Blue = New/Pressing  Gold = Old 

Student Surveys:

I saw Amy sent an email out about this yesterday, but keep in mind as we approach the end of the quarter that you should survey your students for feedback about your classes. We tried to do this in Advisory the first time around, and that was not a very successful way to do it as many students didn't participate. I would suggest having students do your class survey at the same time they do their self-evaluation for Graduate of Granite Characteristics. 

One request that came through Building Committee concerning the surveys was to add a spot where kids could identify what class and period they are in as that would help make the information more useful to teaches. I brought this up with Tyler Howe, and that can be added, but it would mean we would have to redo all the behind the scenes work that Amy had to do to get it all set up, so that's something that we'll have added next year. For this year, since there is an open response spot on the survey, you could direct your students to enter the period there to help you keep that straight if you feel that would be helpful to you.

Fundraiser Reminder:

If you are submitting a fundraiser through SuccessFund, please keep in mind that it needs to be submitted to Monkia FIRST. We've been having a few recently get submitted to me. If that happens, I have to reroute it to her, then she approves it and reroutes it to me again. Not a huge deal in the long run, but it does add extra time to getting your fundraiser approved.

Congrats to Geo Hunter!:

Geo recieved quite an surprise during his class yesterday when about 40 people stopped in to recognize him as an Excel Award Winner! This is a fantastic honor for Geo. Each year, there are nine teachers awarded an Excel in the district out of roughly 3,500 teachers. We appreciate all that Geo does for the students and for Cyprus High!

Congrats to Whitney Mitchell!:

Whitney has been named the SHAPE UT Health Teacher of the Year for the whole state of Utah! This is an incredible honor and a small team from SHAPE and the district came yesterday to notify her of the award. She will receive the official award at the SHAPE UT Conference on March 9. When you see Whitney, please make sure to tell her congrats.

Elective classes:

Everyone can feel free to read this, but it's specifically directed at elective teachers. 

I have had a few conversations with the counselors, and we are running into a bit of an impasse. As many of you are probably aware, we have a pretty high mobility rate at our school. This means we have kids coming and going all the time. All the time opens the door to what are admittedly very inconvenient times for teachers (middle of a quarter or semester type of inconvenient). We have had a number of elective teachers reach out to counselors and say that counselors are not allowed to put students in their classes. The only people who should be directing the counselors on whether or not a class is available is administration. Our schedule is tight. Counselors have to find the classes that are available during any given class period and then have them at their disposal for placing new students. So, I have directed counselors to disregard the emails they have received from elective teachers about their class availability. If you feel that you have an absolutely compelling reason as to why your class should not be considered a viable option for a student new to the school and in need of a schedule of classes, please come have that conversation with me so we can make that decision together, and, then, I will relay a decision to the counselors.  

Elevator passes/Chill passes:

If you ever have a question about a student who has an elevator pass or a chill pass, please ask the office and not the student. We have processes in place to serve as checks and balances for which kids have those, but it isn't the kid's job to justify to everyone why they have it. And I know that is a pretty blunt way of putting that, but many of these kids get thrown for emotional loops when adults they don't know make comments to them or challenge them about why they have the pass. Counselors or Social Workers can answer the why if you would like to know. 

However, if you see a kid abusing either pass (for example, turning the elevator into a clown car with all their friends piling in), absolutely let them know that is an inappropriate use of the pass, get their name, and report that to admin so we can do some corrective training or some other consequence.  

Attendance:

Remember to take attendance every period, every day. Admin will be emailing the teachers who didn't take attendance the day before to remind them to go in and do that. We understand that everyone forgets a period here or there every now and then, but we are having anywhere between 20-30 teachers a day that we're having to email and remind to take attendance. That is more than it should be. 

This is an important task anyway, but we are also looking at starting an attendance/absence program that will work with our tardy program we started, so accurate attendance will be imperative as we try to navigate that process. 

Front Parking Circle:

The front parking circle right outside the Main Office is designated for our SROs, handicap stalls, and the rest of the stalls are visitor parking. We have faculty parking in there and taking up most of the available spaces. This leads to unhappy visitors a few times a week. Because of some of the systems we are putting in place, we are having way more meetings with parents than we have had in the past, so we do have a lot of visitors coming and going on any given day, so we need those parking spots available. We have designated faculty parking with more parking stalls and space than we will ever need, so please park in those designated areas and not the front circle. 

Still a number of faculty parking in this area. Please use any of the Faculty Parking lots available around campus.

Hall Passes and Cell Phones:

A couple of things here. First, please be cognizant of your hall passes. I have noticed a lot of people have them just hanging by their doors (or door spaces for those of you who still have no doors on your room due to "supply chain issues that have no possible date that can be given for when it might be resolved"). I have also seen that a few hall passes are going missing. I would suggest putting the hall passes where they aren't quite as accessible to kids, and somewhere where you can see a bit easier if it's being returned or not. Secondly, please implement a system and require that students have to turn in their cell phone to use the hall pass. We are still pretty hit and miss on whether this particular norm is being implemented in classrooms.

Blue "On the Way" Tickets:

When a student comes to class with an "On the Way" ticket, please collect if from them when they report to class. We are starting to get a few kids who are trying to hold onto those so they can use one ticket to try to roam around all day. Collecting the ticket can also help you see how long they dawdled prior to gracing you with their presence, which can help you determine if they earned a sluff or not. We tell the kids they have five minutes to get to class once they have the slip, we've asked you guys to gauge the level of grace on how much time you actually give them, but I would argue that taking 20 minutes to show up after receiving the slip is unnecessary. 

Advisory Update:

There was a section of the email that was sent out today that read as follows:

Present Students: If you mark a student present, you must also indicate which room they are in and notify their advisory teacher via email or Teams. This is crucial for emergencies.

This was probably not written as clearly as was intended. It should have read more like this:

• After Deadline Requests: If you mark a student present, you must also indicate which room they are in and notify their advisory teacher via email or Teams of the after deadline request. This is crucial for emergencies.

It was referencing students who are added to the spreadsheet late. I will reiterate once again that while there may be circumstances on occasion where a student needs to be called to an Advisory class beyond the deadline, the common practice should be to put students on the spreadsheet by the deadline so that all the communication pieces that are in place can work. Calling a student late creates extra work for the student's Advisory teacher and yourself. Help each other out and get those kids on the list on time. 

Mice!:

All, not shockingly, we have mice in the building. We are right on the mountain, and the building has been essentially an open door for two years while workers have been eating and leaving messes around for them to feast on. They did not move out simply because we moved in. The reason I even bring it up is that we all need to be conscientious about it and make sure we're keeping food in plastic containers with lids and that the lids are closed. Let's not make things any more inviting than the little rascals already think things are. 

Cell Phones:

We need to be consistent on cell phones starting now. One thing that's very easy for us to see as we walk around now is kids on phones because we can see in all the classrooms. 

One reminder is students should only have Chromebooks out and open when they are actively using them for classwork. I have already been seeing many students using the open Chromebook to block the teacher from seeing them on their phone. 

Releasing Classes Early:

Please don't release classes early. We heard today that some teachers might be under the impression that students who have a hall pass are excused five minutes before the bell so they can get to the bus. This is NOT the case, and is NOT accurate. The only kids who would leave class early to get to a bus are GTI students who need to leave 2nd period a bit early to make it to the GTI bus. 

Please keep kids in their seats and actively working on something until the bell. Allowing them to congregate at the door for the last few minutes of class is just setting them up to start sneaking out of your class early and be in the halls.

Phone Numbers:

I know cell service is a hit or miss in the building, but everyone should have our numbers in their phones. Speaking for myself- a text is a much quicker way to get a response from me than a Teams Message.

Josh LeRoy 801-707-1423

Amy Fishler 717-576-8833

Andy Carbaugh 801-633-5197

Josh Moore 801-682-2436

Jeff Jackson 801-652-6120

Hall Passes:

We are making a concerted effort to be checking halls and making sure students have hall passes. Please make sure you're using hall passes with your students and that you remember a few guidelines for them:

1. They need to have the hall pass with them and visible

2. Only one student per hall pass

3. Please govern the hall passes so students are not taking advantage of them. You should be tracking who takes them, how frequently, and how long they're gone when they use one. Best practice would be to limit the number of times each quarter a student can use a hall pass.