During the Feb. 9 city council meeting, members and associates of the Millcreek Promise Program spoke to the council to provide a quarterly update on the program. 

The Millcreek Promise Program works to serve children and families through providing a variety of programs and resources to community members. Many resources center around education, something the Millcreek City Council has shown repeated interest in supporting.

Kelly Noorda is the Lead Partnership Director for Promise Partnership Utah, and she was at the meeting to speak about the graduation rates at Cottonwood High, Skyline High and Olympus High. Promise Partnership is a public-private collaboration working to improve education outcomes and close disparities for students of all ages. Currently, the Partnership has a goal for "100% of students in South Salt Lake and west Millcreek graduate high school with a career plan and have their basic needs met by 2028."

For 2025, the schools produced graduation rates of 79%, 97% and 92%, respectively. Noorda explained that these rates were consistent with the graduation rates over the 2023-25 years, with Skyline trending up and Olympus slightly down. Cottonwood High has remained relatively stable, and Noorda stated that currently the majority of the program's efforts were going toward raising the rate at Cottonwood. 

She added that a factor potentially impacting Cottonwood's rate was the method through which the state of Utah tracks graduation rates. Cottonwood has a high rate of transience within its student population, but when students leave before completing their senior year it reflects in the numbers. Noorda said the program is working to combat this by keeping better record of the students who leave the high school before they graduate and how their academic journey pans out.

Peter Frost of the Asian Association of Utah (AAOU) was also present and provided the council with a mid-year grant report regarding the AAOU. Before the start of the 2025-26 school year, Frost spoke to the council to request funding to maintain the after-school programs sponsored by AAOU. After the cancellation and freezing of much federal funding, the AAOU and countless other organizations across the country were left without a way to know if they'd have resources to support their communities this school year. 

During the report, Frost illustrated the importance of maintaining these programs, saying "so far this year we've served over 290 youth, compared to last year that's almost a 100% increase." Some of the enrichment activities offered at the programs center around sports, science, chess and positive actions. Positive action is the Promise Program's "evidence-based social emotional learning curriculum" and is taught twice a week. He said that the youth participating learn skills to assist them throughout their academic journey's and in their lives outside of the classroom, "hopefully leading to better graduation rates down the line." 

Councilmember Silvia Catten asked how the program has handled the taking over the Moss Elementary after-school program from South Salt Lake's jurisdiction. Frost said the transition has been good but, of course, included some challenges, namely regarding some differences in the amount of funding available through Millcreek being less than at South Salt Lake. "We've been able to be creative and work with the city to have volunteers and other individuals come in and support that program, so we've been able to support a similar number of kids...overall I think it's been a great success." 

Following this, Kayla Meyers, the Director of Millcreek's Promise Program, spoke to the council to highlight some of the Promise Program successes over the last quarter. Produce Pals collected 2,267 pounds of produce from July to October and distributed it to five sites around the city. Through Millcreek Futures, they brought 97 students from Utah International Charter Schools on a field trip around the city to tour local businesses. The visits provided students with the opportunity to learn about different career paths in a variety of fields, with trip stops including St. Mark’s Hospital and Millcreek City Hall. 

Eventually, Meyers added, the program hopes to work with the businesses to provide internship opportunities to high school students in Millcreek. An internship program with the city of Millcreek for high school students is also happening this year. Five students from Skyline and Olympus high schools will work as interns across economic development, communications, human resources and finance, and other departments within the city.

Meyers provided the council with an upcoming schedule with Promise Program events and what the community members can expect over the next few months. She said the Millcreek Youth Council applications will be closing April 10 and added that this program will hopefully continue to grow over the next few years. The council thanked Meyers along with Frost and Noorda for their consistent hard work and their dedication to the future of Millcreek's youth.