School Community Council—Hillcrest High School
April 13, 2022
In Attendance:
- Greg Leavitt
- Brant Thomsen
- Jan Hansen
- Suzanne Riches
- Nicole Huff
- Stacey Kratz
- Stacey Timmerman
- R. J. Graham
- Karina Park
Absent:
- Jeremy Wright
- Steve Brown
- Amir Zaidi
- John Olsen
- Rebecca Martin
Meeting Notes:
Suzanne Riches made a motion to approve the previous minutes; Nikki Huff seconded
District Draft of New Dress Code
Mr. Leavitt explained that all the schools have been asking for a simpler version of a dress code. It was proposed to the Canyons Board that we model ours on Jordan School District’s, but Canyons wanted to make their own and are working on that. Mr. Leavitt said pretty much every school leader is looking forward to a new dress code; it’s just not enforceable anymore. “It’s been liberating to stand by a student and actually have a conversation with them that doesn’t involve what they’re wearing.”
He said Jordan School District’s dress code is just a human outline showing which parts of the body need to be covered. Hillcrest is actually doing better than many other Canyons high schools.
Stacey Kratz said any dress code should be non-gendered and applicable to all students, and several other board members agreed.
Mr. Leavitt said the board is working on it, and we’ll just have to see how well they do with it.
School Violence and Discipline
Mr. Leavitt said violence for the most part has really gone down over the last 5-6 years.
According to Mr. Leavitt, the best consequence we can give at school is call a parent and the parent have a good consequence for their own student. The second best we have is our program where we suspend them at school (they stay at school in a controlled environment with no phones, etc.). The next best is, if that one won’t work and they are so belligerent they’re going to walk out of that room and the parents can’t support them, we have to suspend them for three days. He maintains we have the lowest suspension rates in the state and he’s proud of that. If they won’t follow through with the consequence that will help them the best, the fourth category would be some type of legal activity that will put them in an accountable situation with the courts.
Equity Subcommittee
Mr. Leavitt said the idea to create this subcommittee was sparked in part by issues of racist behavior that arose when Hillcrest played Mountain View earlier this year. We’ve held two or three meetings at the school to try to create a more equitable environment at our school. There is a group of people who don’t feel represented. He met with a group of parents and many of them were very angry. They made a lot of points, some valid for the school as a whole, some more individual. One way to move forward is to create a subcommittee on the community council to talk about equity issues more at Hillcrest High School.
The school is going to work really hard at that this next year. Mr. Leavitt invited a number of those parents to be on the community council and they haven’t made that commitment, so he might invite some others. They would come in 2-3 times a year and report on their work; any issues that come up need to be voted on by the SCC rather than just this separate committee.
Brant Thomsen said, to reduce confusion with financial equity, we perhaps should change the name slightly; we came up with “Equitable Education Subcommittee.”
Mr. Leavitt moved that our SCC will listen to and interact with an equitable education subcommittee at HHS and work through the process of creating more equity at Hillcrest. Members of this committee may or may not be members of the SCC. RJ Graham seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously among members present.
Mr. Leavitt made a second motion that the approved Equitable Education Subcommittee should have one or more members of the SCC from HHS on the committee; Karina Park seconded the motion, and it also passed unanimously among members present.
Brant Thomsen and Stacey Kratz expressed interest in serving on that committee.
Early Out/Late Start
Mr Leavitt reported that, although he was not in favor of it, most BLT teacher groups and the SCC voted for an early out Friday. He submitted that vote and then talked to Mont Millerberg (Hillcrest’s Canyons Board representative) on his own.
Mr. Leavitt said he thinks we’re making a big mistake, with all due respect for parents’ desires, to create educational planning time for the improvement of tier 1 instruction during a time period when a lot of teachers will take off. A lot of students won’t be around; they think to themselves that it’s a half day, so they won’t even go to school. Mr. Leavitt said he sees three tiers of problems:
- Not all teachers will be there, so the meetings will be less functional
- Students will also decide in increased numbers not to come to a half-day of school.
- This will make the classroom less functional because no teacher will give a rigorous assignment on a Friday.
Mr. Leavitt said he feels that, if this change is made, it should be made for the right reason, and not just so people can have an early start to their weekend. If we do it, we should do to help teachers can meet in professional learning committees to ask:
- What do we want our students to know?
- How will we know if they know it?
- What will we do if they don’t know it?
Mr. Leavitt asked, if you can’t create an environment where those questions can be asked meaningfully, why are you even doing it? “For me, giving up the lost instructional time to take a half-day on Friday is not worth it.” He noted that, even now, Hillcrest has 16-18 substitute teachers every Friday.
COVID-19 Update
Not much to report; there’s not a lot of mask wearing still going on in school.
Construction Updates
Mr. Leavitt reported that the fields are being finished, and the school is trying to get some color in the halls for next year because students think they’re too “blah” right now.
Hillcrest will have eight tennis courts instead of the previous six.
Mr. Leavitt moved we cancel May’s meeting since the SCC’s work is done. This was approved by the SCC.
The meeting was adjourned.
Notes prepared by Stacey Kratz.
