School Board learns benefits of machine class

By Alice Wadley

The Emery County School District met for their monthly meeting at Cottonwood Elementary. The school board recognized students who received the academic all-state awards. The award only goes to 10 students in each sport and each classification. Superintendent Larry Davis presented a certificate to Abbie Huntington, Carlie Robinson, Samantha Roberts and Chelsea Olsen. Other students who received the award, but were not present are Landon Fairbanks and Allen Durrant. Superintendent Davis submitted the names of Jennifer Thomas and Jay Stilson for approval.
Dayna Terry requested continued funding for the machining program at Emery High. Terry reported, students enrolled in Career and Technical Education classes have a 96 percent graduation rate. The class now has 20 students, 10 are seniors. The class continues to grow every year. Thirty-five percent of the students enrolled in the machine program at Snow College are EHS graduates.
Three students from Emery High School reported on the benefits of the program. Justin Gordon said, “The machine class has changed my view of mechanics. Since I entered the machine class my math has improved greatly. You need to know math because machine work is precise and detailed. I went from being at the bottom of my math class to scoring 90 percent on my tests. I didn’t understand mechanics until I started to see the gears turning. The machine program has opened my future and it is a great thing to have,” said Justin Gordon.
Ty Funk also spoke about the machine program. He said, “You can look at parts on cars, guns and medical devices and see they all have machined parts. I have built gun parts for my guns. I know if I get into machining I can provide for my family. Many companies use computers to machine parts, but with a manual machine you can see what it takes to make parts out of metal. The machine program has helped me with math. I actually know angles, signs, cosines and tangents. I have learned this from the machine program. I’ve learned how to work hard and have a good work ethic. Mr. Gordon makes sure you are successful.”
Jaden Defa spoke in favor of the machine program. He said he has learned a lot from the program and Mr. Gordon has done an excellent job as the instructor. The school board voted to fund the machine program for three years with a 50-50 match.
Principal Kaycee Fluckey, requested a landtrust amendment for Green River High School. “We are trying to get parents more involved in their students education. We want the students to be motivated to attend school and want to excel academically. We have had some motivational speakers come to the school and we plan on having more. We would like to have some of our alumni come back for career day. We want to show the students you can graduate from GRHS and be successful. There are a lot of kids that don’t see a future for themselves. We are trying to get a broader vision for our students. When I first took over as principal we only had six parents attending parent teacher conference. We now have around 35. We moved the parent teacher conferences to the foyer and we have had good success. This allows people the opportunity to socialize and interact with one another,” said Principal Fluckey.
Principal John Hughes gave the principal’s report. He said there have been a lot of changes at the school We are in our second year of mastery grading. No letter grades are given, students are evaluated on their proficiency in a particular subject. We are using SchoolCity and the teachers have been participating in the PLCs. We are in our second year of no homework. We have had some issues with students not doing their work in class. Now if the student doesn’t do the work in class it’s sent home with a stamp. This has helped motivate students to do their work in class. Cottonwood Elementary has used the landtrust money to hire aides. We have a K-5 self-contained program.
Mrs. Carroll does a wonderful job as the school librarian. We have more Kindles with grade appropriate reading material. The school had a reading marathon. She has applied for grants and we had a Harry Potter party. The school has its first robotics team. The robotics club continues to grow.
Superintendent Davis reported four robotics teams qualified for the state tournament at Weber State. We appreciate the work Rob Murray has put into the program. A junior high robotics team will go to the legislature school day on the hill on Feb. 23.
Davis also briefed about the current education bills to be heard in the state legislature. HB 237 relates to concurrent enrollment. It will make it easier to have teachers approved for concurrent enrollment classes. HB 282 is proposing a charge to use the Aspire system. HB 293 is the equalization bill. The next school board meeting will be March 7 at Huntington Elementary.