School Community Council, October 2023
Attending: Steve Brown, R.J. Graham, Jenny Olson, Greg Leavitt, Eric Murdock, Elena Foley, Ari Tavo, Jessica Dalton, Debbie Johnson, Stacey Timmerman, Stacey Kratz
Minutes: RJ Graham made a motion to approve; Debbie Johnson seconded; motion was approved unanimously.
Safety Plan
Ari Tavo reported that the initial plan is due Nov. 1. Andrew Yawn is in charge of our safety plan, and we have drills scheduled on the school calendar for various times throughout the year.
We haven’t had any accidental alarms go off this year. Our school maps are set for emergency walking routes; they end up at Union Middle School. Everyone at school is trained in emergency evacuation sleds and the use of walkie-talkies. We feel as ready for emergencies as we can be.
Stacey Timmerman mentioned that the SCC had talked about adding our southeast parking lot concerns to the notes on our safety plan, and whether we should add it to the school safety plan.
Jessica Dalton mentioned that Rocky Mountain Power offers energy grants for schools that might help with part of our parking lot concerns, and that the SCC should possibly look into that.
Greg Leavitt said the district wants to make sure we discuss and vote on this safety plan so that it can be added too the school’s data dashboard. He added that all of our safety plan is is drills, because we are not required to determine safe walking routes. He said he will add our southeast parking concerns to the plan notes.
Jessica Dalton made a motion to pass the safety plan with parking lot concerns added; Debbie Johnson seconded. The motion passed with a unanimous vote of those present.
Digital Citizenship plan
Jenny Olson reported that there are student, parent and faculty components to Hillcrest’s digital citizenship efforts.
- There is a presentation on AI to faculty on Friday: who’s afraid of it, concerns about it, potential uses in the classroom.
- Following that, teachers are going to give three lessons during APP; one in each of the second, third, and fourth quarters. The first lesson will be on AI, the second one is titled, “Is the Internet Making Your Meaner?” And the third one is on “Using Tech for Good”. We’ve increased the number of student-directed lessons from one to three so we can get into more topics and give students more skills in different areas. We also do some digital citizenship in our daily announcements.
- We send home information in our parent newsletter, as well as monthly communications home to parents on safe internet uses, passwords, filtering information, etc.
Stacey Timmerman asked if the school’s electronic device policy separate from our digital citizenship, and the answer is yes, it is separate. She asked if electronic device policies are discussed at all during digital citizenship classes. Jenny Olson replied that, yes, those policies are discussed in broad terms, but not in terms of school rules for them.
Jessica Dalton asked if, going forward, the school could synchronize the parent message with the student message so that we’re getting similar messages at the same time and can talk about it more easily together. She added that another great option if we do sync lessons is that parents could be sent questions they could use to start conversations with their kids about the current topic.
Elena Foley said that was a good idea, and that school administrators could include that information in the Husky Strong newsletter.
Jessica Dalton said that, as a parent, she wouldn’t mind that as well as any separate supplementary materials and resources the school wanted to send to families.
Stacey Kratz made a motion to approve the Hillcrest digital citizenship plan; Debbie Johnson seconded it. The motion was passed unanimously by all present.
Positive Behavior Plan
Ari Tavo said administrators and others are reviewing the Hillcrest TFI and have recently added some elements to it. (Note: for reader information, TVI stands for tiered fidelity inventory, which is an system to provide a reliable and efficient measure of the extent to which school staff are implementing the core features of school-wide positive behavior interventions and support (PBIS).) Administrators are starting to give students chips for being on time: they’ll go into various classes across the school at different periods of the day and give out chips as a recognition for being punctual. The school has also started “Leavitt Lotto,” in which on-time students receive Husky Cards that they can place in a box, from which we do prize drawings every month. The prizes are things like Crocs, Stanley mugs, gift baskets, Husky gear, free dance tickets, and “money” to spend at the school store.
In addition, the PTSA has added a parking spot for two seniors a month who are named Husky Heroes. Those students get to use the spots for the next month. We’ve also had a lot of success with Hot Dog Wednesdays, and teachers are still sending out HuskyGrams to families in the mail.
Greg Leavitt said the school picks out two or three HuskyGram recipients a month to receive free swag, and that the teachers who nominate them also get swag. Student body officers hand it out during the relevant classes. We also give candy bars and free pizza coupons for other kinds of positive behaviors.
Stacey Timmerman said she loves seeing the positive behavior supports that are visible to parents, like Husky Hero and HuskyGrams, so that parents can celebrate those things with their kids.
Greg Leavitt agreed and said it’s amazing what a positive recognition can do to build relationships across the school community.
Electronic Devices Plan
Greg Leavitt said the district policy on electronic devices is about five years old, and that Hillcrest is working with a couple of teachers who are looking to do something different than we’ve been doing.
He said teachers and administrators never want to take a phone from a student, because they’re valuable devices and they can be very private. One idea is that we leave phones in student hands, but put them in a locked bag that stays on the student’s desk until the end of class, at which time the teacher unlocks the bag. For that to work, the teachers have to be willing to have hard conversations and really stick to it.
He added, however, that this same conversation took place at Superintendent Rick Robins’ recent breakfast with high school principals, and that conversation was very much about what it would take to get parents on board with leaving cell phones at home. Towards the end of the year, you may see some conversation starting about cell phones and their presence at school. Cell phones are affecting attendance, academic performance, social-emotional health, and other issues across the board at school. We think some good things might happen if a student had to leave that home.
Steve Brown said that SCC chairs and PTA presidents had a lunch with Dr. Robins where this same discussion took place, so they’re clearly trying to prepare parents for some change in that direction.
Stacey Timmerman said she attended a class over the summer that said phones are a tool for adults, but for our kids, it’s almost part of their brain and how they do their thinking.
Greg Leavitt said that Butler Middle school has accomplished a no-cell-phones-at-school rule, and the Butler parents are used to it now.
Stacey Kratz said her son’s pediatrician talked to them at a recent well-child visit for quite some time about cell phones and concerns about their use, so the district probably has some great data supporting banning phones at school for the sake of student progress and well-being.
Stacey Timmerman said that, when school shuts down and students don’t have a phone, do they make phones available to students? Greg Leavitt said there is already a procedure for that, and that students do get access to phones in those situations. He added that he personally thinks that policing 2,400 students’ phone use, which Hillcrest has to do, is is different than doing it for 800 students, which is the number at Butler. He added that he also thinks that high school students use phones differently than middle school students, and that we need to recognize that and adapt to it if we are going to change policies.
Greg Leavittt added that administrators recognize that the board of education would most likely see it as unreasonable to suspend a student for, for example, a dress code violation, and that he assumes a similar feeling would govern cell phone use even if there were a ban on their presence at school.
Jessica Dalton mentioned that Midvale MS kids who are responsible for younger siblings before and after school need to have phones around.
Greg Leavitt said that getting a district-wide policy finished on this is going to be very difficult, but the intent is a positive one.
Stacey Timmerman said she received an email from a teacher that said the privilege she was taking away for cell phone use in class was being able to retake some of the tests. Greg Leavitt urged her to push back against that decision by that teacher, because students’ retaking tests is an important part of our academic structure at Hillcrest and he would not want that to happen.
SCC members discussed topics like using a phone as a Chromebook extension to access information like test answers, teachers having students use cell phones in class to do research or look things up, and whether we are doing any tracking or study of cell phone use in schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Stacey Timmerman said we will include this topic on future agendas as there is clearly a need to continue to discuss it.
Review and Discussion of Current TSSP/Land Trust Plan
Greg Leavittt said that the assessment for the first quarter is due in December, so we’ll have some data at the next meeting after that, and we’ll have a chance to compare it to previous data.
He said we had great in-person attendance at parent-teacher conferences the first night, and not much at the virtual session on the second night, but that we will keep the hybrid structure because that’s what teachers and parents say they want. We didn’t like to do appointments for Zoom conferences previously, but we are probably going to have to move to appointments in the spring because of Zoom video bombing by bad actors trying to disrupt the conferences. However, at this point, we don’t have enough parents using it; we had more come in person.
Debbie Johnson said she heard many parents say they didn’t know about conferences happening. Stacey Kratz said emails were sent out, but that we could do an automated call and even put up sandwich boards outside at the drop-off and pickup areas, so that parents have a visual reminder. Stacey Timmerman said that most parents who want to know about conferences make sure they find out.
RJ Graham said that some parents don’t want to participate in conferences because they have a perception that it takes something like four hours, but that’s a false perception. He said he attended in person and was in and out in less than an hour and a half.
Greg Leavitt said data has revealed that about 35-45% of parents participate in conferences at all Canyons schools, and that those participants end to be in the upper economic sector of the population.
Equity Steering Committee Update
Elena Foley said that, unfortunately, we still haven’t seen our CAYCI results yet, and we are getting very impatient, because we were looking to use those to direct some future plans for our equity steering committee. She said that, if we don’t hear by December, we’re going to move forward with having a parent discussion night to listen and talk about experiences at Hillcrest with parents. Our hope is to get a diverse group of parents to talk with us and start to build relationships that will get those parents into SCC and PTSA, as well as on the equity steering committee.
Jessica Dalton asked if we have recruiting materials available in other languages. Greg Leavitt said that all the information parents get att registration, which includes materials about SCC and PTSA, is in their own language.
Jesica Dalton said it might be worth looking into what other schools are doing to encourage participation by a more diverse group of parents. She noted that no neighborhood parents serve on the SCC at Midvale Middle School, although it has a very diverse population.
Stacey Kratz said it could be a matter of relationship building and having parents who come from underrepresented groups take these leadership positions and then help us welcome more parents like them to our boards.
RJ Graham said that, at Olympus High School, all of the extracurriculars encourage parents to join PTA or join SCC and talk about it at the first meeting of the year. He said it’s almost too successful, because their SCC has about 42 people at every single meeting.
Stacey Kratz said it isn’t too late to do that this year for the activities taking place in the second, third, and fourth quarters.
Debbie Johnson said that, when she served at Midvale Elementary, they made a serious push to diversify the PTA and SCC, and family members didn’t know what those groups were and also didn’t feel qualified to serve on their boards. She said that a lot of our effort should be teaching all of our parents that they CAN do it, that they are qualified, and that they are welcome.
Stacey Kratz noted that, in the equity steering committee before the SCC meeting, we talked about needing to possibly provide translators at our meetings so that a more diverse group of parents can participate.
Graduation Dress Code
Stacey Timmerman said we had had some discussion about writing a letter to change a policy asking students to submit any planned changes to their cap and gown by 10 days before graduation. She noted that the district’s policy is more broad, but we need to make sure we know what students are planning so there is cultural pride and also school unity.
Jenny Olson asked if a 10-day rule would be workable if only Hillcrest adopted it: would it be enforceable if it is more strict or different than the district’s policy?
Greg Leavitt said it would be ideal to have such a policy happen at the district level. He noted that deadlines can be hard, and if they’re not required by the district or by Utah’s law, that’s potentially troublesome for Hillcrest in terms of enforcement and being perceived as unnecessarily restricting students from expressing culture and heritage with their graduation clothing. He added that, most of all, we don’t want to leave out a student who has appropriate decorations just because they missed a deadline.
Jessica Dalton said we have some leeway because the state code is more narrow than the district policy.
Leavitt said that, this spring, Hillcrest messed up on the dress code policy during graduation, and we don’t want to be more strict than everyone else. He moved that we table this discussion unless and until the district decides to make any alternations to the graduation dress code policy. Steve Brown seconded that motion, and it passed with a unanimous vote of those present.
PTSA Update
Stacey Kratz reported that the next PTSA spirit night will take place at Zao on Oct. 26. She said the PTSA had awarded two teacher grants and that several more had come in for consideration.
Cool Schools segment
Stacey Timmerman noted that Hillcrest was featured throughout the morning on Fox 13’s Cool Schools program a couple of weeks ago, with multiple segments about different Hillcrest groups. However, she said a lot of parents missed seeing it at the time.
Steve Brown said there’s a website that has all of the segments, if you visit the Fox 13 website, click on the Cool Schools article, and find the banner of segments at the bottom of the main video. He said that IB, Hope Squad, Shakespeare Team, vocal ensemble, band, and drill were featured. He said it was great to see not just our activities, but the academic rigor and our efforts towards student mental health.
Jenny Olson made a motion to adjourn, and Steve Brown seconded the motion; the meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting: Wednesday, Nov. 8
