Day Thirteen - Community Councils: What Are They?

Utah is the only state in the nation where local parents, principals, and teachers direct the use of money from "trust lands"  for their schools for academic improvements such as:

• Developing programs to make math easy and fun
• Hiring reading aides to teach strugging readers to succeed
• Funding exciting scientific classroom experiments
• Exposing students to the joy of writing
• Lifting students' understanding and application of history and civics
• Providing accelerated classes

What are school "trust lands"?
In 1894, 7 million acres of land in Utah were granted by Congress in a trust to support our Utah public schools.  This land is used for mining coal, producing natural gas, telecommunications sites, and grazing livestock.  All the net revenue from these sources are invested by our state treasurer.  The interest and dividends gained each year are divided among each school district in Utah.  Each Utah school district divides their apportioned trust land money between the schools in their district.  Presently, we have approximately 3.5 of the 7 million acres of school trust land left.

How do Community Councils determine how to spend their school's "trust land" funds?
Each Community Council:

• Studies their school's test scores in order to discover what areas could use more focus and support
• Creates a School Improvement Plan which identifies the areas needing improvement and outlines a plan to achieve academic success in those areas 
• Creates a School Land Trust Plan that specifies how the trust land funds will be applied towards achieving the academic goals set forth in the School Improvement Plan
• Measures progress throughout the year
• Publicizes the progress!  Your Community Council has the responsibility to keep parents, teachers and the community informed of your school's progress mid-year, and at the beginning of the next school year.

Blog-in next time to find out who are your school's Community Council members and how you can contact them!