February 2, 2026
Attending: Shelly Karren, Tonya Rauch, Jordan Fitzpatrick, Terry Mitchell, Mindy Robinson, Rochelle Griffin, Denise Avey, Patrick Latimer, Amy Shaw, Becca Van de Graaff, Laura Lyon, Amanda Oaks, Mindy Cupello
Agenda:
● Welcome & Approve November Minutes (Griffin)
○ Welcome our district officials & board member, Ms. Oakes
○ Ms. Lyon motioned to approve minutes, seconded by Ms. Shaw
○ All voted to approve November minutes
● District Special Education Presentation on ABS (Robison & Mitchell)
○ Notes from the district:
■ Ms. Mitchell: Academic Behavior Support (ABS) currently at Eastmont and Mt. Jordan, didn’t have enough options for spaces in ABS classrooms, thus we will open a 3rd ABS classrooms; want to align ABS class with the feeder system to keep students with their middle school peers as they transition to high school
■ ABS class will be added to Butler MS & Eastmont ABS will move to Indian Hills
■ Student-centered decision
■ Currently will impact 6 students coming to IHMS; goal is to keep it at about 6-8 students
■ Ms. Griffin: Those 6 impacted students will be moved here or are already at IHMS?
■ Ms. Mitchell: realigned students and were able to distribute based on boundary school
■ Ms. Griffin: What kind of student is in an ABS classroom?
■ Ms. Mitchell: Students whose behavior impedes their ability to regulate their behavior; found that as we are able to teach social skills, how to regulate, how to react to being told “no”; see high rates of success
■ Ms. Griffin: Are these self-contained classes?
■ Ms. Mitchell: Yes, much like our ACC unit; although students in this class will have more access to their peers/opportunities to be with their typical peers making IHMS the right space for them; goal is to have these students
out in general education classes with adult supports; general education faculty will be undergoing training in behavior supports as well
■ Ms. Griffin: What does their schedule look like:
■ Ms. Mitchell: Their ABS classroom will be their “home base” classroom and then they will out with peers in general education classes
■ Ms. Robinson: Learned when presented to faculty that the staff really wanted training and saw this as an opportunity to work/grow together
■ Ms. Karren: How does this impact other students? Best way to approach this is to have a good plan in place for each student; always remember that these are children; having the right people, right tools is key; all the students are “our” students; kids tend to be very accepting and open, teaching piece with students is key (i.e. peer tutors); excited to build a team, provide trauma-informed training for all staff, get the right people in place. Ms. Karren confirmed with Ms. Mitchell that the district plans to hire a Behavior Specialist as support; Ms. Mitchell confirmed her intent to make that happen.
■ Ms. Lyon: Are the paraeducators trained?
■ Ms. Mitchell: All paraeducators have specialized training; understand the behavior plans for all ABS students
■ Ms. Griffin: Will the Eastmont teacher come to IHMS?
■ Ms. Karren: Yes, the teacher will be moving to IHMS; will need to hire several paraeducators; having the infrastructure in place is important
■ Mr. Latimer: How do you introduce ABS students to the rest of the student body?
■ Ms. Lyon: How do you integrate ABS students to the classroom environment?
■ Ms. Karren: Not sure that we have that all planned out; looks different from our ACC peer tutor model; plan to use our student ambassadors, helping students feel connected; integrate with smaller groups (i.e. lunch bunch, etc); what you don’t want to do is “shine the spotlight” on students; alignment with some of the groups that we already have; more to come!
■ Ms. Robinson: teachers do such a good job at addressing needs of all students with collaboration; with kindness
■ Ms. Van de Graaff: Gets to see the students at their best; last year had a student who really needed TLC and students really wanted to/did help
■ Ms. Oaks: Do you think there would be a benefit to send out some communication to families to let them know about the new ABS class?
■ Ms. Lyon: Doesn’t know if it is necessary
■ Ms. Avey: Agreed that she doesn’t know if necessary; assumes when she sends her children to school there are students at school who struggle with behavior
● Student Centered/Counseling Center Update (Van de Graaff)
○ Published a guidebook for parents for counselor lessons which include conversation starters for parents – printed at back to school night; can be found on the counseling website
○ Tomorrow (Feb. 3) is 5th grade orientation day – tour during the day; open house tomorrow evening
○ Wednesday & Thursday: 7th & 8th grade registration in ELA classes – cards distributed; top 5 elective choices is very important
○ Changes in offerings coming next year:
■ CCA moving to 8th grade, Digital Literacy moving to 6th → Digital Literacy will be taught solely for the next 2 years
■ Elimination of 6th honors to align with all the other MS
■ Secondary Math I accelerated course added; high school credit; made recommendations to students who might want to take that class
● PTSA Updates (Lyon)
○ Gathered nominating committee to select executive board for next year; need to fill 3 positions
○ White Ribbon Week this week → Ms. McGowan has done a great job organizing!
○ Will have a table at Incoming 6th grade night tomorrow
○ Wednesday night is a free skate night at Classic Fun Center – inviting incoming 6th graders
○ Legislative report → 18 bills that are working their way through the process right now
○ Working on 8th grade celebration/dance in May
○ Cocoa & bagel day for the staff on Feb. 13th
○ PTCs coming on Feb. 23rd and 25th; hosting a dinner on the 25th
● Land Trust/TSSP Draft Plan for 2026 (Karren)
○ Draft Land Trust & TSSP for 2026/27 given to all in attendance
○ Allocations can still change depending on enrollment and FTE
○ Goals have been associated with RISE data for many years; tougher to make adjustments in real-time; will shift to using MAP growth data for our goals
○ Eliminate science goal to include literacy and numeracy in science to support ELA/math goals
○ Will consult with our BLT on our goals next week
○ Questions about the attendance totals for 2025 → our percentage dropped quite a bit in 2025
○ Reviewed Utah State report card for IHMS → typical achievement, typical growth and developing in English learner progress
○ Celebrate MLL growth! Jumped almost 20%
○ Review proposed changes to Land Trust/TSSP
○ Answered question about what “Portrait of a Scholar” includes
● School Announcements (Karren)
○ Multi-cultural week/assembly in March
■ March 5th
○ Teacher of the Year nominations
■ Will help make final selection
● Meeting adjourned
Next meeting: March 3, 2026 4:00 p.m.