OFFICIAL MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
BOX ELDER SCHOOL DISTRICT
May 8, 2024
Retiring Employee Recognition by the Board of Education, Box Elder School District, held Wednesday evening May 8, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. at Adele C Young Intermediate.
Retiring Employee Recognitions
Keith Mecham, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Teaching & Learning
Carol Anderson
Lene Arias
Linda Burns
Stacy Church
Teresa Cornwall
David Dickey
Mack Esplin
Lisa Hansen
Thad Hansen
Alvin Hunsaker
Ann Jenkins
Stacey Liechty
Richard Miller
Beverly Morrell
Kathleen Mortimer
Bryce Nelson
Marvin Nielson
L. Trent Rasmussen
Cindi Redd
David Smith
Michelle Smith
Robyn Smith
Peggy Stewart
Anita Thornock
Connie Toone
Alison Williams
J. Paul Ward
Annette Whitaker
Official minutes of the Regular Session of the Board of Education, Box Elder School District, held Wednesday evening May 8, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at Adele C. Young Intermediate School.
Those in attendance at the meeting included Board President Wade Hyde, Board Vice President Connie Archibald, Bryan Smith, Tiffani Summers, Julie Taylor, Nancy Kennedy, Karen Cronin, and Danielle Wright. Also, present were Superintendent Steve Carlsen, Assistant Superintendents Keith Mecham and Heidi Jo West, IT Director Robert Gordon, and Business Accountant Sherri Harper; family members and friends t retirees, members of the press, employees and patrons.
Alyssa Lyman was honored by Superintendent Carlsen on her last night serving as the Student School Board Member.
President Wade Hyde called to order the meeting and welcomed those in attendance and conducted the business of the meeting.
After the reverence which was offered by Board Member Bryan Smith, the pledge of allegiance was led by Student Board Member Alyssa Lyman.
Recognitions
Julie Taylor, Board Member
BEHS Theater Department - 5A Region Theater Champs lots of years in a row. Around 14 years.
Ryan Green from school of Deaf Blind at the Ogden Campus and is the new principal at North Park. He is the Director on the blind students' side of education, before that he was a school psychologist.
Approval of Agenda:
Karen Cronin made the motion to approve the agenda, second by Bryan Smith. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Certificated Employee and Volunteer Recognitions
Presented by BEAA President - Kristi Capener, Past President - AJ Gilmore, and Treasurer - Randy Rasmussen.
Outstanding District Administrator- Mark Taylor will be deeply missed.
Outstanding Elementary Administrator - Melissa Morris (Western Schools) serves in rural community. She loves and cares about her schools.
Outstanding Secondary Administrator - Taylor Jackson (Bear River High School) works hard and is not scared of anything.
Outstanding Related Services - Kelli Rose (Bear River Middle School) does whatever she can for anyone - students and staff.
Outstanding Related Services - Bradi Holder (Three Mile Creek Elem) always celebrates a student that meets their goals and makes a big deal of it which the students love.
Outstanding Elementary Teacher - Kristen Riley (North Park Elem) truly is an outstanding employee. Leadership, teamwork and dedication.
Outstanding Elementary Teacher - Nicole Jensen (Lake View) is a team member and a great mentor. Always smiles and makes everyday a good day.
Outstanding Secondary Teacher - Patrick Parker (Box Elder High School) is a math teacher who keeps students engaged in the class room.
Outstanding Secondary Teacher - Joelle Beard (Bear River High School) is an amazing teacher people look up to and ask for help.
Outstanding Volunteer - Carol Yates (Discovery) has consistency in the classroom and gains trust with the students.
Outstanding Volunteer - Carolyn Michaelis (Garland) is patient, kind and respectful and students look forward to being with her.
Public Comment:
Tom Little - is concerned about schedule changes because he will be losing instruction time as a teacher. Losing another hour is concerning. It will be tough for students who take hard classes. Losing more and more time with students will be difficult. He feels he needs to be with the students more.
David Schaber - concerned about intervention program. Twenty minutes with students standing outside and loosing educational need. Students are not choosing to be in intervention, students are not showing up. His daughter is one of the students. Students are there to be taught and there seems to be poor planning involved. Need better structure to keep students engaged.
Elise Dearing - concerned about losing out on educational time. Coordinating time is not going to necessarily help with test scores. Elementary teachers seem worried about test scores. In secondary schools a shorter day seemed to be a waste of a day.
Action Items:
Approval of School Schedules
Steve Carlsen, Superintendent, with the help of Assistant Superintendents Keith Mecham and Heidi Jo West.
School schedule: Late start Wednesday is not liked. After listening we still feel like more prep time will pay off. District staff still feels strongly that we need to make the change. Amount of time in class in Japan and Finland has less class time and it does pay off. There was a video sent to all staff members which asked for feedback. Heidi Jo West let them know that they could reach out. They looked at Facebook and there were 31 positive, 10 negative and 18 concerns; 91 thumbs up and no downs on the video; there were 7780 views with a total of 12284 students. With collaboration teams in secondary schools, the negative side effect was the principals could not make all the appointments. Friday afternoon will be 2 hours short. Our teachers spend time talking about reading and language arts but our math scores are not being talked about. Need more math collaboration. The 4-day week process was brought up to a State Assistant Superintendent Angie Stallings. They will not accept a school district of our size. Short days are good days to give the test and start a new topic on Monday.
Julie Taylor: commented the she does believe increased time is beneficial for teachers. It takes time to bounce ideas off each other. There is concern about loss of instruction time. She commented we have less instructional time for college level class that is a semester class. In support of schedule change but consider time of semester time there is too much information in too short of time. Direct instruction is more effective than trying to intervene later. If you can be better prepared you will be a better teacher. In support the time and hour change.
Bryan Smith: It is not an easy decision but admin has worked hard for students. There is a concern of less instruction time. He would like to continue looking at a variable schedule. Teenagers do not perform as well early. We should search for options to give families for students to go later and stay later and be in school with teachers teaching them. You need to be part of a team who shows commitment to this.
Alyssa Lyman: Having a different schedule come out has been challenging. I do agree to have instruction time is really important. She would like to go and learn what she needs to learn.
Tiffani Summers: Teachers are working really hard to get things done in a day. This is a step in the right direction but there is more work to be done to find more time in class for our secondary kids.
Wade Hyde: The scheduled changed last year and this year we are trying to make it better but, we cannot change every year. We have to be aware of student and parents. We should stick with this for a little while and not change it.
Karen Cronin: I appreciate the work being done. Giving more prep time to elementary teachers and the secondary teachers the same. They do appreciate PLC time but would like more instructional time. Are secondary teachers asking for more PLC time? Not wonderful but does not want to keep changing. What do we do?
Danielle Wright: Does not want to make changes again next year. We need balance for prep time can we push off for next month?
Superintendent: He cannot see the information being any different next month.
Heidi Jo West: Teachers, parents and principals are waiting for a decision. Also, we need to let our paraprofessionals know if they have a job or not.
Julie Taylor: Commented that she does believe increased time is beneficial for teachers. It takes time to bounce ideas off each other. There is concern about loss of instruction time. Comment we have less instructional time for college level class that is a semester class. Support of schedule change but may consider semester time change where there is too much information in to short of time. Direct instruction is more affective then trying to intervene later. If you can be better prepared you will be a better teaching time. Changing what we will do in that time. Support the time and hour change
Karen Cronin - Are the secondary teachers asking for more PLC time?
Keith Mecham - What happens when students are proficient? We need to find ways to connect kids for flexibility of schedule. Consider what we are going to do with the 80% that are making it not just the 20% that are not. Because of busing, the secondary needs to be changed along with elementary. Because of busing we need a 45-minute span between pickup and delivery of students on runs.
Nancy Kennedy - I struggle with this. Can we get everything done in secondary? I support this with questions. Older kids need to be home to watch younger kids. I don't want to change schedule again but I think this is the best compromise to keep kids in school.
Karen Cronin stated:
'I appreciate all the work that's gone into, we went over several scenarios in our last work meeting and I appreciated all those. One of the scenarios that we went over was giving more prep time to the elementary teachers and basically keeping secondary the same. From the comments that I've received from several parents in the secondary - not parents, teachers - in the secondary area, while they do appreciate the PLC time, what they really want is the instructional time. I told them that I would voice that, that they're concerned also about losing that instructional time and they felt like that was probably, I mean both are important, but if they had to choose, they would choose more instructional time over more PLC time at the secondary level. One of the options we went over was giving more planning time to the elementary and keeping secondary the way it was and that would be what I'm hearing from teachers - that they would prefer.'
Connie Archibald - We have committed to PLC and collaboration so we need to help them with the time. Important for teachers to have a work/life balance and to share gifts with each other so they can go home sooner and have a life with their families. Hopefully it will benefit everyone.
Tiffani Summers made the motion to approve, second by Nancy Kennedy. Karen Cronin opposed representing secondary teachers not wanting less instructional time, all others voted in favor. Motion passed 7-1.
Roll call vote:
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - No
Approval of PBS (HB58) Plans
Megan Bushnell, Student Services Director presented.
Nancy Kennedy made the motion to approve the PBS Plans, second by Bryan Smith. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Public Hearing on Title VI Indian Education Formula Grant
Megan Bushnell, Student Services Director presented. Plan needs to be opened up for public hearing.
Julie Taylor made the motion to go into public hearing, second by Connie Archibald. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Public hearing opened; Megan Bushnell continued the presentation about the grant. Box Elder School District will go on its own submitting 90 506 forms which allows $26,000 for Box Elder School District. Senior banquet will be hosted at Utah State University with Cache and Logan School Districts. Federal Grant mentors coming to schools is working. Would like to provide profession development. This is for Title VI students. We are going to work with local tribal agency to get accurate information. Two members right now have joined and they will have quarterly meetings. We would like to hire a program coordinator to help students with a mentor, college prep, help with FASFA, scholarships, and give them the academic and social support they need. We would like to do more activities. Land by Discovery Elementary is owned by Shoshoni nation.
Karen Cronin made the motion to move out of public comment, second by Danielle Wright. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Connie Archibald made the motion to approve Title VI Indian Education Plan, second by Nancy Kennedy. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Approval of School Land Trust Plans
Heidi Jo West, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Teaching & Learning and Keith Mecham, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Teaching & Learning
These plans were written and approved by individual school community councils. Plans were given to corresponding Board Members over those schools for review.
Nancy Kennedy made the motion to approve School Land Trust Plans, second by Connie Archibald. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Approval of TSSA Plans
Heidi Jo West, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Teaching & Learning and Keith Mecham, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Teaching & Learning
TSSA has been around 5 or 6 years. School Community Council doesn't have to vote to approve but are given a voice and perspective. The plans come to the Board with approval from school administration.
Connie Archibald made the motion to approve the TSSA plans, second by Bryan Smith. The motion passed unanimously.
Karen Cronin - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Bryan Smith - Yes
Approval of Amendment to School Fees for Robotics Club
Keith Mecham, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Teaching & Learning presented concerning the robotics program changes. The program needs an increase in fees. The program competes at State, National and World and students are champions at each level. The program needs to come in alignment with their fees. The fee listed in the School Fees will be the maximum fee. Actual fees depend on how robust the program is. This is a year-round class.
Bryan Smith made the motion to approve the fees for Robotics Club, second by Tiffani Summers. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Approval of 2024-2025 Board Meeting Calendar
Steve Carlsen, Superintendent
The 2024-2025 Board Meeting calendar will continue with the 2nd Wednesday of every month as Board Meeting date.
Nancy Kennedy would like to propose to dedicate Grouse Creek School. May 21st at 2:30p.m. is the date decided upon. Melissa Morris, Principal at Grouse Creek would like the Board to come and students will do a program. Nancy Kennedy will invite Representative Karen Petersen so she can see the remoteness of the school.
Superintendent Carlsen has been added to the committee to review the NESS formula.
Karen Cronin made the motion to approve 2024-2025 Board Meeting Calendar, second by Connie Archibald. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Information Items:
ACT Data
Jeremy Young, Assessment Director presented on the 2024 ACT data, college benchmarks for each subject, participation rates, and future action plans.
Sunrise Report
Jerry Jackman, Principal at Sunrise High, presented on how the changed schedule has helped. They have changed what they are doing for adult ed and online, Friday classes have been a success, Bridgerland attendance and graduation rates are up. Being able to administer the GED test has been huge for the school.
2024-2025 District Calendar
Heidi Jo West, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Teaching & Learning presented on changes in Elementary Parent/Teacher Conference dates.
Principal survey from parents shows the biggest concern was the need for two parent teacher conferences. We would like to schedule November 13 and 14 and the two additional days will be February 26 and 27. Since this will add two additional days to elementary teachers, elementary will have minimum school days for the parent teacher conference days. DLI teachers can get through all students. Secondary supports this decision.
Kindergarten all-day: The State met and determined what the deadline would be. A flyer went out about half-day kindergarten. May 20th is deadline date for parents to choose their kindergarten preference. If nineteen students enroll at a school, there will be a half-day class offered. Partial day can go to all-day but half-day cannot change to an all-day class.
Monthly Financial Report
Sherri Harper, Accountant, presented that everything looks good and in line with the budget. Explained the PTIF (Public Treasurers Investment Fund) bank account and how it is a higher interest account at 5.44% and the ease of liquidity. Our interest has increased this year because of the higher interest paid.
Board Committee Reports
Board Member Connie Archibald reported on the Board of Directors for USBA. She has been assigned to the Advocacy Committee. She handed out the Utah Legislature Intern schedule, information on Day on the Hill idea, legislature priority given to USBA team, and needs assessment. They are going to improve on USBE website because more members are accessing the website, 80% are using their mobile devices. Work with the Governor appoint a day that Legislators would be in the classroom and teachers would be encouraged to invite them into their classrooms. By law committee districts are getting very large, two examples are Toole and Cache. There will be a reward for getting the Master Boardmanship done early (before November 30th). Connie suggested that the Board look at that in July. The Evaluation Committee wants the make the evaluation more streamlined. The New Board Member workshop will be held on December 7th. NSBA will be held in Atlanta, GA in the spring of 2025. At the national conference last month there was increased participation. The USBA Finance Committee voted to increase our dues by 3.8%. The Leadership Academy will be held in September 2025 at a new location: Bryce Canyon at Ruby's Inn.
Nancy Kennedy reported on Bridgerland. The CTE education career days are held in the spring and Young and Harris Intermediate schools are invited. There are 4000 kids that come and it is sectioned into 4 components. Every department at Bridgerland has a table and show the opportunities that are provided. Welding, diesel mechanics robotics, cosmetology, animals, forest service, and fire department are just some of the specialties that participate. The activities are all hands on and a really fun day for students. Box Elder transported 500 students to the Career Day at Bridgerland. CTE training is a great opportunity for many students.
Karen Cronin reported that the Boys and Girls Club dinner and auction will be held on June 21st. We have 4 tickets, Connie and Nancy are interested in going. Karen will also look into attending as a Board Member.
Alyssa Lyman, Student Board Member reported, BRHS is getting ready for graduation. They just had their red and white dance and the spirit bowl. BEHS had spirit day and MORP dance last month. Spring sports are wrapping up, the boys' soccer team are region 5 champs. Both schools are planning their senior's graduation night.
Policy Review:
Policy to Delete
Policy 3130 Certificated: Redress of Grievances (Referral to Policy 3043 Redress of
Grievances)
First Reading
Policy 3040 Employment: Experience on Salary Schedule
Connie Archibald made the motion to approve on first reading Policy 3040 and deletion of Policy 3130, second by Danielle Wright. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Consent Items:
Connie Archibald made the motion to approve consent items, seconded by Bryan Smith. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
The consent items included the following items:
Approval of the minutes of the work and regular meetings held on April 10, 2024.
Approval of claim 00047226, 00047230 - 00047530, 02031124, 05031124, 07032924, 08032924, 09032024, 09032924.
Personnel Actions
See attachment to agenda.
150 Mile Plus Travel Requests
See agenda
Out of State Travel Requests
See agenda
Suggestions for Future Board Meetings:
Bryan Smith asked about looking a flexible schedule and have a committee to research what other districts around the state do if they have a flexible school schedule and look at the option of concurrent enrollment options later in the day. Julie Taylor asked about looking into 5 periods instead of 6 periods. Keith Mecham talked about the serious problem with parent release classes and opportunities of taking an online, zero class, concurrent and flexible schedules. Bryan Smith, Julie Taylor, Karen Cronin and Tiffani Summers names were suggested to participate on the committee.
Conversation was had about the Utah Fits All Scholarship and our ability as a school district to charge for those students participating.
Upcoming Events:
- BEHS Graduation - Tuesday, May 28, 2024 at 6:00 at Dee Events Center Julie Taylor will talk
- BRHS Graduation - Wednesday, May 29, 2024 at 8:00 at BRHS Field Connie Archibald will talk
- Sunrise Graduation - Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 6:00 at BEHS Auditorium Karen Cronin will talk
Negotiations with the associations are almost done and will have a presentation for the Board.
Adjournment:
Nancy Kennedy made the motion to adjourn the regular board meeting, second by Karen Cronin. The motion passed unanimously.
Bryan Smith - Yes
Tiffani Summers - Yes
Julie Taylor - Yes
Wade Hyde - Yes
Connie Archibald - Yes
Nancy Kennedy - Yes
Danielle Wright - Yes
Karen Cronin - Yes
Regular Board Meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m.
With the announcement that the next work session meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 6:00 p.m., at the Independent Life Skills Center, 960 S Main St, Brigham City, Utah.
APPROVED: June 12, 2024
ATTESTED: _________________________ __________________________
School Business Administrator President, Board of Education
Notice of Special Accommodations (ADA)
Contact Mr. David Roberts, Business Administrator at 435-734-4800 eight or more hours before the scheduled starting time and efforts will be made to provide the needed assistance.