal would be to leave the ambiguous language in consult and involve in our trigger point document and our policy A13 um with an understanding that the board member over the school will be consulted with before andor after the discussion to receive input and provide notification. And then I also want to propose that we put in writing that bumping a committee member is at the discretion of the committee member who would be bumped. So in this case if if some if if Lisa wanted to participate in that discussion in that example that I gave, we would ask the three committee members if anyone would be willing to step to step down. And if if if no one wanted to, then we would just assume that the committee the committee chair would update Lisa, maybe talk to her prior to the meeting and get her input and and and include that in the in the discussion. Um, the last thing I wanted to mention is that it's that it's important to remember that the that that the committees don't actually take action on anything that no one is is going to be left out of an opportunity to speak up on an issue that the committee comes back with a recommendation and if a board member disagrees with it or has questions about it, this is the place where those kinds of things can be discussed. Anyway, that's that's my proposal. So, any any comments, questions? Obviously, uh we can >> So, my big concern was the really the initial meeting to be able to talk about the initial plan. We have since had another uh facilities meeting and my need was met. I just think that probably should have happened before. And when you talk to Bryce, if Bryce was um and I think the consult with needs to happen before our meeting, but if Bryce's uncomfortable with that, no, I would have I want some more input. Then we create another meeting for that. I do want I wouldn't want Bryce to hear that in the meeting for the first time. But the last meeting we just had, I thought was like really awesome because I was in on what about this? What about this? about this and then at that point if we decide to move forward that's when we start working with the board member of that area in those details. I I think it's an important thing. I just think it's timing and sequence and I would say if I had if I had known here's when the meeting's going to occur, here's when as Aspen's going to be discussed, I would not have gone to facilities committee. I would have gone to Mike to say, "What information do you have? And is there information you have that I don't? Is there information I have that you don't? Can we have a meeting so that I know what you're going to recommend to facilities?" That's all I wanted to do is be involved in what's the data point that's being taken to facilities and and if if Mike's going to make a recommendation to do nothing. I wanted to have a say here before I had one here. >> I don't want to meddle with fac I did not want to meddle with facilities. I just wanted to be part of the process and meeting with staff would have sufficed for me. So, do we send your send our agenda to everyone on the board? >> Well, if you're going to be discussing if Aspen's if one of my schools is on the list and it's going to be discussed on such and such a day, all I want is a heads up that this is when we're going to discuss it and then now it's on me to work with Brian as to how I get the information. But I didn't even get that option. Do you think it would be important in this document to include something about timing consult before or something? >> For me, consult with needs to be a little bit stronger in terms of prior to the meeting >> prior to the facilities committee making a recommendation to the board or determining their recommendation to the board. >> Yep. >> Okay. Could we put >> so consult myth I think has been interpreted as I will report to >> I will report to after the fact I read it as I will involve before the decision I would like however it's interpreted I would like the to be I would like the interpretation to be prior to any decisions being made by the facilities committee >> you mean recommendations since they don't make decisions right Yeah, >> they made a decision on what to recommend. >> Sure. >> So, I would the only tweak I would make is consult with the board member well in advance and then you can decide how that board member wants to be involved. >> I'm okay with that. I think that's yeah to to add timing to it I think will help quite a bit. But maybe we could add language that um on number four on both documents prior to meeting, the facilities chair will consult with the board member representing the area if they're not on the >> Can I ask if there are multiple meetings ever? >> Oh man. >> Maybe. So at like before which meeting? if we're going to have meeting or >> Yeah, that's >> just because I'm thinking if any one of us is the facilities chair in the future, we're going to need an abundance of clarity because we will not have had the seasoned experience of Brian to apply this. >> I have one year of seasoning. So, >> you've birthed it though. I think that makes a difference. >> But maybe prior to the initial meeting, we can add that language if if that works. Everyone okay with that? >> I agree. I don't think I would have wanted to kick someone out of facilities for the meeting. I just don't think that's appropriate. I just want to make sure that I had the information that was being taken to facilities. >> Could go ahead. >> Could we add in language that also incorporates something about the whole process? you know, prior to the meeting, after meetings, during during the process, cuz I originally thought about the facilities committee chair will consult before and after with the board member representing the area because if it was me, I would like to tell the facilities chair, this is what I'm thinking. This is what kind of data I'd like to see. You could take that and then I would like a report on say what' you guys talk about. Okay, I like that idea. I don't like that that just being involved through the whole process but not necessarily in the room. >> And you want that before a board meeting where it's reported back to everyone. >> Oh, 100%. Yes. Before the facilities meets before and after. >> Okay. My my concern really comes with then I like that before but the after is really really important because if we decide to close a school I do think those board members need to be a part of it. So the tricky thing is how do you get the current facilities committee to be able to make those decisions and still involve that the board members affected. I think >> I still want to emphasize recommendations not decisions. Well, >> because it is it is an important differentiation, right? Just to make sure we're all clear. The facilities committee is not deciding. >> It is, but they are deciding in many ways. They're deciding to bring a recommendation to the board. And there decisions in those meetings that affect whether or not we bring someone something forward or what idea we bring forward. And so those are decisions >> or what kind of what kind of resistance there might be and how strong it is to where I sit and where the >> and not only that but one thing we learned is that I think there is value in the finance in the facilities committee not having the emotions that the board member has that we were able to look at a situation more objectively and I think there is power in that and I just would not want it I would never want it to be always one way or always the other because I think there's great value and sometimes the board member is not on the facilities committee >> well and in that same tone if it's going to affect my nearest community and I'm hearing for it for the first time I'm trying to figure out stuff on the spot whereas if I get a communication after after the facilities committee meeting I can have more time to process. >> That's the key right there. >> I think another important thing for us to point out here is that there the first half of this document before we get to number four where we're talking ensures that the first time you hear about this was not in a committee room. >> It was in the boardroom. you already got the heads up and then the board made the determination that facilities would then study. So, I understand that there have been scenarios in the past where that has not happened. But the rest of this document kind of solves that for me where I'm saying, okay, staff is bringing this formula and a list of watch list schools and then the board is saying, okay, now we're going to start talking about this and receiving the recommendations. That's an that's very important point. Yeah. Because number three, the board receives an annual report of enrollment potential action list and then at some point the board says, "Okay, facilities, go take care of this." So, no one should really be blindsided by it unless they miss a meeting and don't listen to the recording. Everyone in in the back of their minds should know, okay, one or two of my schools is being discussed or will be discussed in the next month or two for over enrollment or under enrollment. >> This discussion was very helpful for me. Thank you. >> Says someone who has a few schools on the list. Did did you get enough feedback, Mike, to >> I think so. I mean, it could be something along the lines of this. Before the initial meeting and throughout the process, the facilities committee chair will consult with the relevant board member if they are not already a committee member. I >> like that. But that works. >> And can we change A13 as well? similar language >> facilities committee before and during will notify and involve. >> Yeah, that >> closure feels different to me than a boundary change. >> When you say A13, you're talking about a policy, >> closure policy. >> Policy. >> Can I just ask a clarification? Are we allowed to talk about changing a policy that's not on our agenda or do we request to put it on a future item? >> It's referenced in the policy that's on the agenda. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> But to your point, Miss Wood, I think we would and that would involve anytime we change policy, we come back and we, you know, it's on the agenda. We talk about the how we're going to change the wording and then it does there there are steps we need to take and including approval in a in a business meeting. Building closure and consolidation is actually listed on the enrollment considerations for decline. So it's not just in policy that we talk about it. In other words, some of the time it may be just a boundary change. >> Well, I would propose at some point A13 be examined the same way this one was and the language be similar. >> I like that too. >> Um, who would you like to make that assignment to? facilities policy. It >> makes sense to me if we're doing the trigger point document, whoever is doing that can also do the policy. So, is that facilities? >> Is that okay? >> It doesn't seem like much of an assignment actually. It just seems like something staff would take, change a few words, and come back and have it approved. I don't know that it's something we would need to look at. >> And we need to hear from Nikki. What's your concern about A13? Because you need to give them direction on how to change it. It sounded like you were uncomfortable with my proposed changes. >> Um, I don't know that I have a concern. And I'm just saying I don't know that I would lump a boundary change and a school closure into the same boat. I think they're very different processes. I'm not saying that I'm not comfortable changing the wording to a line, but I would like to look at them separately and not just say let's insert the same sentence into both. I think they are different, but I think they should have the same consideration. And I think that board member should always be involved if they're not on facilities. So I'm comfortable changing the verbiage to be the same because I think there should always be that consideration for before and during a process >> and bring it back and consider it separately. Is that what you're saying? >> That's all I'm saying. >> Right. >> Um and I think there is more to consider in this policy for change and update than just that one line. As I'm looking at it, I think staff provides facilities committee with information on schools that meet trigger points and initial analysis of the trigger point data, but our trigger point document suggests that that comes to the board. So, I think they need to be updated to align our staff. Are you comfortable taking that on just bringing back proposed language changes for A13 as well as the trigger point document? Sure. >> Perfect. >> Lessons learned in trigger point document >> now need to be applied to A13. >> Yep. >> And based upon how many trigger points are out there will be this will be a living document. >> Because I think we're >> that's why there's a document and policy. >> But I do think it's appropriate that we have a consolidation and closure process that is established prior to the event itself. >> Yeah. I think experience has also brought us to that point. So I I think we're on the right track. That's my fault. >> Wisdom to me. >> I'm the one who stepped in it and started the whole thing. I will own that. Okay, great. Thank you. Good conversation. Okay, our next agenda item is a legislative review. I want to be mindful of time so that we have a little break before our um our business meeting begins. Are you comfortable beginning? And then if we need to pause at 6:00, we'll just stop the agenda item and pick back up. I think this is one that is easy to break up. Does that feel okay, Suzan? >> Does to me it does it to you? >> Of course. Yes. >> Okay, perfect. Then let's move into item 1D, legislative review, and we will turn it to Miss Wood and Dr. Anderson. I first want to thank Dr. Anderson for uh staying on top of the frequent changes or movement of proposed bills, getting to committee, through committee. Uh I know it's a lot over the next several weeks. So grateful that we can rely on him for his expertise and his relationships there at the legislature. Uh so today I'm Mike is going to talk about just a few of the bills that might be of greatest importance to the board. Um I'm going to add just a couple of quick comments. Just a reminder again for our two days on the hill. Uh on February 11th, we have the boardroom from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. We would benefit from a headcount on who in the board plans to be there. And if you would like to sit on the House floor anytime after 10:00 a.m., Mike is happy to coordinate that on your behalf. >> Will you say the times one more time? I apologize. >> Yes. February 11th, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. We have the boardroom at the cap. >> I will be there. >> I will not. >> So Erin's the first. Yes. I'm a yes as well. >> Okay. >> I will be there. >> I will I will not be there. >> I don't know. >> Okay. So, three yeses and a maybe. And to be clear, if we can always adjust, we'll >> That's right. >> If we have an extra box lunch, there are hungry interns all over Capitol Hill that will that will eat it. >> And would any of you like to show up early to sit on the floor or No, if you would like to. >> How early do you have to be there? >> Sometime after, would you say between 10:00 and 11:00? >> Anytime between 10:00 and noon. And we've got the capital boardroom at 11:30, but floor time goes until noon. So, anytime in there. And it could be for any amount of time you want. Uh there is a they have some rules this year in the Democratic CO caucus that you can only sit 15 minutes on the floor before you have to rotate out. Any visitors do? So, but we we can get you in there either in the House or the Senate. >> Oh, I'd love to sit on the Senate floor, but I have meeting that morning. I'm not sure when it will end for my other job, so I'll let you know. >> Okay. TBD Nikki, do you know? Yeah, I think I should be there um by 10:00. >> I will not be there early right now. That's not my plan. Okay. And then the second date you'll want to mark down if you haven't already is on the 18th with our student body officers. You can either drive yourself or go with the students on the bus that day. We don't necessarily need a headcount for that right now, but And that's just the bus would leave from South Valley uh Specialty School and head up to the cap and then you can get a ride back. Usually the bus um for that day will leave at 9:00 am and get up there around 9:45 to 10 depending on traffic and other um and then we start a tour at 10:00 a.m.ish go around and then end with floor time where the students sit on the floor with the legislators and so and then we'll meet with them uh in the capital boardroom for lunch and we invite our legislators to drop in during that lunchtime. We are doing it on Wednesday this year because Tuesdays and Thursdays prove to be problematic due to their caucus meet. >> This is a new a new day of the week for us. >> So, um if there's nothing else on that topic, the third topic uh we'll touch on is just the proposed list of cuts from USB that's gotten some attention from our community and we wanted to um touch on that today. Does the board have a preference if we do the USB first or just go through the list of bills? If not, I'll let Mike decide. >> Sure, Dr. Anderson. >> Yeah, we can just jump right into there's been a lot of you've probably seen things in in the media um about the proposed cuts to just give it context. earlier or last year, uh, Congress, that's the federal Congress, passed, uh, the so-called one big beautiful bill act that that really impacted, um, income tax and the income tax filings and and because Utah's income tax laws are directly tied to federal tax laws, uh, it will also impact Utah. In essence, people are getting greater tax cuts, which means we're not seeing as much income tax revenue in the state of Utah. Income tax is the mainstream for public education funding. And so that uh the state is estimating about a $300 million shortfall in income tax coming in uh this year. And so what the leadership has done is asked uh state agencies and departments um to go through a 5% cut reduction exercise and make those proposals to their respective committees up at the legislature. And and I will add this that it doesn't appear as though um there may be a lot of cuts. The 5% cut exercise is more exercise than than anything else I believe. Um, and we've been told that from several legislators, but they >> especially if we make cuts they don't like. Gotcha. >> And and so, for example, the state board of education has been asked a couple of times now to report to the public education appropriations committee about um a couple of different options they would exercise to to go through this 5% reduction. They did that uh earlier this week and they did it again this morning to talk about those cuts. There were a couple of plans presented. Initially, there was a lot of concern because especially among patrons and students, parents about cuts to the arts program that that garnered a lot of um interest and publicity and there was a a huge outreach to legislators and state board members about doing that. um the the cuts if they were made that according to the state board's proposal would not get rid of programs like POPS or Beverly Taylor Sorenson. Um they would they there was an option presented by the board that would give a 5% reduction and and but they are not considering fully cutting any program like that. So, I think that helped quell some of the some of the the emotion and the nervousness amongst those that really advocate for the arts. So, I think that's an important thing to get out there for anybody listening that that's it's not on the chopping block, but one of the options presented by the USB was an across the board 5% cut. And then they also presented an option that would get rid of the teacher um teacher merit pay program that was sponsored by Senator Filillmore last year. So, and then they came back again this morning with some additional. Anything you'd add to that, John, in terms of what they're talking about cutting >> is a flexible allocation. >> Yeah. Well, that included a a proposed 2% cut on the flexible allocation, which is our most flexible um amount of money we get as a school district. We're we know we're going to get about a 4.2% WPU increase. that's allocated by statute. They can always tack on more, but at this point it is going to be 4.2. If they were to do a 2% cut to the flexible allocation, that would represent a 2%, you know, decrease in the WPU funding. Does that make sense? So, we still get a 4.2% increase, but if they reduce the flexible allocation by an equivalent of the 2% WPU, then the net increase of course is 2.2. So, that's a concern. And that's an ongoing discussion in public educ uh education appropriations. Ultimately, it's executive appropriations at the by the end of the session that has a say has the ultimate say on what gets funded and what does not in terms of and and happy to entertain any questions or um throw anything out there that you want to. Um in terms >> when we can expect that decision from executive appropriation. >> Um executive appropriations is usually towards the end of the session. Public education appropriations will make their um make their recommendations within the first couple of weeks to executive of appropriations. So we'll have a good idea of what they've prioritized. And USB by the way has prioritized not cutting the arts. So they will recommend that to public ed. and then they will then in turn recommend it to executive appropriations and then they grapple with that that throughout the session. >> So any day we could expect education appropriations. >> I think any um probably ne over the next couple of weeks they meet the first few weeks of the session um about twice a week to go over things like that and discuss them and finalize their their priorities. So it could be next week sometime maybe sometime after that. And I I have a question about um not about this funding, but um two years ago, I think it was with the bill that ended um the school registration fees for secondary schools. Um there the first year that that was in effect, I think the legislature appropriated money to help ease the transition. Um, was the legislature going to um appropriate money for the second year also? I thought it was a certain amount for the first year and then a lesser amount the second year. Can we expect to receive that those funds? Am I making any sense? >> Yeah, I think you refer when they passed the fee school fee bills there was one a one time allocation. >> Oh, it was a one-time allocation. So not I thought okay >> it >> it was a onetime allocation but intended to be split over a couple of years. So last year three years ma'am and so we had an install an initial installment last year and then u what has been discussed this year is that perhaps there was an effort being made to claw back that money. Um I've looked into that. I've heard it a couple of times. I've I've talked to to legislators about it. I've honestly I've been I've received various answers on what might happen with that, but when I've talked to members of leadership, they said there is no intention of clawing that money back. >> Okay. I don't >> about reassigning it to catalyst centers. >> That was that was what's been discussed. I mean, we've heard that in JLC before and that's what's put put out there, but I have not heard anything definitive on that. So, I think that's something we need to stay tuned on. >> Thanks. Yeah, good question and good good reminder that yes, there was money onetime money attached but spread over three years. Um, a couple of bills of note that I think uh um we'd be interested in. We can push pause at any time and continue this. By the way, HB241 is uh Representative Peruchi's bill on charter school amendments. Um, this is the version that would would give charters first right of refusal. It is important to note that there is a sub out right now that um takes charters getting first right of uh refusal or first op dibs on a school property that's being sold and puts them on par level with the cities. Right now, if we sold a a school property or school building, cities have the first right to that. Um, this bill originally gave it to charters and now the new sub puts puts them on equal footing for equal rights to that and it would make the state um send out to all the charter the USB would send notification out to the charters of that property as well as to the cities that the city that that building is located in. >> So is that only if we're going to offload the property? If we decide to keep the property in the school but not have students go there is we can continue to have that right. >> The language in the bill is deals with disposition of property which we've always I believe taken to mean selling the property. That would nice it' be nice to have that clarified but that's where it is. It was held in committee because um there was revisions being done to it. That that sub is available online to look at. There is ongoing discussion about that as to how to make that more palatable, but the League of Cities and Towns is not going to oppose it as the as is written in the new substitute. >> So, this is not only property, but also the items inside of a school, right? >> That part was taken out and so it only deals with real property in the new bill. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Good, good clarification. And is it true we don't have clarification yet on when they both get first right of refusal who wins if they both bid. >> There's a process that would be um that I believe the way the bill is written that USB would be the arbiter of those of those equal um desires. So >> any what does your gut say? Because I I hear a lot about this. I hear a lot of school districts saying, "We're just not going to sell our property then. We just won't sell it." But I I understand the pro I understand her thinking is we want to keep it in the hands of education entities. And so I I I see the logic in both. But what does your gut say where this is going? Well, without the League of Cities and Towns opposing the bill, it's going to be diff more difficult to stop it. Um, one consideration would be to insert language that it's already in code about selling it to a city. If a if we were to sell a a closed school to a city, that city can't turn around in a couple of years and then sell it to a developer and make a profit without sharing that profit 50/50 between the school district and the city. One proposal, one consideration could be to make sure that language is inserted so that if a charter school were to turn around in a couple of years and sell the property at a at a profit, they would also need to do the same thing that a city would do. If they're going to put people on equal footing, you might as well have all of the other considerations equal as well. >> Does it um affect a trade? >> Trade is not part of this law as it's as it's written. So what to your question about consequences? Yeah, I think you'll see school districts either repurpose, hang on to um trade or you know other options that it might have a chilling effect on the sale of buildings depending on where it was and what they wanted to do with it. That's uh HB241 if you wanted to. >> One more comment that this would take effect July 1. >> Um if it were to pass question, I'd have to check and see the the effective date, but my I think it was in 2027 that that took place, >> but I I can't recall the date. >> Is the assumption that a school district would benefit financially better if they traded than if they sold to the city? Is that the assumption that we're working under? Cuz it sounds like school districts don't ever want to sell to a city or to a charter. >> They consider charters competition. So, they don't want to facilitate competition that's going to pull students out of their buildings. That's their main concern. I don't think they don't want to sell. I just think they don't want to sell to a charter school that then is going to compete with them >> and and make the problem or the reason why the school board is looking at closing that school in the first place due to underenrollment make a bad problem worse because if a charter comes in they will draw more enrollment away from the school that has already been carefully considered by the school board to close because of low enrollment. >> So it could be a domino effect. It could exacerbate the issue and Yes. >> So a charter school buys it and moves in, draws upon the community, forcing the school district to close another school. I mean, is that >> that exactly the the fear of of of school districts that are going through that right now? >> A good example of that is down by your house, Brian. When Maverick closed their store and built a bigger one right next to it, they didn't sell that property. They demolished in the building and left it empty because they don't want a gas station to move in. So if we're closing a school, it means we have really low enrollment. Why would we let a competition that's providing similar thing that we do move in? Because it would just make us close more schools. And uh JLC did take a position of oppose on this bill last Friday and keep you posted as things develop. >> It was a hot topic at the convention. All right. Would you like to pause so that you have a 20 minute break? Okay. Sorry to stop you mid-sentence there. >> Pick up wherever we need to. Okay. No problem. >> Let's go ahead and pause. We'll pick up with our business meeting at 6:30. >> We're still on air. >> Sorry, Lisa. I was hoping >> for your birthday we would have a short meeting. Welcome to the Jordan School District Board of Education business meeting. Today is Tuesday, January 27th, 2026. Um, and we are thrilled to have a room full of people here tonight as well as um, welcoming those who are watching online. We're glad that you're with us today. Um, at the meeting this evening, we have our board attorney, Mr. Paul Vancman, board members Lisa Dean, Suzanne Wood, Aaron Barrow, uh, Brian Barnett, uh, Bryce Dunford, and Daryl Robinson. and my name is Nikki George. I'm the board president and we'll be conducting this evening. We also have our superintendent, Dr. Anthony Godfrey, our associate superintendent, Dr. Mike Anderson, and our business administrator, Mr. John Larson. So, let's go ahead and get the show on the road tonight with a pledge of allegiance. We're so happy to welcome representatives from Bingham High School tonight. And we will invite Luke Steppen, the senior class president, and Will Robbins to the mic. We will now present the colors. We will now lead you in the pledge of allegiance. Ready, begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may all be seated. Let's move to the reverence and invite Julia Edwards, the junior class historian at Bingham High School to the mic. >> Hello, my name is Julia and a quote by Gustav Malhair reads, "Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. Our traditions are the sparks that ignite our flames. Right now, we are paving the way for those who will come after us. And it should be our goal to hold a standard to our culture that will create the best future for everyone. Every interaction we have, whether it's with a student, a co-orker, a family member, creates an opportunity to fuel a culture where everyone can thrive. By tending to our fires today, we are ensuring the brightest possible future for ourselves and everyone around us. >> Thank you. Okay. And now we'll invite Jack Kudson, the student body president of Bingham High School for our celebrating schools. Good evening board. I'm Jack Kudson. I'm the SBO president of Bingham High School. A little fun fact, I am the 107th SPO president our school has had. Having that many predecessors is a lot of pressure as you can imagine. Not only do I have to live up to such uh to representing such a historic school, I have to follow in huge footsteps. About the only thing that I can definitively say I am the best at over my 106 predecessors is I can do a handstand for 20 seconds. There's uh John Carpenter, class of 39, came close a few times, but I'm pretty sure that I've bested him, so my record is safe. Being the oldest school in the district, the history of Bingham High School is often brought up. Whether it's numerous uh the numerous buildings we've had or the copper miners that founded this institution. This h this history is integral to our identity as a school. And in no way am I dismissing it. But with such an extraordinary origin, often our the accomplishments of today's minors go underappreciated. So, I hope that I can further impress you with the Bingham Miners with what we've done in this past year as a school. First off, I want to introduce you all to our school theme, which is ignite the spark. Um, we have a pin and a logo to accomp accompany it that I will present to you all later, but it's a pickaxe hitting and creating a spark and it's very awesome. But with our administration, faculty, and student government, we made it our goal for students to love their school. And we believe in order for that uh to be accomplished and school spirit to be realized, it begins in the classroom. Um a few of our academic accomplishments this year is we increase the number of AP and concurrent classes at Bingham because of the popular demand for it and students from cross country, girls soccer, boys golf, football, girls tennis, girls volleyball, cheer, and drill all qualified for academic allstate. As we all know though, school isn't just in the classroom, it's also on the PRA practice field, courts, and stage. Our g our girls tennis were region champions this year. Our unified soccer team uh took first in state, which is an amazing opportunity for students with special needs to get involved in athletics. Um cheer this past week took third in state. Um, as for our performing arts, marching band was took second at the state championship. Ballroom got first in team state in all of their events this past Saturday. And our Bellavoi choir is going to be performing at the Awards in St. George in a few weeks. Um, our performing artists were able to showcase their diverse skill sets in our fall musical which was lay miser rob. Um we as students uh we as student government have also tried to do our part igniting the spark by a number of activities and events most notably in our Christmas charity season with our annual True Blue fundraiser. We planned a ton of elaborate activities and raised over $120,000. All of the money we raised went to the We Give Hope Foundation and to a local charity uh a local Bingham charity called Little Miracles. Some of the events that we put on include Dancing with the Stars, where a member of the ballroom team was paired with a a captain of a sports team and competed in an event like the TV show Dancing with the Stars. I got second. I don't want to brag, but I did get second. Um, in our closing True Blue assembly, we raised over $5,000 from students and teachers. We have a tradition at Bingham High School where the at the end of all of our assemblies, every student rises and picks their heart and shovels their shovels their shoulder and uh stays quiet as the magicals sing our school hymn. At the end of the closing True Blue assembly, the you could feel the community and school spirit throughout the gym. It was incredible. This summarizes how deep the culture of Bingham High School runs in deafening and sweaty student sections and in near silent respect, the spark of the minor spirit glows bright. Thank you all for your time board and remember, it's a great day to be a minor. We also have a little uh gift for you guys. Um we have these little minor tokens with the Bingham um emblem on it. And this signifies uh something from back in our copperton days where miners when miners would go down into the mine, they would take one of these cards from like a pouch or wherever they would clock in and take it with them just so that um whenever everybody would uh leave the mines at the end of the day, they could see who was still in the mine. Um this is a great symbol for what we as miners try to accomplish with nobody left behind. We are trying our best to make sure nobody gets left in the mine and we're all a able to make it out safe. So, I'm going to invite um all of our members of student government to come and help present all of this to you and I'm going to demonstrate the little tradition we have when pinning somebody right here. Stockton mind. um one of the members of student government who's going to give you the pin will shake your hand or shake your arm like this and say congratulations and then you will say back >> it's a great day to be a minor >> and then we will proceed with What a pleasure. This is so fun. >> You can't pop off like that and not show us your handstand. >> We've got 20 seconds. I got the timer. >> I'm not in my prime anymore, so we'll see how I do. But >> it's pretty impressive. I guess I was wrong about that. I guess John Carpenter does have me bested. I'm sorry. >> He didn't have a suit on. >> That's right. >> What a pleasure to hear about the great things that are happening at Bingham. I'd just like to take a minute and recognize anyone who is here supporting Bingham High School. So whether you are an employee, a parent, a student, will you go ahead and stand and let us give you a round of applause. Thank you for all that you do. It's clearly paying off. All right, we also have a gift. I wish that we had a little more ceremony with ours, but um we'd like to invite the students from Bingham who are here to go ahead and start at this end of the DAS. Come on down. We have a pin for you as well. And we'd love to shake each of your hands. Thank you. >> Thanks for coming, guys. Thanks, man. >> Thank you so much for being here. >> Thanks for coming. >> Thanks for coming. >> Thanks for coming. >> See you. Thanks. >> Thanks for coming, man. Good to see you again. We love having students in board meeting, but we also recognize that the many accomplishments you noted take a lot of time. So, we are not offended. If now or at any point during the meeting you need to slip away, feel free to do so. But of course, you are welcome to stay if you would like. Uh we'll now move to resolutions of appreciation. Miss Dean Whereas dedicated service to Jordan School District was faithfully and effectively performed. Whereas they consistently and conscientiously executed their responsibilities with integrity, honesty, and loyalty. Be it therefore resolved that the Jordan School District Board of Education and District Administration declare appreciation for the outstanding service that was performed in the cause of public education and hereby express our sorrow at the death of these valued friends. Gary Lee James, bus driver. Gregory Stanford, bus driver. >> Thank you. >> Can I add something to that? I don't know how you get on the list, but Terry Shoemaker just recently passed away. He started in the Jordan school district and was in Wasach District and he was uh was he the executive director of the Utah School Board Association. So, good friend of most of ours if you've been around for a while. >> Thank you. Our condolences to those families and our gratitude for their service. Okay, let's now move into board member recognitions. And if it's okay, I'm going to take the opportunity to start this time. We have some students here that we wanted to spotlight and we also understand that they have busy lives to get back to. So I am thrilled to welcome the JATC North students from the aerospace engineering program who recently submitted a project to NASA and have been selected. We are so proud. Um, our our Jordan district mission is unleashing potential, exceptional educational opportunities for every student. I think this is the epitomization of what we mean by that. We are so happy when our students go out and find these exceptional opportunities. So, we would love to brag on these students for a few moments. So I will invite the principal of the JTC campuses, Sonia Burton Wararez, up to introduce them to us. Good evening, school board. We're so glad that we are here. We're so honored that you will that you are um recognizing our students. Um, I want to introduce uh Miss Amber Saffin to you as well. She is our uh aerospace engineering teacher who uh has definitely uh inspired these students. Um and uh they just a little bit of background way back in uh the fall they uh they applied for this particular um project and they were very surprised on January 21st when they were announced as one of the um few that were selected to go into the hot into the um high altitude balloon. So, um, you'll have to tell me last names because I can't remember all of their last names. Um, anyway, uh, Zack >> Hall, >> Zack Hall, Canyon >> Bullock, >> Canyon Bullock, Mason >> Rice, >> Mason Rice, and >> Blakeley, >> Blake, >> Bigley, >> Bigley, >> Big, >> come on up. So, these are our four team members that are going to work with NASA once a week for the next 18 weeks. Uh, and we'll keep you posted. So, that is so awesome. Would one of you tell us a little bit about your project? I did not prepare them for this. right microphone. Uh so so what we're doing um yeah so what we're doing is we are taking different data storage types and putting them on a weather balloon basically to see what the the radiation up at 60 70,000 ft uh will do to their storage. >> Very cool. We are so proud of you. We would love to shake each of your hands as well and give you a pin for your awesome work. But before we do that, can I invite any parents or JATC um employees who are here to support these students to stand up and let us give you a round of applause? Thank you. We recognize the amount of work that it takes to help your students connect with these kinds of opportunities. So, thank you for your dedication. All right, students, advisor, come on up and we'll shake everybody's hand. What do you suspect is going to happen? >> Congratulations. >> No idea. You You can't lean one way or another. >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Good luck. >> Great job. What a great crew. >> Good to see you again. And parents, you can um find this the live stream and the video on YouTube if you want to share links of this um with grandparents or anybody else who wants to share in this or that you want to share this with. >> Great point. Thank you for being here. And we also recognize that you may have other things to do besides attend an enthralling board meeting. But if you need to go, we're not offended if you slip out. Thank you for being here. It means so much to us to be able to hear of your great success. All right. >> As as they leave, if I could just add they I was able to interview all of them, teacher and students today for the supercast and they are very impressive. Very impressive. And I will say it is actually rocket science. >> So another good thing to link on your social media. Look at all these flexes. Okay. Other board member recognitions tonight. Um, I'm not sure if this is where it goes or if it goes with comments later, but I did want to shout out um our Cabra Hills High School Madricals saying sang for the oath of office for the West Jordan City Council at the beginning of January, which was so much fun to see them there. And I was so glad that uh the city was recognizing one of our high schools in West Jordan. And I don't know, I have a bunch of other comments of like things I went to. Or is that better for comments than >> Okay. Um, Bingham already left, but I got to go to their charity drive assembly in December, and it was so much fun to see them there. Uh, Stockton, who was here tonight, was a great MC um cheering on all the students and getting them to support such great causes. Um uh along the lines of our student body officers, um we get to as board members have a lunch with them every so often uh as long as we're able to attend. And I was able to attend that lunchon in January with our SBOS's. And I had a couple quotes from them. We were talking about their charity drives and their takeaways. And I was very impressed by the comments they made. in two quotes from the our students there was it's about changing lives not the amount raised and every school has the potential to help their students and community and make a big impact. So I'm I'm always so impressed with our students. Um I was also able to attend the Jordan Education Foundation appreciation lunchon. I I said that long statement to my 12-year-old son and he's like, "What did you just say?" I know it's a mouthful, but um the JF lunchon and it was just so lovely to see all of the good that's happening in our district for our students and their families and our amazing teachers and ESPs that we have here in JSD. And it was just the pickme up that I needed that day to see all of the good that's happening. Uh, I also wanted to comment that I was able to go to the GK conference, what I wish you knew, that took place over the break we had for uh, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And I really wanted to thank the education access committee, language and cultural arts services, and the Native American program who put on that event. It was beautiful as always. Um the theme was lenses of humanity and uh it that is a book by Dr. Kyle A. Reyes and he came and spoke to us um about the different inner lenses that can determine how we see and interact with the world around us. And I really look forward to reading the book that I received that day as well. There was a panel um with students from our high schools that spoke and once again I was just really impressed by what they had to say and what they wanted to share with our uh teachers and educators. And I just wanted to highlight a couple things that I wrote down that they said which were don't over complicate how you connect with someone who you might feel is different from you. Keep it simple. Standing up for someone else where you see them being picked on is never wrong. If you really believe in something, it's worth standing up for. I now see others without prejudging them thanks to a teacher who emulated that strength. and we can all achieve what we desire. It was uh really great. Then there was a breakout session uh and I was able to go to the class that was taught by uh Carolyn Fraser and um she talked about how it's difficult to discriminate against someone if you really focus on seeing them, learning about them and knowing them and elevating them and then being able to illuminate them. and she applied that to students, seeing your students and seeing your fellow co-workers and it was just a lovely day and I really apprec appreciate the efforts that um Gak took to uh put on that for our our teachers and staff. Um yeah. Oh, one thing for board members. Uh there was a flyer if you all saw it from our South Valley School. They're doing flying around the states presentation that's coming up and uh I would just encourage you all if you can't go to that just to pop by one day to South Valley. Tammy uh our principal and her team do an amazing job with our students there and I would encourage you to go visit and she told me to let you know you guys are always invited at their school. So, I have been on the board for one year. I was appointed just a year ago, and my only firsthand experience with the Jordan School District was through my preschooler who had been in the district for just a few months. and I just needed to take a moment to recognize all of the goodness in this district that I have now been able to witness um that I had no idea about before I joined the board. So, I just want to recognize the strong foundation that was provided by previous and current board members, by our administration, by our devoted teachers and our involved parents, and by our enthusiastic students. When I am around them, they make me want to live more fully and just live more. Um, I'm so grateful for all the goodness that goes on in this district for the community. Um, whether they know it or not, whether they have firsthand experience today or not, it is helping our community and it certainly has made me a better board member and a better citizen. So, just want to recognize everybody in front and behind. Um, and I want to recognize um, some of the good work that's being done in the middle schools in my area um, and mention some of the great things that are happening at Joel P. Jensen Middle School and West Jordan Middle School. At Joel P. Jensen Middle School this year, teachers have been working hard to help their students become resilient lifelong learners by teaching their them JPJ power skills which include how to do internet research, organization skills, and how to set goals and advocate for themselves. And these skills are being reinforced in their classes. Joel P. Jensen also has an uh social emotional learning period on Fridays called Wayfinder where another place where the students are learning and practicing skills that help support their social and emotional wellness. And last year Joel Pensen had 21 students pass the WEDA test and this year they are aiming high to have 31 students pass. Um, I want to recognize Sammy's Buddies at West Jordan Middle School. Um, Sammy's Buddies is a student-led inclusion program run with the help of Mr. Johnson and Miss Harper. And this program connects students with and without disabilities and helps them to build friendships, increase understanding, and create a stronger sense of belonging across the school. and the work of Sammy's buddies. It's carried out through monthly activities, peer tutoring, and afterchool opportunities that bring students together. I I really appreciate the efforts that our educators and administrators and employees of our schools make to just really help our students become better people and achieve. So, thanks Thank you. Uh we appreciate not only the time that these comments recommend from or these comments represent from board members, but I'm sure grateful when the thought is put out there to say, "Hey, I'm going to invite a board member to this event." Um, we appreciate being in our schools and we're always your number one fans as we get to go and cheer you on. Okay, maybe not number one. Your parents might beat us. Let's then move into superintendence recognitions. >> Thank you very much. Tonight, in keeping with the national uh recognition week for National Board Certified Teachers, we are honoring our National Board Certified Teachers in Jordan School District. And as I talk about this, I'm going to ask Chris Richards Kong, associate administrator in teaching and learning to come up to the microphone along with Dion Tarponing and Laroo Edwards. Dion Tarponing is a teacher at Monav Vista Elementary and she is newly board certified and Laroo Edwards from Haramman High School just renewed her board certification. Um, I recorded a podcast episode about this about a year ago and over the years I have gone up to the legislature as newly certified teachers have been recognized and that the form of recognition has varied but the effort put in by these teachers has not. has always been a great deal of effort and very very good teachers sometimes have to redo portions of this. It's very rigorous process and it involves uh recording yourself teaching analyzing what you do. It really has has um there's a process in place that requires you to be very intentional about what you do and very thoughtful about an analyzing your own teaching. And we have mentors in place who are currently certified as um board certified teachers. And so we're we're looking to provide more and more opportunities for teachers to do this. The board has a a a financial component to their support for this as does the state, but there's a lot of time even beyond that that's put in. Um, this is just done by teachers who really want to improve their craft. And I'm always impressed when I hear about a teacher who has become board certified. So, I will turn it over to Chris Richards Kong to give us a little bit more information about this, but it's really thrilling. I think we have 17 teachers total in Jordan School District who are board certified. And if you're a board-certified teacher, I know that you have taken a close look at your teaching and that you're very intentional and that students are benefiting from all of that hard work. So, uh, I'll let you take it from here. Um we really are excited that these two teachers have joined and and increased our numbers to 17. And our hope in in um focusing on national board certification is we would love to have more students have the opportunity to have a national board certified teacher in their classroom because of the um experiences that these teachers go through to enrich their their craft and their own learning and professional development and the opportunities that brings to their students. Um and five of our current um certified teachers are serving as mentors as part of our effort to um nurture our present candidates that are getting ready to take their test. And um Amy Wood who is with us, she has been helping um to foster a um program to help um teachers with preparing in that way. And we really are excited about our mentorship program. And our mentorship program comes out of um the funding that is connected to the same grant, the master pilot grant that we've talked about before earlier this year that was also connected to the teacher fellows um program that we've featured as well in schoolboard meetings. And it's all part of that effort to grow our teacher leaders. And so I would like to also have our national board certified teachers um that are with us tonight. I'd like to recognize them if they will stand um as I read their names. Patricia Hendris from Sunset Ridge Middle School. Heather Christopher Ellis from Bingham High School. Laru Edwards who is with us here at the front. She is from Haramman High School. Belinda Irick Jordan Hills Elementary. Teresa Rex Kings Peak High School. Melissa Brown, Riverton High School. Tammy Clevenger, Copper Hills High School. Shauna Robertson, Mountain Ridge High School. Lisa Craig, Mountain Ridge High School. Susan Hines, South Jordan Elementary. Amy Wood, who is with us in teaching and learning. Suzanne Thompson, Jordan Hills Elementary. Mary Carlson, JCT North. Alise Almond, West Jordan High School. Rachel Banell, Riverton High School. Leslie Still, East Lake East Lake Elementary, and Gian who is here at the front. She is at Mount Monte Vista Elementary. We uh appreciate them being with us um in numbers tonight. Some of them couldn't join us, but we really want to recognize them. Thank you. Just by the nature of invol being involved in this program, these are teachers who go above and beyond. Although there is some compensation, the hours go well beyond the compensation. And for example, Laroo and I have known each other for a very long time. I know all the extra effort she's put in. And I was able to visit Dion at her school recently and people stopped me and said, "Oh, she puts on the play and she writes the play so we don't have to pay for the rights uh to perform it." Um, and others are in the crowd who were on the podcast with me that I've been able to talk with, others that I've tapped into for their personal knowledge of subjects I needed help with or that my children needed help with or whatever else. Uh, just this is a this is a great example of some amazing teachers. some from out of state who uh were in states where there was a greater level of support for helping teachers um have access to this program. So, I've given a few examples, but um I'm always thrilled to to talk with a board-certified teacher because I always know it's someone who's at the top of their craft and who goes above and beyond and looks for every opportunity to be the very best they can be. So, I appreciate the efforts of everyone here and those who were not able to be here and and all the work they've put in to be board certified and be at their best for their students. So, thank you. >> Thank you for being here and for that extra effort. I um am happy to say my students or my kids are some of your students. There's another George coming, Miss Hendrickx. So, I always make sure that they are in that pod. Um, we are so grateful for your extra effort and we would love to shake each of your hands if you would be willing to come up to the dis and we also have a pin for you. >> I'll also mention as they're coming up the great district support. Um, it's uh nice to have Amy here and Chris Richards Kong here who have uh worked hard to help support these teachers. I love the energy that comes as we get to learn about the good things that are happening across the district um in public education and specifically in Jordan. All right, let's go ahead and move now to our public comment portion of the evening. This is something that the board really values. Uh it's important to us to receive input from our um residents and students and employees. Uh just a couple of reminders as we begin. The board will not take public comment on personnel issues or statements regarding the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual during board meetings. If you have concerns of that nature, please feel free to email the board directly. Um, those wishing to have comments heard by the board are asked to list the topic they intend to discuss as well as their name on the signup document or v via email. So, if you came tonight intending to speak and didn't see that, just a heads up. Um, let's see. Comment needs to stay age appropriate. The board does not discuss issues that are not on the meeting's agenda. The board may ask staff to follow up on issues raised or may address them at a future meeting. So, just a reminder that silence by the board on an issue does not suggest support or opposition to the message given. and frequently that followup will come at a later date. Um the board will take public comment on this time on items that are not listed on the agenda. In-person comments will be heard first and then they will be followed by comments received electronically. Both in-person and emailed comments can last a maximum of three minutes. So we ask that you be respectful of that time. When you're called to the podium, please state your name. And I have one name on tonight's list. Um so I'll invite Greg Hazard to the mic and um and then we'll go into our emailed comment. Good evening board. It's been such a positive meeting tonight. Um very very promising. Uh my name is Greg Hazard. I'm a former uh school teacher, special education teacher, and vice principal. And as a vice principal, I was often asked, you know, how do I do it? Um it was just very comforting to see the board certified teachers and how they do it. And um my response would often be, I can't give up the hundred hugs I get every single day. Um, but often I would be confronted once in a while and I would be um have some trouble when I had somebody with uh a discussion for me with a master's degree. Um, I have three master's degrees, so I'll try to be uh not triple the trouble tonight. Um, I wanted to start off with a positive. I came here a year ago on a transportation issue and I spoke with Dr. Godfrey at length earlier today regarding the issue. I came here tonight. Um, the transportation issue was handled beautifully. Um, I want to uh just let the board know that Paul Beer, who I saw tonight, he had no idea. I had no idea he was coming tonight, handled the matter exceptionally well. Scott Thomas, the director of special ed. And, um, it is such a pleasure to have a school like Kari Sue um, in this district. I've seen a couple of dozen schools like this. I don't think there's anything like it. Um my concern tonight is as a parent I tried to excuse my son at Harman High School um for an absence that was legitimate. Uh there's a 5-day policy that apparently you can't excuse a child um after that and uh they would be otherwise marked truent. The attendant secretary referred me to Mr. Titus who also refused to excuse the absence. Um, I found the disconnect between parent and uh and and vice principal very disconcerning, but I'm more concerned about a policy that advocates chronic absenteeism or truency. um erroneous documentation, noting that there's a truency when there isn't one, and uh most importantly the uh noting for the record a crime on behalf of myself as a parent and my child. Uh truency is at a certain point a B-level misdemeanor in the state of Utah. Um, and I just feel it's unethical to have such a crime like that just insinuated or placed or documented for a 5-day policy that probably shouldn't exist when a parent reaches out and just wants to extend their concern and excuse their child. Um, so I'm hoping at some point that this can be resolved. Um I did speak with the state board uh the assistant attorney general Don who doesn't agree with this policy either but I think we came to a point with um Dr. Godfrey today that we might be able to resolve this matter and um do what's in the best interest of children and uh meet their situation specific needs and uh bridge community parents um administration and uh everyone involved. So, I hope you'll take those comments into consideration and uh see if we can't just do better. Thank you very much. >> We appreciate you being here and bringing this item to our attention. Was there anyone else in the room that had hoped to speak but didn't see the sign up? Okay, perfect. Let's move then into emailed comment. Samantha Whitley. Dear B de Dear board members, school district board, my name is Samantha Whitley and my daughter will be going into first grade next year at Aspen Elementary. I am writing to express my strong interest in having a dual language DLI program implemented at Aspen Elementary. As a parent, I believe this program would greatly benefit not only my children, but also the entire school community by fostering bilingualism, cultural awareness, and academic excellence. I kindly request that the board consider making the Spanish language option a part of the DLI program at Aspen as I believe Spanish is a valuable language for students to learn. Given its global importance and relevance in our community, it is very important to me that the program is implemented by the time my younger daughter enters first grade and I hope that this request is taken into consideration for future planning. There aren't near enough dual language immer dual immersion programs offered by in our area and it would be amazing to have one so close. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing commitment to providing a highquality education and for considering my comments. I truly appreciate the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in making our school district such a wonderful place for our children to learn and grow. Thank you again for your time and attention. Samantha Whitley, Sydney Apple. Dear board members, school district board, I hope this message finds you well. My name is Sydney Apple. I currently have a son in kindergarten attending Aspen Elementary. I am writing to express my strong interest in having a dual language immersion DLI program implemented at Aspen Elementary. As a parent, I believe this program would greatly benefit not only my children but also the entire school community by fostering bilingualism, cultural awareness, and academic excellence. I kindly request that the board consider making the Spanish language option a part of the DLI program at Aspen. I hope that this request is taken into serious consideration. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your time and efforts. I truly appreciate the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in making our school district such a wonderful place for our children to learn and grow. Thank you again for your time and attention. Sydney Apple, Chelsea Bertholson, Jordan School Board. But I'm writing to express my interest in bringing the dual language immersion program to Aspen Elementary. I have two daughters enrolled at Aspen, one currently in first grade and the second in kindergarten. I cannot tell you how sad I was that the DLI program was not implemented for my oldest daughter. I have considered many times moving her to another school to take advantage of the program. If we were able to implement the program for my kindergartenner, I can assure you I would keep her at Aspen even if our boundaries changed. I've always already begun teaching my daughter's Spanish at home. I think teaching second languages in school should be placed at a much higher priority than it is. The advantages and opportunities of speaking multiple languages will serve our kids better than most other subjects in the long term. I urge you to please approve our school request to implement this program. Thank you for your time and consideration. Chelsea Bertholen Callie Wilson. As a mom of three with two kids eligible for DLI, one starting 2026 in first grade and the youngest 2028. I would be so excited for them to have this opportunity. My oldest child had applied at a different school and got weight listed. Originally, when making the decisions of what school I would send my child to, I was picking those with DLI. I was told Aspen would have it and was so excited. After making changes to our plans to stay at Aspen and starting school, we learned the program the program on no longer going to offered. Here, I beg again, don't make the same mistake twice. bring this opportunity to our community. I think not only is it a skill, but it creates a community that opens the world to new understanding for the children who find success in the program. Cali Wilson, Anna Dalton. Dear board members, school district board, I hope this message finds you well. My name is Anna Dalton and I am a parent of a kindergartener at Aspen Elementary and we'll have another child in kindergarten at Aspen Elementary in two years. I am writing to express my strong interest in having a dual language immersion DLI program implemented at Aspen Elementary. As a parent, I believe this program would greatly benefit not only my children but also the entire school community by fostering bilingualism, cultural awareness, and academic excellence. I kindly request that the board consider making the Spanish language option a part of the DLI program at Aspen as I believe Spanish is a valuable language for students to learn given its global importance and relevance in our community. It is very important to me that the program is implemented by the time my daughter enters first grade next year and I hope that this request is taken into consideration for future planning. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing commitment to providing a highquality education and for considering my comments. I truly appreciate the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in making our school district such a wonderful place for our children to learn and grow. Thank you again for your time and attention. Kindly Anna Dalton. Thank you. Okay, let's go ahead and continue on with our agenda um with our general business. So, I'll now accept a motion to approve the consent agenda items. >> I move that we accept the consent agenda items um 4 A, 4 B, 4 C. >> I second. have a motion by Miss Dean, second by Miss Wood. Was that Wood? Sorry, I need to look over. Um that we approve the consent agenda items A through C. Is there any discussion? >> Right. Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> And any opposed say nay. >> Nay. >> Okay. That motion carries six to one with the the descending vote to Dr. Robinson. Did you want to talk at all? >> Um yeah. Well, I can talk. Um we talked about in our last board meeting about the board meeting calendar. I cannot make the retreat and that was not changed. So I voted against calendar. >> Ari, I thought you said that you could make it but you weren't sure if that would stay that way. Has that changed? Yeah. Um I have very limited time I can take off with my family. It's just that July month really. It's the last week of June to the first week of August is about the only time I can take time off. And I'd rather not have to pick between my family and the board. That's why I voted no. I said that last meeting, too. >> Okay. All right. That is noted. Thank you. Um, let's move on to the general mis business. I'll now take a motion to accept the consent agenda. >> I move to accept the consent agenda items 5A through 5D. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Miss Barrow, second by Miss Wood, that we accept consent agenda items A through D. Is there discussion to that motion? Okay, hearing none. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. And any opposed? Okay, that motion carries unanimously. >> Can we do bids A through C together or do they all need to be differently? I mean, they're all Chromebooks. >> Uh, yeah, we can do them together. I make it. I'd like to make a motion that we um do a uh we accept the Chromebook um recommendations from Port for Herman Elementary or Middle School, sorry, Riverton High School and West Jordan High School. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion by Dr. Robinson, second by Miss Dean, that we approve bids 6 A through C. All of these are for Chromebooks. Um, is there discussion to that motion? >> Yeah, I want to say something. Um, part of the reason I ran for the school board is I knew the 21st century learning would be different than the 19th century learning. Um, 10 years on the board, a lot of changes have taken place. I remember getting on the board. We had my one of my schools my daughter went to hardly even had Chromebooks in them and uh I worked hard to at least get us to one-on-one. There seems to be a moving trend to remove technology from our schools. It concerns me. Of course, I got my doctorate in instructional technology and learning sciences, which is the blend of synchronous and asynchronous, or we could say the blend of technology and paper. And I think it's really important that there be a blend that we're not all on technology, nor are we all on paper. Um, there's a textbooks, to be quite honest, are very hard to buy in print anymore. Um, a lot has changed in 10 years and I hope that we continue to, um, use a blended approach. Um, I'm always really thrilled to do the paper recommendation. Also, I think our district does really, really good. And it is concerning to me that there is a lot of people out there, including our legislators, that want to shut this down. And I just don't think we're preparing our kids for businesses and for schools without having a really good strong learning approach that includes technology. It doesn't only go technology, but we should have a nice blend. So I just want to make that comment. I actually have a similar question in regards to the proposed balance act um that we've seen filed and and will be debated on the hill this session. My question is if that bill were to go through, it seems like we will have some excess of Chromebooks in the district where I as it's proposed right now, I understand K3 would not be allowed any access at all and four through six would be um on like a computer lab like rolling carts. So, as I think about the fact that we have Chromebooks at a one:1 ratio, my question is, what is the urgency on approving these bids tonight? And is there um any wisdom that could come with waiting until that bill has been debated and then looking at the resources that could potentially be available within the district? I would say the urgency would be the the schools are looking for these now to get these moving. All three of these schools are secondary schools and are would not be impacted by that bill. Um, however, excuse me. >> Well, middle schools are certainly impacted by the bill as well. I was just saying, will we have excess Chromebooks floating around the district that we could potentially reallocate? >> If, as I understand it, if the bill were passed, we would then have some Chromebooks that we could then make decisions with. But the Chromebooks are being rotated as they are. And so, uh, we would just implement some sort of a, um, I don't want to say, it's not really recycling, but sharing of the Chromebooks among other schools if that were to happen, I think would be uh, easily accommodated between schools that we could help facilitate. Uh, but I also don't want to uh from my point of view, I don't want to put these three secondary schools in a in a weird situation when they're trying to plan ahead and have things ready to go uh waiting for a bill that uh is uncertain at this point. >> So, by approving these bids, we would be purchasing the Chromebook before the end of the legislative session. Yeah, these would go out. These purchases would go out uh probably tomorrow morning. The POS would be approved, the uh orders would be in place, and they would probably be delivered before the end of the legislative session. Yes. And >> these guys have budgeted in with their, you know, their funds already. And delaying also would potentially be that we'd be paying a higher price later on. Um, >> yeah, >> I'm not I didn't make my I didn't make my statement so much to delay these. I just made my statement that I'm frustrated that we're trying to reach back to what worked in the past to what we think will work in the future and it just ain't going to happen. The state will come back and repeal that. I I have seen some amazing things happen in our district in the kindergarten to third grade technology and to take that away from it is just awful. It's a big step back. I >> and my comments were in no way I didn't mean to um add on to your comments. These were this was something I wanted to talk about anyway. I just want to make sure that I mean these are land trust funds and they are in my opinion sacred funds and and I would hate to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Chromebooks that are going to sit in storage gathering dust if the bill passes. Just as additional information as elementaryaries have talked about trying to be onetoone, we have paused at the elementary level in some of our conversations just to say let's hold off before you refresh until we see where things go and and and so it's not that we aren't having those conversations and I understand your point and that that's a that's a fair question. Are are the Chrome books built any differently for high schools than they are for elementaryaries or are they all the same? Like can they be interchanged? >> I think they're all the same and uh can be interchanged. There are nicer versions of Chromebooks, but we don't tend to buy those. And then hypothetically, if this these bids weren't approved and we waited till the end of the legislative session and the bill did not pass or let's say it did pass and then they have to decide how to perhaps reallocate these funds that they had assigned before the end of the school year. Is that right? So they'd have a couple months. Okay. >> I think we'll probably see some amendments. I I might note one of the requests of the board was to put the the date by which the the bids would have to renew and so that we would have to start over. So you're saying that these need to be purchased and distributed in the next month and a half. Well, I can't I don't know the specifics of what the principles have planned there, but I I am assuming that they have those plans in place as to when they want the Chromebooks to arrive so that they can have things ready to go in a timely manner. It easily could be that some of these schools have needs today, but I am not aware of that. Usually they're they're trying to rotate as they see, okay, the these are uh we're coming up short and now we need to get a new set in. So that would be my assumption, but they they could have needs immediate as well. >> We want to be sure that the board feels the full flexibility to make the decision you want to make about these bids. If you did not approve them, then we would just need to rebid them out. And um if you choose not to approve the bid, then we would just ask for a timeline for when you would want us to bring back any bids based on legislation. Um so we as you've seen over the years, you you'll get Chromebook requests throughout the throughout the year and uh there are always replacements and rotations and that sort of thing as they try to manage those devices. Um, but with all of the additional information about the bid, we don't want you to feel that you don't have the flexibility to do what you feel you need to do. >> What would be the effective date of this bill? Is it a year out, two years out? Because if it's not going to happen immediately, the Chromebooks will still be needed. >> Yeah, the Chromebooks tend to have about a five-year life. Um, I'm not positive what the effective date is currently, but the bill will likely be debated and rewritten throughout the process. Um, so I don't I don't even know that looking it up would give us a strong answer. >> So, how would we go about telling a school community council who's allocated this money through their their funds? Sorry, you can't get them. But by the way, you can't carry over more than 10%. So, go find something else to spend that money on. >> I think that's what we will find ourselves doing on a large scale if this bill passes, >> but not on ones that we've already approved, right? >> I mean, if I guess it's just a matter of Have you ever driven down a road that they just laid the asphalt and then two weeks later they tear it up to put the pipes under it? That's what I'm saying. Are we are we doing this in the right order that makes sense? Is buying new Chromebooks that potentially are not going to be eligible to be used the wisest? >> Well, these will be used because they're middle schools. >> Yeah. But we're going to have an excess of Chromebooks in elementary schools that we could reallocate to meet these needs. >> But they'll still be reallocated, right? Even if we get these new ones, we might get 10,000 or I don't know how many from K through three, those will go into our inventory. So the next time someone requests Chromebooks, we'll draw from that inventory and not have a bid come through. That's kind of how I envisioned it. Is that accurate? Is that how we would might do it? >> We could do it that way. Yes, we I I would guess that a lot of these school community councils would like to uh if the Chromebooks were reallocated to another school, they may want to recoup some of their funds uh and have another school pay some portion of those. There could also easily be school committee councils that say, "Well, on a five-year rotation basis with seven grades, um we'll just >> repurpose them. purpose them internally. >> Yeah, >> the life of a Chromebook was uh they recently extended that. I think it's to 9 years now. Uh >> I think it depends on the Chromebook you buy, right? That's what I've heard. >> Part of it was the security whether they allowed for the security updates to continue. And when we were uh meeting with Google, they indicated that that was extended. That doesn't mean they last that long. Um I don't mean to suggest that, but that that is one factor. Um I understand the the point we will be responsible in whatever wherever we end up there'll we will have some use for the for the Chromebooks that we find. Um if this passes, we'll we'll definitely make use of what we have. I'm not as familiar with the details and so I was curious if these bills are affecting K is it K through 12 or just K through six. >> K through 12. Okay. Thank you. So I only mentioned the elementary because they'll be the biggest um group that we purchased. We're now at one and and they are not allowed onetoone in elementary. At middle school, parents can opt in and choose to check out a Chromebook, but we can't just distribute them. At high school, they can opt out. So, that's that's what it looks like today. Who knows how many iterations we'll see before the session's over, but >> and I think that's an important point. Um, if if the worry is that we will buy Chromebooks that we will regret having bought based on legislation, you're right. that legislation could go anywhere. It's uh could get more restrictive or less or who knows. Yeah. >> And my proposal is not to say no to Chromebooks, but to delay the vote for one meeting, but I'm not seeing support for that. So, let's go ahead. Is there other discussion on this agenda item? Okay, let's go ahead and bring it to a vote. All those in favor of the motion to approve bids A through C for Chromebooks, please say I. >> I. >> And any opposed, please say nay. I am a nay. >> So that vote passes 6 to one with the opposing vote being board member George. Okay, let's I'll accept another motion. I move that we accept the bid for information systems e-ate network switch upgrade. >> I'll second. Okay. We have a motion by Miss Dean, second by Miss Barrow to accept the bid for information systems e-ate network switch upgrade. Any discussion to that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor please say I. >> I. >> I. >> And any opposed please say nay. Okay. That motion passes unanimously. I'll accept another motion. >> I move that we accept the bid for transportation compressed natural gas tank replacement. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion by Miss Dean, second by Miss Barrow that we accept the bid for transportation compressed natural gas tank replacement. Is there any discussion to this motion? I had a question about this one and the next one since they're both bus related. I was just curious if um I wrote down my question. Let me get to it. Do you see anything that might hinder us uh being able to retrofit our buses uh within the allotted contract years on these bids? >> I don't. >> Okay. >> Great question. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> And any opposed. Right. That motion carries unanimously. I move that we approve approve the bid uh for transportation AC retrofit of school buses. >> I'll second. We have a motion by Miss Barrow, second by Mr. Barnett that we approve the bid for transportation AC retrofit of school buses. I'm personally very excited about this one. Um, so all those Oh, is there discussion? I just need to take a moment to praise the detail in these justification letters. I really appreciated it. I remember a time back in my early days on the board when we would walk in parades and bring a bus and we had to like connive and scheme to get the one air conditioned bus in the district. That wasn't that long ago. So, this is exciting progress. Okay. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. And any opposed? Okay, that motion passes unanimously. Okay, we have no um special business items this evening, so we will move on to information items. Dr. Godfrey, >> we have an open house tomorrow night for all of our JATC programs and I encourage parents and students to come. I spoke with I was there today as I said interviewing the uh um aerospace engineering students. I keep wanting to say aerosmith engineering students because one of them was wearing an Aerosmith t-shirt earlier today and um there there are so many great programs. It's difficult to imagine them. If you sit at home and think or even get online and think, I wonder what programs they have that are career related. And these are careers that could spark careers beyond the class. It's a starting point. It could be a step along a path you already know you want to follow. It could be a job that pays for school while you get the next job. There are lots of opportunities out there and it's difficult at home or even looking online even for me when I have interviewed people involved in these programs to imagine the range of options and the incredibly talented teachers we have in these programs that are available. These are programs that would be very costly outside of the school system. We have instructors and equipment and leadership and partnerships and internships. All the ships that make that make learning possible at a level that is difficult to imagine unless you stop by and say hello and you go see the lab and you talk with the instructor. That's what I was told in the main office. The administrative assistant said, you know, when people meet the teacher, that's when they really connect with the program. So, I encourage anyone listening who has a student who is either in high school or one day headed to high school to spend time at the open house. It's never too soon. Uh go to both locations, meet as many teachers as you can, get into the classroom, and find out the opportunities that are available. There's a notion out there that it takes up such a large portion of portion of your schedule that it's maybe too much of a sacrifice. The teachers and leadership in CTE have really worked hard to streamline some of those programs so it takes fewer class periods to fully participate. There's a wide range of opportunities and it is hard even for me to keep up with everything that we're doing. Come meet the teachers, come see the equipment. And once you're there, it's really easy to get hooked in. And um I just it doesn't have to be you're not making a choice for the rest of your life. You're making a choice for a semester or a year to be exposed to something you might not otherwise be involved in. And it's interactive, it's hands-on, it's practical, and I I just I I hope to see a lot of parents and students out um getting to know our programs because they are unparalleled. >> So, I am interested. It sounds like we've had applications open for three weeks now. Is that right? and there's been a lot of of applications already. I would be really interested in data talking about how many students are able to be accepted and more specifically how many programs have a weight list where students are not accepted. I I was really excited to have a conversation earlier this year about the if we provide a student who is struggling to attend school and struggling academically, when that student is provided with a CTE pathway, frequently we see attendance and graduation rates rise because, as you already referenced, it's just so atypical from what you're used to when you think of a classroom. Here we are doing a lot of hands-on learning, a lot of um it learning by doing and I think it speaks to a different skill set and a different group of group group of students who can really benefit from the opportunities. Um, so I personally would be quite interested in understanding how we're meeting that demand and how capable we are of making sure that students who are interested have have the ability to get into the programs they're interested in. >> Uh, a a few things that is that is my first concern is making sure that parents and students are aware of the programs. The second is making sure that we have the capacity to meet the the demand. And um anyone listening, come visit. Even if you're worried about a weight list, come and visit because your interest is what helps drive our initiatives to expand opportunities. So, so please still come even if you are worried that a program might not have space. Um, we what I described is earlier is part of what has been done to increase the capacity. When you require two class periods instead of four, now we've doubled the capacity within that facility. Um, so that's been part of the effort to do that. In response to some of our conversations, I have already gathered some data about historical access to programs in which programs don't have adequate space. Um, we've expanded some programs from one program to one and a half programs and then the half fills up. So then we have another site. So part of it is physical space, just having the physical space. And that's a that's an ongoing conversation because that's an expensive solution, but it's also I know um something the board would be interested in in knowing more about. So the the the concerns you raise are important concerns that we're talking about. Um and I I appreciate that the schedule itself has maximized opportunities. Um we've we've gathered that information. We'll look at the information this year as well and that that will be a good launch to additional efforts to make sure that we're prepared for the demand. I think there's a perception out there that we're solely focused on um college readiness as opposed to college and career readiness. I think the board has demonstrated with your portrait of a graduate that we're preparing students for college careers, just general success in life, whatever that brings. uh and I I view it as um these opportunities are not for a particular kind of student. I don't want anyone to think that you're the kind of student who's meant for a career or you're the kind of student who's meant for college first. Any student with our support and family support can accomplish either path. And we want to be sure that there's a range of possibilities and people aren't categorizing themselves as this or that. And part of the way we do that is through capacity building, which is exactly what you've described. So I share your concerns making sure that we have that opportunity available. Um it's tough to keep up with because uh that the demand is expanding. So I appreciate what's been done. I thank you for your attention to making sure that we have adequate uh capacity and we will share that information with the board as uh as we gather that from this year and can add it to the historical data we've already pulled together. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. Um ask a question on that >> of course. >> Um I was curious what parents were contacted about the open house and how were they contacted? Well, I cannot say that definitively. I believe it's secondary students who get that information. >> The middle and high school. I >> I'll have to double check that. >> I received parent square notifications personally, but I can't tell you for whom. >> I could probably go in and look. >> And did you say it's tomorrow night? >> It's tomorrow night. >> At what time? >> Starting at 4 from 4 to 7, I believe. >> 4 to 7 at both north and south. to 7:30. >> Okay, I will pass. >> 4 to 7:30. Is that right? I'm hearing now that it's 4 to 7:30. >> You know, it's been on my schedule. >> That's right. And they have cookies. So, if nothing else, you'll get baked goods as part of the deal. But they also I'll say they have student ambassadors and there it's there's nothing better than talking with a student ambassador. Anyway, >> they have good cookies. I if we were to shut down that program, especially if we shut that program in our virtual academy, we would have to build a high school. That's a lot of money. These programs are saving. years ago, we did a study of what kind of innovative program we could be bring in to and we looked around the country and um we found it right in our own backyard and we've expanded it much expanded it since then. But >> yes, and we we've applied for funds from the state too. the, you know, the catalyst funding. We So that that's part of what we've applied for in order to expand options in in programs that uh don't have enough space where we where we don't have the facilities that we need. So >> yeah, I can I can add a personal testimonial. We've been so amazed as our kids have started to experience this. So, I'll second the the encouragement to come out, see what's out there. >> Thank you uh to each of you for your support of these programs. It's uh really exciting. >> Hey, let's move to committee reports and comments by board members. >> I'll start with facilities. I I wanted to make sure I'm sure all the board members have seen it but just direct your attention to the documents attached to board doc board book I should say um related to facilities committee we're anticipating next board meeting to gather uh some information from the board to help focus the efforts of facilities committee as it relates to some underenrollment situation uations that we're facing in the district. In our last meeting, we discovered that there's a a broad range of options that we could present to the board or that we could recommend. And in order to create a recommendation on a broad scale would require, I think, too much effort. And so we wanted to get some input from the board next week to help focus our efforts. So just if you have any questions, you can reach out to me or any member of the facilities committee or even Mike could help out there too if you have questions on any of those attachments that we that we had. Also, in our last facilities committee, um it was suggested that we pull the board to determine whether or not there is any interest in facilities committee doing kind of a high level analysis of middle school needs. We've we've spent several years already and and and into the future on some significant remodels on some high schools and we were wondering if it was time maybe to shift our focus to some of the needs of the middle schools. Um so we would we wouldn't be doing anything concrete yet. It would just be kind of some highlevel analysis on on some of the needs of some of our older middle schools. Is there any any concern, any push back on that or is it too soon? Do we not want to start doing that yet? What what kind of concerns does anyone have on that? >> This would be like something that would begin after the West Jordan High School uh project was completed. But if we're going to do anything, we need to start looking and planning now. I I don't mind having additional information. >> So, you would start analyzing now, but you wouldn't make any proposals or changes until after West Jordan remodel. >> That I'm just making sure I understood those comments. >> Is that Is that kind of what >> Yeah, I think what we're doing now is we would like to take an inventory of middle schools. I think our high schools are in good shape. The oldest after this is done would be what? Copper Hills. And I don't think that needs massive. I could be wrong. Like they don't need a redo like we're doing at the Bingham and at West Jordan High, but there are some middle schools, we talked about it tonight, that probably could use a really good refreshing. Um, so really what we're asking for is can we begin a study that can just see what our needs are? We don't even know what our needs are. So, I mean, I think that >> my guess is, and this may not be an accurate guess, but is that Scott and his team probably have some sense of, you know, they know how old buildings are and they're they're on top of things. So, if it's not too heavy of a lift for them, I think that's a good start. They'll let us know if we need to look further, I think, by what they're able to prov. >> Yeah. and we might discover that it's too soon, right? >> That may maybe we're ready to move ahead right now. There there's not a whole lot of analysis that needs to be done. >> But yeah, once once we have that information, if you know, if Scott comes back and says we've identified two or three schools, these are the needs. We can start next year. Was pump your brakes a little bit. We'll have to wait till after West Jordan High. But yeah, those are the types of things that I think we would hope to discover. Is that is that kind of encapsulated? >> We studied Bingham in West Jordan for a couple years before we actually pulled the trigger. >> I ask historically, how are these things usually brought to the board? Are they board initiated or does Scott and his team bring them to us when they see a concern? >> Normally they initiate it. >> Both. >> Oh, both. Okay. one major change a board member brought forward. Other times they come to us and say here's a concern. So there's we've seen both happen >> and to be fair that major change was brought to my attention through facilities. >> Yeah. So, um I think we're referring to the decision to close West Jordan Elementary and it was as our facilities department were doing their checks and um safety analysis of buildings that some red flags came up and that began a conversation of you know how do you proceed at that point. So, we we definitely always look to the experts in the district, but I just don't know how bad the our middle schools are. Do we need to do a total rehaul or is this something we can do during summer projects? Is this, you know, do we is there any rebuilds out there? So, I just want a high level where do we go from here? And I'm definitely interested in considering enrollment when we talk about making an investment >> for sure. And that's another part of the puzzle. >> Is everyone okay with that? Any push back? Facilities okay to move forward with that high level analysis? Okay. Thank you. One last thing. This is not facilities related. It's a board member comment. A month or so ago, I made a commitment to read all the board policies at the suggestion of of Bryce. And first of all, I wanted to thank Bryce for suggesting that we do that. And I I wanted to report that I had that I have read through all the board policies. It was very beneficial experience and I realized it was a different experience reading through them now with three years of experience than it was with when I was brand new. Things uh weren't as abstract as as uh as when I was a little more less experienced. They they made a lot more sense. I could apply them different situations that I'd been involved in. But just overall, it kind of grounded me better with regards to how I as a board member am supposed to govern and especially as it relates to the board and our relationship with superintendent and uh business administrator. So yeah, it was it was very good. Um, if you want to mark your calendars, 19 March, um, I think that's a Thursday, will be the balloon bus tour, uh, the Jordan Education Foundation balloon bus tour for the outstanding educator awards. It's always fun. And >> what day is that again? >> The 19th of March. >> Okay, thank you. And before that, um, we'll receive emails with the other, um, outstanding educator awards that are not on the balloon bus tour. And if you want to attend the schools in your area or all schools, um, it's it's really fun. And then I am really looking forward to um the LEAK meeting on February 9th. That's a week from this coming Monday. I'm excited to hear from uh teachers about behavior and their classrooms and that's from 4 to 5:30 here at JATC South. I can give a bit of an update um for from USBA and JLC. Um just a reminder that this Friday is the day on the hill. I know there are lots of opportunities to be on the hill, but uh this one specifically, they'll have a continental breakfast starting at 8:30 in the morning um followed by an opening session. Then you have some free time to um you know, visit with legislators or go sit on the floor or whatever. And then um at 11 o'clock there's a JLC meeting and then the House Education Committee is right after the JLC meeting. So lots of things to do that day if you are able to attend. Um and then in terms of JLC, we have begun the process or the part of the session where JLC is meeting every Friday. uh we are meeting at the capitol building but there is a zoom link available for those who are not able to attend. They've just requested that if you watch on Zoom they just like to be aware of who is attending and so next to your name they've asked that we indicate what district we're with. So if you decide to attend in that way you are welcome to. Um, and I because we're having a legislative update, I won't go into much more detail than that, but anytime if people have questions about specifics or how we're voting at those JLC meetings, I'm always happy to have a conversation about those things. >> When when they're doing those, it says they're recording them. Do we have access to the recordings? >> Good question. Are they putting that on the superintendent's website? >> I wasn't aware that they were recording them. >> I know they are because I joined and it says this session is being recorded. >> It say this meeting is being recorded. >> It's being recorded and I'm not sure how to change my name. >> Uh we'll >> because it is when I go in because I already am a Zoom user. It doesn't get >> Maybe once I'm in your name. I haven't done it for a minute either. I'll play with it. I'll I'll I'll check and see if those recordings are available. >> They're just really they're really good and I can't always commit to be there at that time, but you really get to understand not only the bill, but our position on the bill to see if I even agree with that. >> Yeah, >> we'll look into it, let you know. >> Thanks. It's been especially leading up I think um prior to the session JLC has done a much better job this year at having legislators come and dialogue and that has been really insightful to be able to talk about their perspectives and um the wise behind what they're doing and and frequently there have been legislators who have said oh good point I'm going to make a change. So, it's a worthwhile practice. Um, we've also made the request that the positions that JLC is taking are a little more in front of our legislators on the floor. So, they're they have I mean, any of you who have sat on the floor have seen just a stack of flyers. um and frequently they'll thumb through find the flyer while they're debating that bill. So that is another effort that that they've been making. Um there was also the education or the public education celebration day last week that it was fun to to go up and see some of the great things that are happening across the state of Utah in public education. So, we will I don't know if that will continue. That was a first, but we'll be talking about that at the next USBA meeting. Okay. Any questions specifically on that end? Okay. Perfect. Any other reports? Okay. All right. So, let's just revisit bulletin board. I think I'm probably remiss. I I probably need we we determined what we wanted in our bulletin board last time, but it never went out. And maybe that is my role to reach out to communications and let them know and I just didn't realize that. So I will make sure that I'm the one who does that moving forward. Um, are there other topics of interest that people would like to start considering for bulletin board? >> I guess out of curiosity, how much of a legislative update do we want to include in bulletin board once the session is over? Is that a priority for the board members? I I think if there are changes that parents and families will see as far as their public schools, public education, um I think I would like to give credit where credit is due when it is coming from the legislature and state board. I'm thinking about what kind of what's coming up and that school community councils are talking about their land trust programs and TSSA and so I wondered a little blurb on those and what they do the benefits of them or anything like that if just an idea. >> Yeah. I have taken note of both of those ideas and um I will report next next meeting on a timeline for the one that we already voted on and decided what to send out and then we'll start with this new one. Okay, we have reached the end of our general session, but we do need to resume our study session. So, take a motion. >> I move that we we resume our study session. >> I second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Miss Dean, second by Miss Wood, that we end the general session and move back into study session. Um, all in favor say I. I. I any opposed? Okay, we are adjourned from the general session. Thank you for joining us tonight. Welcome back to the Jordan um school district board of education study session. It is still Tuesday, January 27th. We still have with us all members of the board of education, superintendent, associate superintendent, business administrator, and board attorney. We are picking up with agenda item 1D, the legislative review. We're midway through this agenda item, and we'll pick up where we left off. >> Dr. Anderson, >> I hope it's midway. I don't know how much. >> Midway. At least we've started partway. 75. >> No, I was going to pick up with the next bill, um, which is SB69. I just picked a few bills out. If you would like to, if you have questions on any particular bill, we can dive into or you can ask me to look into things further. I can bring it back next time, but these are just ones that either we've talked about in in here before or JLC that I think are particularly relevant. So, uh, SB69 is the cell phone bill. It's the device bill that creates the the baseline for the state as being no cell phones K12 belltoell and they define bell to bell as beginning of school to the end of school and that would uh if passed that creates the baseline. However, there is a carve out for LEA boards such as yourself to create a policy other than what the baseline law establishes. Short translation, if this were to pass and the board wanted to continue with the policy that you currently have on cell phones, you can do that. >> Is this similar to like the style of Filillmore's bill last time? >> Yeah. >> Uh but we >> it is identical in nature and it's the same sponsor. So it's Yep. It just the B it raises the baseline or the default I should say to be no phones bellto bell but leas can modify their their policies according to what they feel is best. >> I was talking to a legislator about this and they want to know why I'm so opposed to it. Didn't last year we passed a law that said we had to have a policy. >> So they were saying that they wanted this for anyone who doesn't have a policy. That's why they're doing it. And I'm like, well, anyone who doesn't have a policy is breaking the law. >> Well, if they didn't have a policy, the law is their policy. Absent a policy, the law is the default. >> Everyone went and made a policy last year because they made it a law to have a policy. And now they're trying to say if you didn't make a policy, then you're you have to go to this one. Well, everyone made a policy. I think this is a law to make a policy. I don't think that the law said you had to make the policy, just that if you didn't, then you got the default law, which was >> last time. >> Last time. Yeah. >> Now they're changing the default to all school. >> Right. >> But the expectation from our legislators is that students will not use cell phones from Belal. That's the expectation of our you can have an exception if you want but it is our expectation that students in Utah don't have a cell phone bell to bell >> in the state of Utah. This is what the law says. The law does ex provide some provisions >> and our legislators don't think that we can govern this oursel. I do appreciate the carve out uh so the eleas can do what they fit because I have heard a lot from parents that they like what we have that they think it works that they like that there's kind of more autonomy for the parents to help their kids navigate cell phones and so I had a really great discussion with parents the other night about this. So, >> it's one of the reasons I think JLC supported it so quickly and and they knew that, you know, this is it provides flexibility for the ELAS and I don't think you're going to see a lot of opposition. The governor's obviously made it a a priority of his as well. So, I see this going sailing through. Uh >> is their policy or bill does it address some of the the special needs that that we went through when you know we went through that process to make sure that we understand that there are certain students who do need to use cell phones or >> it does the bill does address that carveouts for medical exemptions carve out for school emergencies uh you know it the bill addresses that in other words you an LEA a that didn't have a policy would not need to rewrite a policy for carveouts and exemptions because it does it does exempt students and and allows for that. >> So um moving forward with HB26, this is one that directly involves um school board school board elections. This would uh shift school board elections from nonpartisan to a partisan format. candidates would run in primaries beginning in 2027 and the winners would face the general election in June. They would run party primaries in June of 27 and the winners would face the general election uh on dueling parties in November and you would have the designation of an R or a D next to your name. Um any midterm vacancies would be filled by the party selection instead of a board process. >> What number is this? >> This is HB 256. >> How would they be filled the vacancies? >> The party would fill them. Not you. >> What does that mean? >> The party. >> Republican party would fill a Republican board member seat. >> Who makes up the Republican party? >> No. That's that's how it is right now for state legislators and state senators. If they if they have a midterm resignation, then delegates that were chosen at the previous caucus are the ones who vote on their replacement. >> Okay. Thank you. So each of you would have, you know, in essence an R or a D or an I or something, you know, some party symbol next to your name on the on the uh the ballot. And if passed, this would take effect for next year's election cycle, 2027. Um SB2 or SB62, this is Senator Filmore's bill. It's on school funding. It modifies the funding formula based on the the weighted pupil units or the WPUs on current year October one enrollment instead of prior year ADM or whichever of the two is highest. Um this bill was heard earlier this week. I think the most significant part of this bill um it's problematic in my opinion. John can weigh in more on that. he would. Um, but the interesting part of this is Senator Filillmore was really touting that this could be money uh money saved by the state that could then go to things like special education uh subsidies for an additional WPU on the special education allocation. I mean, I had to look over and see if I could see on behind the dis if he was reading off of this uh this page because it was it was pretty close to what uh what we had proposed in and talked about in our open or our legislative meetings. So, JLC um I don't think they voted on SB62 yet. >> Did they oppose it? >> Flip my notes real quick. I've got Yeah, I've got the notes here too, but it's problematic for many reasons. Do you want to add say more to that? >> I was just going to talk about the difference. >> Yeah. So, the uh current way we're funded is per year ADM, which is average daily membership. So, that there's a a softening, if you will, of membership. So, that as students come and go throughout the year, it's really just the average of what you had. But currently there's a plus growth if the school district or sorry if the LEA is growing and this bill would remove that by saying it's it's a prior ADM plus or minus the change in enrollment. So in essence it would fund you on current enrollment. But one of the the problems with that is that um we would have to refine our projections to a very very minute level and uh any variance from that. there's less uh forgiveness if you will because the whole benefit of prior year ADM was to benefit you with a floor a funding floor for the for the next year that would not be there. One of the problems with this bill is the fiscal note does not recognize that we are currently funded ADM which is the average but if this goes to an October one count that's actually an increase. Oh, that will increase our average. >> Yes. And going off an October one count is also I mean we we went we lived through those days of October one counts and going around classroom to classroom and counting and and there are shenanigans that could be played um in eleas with waiting until October 2nd to revoke permits or to you know transfer records or to then take actions and and there's all sorts of things that have gone on in the past very problematic with an October one count. We've expressed that to the bill's sponsor. Uh I just thought uh of note, it was interesting that to be clear, the the proposed money savings he he talked about putting it towards special education WPU, but there is nothing in the bill that actually does that. That's just that those are conceptual at this point. Um SP 164 is uh >> You're right that we held it. I thought we did. Hold it. SP 164 is a school construction amendments. This would create a system. Uh if you recall a while back, the legislative auditor did a a it published a pretty scathing audit review of construction practices around the state. um and made a list of recommendations about how to proceed with construction practices in the future. Um USB received that and they were part of the the recommended action to be taken that future construction be wrangled in at the state level. This bill would create um would make school construction be overseen through DFCM. That's the division of uh finance let's see facilities and construction management the FCM and they do the all of the state buildings where there is no um entity like that they do the university buildings they do the capital um they've they're they do good work it's also would be redundant for a district like ours to require DFCM to come in with inspectors with managers with biders and other things where we already have that in house we save a lot of money by having those people in house. Requiring us to go through DFCM would increase the costs and double the efforts. Um, a lot of smaller districts don't have the same scales of economies of scale that we have with personnel. So, right now the the discussion on around this bill is do you carve out larger districts or districts that can do this on their own and save money um and make smaller districts or districts that don't have those resources go through DFCM? >> Is is this the one that talks about a library of plans for buildings? >> Yes. Yes. That's part of the where they would have, you know, a a portfolio of bu building designs from around the state that a district who was interested in building rather than going out and bidding it, they would just say, "Okay, I can use this template and we can it's already designed and built uh and ready to build." >> So, we're not required to use it. it's just available >> that yes, right now the the language of the bill would require you to go through DFCM, >> but I don't think you'd have to actually use one of the portfolio, you know, the the designs in the portfolio, if that makes sense. I would not, you know, um the language on this bill is bound to change it. It it narrowly made it out of committee and it only because I think reinforcements were brought in. I think there's there's bound to be some change. Even the people that voted for it out of committee acknowledged that it needed to have some revising done. So, couple odd things about this bill is that contained in it is that uh school districts are then to pay one and a quarter I think it's one >> 1.5% of all construction costs in a fee to DFC. What? >> Do the math on what a high school would cost these days and how much money we'd be sending to them. But it's supposed to save us money. >> Would this potentially cost jobs in the district? >> Would they become like a broker? >> No. Oh, okay. >> They would become more like a they would become the general contractor for any of our our buildings and designs. They would we'd have to go through them through USB to get approval and the process. So >> bill yeah >> through through the state the state would become the required vendor that we'd have to go through. So >> and we're paying the state the education dollars that should stay in education. >> Yeah. Yeah. One one in one outcome of this could be that USB would be required to perhaps grow um and and add on a a division of construction management that to make sure that somebody oversees that. >> I thought USB in committee said we don't want to be in charge of buildings. >> The legislative audit put it squarely on their shoulders though. That's the rub. >> Yeah. So, what problem are they trying to solve with this bill? >> Um, for one of the results of the audit was districts that had used um a sole source vendor or had not done due diligence in getting a vendor and and rural districts sometimes would struggle with getting enough bids on a on a construction site. they would have one person and they'd have to go with that one and that and they're held to the at the mercy of that of that individual or that contractor on what price they got. Uh other districts have signed long-term agreements with a construction company to do building for a number of years and that was the sole source that they went to and still are going to um if they're still under contract. So, it's in an effort to correct what the audit found. >> I see. And those are some of the outcomes. We are in good shape here in Jordan, of course, or are we we have amazing people that know what they're doing in in the construction management field. And that's why for us and many districts like us, I'm not sure this bill is at all helpful or necessary. My my uh concern with it is is that if you look at the cost of buildings, uh DFCM has a history of costing a lot more than um school construction costs. So, how is that supposed to save money plus add 1 and a half% plus the other requirements, bureaucracies, if you will, to jump through? I I fail to see the benefit. I suppose there could be a smaller LEA somewhere that would uh like to participate in that. One suggestion that was brought up is having an optin to this bill and I met with a a small group of individuals today with the sponsor of the bill and just expressed some of these concerns to him and he seemed open to it but also made it clear that he has to see the results of this audit through. And if you read the bill and you put it right next to the results of the audit, it is just a line item of of what the audit suggested. So, he's open to some tweaks and some changes, he understands our situation in bigger districts, but needs to fulfill the the requirements to see the audit through and be compliant there. >> This is specific to K12. They're not even looking at the exorbitant costs of higher ed. Well, the exorbitant costs of higher ed are due to DFCM. They DFCM does higher ed. >> Really interesting that we're not looking at the experience that's out there now. >> And this is a bill that I mean, DFCM has been touted in bills like this for the last 10 years or so. Every once in a while, somebody will come out and want to do this. So, I don't know what the outcome of this is going to be. Sorry, mate. An interesting point about this is it's uh trying to just enact the audit findings. Uh auditors give suggestions to policy makers. They do not create policy. >> They do today. So, uh, wisdom would say that the policy makers need to step back from it and say, well, what we've now heard from the auditors, that's great, but what would be an an appropriate approach to do this? Um, I hope the sponsor can see that. Um SB52 is substitute teaching requirement amendments. Those are two of our local legislators that are sponsoring this bill. This this would remove the 20-day limit on non-licensed substitutes and would not require a license um uh for a long a long-term sub would not require a teaching license. Um, in our district, we already uh prioritize license subs for long-term, but there are occasions that we might work and be help us um with the flexibility offered by this bill. Um, it's passed out of committee and has already passed through the first reading in the Senate. So that one, oh, SB62, we haven't heard this one yet, but it is last year's version of SB 37, which just takes the income tax fund and moves it to um so that the legislature could have more flexibility with using income tax and that's not just earmarked for education, last year's version of SP37 >> and and It's notable that it was one of it was vetoed by the governor last year. >> Last year it was vetoed. Uh the governor cited a little bit of lack of transparency and having it come out late in the session. Uh you I I would be very surprised if this didn't pass with a veto proof majority. And I would be surprised even if it didn't if the governor would veto this one this time. I >> think it's being heard. >> Yeah. Is it tomorrow? So, it might be heard tomorrow. Um, that's a that's a quick update of of a a few bills. If if there are any questions on any other bills or in general, I'd happy to help answer those. Can I throw one out? HB 293, Representative Katie Hall's bill requiring an additional sports moratorum during the summer. It's c causing quite a concern among our schools. Um, she's a nurse married to a doctor. She's hearing from a lot of smaller schools where you've got students playing in every sport and they go from sport to sport to sport and they don't get a break. Doesn't really affect the larger schools where we don't have as many all sport players but it's causing a lot of concern at Utah High School activities association as it stands. The bill would make three changes. First of all, it requires an additional moratorum starting in 27. Um secondly, it limits practice time each week to fif it drops it from 20 hours to 15 hours and offseason moratoriums double. So right now we have a required 4-week offseason moratorum. Now this would be an 8week moratorum. So if you're a basketball team, as soon as basketball's over, you have to be there's a eight-week moratorum, but you can split it into two four-week segments. >> I think worth noting on this is that if you had an extended moratorum like that or reduced practice week there, it could create a vacuum of time where club sports could come in and say, "Hey, we're not with a school." >> And that's the real concern is this is going to promote club sports. >> Yeah. Another concern I think is our fields are already so scheduled and if we are shortening seasons is that going to cause more sports at once. >> Yeah, I can see it put a premium on the time once that once that moratorum that dead time is over then everybody's going to want to jump jump back on the on the field and and that could that could cause complications for the school. I could definitely see that. >> Interesting. Yeah, thank you. I'll make sure we give updates on that. Thank you, Bryce. Along those lines, actually, I think last board meeting, Daryl mentioned he was aware of students who were getting up at 5 in the morning or 4 in the morning to go to practice. I've been thinking about that comment and I was wondering, do we really want kids getting up at 4:30, going to school at 5, staying till 5 or 6 at night, you know, gone from their homes for 12 or 13 hours a day? >> I mean, I know it's it's off topic, >> what's that? >> I had high school kids. >> Yeah, eight of them. >> Um, theater does the same. So does uh dance. I mean, there's we run these kids pretty hard. >> Yeah. I mean, I was just I was wondering if that's something we wanted to encourage. If that's something that that we as a board or as a district want to foster that idea of yes, it's we encourage you or we support you to be gone from your home at least during the sport season. I mean, for that for that long of a time. But one of the frustrations for me with our legislators is they tried to micromanage our district without our input and I don't want to do that as a board member. If parents come to us and start saying, you know what, you're running our kids to death. We need you to put some limitations on, then I'll look at that. But I get super frustrated that our legislators don't even ask our input on many of these bills and try to control our classroom when they then when they have a political party that doesn't want government intervention. They want less government and yet they have a hundred bills they're running about our programs because they know more than we do. And so I don't want to do that to our programs. Um, a lot of those guys run it early because they have jobs. Those coaches are uh what do we call them? Paris and they're working other jobs. So they run it early, make kids get up early because they're going to other jobs outside our district. Um they can't come at two. So in other words, we'd be sending our kids home and and then we have very little field space or gym space or so. So, I didn't say that to to micromanage our district, but there is some kids. Not 4. Um, when I get there at 4:00, then usually I'm the first one. But if I get there at 5:30, >> usually >> the dentist team's there. But I do think that um Utah high schools has that 20our limit per week and I have heard parents asking us to institute that in other environments like our charity season. Those kids are running themselves ragged during that charity drive. >> Can I just throw something out about that? So, I was just talking to some students about why don't we end the quarter at Christmas and I was explaining the charity drive and that we do so much good and they says why does it have to be at Christmas? Why couldn't it be before Thanksgiving? Why don't we start at Halloween and end at Thanksgiving time? And I thought that was a really good idea. So, I'm just throwing that out there. Maybe we could still do the same thing at a different time because it's not just that Mad Girls are doing like 72 concerts in three weeks, but then they add all the Christmas things that they're doing on top of that. So, you know, and then they can't even participate in our charity. And so, I don't know. I just was thinking about that and I thought I know we do it at the end of the year because there's tax breaks to people who own businesses and stuff like that and a lot of they get a lot of that involved but do we have to always do it during the busiest time of the year? Could we push that up? Anyways, thought that was a good idea. >> SPOS's think. >> Yeah. >> Again, we don't want to micromanage the future. That was a good idea. >> Thank you. I know there is a lot to manage and we are so grateful for what you do on the hill. We're grateful for your advocacy and for helping us to stay informed. All right. Anything else on legislative before we move on? Perfect. All right, let's move into the review of board policies GP 105 through GP 110. Should we just start at the top and work our way down? with 105. I got to get to the right page. I was at the bottom. Okay. So, this is the board president's role. Um I do the one section I'll start um that I note is before just this is something that I have seen us struggle with in with every president that I've had an opportunity to work with. It just seems like the creation of the annual policy review calendar and then sticking to that has not seemed super effective. And I don't know if we want to change it or just try harder, but okay. Sounds like we'll just try harder. >> No, we're not. I don't >> I'm still thinking. >> We'll just take we'll just jot what you're concerned about and then if you want to debate it now, that's great. But if you just want to send it to a policy committee, we'll take it from there. >> Well, I think yeah, it might be a good point of discussion just to say this has never been well followed and maybe we can create a better plan. We have that one in our appendix that I just have never seen it followed very well. >> Do >> start out well. >> So what's the motivation behind putting it in policy to have a calendar rather than something more broad? Does it have to be a calendar? >> Why I think that's a good idea. You could just say that um >> president's responsible to make sure >> for annual annual policy review period. Maybe >> if our practice doesn't match our policy, it's logical to either change the policy or change the practice. >> And we've tried to change our practice repeatedly. So maybe it's time to change the policy. >> Yeah. >> To match our practice. I think if if we still think it's valuable to present for board approval by a date, it could be a list of policies we'll review this year rather than maybe a calendar and then have more flexibility >> and then in December we'll just rush through all of them. >> Could be or more like for us in January we'll start with really good intentions >> that will be done by February. >> But that being said, you can see the effect of reading the policies. Yeah, >> when board members are familiar with what the policy says, that is a good thing. But forcing it into a board meeting may not be the most effective way to bring that about. I I like to have policy reviews in board meeting because I think it is valuable for um stakeholders to um have some awareness and understanding of policy also and have a realization that the board members are thinking about the policy. >> Would it be awesome if this happened at the state level? >> Yeah. Like all the rest of the time we review and clean up and then the session is when we can put new. Okay. Anything else on this one? I just had one more but you go cuz mine is >> okay. I was just under C when we're talking about the superintendent the the information that we want the superintendent to report on. I just want to make sure that that still clearly aligns with our new ends policies. >> Tell me where you're looking again. >> 105 C. >> Thank you. >> And it it very well might I think that the data is important for us to hear in a report. I don't know if that's the exact place, but anyway. Okay, Erin, what did you have? Um, stay with me. I'm going to jump around a bit, but I will tell you where I'm jumping. So, GP 105 is the board president's role. In GP 101F, it says that the board president uh or the training of new board members will be delivered by the sitting board president or designate. And then in the appendix for new board member training orientation, it also says that the board president or designate will make sure the new new board member is oriented. But there's nothing actually in GP 105 that aligns with those two. >> Good catch. That's a good catch. Okay. Are we ready to move on to 106? Anyone have anything to add to 106 or comments? >> Nice. >> Okay. 107. I had a couple things. Um, so in G >> She didn't have a problem with me, but you do. >> Oh my gosh, >> all the problems. >> Okay. So, GP 107 D. No, not D. Sorry. Um, oh, C. Assume such duties as the board may decide. That phrase is in the top part for the board first vice president's role. So why not move C to the top part for the second vice president's role and then just kind of our current practice practices. The second vice president is supposed to be in charge of policy and we're currently handing that over to our first vice president which there's nothing wrong with that. I think Rice does a very good job and is the man for the job for our policy currently. Um, but maybe that kind of falls under the headline of or assume such duties as the board may decide. So, >> and I see a difference between A and C because I A seems like I know it says assume and and duties, but um it seems like A is to take over the pyromentarian role and the um the leading the meeting role if the president and first vice president are absent. >> Right. Yeah. So I didn't have a problem with A. >> Oh >> my my mine was C because it says assume such duties as the board may decide as a whole. And then on GP 106 in the top little couple sentence it says and shall perform such other duties assigned by the board. So I wondered if we should just kind of put C in the top same as first vice president. That was my question. formatting >> more formatting the same if we could move C up to that sentence and kind of align it with same as first vice >> and then I went off about policy so sorry if that was confusing so I'm curious on this how important is it that a first vice president and a second vice president have specific duties like policy or parliamentarian um would it benefit to have some flexibility there on those roles that the president could designate rather than having it be in policy set this way. So when this the second vice president is pretty unique to Jordan and it was created by Bryce, right? We used to have a secretary and then we developed we just said secretary isn't maybe the right term for what they're doing and so it changed. I mean I wasn't even on the board yet but I was elected and attending quietly when this changed. So, um, if you ask around at USBA, I have never found another board that has two vice presidents, but I really like the balance that it lends to have three board members at executive committee meetings. That's um I and I I really like and again, this is something that was established by Bryce when he was president. it having the chairs of facilities and finance on executive committee so that they can then bring that experience to executive committee. We kind of know what needs to be talked about urgently. >> We haven't always had the chair on the executive committee. >> Yeah. >> I've never been chair of either of those. that changed last last cycle of the president and then I brought it back because I I could just see some value there. Um, so what so I'm curious if we want that to be a part of our policy or if you want that to be a board president decision every time that we that the vice presidents are chairs of finance and facilities. I will tell you when Daryl and I were not the chairs, it was sometimes a little awkward because we would get assignments in executive committee to bring something to one of those committees and then we weren't writing the agenda. So that felt a little bit um pushy sometimes to be like actually can I add this item on? And so that was why I brought it back. I didn't mind it >> um because we were still assigned to that committee. We just didn't chair it. >> For me, it works a lot better. I The reason I brought I the reason I put that in policy is previously the board president was also on a committee. Well, we have two main committees that do the lion share of our committee work. And by the board president being on one of those committees, one board member was not on either of those two committees. And it was >> I like that part. >> It was not a good situation um given the fact that of the prominence of those two committees. So if we're going to have finance and facilities do the bulk of our committee work and that's six people, it makes sense that the president is the one that's not on those committees. And then by extension, it makes a lot of sense that the president has an executive committee made up of those chairs because that loops the president. >> Yeah. Because the president is not on those committees. The best connection for me is the president's executive committee are the chairs of those committees and that they have decision-making authority. So I would like to put it in policy. We didn't because at the time it was an experiment to see how it goes. I've watched it happen enough to know I just think I think the two vice presidents should chair those two committees just for communication sake. >> So would that be in um GP 105 where the >> six and seven? >> Well, I mean because then the president would choose which committees they chair. Um because it anyway I I I feel like saying that the second vice chair will always uh be the chair of the facilities committee might be a little restrictive, but I feel like saying that the the vice the vice chair and the second vice chair will um chair the facilities committee and the finance committee and the it's a duty of the board president to make that assignment. >> Yeah, I like that. >> I don't like that in policy. I thought that it worked last good last time. We wanted to we felt that Bryce maybe could have been in executive committee and he would be really good on finance. We didn't put him in executive. We wanted him to still chair the I think it's the the the domain of the new executive committee and they shouldn't have to be prescribed that. I think it's a good practice, but in our situation last time, I think it worked really good to have you and Marilyn do that and I didn't have a problem not being the chair. Um cuz I thought that we were underusing you to be >> and having you be the chair was >> Hey, I I appreciated the break because being president of this board is a hard responsibility. So, I would much rather leave it instead of in policy, maybe in practice, but let the new executive committee make that determination. What's the best thing? >> That's honestly the reason we initially didn't put it in policy because we felt like once it's in policy, you feel obligated to follow it and it may not work with the personnel >> in place. >> And I'm fine either way, but that was just a thought that crossed my mind as I read it. So what I'd like to see is to merge GP 106 and 107 into one that would enable the president to say here are the responsibilities of the vice presidents to be on the finance and or well yes that way the president can choose which one goes where. You still have the succession is is in here, but it just lends itself to more flexibility depending on the people. >> It's an interesting idea. >> Would it make sense to just have one policy that outlines executive committee and then just have sections for each? >> Yep. >> And instead of three policies. >> Yeah, >> that makes sense. >> Validating policy. It seems like the board president has enough distinct responsibilities to possibly keep a policy for the board president. But >> but I'm open to consolidating all of it. >> Two vice presidents. >> So do I. >> And allow the president to distinguish which vice president gets which responsibility. And you could I like the idea too of just saying we'll serve >> isn't assigned and you don't have to say chair. >> Then the president can decide chair. >> I'd agree with that idea because it looking back it would have been logical to make me over policy since I chair that committee and make him the parliamentarian. >> It would have although you're a great >> Don't take Robert's rules. >> Can I ask another question about being a parliamentarian? >> Could Daryl be the parliamentarian? Does it have to be executive committee? Is there a reason for that? I'm just saying again creating options and flexibility as long as the president designates someone as parliamentarian. Does it have to be executive? >> Because if you've got someone very familiar with Robert's rules of orders that wasn't elected to the executive committee, I as a president would choose that person >> to say, "Will you make sure we follow Robert's rules of orders?" That's an interesting >> I would choose Paul to be the parliamentarian. Is that is that even an option or >> I've noticed that an option staff as their parliament. >> I would do the Robinson rules the border. There you go. >> Okay. I like all those suggestions. >> So maybe one of the duties of the president could be to choose assign parliamentarian. >> Yep. >> Okay. You getting all this? >> Yep. >> All right. Good ideas. All right. 107. >> The the one we were on. >> What's that? >> We were 108. >> We're just finishing 107. >> Oh, sorry. We go to 108. I'm sorry. That's on me. I keep scrolling. Okay. 108. Meeting planning. I one that came to my mind was when we said that we are once again we talk about a perpetual calendar. So that's another cleanup if we take that out. But town hall meetings, I thought that that might be something we want to consider removing as I have hosted two since I got on the board. There were there were a couple for the um the philosophy of instruction and then also there were was it town was there a town hall for West Jordan Elementary School or were those hearings >> public hearings? >> But we had >> we did some on them in Moab. We did quite a few in Moab. >> Yeah, but >> I think we still have the ability to do >> it as moreformational or come in let's we want to hear your concerns. That was the town hall. Now they seem to we have them when there's an agenda item. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. I I really liked them before, but they're not well attended. So, >> it may be a matter of changing the word will to may or separating that the town hall out. That way, you have the prerogative, but you're not committing to do it. I don't know if there's other items in that policy that would fit that as well. >> Good job. >> I just felt like that paragraph had a lot of stuff in it that I was like, uh, what's this? Do we do this? What about that? >> Yeah, the community connection. >> Well, it it doesn't seem like it has to include that. It it includes a schedule of all of these things. And if those things don't happen to be scheduled, then they won't be on the schedule. I didn't know board assessment was in policy, but we say right in policy that we're going to do board assessment >> and we're going to voting to do it this year. >> Did you want that to remain under will or put it under may? >> I just feel like it does. It says um right right above a accordingly the board will. >> Oh yeah, okay. >> That's what I was referring to. Sorry, I didn't say that. >> I think we can change it to May. We can make it less prescriptive. I'm okay with either of those. >> I mean, some of them are probably will like regular board meetings, right? >> We ought to do that. Monitoring reports, that's essential. Obviously, um, superintendent and business administrator evaluation and reviews, but some of the other stuff, maybe you s say a may and a will. You could divide it into two. >> These were the easy ones. This is the one I think we're going to have lots to say. >> Should we pause? Should we just take those? That's a lot. We haven't even met yet. We're not meeting until the 4th of February and as of right now, we've got eight policies to amend. >> Well, and I was going to ask a deadline because I have some feedback. I was going to email you, but I haven't done it and it's been a couple weeks. So, now I know February 4th. >> February 4th is when we'll meet. >> So, I would I let's let's pause on 109 because 109 is a often a lengthy discussion. >> I do have a couple more comments on 108 before we close out. Um I was curious just looking for a definition of at the top where it says you know board performance through board education board education and then board and staff training. What what were what was the intent behind those? What did that mean? Board education and board training. >> We used to do things like we would read a book together or a lot of the going to the conventions together. We just were committed to improving our skills and our abilities as board members. And the construction of the agenda, the the we we were deliberately trying to incorporate that into our our meeting planning that we need to plan time to improve our abilities. >> We've gotten away we've gotten away from that, but we used to pick a book. Everyone would take a turn and pick a book. we'd all read it and then we'd just come discuss a few chapters at a time was really enriching and then we just stop. So that's kind of what was meant by board education. We would pause and do a board education moment >> in our board meetings. >> Sounds nice. >> I I like that. I I don't want to get rid of those. I just wanted some clarity because I think it's important for board members to have professional development same as our teachers and stuff. >> Yeah, I I benefited a great deal from reading those book. >> And I I have a question too. I don't know if we're thinking about the appendix for GP 108, but I'm just curious if the agenda planning schedule is helpful for executive committee in working on the agenda or if that needs to be looked at or revised. >> We just call it something else. We use a tool, but we don't use the tool in the appendex. >> So, should it still be included in No, >> I think we do. Yeah. Yeah. >> I Yeah. I I don't think we need to name the tool. I just think we need to suggest that the meeting follow a tool. That a tool keeps us organized. Yeah. >> I think we should name the tool. >> I'm all for flexibility and a tool. >> I feel like the tool will change from board to board. And so if we allow a little flexibility, but say that you need to be using something. I I was just thinking a nice name like Steven or >> or Lisa. We're going to call it Lisa, >> but it needs to be an acronym for something. >> Every time we look at it, >> the Lisa Dean >> spreadsheet at the Bryce Dunford whiteboard and the Lisa Jean Lisa Dean spreadsheet. >> The agenda whisperer. One more question uh at the top paragraph where it says a reexloration of END's policies annually and I to me reexloration sounds like a very deep dive like we're going to reexplore this do we just want to say review N's policies because I feel like we just did a super deep dive into our ENDS policies. I don't know if the rest of you feel like reexloration is >> maybe a different word, different language around that. >> I agree. >> We need to review them. They constantly need to be on our minds. >> Yes. >> But we don't need to dictate how deep we dive. >> Okay, that's helpful. And that's a lot for us to work on. >> Perfect. And so if you have any feedback on one through eight, don't hesitate to send it to any one of us or all of us. >> Great. Thank you. Good conversations. All right. We've come to the end of our study session. We do have some close session items to discuss. So, I'll take a motion to go into closed. End this session and go into close. >> Oh, I'll say it. I move that we go into close session um for just for um character and competence of individuals, property, potential litigation, negotiations, and security here at JATC South. And then at the conclusion of that meeting we will end and adore >> and at that conclusion and at the conclusion of that meeting we will >> adjourn. Second. All right. We have a motion by Miss Dean, second by Miss Barrow that we end this meeting and move into close session here at JETC South. Um we will take Oh, wait. Did we decide we don't need a roll call? Parliamentarian. We don't >> that law that law has changed. >> Okay, perfect. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. And any opposed? All right, we are adjourned and we'll move into close session.