[0:03] All right, welcome to the Mountain Heights Academy Board of Trustees meeting. It is April 28th, 12 noon. We are having an electronic meeting today. We have quite a few guests here, but I want to first acknowledge the board members, myself, Kerry Malkovich, Board Chair. We also have Cara Finley, Royce Kimmins, and Wade Gleather on, as well as

[0:33] as our assistant, Hannah Dorias,

[0:36] and our executive director, Dr. Delina Tonks.

[0:41] Those from others from academic of West,

[0:44] are Gabe Clark, and let's see Priscilla Stringfellow.

[0:53] And I think that's all.

[0:55] I'd also like to acknowledge we have a special guest,

[0:58] Tommy Ruff, who is the administrator

[1:01] at Custom Class Charter School.

[1:03] He is being mentored by Dr. Tonks.

[1:08] We have enjoyed going this in the past,

[1:10] mentoring new aspiring administrators in the charter school,

[1:15] Arena, and he's kind of looking to see some of our operations

[1:21] as he has no doubt we've been told we are the leaders in digital education

[1:26] in the world just so you know, we qualify that.

[1:30] we are happy to have you here. We are also happy to welcome some students. The English

[1:39] Quest student winners this year, these are student authors who are able to come and be with

[1:48] us. Their advisors are Sarah Lyons and Jane Jones. I will turn the time over to you, Mrs.

[1:55] is Jones to tell us about these students,

[1:59] what the English Quest student winners had to do to win

[2:03] and then introduce us to them

[2:05] and we'll take a screenshot with all of their pictures

[2:08] on after you give us the rundown on what happened.

[2:14] Awesome.

[2:15] And then Sarah, Lions, if you can join me too, as well.

[2:22] But yes, our student authors,

[2:24] every year we participate in a conference called StoryCon and it's been such a

[2:31] generous thing that we've been able to do because of funding given to us by

[2:36] you guys and we very much appreciate that and our student authors are able to

[2:45] we're able to enter into different competitions and some of them were

[2:49] published in a physical publication put out by StoryCon that's looked over by

[2:55] professional authors and gone through by professional editors. So they've gone

[2:59] through the exact writing and publishing process that professional authors go

[3:06] through and we're put into an anthology. I think we have copies of last year's

[3:12] anthology at least and we'll have some probably of this year's as well in the

[3:17] office if anybody ever wants to look at those. So yeah, they are published authors. We have some

[3:23] authors that instead of only being published in the publication, the physical publication,

[3:29] they also were published online from Storycons official website. And then we also have a couple of

[3:34] our authors where they have like award competitions as well. And so I believe a couple of our students

[3:41] has got like second and third place in those competitions that are judged by professionals

[3:48] in the field as well. So, we're really proud of them. I think today we have Reed, Lily,

[3:56] Mittilda, and Taya with us, and all of them were various winners at StoryCon this year. Anything

[4:04] that you want to add, Mrs. Lions? I think you summed it up so perfectly. So, Mrs. Jones

[4:10] and I just love working with this group of students at such a privilege. They've created such an

[4:15] amazing writing community amongst themselves where it feels like we really are just kind of in this

[4:20] advisor role where these amazing kids really make the wheels of this club turn and they encourage

[4:26] each other and they're each other's biggest cheerleaders reading each other's writing and pushing

[4:32] each other forward. So it's just a privilege to be a part of this. So thank you for your support.

[4:36] Well, we are thrilled to support you in this and read Lily

[4:42] Matilda and Taya.

[4:44] We are thrilled that you are representing Mountain Heights Academy on this stage.

[4:49] One of my friends is actually one of the founders of StoryCon, and I was talking to her.

[4:56] She, you know, is amazed that their little idea grew into this national stage

[5:00] and to recognize students from all over.

[5:02] and I was so proud to be able to tell her how many students we have that

[5:07] participate and and win and we are really grateful that one you put yourself

[5:14] out there and two that you do your very best in representing our our school and

[5:19] your fellow fellow students you know it takes somebody to be brave enough to

[5:26] say all of my work be critiqued and also then to stand down that platform as

[5:31] as those who have been recognized for your writing skills.

[5:35] So thank you very much for what you do,

[5:39] who you are, and of course, thank you Mrs. Lions

[5:41] and Mrs. Jones for mentoring

[5:44] and helping these students progress in their goals

[5:48] and encouraging them to enter these contests.

[5:51] I mean, this is a national event

[5:54] and to have four of our students represented there

[5:58] is just amazing.

[5:59] I don't know if any of the other board members would like to say anything, but if you would, if you do, hop on in.

[6:10] I just want to echo my congratulations and gratitude for your work and representation. Thanks, everyone.

[6:19] Thank you. Congratulations, and I know it was a huge event this year for get how many attendees there were, but there were thousands and thousands, so way to go, everybody.

[6:32] It was amazing. And again, thank you and thank you for being here.

[6:36] You don't need to stay on for the rest of our meeting today, but we just want to make

[6:44] sure that you recognize that how proud we are of you and your accomplishments and the

[6:51] ability to express yourself in writing in a way that others recognize and appreciate

[6:57] as well.

[6:58] So thank you.

[6:59] Would you guys like me to take a screenshot picture?

[7:02] Yes, everyone.

[7:03] If people could put their cameras on I might put a couple people in the waiting room if that's okay. Yes, it's what we need.

[7:12] Those of you who are students may end and advisors make sure you put your screen on your camera on so that we can get a nice screenshot of this recognition and.

[7:27] Okay, sorry, I'm just making sure I have the right people on here.

[7:33] Okay, one more.

[7:36] And then I'm going to turn my camera off and hopefully it will be around.

[7:50] Okay, got it.

[7:51] All right.

[7:52] Let me get everybody back in here.

[7:58] Thank you again.

[8:00] And for those of you not staying on,

[8:06] have a wonderful day.

[8:08] Thank you for being here.

[8:15] Are we ready to move on, Hannah?

[8:17] Yeah.

[8:18] All right.

[8:20] Next on our agenda is a closed session to discuss

[8:26] pending or reasonable eminent litigation

[8:31] and a personnel issue pursuant to Utah code 52-4-2051C.

[8:40] Tom, you will not be able to enter our closed session, but please Hannah can put you in

[8:47] another room and then you can come back for the rest of our meeting and anyone else who

[8:52] isn't allowed to be in our meeting will also go there.

[8:57] Carrie do you want to do a vote really quick and then stick to that?

[9:00] Yes, I need to have a motion to go into a closed session.

[9:06] Motion that we enter into closed session.

[9:08] Is there a second?

[9:09] Second.

[9:10] All right. This is a roll call vote to go into a closed session. So, Wade, weekly for I. Royce. Royce,

[9:19] Kim and Zai. Cara. Cara, Finley, I. And Jerry, Melkovich, I. All right. We will go into a closed

[9:27] session and we'll be back for those of you who will not be able to attend in first. And it is 1210.

[9:35] Is there a motion? Is there a motion to come out of closed session?

[9:41] to adjourn the board meeting or the closed session and re-entered board meeting.

[9:45] Second.

[9:46] I'll second.

[9:48] All right.

[9:48] There's a motion by Kira, a second by Wade.

[9:53] Wade.

[9:55] Wade, I.

[9:56] Kira.

[9:58] I.

[10:00] Royce.

[10:01] Royce, I.

[10:02] Keri, I.

[10:04] All right.

[10:04] We are out of possession now and we will welcome anyone who was in the waiting room back

[10:09] to our meeting.

[10:11] I just want to mention that it's 1227.

[10:15] It is 1227.

[10:18] All right.

[10:19] Thank you very much for that.

[10:22] We will go on to the consent items February 27th, 2026 board meeting minutes.

[10:29] Is there a motion to approve those?

[10:34] Motion to approve.

[10:35] From Cara.

[10:37] 30 seconds.

[10:38] I'll second.

[10:39] Okay, wait a second. All in favor.

[10:43] All right, we'll move into the voting and discussion items as they go down.

[10:49] I don't know which ones are going to be addressed by Hannah and which ones are going to be

[10:54] addressed by Dr. Talks, but we'll start with the first one, the TSSA Plan for 2026, 2027.

[11:02] Yep, you bet, and I'm happy to take this one.

[11:04] This is something that is legislatively required annually and money is attached to it and we have to decide how we're going to use it.

[11:15] The Teacher and Student Success Act Plan.

[11:19] What I did this year, it's always been aligned to our school goals and our strategic plan that since we updated our strategic plan,

[11:27] I wanted the TSSA plan to be aligned with what the board had voted on with our previous

[11:34] strategic plan.

[11:35] So this has all been aligned.

[11:37] It's the strategic plan that you've already approved in Hannah.

[11:41] It feels scrolled down to the very bottom.

[11:45] It will show you you've got our three goals, improve student success, develop a robust and

[11:49] connected community, and then increase our individual community and societal impact.

[11:54] The budget that comes with it will be used for professional learning activities.

[11:59] 20 percent, 40 percent will go to our student success team, which we're really

[12:02] excited about. And then 40 percent will go to counseling and counseling support

[12:07] staff in order to support these goals that are in our strategic plan and now in our

[12:12] teacher and student success act plan.

[12:15] Perfect. Are there any questions with regards to this TSA plan?

[12:26] Seeing none, can they have a motion to accept?

[12:30] So moved.

[12:31] Second.

[12:34] I'll second.

[12:36] Favorite?

[12:39] Aye.

[12:40] Aye.

[12:42] All right.

[12:44] The parent educator, coordinator, instructional coach, agreement, and compensation, that is for a parent educator accepting their agreement and their compensation is their emotion to approve that.

[13:00] I'll motion to approve the agreement of the parent educator, coordinator, instructional coach.

[13:14] Seconded.

[13:14] I help side professional employer agreements.

[13:20] I can just briefly touch on this.

[13:22] This is just your agreement with help side,

[13:25] which is your employee benefits platform.

[13:28] They do like retirement plans, that sort of thing.

[13:33] So you've had an agreement with them

[13:35] for at least five years

[13:36] and it's just time to revisit that.

[13:39] Perfect.

[13:41] Do we have a motion to accept that employer agreement plan

[13:47] with the motion to approve the Helpside Professional Employment Agreement.

[13:51] Right, second.

[13:53] I'll second.

[13:55] All right, motion by Kira, second by Wade. All in favor?

[13:59] Hi. Hi.

[14:01] Okay, we've updated the travel policy.

[14:05] I hope you all had a chance to read that.

[14:13] Can I can you read the changes there out loud?

[14:17] Sure.

[14:20] The redlined portion says, if a member of the student success team is required to do a home visit,

[14:27] the school will pay a per mile rate per the IRS rates each way as calculated from the point

[14:32] of origin, home for staff on work from home days and the MHA office on in office days. The requisite

[14:39] mileage request forms should be submitted monthly on the last day of the month during which the visits

[14:44] It's occurred.

[14:45] All right, is there any question with regards to that change?

[14:52] Seeing none, is there a motion to approve

[14:54] the updated travel policy?

[14:58] I move to approve the updated travel policy.

[15:00] Bravo, policy. Is there a second?

[15:07] Care a second. Say, Wade made the motion. Care a second. Did all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Policy committee.

[15:19] I forgot what we were doing with the policy committee, Hannah. I know. I think this is you. Carey, but it is hopefully you had a conversation with another board member to be added to the policy committee, because Wade.

[15:35] Wait is already on the policy committee. Yes, yes, and I wanted to forgot to call you,

[15:42] Cara, I was wondering if you would like to be on the policy committee with Wait and

[15:45] I. That would be fine. All right. Do we want three board members on the policy committee?

[15:53] It would just be Wait and Cara on the policy committee. Okay, perfect. So we need a motion to

[16:01] approve way to in-cara on the policy committee.

[16:09] I'm motion to approve. Second.

[16:13] Second. All right,

[16:14] all in favor. Hi. Hi. I apologize for not calling you before Kara. I just totally slipped

[16:21] to my mind so I apologize. Totally fine. Thank you for doing that. All right, the, the

[16:29] and Genesis SIS standard agreement from 2023-2026 plus two-year extension. Dr. Talks?

[16:39] Yes. Genius is our student information system platform that integrates seamlessly with

[16:46] our learning management system platform. We have been using them for quite some time,

[16:52] And we appreciate their responsiveness and the way that they calculate the funding for our full-time students and part-time students saves us a significant amount of money.

[17:08] So I would request a pool and let me just click on the, do you have the, can you pull

[17:16] out PANDA the, like the executive summary?

[17:22] Yes, sorry, I don't know where that went.

[17:26] That's okay.

[17:31] I found it as well.

[17:32] Okay.

[17:33] So for genius, what we wanted to do was extend the initial 2023 agreement until 2028 at

[17:42] at which time we'll do the RFP process, again.

[17:46] And

[17:49] did you have the amount on there?

[17:51] Or did I have the amount on there?

[17:54] I don't see it on the summary.

[17:56] Oh, it's on here.

[17:57] There we go.

[17:58] Yeah, it was on that form.

[18:02] There we go.

[18:02] So that's how they calculate the amount.

[18:06] So there isn't a total amount

[18:09] because it depends on the number of students that we have.

[18:11] So the number of courses that the students are enrolled in

[18:15] and then the number of full-time students

[18:17] and the number of part-time students that we have.

[18:20] But that's the fee breakdown that would be charged.

[18:26] And in the past for reference, it has been maybe $120,000

[18:35] for a couple of years, depending on how many students

[18:38] and how many courses we have, how many enrollments.

[18:42] All right, are there any questions from the board about the SIS standard agreement and the extension seeing

[18:54] none then can I have a motion to approve that motion

[19:01] to approve.

[19:02] All right, so motion by Kara, second by Wade, all in favor.

[19:07] Aye.

[19:08] Aye.

[19:09] Aye.

[19:10] Aye.

[19:10] All right.

[19:11] Two mission reimbursements.

[19:13] Don't we love that we're almost, we almost every board meeting have a tuition reimbursement.

[19:18] I'm showcasing that our faculty are wanting to improve themselves to be better teachers

[19:25] at adds to our goal of successful learners.

[19:28] and we appreciate them going to that extra mile

[19:33] to educate themselves even further to help our students.

[19:38] So, Dr. Tonks, can you talk to us about the student

[19:42] that tuition reimbursements for this month?

[19:44] Yes, we have some math teachers who are on fire

[19:47] and very interested in furthering their education

[19:49] to support their students.

[19:52] Mary Meekam, one of our math teachers,

[19:53] is requesting $2,700 for three classes

[19:57] that she's taking to complete her master's of education.

[20:01] Master's of Ed Tech degree.

[20:04] She's doing a great job and I support this so 100%.

[20:07] Julie Crisp is requesting $816 in some of your beds

[20:12] for a school law class as she also completes her master's in education.

[20:17] I'm just really proud of their hard work

[20:20] and bringing what they are learning back into the collective

[20:24] and rising type looks all votes on this.

[20:29] It's amazing, it's amazing that they're not just trying to stay at the status quo and get through.

[20:35] They want to do more, they want to help themselves but also help our students.

[20:40] And I'm glad that we have this policy in place.

[20:43] So with that, is there a motion to approve these tuition reimbursements?

[20:49] Move to approve the tuition reimbursements as presented?

[20:52] Is there a second? Seconded? Motion made by Wade, seconded by Kira, all in favor.

[21:00] Aye. Aye.

[21:02] All right, next is the Mountain Heights Academy organization chart for 2026, 2027.

[21:11] Okay, I'm really excited to present this to the board. I don't know that we've had the board vote on the org charts before, but I just wanted to give you the information

[21:22] that we have hired an additional assistant director

[21:25] and reorganized some things to have her help take some

[21:30] of the workload off.

[21:31] At this point with our 1,000 full-time students,

[21:35] our 1,250 part-time students

[21:36] and our 800 summer school students,

[21:39] we're working with about 3,000 students a year.

[21:42] And that's a lot for three people to manage,

[21:45] not to mention the number of faculty and staff

[21:47] and employees that we have.

[21:48] So, this will help spread the load a little bit.

[21:52] The thing that I'm most excited about is having Steve Davis transition to be our Director

[21:59] of Student Success where we have that evidence-based research going into homes and trying to

[22:05] figure out how we can best support families and the root cause of why the students aren't engaging

[22:11] rather than just accepting that we may have 10 to 15 percent of our student population

[22:17] and just not engage, we're not okay with that.

[22:20] And we have designed a system that is supported by research

[22:23] to go figure that out and provide supports as needed

[22:27] so that the students we can remove those barriers

[22:30] so they can find some success.

[22:32] As a result, we've reorganized some of the departments

[22:37] that Assistant Director Meeks

[22:39] and Assistant Director Boucher will be over.

[22:42] You can see those on their hand.

[22:43] If you'll keep scrolling down.

[22:46] Steve, as the student success director is also going to work with all the students, whether

[22:51] it's a behavior issue, plagiarism cheating, any of those types of things, he will be the

[22:58] point person there for consistency state.

[23:01] And then go ahead and scroll down.

[23:05] The first page kind of just goes over the responsibilities, roles and responsibilities, or sorry, the second

[23:12] page goes over the roles and responsibilities who reports to whom, what programs they're

[23:17] overseeing and how everything works. So this is very helpful to our team to understand

[23:22] how everything works and if they have a question about, you know, something they take it to their

[23:27] department team lead and the department team lead knows exactly who to go to because it's all outlined on

[23:32] your chart. Well, you know, I love this. Not only is it about roles and responsibility,

[23:39] the accountability, but it's also tied back to our mission, our mission, our goals, our

[23:49] values, everything that we are as a school.

[23:53] And I appreciate that.

[23:56] It showcases that we are tied intricately with those documents and that they're not

[24:03] just words.

[24:04] words. It's a living document and living words that say, what are we doing to be the

[24:12] leader in digital education, to have student success, to be the school that we say we are.

[24:19] By having these roles defined, we will look forward to meeting our new admin.

[24:29] Our next

[24:30] there so that we can meet them all and talk with them, but I appreciate the work that

[24:37] you've done in going into this organization chart. It's very clear and distinct on, and

[24:45] it spreads the love and it spreads the work, and it spreads the responsibilities and accountability.

[24:52] So thank you for that. Are there any questions from the board with regards to this organizational

[25:02] No questions, I just think it looks really well laid out and very clear. So thank you,

[25:07] Delina. Thanks, Cara. I thought of you when I was doing it because normally I know how

[25:13] graphically minded you are and your background in design. So thank you.

[25:26] I think it looks terrific.

[25:28] And would you like us to vote to approve it or just was that just for information?

[25:33] Normally, it's just on the director's report for information, but you can vote on it if

[25:40] you would like to.

[25:41] Well, let's do it.

[25:42] I just don't want to have to necessarily bring it back to the board if I need to make some

[25:45] sort of adjustment on it, but I can do that if that is what the board would like.

[25:51] Okay, let's make a way to how about you, since you are also in this, you understand these

[25:57] little tweaks.

[25:58] So why don't you make the motion if you would like with that caveat?

[26:04] Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to do that, but I think there's more flexibility if we just have a be an informational item.

[26:10] Oh, okay. That's fine.

[26:12] We can have a be an informational item.

[26:15] I'm okay with that.

[26:15] Are the rest of you okay with that?

[26:18] I'm great with that, allowing Delena to make those changes as needed.

[26:22] Perfect.

[26:23] Then we will not need to approve, although we will note for the record that we appreciate it.

[26:28] and we think it's amazing and great and looks wonderful

[26:31] and we will look to it often.

[26:35] All right, we'll move on to the next agenda item replacement

[26:38] of the teacher desktop devices.

[26:42] Okay, this is kind of a big deal.

[26:46] We purchased teacher devices four or five years ago

[26:49] for all of our teachers,

[26:50] they have a nice chrome box set up in their home offices.

[26:54] They are due to be upgraded.

[26:56] they're starting to lag and run a little bit slow and we've done everything that we can to extend

[27:02] the life of these devices. My proposal is that we purchase 130 teacher devices for deployment

[27:10] this August. The total cost will be $125,838.70. We may still hire a few more teachers but the 130

[27:23] is that includes any over-inch that we might have?

[27:29] All right, are there any questions for the board

[27:32] on the purchase of these desk type devices?

[27:38] Seeing none, is there a motion to approve this purchase?

[27:42] I move to approve the purchase.

[27:45] Is there a second?

[27:46] I second. Okay, motion by way, second by Kira.

[27:49] All in favor?

[27:50] Aye. Aye.

[27:55] All right, and the math support tools,

[27:58] I think first and Pearson, my math lab, Dr. Ducks.

[28:02] Would it be okay if we did the upgraded student laptops first?

[28:08] Oh, yes.

[28:09] I crossed it out because I was just looking at updates

[28:12] and yes, the updated and upgraded student laptops

[28:17] as well, I'm so sorry for skipping over that.

[28:19] Yeah, no, this is good.

[28:21] This is actually another really exciting update

[28:23] because of the curriculum development that we've done

[28:27] for a gaming design course and the tension between some of the open tools and the industry

[28:34] standard tools and we kind of have made a decision based on our school goals to improve

[28:41] student success and develop that robust and connected community and give our students

[28:45] the best leverage for after they graduate.

[28:48] They have to know how to use the industry standard tools and in order to do that are cute little

[28:54] Chromebooks that the students regularly have do not have the horsepower so to speak to handle that.

[29:02] So what the proposal is for 60 to 75 students per year who are taking this game design course

[29:09] need an upgraded gaming specific laptop to run the industry standard programs so that when they

[29:18] graduate they'll know how to use those things when they go into their college degree programs

[29:23] or their work sites.

[29:27] So only the students that are enrolled in the game design

[29:32] will get these laptops.

[29:33] And we've got that all figured out

[29:35] and coordinated for orientation.

[29:37] The total cost will be $103,380

[29:41] to supply these students with the laptops

[29:43] that they need in order to develop the skills they need

[29:46] to be connected and successful learners.

[29:50] wonderful. I had a question for you before we approve this. I know during the

[29:55] legislative session there was a lot of talk about digital devices

[30:00] In classrooms and the amount of time students should be in there, we are a digital school. And so every student has a digital device. How did that those pieces of legislation affect how we purchase or use digital equipment in our capacity as engineers? Yeah, that is such a good question. And that was the bill that we followed very, very closely with the support of the Utah Society

[30:29] of Public Charter Schools and Royce and Chris, working with the legislators running that

[30:35] legislation, online schools, digital schools, were exempt from that one-to-one device requirement,

[30:43] which makes sense because that's literally our school.

[30:46] If the kids don't have access to a device, they can't attend Mountain Heights Academy.

[30:51] And it opened up the opportunity to have really good conversations about the purpose of the

[30:57] laptops that we provide.

[30:58] and that they are heavily filtered and that the students can't get to social media sites or gaming sites.

[31:05] They're not just sitting there mindlessly doing random things on their Chromebooks.

[31:12] They are designed specifically for school. They're funded by taxpayer dollars.

[31:15] We take that seriously and that's what they spend their time doing.

[31:21] Thank you for that explanation. I think it's important for our students and their parents to know

[31:27] that we are being diligent in that safety protocol and also to our legislators to recognize

[31:32] that education does come in different forms and that as a school that's responsible to our

[31:39] students and parents, that we are mindful of what their intent was but also are methods of education.

[31:47] So I appreciate the work that you did with the charter school board and others to have that

[31:54] exemptions come through in legislation. Are there any other questions? If not, then I need a

[32:02] motion to upgrade and update and upgrade the student laptops. I do have a question. Can you scroll

[32:09] up just for a second? Perfect, thank you. Yeah, I mean, this seems like you're relying heavily on ITMS

[32:18] for this and having a dual setup like this where the vast majority of the school is running on

[32:23] Chrome and now yeah these Windows machines, these 60 Windows machines. I see here it says that,

[32:29] you know see they're saying that there's very little standard, this standard setup so they don't

[32:34] anticipate this being an issue. I mean I guess just any thoughts or any, yeah feedback Dr. Tarks on

[32:42] kind of the impact that moving to like a dual setup like this will mean for the school

[32:46] or does this open the window for, I guess, more stuff, for instance. I look at the teacher

[32:53] Chrome boxes, for instance, and that's great, but I do wonder if they are limited and what

[32:58] they can do with those Chrome boxes, and if a window set up might be more appropriate for them.

[33:01] But yeah, just reactions to that question.

[33:06] Yeah, it's an excellent question, and it's one of the things that we've been wrestling with,

[33:10] and have aired on the side of, now we're going to keep everybody in the same system. We don't want

[33:15] around a dual system, there are potential issues that could come with that.

[33:20] The thing that tip this over to trying it this way is that it's holding our students back

[33:25] and they don't have access to the industry standard items that they need in order to

[33:30] and we have a lot of students that want to do these types of things and this was a barrier.

[33:36] We're going to try it.

[33:38] We think that we've got a good system.

[33:41] We hired an IT support employee who has a computer science

[33:48] degree from UVU.

[33:50] So we have somebody on site to help us manage all of the different things.

[33:54] We had him test them.

[33:55] We had him do a pros and cons list.

[33:58] This is going to work.

[33:59] This might cause you some problems.

[34:00] And we're trying to be out in front of it so that if anything like that does happen,

[34:04] and we've already anticipated it and have an answer

[34:07] for what we're gonna do with it.

[34:09] We may love these so much that we decided

[34:12] to move to a Windows.

[34:13] It's also kind of serving as a pilot

[34:15] to see what we think instead of just making the decision,

[34:18] we're gonna try these with the 60 to 75 game development

[34:21] students, see how they work,

[34:23] and then that would roll into the teacher laptops, as you said.

[34:27] We did do the same thing for the teacher laptops

[34:29] and determined that because we're Google integrated

[34:34] and that tilts us toward the Chrome boxes versus the Windows machines.

[34:41] But they're all good questions.

[34:42] And if you have any insights, I'm always happy to hear those.

[34:47] Well, with the Chrome devices, too, you also have them heavily locked down

[34:49] and you have a lot of control over filtering and those kinds of things.

[34:54] I guess I'm not completely sure, like, obviously, these have AV and things on them,

[34:59] but are you able to have the same level of control over these Windows machines?

[35:03] Yes, yes. The GoGuardian also works on these. I would not personally deploy anything

[35:09] for students that didn't have that GoGuardian filter on it. It does slow things down

[35:14] because as you know, it has to run everything through the filter to make sure that it's

[35:18] in good shape before students can access it. But yes, these will also have the same level

[35:22] of filter.

[35:24] Perfect. And I'll just reiterate, yeah, this isn't just an industry standard

[35:28] versus non-industry standard, like you just can't do game development on a Chromebook or a Chromebox.

[35:34] You can't achieve those learning outcomes at all without this kind of a device. So yeah,

[35:39] I think this is a wise choice in this setting. So yeah, I'd motion to approve this expenditure.

[35:45] One quick question. Solane, you said possibly 60 maybe more students. Do you feel like there could be

[35:51] more? Do you need some flexibility in ordering? I think we're okay with the 60. This is based on

[35:58] the last three or four years of data showing students signing up. If for some reason the

[36:04] students in first semester were like oh my gosh this is amazing and they tell all their

[36:08] friends and we have more students I would bring back an updated proposal to the board but I'm

[36:14] pretty comfortable with the 60 and thank you for asking. Perfect. Then I second rice's motion.

[36:19] I'm going to say no voice made the motion.

[36:23] I'm Kara Seconded all in favor.

[36:25] Hi.

[36:26] Hi.

[36:27] Good questions because it is interesting.

[36:31] I was talking to some people the other day about, you know, textbooks in classrooms and

[36:36] how they've gone away from textbooks and they were concerned about that.

[36:41] And yet I was trying to explain how digital also has to be updated but it can be updated a little

[36:49] more thoughtful and as Royce was saying, it has to be relevant in the time for those

[36:55] using any type of educational model. They have to be updated all the time for what our

[37:04] intentions are. And so hopefully the students will appreciate this and they will be ready to go.

[37:14] So, with that, we will move on to the math support tools, the first and Pearson, my math lab.

[37:22] Yeah, it's your point, Chair Mothabitch. Looking at the tools that are available for our students,

[37:29] and we're building with how we are, and what we've discovered is that some of the digital tools,

[37:34] especially for math, especially based on our math scores for the state tests, even with our high

[37:41] off-doubt rate and trying to cross-walk that with our map scores. We see a gap there and we found

[37:48] a couple of ways that we think, again, data-supported research-based ways to fill those gaps with these

[37:56] evidence-based strategies. I think first and my math lab are the two programs that our math

[38:04] department team lead and her team went through and tried, looked at, looked at from a text standpoint,

[38:10] from a research standpoint, from a data standpoint,

[38:13] that this gives the teachers and the students

[38:16] the best options for success.

[38:19] They are pricey.

[38:20] The think first is $30,000 over a three-year period-ish.

[38:29] The $945,9975, and then $10,237.50.

[38:35] sense. And then my math lab is it's at about $60,000. So there's a typo on there that

[38:43] was my fault Hannah not yours. The total cost for think first would be about $30,000.

[38:48] And then the Pearson my math lab is $60,000.

[38:55] All right. Are there any questions from the board with regards to these two purchases for

[39:00] math support tools?

[39:09] Math has been one of the things that we have tried to increase over

[39:14] the last few years so the math scores and I think that that focus and we're always focused

[39:21] on reading scores but also now we put more emphasis and more money towards are making

[39:29] sure that students are adequately prepared in their math studies to move on to the next

[39:37] grade. It's important that they feel confident and comfortable in their skills. And it sounds

[39:45] like this is something that the school and the teachers feel confident in using.

[39:53] Yeah, I'm part of this game about because the State Board of Education was debating whether or not

[39:57] to go back to the original track of Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 or keeping the integrated track

[40:03] was Secondary Math 1, 2, and 3.

[40:06] There's some tension across the state about that.

[40:09] Utah is one of the few states, one of the only states

[40:12] that does be integrated.

[40:14] And at least in the secondary level,

[40:16] the data doesn't support that it has worked any better.

[40:21] I think our math teachers feel pretty strongly

[40:24] that they would like to go back to eligible 1,

[40:26] geometry, algebra 2.

[40:28] The state board pushed the pause button on that decision.

[40:32] But as a result of looking at the different tools out there,

[40:35] that's one of the ways that they found the thing first

[40:37] in the My Math Lab.

[40:40] They saw what it can do for students.

[40:42] And regardless of whether it's integrated or not,

[40:45] this is what the math team would like to have at their disposal

[40:48] to be able to improve student success.

[40:51] OK, are there any questions?

[40:54] And if so, ask that.

[40:57] If not, then I would entertain a motion.

[41:01] I move to approve the math support tools, think verse, and Pearson, my math lab.

[41:08] Second.

[41:13] Second.

[41:15] Okay.

[41:16] The motion made by Wade, second by Royce, all in favor.

[41:20] Hi.

[41:21] Hi.

[41:22] All right.

[41:23] We'll go on to the director's report.

[41:28] Okay.

[41:28] Hey, I got a new format on this, so you can just keep scrolling down Hannah and I will talk

[41:36] super fast.

[41:37] You already got to meet the StoryCon students, there were their pictures and some information

[41:42] up there.

[41:43] I sent an email about winning the Best of State Awards, two of them this year, which is fantastic.

[41:50] And our Board of Directors was nominated as the UPACS, one of the two finalists for the

[41:56] the UPAC sport of the year, which is hard earned and well-deserved.

[42:01] We've got a couple of faculty and staff that were inducted into a variety of different

[42:07] programs, the Drive to Teach, and the National History Day webinar series for next year.

[42:13] Carly Gether and Jenny Klein, phenomenal teachers, really fun things that they get to do.

[42:19] I included a link to the Employee Wellness Program report.

[42:22] You can take a look at that. We do have an Employee Wellness Program,

[42:24] one of our teachers runs. A couple of us went to the One Kind Act today Kindness Summit,

[42:32] and I was struck by the chart between being kind and being nice. This is Curtis Morley,

[42:39] who did this presentation. It's a little bit jarring, so take a look at it when you have some time.

[42:47] Also the witchy conference, that is how you pronounce it. It's the Western Interstate Commission

[42:51] for Higher Education Conference in Salt Lake in April and I was able to present with

[42:57] Sonny Ergley and Kevin Simmons. I put a link to the presentation there so you can see it and

[43:02] include it some pictures. Kevin Simmons is the CEO director for Utah Tech University with

[43:07] whom we partner. He had some fantastic data and I put some of those comments down there so that

[43:14] you could see what he said about us. We did not tell him to say this or give him this information.

[43:20] and it's just what came out of his mouth during the presentation.

[43:24] My favorite.

[43:25] We love what came out of his mouth.

[43:26] I mean.

[43:27] We love what came out of his mouth.

[43:29] My favorite thing that he said was that UTIU determined the mountain heights was the only

[43:33] online school they were interested in partnering with because our model in our teachers provided

[43:37] the students with an equally robust experience as being in a brick and mortar, which is big

[43:43] for a university to be able to say that.

[43:47] He also said that we mentioned more like a blended model not not because we we work with our students and we know our students.

[43:55] I think we should put that on our little bookmarks we hand out to legislators next year.

[44:00] And we just quote him and and showcase that they don't need to be as worried about our school as they think they are and that we really are the model for a lot of others in our digital space.

[44:15] in our charter space. For sure, it was a really great opportunity to do a

[44:24] presentation for higher ed in the Western states. There were people

[44:29] representing every state in the Western United States, and so that was a lot

[44:32] of fun, and then TJ Bliss, we went to school together and he's one of the

[44:37] associate commissioners at UCI, and we worked on a variety of projects, so it was

[44:42] good to see him as well. And if you'll keep scrolling our data and reports, I did want

[44:50] to let you know we did get the final annual performance determination. This is special

[44:55] education report. There were some concerns on there that

[45:00] We are taking seriously we have a few weeks to provide a response and they'll make some adjustments to that but we are aware of the deficiencies and also thrilled with what we've been able to accomplish and to celebrate with our student population and our students who are on an IP which is about 23% of our school so it's kind of a big deal. That is the only updated report on the data so you can keep scrolling Hannah.

[45:28] Our lottery just wanted to let you take a look at that at the bottom, a thousand and

[45:35] four full-time students, 256 part-time students.

[45:39] For next year, we have a good start.

[45:41] We have 743 students who have enrolled already.

[45:46] Those are returning students and then 118 new students coming to us for next year and that

[45:53] will continue to grow and grow as we've seen and you can keep scrolling.

[45:59] It's amazing that we can fold in those additional students and recognizing that there's a lot of

[46:08] needs throughout our state for students who are wanting to do concurrent enrollment more and more

[46:14] are and it's great to see them coming to Mountain Heights. Yes and the concurrent enrollment

[46:20] We also are crafting a partnership with the Mountain West Baseball Academy.

[46:25] That will be on my next Director's Report, but I'm going to give you a heads up.

[46:28] They have people come from all over the state to train at their baseball academy.

[46:34] Bob Pies is the owner of that.

[46:37] He's the one that fixed Mike Trout.

[46:39] If you're a baseball person, you will be impressed by that.

[46:42] And they would like to partner with us to provide the Academy part of their baseball academy.

[46:48] They've got 30 students that they'll enroll there and then they'll enroll with us full time to provide the academics.

[46:55] They have 100 students total and what they said was they felt like once the students saw how much flexibility that gave them,

[47:02] instead of having to try and fit in a 730 to 230 every single day academic experience and miss a whole bunch of that, but they could come here and kind of get the best of both worlds.

[47:14] So, we're meeting with them, we met with them last week, Steve is going over there tonight

[47:20] to their parent open house to discuss the partnership with them.

[47:24] And that will bring us quite a few more students that will get to access the flexibility.

[47:32] I love that.

[47:34] Strategic plan progress, that's all outlined on there.

[47:38] It's also on the TSA plan that we just looked at.

[47:41] You can keep scrolling down to the bottom-hand.

[47:43] Thank you so much.

[47:44] That brings us to our calendar items.

[47:47] I would love for any board member who is available

[47:50] to come to our end of your celebration.

[47:53] May 14th at Boondocks, or to the Awards Night,

[47:56] May 28th at the Viridian Events Center.

[47:59] We'd love to have you at graduation on the 29th

[48:01] from one to two at Capitol Theater,

[48:03] and then I already sent out the email about the best of state gala.

[48:07] So please just let me know in the next few days

[48:10] is if you're able to attend graduation the awards night

[48:13] or if you'd like to just hang out and have fun at Boondocks.

[48:17] Yes, I was going to mention some of those same

[48:20] calendaring events.

[48:22] If you can let us all know, if you would like to go

[48:25] to that year of end of year celebration, the awards night,

[48:30] I will not be able to attend the awards night this year

[48:32] because my grandson is graduating from high school that night.

[48:35] And I don't think I can get over to both at the same time.

[48:38] So I'm hoping that one of you can represent the board there.

[48:43] We also then have the graduation on the 29th, the next day at the Capitol Theater at 1 p.m.

[48:49] I will be there. Please let me know if any of the rest of you can be there.

[48:56] Let's see, the festive state, June 2nd.

[48:59] I will not be able to be there, but I am so thrilled that we won those two awards.

[49:05] and hopefully one of you can represent the board there. Let me know. We have the U-PACS

[49:14] or how do you say that conference June 9th and 10th, I believe it is, and that's where we are

[49:21] for that award for the board on the 6th at 6pm is the dinner. We need to RSVP for that if you

[49:33] We still have not heard back from Gina about coming to film us or Dr. Tonks let them know

[49:42] that they could use footage that they had already previously had and hopefully they will

[49:46] use that.

[49:49] We have three that are going to the national conference in addition to some of the academic

[49:55] like a West people so we can coordinate there.

[49:59] Our, let me see if there's anything else

[50:03] our June board meeting is this 17.

[50:06] It's that 9.30.

[50:08] Remember the time change.

[50:10] We will be having a little bit longer board meeting

[50:12] to finalize some things and have lunch together.

[50:16] So please try to make that in person if possible.

[50:21] I'd like to, again, thank Tommy for joining our group today and hopefully you're getting

[50:29] a good mentorship.

[50:30] You can't, you've been really possibly get anyone better than Dr. Tonks.

[50:34] We think you're going to do good, and is there anything you want us to know before we leave

[50:39] about custom class charter school?

[50:43] Yeah, absolutely.

[50:45] Thank you so much for the time, as always, and yes, I am definitely learning from the best

[50:49] and I too, even from an outside source, would agree that you do have the best online education platform in the world.

[50:56] Again, we're a new charter school. We open in August of 2026. We are also a K-12 online school where we try to bolster the individual learning needs and accommodation based on students' schedules and interests, which is pretty cool.

[51:14] and really just the last thing I'll say just because obviously we know how much work goes into the board

[51:19] but I just want to take this time to really give a round of applause to everyone in the Heights Academy.

[51:26] All of the employees have welcomed me in tremendously.

[51:29] They've pulled me aside for personal support, career support, personal growth,

[51:36] everything you just from top to bottom.

[51:38] You have such a wonderful staff and I know you guys will be nothing but successful moving forward.

[51:43] So thanks so much for letting me be a part of that success.

[51:46] Perfect. Well, we're we're excited for you to be there and to hear other things that are

[51:51] happening at your school as you as you progress and move on. K through 12, you're taking on a lot there.

[51:57] So that's that's amazing. Is there anything else that needs to be

[52:04] noted before we just before we adjourn?

[52:08] Carrie, I'll just mention Wade had to hop off just barely, but he said in the chat that he can be at the awards night and the graduation.

[52:16] So you want to keep track of that.

[52:18] Yep. Thank you.

[52:20] And the rest of you can send me just a personal text or email whichever you prefer.

[52:26] If there are any other things, then I'll have a motion to adjourn.

[52:34] I move to adjourn.

[52:35] All right, I don't I guess we don't need to say a second time that are all in favor because

[52:41] the journey is a journey that thank you all for being on the call today and for accommodating

[52:47] us online and we will give our best wishes to Dr. Tonks and all that she's doing and to

[52:54] the students and everyone else who joined us today.

[52:57] We will see you at graduation or one of the other events prior, so thank you and goodbye.

[53:03] Everyone, I'll just mention it's 110 oh it's 110 yes

MHA Board of Trustees Meeting

Transcript