EVANSTON — The month of January will be a busy one for the Uinta County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees, with four scheduled meetings, the first of which was the regular meeting held on Tuesday, Jan. 8. The other three meetings will focus entirely on rule CKA, the School Safety and Security Rule that would allow for the concealed carry of firearms by approved employees. 

The 55-day comment period on the proposed rule came to a close on Jan. 7. Superintendent Ryan Thomas said only 20-30 comments had been received. The public will also have a chance to weigh in on the proposed rule during two public hearings scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 15, and Tuesday, Jan. 22, both at 6 p.m. in the board room. The third meeting dealing with rule CKA will be a special meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 29, to allow the board to review all comments received, both written and at the public hearings, and draft responses to the comments. 

Thomas said the current timeline in place to review and respond to comments and move forward with adopting the rule would have the board voting on the adoption of the proposed rule itself during the April regular meeting. 

Trustees discussed the board meeting schedule for the remainder of the 2018-19 school year. The schedule has been to meet on the second Tuesday of every month; however, newly-elected trustee Russell Cox has a rotating work schedule that would interfere with his regular attendance. At the December meeting the board discussed the possibility of having a rotating schedule to accommodate Cox’s work schedule. 

At the Jan. 8 meeting, trustee Jenny Welling said she opposed a rotating schedule.

“It’s highly unfair to ask everybody else to rearrange their schedule,” Welling said. “As much as I would like to accommodate Mr. Cox, I don’t think it’s fair.”

Trustee Kay Fackrell also said he is not in favor of an alternating schedule. Welling and trustee Cassie Torres said it’s important to have a consistent schedule.

“We owe it to employees and the community to be consistent,” said Torres. 

A discussion was held regarding whether Cox would be able to make more meetings if they were moved to a different Tuesday night of the month as opposed to the second Tuesday. Thomas said they were also considering developing a policy about virtual attendance at meetings, allowing Cox to attend via video conference when he is out of town for work.

Ultimately, the board voted to move the meetings from the second Tuesday to the first Tuesday of the month, beginning in February when the meeting will be held on Feb. 5. Fackrell and Torres voted against the schedule change, while the other seven board members voted in favor of the move.

The meeting schedule for the remainder of the school year will be March 5, April 9 due to spring break, May 7 and June 4. The July budget session will be held on July 17. The schedule for 2019-20 will be voted on at a later date. 

In other business, the board heard an update on the process for adopting a new middle school science curriculum. Assistant superintendent of instruction Doug Rigby, along with middle school science teachers Derek Haider, Jim Burton and Paul Freeland, said they have been in the process of researching different programs, narrowing down options and piloting two possible programs. 

After piloting both programs, the middle school science teams have selected a curriculum package from Amplify as the one they would like to adopt for the district. Teachers said the program has an online component that allows it to be updated regularly as opposed to textbooks that are out of date very quickly. Burton said the Amplify program also more closely demonstrates the reality of the scientific process and what a scientist would do, includes hands-on components and more closely mirrors the high-level Wy-TOPP testing requirements. 

Rigby said exact numbers and costs will be available for the February meeting so the board can vote on the adoption. The package is an eight-year resource so there would be no middle school science curriculum changes for those eight years, which Rigby pointed out aligns with a district focus on reducing curriculum changes. 

Activities director Bubba O’Neill presented the results of a survey given to all students who played fall sports at Evanston High School. O’Neill said the survey was conducted by an outside organization and was given because of “horror stories” regarding what kids and parents feel about activities. The survey allowed students to share their thoughts about programs to get a “clear picture of how the students feel, have the data to make decisions and provide info to help the coaches get better,” he said. 

The survey showed kids overall are very positive about their participation in fall sports, with 87 percent responding they were glad they had played. Other findings from the survey included 74 percent of students responding that coaches allowed players to speak without fear of recrimination, 85 percent saying coaches had high expectations regarding behavior, 70 percent saying coaches inspired confidence and 90 percent responding that coaches encouraged high academic performance. 

One potentially concerning finding was that 30 percent of student respondents said they knew of team members who had used drugs, alcohol or tobacco during the season.

“There’s no question that’s too high,” O’Neill said. “That bothers me. That’s a direct reflection on me and what our kids believe is acceptable. That’s not on the coaches.”

Trustee Fackrell pointed out, however, that on previous surveys years ago that number was closer to 75 percent, so these results were actually a significant drop. 

O’Neill said the full results include a breakdown by sport and by freshman, junior varsity and varsity, so each coach can view the feedback and use it to improve. “That way recommendations for improvement are not based on one person’s opinion,” he said. The survey will be administered again after each season so students participating in winter and spring sports will also have the opportunity to share their feedback. 

O’Neill said a survey was also sent to parents via email and the parent email included questions about his performance in his role as activities director.

“I got some pretty harsh feedback,” he said, “but I look at it as something I need to improve on.” 

Trustee David Bennett asked if the student survey included questions about winning and losing, because “high school is all about winning and losing.” O’Neill said there were no questions of that nature on the survey. “Winning and losing — I love to win, I mean, I’m not going to lie, but on the other side of it, in the end, I really want our kids to feel like they’re getting something out of the activity.” 

O’Neill said he’s very pleased with the questions about coaches stressing high academic performance.

“Our coaches really care about the academic success of our kids,” he said, adding that that’s something he didn’t emphasize enough during his tenure as a coach and he regrets that. “I won a lot of basketball games, won championships, all those things, but none of that is as important as how kids feel about me,” he said.