Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Slickc Program Review topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board hears review of SlickC partnership; staff recommends joint review committee and clearer governance
Summary
Staff presented findings from listening sessions and surveys on the Salt Lake Center for Science Education (SlickC) partnership with a charter and a district middle school, and recommended creating a joint stakeholder committee to develop formal recommendations for the coming school year.
District leaders presented a review June 17 of the Salt Lake Center for Science Education (referred to as SlickC) and the partnership between a charter campus and a district middle school.
Dr. Taylor and district staff summarized three months of listening sessions, focus groups and surveys. Staff reported six recurring themes: the need for clarity and consistency about roles and model tenants; commitment to student success; communication breakdowns; equity and access concerns; program-structure inconsistencies and tensions between different instructional philosophies.
Recommendations presented: staff recommended forming a joint, representative review committee (including parents, teachers, leaders and students) to clarify governance, identify shared goals and nonnegotiables, publish decision-making protocols, reinstate joint professional development and cross-campus planning, audit course placement and lottery processes, and expand equitable experiential-learning opportunities. Dr. Taylor emphasized that the presentation focused on the model, not personnel decisions.
Board feedback: several board members said the presentation lacked a clear research methodology and requested more robust, coded qualitative analysis and larger survey samples before a final recommendation. Some board members said the partnership has produced valuable innovations but others told the board they have heard community requests to dissolve the partnership because it is not working in its present form. Staff responded that the joint committee would review existing information and return with formal recommendations, which could include continuing, adjusting or dissolving the partnership.
Next steps: staff said they will form the joint committee, review the compiled evidence and return to the board with recommendations and an implementation plan during the next school year.
