Indian Hills Middle School Community Council
Agenda: March 4, 2025
4:00 p.m. – Warrior room
Voting Members: Patrick Latimer, Denise Avey, Cinnamon Mordon, Rochelle Griffin, Mindy Cupello,Shelly Karren, Becca Van De Graaff, Amy Shaw
Non-voting Members: Anne Lavigne
Agenda for March 4th, 2025
- Welcome & Approve February Meeting Minutes (Griffin)
- Denise moved to approve the meeting minutes, Amy seconded the movement
- All members approved the motion
- Denise moved to approve the meeting minutes, Amy seconded the movement
- Student Center Updates (Van de Graaff)
- Registration is in full swing
- 6th grade mindfullness lessons are this week
- 8th grade financial aid lesson is next week
- PTSA Updates (Lavigne)
- Parent Teacher Conference Snack Cart was a success! The student really enjoyed getting to deliver the snacks are the teachers were very appreciative.
- They have elected the board for the upcoming school year
- They volunteered in 7th grade Utah Studies class and really enjoyed their time
- Parents are not been receiving the PTA emails, check the junk folder
- May 22nd, after school celebration for 8th grade students
- Red Rodeo DJ, Line Dancing, Highly Structured
- Skate night, next thursday
- School Updates (Karren)
- More parents seemed to attend parent teacher conferences this spring. We had a great turn out, with positive feedback about the format.
- Indian Hills made an appearance on the news as the Cool School of the week.
- This week, we have our first annual multicultural assembly that will be happening on Thursday. “Every voice, all voices matter” is our theme. The performaces will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd period.
- The assembly is student lead and will showcase many different cultures that represent our student body.
- Canyoneering night, will be hosted here next Thursday.
- Staffing counts
- We are loosing ¼ of sped funding. As a school, we will be funding that ¼ to keep our offering the same.
- Anne asked why only Sped lost funding, and Shelly answered by sharing that funding is based on the number of students enrolled in specific programs. SPED’s FTE went from 2.75 to 2.5.
- Land Trust/TSSP review and finalize (Karren)
- Ms. Karren reviewed the changes to the Land Trust that were discussed in last months meeting. The changes were added in red to the Land Trust Proposal document to allow for easy identification.
- Rochelle asked the difference between the percentages of growth in ELA and Math. Ms. Karren described the nuance of the data and relayed that the description of growth should be modified to add clarity.
- 50% of our students are meeting their growth goal, and we are hopeful by spring that 53% will be meeting the goal.
- A little over 90% of our students are attending school more than 90%, including parent excused absences.
- Students took the Sharp survery earlier this year, and the school climate survey will go out later this school year
- Anne asked about high school attendance percentage, Ms. Karren did not know specifics, but knew that they struggled more because student have access to cars and friends with cars.
- Math workbooks have been moved to the TSSP budget.
- Shelly is in contact with the distict to help cut down on cost.
- Ms. Karren shared that we are anticipating a decrease in enrollment over the next few years and that will affect FTE and funding.
- We have about $20,000+ more in our TSSP account which allowed us to cover WEB PD and
- $10,000 added to enrichment activites in the TSSP account.
- Added money to the professional learning opportunity in the Land Trust budget.
- Ms. Karen asked if there were any questions or approvals, Amy approved of the Land Trust/TSSP budget, and Rochelle Griffin approved the movement to fund the special education budget.
- Shelly asked Rochelle if we were ready to approve and sign the Land Grant.
- Rochelle asked for the update to the MAP growth percentages. She asked the committee if they would like more time to look over the proposal, or if they would feel comfortable voting today?
- The approval was a unanimous yes.
- All members signed the proposal document.
- Amy asked if members needed to sign for both TSSP and Land Trust and Shelly said yes.
- Amy asked about the increase in funding from the state, if it would affect our land trust, but Shelly shared that state funding will not our affect land trust funding.
- Ms. Karren shared that our new special education teacher is exceptional and we are so hopeful to keep her full-time next year, if she chooses to return.
- Rochelle thanked Ms. Karren for all of her effort on the propsed budget.
- Other (Griffin)
- Rochelle drew members attention to the email she sent regarding 1st semester ending after winter break rather than before. The idea is to start school earlier so that the school year ends before Memorial Day.
- Mindy shared that if school goes beyond Memorial Day, that she doesn’t bring her students to school after Memorial Day.
- Amy asked if school would start mid-week rather than on a Monday, and Rochelle, Patick, and Anne all shared that they would much prefer a mid-week start. Ms. Karren and Amy also agreed that a mid-week start is much better for teachers.
- Anne and Denise shared that sometimes there are sport tournaments the week before winter break that could interfere with the change to end the semester before Winter Break. Additionally they shared that when spring breaks don’t line up it can affect sports teams as well.
- Rochelle shared that our fall break doesn’t align with the other districts in the state,
- Denise asked about how the Fall Break dates are selected.
- Ms. Karren suspected that there is coordination among districts. Our district has utilized the third week of October for many year, but Shelly will reach out to Stacy Kirkstall for further clarification.
- Anne shared that all of the other spring breaks are the week before canyons spring break.
- Shelly shared that SCC members are more than welcome to reach out to the Canyons Calendaring Committee. Next years calendar is set, but input is always welcome.
- Amy asked about how the mid-week start would affect teacher contract days.
- Shelly shared that if we started mid-week, the contract days would start mid-week the week before school starts.
- Amy also asked about an optional PD the day before contracts start.
- Shelly shared that there will be different opportunities for teachers to attend conferences that fit their content or collaboration areas instead.
- Anne asked if as teacher thought that ending school before memorial day would increase attendance towards the end of the school year.
- Amy shared that she did believe that attendance would improve because the end of school acitivies wouldn’t be as drawn out.
- Shelly shared that she would love to see a finals week system in place, and that she would keep students engaged until the last day.
- Lagoon day, end of school assemblies, and yearbooks will all be within the last week of school
- Rochelle brought up, 2nd semester doesn’t have as many teaching days as 1st semester
- Shelly shared there is a 4 or 5 day difference
- Amy shared that elective teachers sometimes need to adjust their lesson plans to accommodate.
- Rochelle made a movement to adjourn and Amy seconded the motion the group approved the movement.
Next meeting: April 1st, 4:00 p.m. Warrior Room
