Contacting your local political representatives is an important part of the democratic process. It is an effective way to make positive change and share your opinions on issues that affect your life.

The steps below can help you prepare to call, write, or meet with your Representatives:

1. Prepare your message: Know what legislation is being written, prepare your message, and then share it.

2. Find your legislator at https://le.utah.gov/

3. Pick the appropriate medium for your message:

• Hard Copy- This provides a dignified method to really commit to your message about a topic that will be debated.
• Email-  Use this method when the vote is happening that day. Many legislators check messages right before voting
• Phone Call- You may not talk directly with the legislator, but your message will get passed on.
• Meeting in Person: If your representative has a public meeting, go to it and talk to them. Share your story! But don't come across as out of touch.

Address with the appropriate salutation unless invited to address by name. (ex. Senator, Representative, Superintendent) Get to the point because they represent many individuals. Their time is important. Back up your point with facts that are real and not made up. Most important (Be Respectful)

Overdrive

The CUES Overdrive library is a great asset to our regional students. In order to help promote more usage, CUES is hosting a contest for the region schools. Each district is assigned a month, and for any school that in their assigned month can reach more book checkouts than they have students enrolled in their school, CUES will provide donuts for the entire school.
The first month of the contest was November with Tintic, Piute, and Wayneschooldistricts participating. We had great success among these districts with all schools from Piute district achieving the goal, along with Tintic High, West Desert High, and Wayne Middle schools.  for the month of December, North Sanpete and Juab were the districts competing for donuts and Juab Junior High, Fairview Elementary and Sprint City Elementary reached their goals. All schools within the South Sanpete district are working to earn "donuts on CUES" during the month and January and the Sevier District schools will have February to participate in the contest.

We are so proud of the usage that our digital library is getting with over 61,000 checkout s in the 3 years since we started this project.Asmoredistrictsbecome more device friendly, the use of digital books increases. Most of our school librarians are proficient with the Overdrive checkout process, or CUES is more than happy to provide teacher or classroom training on this topic.  If you haven't done so, please visit our online library to see what we have to offer. We havecloseto3500ebooksand 500 audiobooks, something for all ages and interest levels.

Media

We want to remind teachers that CUES does still have a variety of educational teaching kits available for checkout from the CUES webpage. The kits cover a variety of topics, many on loan to us from the Red ButteGardensandtheNatural history museums.  These are excellent aids for many classroom situations. If you check out a kit, it will be delivered to your school on a Tuesday or Wednesday. For a look at what's available check it out here. 

Tech Tip-

There may be situations when you need to give a copy of a Google Doc to your students, colleagues, or parents, that they need to make their own so as to edit and manipulate as needed. Instead of having them open the Doc and make a copy, why not send them a link which forcesthemtomakeofcopyoftheDoc. To do so, open the Doc, then at the end of the URL simply replace the word "/edit" to "/copy". Highlight the URL, copy and paste, send, then they're off and running! The trick also works for Google Sheets, Slides, or Drawing. This website will walk you through more detailed info.

TIP: Ensure the link sharing is correctly set for parent sharing.

Welcome Gavin Anderson

Welcome to the CUESfamily, Gavin Anderson! Gavin was recently hired as the CUESRegion Data Security Specialist and Trainer.

Gavin was born in Salt Lake City and raised in Loa, UT. He attended Wayne High School where he played baseball and stayed active in the music program. After graduation, he served a two-year LDS mission in New York, NY where he was assigned to serve speaking Spanish. He married his high school sweetheart, Stephanie, about six months after arriving back home and they've since lived in three different states while he worked for Simply Mac. They have three children - Ian (4), Max (2), and Ivy (4 weeks) and are now building a home in Richfield where they hope to live for a long time. Gavin is very excited to meet and work with each of you and sends his best. Free free to reach out to Gavin anytime with your data security questions or concerns, or schedule him to come in and provide security training. He may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 435-896-4469 ext 124. 

Musical Extravaganze Recap

On December 7th, the singer/songwriter Peter Breinholt and his band were accompanied on stage by 16 of our regional string students. It was a fabulous show enjoyed by all who were in attendance. The whole experience, from practicing to performing and learning firsthand from an accomplished musician, was something the kids will never forget. They and their parents were very appreciative of the chance to perform. Participating students were-Juab: Genevieve Cannell. North Sanpete: Tanner and Emily Kerksiek and Jamie Walker. Piute: Cameo Lindgren, Madisen and Saige Remund, Abby Morgan, and Tyree King. Sevier: Brynn and Adria Christensen and Bayden Hallows. South Sanpete: Jasmine and Christina Carter. Wayne: BreAnna Winters and TJPeterson. We are looking forward to a similar opportunity next year!