On Thursday, March 17, the Garfield School Board met at Panguitch Elementary School. Superintendant John Dodds delivered the good news coming from the legislature — the state received a 6% increase in the student Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) — the amount of money the district gets per student from the state. John also noted that this record increase in student spending comes amidst record inflation. A number of other bills will benefit Garfield students — and those benefits will be examined in the next few months.
Panguitch Softball Field Proposal at Panguitch Elementary School
The Garfield School Board heard from Panguitch Girls Softball Coach, Kelly Holman and players Kambree H., Abby H., and Karma A., Panguitch City Recreation, and a local real estate agent. The group petitioned the board to consider allowing a softball field to be installed on the Panguitch Elementary School campus. The field would be paid for by the community fundraising efforts, not district funds.
Panguitch High School softball currently uses city fields. Having a fourth field in town will also allow for the city to attract tournaments to benefit the local economy.
The district considered using the space for potential employee housing, and the group offered solutions to mitigate that need — pointing out a better parcel for development and offering real estate expertise in assisting new teachers to find housing. As this was an information gathering session, the board did not take action on the topic.
School Travel and EES Radar
The board had a discussion on school travel — out of state travel, 150+ mile trips, and increased fuel costs. They also discussed concerns over the amount of school softball athletes are missing. Earthwork on the Escalante Elementary School should begin in April or May.
Fiscal Year ‘23 Budget Proposal Items
Lane Mecham presented the plan of putting more resources in the control of school principals and of being more proactive with the selection of capital projects based on previously-discussed criteria. John then explained a number of staff addition recommendations for next year’s budget: a half-time Custodian at Bryce Valley High School, half-time Special Education Director, two online teaching positions for the online school, a full-time Mental Health Coordinator, classified employee raises (Special Education Paraprofessionals as discussed in previous meetings), and full-time Digital Teacher Learning Coordinator.
John also provided a summary to the public about the board’s discussion of the online school — the district will continue to have an online school and will work to improve the online school’s offerings to fit the brand of GCSD. At the special meeting held on March 31, the board met to approve these recommended positions, but ultimately only approved the opening of the Digital Teacher Learning Coordinator position.
In Depth Staffing Discussions
The Digital Teacher Learning Coordinator position is required and fully paid for by a $240,000 digital learning grant awarded to the district. As long as the legislature funds the program and the grant requirements are maintained, this will be a continued grant given to the district going forward. However, because the position funding is not guaranteed, the position is considered a year-to-year contract. The position was approved.
The Mental Health Coordinator will serve as a councilor at the elementary schools and would teach mental health curriculum to students. This position would also work as liaison between mental health resources in the community (such as prevention coalitions, SEDC, etc) and the schools to maximize benefit to students and state funds will pay for a significant amount of this position.
Board Member Ralph Perkins asked about the stipulations of the funding. Superintendent John Dodds explained the funds must go to a position or contracted position specific to mental health and funding has to go toward a new position. Mr. Dodds explained, “The value for me is having a person in the classrooms in the schools — for the elementary schools, is having another person that can build the vision and direction of the social-emotional learning curriculum a resources for tier-two, three, resources. And then mental health services directly to students is significantly faster.”
Mr. Perkins stressed the desire to make sure all schools would be serviced adequately and wondered about having multiple positions (two half-time positions) or utilizing existing personnel. Dodds explained that the position requires a fully-licensed mental health councilor licensing who could provide mental health counseling. It will be hard to attract someone part-time with those credentials. The board will revisit this at the April board meeting
Online and Antimony Teaching Positions
Currently the online school teacher also teaches at Antimony Elementary. Mr. Dodds proposes for the next school year, that the Antimony/Online position be separated. Antimony would gain a full-time teacher and the district would make the half-time online teaching position full-time and add an additional full-time online teacher.
Antimony has 22 students pre-k through 6th grade and Mr. Dodds recommended two full-time positions to meet those students’ needs. He also stressed the separation of duties in order to ensure online school efforts do not take away from brick-and-mortar schools. The current Antimony position is not being paid for by district funds but it would require financial commitment from the district if the position were made full-time. The two online school teaching positions would be fully paid for from WPU’s generated by the online school and the contracts will be reevaluated on a year-to-year basis. According to the Garfield Online School Plan, even in low-estimate scenarios, the online school will provide $350,000 in extra revenue toward the district operating budget.
Mr. Dodds and the board have repeatedly stressed the importance of making sure the district “brick-and-mortar schools” do not suffer because of efforts going to the online school, so the separation of the Antimony/online position seem in line with those efforts. However the board was not ready to take action. Mr. Perkins suggested Dodds explore the possibility of keeping the Antimony/online position combined and hiring only one additional teacher for the online school (effectively eliminating one full-time position). The board voted to revisit this in April.
Special Education Paraprofessional Raises
Previously Special Education Director Phoebe Wiseman recommended adding a line to the classified employee fee schedule for Special Ed Paraprofessionals who work with district students with the most severe special education needs. The district will not make a decision affecting fee schedules in the middle of a budget year, but instead will make the suggestion part of the budget process in the next couple of months. Lane Mecham explained, “The timing is better aligned when we’re going through the negotiation and budget process so we can understand the impacts of that and the funding for it.”
Technology Director Report
Slater Matthews, Technology Director, updated the board on his efforts throughout the district with technology. He has updated, enhanced, and added technology equipment throughout the district. He highlighted his efforts of simplifying and organizing network rooms to save time in the future. He is working toward saving time at Panguitch and Bryce Valley so he has more time for Escalante and Boulder. He also touched on wifi access points expanding the range of wifi that students have access to.
Housekeeping Items
The board approved the upgrade of the Bryce Valley water filtration system for costs up to $50,000. They approved the 2022-2023 fee schedule, first, second, & third readings of various policies (with some changes), and the updated EES capital lease.
New hires are: at Boulder Elementary School — Ana Sanders and Jeanne Zeigler as half-time teachers; at Bryce Valley High School — Whitni Syrett as Assistant Girls Basketball Coach and Wyatt Mecham as Substitute; at Bryce Valley Elementary — Kinley Syrett as Substitute and Emma Beesley, Kathryn Pollock, and Jessica Ramirez as Paraprofessionals; at Panguitch High School — Matt Houston as Assistant Wrestling Coach, Clint Albrecht as Assistant Girls Basketball Coach, Abby Garn as Substitute, and Caleb C., Thomas D., Sadie P, and Laynee D. as the PHS TV Broadcast team; at Escalante High School, Kayson Durfey as Assistant Boys Basketball Coach.
– The Byway
Read about past Garfield School Board meetings here.