The Emery County School District met for their monthly meeting on April 11 at Cleveland Elementary. The meeting started with a working session to discuss the legislative session and bills effecting education. The legislative session will be in an upcoming issue of the Emery County Progress.
During the regular meeting of the school board, The school board recognized the Sterling Scholar winners and the 3A girls champion basketball team and coaches. Megan Jensen was named the 3A girls MVP and Kacelyn Toomer was named to the 3A all-state team.
Sterling Scholar winners for the district were Elexis Dalton in world languages, Abbie Huntington in family and consumers science and Samantha Roberts in Math.
Riata Christiansen was also recognized as the Utah Future Farmers of America president and the reigning Utah High School Rodeo Association queen.
Tracey Johnson gave an update on the meeting with the Utah State University president. USU President Noelle Cockett is excited to work with the school concerning the CTE pathways programs and providing pathways. Some of the pathways President Cockett mention were elementary and secondary education, computer science, technology and networking. She wants to improve the relationships between USU and the school districts.
Superintendent Larry Davis submitted names for approval: Ted Gubler, secondary youth mentor/tracker. Kelsey Austin, CVMS cheer coach. Alexandrea Sherman,CVMS track coach. Lacey Faimalo, Heather Stilson and Shelby Bagley, EHS assistant drill coaches. The names were approved.
Superintendent Davis reported on the amendments to the teacher evaluations. The amendments were agreed to by the Emery Education Association and the administrative council. The amendments will streamline the teacher evaluation process.
The board approved a policy revision for support staff vacations and holidays. At retirement employees can also get a payout for their unused vacation days.
Canyon View Middle School requested a revision to their land trust plan. The school didn’t use all of the funds for field trips they had allotted. They would like to use the money for incentives and rewards for academic achievement.
Principal Jerel Lofley gave the principals report. He reported, the third-fifth grade students will present a play on May 17 at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. SAGE testing has started at the school. Cleveland Elementary will continue with their reading and math summer programs. The programs will be held June-July.
Superintendent Davis reported on the SAFE UT app. SAFE UT provides real-time crisis intervention to youth through texting. Students can also provide confidential tips. The primary focus of the app is suicide prevention. The most submitted tips to the app for the school district were cutting and suicide. The ECSD also provides an anonymous tip line. Tips can be submitted online.
Graduation ceremonies for Emery and Green River High will be on May 24 at 7 p.m.
In public comments, Shawna Carroll expressed her concerns for the band program in the district. Mrs. Carroll explained how important music is in her children’s lives and how important music has been in her life. She provided the board with the student enrollment numbers of the band courses at the middle schools. It used to be almost every sixth grade student took band, now they have the option of band or chorus. Mrs. Carroll believes lack of enrollment in band will have a detrimental effect on the overall band program at the schools. She asked the board to consider other options for the music program and not allow further cuts to the program.
Jed Jensen, Supervisor of secondary education responded to the concerns. He said, with the sixth grade moving to middle school we thought it was important to give students some choices in their classes. Band and chorus are two of the few elective classes offered at the middle schools. This allows for some choice for students and parents.
Members of the community also spoke in favor of the band programs. Some suggestions were to have a jazz band and an instrument drive to benefit the band program.
Board president Laurel Johansen stated, the board is in favor of music programs. Music education is very important and she appreciates the support shown by the parents and students of the music program. She hopes school administrators and the music teachers will get together and work on improving the musical programs offered at the schools.
Superintendent Davis commented, he is in favor of the music programs and the cuts to programs were not exclusive to the music programs. The cuts to programs were due to student enrollment and budget changes.
The Emery County Progress reached out to Superintendent Davis to dispel any misinformation pertaining to the band program. Superintendent Davis said, “Before sixth graders were moved to middle school, almost every sixth grader took band in the elementary schools. Now that they are in middle school, they may take band or chorus.
Since some sixth graders are now choosing chorus, the band numbers are smaller than they used to be. The concern is that going forward, those numbers will continue to decline, making it difficult to sustain a band program district-wide. For some reason, there was a misunderstanding that the school district is planning on dropping band altogether which couldn’t be further from the truth. The school board, district office administrators, and secondary school administrators are very supportive of band, as they are also of chorus.
Deciding how to schedule music programs in these secondary schools is a matter for school administrators, counselors, parents, students, and other stakeholders to decide. It is also important that we view our music programs as district programs that are interrelated and supportive of the same goals and objectives,” said Davis.
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