Rich County School Board Report

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

RANDOLPH, Utah.  September 18, 2013.  There were two large expenditures this past month.  The first was in the amount of $10,000 for audit services.  The other was for $20,000 for the risk management insurance.  It was also noted that more funds (122%) came in from trust lands last year than had been budgeted.  

Mr. Ward extended an invitation to the Board to attend UEA this fall.  This year these meetings are open to the public. They were made available to the public last year for the first time, and it seemed to work out so well that they are doing it again this year. 

Home school requests were approved.  A laptop handbook for Rich County has been written.  The District has decided to charge a $40 rental fee for each computer and charge up to $50 for possible accidental damage to the equipment.  This money will be used as self insurance to cover damages that may be sustained to the computers.  If students don’t take care of or abuse the machines, there will be disciplinary action taken.  Rick Larsen, Rich High School Principal, indicated that he would try to be consistent with the disciplinary action and will try and make the action fit the problem encountered.  

Software programs will need to be purchased in place of hardbound books in the future.  From the research done so far, the software will cost about the same as textbooks.   

The handbook was written so that changes could be easily made prior to actually setting the computer information into policy.  There was a consensus of the board in accepting this handbook. 

The tobacco policy was approved last month and ratified this month.  The change to this policy was adding the words “nicotine products” in place of the word “tobacco.” 

Three positions are being filled.  One position is still in the interview process.  However, the Board gave permission to put the selected individual to work.  That individual will need to be approved next month.  The other two positions have been filled and received Board approval.  Rich Limb will be a supervisor over classified employees and Cassie Burgason will work as a special education aide. 

Most of the meeting was spent working over the Procurement Policy.  The last legislature passed several laws requiring schools to follow new and different procedures in the purchase of items.  The new laws were directed specifically at school districts since none of the other state government agencies are included in these new laws.  One hundred percent compliance is required.  Because there are so many items involved, the State hired a law firm to write up a sample policy.  Superintendent Dale Lamborn noted that for a district to write their own policy and cover every item and exception in order to be in compliance would take a tremendous amount of effort and attorney assistance.  He suggested that the Board accept the suggested policy.  He also recommended that the policy remain in the format that was given by the state.  This way, as changes are made, it will be easy to locate and make the necessary updates to this document. 

Superintendent Lamborn then spent some time pointing out specific changes that this policy will require.  This policy was adopted last school board meeting and was ratified in the current session. 

The Utah State Basketball Association will be meeting on October 9 in Logan.  Specific changes will be accepted or rejected at that meeting.  At least four of the Board Members will be in attendance at that meeting. 

Three Board members, Calder, Johnson, and Saby, attended a training conference.  All three indicated that the meetings and workshops were especially good.  They were pleased with the information they received. 

The Utah High School Athletic Association is currently trying to work changes in scheduling the number of games, the tournaments to be held, and where they will be held in order to allow more participation without overlapping activities.  This meeting is coming up soon. 

Bridgerland Area Vocational College is working on trying to get an associate degree available for students attending there.  The suggestion has been made to have the students do 30 hours of actual on hands experience at Bridgerland and take 30 hours of classes from Utah State to obtain the associate degree.  No decisions have been made yet, but currently this is the suggested plan. 

The October Board meeting has been moved to Tuesday, October 22.

The State has spent a tremendous amount of money to come up with a plan for grading schools on how well they are taking care of student needs.  There are two main criteria that go into the scores.  The first is the proficiency area.  This area takes into account the scores the students earn on tests given in language arts, mathematics, and science.  Rich High School did very well in this area earning a score of 257 out of 300.  

The next section measures growth.  Growth is measured by testing students at the beginning of the year in language, arts, and science.  Then they are measured at the end of the year to see what their progress has been.    This may sound good, but really isn’t very fair to schools where students are already doing well.  How much can you improve if you are already in the 90%?  Because the students in Rich Schools already have high scores at the beginning of the year, the growth score ended up being 154 out of 300 possible points.

Putting the two scores together using their special formula, Rich High came out with 554 out of 750 which is a 74% or a B grade.  

Rich Middle School had a similar situation.  The score results were 448 out of 600 possible giving the school a 75% which also is a B grade. 

The North Rich Elementary achieved 456 out of 600 which is a 76% or a B.  South Rich Elementary had 464 out of 600 which was a 77%. That is also a B. 

It was interesting to note that some schools received F’s because, even though their students had made tremendous growth (like some schools on the west side of SLC), they didn’t reach the required 50 points in the growth area.  You have to have at least 50 to even be counted.  Thus, they were rated an F.  However, the students had made tremendous growth and were given what they need to start them moving up the continuum, but the grade certainly doesn’t reflect this.  Hopefully, after the State spends additional thousands and thousands of dollars on grading schools, they will be able to come up with something that is really representative of what is happening in the schools.