School Board approves 2018 budget

In the June school board meeting, Jared Black the business administrator presented the 2018 district budget. He said the assessed valuation in Emery County is 1.9 billion. It was over $2 billion but has now gone down.
Projected enrollment for the district this fall is 2,155 students.
Black explained the various program funds. He said the 2017 and 2018 budgets will look about the same. The district receives property tax monies from Emery County as well as state and federal funds. The state funds are the WPU with federal resources being mainly child nutrition and Title 1 funds.
Black explained the district used the certified tax rate which is set by the state. This tax rate is set-up so the district will not receive less than the previous year. The tax rate goes up to recoup any loss from the assessed valuation of the county going down. The Emery district is the eighth lowest taxing school district in the state. The district will also pay the charter school levy. For any students attending the charter school the district is required to send the WPU to that school. It’s estimated 18-20 students attend the charter school and the district pays approximately $55,000.
The board adopted the final budget for 2017 and the original budget for 2018.
Kacey Fluckey, principal at Green River High spoke to the board about their first year of block scheduling. Their teachers learned to be more effective and learned new strategies. The block scheduling wasn’t as productive as they hoped, but they would like to continue with the scheduling. They know now they want to rotate the days of the schedule. The students have learned and gained from the extra class time. This year was also the accreditation report which went really well and was a positive experience. One area they need to focus on at the school is working with the teachers on data. The accreditation committee was impressed the superintendent and director of student services was there to meet with the accreditation committee.
Fluckey said they want language arts for 7-10th grade every day and math every day. She will need to find a language arts teacher. This will take some creative scheduling but can be worked out. “Scores didn’t go up, but over time I think they will. Classrooms have become more productive, the students have been good and they are engaged. The kids are happy at school and it’s a productive environment. The scores were not where we wanted them, but we may need more time,” said Fluckey.
The students are in the block classes 74 minutes. Students said they were surprised how quickly the time went by. Students can also earn more credits. The needed credits for graduation are increasing. Green River has added robotics and will use technology to increase class offerings at Green River. In coming years they will have cross county classes with Emery High.
Fluckey said they also need to do better at scheduling sports so students don’t miss as much class time. She also said she has consulted with the Carbon district and she was instructed to look at the essentials and see what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of. She said the family and consumer science classes liked the block class time because it gave them more time to complete projects. The music classes didn’t like it because they needed practice every day.
The board approved continuing the block schedule for Green River High.
Superintendent Larry Davis submitted names for approval. Nolan Johnson, Teacher, Book Cliff Elementary
Ashley Jensen, Elementary Counselor, District Wide
Darlene DeBry, Secondary Counselor, Emery High
Lisa Winn, Aide, Emery High
Aretha Sherman, Aide, Emery High
Shawnee Snow, Aide, Emery High
Lisa Hooley, Aide, Emery High
Cassie Thatcher, Aide, Cleveland Elementary
Cynthia Williams, Aide, Cleveland Elementary
Chris Christensen, Aide, Cleveland Elementary
Kari Staples, Aide, Cleveland Elementary
Darshan Bennett, Aide, Ferron Elementary
Leigh Bloomer, Aide, Ferron Elementary
Kim Andrus, Aide, Green River High
Ashley Reyes, Aide, Book Cliff Elementary.
 Two employees are resigning, Susan Dorsch and Jack Butler.
The board heard revisions for policy actions including cash receipts, records management and access, catastrophic leave applications. The policies were approved.
The district will declare two buses and one car as surplus and sell them.
The board approved the job description for classroom facilitators.
The board approved the insurance plans.
Superintendent Davis gave his report. He said the girls golf team won the state championship after being a sport at the high school for only four years. They were featured in Fairway magazine.
Three of the golfers received all-state awards including Lainee Jensen, Taijah Price and Sydnee Guymon. Mike Weir presented the awards. Sydnee was all-state for four years and Taijah was all-state for three years.
Riata Christiansen was named the Utah High School Rodeo queen recently at Heber City.
During recent health inspections at Canyon View Junior High they received no recommendations for improvement. Alan McArthur is the head custodian there.
Superintendent Davis reported on future policies including the opioid procedures. Each school will have on hand the Naloxone kits-nasal spray to be used in overdose situations. The schools will have trained staff to administer in an emergency. They will also have staff trained in CPR.
There is also dropout prevention. School districts will formulate a plan to reduce drop-out rates. He explained Emery has a low drop-out rate, but a plan is needed to comply with state law.
Superintendent Davis said the school counselors do amazing work with at-risk youth. They have plans for them and if traditional school doesn’t work they find alternatives.
Superintendent Davis said the schools will no longer be able to send to juvenile court anything less than class A or B misdemeanors. A youth court will be created to deal with these other offenses. The school district will become the sponsoring entity for the youth court. Students will apply to be a judge in the court. These judges will have to meet a rigid criteria.
There will be one youth court for Green River and Emery High. They will deal with truancy issues, disorderly conduct, etc. The idea is to keep students from ending up in a juvenile or an adult court. Hopefully to give them a nudge back on track and help them graduate.
 The judges will receive training.
Superintendent Davis said five year plans are being developed for the school district and for each of the schools.