Joe Cottrill, the district’s general education behavior coordinator and a school psychologist, presented the district’s positive behavior plans and explained how they relate to state law and PBIS implementation.

Cottrill told the board the plans implement requirements in Utah code (as cited in the meeting: "Utah code, 53 g 10407") that direct schools to create positive behavior plans addressing student use of tobacco, alcohol, e-cigarette products and other controlled substances by promoting positive behaviors. He said the statute provides modest funding: $1,000 for schools to develop a plan, $1,000 to run the plan, and up to $1,000 stipend for up to three positive behavior plan specialists per school.

Cottrill described the district emphasis on implementing PBIS, a research-based, multi-tiered system to teach behavioral expectations and provide tiered interventions. He said the district sees PBIS as a vehicle for reducing substance use and for delivering instruction and team-based implementation. The code requires the plans be approved by the board at a later meeting, and each school will write a brief year-end review summarizing plan execution.

Board members asked about the funding source and distribution. Cottrill and other board members noted that the funding is statewide and that the per-school allocations are site-based (the same amount regardless of school size), which some trustees said limits the district’s ability to target funds to sites with higher need. Cottrill said principals select the local positive behavior plan specialists and that the district has shifted some training focus toward secondary schools while continuing supports for elementary PBIS teams.

The board received the report; the presenter said schools will return later in the year with execution reviews, and that the board must approve the plans per statute.