Author: communications

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Governor Spencer Cox has launched a statewide campaign to address the impact of social media on students. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with one of the Governor's senior advisors, Aimee Winder Newton, who also serves as the Director of the Governor's new Office of Families. She tells us how the Public Awareness Campaign hopes to empower parents and provide them with the tools they need to educate their kids about the potential harms from using social media.

We're honored today to have Aimee Winder Newton in the studio. Aimee is a member of the Salt Lake County Council, as well as a senior advisor and director of the new Office of Families in the Governor's Office. So thank you very much for joining us today.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about your work in the Office of Families. That's a new position that we're all excited about.

Aimee Winder Newton:
It is. Well, about a year and a half ago, the governor, when he did his State of the State address, talked about how we need to be looking proactively at how to better strengthen families. We want the best outcomes for kids and we know that that happens through strong families. So he developed this position and I was hired a year ago. We've got some initiatives that we've set out to accomplish and some policy objectives and it's been a great ride.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, we're really grateful to have you in that position. I know part of that has been helping the Governor and pushing this campaign to help raise awareness with families regarding the dangers of social media. And when you look through the materials, which I've done,  I appreciated the chance to be there when the campaign was announced. What's staggering really is the statistics that you see. It's difficult to see the numbers. We know the impact that it has, but when you see the hard numbers that show just how frequently students are involved, how deeply they're involved with social media, and the obvious negative impacts, it's really harrowing to see that.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and you as school administrators and our school teachers and others in the classroom, they see the impact, right? You see how it's impacting kids. So just a few data points. In Utah, only 37% of our Utah youth got at least eight hours of sleep on an average school night. You know how important it is for kids to be to school well rested and ready to learn. And these kids are not getting enough sleep. Now, this is all according to the SHARP survey, which has been a great help for us as we look at data for our Utah youth.

Some other data points- 32% of Utah youth felt sad or hopeless for two weeks or more in a row during the past year. And 18%, that's one in six, of our Utah youth seriously considered suicide in the past year. So it's very concerning. We do have some other interesting data points too, because social media seems to affect young women at a higher rate than it does young men. So 53% of female high school students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, which is a 61% increase since 2009 when social media was invented. So some of these numbers are startling. We see this correlation and causation between social media and how it's impacting our kids, and we need our parents to get engaged on this.

Anthony Godfrey:
The correlation, it was 2009, right? When social media really took off and where the statistics got really bad for teens. It's really difficult to ignore that timing.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, and I mean, if you look at the graphs that show like emergency room visits for self-harm from 2009-2010 till now. I mean, it's like a hockey stick. It's so extreme. And so, you know, we're very concerned. In fact, we did a survey of Utah parents before we started this campaign to just kind of gauge where everyone was. And we at least know 88% of our parents believe there's some sort of detrimental effect on the mental health of their children using social media. So we know that parents believe that there's a detrimental effect and what we need to do now is give them some help.

Part of what the state's trying to do, besides this campaign and educating parents of the harmful effects of social media, we're doing things like legislation to help rein in social media companies. We also have lawsuits that we're looking at for harm that's been caused to our Utah youth. So there's things there, but the Governor's incredibly concerned about the mental health of our youth. We're just grateful that Jordan School District understands this and your great leadership to help us figure out how we can get this message out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, the Governor's been a strong voice, a strong advocate for mental health issues for students for a long time. He's told his own story about how he struggled as a teen.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I think that's powerful. I really appreciate your focus and his focus on this issue. Tell us, first it's that you want to make sure that parents are aware of the harm that can be done of the dangers of social media, so that we're not dismissive of that. But then you're also giving tips for parents on how they can engage and help manage that with their teen.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of those suggestions for parents.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, so let me share five tips that we've been talking about. The first one is creating a family media plan. So this is everything from having open discussions and setting expectations to deciding ahead of time what the rules will be. So for instance, when I had kids, my kids are all now young adults, but when they were at home and they were teens, we had a rule that they had to check their cell phones in our bedrooms at night. And so they'd plug in their phone - I did have one kid one time try to be sneaky and put just the phone case with the little plug going into it, but we caught on and that was the end of that.

Anthony Godfrey:
You know, that's a good trick for me to be aware of.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, yeah. Be aware.

Anthony Godfrey:
Kids listening, don't try this at home.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Don't try this at home.

Anthony Godfrey:
'Cause it won't work.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's right. Parents are smarter than that. But we liked having it in our bedroom 'cause we said, you know what, at nine o'clock, phones checked in so that it wasn't distracting them. It wasn't keeping them up late at night. And so-- -

Anthony Godfrey:
My 14-year-old plugs his phone in the kitchen in a particular spot and we even don't have to ask much anymore because it just kind of happens. It's become a habit that the phone doesn't go downstairs at night.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's awesome. Well, and I feel like if you set the standard with the first child, the rest know, Oh, it's not worth the battle 'cause mom and dad aren't in a cave, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I do like that you said you set the standard in advance because if in the midst of an important interaction, suddenly there's a rule, then that doesn't work.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Right, right. And as part of that family media plan, I mean, that can go to TV, to gaming, to anything else. But having those expectations ahead of time, and you know, we even have some parents who have a little contract with their kids that you can only use it for this amount of time and during these hours and everything, And then they agree as parents that if you come to us and tell us about something inappropriate you've seen, we agree to not overreact and get angry, that we will always be supportive of your endeavors. And anyway, they kind of have this mutual contract. So there's a few ways you can create the family media plan. But talking about it in advance and setting those expectations and having your kids even be involved in that is a really good way to do it. So that's the first one.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Second one, create tech-free zones and encourage children to foster in-person relationships. So one of the biggest issues that we see right now is a lack of human connection and how it's affecting kids and adults. Going through COVID and all of that, there was an impact there with that human connection piece. So right now we've got kids walking through the halls at school glued to their phones. They're not saying hi, they're not connecting, and they're missing that in-person connection. They're missing that. They can't just be friends over a device. You have to have that in-person connection for you to really feel that and have it positively impact your mental health.

Anthony Godfrey:
And a device is a really easy way to extricate yourself from an awkward social situation. Even adults do that. While I'm standing around for a second, okay, I'm gonna look at my phone and now I feel comfortable because I don't feel like I'm obviously standing here alone not talking to someone.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Right.

Anthony Godfrey:
And as a result, the disengagement just kind of perpetuates itself.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's right. Well, and as parents, when we set those tech-free zones, I mean, it's easy to say, okay, everybody, we're checking our phones in during dinnertime, or when we have family activities, or whether we're reading or watching a movie together, bedtime, setting that bedtime time that we talked about is really important as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, you're right. I need to be better at dinnertime. I don't know how you knew that, but I do need to be better at dinnertime.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's why I'm here, Dr. Godfrey.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know. You're here to help. You're here to help.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more tips on what parents can do to prevent some of the potential negative impacts from student use of social media.

Break:
Hello, I'm Stacee Worthen, Secondary Counseling Specialist for Jordan School District. Do you know all the ways Jordan School District counselors can help you and your student? School counselors play such an important role in our schools. They provide parents with resources to help guide their children in academics. They provide support with the mental and social well-being of students in our schools. And if you are in the process of preparing a student for college, or just beginning the conversation of higher education, now is the perfect time to reach out to your child's counselor. We can assist with college applications and college readiness. I encourage parents and guardians to schedule an appointment and get to know your student's counselor. Together, counselors and parents can help develop plans and strategies for students to succeed long after they leave Jordan School District. Reach out! We're always here to help. You can find us and learn more at counseling.jordandistrict.org.

Aimee Winder Newton:
So the third one is, and this one goes along with what we were just saying, model responsible social media behavior.

Anthony Godfrey;
Yes.

Aimee Winder Newton:
You know, there's a study that came out of the Wheatley Institute that showed that what affects a kid's mental health even more than them being on social media was how much their parents are on social media. So when a kid has to compete with Instagram or TikTok for their parents' attention, it's sending a pretty strong message to that child. We need parents to model good behavior with their devices.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a really important point. And I'm getting emails day and night, and it's really easy for me to just remain engaged with that unless I'm very intentional about, as you described, thinking about the idea that I'm setting an example and I need to have these zones that are tech-free.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah. Well, and I think-- I mean, what message is it sending to our spouses and others in our life when we're choosing our phones over that human interaction? The fourth one is work with other parents to establish shared norms and practices. So this is working with your kid’s friend’s parents to say, “Okay, our kids are all friends. Let's agree on which apps or which means of communication we're going to allow our kids to have.” And if you have this coalition with other parents to say, we're not gonna do Snapchat or we're not gonna do, we're not gonna have these apps. We want our kids to be texting each other instead or whatever it is. So much easier to convince your kids that they're not the only ones that have to do this.

Now, I will add a caveat. Sometimes the other parents aren't willing to do it or they don't stick to it. And you know what? You just have to be brave and you have to be courageous as parents and say, this is my kid, I'm going to do what I think is right for them no matter what their friends' parents do. But that does help. If you can get a group and rally together, it helps our kids.

Then the fifth one is to reconsider allowing your child to use social media, period. Our governor has a 16-year-old daughter. They do not allow her to use social media yet. I had a neighbor who they didn't allow their daughter to use social media. And it's interesting, she's 20 now. And I remember there were battles, it was hard. She's 20 now and she will tell you she's so grateful. She saw what that did to the other girls that she was in school with. And she was so grateful her parents stuck to their guns and that she didn't have it. Now they found creative ways to do it. So for instance, she had an Instagram account but she could only use it on her mom's iPad. So she'd get permission from her mom to upload her dance pictures or things like that so that she wasn't totally out. But it was limited. It wasn't on her phone. It was on her mom's iPad and she'd get a few minutes to do that and then it stops the continual scrolling or checking back to see what kind of feedback they're getting from likes and comments and that type of thing. So there's a way that you can do it.

I think parents are gonna find it's going to become more popular to just say, we're not gonna let you have social media yet. And even our surgeon general came out and said, 13 is too young. Consider 16, 17, or 18, and figure out when your child is mature enough. But he, the US Surgeon General has said 13 is too young.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, one of the statistics that I found on your website is in a national survey of girls 11 to 15, one-third or more say they feel addicted to a social media platform. So a third of girls who are not even at the age where we would recommend that they even start with social media, they're already addicted.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, it's very addicting. I mean, they're creating algorithms to try to keep people on. That's part of it. So this is an issue, and it's an issue for adults too, but our kids' brains aren't fully developed and so that's why we're seeing such major impacts to their mental health.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it's also impactful when, as part of the campaign, I've heard discussions about how social media is created to be addictive. And I think especially as a teen and even as an adult, once you understand that they are deliberately trying to addict you to your interactions on social media, you're much more cautious about how you approach it.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's right, that's right. Well, and even in our TV ads that we're doing with this, you know, we show a child with a mask on and it looks like they're smiling and they're scrolling on their phones and everything's A-OK. Then you start seeing the negative messages they're getting about their body or that they have no friends or whatever and then the mask comes off, and you see them crying, and a parent's there to put their arm around and take the phone away.

That's kind of what we're trying to help parents understand is your kids are hurting inside. If you ask high schoolers, if everybody had to get rid of social media, is that better? Or if some can have it and some don't? And they'll say, if everybody got rid of it, that would be better for us. It would be better for our mental health. But they're worried about the social piece and the level playing field because it is such an integrated part.

One of the things that we've even said for our schools is, “Hey, figure out a different platform to advertise your activities.” I mean, there's some apps out there that are not social media based that can still advertise and show fun games and sports events and the things that are happening at the school, but it's not now kids having to go to Twitter or Facebook or Instagram to find out what's going on at the school. It's in an app format. So, I mean, there's ways our schools can even be involved to help.

Anthony Godfrey:
No, I think those are great suggestions. ‘Unmask the Dangers of Social Media’ that's the name of the campaign. I do think those ads are very impactful. And, you know, when you, again, I go back to the statistics. Teens who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes. According to a survey of 8th and 10th graders, the average time spent on social media is 3.5 hours per day. So when you couple those together, social media is difficult to manage, especially for younger kids.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Well, and get this, this statistic is startling to me. Almost 60% of teen girls say they've been contacted on social media by a stranger in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. So we're dealing with lots of issues with social media. You've got the potential predator issues. We hear of the sextortion cases and even other issues there. Exposure to inappropriate material that is not appropriate for their age. But then there's other things that are getting feedback on body image. I mean, the body image issue is huge for girls especially. Depending on your worth being based on likes and comments and all of that. Like there's the filters now where nobody knows what's real anymore and how that's distorting their body image. I mean, there's just so many issues that we're concerned about.

Anthony Godfrey:
And some of the issues, as you described, are just obviously problematic, obviously harmful, that many are insidious. They're not obviously on their face- they don't appear to be as damaging as they really are.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Right, exactly. Thus the mask analogy, right? Parents may think that everything's just fine with their kids as they're sitting there scrolling and inside they're hurting. We want to engage, educate, and empower those parents. We need their help. We need them to be brave. We need them to be courageous and to stand up and figure out what is right for their children and we highly recommend that you think twice about your child using social media.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the reaction you've received to the campaign.

Aimee Winder Newton:
You know, we've had so many positive comments about the campaign even from people who have kind of been naysayers in the past on some of this, they've loved it because what we want to do is help give parents a reality check really on what's happening with their children. And so we've had great comments from parents, even from other teens and those who are on social media.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it is a complex issue for families because there are different levels of involvement that parents are accustomed to and children are accustomed to. But the bottom line is that really an intentional approach that's informed with an understanding of how these social media sites work, the statistics on the potential harm, and really keeping in mind the ideas for managing it in a way that makes sense for your family. It's all very important information and I'm really grateful for the campaign and for the work you and the Governor are doing to get the word out.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Well, thank you and we appreciate the leadership with Jordan School District. The Governor is so grateful for all the hard work that you guys do to educate our kids and to be involved. You know, it's interesting how our schools now are expected not just to help with learning and education, but so many other facets of a child's life. And so we know that you see the impacts as well. So thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for all your efforts. Thanks for taking time with us today. And it's great to be working together with you on this important issue.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for everything.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She is known as an extraordinary teacher who goes above and beyond for her students every single day. In fact, this amazing educator never forgets a face, keeping a picture and list of every student who has come into her classroom since 2019.

On this episode of the Supercast, meet Riverton High School CTE teacher Buffy Blunck. Ms. Blunck was recently honored as a 2023 “Superstar in Education” by the Utah Education Association. Listen and find out why.

We are here with Buffy Blunck, winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award for 2023 for Jordan School District. Buffy, congratulations.

Buffy Blunck:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's great to be here in your classroom at Riverton High School. Tell me a little bit about the award.

Buffy Blunck:
Well, it was a surprise and I'm very privileged to get it. It was given to me by one of my colleagues and it was one of the ten in the state of Utah that I was able to win. I was one of the ten people and it was a great honor to get this award. They did give me a cash prize for it, which was amazing. So that was nice from Ivory Homes. So that's a neat thing. I was able to do a banquet where I was given the award and I also had the ability to do a speech. I met the other 10 people and was given a poster. It was just a wonderful honor and my principal was there. And then also Melissa Brown and Rochelle Waite, my principal, were there representing UEA and JEA and my involvement with that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, congratulations.

Buffy Blunck:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's an honor well deserved. I've long known about Buffy Blunck and the great things that you do in this district, and we've talked about having you on for a long time.

Buffy Blunck:
Yes, we have.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right from the start.

Buffy Blunck:
Being a health teacher, that's why.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a long time coming, so I'm glad that we're here. I want to talk a little bit about your classroom first of all. The fact that you're a fantastic teacher just is immediately apparent as you walk into your classroom. Tell me about your mug wall. Let's walk over there. Let's walk over and check it out.

Buffy Blunck:
When I came to Jordan School District from Canyon School District and I ended up teaching Health in the classroom, I decided that my theme for the year is, or every year, kind of my philosophy is I'm here for you. And so I really like to get to know all my students, their names, even though I have, right now I have 252 students.

Anthony Godfrey;
Oh wow.

Buffy Blunck:
But I get to know their names and then at the end of the semester, when they leave, they have the opportunity to do a little Polaroid picture. So on my wall, I have all my students starting from 2019 when I kind of came up with this idea. And they're all up on my wall. For the past, I would say, missing COVID, of course, I wasn't able to do that, but you can see even a group of students back there with masks on.

But it just shows my students how much they mean to me. And when they come in and they see their brothers or sisters or their friends, they love to see all of their names and their pictures on the wall. So it's just my little mug wall. And I think they love to see that and see the connection that I have. And I have seniors that come back 'cause I mostly teach sophomores, and they'll come back and wanna get a picture of their senior, or look at them when they were a sophomore. And I don't force them, so it's just something that, if they want to do that, they can, but most of them end up loving to do it. So it's really, and it just makes me happy. It just makes me feel good about seeing all my students and know that they were in my class, and they love to come back and visit and take a picture of themselves or just visit.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love the theme, I am here for you. Then you have a sign laid up at the front of your classroom that says that. So they don't forget it. Every day they know that.

Buffy Blunck:
They know I'm here for them. No matter what, any way, in any capacity, especially teaching health and the way things are going, that is something that I'm always there. I always have lifesavers or treats or if they need anything, it's a safe haven for them to come. We are very open in this classroom and they just know that I love them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Would you say that I am here for you is your philosophy of teaching?

Buffy Blunck:
Yes, it is, it is. That's how I believe the safety and the feeling of my room should be - that I'm always gonna be there for them, no matter what. If they're having a bad day, just having a place to come where they can be themselves or if they are sad, if they need a break, that I'm here for them. So if they come after school or before school, that I'm always there. If they need to reach out through email, that I'm gonna take the time just to show them I care for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that.

Buffy Blunck:
And mostly it's just a smile, knowing their name, saying “hi” to them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, the treats and the sign certainly help but it's the way you treat them that makes the difference.

Buffy Blunck:
Yes, I have my tables are in groups. I have fun things all around the room so they're easily entertained so they can keep their focus or lack of focus. Either way, I'm going to care for them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now even even before coming here I did hear that you had some really exciting visual aids in your class. I do. Tell me about some of the things that you have to help them stay focused.

Buffy Blunck:
I just teach Health and so of course my subject deals with all the anatomy of the body. I also teach Health Sciences for CTE. I'm very heavily involved with ACTE and all the CTE teachers for the state of Utah. So that is a big priority to me is to know the body and to feel safe so I have a lot of stuffed animals of the anatomy parts of the body. I have a lot of visual aids of just the body. I'm in charge of HOSA clubs so a lot of the things are tied into CTSO. I really believe in trying to help kids get into the medical field and obviously learn about that aspect of their lives or that direction they can take at the tech centers. And so that's a big huge priority. I’m also a big advocate for teachers on the CTE level. I’ve gone to Washington a couple times to advocate for teachers at the national level.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you’ve held some leadership positions at the state level?

Buffy Blunck:
Yes, and I still do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about that.

Buffy Blunck:
I work with ACTE. I've been the president. ACTE is Association of Career and Technical Education and I've been the president of that, and now I'm not the president anymore but I'm on the executive board and plan all the conferences. So we do a mid-winter conference for about a thousand teachers from all over the state. That's in February. I get to plan that and have a lot of fun with that and continue that education for teachers on that and the networking and the camaraderie.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic. So you do a ton to support students and a lot to support fellow teachers not just in this school but well beyond.

Buffy Blunck:
Yes, but I am blessed. I have an amazing village here at Riverton High School. My teachers here, my colleagues, they know how much I care about them too and how much they've been there for me throughout the years. I do feel their support and their love. I take pictures, we do the faculty slideshow at the end of the year, but it's just something that I love - the camaraderie that I have amongst my teachers. They're my village, they're my people, and so I'm lucky that I have that network. And then I'm able to share that same love and passion to my students. But it starts, you know, with the administration and the teachers and the people that I have surrounding me, including you at the district level.

I am very blessed that way too. To know people that are supporting me. That have moved to the district level that I still know, and to know that I have people backing me. Even at the UEA level and the JEA level. I feel like there’s still - there's hope. There's still people that are supporting us and fighting for us teachers to help us be better educators and better people all around.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely. Absolutely true. Now you sure seem to love what you do.

Buffy Blunck:
I do.

Anthony Godfrey:
Every aspect.

Buffy Blunck:
I've been doing this for 26 years and I would never change any of it. I don't regret any of it. I've worked in so many capacities and have a problem with saying no. I do have my no button over here that I push, but I definitely don't know how to say it.

Anthony Godfrey:
It looks like it's stuck. It doesn't work.

Buffy Blunck:
It is. I just really believe in being involved. I think that's my biggest thing, I like to be at the games. I like to help out. I'm on committees. I think the more involved you are the better, you know what I mean?

Anthony Godfrey:
I love that. Thank you for everything that you're doing.

Stay with us when we come back more with Buffy Blunck.

Break:
Does your student want to become a veterinarian? Commercial pilot? Programmer? Maybe they want to make a difference as a dental assistant, work in digital media, robotics, welding, or web design. These are just some of the programs offered as part of Career and Technical Education, CTE in Jordan School District. CTE provides the technical skills needed to prepare students for future employment and/or a successful transition to post-secondary education. Career and Technical Education provides work-based learning opportunities. We partner with industry experts to offer apprenticeships and internships with students working in the real world at real jobs while going to school. The CTE experience starts in our elementary schools with the Kids' Marketplace and grows through middle and high school. Our two Jordan Academy for Technology and Careers (JATC) campuses offer unique programs to fit your child’s dreams for the future. To explore all CTE has to offer in Jordan School District visit cte.jordandistrict.org today and let's get your child started on the pathway to a profession.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now this mug wall is difficult to describe if you're not here. It's the smaller Polaroid photos, but this wall is plastered with photos of individual students, mostly with their name written underneath. And it's just - it's really fun to see all these smiling faces all together that kind of tracks the history of life with Buffy.

Buffy Blunk:
Yep. There's, I would probably say, I guess there's probably around a thousand pictures above my wall of all of my students, like I said, since 2019, minus the COVID year. And just at the end of the semesters, I take all my students and ask them to take a picture. And like I said, 99% of them do put their name on it and they're up on my wall.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it's the first thing you notice when you walk in.

Buffy Blunk:
I did it as you walk in.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's an eye-catcher just as you go in. It looks like kind of a mosaic from a distance.

Buffy Blunk:
It does. It does.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you come up and hey, it's real human beings that have had a great time in your class, obviously.

Buffy Blunk:
And they're all the same and just the mini photos they do. So it is a little bit of expense too, but it's worth it. They're worth it to me.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's fantastic.

Buffy Blunk:
When students come in that I don't ever expect to come in just to take a picture or a brother or sister says, "Oh my gosh, that's my brother up there. That's my sister up there. And they loved your class.” It just makes a connection and it makes them feel safe in here, that they knew someone here. It could be a neighbor or somebody there that they recognize. And yes, when I come in and this is what I see, it's the reason why I'm a teacher. My students on my wall, my mug wall. And so it does help me sometimes when I'm tired or exhausted or even just trying to teach a subject that's sensitive. This wall is a representation of why I do what I do.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is a big group of very, very lucky kids to have had your class. And you've got a lot of wall space, Buffy.

Buffy Blunk:
I know, okay.

Anthony Godfrey:
Many years ahead. Plenty of wall space.

Buffy Blunk:
Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
I mean, we'll knock down a load-bearing wall and get you some extra space if you need it.

Buffy Blunk:
Thank you. A bigger room, I’ll take it.

Anthony Godfrey:
We can start on the ceiling. Let's not let space stop you.

Buffy Blunk:
It won't. It won't stop me. And it won't stop me being there for my students no matter what. I have a fun time teaching. I love teaching health. I think the subject is something that I lucked out, that I get to teach it because it's something that's every one of us. And I love teaching the fun parts of it. I mean, all the students know that they take my class, they're gonna get it. They're gonna get the real stuff, we're gonna have the real talks.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, you teach Health and Intro to Health Sciences. Just off the top of your head, what are some of the most important things that students learn in your health class?

Buffy Blunk:
Mental health is a big thing that they love to talk about. And my biggest focus when I talk about mental health is that everybody's different and we gotta break down the stigmas that we have out there. That it's okay if you take medicine, it's okay if you need counseling, and that we all need to be there for each other. The most important thing is to be aware and to listen and to ask hard questions with our friends. And I think that's the biggest thing, but I love talking about it. I love opening up the can of worms and making sure that it's a safe environment to talk about things. And I do. I have students that come and talk to me after and plant seeds and when we break down those walls. That's my favorite part is to break down those walls with mental health.

And then of course, sex ed is always a big huge draw to the class. I love that the curriculum changed, so I have the ability to educate my students on what's important, what's going on out there. Not to focus on any of the taboo things that people are so scared to talk about. I talk about the basics. I talk about what makes us unique, but just the basics of our human anatomy, and then everyone else can fill that in, and we all have our prerogative to do that. So those are the big two topics.

I also love smart goals. I've a big focus on smart goals and mini-goals and atomic habits. We focus on as many things as we can because it's something really hard to learn about as goals, it's always this thing. You're gonna be dealing with goals with your whole entire life. So I try to make sure that they see that they do it every single day and they don't even know they're doing it. So I bring that in in our habits and things that hopefully will change their life.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a 360 approach to health. I love that you're talking about their mental health, but also that they need to ask hard questions of their friends so they're looking out for the people around them. Now tell me about your Intro to Health Sciences classes.

Buffy Blunk:
Oh, I love it. So that class is a little more intense. I call it honors health if you want to call that. We go into more of the different aspects of the body, but more importantly, we learn about all the different careers. It's an Intro to Health Sciences, so it's an intro into the medical field. So anybody that's interested in going into the medical field or any of those pathways at the tech center or the higher-level classes, my medical anatomy and physiology, EMR, medical forensics, any of those, this would be a class to kind of make sure that this is an area that you want to go into and give them the basics. So when they go into those classes, they'll be successful. We really do focus on careers, diseases, and disorders.

But again, back to the careers. I love learning about and teaching these kids what classes, what careers they can go into, the right pathways to get them excited about that. And that's the same with our CTSO HOSA Club, which is future health professionals, which is an international organization. I work with another teacher, and we really inspire these kids to do blood drives and do all of these amazing things. Speakers come in and talk about their different careers. We have activities that we do. We're doing a service project right now for Maui and collecting toothpaste and toothbrushes and anything medical, band-aids, anything to mail that over with Bluffdale City. So it's a great opportunity that we're starting this week and this next month. So that's kind of what our HOSA club does. And more importantly, I just try to get them passionate about the medical field.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if someone is thinking about being part of HOSA, what do they need to do and what does that involve? Do they need to be in one of your health occupations classes to participate in HOSA? How does that work?

Buffy Blunk:
They do not. We actually just had a club rush week and so we just kind of promoted it with all the other different CTSOs and clubs here at Riverton. Then we go into health classes, we make morning announcements, anyone can join. I do have a lot of students that are in other classes or they heard about it from sophomore orientation, we do that right before school, and obviously during the assembly. We just try to get the word out through posters and banners around the school. So anybody can join, I have an application in my room or in the main office and they can sign up. They do pay $20, it is a national fee and a state fee, and we give them a t-shirt. The expectation is try to get involved once a month at an activity or some things that we end up doing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Friendship and service included no extra charge.

Buffy Blunk:
No extra charge. And food.

Anthony Godfrey:
And food.

Buffy Blunk:
'Cause of course you have to have food.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right.

Buffy Blunk:
So we're having a little luau with our Maui fundraiser.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fantastic.

Buffy Blunk:
It is a great way for kids that have the same interests are in the same club.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of the careers that you cover in the class. And maybe if you can think of some students who have ended up in those careers as a result of exploring them here at Riverton High.

Buffy Blunk:
I do. I actually, my HOSA president that took my class and then a whole bunch of other classes here at Riverton. He is actually now a Surgery Tech student at Riverton Hospital.

Anthony Godfrey:
Great.

Buffy Blunk:
So he is being very successful. I have a lot of students that want to go into be a vet or a pediatrician or an OB/GYN or even have some that want to go into psychology or social work or physical therapy or PA. We cover everything, even recreational therapy is something that some students do. If they're interested in athletics we teach them about athletic training and they can take a class and a pathway. Dentistry. I mean you name it we cover it. Anything from the basic doctor all the way to something a little bit on the way of physical therapy aid or recreational therapy as I said. We cover it all and we make sure that they understand where they are. I've had students who wanted to be a vet their whole life. They kind of take the class, they learn about it and some of them realize it's not all about rainbows and puppies that there is some issues with it, or they're not very good at blood, or they don't want to see animals die. Hopefully, I can even teach them that there might be something else they're interested in.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Buffy Blunk:
Or number two, that maybe they'll go to plan B because that's not something they want to do and so I save them a lot of time and energy going into the wrong pathway. Anthony Godfrey:
Figuring out early on whether plan A or plan B is going to be the best path is really important. Well, you've taken great care of hundreds of kids over the decades and you've connected them with great careers and helped them explore their interests and understand their own health better. I can't thank you enough for the incredible impact you've had on students.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thank you and thanks for even highlighting me. I'm just lucky to be where I'm at and lucky to be a teacher. I love what I do and I appreciate you talking to me and asking me questions.

Anthony Godfrey;
Well, we're very very lucky to have you in Jordan District, and thanks for everything you're doing.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. In Jordan School District, tracking data on everything from literacy and math scores to student graduation rates, rising enrollment, and more is essential to the work we do. Following the data shows us trends so we can improve and celebrate student success.

On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with the dedicated team responsible for research, evaluation, and sorting out Jordan School District by the numbers.

We're talking today with the Department of Evaluation, Research, and Accountability here in Jordan School District to talk about Jordan by the numbers. Thanks for joining us. Introduce yourselves and let's talk Jordan by the numbers.

Ben Jameson:
Awesome, well, I'm Ben Jameson. I get to be the department's director and it's a pleasure to be with you today.

Brooke Anderson:
Hi, my name is Brooke Anderson. I'm the data scientist working for Jordan District and working with Ben, and it's very exciting to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
The newly appointed data scientist. It's very exciting to have you in that role.

Brooke Anderson:
This is my first day as a data scientist at Jordan District.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm glad we can memorialize it through the podcast here. Let's just start off with talking a little bit about what your roles are. Your role is brand new, Brooke, so you get to make it whatever you want it to be. But Ben, let's start with you.

Ben Jameson:
So I supervise quite a few assessments that are state and federally mandated as well as a few district-mandated assessments. And then we're responsible for disseminating that data and making sure that people understand what it is and know how to make data-driven decisions based on that data.

Anthony Godfrey:
And many of those assessments, as you indicated, really are not district-required assessments. Those come from the state or the federal level. A vast majority of them, in fact.

Ben Jameson:
Yeah, the vast majority actually come from the state. We've got a couple from the federal government as well. Yep.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Brooke, tell us about what you have been doing in the department and about your new role as a data scientist because that may be a term that many are not familiar with.

Brooke Anderson:
Well, I've been working as a teacher specialist in evaluation research and accountability and in that role, I was cleaning and analyzing all of this assessment data and trying to combine it with all of the other data available that we have about students to ask and answer bigger and better questions about student learning. That's really the goal. The role of a data scientist specifically works on asking questions that are important to the organization and in combining data from multiple sources to make sense of it. To make sure that we can get all the data from the different information systems that we use. Turn it into usable data and analytics that can lead to knowledge that can lead to action. So a data scientist is all about making it easier to make decisions.

Anthony Godfrey:
And to make data-driven decisions.

Brooke Anderson:
Right.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's really exciting to talk with you both about this. If you've ever watched Shark Tank, the panel of entrepreneurs on Shark Tank always say know your numbers. And they throw that out at the questions about what are their sales and what of all this. So those who listen to the podcast after this will know their numbers when it comes to Jordan School District.

Brooke Anderson:
That's right.

Anthony Godfrey:
So let's start off before we talk about the changes in Jordan which I do want to talk about, let's just talk about where we are, how large we are, the makeup of our population, our student population, that sort of thing.

Brooke Anderson:
Fantastic. We are a large school district. Currently we've we've got about 57,829 students enrolled and we are probably going to have about that same or a little bit more this year enrolled. Normally we take enrollment counts as of October 1. So school districts in the state wait until October 1 to get their official count of students enrolled in their school district.

Anthony Godfrey:
School funding has changed a little bit. That October 1 count used to be where all of our funding came from. That’s been updated- daily membership is part of that.

Brooke Anderson:
To an average daily membership. Yes, that's right.

Anthony Godfrey:
But October 1 remains that date where we say, "Okay, everybody's pretty much registered for the school year. We're underway. People who are going to drop off of the rolls have dropped off. So now we pretty much have a solid number."

Brooke Anderson:
That's correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's interesting though, Jordan School District is the fourth-largest school district in Utah and even more interesting, the 70th largest district in the nation. Now do you guys know how many there are? So we're number 70, how many school districts are there roughly in the nation?

Brooke Anderson:
Over 13,000.

Anthony Godfrey:
Somebody asked me that the other day and I tried to look that up so I'm glad to have the right number from you. And how many districts are there in the country overall?

Brooke Anderson:
Over 13,000.

Anthony Godfrey:
So over 13,000 we're 70th in terms of enrollment, fourth in the state. I know that Granite, Alpine, and Davis are ahead of us I'm not sure in what order. We are growing but we're growing at a slower rate than we're accustomed to. Birth rates have dropped and not as many people are moving in. How recently was it that we really had big growth?

Brooke Anderson:
I'd say our largest period of growth was about five years ago, pre-pandemic for sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, that's my recollection as well that it really did taper off. It's interesting, all districts are experiencing that and really it's being experienced across the country. It's an interesting phenomenon.

Brooke Anderson:
It is. It's especially interesting, you know, thinking of where we were ten years ago and looking at our enrollment comparison to Granite, who is our next-door neighbor. And at this trajectory, we're going to maybe surpass Granite in enrollment within the next couple of years because their enrollment is dropping so steeply.

Brooke Anderson:
Let’s talk about schools. Talk about the number of schools we have at each level and the type of schools that we have.

Brooke Anderson:
So we have 68 individual schools. 40 of those are traditional elementary schools and we've got one online elementary school. We have 12 traditional middle schools, one online, six traditional high schools, one alternative high school, and one online high school. And we have a special needs school for students in K-12. We also have a special needs school for adult students. We have two career and technical academies and we also have a preschool which we run for students with special needs before they enter kindergarten.

Anthony Godfrey:
A wide range of services.

Brooke Anderson:
Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
Lots of different schools throughout a growing area. So with all of that talk to me about the changes that we've experienced as a district over the years. It's really quite interesting to look at those trends.

Brooke Anderson:
One of the major trends we've had is that we're becoming diversified. So if you looked at our enrollment 10 years ago We would have had only about 20% of students who would be considered a racial or ethnic minority. And now we're almost 30%. So that's quite a big change over the course of 10 years. And it's a wonderful change because that means that more diversity is being included in our schools. And of course, we've got an increasing amount of diversity in our staff as well. It's not quite to the level of where our students are, but it is increasing.

Anthony Godfrey:
Not only have we grown as a district, but our enrollment has changed and it's shifted.

Brooke Anderson:
Right, it's much more concentrated toward the south part of the valley. We all know that area has built up so much in such a short time. And of course, there are fewer students in the north side of our district. So the needs of where we need to put students in school buildings have shifted pretty dramatically.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's interesting to watch. When I first worked in Jordan's school district, I applied as a teacher. I was excited about Jordan because I knew that it was a growing district. So I thought that would mean more and more opportunities. I worked out at a school that no longer exists, being a middle school out in Copperton, that was torn down due to any number of reasons. New schools were built. And I was always told, "Hey, out here in Copperton, you see all these fields and you can't see where the next house is from Copperton, but all those houses are going to fill in all the way to Copperton eventually.' And there's been a lot of progress in that direction. A lot fewer fields and a lot more homes and that's what we're finding on the west, westernmost edge of our district and in the southwest area as well.

Brooke Anderson:
Copperton is still our only rural part of the district that would be considered rural.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Brooke Anderson:
But maybe not for long.

Anthony Godfrey:
Not for long, not for long. I lived out in Copperton, I loved Copperton, it's a great spot.

Stay with us when we come back, we dive into growing graduation rates and district enrollment.

Break:
Hello, I'm Tracy Miller, President of the Jordan School District Board of Education. There are seven members on the Board of Education, one in each voting district. We are committed to listening and serving our constituents as we work together to provide the best possible learning environment for the students we serve. As members of the Jordan Board of Education, we believe it is our duty and responsibility to: increase student achievement; provide parents with the choices they deserve and desire; recognize and reward quality in educators; empower school leaders through policy governance and professional development; and communicate with the public, legislators, business leaders, cities, and parents. We invite you to get to know the Board member who represents you in your voting district and to please join us at our monthly board meeting held on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Or listen from the comfort of your home, on our live stream. For more information and to find your Board member, visit jordandistrict.org. With parent and community input and support, we will continue our work to give students every opportunity to succeed in Jordan District schools and beyond. Thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell us a little bit about maybe some surprising facts about Jordan District that people might not be aware of. What makes Jordan unique?

Brooke Anderson:
Oh, I would like to talk about some of the things that have changed with our enrollment and bringing in new students. Did you know that we have 82 different birth countries represented, students from 82 different countries attend Jordan District?

Anthony Godfrey:
I knew we had a lot. I could not have told you the number 82. That's really remarkable. That's amazing.

Brooke Anderson:
The students in Jordan District speak 58 different languages. We're getting about 8% of our students are learning English. They're in the process of learning English. And then some of them, of course, already know English, but we have 58 languages represented among our students as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell everyone some of the most predominant languages spoken.

Brooke Anderson:
Of course, the most predominant languages, English, then Spanish, then Portuguese, then Arabic is number four, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tongan, Samoan, Russian, and Mongolian.

Anthony Godfrey:
Fascinating. We really do have a broad range of students from a lot of different backgrounds and that's exciting.

Brooke Anderson:
It is.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk about student achievement. Let's discuss some of the areas where Jordan has been doing particularly well and is on an upward trend and some areas where we really have been working on trying to improve.

Ben Jameson:
So I think maybe the best place to start is right at the beginning with early literacy in our early grades. We put forth a great deal of effort to help our students read on grade level by third grade and I'm excited with some of the numbers that have come out most recently. Just for instance, 71.7% of kindergartners are reading on grade level at the end of last year. That's the highest that it's ever been in Jordan School District. Even by third grade, which was that time where students transitioned between learning to read to reading to learn, 71.3% of our third graders are also reading on grade level, meeting literacy benchmarks at the end of third grade. So we're super excited about that.

We're seeing actually quite a bit of growth across grade levels. For instance, 65% of students in grades K through 3 made typical or better growth, which is the highest that it's ever been in the school district. Kindergarten students, again, not only did they have the highest proficiency, but they had the highest growth rate that they've ever had at nearly 59% of students making typical or better growth. 66% of second grade students made typical or better growth, which again is the highest that it's ever been. I keep saying that because it feels so good to say.

Anthony Godfrey:
It does feel good to say that. And we're doing things we haven't done before. We have the Walk to Read program that we rolled out a couple of years ago. We had piloted it a year before that. And teachers have worked very hard-- coaches, administrators, folks from teaching and learning, parents, students. Everyone's been working really hard to get those results.

I'm particularly excited about the boosting scores for kindergarten students. So they're getting a better start in Jordan District than they ever have before. And a great predictor of graduation rates is the percentage of students reading on grade level in third grade. And a great predictor of that is how well students are doing in kindergarten. So I think we're gonna continue to see the positive impact of the students learning to read at an earlier age and with greater proficiency.

And I also wanna point out, a year's growth and the typical or better growth is harder to achieve than you might think because you may have students who are very advanced coming into a class and that statistic reflects their growth as well. It's just not, are you reading on grade level or on the expected level for your age and grade level? It's that you've made growth wherever you started, whether you started with a very low reading ability or very high scores, it's that you grew for the entire year and you made that progress that we would expect and teachers are working really, really hard to make sure that happens.

Ben Jameson:
It really is a celebration for everyone involved, all of our stakeholders. And it's exciting to report that we're making such progress.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk about graduation rates.

Ben Jameson:
90.2% of students in the graduating class of 2022 were able to graduate, which is the highest in Jordan School District that it's ever been. And that's super exciting for us to report as well. Having talked about growth in early literacy, this kind of bookends the hard work that's going on at the other end of the educational spectrum.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's really exciting to have the highest graduation rates we've ever had. It's wonderful and we're going to keep working on that trajectory. Coming out of a pandemic, it's really important that that number continues to grow.

I think what's important as well is the work that has been done to be sure that that graduation is even more meaningful than it's ever been. That the experiences that lead to that graduation are rich learning experiences. And again, our teachers have worked so hard to create great classroom environments, great learning environments for our students. So that not only are more students graduating than ever before, but they're having a better experience in learning more than ever before.

Brooke Anderson:
And we can also see that students are being offered more options for the courses they can take in high school, particularly advanced college and career readiness courses. We can see that the number of students taking CTE courses, for example, has increased. It's the highest it's ever been in 2022 and 2023 to about 19% to 20%. We love seeing that and that's up from about 16% in 2015 so we like getting more students into those kind of classes.

Anthony Godfrey:
A variety of experience is really important. It's something we focused on and we want to prepare students for a lot of different things after high school whether it's career, whether it's college, whether it's technical training. So we're not solely focused on college where we have many programs that lead directly to careers or to licensing programs or to other post-secondary educational opportunities. So really the nice thing about having so many students in so many schools is we have a critical mass of people that are interested, that are going to be interested in a wide variety of programs so it allows us to offer more and more of those specialized courses.

Brooke Anderson:
One of my favorite tasks every year is being able to update a master course catalog with all the new courses that have been added.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Brooke Anderson:
We've been able to add things like the history of Disney in America, Everyday Chemistry all of those fun courses that I look at that and I think I wish I could take that course.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, absolutely. There's a Rock-and-Roll course that I would really like to sit in on. These are meaningful courses focused around skills and dispositions that we want students to have as they as they graduate. We're working right now on the Portrait of a Graduate process under the Board's direction. And we're getting community input, employee input, student input on what skills do we want students to have, what knowledge, what dispositions when they graduate from Jordan School District. And having that input and really putting that plan in place is an exciting process too. So I think we're going to continue to make progress along these same lines.

Brooke Anderson:
We've certainly made progress in the amount of students taking advanced courses. We have 34% of our students in grades 9 through 12 taking AP, Concurrent Enrollment, Secondary Math 3, very advanced math, all of those kind of college preparation courses, which is great to see.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which speaks to the preparation that leads up to students being ready for those courses, but also that we have educators encouraging students to take more challenging courses and really inspiring students and helping them understand their own capabilities and seeing beyond what maybe they thought they were capable of. Let's talk about some of the areas where we know that improvement is needed. And we've been working hard, but we're maybe shifting our focus and trying some new things to see if we can impact those scores in a positive way.

Ben Jameson:
So RISE is the summative assessment that is mandated by the state that we administer to students in grades three through eight in language, arts, math, and science. And so we've been monitoring those scores, particularly through the height of the pandemic and keeping a watch on those scores and how they've been affected by, you know, the various impacts that the pandemic brought along. We did see a drop during the pandemic in all three content areas. We are starting to see a bounce back in the content areas, especially in the elementary grade levels. But we definitely need to still continue to work and keep an eye on our performance, especially at the secondary levels in language arts, math, and science. I think that is something that we are focusing on with teachers even on a daily basis. They're working hard to help students recover some of the learning gaps that came about because of all the things that happened during the pandemic.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. And there's so much, you know, we've talked about the pandemic so much, of course, over the last few years and the impact that it's had on learning. And some folks may be tired of hearing that. And we don't want to have a deficit mentality where we're always focused on where we're falling short. But we also have to be realistic about the negative impact that this had on students.

If you think about how much you changed from, say, sixth grade to eighth grade, or second grade to fourth grade, or ninth grade to being a junior in high school, those two years were not normal years. And so the development and the academic achievement wasn't where it normally would have been. And so we didn't get the interactions with each other and the school setting and all of that in the same way that students normally benefit from.

So we're still going to be playing catch-up on that, but we've really focused on looking forward and celebrating success and building on the successes that we have. And I really think that we're going to continue to see this upward trend as teachers and students and families have really worked hard to overcome those setbacks. We've talked about where we've come, where we are. Let's talk about where we're headed.

Brooke Anderson:
So Jordan District in the next five years we've reached kind of a plateau in our student enrollment and we expect that plateau to continue as demographics may shift a little bit, enrollment may shift in different parts of the district, but really we're expecting to see things to stay pretty stable for the next few years.

Anthony Godfrey:
And we've seen explosive growth for a long time so it's a different adjustment, but like you said it's a shift also in where those students are moving.

Brooke Anderson:
Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
Also, let’s talk a little bit about Tableau- what Tableau is, how we're using it, and how it allows us to make those data-driven decisions in the district.

Ben Jameson:
So Tableau is a data visualization program that all of our school administrators and many of our district administrators, coaches, counselors have access to that allows them to both see data and even interact with it so that they can adjust filters to see for instance, how are my students with disabilities doing in this particular subject area? Or what's the reading level of my students that are learning English as a second language? It's exciting because they're able to ask questions about the data, and then interact with the data to be able to get the answers that they need to make decisions they need to make and create plans that will help students achieve at even higher levels. We're very excited about the ways that we can use Tableau and we'll get to use Tableau even more now that we have a data scientist.

Brooke Anderson:
We've been getting more and more questions about student learning which is exciting because you never know what's the next question that we can answer that would help us move forward.

Anthony Godfrey:
The data is really important because at the end of a teaching day, or even as a parent, it's difficult to know am I having the impact that I hope I'm having? And this data allows us to see that yes, teachers are having a great impact on students. They're learning more than ever and they have better opportunities than ever before.

Brooke Anderson:
That's true.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thank you very much for spending the time with us today, but also thank you for all the hard work you're doing to make sure that we have the best information we can to make the best decisions we can.

Brooke Anderson:
Thank you.

Ben Jameson:
Thank you. We appreciate the invite.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Threats of any kind against a school are always taken seriously, even if the threat is not considered credible, comes from out of state, or originates in another country.

On this episode of the Supercast, we go behind the scenes with police and district safety personnel to find out what happens when a threat is reported or uncovered. Hear about the immediate steps that are taken, and how we work closely with local law enforcement to keep students, teachers, and staff safe.

We're talking now with two of the experts that we work with anytime that we have a school threat. Please let's start by having you introduce yourselves.

Cody Stromberg:
I'm Cody Stromberg. I'm the Deputy Chief of Police for Herriman City.

Matt Alvernaz:
I'm Matt Alvernaz, the new School Safety Coordinator for Jordan School District.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me a little bit about your career path that brought you to this point.

Cody Stromberg:
Sure, I started my career back in 2006, worked in Sandy City and then for the Unified Police Department. I was assigned to Herriman City in 2011, and I've been there ever since. Working for the Unified Police Department and doing community policing in which I was intimately involved with a lot of our school projects, crossings, safe walk routes, school evacuations and reunifications, and all of those types of activities. And then when the Harriman City Police Department separated from Unified Police in 2018, I went over there as a lieutenant in charge of our operations division. And I'm now the deputy chief where I oversee 55 full-time and over 60 part-time employees.

Anthony Godfrey:
We're very grateful for your assistance day-to-day and in the case of emergency, of course. And thank you very much for taking the time to be here.

Cody Stromberg:
Of course. Thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
If you have to stand up in the middle of the podcast and leap into action, I will understand.

Cody Stromberg:
They don't usually call me unless something really bad happens. So I think we're safe.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's hope there are no calls.

Cody Stromberg:
Yeah.

Matt Alvernaz:
His days of leaping are over.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Okay, that's good. Matt, talk a little bit about what brought you here.

Matt Alvernaz:
So I'll be brief on my background. I started with the Army. I did four and a half years there. Got out in 2009. Started with the San Diego Police Department, worked about seven years there. And decided to move the family to Utah. And it's been good. We started with the Saratoga Springs Police Department. And I got into the schools, working as a school resource officer. An opportunity opened up to kind of blend the two with this newfound love of the education side mixed with the law enforcement side and real big concerns of school safety. So it's a great opportunity and I appreciate you guys bringing me on board.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, we're thrilled to have you, and Matt we're going to have you back on the podcast to talk more about your position and what's involved and your journey here. But thank you for your time today. Tell me about some of the types of threats that come in regarding schools. And, really we're talking about this because from time to time there are these false threats online but we never consider them that until we've looked very carefully at the situation. We take every threat seriously. Speak to that first of all.

Cody Stromberg:
Sure. I think we have to take every threat seriously. The reality is in the world of law enforcement everything is as it's reported until proven otherwise. And if you look at some of the statistics, particularly that the state legislature has been gathering through safety and other avenues for the last few years, the reality is that these threats have been happening for a long time. They're just now a little bit more public because of the world of social media in which we live.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Cody Stromberg:
And the reality is that a school violence incident is every parent's and every educator's worst nightmare. And so we have to take that threat seriously until proven otherwise.

Matt Alvernaz:
Along those lines, I mean, it's good to be precautious, right? You never want to say, “hey, you knew and you didn't do.” It's easier to start with a bigger scene in the law enforcement world then we could shrink it back down. But if you come in too light and now you're trying to expand it because it's worse than you thought, that's harder to do. So we come in, we're taking it for what it is, make it a big scene sometimes, and we shrink it down as we determine it's less valid or less of a threat than we initially thought.

Anthony Godfrey:
Talk me through what happens when you first hear about a threat on social media. There's a nondescript threat. It's not specific to a school, but students in a certain community are starting to spread it around. And in their minds, they're assigning it to the school that they attend because they've received it from someone that they know.

Cody Stromberg:
The upside and the downside of social media is that these threats tend to spread like wildfire, which can be good in the sense that we tend to hear about them more quickly than we used to.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Cody Stromberg:
But on the downside, they also can sometimes get misassociated to the wrong school, or they get exaggerated beyond what the original statement was. A lot of times, we get reports from concerned parents who are forwarded information from their student or their child, students sharing information back and forth on social media platforms, particularly.

I think, as I mentioned before, I think the SafeUT app and some of the other efforts that our state government has been involved in recently have helped us to kind of direct those attentions in a positive way and guide that information to where it needs to be. Because when we first receive a threat, we go through our standard investigative process. We try and figure out is it a legitimate threat, where is it specific to, or is it specific to anywhere, and that will dictate our response, where you could see anything from a physical response of additional officers in school to kind of a behind the scenes, more quiet response where we can identify a specific individual and we have investigators or officers that will go contact that individual directly and go through our investigation that way.

Clearly, those types of threats are a serious concern. There are criminal statutes specifically related to making threats against schools now that allow us a little bit more latitude to push these investigations further. But the reality is the world in which we live is one of rapid information. And sometimes that information is inaccurate, which makes it difficult at times for us to respond appropriately.So like Matt was saying, we'll start wide and then we'll try to narrow our focus from there.

Matt Alvernaz:
Yeah, the information we get is pretty fluid sometimes. It's like, oh, we got, it's over here. Well, hold on, we're getting new information over here, but we can't ignore the previous information. So we have to kind of be ready to adapt and respond. And so you'll have different levels of facets of the response, you know, physical presence there while doing stuff behind the scenes.

Social media does have the advantage of leaving that digital footprint. We can track things, which is great. People think Snapchat's, you know, got that erase. No, we'll get it. If it comes down to we can dig deep enough, you know, with recent incidents. Snapchat was how we were able to make our determinations through warrants and get that kind of stuff going. And I don't want to speak too much because it was th department who did that, but it was a fantastic job. But yeah, so I mean, it's both a blessing and a curse.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what you just said, Matt, re-emphasizes the importance of those strong relationships that we work on all the time, is making sure that we have good communication because neither one of us can be as responsive to schools as we need to be without helping each other out.

Stay with us when we come back, more on potential threats targeting schools and how we work with local law enforcement to hold the suspect or suspects accountable.

Break:
In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists and counselors. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Walk us through the steps that you take once you find out about a threat from a police department standpoint and from a district standpoint.

Cody Stromberg:
For us, we receive that information through a multitude of sources. One, of course, is the SafeUT and the resources that are set up through the state. We get a lot of information from parents directly. Like I said before, we'll get a lot of information from students who will pass information to their SRO and it comes to us that way or it comes from the school because information has been reported to your staff and then comes to us.

So our first step, again, is to identify as quickly as we possibly can where that threat originated from. And if it originates from a specific student that's somehow connected to that specific school, then obviously that gives us a good place to start. And then if it doesn't, then we start looking at our external areas. We start doing, as Matt indicated before, we start looking at, you know, warrants for social media or we try to trace IP addresses, that type of thing. We have a lot of partnerships available to us to get through some of that stuff.

But that's usually our first step is to try and place an element of credibility on it as quickly as we can. Because if we can place an element of credibility on it then we also have to start developing some sort of a safety plan or some sort of an action plan related specifically to that threat and then we work it backwards from there. We start- if we can identify an individual- we start looking at a criminal investigation and we move that direction.

But the first- the first real piece is is it a real threat or is it not? And I say real, but the reality is they're all real threats. Is it a threat that's credible or is likely to be carried out? Or is it something that somebody just said because of you know they're venting or we have a mental health crisis or things that are happening that our youth are impacted by? And sometimes, let's be honest, kids say dumb things sometimes so they're not meaning that they're gonna go through with it but we have to treat it that way until we can prove otherwise. So we have to put an element of credibility on it and then we start trying to trace where it came from.

Anthony Godfrey:
And as you described in regards to recent events, it's establishing does this even apply to our area? Was this even intended as a message for any of our cities?

Cody Stromberg:
And a lot of that happened simultaneously, I can tell you, with the specific incident we were dealing with on Friday, the SRO obviously was intimately involved in, “okay, what's the plan” but I also had a detective who was assigned to do the warrants on the IP address. I had a detective who was assigned to follow up on social media accounts. I had a detective who was assigned to liaise with the district and pass information back and forth. So a lot of that stuff kind of happens simultaneously until we get to a point where we can confidently say that we don't believe the threat is credible and then we might scale it back. But there's a lot of things that have to happen in that first few minutes and whether the report comes from SafeUT, or from the district, or from a parent or student, the reality is the process is much the same. And then we make sure that we loop in our partners. If we get a tip from SafeUT or from a parent, then we'll call the school and deal with administration directly. We'll bring Matt into it and try and make sure that we're all on the same page and operating off of the same set of facts.

Matt Alvarnaz:
And the report comes to the school exactly the same way, you know, whether it's students reporting it directly to us, we see it through Safe UT, we catch it on social media, or the police department lets us know in reverse. Our response is you got the principals, they're there, they're on the ground, you got the school staff, faculty, and we continuously train on this kind of stuff.

You've got your initial information. If you have a name, if you have a lead, the first thought for the principals is what's the way to make it safe? How are we gonna make the school safe? Is it a lockdown situation? Is it a secure situation? Is it kind of just okay, we have flippant comments here let's work with the police department to determine more of what we have.

In the case where we keep referencing on Friday when that information came to us police department was already there. Their presence was fantastic. I saw these guys out there working, doing their various things. The uniform presence in and out of the school was awesome.

I was there to help alleviate for the principal's task. He still has a school to run and he's dealing with the parents, phone calls, doing all this stuff. So my job was to help deal with the law enforcement side of it. However we can assist, because at this point you get a threat like this- yeah it's against us, but they're the ones with the tools and the resources. If we find out some information, it's not us who's gonna go do it, it's them, right? If there's some validity to it.

So how can we be a resource to them at this point? Meanwhile keeping our focus on making sure the kids are safe. And how can we assist that and stay out of their way? Keep the kids safe- out of the way- and continue to operate that way, and that's where that partnership comes in.

Continually deal with that message. Make sure we're on the same page with that. What we put out needs to match what they're putting out, or don't release information too soon because it might compromise the investigation. Because they know information they don't want the potential threat to know. If we run out and say it, you know, it might damage what they're doing. So yeah, for us it's how to, that initial response, we're there first in a sense, the SRO is there, but make it safe, be that resource and watch the kids and continue to run that school and go from there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Cody Stromberg:
I think you mentioned something really important, Matt, that maybe we don't always consider and that is the disruption that these threats sometimes cause to the school particularly. You know, even a non-credible threat causes significant disruption to the school day whether we do lockdown or lockout or secure or not. The reality is there are a lot of kids who either don't come to school because their parents don't want them to. Or, you know, they get checked out in the middle of the day or they don't go to class. Or just the anxiety that some of our educators face. The teachers in the classroom are having to try and keep control of the kids while all this is going on and try and have a normal school day while they're waiting for information, right?

I think that's something we don't talk about enough is the disruption to the teachers and the students who are actually in the school not having a lot of information but still having to go through, you know, their school day and it's really, really difficult. That's one of the things that we don't really have great answers for because again, we have to treat every threat as a real credible threat until proven otherwise, but we also just can't immediately say that it's not. So there's certainly an element of disruption that occurs that makes it really, really difficult for our teachers, too.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I appreciate that. We really try to balance it out, like you described. We want to be responsive to every threat, take it very seriously, but minimize the distraction and the disruption that it creates.

Let's speak to the statute that's out there, that it's a recent change in the law that allows you to pursue more aggressively those kind of false threats and perpetuating those false threats.

Cody Stromberg:
There's been a lot of change in the legislature recently specifically related to school safety. I'm sure that you guys are very well aware of the new school security task force that's being headed by Representative Wilcox through the law enforcement and criminal justice committee in the House. We have members of law enforcement, members of the education world that sit on that committee. Their focus really is trying to identify through the various data that we receive, what truly are our issues or responsibilities specific to school violence and how can we make our schools safer for children. And they're doing a lot of work to try and identify things like statewide standardized best practices.

When we have these types of events we talked about, you know, do we necessarily want the Jordan School District to respond differently than Canyons does or differently than Granite does? The reality is that in law enforcement our tactics and our response is usually fairly universal, and we're trying to apply that to the school setting as well. So that it doesn't matter where the threat occurs, the response is going to be the same.  And we develop those standardized protocols that are designed and promoted for efficient operations but to gain the most positive outcome from whatever the situation is that's going on.

Even within law enforcement, between agencies, we use different verbiage for things and different codes for things and it can get confusing at times and those are things we're trying to avoid.

Anthony Godfrey:
The right terminology is really important. If we're not using the same terminology then it's much more difficult to provide a coordinated response.

Cody Stromberg:
Right.

Anthony Godfrey:
What advice would you give to a parent who finds out or a student who sees a post that seems to be a school threat? They're not sure where it's coming from, they're not sure whether it applies to their school. What are some of the first steps that they ought to take when they see that?

Cody Stromberg:
It's almost a double-edged sword in some sense, right? And like I said before about the availability, the rapid availability of information can sometimes be beneficial. Because in that one case– I don't know if you know this, but they've had– SaveUT puts out a report every year of the interactions that happen on the app. There were over 800 confirmed threats of violence against schools last year in the state of Utah. 800. So depending on how many contract school days we have, we're dealing with this several times a day throughout the state.

But we don't want that one that we didn't think was serious to become serious. And so the reason I say it's a double-edged sword is I want to know about it as quickly as we can. There certainly are better avenues to report it than others. Sharing it with your friends is not a great avenue to report information. It does kind of tend to complicate some of these issues sometimes when they're being shared amongst peer groups and not elevated.

So the only thing I would say is, I would like you to not press share. But if you're gonna press share, then also send it to Safe UT, send it to the school, send it to law enforcement so that we can investigate it. And we can go through the proper channels of sifting through the data and the information and trying to identify- backtracking to the source and what information is credible versus what's not.

Kids are gonna share stuff on social media. I was sitting at a high school football game last Friday watching these kids in the stands and they were just, the speed at which they share information on social media is unbelievable. Like, I don't know how their fingers don't cramp up every night when they get home because they're all over the place, right? And so it's gonna get shared. And I don't know that there's anything we could ever do to prevent that. I would love to, but I don't think it's realistic. So the only I would say is to also send it to SafeUT. Send it to us. Send it to the school so that we can begin as quickly as possible to vet out what's credible information and what's not. And we run into that one situation in 800, heaven forbid, that's the real deal that we can begin to respond immediately.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sharing is not reporting. That's the bottom line.

Matt Alvernaz:
If you press share, you send it out, it creates panic. It inflates the issue, makes it so much worse than it needs to be. And then misinformation starts going. People who panic and want to reshare because they're concerned, okay, there's some of that, but there's also people with malicious intent who think, “Oh, this will be fun. Let me spread this out. Let me alter the rumor. Ooh, let me expand on it.” And it just makes it worse. And then the resources that go into, you know, addressing it and confirming it or making sure it's more safe is, it's just, it becomes wasteful. It becomes dangerous and all sorts of things come into play with it. The best thing you can do, is tell your trusted adult, report it to the school and the law enforcement. It doesn't really matter the order on that because we have that cohesive partnership.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk about what factors we consider when putting together communication for parents because as much as we don't want students sharing with each other, once we have adequate, accurate information, then we want to share that out with parents so they can make decisions and understand what's happening.

Matt Alvarnez:
So we have to make sure our information is accurate. So nine times out of ten, the students- you just talked about how quick they are with those phones and pushing out information. They hear a blip of a rumor. We have most of the truth, we just haven't been able to put it out yet. They will put out whatever they hear.

So parents say, "Why am I hearing it from my kid first?" So your kid's got a half-second delay on what they shoot out.

"Well, we have to make sure we're accurate." If I just start parroting everything we hear, again, panic, and misinformation.

“Why are you so disorganized? Why aren't you on the same page with the police department?” If they put out information they have, it’s different from ours, well, that's just incompetent right there. At least it's how it's gonna appear. So we have to be responsible with our information, but we do get it out quickly. As quickly as we can in a safe manner. And again, as of that cohesive partnership.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're right, we coordinate closely with law enforcement on those messages. Talk about the law enforcement end of those messages.

Cody Stromberg:
Yeah, and the transparency piece is huge for us in law enforcement, and that's something we're very passionate about in Herriman. And I know that all of the police departments the Jordan School District share the same sentiment. We've had these conversations before. How do we push out information to parents? When do we push it out? What do we say? And how do we do it in a way that helps either relieve some of their concerns or address some of the issues without adding to the panic and the confusion, right? And so the partnership certainly is key, as Matt alluded to. We spent most of the day on Friday back and forth on the phone with the district's communications team with the threat that we were dealing with at Herriman High School.

From the law enforcement perspective, the safety of students is obviously the highest priority, but we also have to factor in things like traffic impact, right? If we suddenly have a bunch of parents who show up to a school wanting to pick up their kids, how do we manage that? How do we provide them accurate and adequate information that they can then make a reasonable informed decision as to what they're going to do with their student? And so we try, like Matt said, we try to push out information as quickly as possible, but we're also obligated to push out the truth. And we have to make sure that it's vetted and we have to make sure that we have a plan and that we're addressing the issues that need to be addressed as opposed to being a part or facilitating and spreading rumors, which is usually not helpful.

Anthony Godfrey:
What's interesting to note, especially in some recent events that we dealt with, is that sometimes something starts in another state, states away from where we are. But it spreads through social media and there are lots of abbreviations for school names that end in HS and that can be applied to many schools nationwide or a reference to a mascot or that sort of thing. We've seen that over the years. So that's part of the reason that we have to take a little bit of time to verify the information. If we know there's an imminent danger, we're going to communicate that immediately. It’s making sure that we've followed up on the information we receive and we're sending out the most actionable information, the most useful information to parents so that they can make a clear choice.

Cody Stromberg:
Yeah, I think you're exactly right and that's exactly the situation we were faced with last

Friday with a message that originated from out of state but because of some references to homecoming and because of some acronyms that were used, suddenly it ends up in our backyard and we're trying to sift through where that came from.

Now we certainly have a lot of partnerships, both at the state and federal level, that allow us to rapidly move through some of that information and do some of that back tracing. But at the same time, that doesn't help the panic that happens for the two or three hours before that information goes out to the public, right?

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

Cody Stromberg:
And so we wanna make sure that we're responsive to the parents. But what I tell the parents most often is, exactly as you said, Dr. Godfry, that if we had a legitimate and credible threat that we felt the safety of students was in jeopardy, we would let you know.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. Immediately.

Cody Stromberg:
Right. Immediately. We would let you know immediately. We would have a plan to address it. We would tell you what the plan is, for the most part. We don't necessarily divulge all of our tactics, but we would tell you what to expect. And if you're not seeing that from the police department, then we're probably in a pretty decent place. And if things change, we'll let you know.

But at the same time, you can't discount the feelings that the parents have, right? I have four children in the district. And when things like that come across my desk or through social media, I have the exact same first thought, which is where my kids are, my kids okay? And then you work through the rest of it. And you have to respect that, those concerns that come from the parent level.

And so we're trying to push out information that we have, but we wanna make sure that it's accurate. So just like you said, we work through that. If there were a credible threat that safety of students was in jeopardy, we would certainly let people know immediately and we would have a plan to address it.

Anthony Godfrey:
I can't thank you both enough for taking time today, but most of all for everything you do to keep our students safe. We've worked with Herriman for a long time very effectively, and it's obvious how much you care about students. And all the officers we work with in all the cities, how much they care about keeping students and teachers and employees safe. And Matt, we've worked with you before as an officer and now on staff here at Jordan, and we're very grateful for your dedication to everyone's safety as well. So thank you both for everything you do. Our schools are very, very safe places to be and they will continue to be with your efforts. So thank you very much.

Cody Stromberg:
I can't speak highly enough of our partnership with the Jordan School District and something that's been long-seated and has been going on for a long time. And you've carried that tradition forward certainly in identifying new ways that we can be more efficient and effective. Like you said, I think our schools are very, very safe. But we can always do better. So we're always looking for ways to make improvements and so these types of discussions, and the information that comes out of what can be a stressful situation sometimes becomes very valuable in helping us to identify better ways to do things in the future.

Anthony Godfrey:
Absolutely, well thank you very much.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.

(upbeat music)

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Students and history teachers alike are excited to celebrate, after Governor Cox declared September “American Founders and Constitution Month” in Utah. It is a month where students are encouraged to read directly from the founding document each September 17th, which is the anniversary of the creation of the Constitution in 1787.

On this episode of the Supercast, we head into West Jordan Middle School, where they have a passion for learning about the Constitution and celebrate it by participating in a “We the People: competition every year.

We're here at West Jordan Middle School to celebrate Constitution Day and the fact that Governor Cox declared September as “American Founders and Constitution Month” here in Utah. So we have two adult Constitution experts and several student constitution experts. Go ahead and introduce yourselves before we start talking constitution.

Kaye Rizzuto:
I am Kaye Rizzuto and I am the Jordan District Social Studies Consultant.

William Shields:
My name is William Shields. I am an eighth-grade US History teacher and a ninth-grade American Institutions and Issues teacher here at West Jordan Middle School.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about those last classes that you mentioned there because those aren't offered at every one of our middle schools.

William Shields:
No, and it's actually a really cool story. After “We the People” happened a lot of students recognize that there is a large gap in the history classes from when they learned about US History from 8th grade to 11th grade, and they were really eager about wanting to keep sharp in terms of the founding documents. Keep up on connecting the past to the present and looking at those important things that make up our nation in much more depth. And it was actually driven by students. I had the wonderful opportunity to work with the counselors here, people at the district, to actually write the curriculum for it.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic. In other words, students were craving more American history at a deeper level, and you're providing that between 8th grade and 11th grade. That's fantastic.

And Kaye, tell us a little bit about your position so that those listening understand a little bit more about it.

Kaye Rizzuto:
So I am in the district office. I'm the administrator over all of social studies from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you provide great support to teachers and help us all kind of get on the same page and move forward and create a lot of space for creativity on the part of teachers and it's really exciting.

Kaye Rizzuto:
Thanks. And, I'm helping to get them supports and professional development. I actually have a team of elementary teachers working on creating curriculum for the entire state on the new elementary social studies standards.

Anthony Godfrey:
The state is wise. "Hey, we need some help. Let's go to Jordan District and grab some great teachers."

Kaye Rizzuto:
Yeah, exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you mentioned “We The People”, and that's the competition that we've covered on the podcast previously, but can you describe that a little bit for those who may not be familiar with it?

William Shields:
It’s a wonderful nationwide program that was actually written between, I believe it was in the late 70s, with a combination of a Supreme Court Justice and some congresspeople, to really encourage schools to take a deeper dive into analyzing the Constitution and founding period principles and topics. And encouraging it in both an individual and a collaborative way so that the students can then work together, prepare a speech, and then respond to questions that would mimic a congressional hearing. So that's really the rundown, is it encourages students to do a deeper analysis of constitutional issues, and then prepare a defense.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, so these students are going to know the Constitution at a deep level because they've had to question it and defend it.

William Shields:
Correct.

Anthony Godfrey:
All right, well, let's talk with them and see what they have to share with us about the Constitution. These are 9th-grade students who are now in Mr. Shields's classes to extend their American history knowledge. But last year you were all competitors in the “We the People” project. So why don't you introduce yourself and let's talk about the Constitution a little bit.

Gerardo:
I'm Gerardo. I'm in 9th grade.

Savannah:
I'm Savannah. I'm in 9th grade.

Ava:
I'm Ava and I'm in 9th grade.

Anthony Godfrey:
Why don't you tell me first of all what is your favorite amendment? It doesn't have to be the most important. They're very important, but what's your favorite? Either because it's interesting or because of the impact it had or because of the way it fit into the “We the People” competition?

Gerardo:
My favorite amendment would be the First Amendment because it talks about the rights all of us have as people living in the US.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do you think the US might look like if we didn't have a First Amendment?

Gerardo:
It would look way worse than if like some things look nowadays. Because it's never gonna be perfect, but it will look a bit less better than it is right now.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how about for you? What's your favorite amendment?

Savannah:
I agree. I think the First Amendment is one of my favorites.

Anthony Godfrey:
And why is that one your favorite?

Savannah:
I think it's important to all of the things that it covers. Talking about freedom of speech and stuff like that and how we get to express ourselves.

Anthony Godfrey:
Do you like expressing yourself as a middle school student in America?

Savannah:
I do. I think it's nice to have an opinion in certain matters.

Anthony Godfrey:
I agree. I agree. Makes our country a lot better to be able to express those opinions. And how about you?

Ava:
Mine is actually also the first.

Anthony Godfrey:
How did learning more about the Constitution for the “We the People” competition change you and the way that you view just your day-to-day life or the country or your family or school? How did it change you to learn more about the Constitution?

Gerardo:
Since I already liked history it kind of motivated me to like become a lawyer when I grow up which is one of my main interests because of this class.

Anthony Godfrey:
And is there a particular aspect of the law that you're interested in?

Gerardo::
Civil rights.

Anthony Godfrey:
Civil rights, okay great. So this may set you on a path toward a career this this class and this experience.

Gerardo:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I wish you well I'm sure you'll do great. How about for you? How has learning more about the Constitution changed you?

Savannah:
It's been interesting to learn about parts of the Constitution that you don't necessarily think about on a daily basis. And in “We the People” we got to talk about court cases. It was cool to see how the Constitution gets to defend the people in this country and how we use it in our daily lives and for things like court cases.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. And how about you?

Ava:
It helped because I never actually liked history growing up. I thought it was really boring because I never realized that in history you also learn about the Constitution and stuff like that. So when I took the class it just kind of helped me learn about other things and it actually made me want to be a lawyer too to protect certain amendments.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what's it like being in Mr. Shields' class?

Gerardo:
It's a fun class and he's an interesting teacher. He's really funny and he actually helps us learn a lot from his teachings.

Anthony Godfrey:
I've seen him out and about, he's a cool cat. I expect his class would be very fun, very funny.

Savannah:
I agree. I think it's cool to see him teach. You can tell that he loves what he teaches and he puts it in phrases that makes it easy to understand for us.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's great.

Ava:
It just makes school a lot more fun. It's what I look forward to every day. He teaches us really important stuff but still makes it in a way that it's enjoyable to learn about.

Anthony Godfrey:
So if there needed to be an amendment to the Constitution to allow you to be in his class, you'd fight pretty hard for that to get put into place and ratified.

Ava:
Yes, sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
Alright. I know as part of the ‘We the People’ competition, you focus on a particular topic from the Constitution. What topic did you focus on and what can you tell me about it?

Gerardo:
My group focused on freedom of speech and we were talking about this court case versus some students who were wearing black armbands to school and we were talking about how the government was like invading their rights as humans.

Anthony Godfrey:
And did you side with the students?

Gerardo:
Yeah

Anthony Godfrey:
I thought you might have as did the Supreme Court, right?

Gerardo:
Yeah.

Savannah:
My group also talked about freedom of speech. One of the cases we got to talk about revolved around a speaker that talked to a small gathering group of members of the KKK and they were putting together a riot. And by speaking he was becoming an accessory to the crimes that they were going to commit and the things that they were going to do. We got to talk about whether his speech would be limited based on the things that he was saying and the things that he was trying to get people to do, and we got to talk a lot about criminal syndicalism laws.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow, and should his speech have been limited?

Savannah:
Yes, by encouraging them to join in on the riot he was becoming an accessory to their crime.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, very good.

Ava:
My group talked about political parties and how they started. It went all the way back into the arguments between people who were running - well, I guess they weren't running for an office. But the cabinets and the vice and about what the disagreements were and why they ended up making the Republican and the Democrat parties and basically what their values are.

Anthony Godfrey:
And do you think it's good that we have those two parties?

Ava:
Yes, 100%. It helps people be able to express themselves in a way that not everybody gets to learn because it's private so not everyone has to know your opinion.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm super impressed with everything you know about the Constitution. And it's a great way for me to celebrate Constitution Day by having a chance to talk with you so thank you very much and keep up the great work.

Students:
Thanks.

Stay with us. When we come back more about what we're doing in schools to educate students about the Constitution.

Break:
Hello, I'm Sandy Riesgraf, Director of Communications for Jordan School District, and we want to invite you to connect with us. So many exciting things are happening in your child's school, your neighbor's school, in every school here, every day. Don't miss out on following the fun or simply staying informed when there's important information we need to share. Join us at jordandistrict.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jordandistrict. We can't wait to connect.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now let's talk a little bit about how we've commemorated the Constitution as a state and as a country over the years.

Kaye Rizzuto:
So September 17, 1787 is the day that the Constitution went into place, that it was signed, and that's why Constitution Day is on the 17th of September. Throughout the years many different states were recognizing it but eventually by 1956 President Eisenhower made September 17th and the week of September 17th, Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, to recognize the Constitution and being citizens of the United States.

Then this past spring, the Utah State Legislature wanted to increase that awareness, and they passed a bill making the month of September Founders Month so that we can honor the Constitution and our founding fathers during the month of September.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you said 1787, Schoolhouse Rock automatically starts playing in my head. Hopefully, some other listeners that's happening to you as well.

So tell me, what is it that you think people may be -- what are some misunderstandings about the Constitution that are common out there when you're teaching students or when you're talking with other folks who know that this is what you do day in and day out?

Kaye Rizzuto:
I would say that there's often some misconceptions between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Like you'll hear people say the phrase, it's in the Constitution that we have the ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’, but that's actually not correct. That's in the Declaration of Independence. And so you'll see some misunderstanding about the two documents.

William Shields:
And to kind of add upon that, I think that there's a misunderstanding that the Declaration created the government that we have today. The Declaration was one of the world in history's best breakup letters with Great Britain. And so they had the early Articles of Confederation but from 1776 to 1783, excuse me 1787, it was a really weak constitution through the Articles of Confederation and in 1787 that's when the government that we have today was formally ratified. And so I think that that's one one of the big kind of learning points is the United States actually had an early constitution that wasn't the same one as we had today.

Kind of to echo what Ms. Rizzuto said, also that the Constitution is a living document. That it is something that as we see through the 27 amendments, changes can be made. But also through the impact of Marbury vs. Madison and judicial review, that we have court analysis that really does impact and reassure and reevaluate those items that are discussed within the Constitution and the amendments to make it more applicable to modern day life and situations that we face today that they didn't face in 1787.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk about some of the most important amendments that you cover with students and the changes that they brought to our country.

William Shields:
Well in 8th grade we really, we have the wonderful opportunity to really take the founding period and so we start with the First Amendment and we get through what are known as the Reconstruction Amendments, so 13, 14 and 15. And every single one of them are incredibly important.

I mean first and foremost the importance, and this is towards the latter part, of the the importance of the 13th Amendment and the formal abolition of slavery. The 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment, both the Due Process Clause, but the 14th Amendment's protection against discrimination. And so my core really kind of stops at the 15th Amendment. We take a lot of time at talking not just about what the amendments say but why.

And so currently in my class were looking at the comparative systems of those European countries that were settling in North America. And looking at, well, what did the United States later use within their constitution from these different ideas? We'll look at the philosophers. The importance, I mean, there are some historical amendments like the Third Amendment with no quartering of soldiers, which we don't really see today. But in terms of property rights, we see the Fourth Amendment all the time. And so even today in my elective class, we were talking about property rights and when is a person liable versus not liable in criminal versus civil situations.

And so within my US class, it's really an amazing analysis of those items that were important to the colonists at that time from 1 to 15. And then it's important for me to continue the story and say, listen, when you get back in 11th grade, it's gonna continue. Like the US is not done finishing the amendments with women's suffrage rights and voting granted. With things like voting term limits for the president that we'll see in the 22nd Amendment, kind of to prime the pump so they're excited to learn more about it when they get to high school.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's the ultimate cliffhanger.

William Shields:
Oh yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Hey, 8th grade, we're gonna leave you hanging at the 15th Amendment and then we'll pick up where we left off.

William Shields:
Oh yeah, and that's really one of those things that the students wanted. They wanted to-- they were mad. They were upset. They were like, why are we stopping here? And it was one of those things that it was– as a teacher, it was one of the biggest compliments to say–- for a student to approach me and say, I want to learn more. And I mean, I do stick to my core. But I had the opportunity to then kind of get together with this curriculum and say, OK, let's look at all 27. And not just the 27, but what were the impacting factors? You know, when have, I mean, when have there been, you know, to drop a legal term, stare decisis, when it has been continued on through judicial precedent, when has there been big changes? And so the students really are the driving force to that elective class, and it's nothing that I've been more proud of.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's pretty thrilling that 14-year-olds will say, I wanna learn more about the Constitution. I'm going to use one of my elective classes to do that, to create that opportunity. So that's a great tribute to you and to our students who are so interested in our country. So tell me, what impact do you see when students learn more about the Constitution? What are some of the light bulbs that come on for them?

William Shields:
I think, I mean, I could sit here and quote the founding fathers about the importance of an educated citizenry. But to see the light in their eyes when they realize that they themselves at 8th or 9th grade, they are active citizens. That they can communicate with their local, state, and national, and federal officials if they really wanted to. To know that while they don't have the voting responsibilities and rights yet, it's important to know about the system, to know what their rights, freedoms, but also what the limitations of government are.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure.

William Shields:
And so to really see them, to see their eyes go, this applies to me, this is important, and also to see them be able to identify how it benefits them individually, but also as a community.

Kaye Rizzuto:
One of the purposes of public education is to create good citizens, and that is done by doing these social studies courses throughout elementary school and high school and middle school. That learning about these founding fathers and the documents and all of the things that they learn in these classes is so important in helping them to learn about their role as being a good citizen. And so it's our job as educators to help prepare them to be citizens and to be active in their communities and to do their part to help the country be better.

William Shields:
I had a wonderful opportunity in previous years to talk with the Reagan Institute about the, with State Superintendent Dixon, about the importance of civil dialogue and to build that skill that is so pivotal within our constitutional republic to communicate and to know that there are gonna be different perspective and how we should build those skills to be able to process, view perspectives and have a civil conversation.

Anthony Godfrey:
The author John Meacham has talked about the fact that disagreeing is just part of who we are as Americans. And it's an important element of the strength and health of our country, I think.

Kaye Rizzuto:
And it was part of what the Founding Fathers did when they were making the Constitution. They had to have that civil dialogue, whether it was in Independence Hall or when they were off in the tavern in the evenings, they were having those dialogues and working together to form our Constitution. And it's an important skill that we need to emulate because that's how our country was built.

Anthony Godfrey:
Good thing Facebook didn't exist back then. It would’ve really gotten in the way, I think. Thank you both for everything you do to help instill a love for the Constitution and our nation in our students and for the support you give to teachers. And it's just, I'm really proud of the work that you do and the education that's provided to students around American history and the Constitution in Jordan School District. So thank you for being such an important part of that.

Kaye Rizzuto:
Thank you.

William Shields:
It's literally my pleasure and Kaye's amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
She sure is. Thank you both.

(upbeat music)

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.