2025-26 Agendas & Minutes

The North Park Elementary School Community Council experienced a period of transition during September, as the parent representative positions were in the process of being filled by the remaining council members.

The Parent Candidate Form for the 2025–26 council was made available to parents from August 18, 2025, through September 4, 2025. Two parent positions were open. Only one individual submitted a candidate form by the stated deadline; therefore, an election was not required. One parent position remained vacant at that time. The current parent council members reached out to other parents within the school community to select an additional parent representative. The appointment of the remaining parent position was finalized on September 23, 2025.

The teacher representative position on the council was also vacant during this period. Two teachers expressed interest in serving on the council, which necessitated an election. The election was open to all teachers and took place from September 3, 2025, through September 8, 2025. The teacher representative position was filled on September 9, 2025, following the completion of the election process.

A formal council meeting was not held in September 2025 due to the ongoing transition in council membership. During this period, information and updates were communicated to council members via email. The first official meeting of the council was scheduled to be held on October 1, 2025.

School Community Council Minutes

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Media Center

4:00 p.m.

1. Welcome
2. Attendance: Ashlena Johnson, Jullie Payne, Charity Moore, Kilee OConnell, Savannah Nieman, Jennifer Isom
3. Ashlena called the meeting to order and Jennifer seconded the motion.
   1. Notification  SCC Election Results to School Community
      1. School Council Members 2025-26
      2. Nomination and selection of a vice-chair and chair
      3. Select SCC representative for the District Community Council
   2. Contact Information for School Website
      1. Everyone was okay to have their contact information made available 
   3. Review Meeting Schedule
      1. We reviewed the year’s meeting schedule.

4. New Business
   1. Purpose of School Community Councils
      1. SCC Handbook- Hard Copy Distributed
   2. Review 2024-25 Rules of Order and Establish 2025-26 Rules of Order
      1. Jullie discussed why we have 4 parents and 2 staff
      2. Jen was nominated as the chair, and accepted the position.
      3. Kilee was nominated as the vice chair, and also accepted the position. 
      4. Jullie will notate that on the school website.
      5. There are 3 school district council meetings, and we need to have someone volunteer to do this. Savannah and Jen said they will both take turns to go to the meetings. Savannah will go to the 11:00 AM meetings and Jen will go to the 5:30 meeting.
      6. We read through the rules of order and procedure together.
         1. Jullie clarified unclear sections as we were reading.
         2. Ashlena motioned to approve and Savannah seconded.
   3. Overview of School LAND Trust and TSSA Spending
      1. TSSA Plan: Teacher Student Success Act 
         1. typically used for reading aides, math aides, school counselor, and English language learners.
         2. We need to use it all in the current school year, and leave no more than 10% if we have a small rollover into the following year.
         3. Jullie discussed the cost for each of the expenditures for each of our technology needs.
         4. She also discussed the challenges of getting the technology our school needs. 
         5. Jullie mentioned that we were able to get a free chromebook cart from the district technology department because the cart arrived with some cosmetic damage. The company is sending the district a replacement cart, but doesn't want the original one returned to them. 
         6. Two of our goals are the same for TSSA and School Land Trust. We have two additional goals for TSSA.
         7. Jullie read through the goals for our school. She said she wanted to edit a typographical error on the document and give us updated sheets at our next meeting.
         8. Goal 1: Ashlena went over our results from last year. The average of the grades did meet last year’s goals for the ELA goal.
         9. Goal 2: Jullie let us know that we met the i-Ready goal for last year. 
         10. Goal 3: Our school met our EL goal last year, and we increased the goal for this year.
         11. Goal 4:  We discussed all of the things we did last year to encourage attendance last year. 
   4. Annual District Land Trust Training
      1. October 7, 2025  at 4:30 pm via Zoom 

5. Other

5. Adjournment
   1. Ashlena motioned to adjourn and Jen seconded it. 

Next Meeting: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 4:00 pm

1. Welcome

1. In attendance: Kilee Kelly, Jennifer, Ashlena, Jullie Payne, Charity Moore, Allen Grunig (School Board), Stacey Wright (Librarian)
2. Unable to attend: Savannah Nieman 
3. Our meeting was called to order by Jennifer.

2. Approval of Past Meeting Minutes

1. Kilee called for approval of the minutes and Ashlena seconded that. 

3. Review of Previous Business
   1. Review of Goals for TSSA and School Land Trust
      1. Our plan was discussed and Allen said he thought it looked good.
      2. We are focusing on attendance as one of our TSSA goals
4. New Business
   1. Overview of Spending (TSSA and Land Trust)
      1. Technology Update
         1. We purchased 30 chromebooks, the Go Guardian program, and some Microsoft software for $10,050.
         2. There was a question about why schools are expected to purchase their own chromebooks and carts.  Jullie explained that although the district requires the programs, the purchasing responsibility is delegated to the school because the funds used for devices, such as TSSA, are designated for the school site, allowing schools to manage the need at a school level. 
      2. Paraeducator Expenses
         1. We use  funds to help pay for paraeducators for math and reading/ELA.
         2. Some schools that are Title 1 may also use Title 1 funds to pay for their parapeducators.  North Park is not a Title I school
      3. Conversation about school funding:
         1. We discussed many ways that the state and district spend or require money to be spent. 
         2. Allen discussed the recent bill that caused issues with the truth in taxation bill.  We had a small technicality that caused our tax proposal to be denied.  The proposal would have provided approximately $6 or $7 million to the district.
         3. Next year we will need to redo that to ask for more funds.
         4. We discussed the benefit to students and schools to have supportive district office personnel in place such as the structure in CCSD. 
         5. The district has been conservative in their spending so we have a district surplus right now that we can use for next year without anticipated negative impacts to student needs  at this time.  This may not be the case in the future.
         6. Every 5 years we redo the truth in taxation. We may actually be able to apply every 2 years.  
   2. Digital Citizenship- Stacey Wright Media Specialist 
      1. She presents annually to the school community council explaining the lessons she presents for digital literacy in the library. 
      2. The district has required her to use a year-long curriculum. They are using the program from Canyon school district.
      3. Stacey provided us with a list of what is covered each year. 
      4. Kilee suggested giving parents notice about what is being taught in advance to the parents so they can have conversations with their students at home.
      5. It was discussed that the computer lab may also cover some digital literacy lessons too. We are not certain if there is overlap with the library content as well. 
      6. We use Powerschool to send out newsletters to all of the parents. We have used this to help have the information translated into multiple languages. 
      7. Stacey will now be assisting the school in creating the parent newsletter. 
   3. Other
      1. The upcoming boundary changes do not affectNorth Park next year. 
      2. We are losing approximately 120 students next year as the current 5th and 6th graders move to the middle schools.  Our current kindergarten group has 36 students.  If this is the incoming number of students replacing our larger upper grade groups, our enrollment will decline
      3. Current numbers show we may have 12 classroom teachers next year based on current funding and enrollment estimates.
      4. Jullie discussed reasons why we had to make class changes last year based on the amount of students we had.
      5. Allen mentioned that the district has had a challenging time balancing needs of different areas of the district. 
      6. Jennifer asked if any help is needed with helping families in need of food. Mrs. Gilsdorf will be sending information out to ask for food and donations. We are hoping to ask for these items to help students in our school. It is suggested that we donate items to make meals.
      7.  We will have a specific time that parents can come in to get food.
      8. It was suggested that we should contact families in advance to see specifically what each family needs. 
      9. North Park is careful to help families understand that the donations are from the community and not the school.
      10. Families in our community love to help!
      11. We addressed the lack of a dedicated water source/faucet in the faculty room. For the past five years, Jullie and her husband have been refilling the water jugs and bringing them to use in the teachers' lounge. To move toward a sustainable solution, the PTO has offered to help fund a professional water delivery service or a permanent water system. Jullie is currently in contact with the district to explore installing a water filling station near the faculty room. We were previously informed that the existing plumbing in that area was unsuitable, but we are investigating alternative installation options.

D. Savannah will talk to us next meeting about the district school community council meeting that she attended.

5. Adjournment
   1. Ashlena motioned to adjourn the meeting. Kilee seconded the motion.

Next Meeting: Wednesday,  December  3, 2025 at 4:00 pm

1. Welcome: Jenn called the meeting to order.

Attendance: Jullie, Charity, Ashlena, Jenn, Savannah

Absent: Kilee 

2. Approval of past minutes

Jenn called for the approval of the minutes from the last meeting. Ashlena seconded it.

3. Review of Old Business
   1. Overview of Spending (TSSA and Land Trust)

-Jullie reviewed this and reported that we are getting a tv for the library to replace the older projection system.

4. New Business

1. District Community Council Report- Savannah
   1. They are wanting to post pictures of the district and highlights from the schools on social media. 
   2. The CAPS program is the center for advanced professional studies. It is a Bridgerland to have professional experiences while they are in high school. It is hands on, and they currently have 2 strands and are hoping to expand that. John Anderson presented this at the meeting.  
   3. There was a question and answer section and many discussed the district cell phone policy.
      1. We discussed the issues with cell phones at the elementary level. 
      2. Jullie gave some examples of situations that have happened at school.
   4. The next district council meeting is scheduled for January 2026.
2. Supporting for the Holidays
   1. Vardee is organizing this. She has been coordinating with families in the community.
   2. We want to make sure families understand the limits of the school’s outreach and recognize that these gifts come directly from the generosity of our school community and partners outside of the school.
   3. The food drive went well, and we met our goal. 
3. Any other items
   1. We are going to have a new water fountain installed with the bottle filler. The PTO is hoping to purchase it for the school with PTO funds. It will be installed by the lunch room.  

5. Adjournment
   1. Ashlena motioned to adjourn, and Savannah seconded that.

Next Meeting: January 7, 2026 at 4:00 pm

1. Welcome 
   1. In attendance: Jullie, Charity, Jen, Ashlena, Savannah 
   2. Absent: Kilee
   3. Jen called the meeting to order and Savannah seconded the motion.
   4. Jullie requested that we add to our Rules of Order and Procedures the process the council uses to select our chair and vice chair. They are selected annually by nomination from the current school community council members and voted on for approval. The team agreed to add this. Ashlena motioned to approve this and Jen seconded this. 

2. Approval of past meeting minutes 
   1. Ashlena called  for the meeting minutes to be approved and Charity seconded.  

3. Previous Business
   1. Drinking Fountain/Water Bottle Filling Station Installation
      1. It will be installed next Monday and Tuesday.

4. New Business
   1. TSSA and SLT Budgets
      1. We are waiting on the TV for the library to be delivered.  Some of the district technology was delivered damaged and so it is taking a little longer than expected. 
      2. Our funds for our aides have been spent according to schedule and the appropriate amount. 
      3. We may need more funds for paraeducators in the future. 

2. School goals
   1. Progress towards 2025-26 Goals 
      1. Our Acadience Reading assessment will happen on Monday. That data will be available for our next meeting.
         1. Our goal is that 68% or more of our students will show typical growth  by the end of the year.
      2. We then reviewed data from the recent iReady math assessment.  We are currently at 58% of the students meeting the growth goal.  
      3. We are on TSI for our Hispanic population. 
         1. Our school has 47 Hispanic students.  21 of these students are also identified as English Learners. 
         2. We have approximately 39 students that are considered ELL at this time. 
      4. Over the last several years, our school has been over the district proficiency level for the ELA and Math assessment, but last year we were not. However we were over the state goal.
         1.  We are showing excellent growth though. 
         2. Our school has been having some attendance issues.
         3. Jullie also showed composite data (de-identified summary)about students’ overall well being as represented on the Well Being Screener completed by teachers.
   2. Discussion about 2026-27 Goals
      1. We had a discussion about what concerns our council has that might be addressed on a School Improvement Plan (SIP).  Five main areas were discussed.
         1. Jen and Savannah were concerned about the behavior on the playground.  It was suggested we need to help students better understand that when mistakes are made at recess, other students should respond positively, vs. teasing the student. Council members shared that the state and district are working on getting curriculum added to instruction to help with social interactions and emotional resilience. 
         2. Addressed concerns over some student’s use of language deemed not appropriate for school. The group shared a need for consistent standards, as students' diverse backgrounds lead to differing understandings of school-appropriate language. 
         3. Jen expressed concerns about reading comprehension scores, and the academic vocabulary words that the district has. She shared that the vocabulary words taught are beneficial but may require more instruction. Jullie suggested parents discuss these concerns with their  student’s teacher, too, in order to discuss additional strategies for helping students learn these word meanings.
         4. There was a discussion to continue our focus on academics as indicated by scores such as our state testing results. 
         5. We are hoping to encourage attendance at our school. We are above the school district average for absenteeism.  We discussed how absences impact learning.
3. Any Additional Items
   1. The committee discussed meeting during the school day for future meetings instead of after school. The council members decided to meet on the first Wednesday of the month at 9:40 am if this time also worked for our absent council member ‘s schedule.  Jenn will reach out to Kilee to see if this time change works for Kilee’s schedule, too.

5. Adjournment 
   1. Ashlena motioned to adjourn and Savannah seconded.

6. Next Meeting Wednesday February 4, 2026 at 9:40 am