The Kane District School Board, at the June 27 Budget Hearing of the Kane District Board of Education, approved the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Budget as Revised and Fiscal Year Budget 2023- 2024 as Proposed; and approved Certified Property Tax Rates for FY 2023-2024, as presented by District business Manager Cary Reese. After the Hearing, the Board conducted its work meeting and regular meeting.
Superintendent Ben Dalton announced that the Kane County Economic Opportunity Board has awarded the district a $50,000 grant to assist in the new Cosmetology program. He also reported that the FY24 School- Based Mental Health Grant was approved. This grant, through the Utah State Board of Education (USBE), provides funding each year to help pay for student behavioral counseling. The district has a comprehensive counseling program supporting students. The district is also receiving $160,000 in a K12 Computer Science grant and a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Center Computing Partnership Grant.
During the work meeting, the Board heard an update on the elementary school counseling program, which assists elementary students who may be struggling. Later in the meeting, Superintendent Dalton reported on student behavioral health services provided under contract by Joshua and Deborah Dambara, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists. Their mission is to inspire students to thrive educationally by learning how to be emotionally well. They promote principles of kindness, inclusion and unconditional positive regard towards self and others, encouraging coordination of services with principals, teachers and special education to support each child to overcome their individual obstacles to learning.
The board discussed committee assignments, a new wrestling room at Kanab High School (KHS), the old Kanab Elementary School building, Utah High School Activities Association business and policy FF concerning student eligibility for participation in extracurricular activities, among other things. It approved the KHS Volleyball, Cross Country, Golf Team and Football schedules, along with one 150 mile exception request. It approved the HB403 Mental Health application, Human Sexuality Curriculum Review Committee members and policy DBF-1 regarding Substitute teacher pay.
The school board approved a resolution approving an inter local agreement between the District and the Kane County Redevelopment Agency related to the Glen Canyon Solar Community Reinvestment Project Area. This project will put solar panels on about 1500 acres of State Trust Land located north of the US-89 highway west of Big Water. The school district has agreed to forgo future incremental taxes for a specified period of time to contribute to funding the solar project. Current tax proceeds will remain with the district. Only future tax revenue over and above the current revenue are considered tax increment financing to be committed to funding the solar project. The goal of reinvestment projects such as this is to revitalize underutilized property or spur economic development, using the increased property taxes (tax increment) to finance area enhancements and infrastructure. The important documents concerning this project are available to view on the school district’s BoardDocs page.
In other business, the board accepted the resignations of paraeducators Caroleen Chamberlain and Gwendolyn Gaustad. It approved the hiring, subject to a successful background check, of the following persons: Amber Banfill, Jolynn Lee and Allison Stammerjohn as paraeducators; Lyndsey Wulfenstein as a Speech Language Technician; and Olivia Holleran as a Valley Elementary school teacher under a one-year contract. Congratulations to all.
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