School Board Meeting

Last night's school board meeting was very full.  In the study session, a new idea for high school Parent Teacher Conferences was presented.  This is the result of two years of work by DAC, the Negotiations Team, and the Joint Committee.  There was parent and teacher input via surveys in Spring of 2011.  What has come out of this is a recommendation for changing HS PTC for the 2012-2013 school year.  The goal is to increase attendance by parents, particularly of struggling students.

The recommendation is to have the Wednesday of PTC week be a day with no students.  Teachers would hold conferences from noon to 8:00 p.m. with a dinner break.  Each building would decide on a portion of time for scheduled conferences and a portion of time for drop in.  Each building can also decide if teachers would like to conference in their classrooms or in a common area. Because the conferences would be scheduled during the day without students, there would be no compensation day.  Full school days would be held every other day that week.

Some hoped for benefits include:

• Athletic practices scheduled in the morning so coaches will be in attendance at conferences
• Meet the needs of more parents, particularly those who work in the evenings
• Target students who need to have their parents come in
• Allow time for parents to drop in who prefer that format
• No 12 hour days for teachers
• Greater attendance by parents

After implementing this for the 2012-13 year, the data will be reviewed to see if the change is effective in increasing parent attendance, the main goal.

Principals will be learning more about this.  We will be looking for teacher feedback after these conferences as well to see if you found this format more beneficial than sitting in the gym for four hours.  Should you have questions, please let me know.

In the study session, the Board decided to approve two sabbatical leaves (you go to school, the District pays 1/2 salary, and you receive the EXACT position you left), two educational leaves (you go to school with no pay and you will have a job for next year which you are qualified), and leaves of absence (you take a year off with no pay and you will have a job the next year for which you are qualified).


The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report was accepted.  The auditors praised the District for being well-managed.  If you'd like details, go to Jordan District website, and you can read the full report.

JEA member Wendy Hanson of Copper Hills was appointed to be a District Math Consultant.

JEA member Debbie Brown of Bingham was recognized for winning the UEA Excellence in Teaching Award.  She is seen here with a quilt of the Periodic Table made by her students.  You can read about her at myUEA.org.