Emery County School Board recognizes athletes

By Alice Wadley

The Emery County School District held their monthly meeting on March 7 at Huntington Elementary. The school board recognized two students in attendance for receiving the academic all state award, Lannie Jensen in girls basketball and Allen Durrant in boys swimming. The school board also recognized the state champion boys swim team.
Doug Johnson demonstrated the new app for the school district. Parents can fully customize the app to track students progress, check grades, pay for lunches, follow the school calendar and much more.
Principal Garth Johnson gave the principal’s report. He thanked all of the faculty and staff at Huntington Elementary. Debbie Murray has taken over the cafeteria this year. She is doing an awesome job. We had an after school activity for students and parents. We made slime. It was a lot of fun. We are waiting for better weather and we will have rocket and robot activities. The technology at the school is great we have a 1.07 ratio of technology devices to every student. We have wi-fi hotspots in every classroom. Principal Johnson thanked the school board for all of their support.
Jared Black gave the business report. He said, with the reconfiguration of the grades, Emery High may not qualify for Necessarily Existent Small Schools (NESS) program. Six or seven schools will still qualify for the NESS program.
Superintendent Larry Davis updated the school board on the legislative session. We had a robotics team at the legislature. Many people stopped by and talked to the students. The Emery High girls basketball team won the state championship. We will try to recognize them in the April meeting. There is a compromise in the Our Schools Now initiative. The compromise is to raise the gas tax by 10 cents. It looks very favorable that the initiative will go on the ballot this year. The juvenile justice amendment will once again make truancy a class C misdemeanor. If approved it will take effect immediately. Superintendent Davis will meet with the principals to help them apply the law and get students in school. The bill proposed to charge for use of the SIS system has been pulled.
In public comments Neal Peacock reported seven teachers attended the education day on the hill. Sen. Hinkins was very accommodating and we had lunch with Superintendent Davis. Mr. Peacock voiced his concerns about the Our Schools Now initiative and the proposed tax increase on gas. This will be a greater burden in the rural areas because you have to travel longer distances to receive necessary services.
At the April meeting Superintendent Davis will give a complete update on the legislative session. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. prior to the regular school board meeting on April 11 at Cleveland Elementary.