Rich County School Board Meeting

Reported by Randall Knight

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah. Feb 18, 2019 at 5:00 PM.  All of the board members were present: Scott Sabey, Eric Walmsley, Cyndi Caldwell, Pete Cornia and Scott Tolentino.   The agenda was followed as published but a closed session was held at the end of the main public session to discuss staffing.

Transportation Policy 403 was discussed and the board voted to delete four items that were discussed last month to reduce the district’s liability.

Cyberbullying, Harassment and Hazing Policy 510 was discussed.  If the school district is notified of misconduct of students off-campus during school hours that can impact students on campus the school will get involved.  If an event takes place on school owned items during non-school activities the prohibited actions will be handed over to law enforcement.  The District Attorney will not get involved with cyberbullying.  If school members detect social media items that are illegal they will notify law enforcement but if they are not illegal but in a gray area then the parents will be notified and it will be their responsibility to handle the problem.

The board reviewed a preliminary 2019-2020 calendar to resolve some conflicts.  The Christmas break is long and can impact the required number of school days.  If a resolution can’t be made some Fridays may be required for makeup days to allow graduation before Memorial Day.

It has been pointed out by state inspectors the district is not ADA compatible in a few areas for wheel chairs: playground surface with pea gravel and no elevator or ramp at Bridgerland.  They also listed the door knobs should be lever action instead of the current round knobs.  From a maintenance standpoint there is concern the lever action knobs can be broken so spares need to be available and carbon monoxide detectors need to be installed.  The board has also been informed the meeting room is not inviting to the public because of its location and size.  The color scheme is also out dated and needs to be upgraded.

The $8.5M building bond sale was completed and the paper work will be completed by February 26 so the funds will be in the account by the end of the month.  The contractor wants to break ground in April.

Superintendent Lamborn reported last week the UHSAA Board of Trustees voted unanimously to start seeding state tournaments for traditional team sports and invite ALL teams to participate.

The sports that will be impacted are baseball, basketball, football, soccer, softball, volleyball and lacrosse.  The other sports will use the current seeding method.  The Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) that will determine seeding will use the following formula: team’s winning percentage (40 percent), winning percentage of a team’s opponents (40 percent) and winning percentage of a team’s opponent’s opponents (20 percent).  All games will count toward the RPI index, not just region games. Preseason  games will also count equally toward qualifying for the playoffs.  The main problem is the big schools have the highest risk because if they lose to a small school it really impacts their RPI, but they gain very little when they win.  It may also impact the travel distances the teams will have to cover for games out of their region.

The next scheduled Board meeting will be held March 12 at 5:00 PM.