Adam McMickle, the districtxecutive director of student achievement, told the Ogden City School District Board that the district
llocated state grant funding to support the Advanced Learning Academy (ALA) at Liberty Elementary and described how the money is distributed in support of instruction and teacher development.

The district received $63,938.16 from the Utah State Board of Education for the ALA program, McMickle said. He said the direct portion available to spend on program activities was $54,503.59 after indirect costs were removed.

The ALA budget supports a mix of expenses: stipends for ALA teachers and a coordinator, a choir director, a small public-marketing allocation, mini-grants for classroom projects, and reimbursement for teachers to obtain the state-required gifted-and-talented endorsement. McMickle said the district uses a mini-grant approach so teachers can request up to $1,000 per year to buy materials tied to specific instructional goals.

Why it matters

The ALA is the district
dvanced-elementary program intended to prepare students for later honors, Advanced Placement, concurrent-enrollment and IB coursework. Board members asked how ALA funds are allocated and whether the program is reaching a demographic cross-section of district families.

What staff told the board

McMickle said part of the ALA allocation pays a stipend equal to "2% of level D" for certain duties performed above a normal teacher contract; he said he would provide the board with a more detailed accounting of those stipend amounts and the specific extra duties covered.

On student identification and testing, McMickle said the district uses a combination of state and district assessments plus a cognitive assessment, the CogAT, to inform placement for ALA. "We moved away from our previous testing and moved into that CogAT testing 2 years ago," he said, adding the district chose it because it provides faster digital results and a different view of student cognitive dispositions.

Liberty staff and the ALA coordinator described program activities to the board. Lindsay Warner, ALA and IB coordinator, said the program emphasizes deeper, inquiry-based learning: "First, it's about extension. It's about taking their learning deeper than where they would with the regular standards." Teachers showed examples of choir performances, service-learning projects, a greenhouse and a NASA TechRise payload that ALA students are building to study atmospheric radiation.

Enrollment, capacity and outcomes

McMickle told the board ALA enrollment has grown from a low of 93 students to about 128; he noted that since the materials were prepared one family moved and the count at the time of the meeting was 127. He said ALA is intentionally a single-section program at each grade; the intended practical capacity per class is about 28 students and the program's current average class size is about 22.

McMickle also presented assessment and follow-up data the district had compiled. He said ALA students have historically demonstrated high proficiency on state assessments and that, looking at ACT results for students who attended ALA in the elementary grades, 100% of one recent ALA cohort met the ACT composite benchmark of 18 in grade 11.

Board questions, outreach and equity

Board members pressed staff on outreach to underrepresented families after data showed only small increases in Hispanic/Latino enrollment in ALA and noted transportation remains a barrier. McMickle described marketing efforts that include flyers in English and Spanish, social media and direct mail to families in target grade ranges. He said the district will also provide testing at other schools on demand to reduce barriers that keep families from traveling to Liberty for the CogAT screening.

Staff commitments and next steps

McMickle pledged to provide the board with a detailed stipend accounting and the itemized breakdown of how the $63,938.16 grant dollars would be spent at Liberty. Principal Espinosa and the ALA team will provide the board additional program-level reporting on the mini-grant recipients and on how many teachers will need reimbursement for gifted-and-talented endorsements in the coming year.

Ending

Board members thanked the Liberty team for their presentation and the district said it would follow up with the requested financial detail and outreach metrics.