Mt. Logan Middle Schools
Community Council Agenda
April 9, 2020
MLMS ZOOM

Attendees
Katie Chapman Katie Twohig Jennifer Duncan Michelle Selui
Greg Aullman Cassie Housley Julie Nieman Jessica Sanders
Jessica Zsiray Paul Wagner Thayne Hutchinson Debbie Brough
Karlee Fryer Sarah Timmins Julie Nieman
  1. Review and Approve Minutes (Katie)
    • Michelle motioned
    • Kate T. 2nd
    • All in favor
  2. Safety Minute (Principal Wagner)
    • How is MLMS responding to COVID-19?
      • The school has passed out about 400 Chromebooks to students: 270 on Monday and 40 or 50 a day since then.
      • There is still some concern that some students who may need Chromebooks haven’t picked them up as one student contacted the school and said she was trying to do homework on her phone.
      • Mr. Wagner will continue to try to get the word out because there are still Chromebooks available.
    • Is there any concern that students don’t have internet?
      • Mr. Wagner said that the school had hoped to be able to get 30 hotspots for students who might need them.
      • The District asked them to hold off.
    • The school has called every student to audit computer and internet needs.
      • Approximately 40% of students are not connecting online.
      • The aides are continuing to reach out to these students.
      • The leadership team is trying to figure out how to get students to meet proficiency in light of this problem.
    • A small consolation is that normally quite a bit of time would be spent on testing at this time of year.
    • Since we won’t have the testing this year, students have already made it through the majority of the learning before having to stay home.
    • As of right now, LCSD is planning on returning to the building on May 4 th.
    • They are also planning for the potential of a soft closure if it needs to go through to the end of the year.
  3. Prioritizing Additional Expenditures
    • Principal Wagner showed us the charts comparing MLMS with Utah schools with similar demographics.
    • Out of these 20 schools for 2018-2019, we have improved and are in the top 5-7 for both proficiency and median growth.

    • We have $3,000.00 in carryover this year.
    • The consensus is that we should use if for Chromebooks as there is concern that we may lose a number of the computers that we distributed for home use.

    • We need to prioritize items in case there is additional SITLA money left after we make our initial expenditures. Here are the items we are considering and discussed:
      • Additional FTE for academy teachers ($35,000 to $70,000)
      • 0.50 FTE for coding teacher ($46,000)
      • Parent Liaison ($17,000 to $21,000)—district is hoping to fund these for each school
      • New Chromebook Labs ($6,200 to $18,600)
      • Additional Instructional Assistants ($10,000 to $50,000)
      • FTE for a Dean of Students ($95,000)—this may be a hard sell to get approved
      • Additional Refocus Specialist ($17,000 to $21,000) —this may be a hard sell to get approved
      • One Book, One School ($12,000)—it might be possible to do this as a homegrown program and it would be less expensive
      • Software Licenses - Read Live, Newsela, Learning Upgrade, Aleks, Scholastic News, Edgenuity, IXL, Quizlet, Gizmos ($1,000 to $15,000)
      • Halftime psychology intern ($28,000)—this is high priority and is here in case we don’t get the funding
      • Additional funds for additional time in Learning Academy ($38,400)

    • We had some discussion regarding all of these and will vote online to simplify the decision.
    • Michelle pointed out that tax and Trustland funds may diminish over the next few years.
    • Do we want to look at things that are more long-lasting?

    • Principal Wagner will send out a vote form for the $3000 as well as a way to second rank the remaining priorities.
  4. Community Concern
    • Discussion regarding Zoom class meetings.
      • They are nice to provide personal connections; some parents have expressed concerns about stretching home bandwidth while multiple students or parents are trying to work from home.
      • Some students don’t want to be on a camera.
      • Sometimes the meetings are just hanging out
    • Meeting Adjourned
      • Kate Twohig motioned
      • Michelle Selui 2nd
      • All in favor
    • Next Meeting
      • May 14