Ready or not: area students go back to school today

By Alice Wadley
Staff Writer

The Emery County School board met for their final meeting of the summer before the school year starts on Aug. 21. Superintendent Larry Davis recognized the passing of Emery High teacher, Jim Keele. He passed away July 25. Mr. Keele was a veteran teacher at EHS, who taught classes in construction, woods and CAD. The school board expresses their condolences to the Keele family.
Superintendent Davis submitted names for approval: Jenny Durrant, part-time librarian at Canyon View. Rebecca Herrera, full-time CTE teacher at Green River High School. Bryant Snow, full-time CTE teacher at EHS. Kim Andrus, assistant girls volleyball coach at GRHS. Kira Engleman, assistant girls basketball coach at GRHS. Ryan Hepworth, track and cross country coach at GRHS. Gabriela Cuevas, part-time ELL aide at Huntington Elementary. There are still several positions open in the school district, which are expected to be filled before school starts.
The school board approved the extracurricular schedules for the 2018-2019 school year. There was some concern about an increase in games for some of the teams. The Utah High School Activities Association sets the maximum number of games teams are allowed to participate in. All of the teams were in compliance with the UHSAA rules.
The board discussed the policy actions. The abusive conduct policy is new policy from legislation. The policy provides a process for employees to file a complaint against a student or parent for abusive conduct. The curriculum policy has changed. The changes are not significant and affect the 7-8th grade curriculum. The early literacy policy is new from legislation. It concerns the K-3 reading programs. It raises the bar on expectations concerning reading. Each elementary school through their community councils will set the goals. The human sexuality curriculum will include coping and resistance. The special programs policy will allow a 22 year old resource student to finish the school year. The student rights and responsibilities policy was updated to reflect bullying, harassment, cyber bullying and other forms of bullying. The attendance and truancy policy was updated to reflect mental health as a valid excuse for absence.
Business administrator Jared Black provided the asbestos notification to the public. It is required by law. The district has asbestos plans for all of the buildings in the district. A copy is available at each building. The maintenance staff does a good job at training and keeping up with the plans.
In the June school board meeting Principal Yvonne Jensen requested the school board expand the middle school extracurricular activities to include cross country and archery. She provided the costs of the programs. The cost to start a cross country team is $2,500, this includes the coach, uniforms and transportation. The archery program would cost $3,500 to start. The extra cost is for two coaches and a longer archery season. The board approved the cross country team and postponed the archery team until next school year. They would like to see the interest in the cross country team before they add another extracurricular activity. The cross country team will be a good feeder program for the EHS cross country team.
The board approved the sale of a surplus bus. The bus is a 2003. It would not be cost effective to repair the bus. The vehicle is usually put out for bid in the newspaper or sent to a online public auction.
The negotiated items with the Emery Education Association and the Emery Classified Association were approved. The school board and the associations are still working on some of the items. They will be presented in the September meeting for approval.
Superintendent Davis gave his report. He stated, there is a job opening at Huntington Elementary for a teacher. It is anticipated the position will be filled before the school year starts.
The technology committee had an increase in their budget, due to a grant. A detailed proposal will be presented next month. The CTE committee is working with Chancellor Straquadine on CTE pathways. The STEM grant has been reduced. The district will ask schools to adopt their robotics clubs as school clubs. The juvenile justice committee will hold their first meeting on Sept. 17. The district will be organizing and inviting stakeholders to craft the policy and amendments for the new policy. The district will have two years to work on the policy.
The next school board meeting will be held on Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. at the EHS library.