September 11, 2024 – Minutes – Hillcrest High School

Hillcrest High School – School Community Council Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, September 11, 2024 @ 5:00 p.m.

ACR Conference Room (A129)

Attending: Stacey Timmerman, Melissa Hodgson, Areli Nevarez, Debbie Johnson, Eric Murdock, Elena Reyes, Brenda McCann, Alex Martinez, Korina Jagiello-Caldwell, Rebecca Martin, Karen Pedersen, Kris Millerberg, Jenny Olsen, and Jeremy Hodgson

Welcome back from Stacey

May 8, 2024 Meeting Minutes
Motion to approve, seconded, and approved.

Introductions

Stacey Timmerman: four kids, youngest is a junior (Caleb), MLIS degree, served on SCCs for as long as she can remember.
Melissa Hodgson: worked with Union SCC, her husband (Jeremy) got her into SCC, one son at HHS (Freshman), and another at Union who will be coming.
Areli Nevarez—Assistant principal Ri-Z, taught at Union MS for 5 years, then a DLI coordinator at the state level.
Debbie Johnson-has a junior this year, she has been on SCC since her daughter was in kindergarten, works at Mt. Jordan.
Eric Murdock—counselor at HHS, 22 years here, youngest at the U.
Elena Reyes—community school facilitator, works one one-on-one with students and families, 3rd year at HHS.
Brenda McCann—back at Hillcrest, feels that parents need to have a voice, making sure we are taking care of all kids. We have a variety of people who come in to represent different groups. This year we have 2450+ kids at Hillcrest.
Alex Martinez-year 4 at HHS, ELA teacher, taught before Hillcrest.
Korina Jagiello-Caldwell—has a senior student and is a mental health therapist, youngest in elementary, 3rd year in SCC.
Rebecca Martin—parent of 4 kids, youngest is a senior, currently PTA Vice President, coordinator through SCC.
Karen Pedersen—member of CSD school board, also has a grandson who goes here.
Kris Millerberg—CSD school board representative, has 6 kids who graduated from Hillcrest, part of SCC for a long time.
Jenny Olsen—HHS school librarian, and has a sophomore student here.

SCC Elections

Chair (must be a parent representative), Vice Chair, and Secretary

Stacey has agreed to stay on as chair
Vice Chair: helps Stacey & Brenda; either chair or vice needs to be here to run the meeting; Melissa Hodgson volunteered
Secretary: takes minutes, then sends to Stacey. Becca nominated Debbie, but she has several conflicts for stayng for the entire meeting. Melissa can take over when Debbie isn’t here.

Nominations:
Stacey Timmerman, chair

Melissa Hodgson, vice chair

Debbie Johnson, secretary

Becca brings the motion, Jenny seconds, passes unanimously

Dress Code

Brenda: We are dealing with a different generation. I am just enforcing the district policy; I’m happy if they wear straps. When students violate the dress code, we ask them to come to the office and wear a Husky t-shirt and/or shorts. It can be challenging to have these conversations with students. The graphic with the areas that should be covered has helped. Overall, students have been respectful about it. We have seen improvements.
Question from Kris Millerberg: who saw students disrobing as they came down the hall, clarification—any teacher or hall monitor can issue the cards that send them to the attendance office for a change in clothing.
Teachers will see that we are consistently going to enforce this. Once we continue to enforce, more teachers will come along. We need the teachers to help.

District Cell Phone Policy

We discussed this last year when the governor sent out his letter regarding cell phone use. We felt that we needed backing from the district. Other high schools are enforcing a stronger cell phone and attendance policy. Brenda didn’t feel like she could start as a new leader and implement that. We are using brown bags. For some students, their phone is their only belonging. The teacher gives them a warning: middle schools are going to a no cell phone policy (Union, Butler, etc.), including a technology-free lunch. Melissa mentioned that it has reduced teenage drama, especially for the girls. At Brighton, they are putting them in a calculator organizer, but Brenda is afraid of one being stolen. Bags allow them to keep the phone but not have access to it.
We do need to look at our cell phone policy. We are working on forming a committee to discuss attendance, cell phone and PBIS. This committee will include not just BLT but also teachers who teach a wide variety of students.
Kris Millerberg recommended the book The Anxious Generation, which focuses on the scientific background of how cell devices change kids’ brains and ties it back to mental health. Knowledge is power. Sometimes, you have to do for kids what they won’t do for themselves. The book helps readers understand what this generation is going through. Their brains have been changed.
Becca substitute taught at Brighton, students were already trained to put their devices in the holders. Some teachers wanted to provide them a warning.
The goal is to have academic time; we don’t want the phone.
Alex Martinez- When students are threatened with the brown bag, they will put them away.
As parents, we need to train ourselves to know that we cannot always reach our students.
Discussion on smartwatches is not as big of a problem.
Korina Jagiello-Caldwell: her students don’t have a phone; some teachers at HHS are asking students to use their phones
My homework app will work on Chromebooks but is having trouble with Apple devices, and Brenda probably needs to remind teachers that we’re trying to stop using phones in class.
We’ll follow up on this next month.

Equitable Opportunities at Hillcrest

We have a beautiful, diverse population here at Hillcrest, and we want to represent all of them through SCC.
In the past, we had an equity committee that was phased out. We felt we needed to bring it to the bigger SCC group.
El Reyes—we have a lot of newcomers that do not speak English. We have 630 total students who are Multi-Language Learners, 26% of the school population.
Brenda—It is difficult to get newcomers to attend school. Academics are harder. How do we meet the academic needs of these diverse students?
- Would like to get a multi-cultural committee. Serves the purpose of allowing everyone a voice. We don’t have a place for them to do that now.
Newcomer nights have been successful—currently, they are in Spanish only. Parents have yet to learn the school’s expectations. There are 70-180 attendees.
Many are in survival mode and don’t see the point of school. We need to teach them our expectations (especially our 9th graders). It’s been a struggle.
Could some of our cultural clubs have students become leaders for these other students?
We have so many languages here.
Principal of Granger—cell phone policy, didn’t initially want to take the phones away, but they realized they were using their phones as comfort, so they took that away. It pushed them to get out of their comfort zone. They had a very restrictive policy (lock boxes), but they realized it helped with mental health. Parents could make or break this.
Currently, we don’t have a mentoring program. The goal is to have high-academic students tutor other students. It would be ideal if they could do that, and everyone could get credit. Many of our organizations need hours.
Our school is not cliquey; however, students spend time with students who speak their home language. It can be difficult to have students together in ELD, and they can learn bad habits. We have a reading program for ELD students with low readers.
Moving forward—want everyone to have a voice, including parents.
Ashley Backman is creating DOGS at the school; having dads/parents in school volunteering.
Groups (theater, choir, sports)—get dads here to help.

South Parking Lot Update

Parents shouldn’t be dropping off students in the east parking lot. The crosswalk is dangerous. It would help to have stairs on the southeast end of the parking lot so students could stay out to the road as cars are coming and going.
Brenda spoke with Leon Wilcox and didn’t get a clear answer. However, he did mention he wants to prioritize elementary schools.
New stadium/track: They are creating a 9-lane track. Is it possible to throw it into that bid? We could involve Allison Stroud, safe walking routes. High schools don’t have to have safe walking routes.
The bells have changed. As soon as they ring, they lock. If they are dropped on the east side, they need to walk around. STEM is now locked during the day.
Anticipated use (the number of students crossing on 700 East) has nothing to do with approval.

PTSA Update/Coordination

Please join PTSA. Our numbers are declining. We count all members, including students.
Upcoming Spirit Night, September 26th 4-9 pm, 20% goes to PTSA, Ft. Union Café Zupas.
Student Service Club is starting up, October 9, they will begin a shampoo drive for the pantry.
Provide nominations for Husky Hero, give out 2 per grade, per month
Blankets $75
Region PTSA, met the candidate nights—flyer with more information, Meet the Candidate Night: Oct 3 (Indian Hills), Oct 9 (Union Middle)
Reflections is now open “Accepting Imperfection” due date October 1 (but may push it back)
- Sandy City—9/11 monument
- Yesterday 6 students presented their essays on patriotism. One was a former Hillcrest student, mount on a plaque and will remain for a year.

Parent teacher conferences

Monday—Zoom

Tuesday—Live, in person

SCC Training Dates

Please find a time to attend one of the following meetings.

Graduation

May 29, 2:00 pm

Rotating us each year

Meeting Adjourned

Motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded, and approved.

Next Meeting – Wednesday, October 9, 2024