Note: Recordings and documents for agenda items can be accessed via BoardDocs by clicking on the corresponding agenda items.

Gradebook for Standards-Based Practices and Guidelines

The Board of Education heard an update on the pilot of the software MasteryConnect. The pilot was done as part of an initiative by the Canyons District Instructional Supports Department to adopt a gradebook that will support standards-based grading practices and guidelines. The options being considered are MasteryConnect and a gradebook in Skyward, a system now used by CSD to manage student data and employee information. Some 136 teachers volunteered to track student progress on MasteryConnect this fall as part of the pilot program, which included several training sessions and ongoing support. Parents of students in the participating teachers’ classes were provided access to the gradebook so they could track student progress. The Board also received the results of a survey of teachers and parents about the platform’s usability. Board members asked ISD Director Dr. Amber Roderick-Landward and her team to provide more information, including additional feedback from faculty, parents and principals. 

Long-Range Planning Issues

The Board of Education examined issues that are among the pressing issues of the District’s Long-Range Planning Committee. Business Administrator Leon Wilcox presented scheduling options for the remaining bond projects, suggested project-financing ideas to continue the District’s ambitious construction schedule, addressed remaining questions about the White City-area school that will be rebuilt as part of the bond projects, and discussed permanent-location possibilities for Diamond Ridge High, Entrada and the Canyons Youth Academy. Wilcox told the Board that economic factors outside of the District’s control – the tariffs on steel, the tight job market, the high cost of supplies – have increased costs about 30 percent on the current projects. Those include the rebuilds of Hillcrest and Brighton high schools and Midvalley Elementary, as well as a major renovation of Alta High. Wilcox said one option is to use General Fund money on an extended timeline to complete the remaining projects. Suggestions that could help maintain or accelerate the District’s construction plans included the issuance of lease-revenue bonds and the sale of property Canyons owns to pay for construction, including a new school in the White City area. Wilcox also said administration recommends CSD consolidate the White City-area elementary schools Bell View and Edgemont to create a school with roughly 670 students, mirroring the enrollment of other nearby Canyons elementary school. The proposal calls for a new school to be built on the Edgemont campus, and then the Bell View building would then house Diamond Ridge High, Entrada and other alternative-education and student-support programs. The Board asked the Administration to provide additional information for further review.  

Tax Reform Report

Wilcox presented a report on the state’s ongoing tax reform effort and how it could impact public education as a whole and Canyons District specifically.