The Utah Rural Schools Association 2019 Summer Conference was hosted over the course of three days, running from July 10 to 12. This year, the conference was hosted at USU Eastern in Price.
The conference opened up with registration in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center on Wednesday morning. Grab bags with a plethora of goodies, products and more were then distributed to those that were in attendance. Exiting the registration, tables were set up in the student center for perusal from VitalSmarts, BYU Independent Study, The Flippen Group, Edgenuity and more.
Utah State Board of Education licensure points/hours or Southern Utah University (SUU) college graduate credits were available by attending and participating in the conference. To receive the SUU college credit, the entirety of the conference was mandatory.
Keynote speakers for the event were John Hattie, Neal Peacock of Emery High School, J2 Training with Janet and Joan, and Cathy Lassiter. During Peacock’s speech, he welcomed Price City Mayor Mike Kourianos on stage, who expressed how grateful he was to have the conference hosted in Price.
Other speakers for the event were Angela Battaglia, National Assessment of Educational Progress State Coordinator, Robert Bigelow of Clark Planetarium, Kathy Crane of Pinnacle Canyon Academy, Jenny Gagon of Cleveland Elementary, Michael Hakkarinen of the Utah Education Network, Garret Rose of the Utah State Board of Education and many, many more.
A STEM bus was also set up outside on the campus during the conference with a room in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center designated for all things STEM-related for learning fun. The majority of the campus was utilized throughout the conference, with many speakers and sessions hosted in various areas.
USU Eastern was thanked for hosting the conference as well as local businesses of Carbon and Emery counties for their support. Sponsors for the event included the Utah State Board of Education, Castleview Hospital, Emery Telcom, Pepsi of Price, Peczuh Printing, and Utah Education and Telehealth Network.
