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Granite School District > Superintendent's Office > Sup’s Vlog > Teachers

Teachers

Question – 4 day school week

Question – What do you think about a 4 day school week?

Response – Interesting question.  After the state board of education granted waivers to a couple of rural school districts we explored having four academic days and scheduling ALL sports and extracurricular activities on Fridays.  Significant scheduling conflicts became obvious immediately.  In any event, the state has indicated (by denying subsequent requests) that requests from districts without the rural transportation issues would not be granted.

9th Grade Reconfiguration – Q&A

Dear Patrons of Granite School District,

The district recently hosted two informational meetings in the Cottonwood and Granger High communities to answer questions regarding the process by which a community could reconfigure the 9th grade into the high school.
It is important to understand that while there is evidence to suggest that such a model can be advantageous, a decision of this magnitude should be supported and advocated by a community as a whole. These informational meetings were held to begin that process and provide information to a community on how to pursue such a change if they desired. We would encourage you to review the presentation (attached below) that outlines the complete process.

While a number of the questions you will read were answered at the meeting, we have chosen to reprint these questions (see attachment below with complete Q&A). If there additional questions, you can submit those to communications@graniteschools.org and they will be added to this document as they are received.

As you can see from the Grade Reconfiguration Attachment (below), we are still very early in the discussion phase of this proposal. We anticipate that those advocating for this proposal will be providing additional information so that our patrons can make an informed choice on this matter.

We have categorized the questions (as some of them are quite similar) into topics and then broken down the individual questions with each letter. The answers directly follow each question in the same subsection and are bolded and colored. While we attempted to be succinct, some questions required additional information to clarify appropriate information.

Thanks for your questions.

Q & A from Informational Meetings

Grade Reconfiguration Process

Question – Title One Bonuses??

Question – Why is it that all teachers working in a title one school, regardless of it they work with title one designated kids, get a big bonus and the title one aides, who help immensely to run the classrooms and wherever needed, get no part of it. It is very frustrating to do all that we do and not be acknowledged as the teachers are.

Response – We value the work of para educators and recognize that they make great contributions to student achievement. The Title I Stipend / Incentive is allowed by federal law to recruit and retain licensed educators in Title I schools.  Unfortunately the law does not allow these types of incentives to non-licensed staff.

Thanks to our Title I Director for his assistance in responding to this question.

Question – Grading Schools?

Question – When will the newest idea from our state legislators take effect? When are our schools going to be graded and what are the qualifiers?

Response – I share your frustration that oftentimes, the mandates passed on from the legislature can be taxing and decrease morale among our hardworking educators. Currently, the school grading bill is undergoing some amendments for implementation this next fall. We are working to communicate with our legislators the impacts of all programs and suggest you do the same. At this point it looks as though implementation of the new “system” will be delayed for another year. 

By the way, regardless of the grade that ultimately results – we encourage you to celebrate the growth of each student with the student’s parents.  With my very own children, when I know that they are progressing, achieving, love learning, and have teachers who genuinely care about them and their growth, I’m not particularly interested in the label the building gets on some report downtown.  if we focus on the things we know make a difference pedagogically, kids will thrive, parents will be pleased and, I believe, the school grading system will take care of itself.

Thanks for serving the kids!

Thank You

Supt. Bates:

Thank you for stepping back and trying to address the original “cart before the horse” question. I appreciate that you took a new look at the original question and tried to restate an answer.
I also was extremely frustrated the other day when the wireless was not functioning (yet again!) because I really am trying to integrate technology into my instruction. But it is really difficult to plan a lesson around technology only to have the technology be unavailable or non-functional. You have a lot more support from teachers on the technology push than you realize, but the infrastructure for technology in our district often fosters complete frustration.

Mary Lamb
6th Grade Teacher
Hillsdale Elementary

Superintendent Snapshot – Something You Have Never Seen a Superintendent Do

All,

Here is the latest snapshot video as a follow up to last weeks snapshot regarding putting the cart before the horse. Hope your week is going well.

Superintendent Bates

Superintendent Snapshot – Cart Before the Horse on Technology?

Here is the latest snapshot regarding the technology initiative the Superintendent is pushing. Please continue submitting your questions!

Question – Sick Leave Hours

Question – This is my twenty-eighth year as a teacher in Granite District. Even with having four children and one major surgery. I still have over five hundred hours of sick leave. There is no compensation for those sick leave hours when I retire, which saves the district money. However, I know of some teachers, who could use my sick leave hours. They do not have any because they have wasted their sick leave but have serious health problems. They do not have any hours left and need to have their pay deducted to compensate for their lack of sick hours until short term disability kicks in to use. Is there any way that I could donate some of my hours to someone else? It would not save the district any money, but it would be compassion for those who are in need.

Response – We often say that the best insurance policy an employee can have is a large accrued sick leave balance. That is great that you have been able to accumulate such a large amount of sick leave over the years. I believe your sick leave balance shows your dedication to the noble career you have chosen.

Although Granite School District does not have a Catastrophic Sick Leave Bank (where employees can donate sick days), GSD does have two specific insurance policies in place to help employees who have depleted their sick leave balance. These two policies are known as Short/Long-Term Disability (STD). STD benefits pay a percentage (80%) of an employee’s salary if the employee becomes temporarily disabled, meaning they are unable to work for a short period of time due to sickness or injury (excluding on-the-job injuries which are covered by worker’s compensation insurance). STD benefits are also intended to serves as an income “bridge” during the period a claim has been submitted for Long-Term Disability (LTD). LTD benefits are in place to provide income (66.67%) to the employee who is unable to work for a long period of time (beyond four months).

Both of these policies help to ensure that even if an employee has used all of their accrued sick and personal leave, they have options for not only continued salary, but also continued insurance benefits as well. In addition, employees who have sick leave do not feel obligated or pressured to donate from their own accrued sick leave balances.

We would remind you as well, that when you began your career with Granite, retirees could choose between a percentage buy-out of unused sick leave or receive a payment of 1/2 of 1% times the # of years of service.  As it worked out, the calculation was always a higher number than buy-out.  Recognizing the better deal, teachers negotiated the calculation into the professional agreement (see Article 23.1.2) and dropped the buy-out option.

Thanks to the Benefits Office for their assistance in responding to this question.