• Heritage Elementary School

    School Community Council Minutes

    Wednesday, April 10, 2024

    In attendance: Lance Robins, Kendal Welker, Julie Clark, Melisa Richardson, Maria Jones, Andrea Linton

     

    I. Welcome

    II. Review the minutes from the last meeting

    III. Approve minutes

     Motion to approve: Julie Clark second: Maria Jones

     

    IV. Trust Lands spent to date

    Total Distribution for 2023-24:    110,878.00

                                                           Spent to Date:                               103,863.19

                                                           Amount Left:                        7,014.81 

                                          Percent Remaining:                     6.33%

    1. The district goal is no more than 10% carry-over, and the percent remaining is under 10%. The remaining funds will be carried over to next year.

     

    V. School plan for 2024-2025

    1. The final signed proposal was submitted at the end of March.

    2. The council hasn’t received emails to sign the proposal yet.

     

    VI. Input and other items

     

    1. Nibley City would like input about the walking and biking routes in the city.

      1. Nibley City is working on its master transportation plan. Local schools and parents have submitted their needs. Nibley City has a digital map for Nibley citizens. They can comment on it to share their needs and see comments from others. Ms. Welker will send this map to Mr. Robins so that he can distribute it to the school.

    2. Construction may have started on the middle school. A construction fence is up in the area. They haven’t had an official ground-breaking ceremony yet. It looks like they will be on schedule. It should open in the fall of 2026.

    3. Magnet school

      1. The district has proposed to put the French and Spanish DLI programs at Spring Creek. There won’t be bussing, so families will need to drive. Logan City busses students to their magnet school, but it won’t happen here. The district will decide on the magnet school when the middle school opens in the fall of 2026. There would be no boundaries for this school. 

      2. Ms. Richardson mentioned that if parents can’t drive, it might affect the older grades if families drop out of the program. The district said the magnet school would save a lot of money. Ms. Welker said one possible reason is that the magnet school would solve overcrowding issues, but turning Spring Creek into an elementary school would not because of the building’s location. 

      3. The district would know how many teachers they would need each year in the magnet school, so planning would be easier than it is currently.

      4. The magnet school would include kindergarten, so it would have grades kindergarten through 5th. Kindergarteners wouldn’t be in the DLI program, but they would enter it in the first grade.

      5. Ms. Welker and Ms. Jones have both seen some concern from parents and teachers about this proposal in various meetings.

      6. Ms. Welker would like to see the middle schools feed into the same high schools so that students can stay together as they transition between schools.

    4. Staffing

      1. Ms. Carlisle and Ms. Grimnes are retiring. Mr. Cosín is returning to Spain. One additional teacher might leave. We will know in a week.

    5. The 5th grade has 121 students, so there are about 35-36 students per class. There will only be four teachers next year in the 6th grade. The district has lost about 150 students district-wide, which displaces teachers. 

    6. Kindergarten enrollment

      1. About 50 students have registered for kindergarten at Heritage next year, and we typically have about 60. Most schools have low kindergarten enrollment across the district, except for a couple of schools, such as Millville Elementary. 

      2. A discussion has started to offer full-day kindergarten at Heritage, but it hasn’t been decided yet. It is a possibility. If 18 parents request half-day kindergarten, Heritage would have to provide it, but both options could be available. We need to know what the enrollment will be to make this decision. 

    7. Ms. Richardson had a meeting in Logan School District about a new law that requires schools to have School Resource Officers (SROs). Cache County and Logan school districts have not yet decided on how to accomplish this. Both districts are still developing plans, and nothing has been decided. Cache County School District wants a district-wide plan, and they would probably start with middle school and then work down. The middle schools do not have full-time SROs, but the high schools have officers. The middle schools used to have SROs in the past, but now they do not have a full-time SRO, just an SRO on call. Statewide superintendents will meet about this issue in a couple of weeks to make a plan. The SROs do not need to be police officers. At a minimum, they must have a concealed carry permit and training twice a year. Funding for this is a concern.

    8. Amity Aide housing

      1. We still don’t have housing for the Amity Aide. We won’t hire an additional aide until we find housing for the first aide. It was difficult to find housing this year.

      2. Ms. Welker asked if we could put all the information in the weekly emails directly in the email body instead of using attachments. Mr. Robins said we’ll put the Amity Aide advertisement directly in the email body and send it out again. We will also put it on the school website.

    9. Our next meeting will be May 8th at 4 pm.

     

    VII. Thank you for attending.

     

    VIII. Motion to Close Meeting Kendal Welker Second Julie Clark