Blue = New/Pressing  Gold = Old 

Fundraisers:

We've had a couple of issues recently with clubs doing sales either during the school day or at a school event in the evening. Please remember that we need to follow fiscal policy any time money is involved. That means that a fundraiser request needs to be done through Success Fund. Then it needs to be approved by both Audrey and I; please make sure to submit it to Audrey first because she'll make sure all the financial pieces are in order before sending it on to me. You can send it to me first, but I reroute it to her, so the quickest path to approval is to submit to her first. Once approved, you will need to make sure you have people who have been cash box trained available to run the cash boxes. That also takes time, and no one who isn't cash box trained will be given a cash box. Where this should be taking your train of thought is down a track that highlights that last minute fund raisers aren't really a thing. They need to be planned out and prepared for. As a side note, we aren't allowed to sell homemade items, either. So, if you're selling, you have to sell store bought items. Please take that into consideration when deciding if a "selling items" fundraiser is going to be fruitful for your group. 

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.  

Room temps:

All, we are in that weird bubble season where our outdoor temps will vary wildly because Utah is a bit crazy. If you are having issues with the temps in your rooms, please continue putting those on the spreadsheet. I know some of you have developed a hate/hate relationship with the spreadsheet, but it remains the one "official" avenue we have for trying to get things taken care of. If your room gets way out of control temp-wise, please text or email me and I'll try to get Paul up there/over there/out there ASAP. I will tell you all what he tells me every time- they are still trying to balance the facility, and they are about 75% done with that process. We've been about 75% done for the last month and a half, so I don't know why there's no progress going with that. I do, however, love that the first time he talked to me about this he said that it's hard to balance a 520,000 sq ft building. Today, when he was retelling me this story, our building had grown to 550,000 sq ft. So, hey, not sure where those extra 30,000 sq ft are, but I'd like to start using them for something productive. 

I wrote this initial one on November 4. I was told today (November 18) that they are about 75% done with the balancing the system. So, I've heard all kinds of adages and we may be embarking on a new one- no progress is better than backsliding? I don't know- feels like no progress on this is a bit of a back slide. Please keep reporting HVAC issues directly to me so I can try to keep that pressure on everyone. 

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. 

Bookcase Update:

240 of the shorter bookcases are en route to us. This They are ordered, paid for, and we're just waiting on a delivery date. Now, within that, I may send out an email asking for any willing bodied helpers to assist when they are delivered. The company wanted to charge us a $15,000 delivery fee for them. To pay that, I would have had to cut right around 80 bookcases from the order. So, to get rid of that charge, we had to agree to unload the semi truck ourselves when it gets here. We'll advertise it as a Cyprus High Fitness Day and we'll work together to get those cases off the semi. 

With this order, everyone should be able to have two bookcases for their room, and that should give us at least a good start on what we need. 

These are currently scheduled to arrive on DECEMBER 1!

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.