The Emery County School District met on May 2 at Castle Dale Elementary for their monthly meeting. Cannon Sharp addressed the school board and presented his Eagle Scout project. Cannon’s proposed Eagle Scout project is to plant trees on school district property at Cleveland Elementary. The current trees are going to be removed during a street widening project. Once the widening construction is complete, Cannon will organize a team and plant 15 trees. The cost is $2,000. The board approved the cost of the Eagle Scout project.
Superintendent Larry Davis submitted names for approval: Bridget Meadows and Christina Knight, Green River High cheer coaches. Kodi Caldwell, Canyon View assistant cheer coach. Dave Justice, Emery High full-time resource teacher. Dane Worwood CVMS and EHS full-time career and technical education. Deanna Maxfield, part-time custodian at Cottonwood Elementary. Danyale Service, part-time custodian at Castle Dale Elementary. Kellie Worwood, CVMS band teacher.
Superintendent Davis gave a brief description of each schools landtrust plan. The plans are made with input from school administrators and the community councils. The plans were approved.
Principal Melinda Durrant gave the principals report. She said, the school has continued the Reaching for the Stars theme. Stars stands for, Success, Trust, Achievement, Respect and Service. We give out warm fuzzies for positive behavior. We mail out positive office referrals. Parents and students are pleased when they get good news in the mail from the school.
We are doing the Marvin and Jesse skits. They are character developing skits to teach students about serving others, peace making, having a positive attitude and other good character skills. The finals skit will be on May 10. The topic will be courage.
The school had a food drive that was successful. All of the food was donated to the food bank.
Principal Durrant attended the STEM academy for administrators. The group visited schools with good STEM programs. She was excited to see all of the different STEM programs at the schools. The library has added STEM activities for learning. The students were able to create two axle wind movable vehicles from straws and Lifesavers® candy. We also used bananas and celery to power different things. The kids had a lot of fun.
This year the school had many fun competitions. We had speed stacking, chess, and a checkers tournament. We will have our annual staff vs. the fifth grade softball game. The school year is coming to a conclusion and there will be several field trips and other activities.
Superintendent Davis reported the idea of all day kindergarten received favorable surveys. The district will have all day kindergarten in each of its six elementary schools starting the 2018-2019 school year. This will be done without any additional funding or loss of jobs. There will be some transfers among the teachers, but they were willing to do it to make the all day kindergarten happen.
Superintendent Davis announced this will be Neal Peacock’s last meeting serving as the Emery Education Association president. He thanked Mr. Peacock for his years of service to the EEA. Mr. Peacock thanked the board for being so great to work with.
A collaborative team meeting was held for the music programs. This was a follow up from the April meeting where parents discussed their concerns about the band program. After looking at the enrollment of band students it was discovered enrollment is increasing with the exception of San Rafael Middle School. The band teachers all agreed it was important to let students have a choice in their classes. Emery High is increasing their music options through concurrent enrollment. The band teachers did not think there was a problem with instrument availability. If a student is unable to obtain an instrument, the band teacher will make sure the student has an instrument to play. Superintendent Davis believes this is a unique opportunity for principals and music teachers to get together and improve the program.
Superintendent Davis is writing and amending policies as dictated by the recent legislative session. The district will be starting a teaching pathway. Plans are underway for a medical pathway with cooperation from Castleview Hospital and Pinnacle Academy. The STEM grant for the robotics programs is almost complete.
In public comments, Utah State University will be hosting their aviation camp Aug. 9-11. The cost is $225. The camp will be divided into three different categories, maintenance, flying and drones.
The next school board meeting will be held on June 20 at 7 p.m. at the district office.
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