MT. PLEASANT—A fixture in the North Sanpete School District, Darin Johansen, will retire at the end of December. He has handling district finances for more than 33 years.
At a meeting Tuesday, Nov. 16, the North Sanpete School Board selected Tammy Jorgensen, who has been with the district 32 years, as the new district business administrator.
She was initially hired as the food service director, and over the years has taken on additional financial responsibilities, including payroll, accounts payable and benefits.
She was born and raised in Mt. Pleasant, where she still lives. She and her husband, Mark, have three children, Kolton, Kaden and Keisha.
“I’ve always had an interest in doing this, and I have a passion for the district, but I wasn’t expecting this,” Jorgensen said. “I appreciate the board’s support during all my employment.”
She doesn’t plan on making any immediate changes. “I’ll just get my feet wet and then we can look at anything we think needs to be improved,” she said.
Rep. Steve Lund, who represents Sanpete and Juab counties in the Utah House of Representatives, visited the board.
“The Legislature’s first priority is how to use the America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money, as well as any money that comes for infrastructure improvements that are allocated to the state,” he said.
He advised the district to identify any capital needs that could be covered by ARPA funding and be ready with recommendations.
“If the legislature says, ‘We have so much money to give you, what are you going to do with it? … We don’t was to have to say … Uh, give us a minute to think about that.”
Superintendent Nan Ault said, “We know we have lots of building infrastructure needs. Many of our buildings are old and have serious problems. We’ll certainly be able to come up with a good list for the Legislature.”
The board thanked Steve Crosland, who has spent the last three years putting together a North Sanpete High School digital yearbook online. He’s been collecting and scanning all yearbooks back to the time when the high school began.
Ralph Brotherson, board chairman, pulled out a copy of the 1949 yearbook that had been passed down to him, for Crosland to add to his collection. The board gave Crosland a high school blanket.
Moroni Elementary Principal Stacey Peterson shared her school’s vision and goals with the school board.
“Our vision is threefold: Confident learners, quality instruction and dual language acquisition,” she said. “Our mission statement is that we will support every student’s learning, promote community involvement and celebrate achievement.”
School goals for this year are to reduce the percentage of first grade students scoring well below benchmarks at the beginning of the year to 54 percent by the end of the year. The school has set the same goal for second graders but with a target of 34 percent reduction by May 27, 2022.
Peterson explained the school’s emphasis on literacy, including dual language, and also discussed the school’s approach to early math education, called “Ready Math.” This is where students spend time in groups discussing how to solve problems rather than solving problems by themselves.
The other element that she mentioned is school culture. Students put together “be nice” videos, that were very popular at the school, such as being nice on the playground to other students.
She was also proud of the school’s special programs, such as the recent Halloween parade and Veterans Day assembly, as well as the third grade Ag Day at the Fair, and the fifth-grade visit to the State Capitol.
