Ridgeline High School

Ridgeline High School
School Community Council Minutes
Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 7:00 a.m.
Ridgeline Conference Room

Members Present: Robert Henke (principal), Brittany Foster (Assist . principal, non-voting member), Maria Hunsaker (parent), Jim Crosbie (Assist. Principal, non-voting member), Sandra Hugie (parent), Wendy Finley (parent), Craig Bracken (counselor), Joshua Nelson (parent), Kerri Williams (parent), Michelle Israelsen (parent).
Members Absent: Emma Smith (teacher), Bonnie Odd (teacher), Jerry Skidmore (teacher), Jeff Neilson (parent), Kay Sweeten (parent).
Visitors: Diane Theurer, Marcie Lyons
Conducting: Sandra Hugie

Agenda Item #1: Approve minutes from Jan. 9, 2018 meeting

Discussion: Maria Hunsaker made a motion to approve the minutes. Wendy Finley seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous to approve the minutes.

Agenda Item #2: Report on Netsmart assembly and PTC

Discussion: Sandie felt the presentation was very informative and it brought up some good topics for discussion to have at home with children. Maria Hunsaker said she actually did have a conversation with her children after the presentation. Michelle Israelson felt there could have been more discussion if weren’t younger kids there. Kerri Williams felt it was very effective and she wished she had brought her Jr. High daughter. Brittany Foster said they do come to most of the schools in the valley and students should have seen multiple presentations over the years. Sandie also thought parent-teacher conferences went very well. Bob Henke said the turnout was good or better than the PTC at the first of the year.

Agenda Item #3: Trust Land Budget Update

Discussion: Bob Henke reported 53% has been used so far. He said they added another Driver’s Education class because the 3rd-trimester classes were at 50 kids per class. The PLC team did meet and voted to use some of the budget for summer school. Maria Hunsaker asked if the funds can be carried over. Bob said if you don’t spend most if not all of it, the state will feel the funds aren’t needed and may give us fewer funds the following year. There will be some additional funds next year that will need to be decided on how to spend it. Overall the funds are supposed to be used for the highest academic needs. We have been 90% of our budget on people and training. We have spent some on technology, but the administration figures that we have enough Chrome Books for every two students on campus. The PLC team met and it was decided to basically use the funds in the same manner as
last year. The team will have a proposal for next year’s budget ready to be approved at the next council meeting.

Agenda Item #4: House Bill 239

Discussion: Sandra Hugie brought some news articles relating to HB 239. The article states that Ridgeline truancies have almost doubled since last year. They have that information because Ridgeline has been sending that data to Representative Snow. Sandie read some of the things that students can’t be sent to juvenile court, which were alarming. These  include driving while texting, speeding, driving underage, having an open container of alcohol, or driving without a license on school grounds. Bob Henke stated anything that is a class C misdemeanor and done on school grounds, cannot be referred to court. The idea is to keep the kids out of the “prison pipeline.” But it is just creating a safe haven for students to do these types of things because they know they won’t be sent to court. He also stated that Mountain Crest’s truancy rate has tripled and other local school’s rates have at least doubled. The biggest point of the bill is to not put kids in detention for truancy. But we haven’t been doing that around here prior to HB 239. Maria Hunsaker asked what the school does when students are caught committing these class C misdemeanors. Bob stated the school can do whatever it sees fit, but they just can’t refer the student to juvenile court.

However, it doesn’t make sense to suspend students for truancy, which is one of the options for the school. Representative Snow then sees that schools don’t have kids in detention, so he thinks the bill is working. But the kids are just not coming to school. The alternative to charging students and referring them to the juvenile court is enrolling them in the “Why Try” program. Bob Henke said the school invited 29 students to enroll in this program and about 18 started the program.

Currently, there are only 7 students in the class. The majority of students attending the course have had worse attendance than when they started. All of this data is given to the local school board, the superintendent of schools, as well as Rep. Snow. Jim Crosbie stated Ridgeline is ahead of most schools in the state as far as understanding the bill and keeping data. Maria asked if there was anything being done to fix the bill. Bob said HB 132 was created to help HB 239, but not to get rid of it. Ridgeline is asking if we can send them to court after we have tried these interventions and they haven’t worked. Rep. Snow isn’t listening very well to that proposal. Bob said we will just have to see how that goes. Maria
asked if we should be writing a letter to our representative. Bob Henke stated the only rep in our valley is Ed Redd. Bob stated if Rep. Redd suggests any changes to the bill and Rep. Snow makes those changes, Rep. Redd has to vote for it. That is protocol in the legislature. HB 132 is better than what we currently have now.

Brittany Foster suggested writing a letter to urge Representatives to support HB 132 if proper improvements are made to the bill. HB 239 says students can’t be charged with Class C misdemeanor any time of day on any school campus. HB132 changes this too during the school day where the student attends school. Bob Henke stated they are seeing a lot of vaping devices and knives brought to school. Having a knife is actually a Class B misdemeanor and can be referred to juvenile court. He also stated that last year they didn’t suspend any students until the last week of school. However, this year multiple students have been suspended because the school has no other consequences. He feels it is silly to send a student home for truancy or other Class C misdemeanors. The students need to be at school, but the school doesn’t have any other consequences.

Bob is hoping to meet with Rep. Snow tomorrow. Terryl Warner from the school board is upset over the first letter that was written to Bob in response to him sending his data. The letter stated Mr. Henke is just a rookie principal at a new school who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Bob supports what Rep. Snow is trying to do; he just feels it’s not being done the right way. He isn’t sharing his opinion with Rep. Snow, he is showing him data. Sandie asked for clarification if marijuana was a Class C misdemeanor. Brittany stated it is a Class B misdemeanor. But alcohol and tobacco are Class C misdemeanors. Bob feels the legislature passes way too many bills without realizing the consequences of those bills. He appreciates that Governor Herbert holds this same opinion.

Agenda Item #4: Counselor’s Update

Discussion: Craig Bracken reported on Hope Week which was last week. The Hope Squad had different activities throughout the week to try and promote a positive environment and suicide prevention. The Humane Society brought dogs in to help students alleviate anxiety and stress. The Hope Squad put post-it notes with positive messages on them and put them all over the school, including lockers. The goal is to teach the students positive coping strategies so they can use them. They did a resiliency presentation and had about 25 students attend. It was done during FLEX two weeks ago. Sandra asked what resiliency is and how one would acquire it. Craig Bracken gave the example of Walt Disney and how many times his ideas were rejected and now we have to pay $200 to go to his theme park. There was some discussion about grit, which is the new word for resiliency. There was also a presentation about test anxiety and teaching students how to feel more confident in preparing for tests. Josh Nelson asked if the presentations were ongoing and are they only done during FLEX. Craig stated these activities and presentations are done once per trimester. It is not mandatory, but they do encourage students that are currently working with the counseling office or administration to attend if they think it will help them. They have started a Latino group for 12th graders to help them prepare for post-high school, i.e. college or employment. Some things that are discussed are resume writing, essay writing for scholarships, and career finding. Craig stated there is a 10th& 11th-grade group as well, but they focus on different things. Maria Hunsaker asked what the attendance was for those groups. Craig responded they had about 50% of the Latino students attend. Brittany Foster has asked students that have participated in the groups how they liked it and the students have reported it was very beneficial. Craig said they are taking these same students to Diversity Days at USU to meet with current college students and hopefully motivate them to attend college. The students can see that others like them have been successful at college.

Agenda Item #5: Other

Discussion: Sandie asked about the ping pong tournament that the PTA puts on and how it went. Bob reported the PTA said the attendance was down from last year, but the students had a good time. The ACT for the Juniors will be Feb. 27th. School is still held, but classes won’t be held. The school will be showing two different movies, Hidden Figures, and Wonder.
Emma Smith will be talking to the kids about how to become an astronaut. They will serve lunch at 12:30 and then the rest of the day will be a general FLEX class for kids to catch up on assignments. Josh Nelson asked if students are allowed to play computer games on campus. Brittany Foster clarified that it can only be done before and after school and at
lunch.

Bob Henke made a motion to adjourn and Michelle Israelsen seconded it. The meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting: Tuesday, March 13, 2017 at 7:00 a.m.
Minutes prepared by: Wendy Finley