Latest news with #WoodrowWilsonElementarySchool
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Teacher misconduct reports are rising, but shortage of investigators causes backlog
A hallway at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake is pictured on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Misconduct complaints against educators in Utah public schools have been on the rise during the first months of 2025, representatives of the Utah State Board of Education told legislators on Wednesday. But, requests for funding to hire more attorneys to review the cases have failed since 2023. The Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission (UPPAC), a panel that reviews and investigates complaints on educators to determine whether they get to keep their licenses, usually takes about 11 months until making a final decision. There are various reasons why a case may take a long time, Ben Rasmussen, executive secretary of UPPAC told the Education Interim Committee — it may be the time it takes to investigate it or reach an agreement with the educator's attorneys. The commission's staff capacity can also delay the process, and sometimes, whenever there are criminal charges involved, the panel waits for courts' decisions before taking disciplinary action. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Since Rasmussen started his role in 2015, the number of cases his office investigates has almost tripled, going from 63 to 173 in 2024. This year alone, the panel has already received 93 complaints. 'Leading up to the last couple of years, it was typical that UPPAC would review maybe 10 to 15 cases on a monthly basis,' Rasmussen said. 'Given changes in board rules that have increased requirements for (schools') reports and given increases in hotline complaints, you can see that it's not uncommon for us to be reviewing closer to 50 cases a month now.' During the discussion of the delays, committee chair Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, said she was already planning to submit a funding request to help clear out the backlog. Since 2015, the most frequent cases centered around 'boundary violations,' accounting for 222 allegations. That's followed by 'violence and discipline' with 150 cases, and 'miscellaneous ethical violations' with 118. 'The trend that I've seen increasing the most is getting cases in the 'violence and discipline category,' which is teachers that are generally getting hands on, to some extent, in their discipline of students or losing temper with students,' Rasmussen said. There were also 75 alleged sexual misconduct cases, 48 pornography allegations and 29 investigations of sexual harassment since 2015. Those were the ones that prompted lawmakers to study how schools address issues of child abuse and misconduct during this year's interim. According to the description in the committee's study list, legislators intend to review local and state discipline procedures, the process for background checks, and seek solutions to the cases backlog accumulated at UPPAC. Additionally, now that HB497, a bill the Legislature passed this year, is effective, the state requires the commission to create a system to address complaints 'in a timely and expedient manner.' That includes changing the way the commission prioritizes cases to ensure the safety of students. However, for the most serious violations, schools usually terminate educators before the case is referred to UPPAC. 'Most cases where it's like a sexual misconduct case or a serious student danger issue, these are cases where the (school) has removed the teacher from the classroom, and so that's usually not a priority,' Rasmussen said. 'But if that kind of case were still in the classroom, we would certainly prioritize that.' At the same time, while acknowledging the importance of kids' safety, lawmakers who are also educators questioned whether the process did enough to protect teachers who are later found innocent. 'Something that somebody has brought up to me more than one time is that they felt like it was very lopsided and that they didn't really have a voice in the process, and they felt that all of the questioning was very one-sided,' Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, said. Riebe also described the action of flagging licenses for potential misconduct in the state's credential database while an investigation is underway as 'really punitive.' 'It's kind of shocking that you'd be guilty the minute somebody brought you up on an accusation,' she said. Pierucci pushed back on that, arguing that whenever there's a serious allegation, especially of sexual abuse, the teacher should not be in the classroom anymore. 'I want to be really careful saying this isn't everyone, but there are some people who are dealing and interacting with their children that should not be there,' she said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah Legislature to consider extending school lunch breaks
Students eat lunch at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Are 15 minutes enough time for a lunch break? That's the typical time Utah schools allocate for children to eat, counting the time to walk to the cafeteria, and line up to get food. That's a big deal for many parents and children, Rep. Tiara Auxier, R-Morgan, said during the the Education Interim Committee's first meeting of the year on Wednesday, while she advocated for the panel to study expanding the seat time for lunch in public schools. As her colleagues passed a House bill this year making school lunch free for students who qualify for reduced-priced meals, Auxier kept thinking about unresolved issues, especially the timing concern she experienced with her kids. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'One of my biggest concerns was that we were going to be putting a lot of money into this program, and the kids still weren't going to be able to eat them,' Auxier said. 'We heard so many times about full trash cans and kids just being rushed out.' With some lawmakers supporting the idea, while acknowledging that its implementation could be a challenge, the committee voted unanimously to add a review of policies and best practices centered around lunch times to its list of interim study items and audits. Starting July 1, Utah students qualifying for reduced-priced lunches can get meals for free Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, who is an educator, said this is a step in the right direction, though she worried about how extending the lunch break may affect existing legislation requiring certain time minimums for core subjects. That's a concern that the chair of the committee, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, had heard as well from teachers. 'They usually say, 'well, we just don't have time, right? You've got to pack everything in.'' Pierucci said. 'So that should be a part of this discussion.' The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends schools provide at least 20 minutes of seat time for students to eat their meals and socialize. That's apart from the time it takes them to use the restroom and wash their hands, wait in line, walk to their tables and bus trays after the meals. 'About half of school districts nationwide do not require or recommend that schools give students at least 20 minutes to eat, once they receive their meal,' the CDC's website reads. 'Some students report that insufficient time to eat is a key reason for not participating in the school lunch program.' The Utah State Board of Education has a similar guideline in its Health and Wellness Policy, directing schools to provide a minimum of 10 minutes for breakfast, and 20 minutes of lunch, 'which excludes time to arrive at the cafeteria and waiting in line.' However, lawmakers noted that it seems like the direction isn't being followed in all schools. As of Wednesday, the committee is prioritizing other study items, including changes to the Department of Education and other federal programs with the new administration; any progress on universities' plans to reallocate 10% of their budget for courses; reviewing school employees' disciplinary actions; and solutions for chronic absenteeism. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah voucher law found unconstitutional. Idaho's law is also vulnerable.
A classroom at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake is pictured on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) A district judge in Utah issued a marvelous decision on April 18, finding Utah's school voucher law to be unconstitutional. The 60-page decision was based on a variety of constitutional flaws that the Utah law shares with Idaho's recently-enacted education tax credit law. The Utah law was enacted in 2023 with $42.5 million in state funds. State funding increased by $40 million in each of the next two years. The Utah judge said the Utah Constitution gives 'a direct command to the legislature to perform a single duty: establish and maintain the state's education systems.'' The judge continued, 'This clear expression of one duty — coupled with the absence of any general duty to provide for the education or intellectual improvement of Utahns — impliedly restricts the legislature from creating a publicly funded school or education program outside of the public school system.' In other words, Utah's Legislature is restricted from using public funds to support any form of private education. Of interest is the fact that every member of the Idaho Legislature was sent a 'Legislative Alert' on the first day of the 2025 legislative session, warning that any scheme to use taxpayer money for private education would be violative of the Idaho Constitution in a number of respects. The alert was provided by The Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution, a group that participated in the successful lawsuit to overturn the restrictive initiative law enacted in 2021. The alert identified the same constitutional flaw focused upon by the Utah judge — that Idaho's Constitution prohibits the funding of private and parochial education. That has been the law of Idaho ever since statehood in 1890. The alert spelled out several other constitutional infirmities that any voucher scheme would entail, including a deliberate transgression of Idaho's strong prohibition against state support for religious education, discrimination against rural kids and Idaho religions that don't operate parochial schools, lack of accountability for taxpayer money expended on private schooling, and diminution of state money necessary to support Idaho's public school system, which has been chronically underfunded for decades. The Utah judge's decision mentioned a number of other infirmities in the Utah law — private schools often exclude students with special needs, or condition admission upon adherence to certain religious beliefs, or fail to provide 'free' schooling as constitutionally required for taxpayer-supported education. These flaws are also inherent in House Bill 93, the subsidy bill approved by the Legislature this year. The Idaho Legislature was clearly warned of the serious constitutional problems with House Bill 93, which will subsidize private and parochial education to the tune of $50 million in just the first year. Yet, because of massive funding from out-of-state groups that are seeking to weaken public schools across the nation, a majority of our legislators cast aside the Constitution and passed the subsidy bill. The governor lacked the courage to veto the legislation, despite overwhelming public outcry against it. Now, as with the similar travesty in Utah, concerned Idahoans will have to resort to the courts in order to protect the wishes of Idaho's constitutional drafters. Please stay tuned. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Don't use our kids as props for your ‘family-friendly' theater
Students play on the playground at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Our state leaders love to tell anyone who will listen that Utah is a 'family-friendly' state. We are the youngest state in the nation! We have the biggest families! We love kids! But actions, not words, show whether our leaders truly care about the stability and success of Utah families. Recently, legislative leaders have shown their 'love' of kids by promoting dental decay, eroding public schools, and ostracizing immigrant children. And for another consecutive year, they did not show any love for the tens of thousands of working families statewide who need and deserve relief from Utah's ongoing child care crisis. It's clear that our state leaders don't 'love' the idea of helping children who do (or could) benefit from the early care and learning offered through licensed child care programs. Instead, they have undermined the health and safety of kids in child care settings, made no substantial public investment to help parents afford rising child care costs, and belittled child care professionals with decades of expertise. State leaders' coordinated response to our child care crisis is clear: create the illusion of doing something while actually doing as little as possible. Their strategy certainly crystallized this past legislative session, as the child care bills state leaders allowed to pass contained only superficial efforts to address Utah's very real child care challenges. The governor and Legislature cannot claim ignorance or lack of knowledge. They have all the information they need to meaningfully address the frustration and desperation of working families with young kids. They just can't be bothered to use it. In December, the Women in the Economy Subcommittee of Gov. Spencer Cox's Unified Economic Opportunity Commission released a 'Utah Childcare Solutions and Workplace Productivity Plan.' In appreciation, legislative leaders scrapped the subcommittee altogether. Nonetheless, the plan does exist and could be incredibly helpful. Completed by early care and education experts, it includes current data about our changing demographics, the financial struggles of parents with young children, and the challenges facing the child care workforce. The plan confirms the severity of Utah's child care situation, which local advocates have warned about for years. Most importantly, the plan contains 33 common-sense solutions that have succeeded all over the country. The recommendations are vetted by early childhood experts with decades of expertise and formulated to specifically address Utah's child care challenges … and essentially ignored by the same legislature that paid for the plan. In fact, the erstwhile co-chair of the Women in the Economy Subcommittee — Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield — admitted to local media that she hadn't even read the plan (but definitely 'intended to' at some point). But why read through an 84-page policy document full of child care solutions, when you know you won't do anything it recommends? Grassroots child care champions are beyond frustrated with politicians who deliver annual performances celebrating the preciousness of hypothetical children, while doing next to nothing to help actual Utah kids. With so much information and expertise available to them, they still refuse to act. Everyday Utahns who care about this issue are willing to do their part. There are plenty of local experts, parents and child care providers, who are highly informed and almost entirely unpaid. Unfortunately, there is no avenue for them to engage in a legitimate problem-solving process with their elected representatives. Imagine being a working parent or child care provider, taking time off from your job to share your personal experience with an issue impacting thousands of families … only to deliver your carefully crafted two-minute testimony to legislators who are staring at their phones or telling unprofessional, insensitive jokes. Or, think about persistently trying to offer your lived experience expertise, for free, only to never be included as a stakeholder when child care legislation is written. Thankfully, state leaders didn't create new challenges for the child care sector this past session. They just did very little to address the existing ones. Once again, they've done just enough to maintain their 'child-friendly' public image while helping as few Utah children as possible. Utah is very lucky to have thousands of caring parents and child care professionals, still willing to do this incredibly meaningful work for little to no pay. But the luck can't — and won't — last, while Utah's kids end up paying dearly for state leaders' hypocrisy.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
School board decisions could become subject to voter referendums, bill says
A classroom at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake is pictured on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Utah school boards are the only legislative bodies in Utah that are not subject to voter referendums, but a bill from Rep. Rex Shipp, R-Cedar City, could change that. HB408 would allow voters to hold referendums — putting a question before voters to either accept or reject — on all school board decisions, including increases on taxes or new taxes, unless the action passed with a supermajority vote or is a personnel issue. The bill passed the House Tuesday in a 40-33 vote. It now heads to the Senate. 'I don't think any of us as legislators like referendums being run on our decisions up here, but I think we represent the people,' Shipp said in a committee hearing last week. 'If something rises to the concern enough that the people want to refer it, I think they need to have that opportunity, and school boards ought to be included in that.' Shipp ran a similar bill last year but it failed in the Senate. This year, he added the exception for supermajority decisions. In his committee presentation, Shipp mentioned a controversial split decision made by the Iron County School Board in 2019 that changed Cedar High School's mascot from the 'Redmen' to the 'Reds.' 'I think if we'd have had something like this at the time, that could have calmed the community a lot, because there was a lot of angst and concern and upset,' Shipp said. Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy, said he supports referendums being run on imposed taxes but worries the rest of the bill is too broad. 'I worry that what this bill does is opens up every school board decision to becoming a political decision,' he said. 'I'm sorry, your mascot changed. I'm sorry that's hard, but sometimes we have to make hard decisions.' Rep. Doug Welton, R-Payson, and Rep. Anthony Loubet, R-Kearns, asked if school closures would be subject to referendums because it's an issue people are passionate about. 'They could force this issue onto a ballot, and that could put our school districts in a precarious position where they have now a school, but they don't have the students to fill it,' Loubet said. During the committee hearing, Shipp told Loubet he was open to talking about an amendment on the floor, but an amendment was not discussed on Tuesday. Both Welton and Loubet voted against the bill on the House floor. Granite School District Superintendent Ben Horsley told lawmakers during public comment that his district is currently in the process of implementing HB84, a school safety bill that went into effect at the beginning of this year, but to keep up with other costs, he is anticipating a tax increase. 'If that were then subject to a referendum … we could be in violation of several state statutes and requirements in order to implement the mandates from the state legislature,' he said. 'It's important to understand that the bulk of our policies are state requirements, and if we can't pass policies as required by those state statutes, because there's a potential split on the vote, and that becomes subject to referendum, you can see the challenges there.' Shipp said except for supermajority decisions, all decisions could be subject to voter referendum, and maybe school boards should be careful with issues they know will be a concern to the public. 'If the people rise to a point and they don't want to wait four years, and it's a really concerning issue, maybe there ought to be a way for them to take it to a vote of the people,' he said. Rep. Jefferson Burton, R-Salem, said the bill makes him think about who he's voting for in general elections, and though he is always concerned about any legislation that 'moves us more to a pure democracy,' he sees the value in this legislation. 'Perhaps, if this bill does go forward, it will cause school boards to think long and hard about their votes on specific subjects,' he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
