LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Regular Meeting - March 16, 2026

001to recognize tonight. Um we're going to start that recognition with our student of the week recognitions for the weeks of March 9th and March March 16th. U for the week of March 9th, we are going to be recognizing Joseph Jack who is a 12th grader at Triumph High School. If Joseph is here and could come forward with Principal Mike Maloney and his favorite teacher, Vanna Webb, please. >> Good evening, Chairman Smith, uh, L LCSD1 trustees, and Superintendent Newton. It is my pleasure to introduce another beautiful, amazing Triumph student. Joe Jack is our student of the week. Joe is always friendly and brings a positive attitude with him every day to school. He participates in classes and completes all his work. Joe is a strong silent leader. He is a wonderful role model displaying all the

002academic and social skills that we expect from our students at Triumph. In May, after just three years, Joe will graduate. Joe selected Vona Webb, who teaches culinary arts as his favorite teacher because she is a nice, caring teacher. She has taught him how to properly use and adjust recipes. And when Joe makes a mistake, Vana helps him problem solve and find a way to fix it. Bonnet is always there for Joe when he needs an opinion or advice. And Bonnet will now share a few words about Joe. >> So, I love Joe. He's the best. Um, this is my third year at Triumph and he's been in my class almost every quarter. He's phenomenal. He's a member of our catering team. He's Joe the dough king because he just has the finesse and can do

003all the great things with our recipes. And he's actually graduating on Friday. So, my heart is broken because he's no longer going to be in my class, but I'm so proud of him and he is just going to be wonderful um when he enters the the world post high school. >> Awesome. >> And now Joe will tell you a little bit about himself and his future plans. >> Well, uh starting with uh my after school activities is work. That's where I go every single day, putting the time, you know, every night making pizzas at Pizza Hut. So proud to say I work there. Um, see I'd say my academic strengths are that I work hard and I work well by myself and no matter how hard stuff is, I always power through it. Um, my

004future plans are to be an apprentice um, electrician. So that's what I plan to go to. And then a point of pride would be that I um keep a high GPA and yeah I made it this far. So congratulations. >> Congratulations Jill. Um, next we would like to recognize Khloe Chandler for the week of March 16th. Um, Khloe's a seventh grader at McCormack Junior High School and she will be joined up front by principal Jeff Hatcliffe and favorite teacher Heather is it Bulgar? >> Bulier. Okay. >> Thank you, chairman. Um, so Khloe Chandler is an outstanding seventh grade student at McCormack who consistently demonstrates excellence in academics, leadership, and character. She maintained straight A's while taking four honors classes, including honors, math, um, eight as a seventh grader and currently has several classes with scores

005of 100% or just a little bit higher. Khloe is actively involved in the school community through student senate band where she plays the clarinet and athletics, including volleyball, um, both in the school and outside. Teachers consistently describe her as kind, hardworking, and positive, noting that she motivates those around her and brings great energy to the classroom. In addition to her academic and extracurricular achievements, Khloe is also a talented musician, artist, and performer. Recently appearing in Cheyenne's Little Theater production of Snow White. Her creativity, leadership, and dedication make her a respected and valued member of McCormick community. And now I will let Miss Bulier say a few words about her. Also, >> hi. Um, I've had the privilege of knowing Chloe this year as one of my honor students. And it is true. She does have

006over 100% because she is never accepts anything less than perfect. If she misses one point, she will make it up, which is great. Um, I feel like she is a great role model for all of her peers. She's such a great peer leader. Um, just today she turned in an assignment that she went so far over and beyond and it was just amazing work. um for this comic strip, instead of making me a one-pager like I asked, she created me a whole comic book that was about 20 pages long, full of cover, and it was just it was amazing. And in everything she does, she just goes a little bit extra just like we expect all of our honors kids. Um so it's been a privilege and she is a gem and I couldn't be

007luckier to be our teacher. >> Oh god. Yes, I am. So, Miss Bulier is my favorite teacher because she provides um clear instructions um that supports the student understanding. She incorporates laboratory activities in her lessons that create an engaging learning environment. Additionally, with her being an amazing teacher, she takes out her time to help students in her free time when she could just say no. But she always wants to help. And while maintaining firm expectations, she does so with kindness and always encourages her students to strive high in their work. Maybe >> I would just I'd also like to rec uh recognize um Khloe's parents, Kelly and Scott, who are sitting over here. If you guys want to stand real quick. >> Well, congratulations to our students and their favorite teachers. Western Vista Fred Federal

008Credit Union sponsors awards for the student of the week program. So, at this time, I would invite Mike Mason, chief financial officer, to say a few words. >> Good evening. Uh, again, it's Mike Mason, uh, chief financial officer with Western Vista Credit Union. Um, it's been a long number of years that we've been able to participate in these recognitions. Um, and it is our honor to do so. We really love it. love to hear about the stories of achievement, striving, and uh all the great places you guys are headed. So, Joe and Chloe, congratulations. All right. And we'd love to shake your hands if you don't mind to start down there. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. lot kids. The next recognition on our agenda tonight is actually for

009we got a ton of students to recognize with this um but we will be um recognizing award winners from the LCSD1 regional state math contest. Um so I am going to Amy Castle, our district secondary mathematics curriculum coordinator is going to take it away, but we've got a lot of students coming in I think so. as they're coming in, I'll just give you a little bit of information. Um, last month we had 298 students come take a math test. This exam is given to um, students from across the state um, in all regions. We have compete against seven other regions. Um tonight we're going to recognize our winners from our contest and then their names are submitted to the state level and we'll know um in early May how they ranked against the state. So

010we have quite a few students and coaches here to be recognized. So we'll get started really quickly. Um coaches, do you want to come grab your certificates? >> All right. In grade seven, our top three winners in first place, we had Lincoln Kenny from McCormick, Zoe Peterson in second place from Kerry Junior High, and Henry Wright from McCormack Junior High. In addition to the individual test, our students also take a team test. And this year's winner for the seventh grade collaboration exam was Kerry Junior High with Adie Stegman, Hunter Aldridge, and Avery Butner. Overall, McCormick was our grade 17 award with Lincoln Kenny, Henry Wright, and Ivy Lewis. Congratulations, seventh graders. We might also note that some of these folks are sixth graders who competed on the seventh grade team and they rocked it. All

011right, moving on to eighth grade. Our top three individual eighth grade from Johnson Junior High, Daniel Little. Second place from McCormick Junior High, Braxton Adams. And third place from Johnson Junior High, Oliver Fornier. Johnson Junior High really rocked it this year in eighth grade. They took both the collaboration battle um team award and their whole team award for eighth grade. So I'll read off their names. The collaboration team was Raymond def France, Daniel Litter Little, Cohen Potter. And the eighth grade team award, we combine all those scores, was Daniel Little, Oliver Fornier, Gabrielle Bloom, Raymond Def France, and Cohen Potter. Great job, eighth graders. All right, our class B, these are our ninth and tth graders. In first place from Central High School, we have Susanna Scranton. In second place from East High School, Ethan

012Fr. And in third place from East High School, Kenneth Zabriski. Our class B collaboration winners, we actually had a tie between Central and East. So those folks were Susanna Scranton, Iris Beetles, Noah Nefer, Donovan Carl, and Jared Miller. Our class B team award this year went to Central High School with Susanna Scranton, Corbin B, Joey O'Hara, Iris Beetles, and Nolan Nolan Neper. All right, class A is our n 11th and 12th graders. Some of these folks guys have been up here for six years running. They they've won every year for since they were in junior high. So, um in first place from Central High School, Henry Maguire. Second place in from East High School, Ashley Olsen. And in Yep. Give her a round of applause. Third place from South High School, Aaron Walker. East High

013School won both the collaboration battle and the team award. And those folks were Maria Demeck, Natalie Sadana, Ashley Olsen, Wyatt Sanji, AJ Drifus, Maria Demeck, and Natalie Sadana. At this time, I'd like to recognize our coaches and our principles. Um, we have all of our coaches here. Wave your hands, guys. They came and graded all these tests. All right. And our principles um fed them, gave them money to um take the test. They did all the work. So, thank you so much. If you are a parent for one of these folks, please stand and be recognized. All right, thank you all so much. Okay, you guys want to go shake hands? Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. We'll give them just a minute to to clear out and then

014we've got another >> Well, we actually want more kids to come in, but um give them a second. Our next recognition tonight is of the Central High School 4A state champion boys swim and dive team. Um, so at this time I'd like to ask principal Karen Delbridge and head coaches Josh Bot and or head coach Josh Bot and assistant coach Tayen is it primer >> primer. >> Good evening. I'd like to introduce to you our 4A state champions, boys swim and diving. And so, um, to Could we give him a round of applause? So, I'd like to introduce to you um our actual 4A head coach of the year, Josh Bot, and our 4A assistant coach of the year, Tayen Primmer. Um, this is a pretty special team and we've got a lot of people

015to recognize, I know, tonight. So, I'll try not to spend all night gabbing about them. I feel like I've been talking about them for two and a half weeks since the state meet, but um, I just want to start with some thank yous. Thanks to the board for for taking the time out of your busy schedule to have us up here. Thanks to Central and its administration for being so supportive of everything we do. And um we have some amazing student athletes. Not only did they perform in the pool all season, but the things that they did in the classroom um were pretty impressive. And those kind of things don't happen without support from home. So if we have any parents in the audience of these guys, could you stand up and wave and maybe

016get recognized for all the hard work you do? I know you get forgotten sometimes. >> Stand up, parents. Come on. Um, we have 10 of our 13 stake qualifiers standing up here. Um, this is a season that was full of ups and downs and um, the things that happen throughout a swim season don't go well unless you have a team that's got heart and determination and a whole lot of grit. This team personifies grit to me. Um they did a lot of great things, won a lot of swim meets, had a lot of individual accolades throughout the season. We had a great first day in prelims of our state swim meet and energy was high and I think it was so high that it was kind of hard to turn around and come back in

017finals and and match that. But the first couple races were kind of a warm-up for us. And uh by the end of the meet it was we were behind quite a bit and the last three events, four events caught us up to a juggernaut of a team. Um and we won the last relay to win in kind of a the the most fun way possible. Not real fun in the moment, but afterwards it was awesome. Um it's been 13 years since Central Swimming won a swimming and diving championship. The last eight years has been Larmy. So this team did something really special. They took down a big team and they decided that they wanted to to do something that nobody's been able to do in a long time. Um, and they do it in a

018facility that doesn't quite match everybody else's, but uh, we actually take pride in what we've got at Central. We do a lot of amazing things in a sixlane pool, one of the last six lane pools in the state. But, uh, it it's pretty it's pretty incredible to have the pride that we all have for what we what we use and and the facility that we get to use. We're pretty proud of what we've got and what we get out of it. So, I'm going to have each of the boys come up and introduce themselves and tell you what they swam at the state meet. Start with Dexter there. >> I'm Dexter Yuri. I'm a sophomore and I swam the 100 fly and 100 breast at state. I took 16th in the 100 fly and 11th

019in the 100 breast stroke. Hi, I'm Caleb. I'm a freshman and I swim the 100 back and 100 200 IM and I placed 12th and 17th. I'm Ian and I'm a junior. I swam the 100 and the 200 free. I don't recall what places I got. I think I got fifth and sixth. I'm Wyatt Morris. I swam the 100 back and I'm a sophomore. >> I'm Ian Young. I'm a senior. I swam the 100 breast, 100 fly, and I swam the 200 medley relay and the um 200 freestyle relay. I'm Tyler Trimble. I'm a junior and I swam the 53. >> Uh, my name is Brady Benny and I'm a junior and I competed in diving. >> My name is Bryce Bentley. I I'm a senior. I swam the 200 yard IM. I placed fourth.

020I placed eighth in the 500 yard freestyle. I placed fifth in the 200 yard uh freestyle relay. And I placed first in the 400 yard 400 yard freestyle relay. I'm Evan Bot. I'm a junior. I swam in our medley relay, the 50 freestyle, the 100 back, and our 400 freestyle relay. My name is Keanu Little. I am a freshman and I swam the hund back. I had a feeling um that a few of these guys wouldn't say too much about themselves, but we have I think we have four of our all state athletes. Um Brady Benny is an all-state athlete diver and a state champion for the third year in a row. He's also an all-American giveaway. actually remember if you are Brady. >> It's It feels like Brady breaks a record every time he's

021on the board. Um we also have our 400 free relay swimmers were all all state. Evanbot, Bryce Bentley, and Ian Whitel are all here. Chris Hager's also a member of that relay, but he's training for a sectional meet. Give them a wave so they know who you guys are. Good job, boys. All right. So, I'm going to go ahead and have you all shake hands with the board. But I'll tell you, having a state championship and having the head coaching of the year and the assistant coach of the year, that's quite impressive. So, this is quite something standing in front of you. So, congratulations. Um, I'll let you go ahead and start shaking hands. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Congratulations. We are going to keep on with Central

022High School state champions. ions. Um, next we're going to recognize members, excuse me, of the um 4A state champion indoor track. Um, so Dr. Delbridge is already in the front and if if we have head coach Mauy and maybe some runners in here. >> Oh yeah, come on in. >> Yes. I'd like to introduce to you our 4A state champions for indoor track. So, Coach Mauy couldn't be here tonight, but hey, we've got Coach Sean Wild who's going to talk about these. >> Before I start talking about these girls, um, I want to recognize their parent because they've had to put up with me for a lot. Three years for three of them and, uh, four years for another one. And, uh, I really appreciate you guys taking the time, letting me make them super

023tired when they get home, as well as putting up with my uh, shortcoming myself. So, I really appreciate that and I thank you for sharing them with me. >> Could you stand behind? >> So, these girls, they're pretty great. You guys have had the opportunity to see them up here a few times through their career. And I think the personification of that is uh Kelly Walsh coach kind of grabs me during the state meet after they ran. and he's not even a distance guy. He just grabbed me. He's like, "Hey, coach, you know, I can see why you girls were why your girls were so dominant at the state cross country meets in that season." Man, watching them run that 4x8 was just amazing. And you know, that's real special when you get the fraternity

024of coaches coming up to you just grabbing you even if they don't do distance themselves and congratulate you on how awesome your kids are doing. And so, first we're going to talk about our leadoff leg, Sophia Rose. She brought took it out, put us in the lead right at the start, made it look real easy. Next we had Ella, our senior on the group. She actually wasn't on our squad last year who helped us set the state record. So, she actually was the one who helped us break the record again. So, thank you, Ella. You're quite the addition to the team this year. Next, we got Malia Adams case. She was our third leg who really put it out of reach. And then Adeline was lucky. She had the easy work of being the anchor,

025just making sure nobody caught us. And believe it or not, even though we broke the state record, she was actually still able to shut it down a little bit at the end so she can serve and make it make sure she still had enough for two races that she still had yet to do. Real quick though, we just want to say thank you to our coach because we really couldn't do it without L while he definitely underestimated himself because he's out there running with us every single afternoon and it's a lot of time away from his family. So, we just really appreciate all the hard work and dedication that he puts into our team because he's the reason that we're up here. And he's actually being nominated for national coach of the year for cross

026country. And we're really excited for him. Congrats. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> And I'll ask I'll ask Dr. Delbridge to stay at the front because we're now going to recognize another Central High School state champion. Um, and this is a for state champion for boys wrestling at 157 pounds. So, we have Dr. Dbridge and coach Kyle Breitman. So, not to brag, but Central has some really great kids and you're just getting to see some of them tonight. And so I am so excited to introduce to you a state champion for wrestling and I'm going to have uh coach Kyle Brightitman speak. So thank you for coming. >> Well, thanks for having us. I want to thank the board for um supporting athletics and just pouring into our community and just being here. I

027love that I have to wait about 30 minutes before it's my turn. And that just I think speaks to the high level of athletic achievement in Cheyenne and uh so cool to go and just see how so many other programs are just competing at a high level and makes me proud to be from Cheyenne. So thanks to the board for supporting our athletics. Thanks to Dr. Delbridge for supporting our athletics as well and and her and I have uh um really just love growing together and helping these kids and working things out. And so uh Mr. Lamp who also does activities and athletics has been a big part and a big part of this guy's life as well. And so a lot of credit goes to him. And I want to thank our teachers um

028who help our kids and just really get them there. And the reality is a lot of our kids are there to wrestle and then we get them along academically and our teachers have shown a lot of patience there and and showing them the way uh that there's a a great path academically as well. And I want to congratulate all the competitors. um my cross town colleague Mr. Thatraillo and his state champion wrestlers and then just all the other athletes who um man just excel in their sports in our community and so proud to be from Cheyenne and proud to be from Central and I get to talk about Mr. Trip Vhill. And uh Trip is one of the most athletic, raw, naturally talented wrestlers that um I've ever had the opportunity to coach. And I

029don't think there was a single match that Trip was out of uh from his freshman year to his senior year. And coming in his freshman year, he really had his eyes set to be a state champion. And just every the first three years competed well, but just fell a little bit short. He was fifth as a freshman. He was fourth as a sophomore. He was third last year as a junior. And he really had a hunger and a heart to be a state champion this year. And in one big match, he, you know, wasn't quite in the shape he needed to be earlier in the state tournament, kind of an all class tournament called the Ronthon tournament in Riverton and lost a tough match in overtime. And I really challenged him that month to get

030his cardio right because if his pace is going, very few guys could keep up with him. and he really answered that call and I said, "If you can get to where you need to be, there won't be anybody who touches you at the state tournament." And that held to be true. He dominated his way through that. And so, uh, four time state placer. He's the first four time state placer I've had in eight years. He's only two of four time placers that I've ever coached. And so, he really has a love and a passion for wrestling. And couldn't be more proud of Trip. And, uh, and congratulations to him. And I promise you didn't have to talk, but anything you want to say, Trip? >> Uh, thanks for all the support of everyone that's like

031here that watched me and >> thank you really good coach. >> I do want to recognize Sarah Vhill is here tonight. Where where you at? Right there. You have to stand though. >> So, and then Mr. Phil Vhill, his dad couldn't be here tonight and his mom in Rollins, April, couldn't be here either. So, let's give them a round of applause. Congratulations. Thank you. >> Congratulations. We're going to go across town now to East High School and recognize two 4A state champion boys wrestlers. So at this time if principal Mark Kersner and head coach Sad Trill would come forward with their students. I'm Mark Kersner. It's my pleasure to be here tonight to recognize a couple of great young men from East High School. I had a chance to attend most of the state wrestling

032tournament this year and I can tell you it's a roller coaster of emotions. uh lots of lots of happiness, lots of sadness, and lots and lots of tough kids. So, seeing these two compete in their state championship match was something really special and uh it was it was a great moment. So, with that, I'd like to introduce uh head coach Thad Trujillo to tell you a little bit more about these young men and their accomplishments. Thank you for having us and recognizing our student athletes. Um I'll talk about Koad first. Kad's a a junior for us. Um had a very successful career up to this point and um won a state title as a sophomore. He was up here last year, too. And um found another one this year. He had just a phenomenal state

033tournament. he was locked in and um in the state finals he had to wrestle a kid or got to wrestle a kid that had beat him the week before pretty handily and I'd say one of the best two best two or three kids in the state. Um and Cozette just kind of locked in and and dominated that match. Ended up winning 10 to one. U great leader for us. He's one of our team captains and has been since he was a freshman. um his contributions to our team are are far beyond just winning matches. Super proud of him. Then Sammy is a senior this year. Um he has had a just a phenomenal wrestling career at East. um was a four-time state placer, was fourth as a freshman, and then fell just short his sophomore

034and junior year, was second in the state tournament, lost in the finals, um and then found a way to get it done this year and just just had a phenomenal season. I don't Sammy didn't lose to any Wyoming kids. And I don't know if this is fact, but thinking about it on the way over, I think he scored a major decision or greater in every match that he had against Wyoming competition. just had a a phenomenal career. One of about 10 four-time state placers to ever come through our school. Um, obviously both really good wrestlers, but more importantly just great people and great leaders. Um, they both do a lot for our program and and helping their teammates find the joy in in what can be a pretty tough sport. and there's not a lot

035of fun in most wrestling practices, but these guys find a way to make things a little more exciting for their teammates. Um, them being just such great individuals is a strong testament to how they're raised. So, I like their their families are here. If you guys would stand up, please. And thank you all so much for Thank you for sharing these young men with us. It's truly been a blessing in my life and and their teammates and our other coaches. Thank you. >> Good work. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Mr. Kersner, please don't go too far. >> He's coming right back. more state champions. Tell you what, um, next we're going to be recognizing members of the East High School for a state champion indoor track team. So, if Mr. Kersner would

036come back along with head coach Jesse Blunt and other assistant coaches and all of your runners. Haven't been told before. >> You might scoot clear over. Yeah, I think you're gonna scooching. Scooching. Well, it's my pleasure again to to be up here recognizing a great group of kids. People don't realize this, but indoor track season is dangerous at East High School. At any given time, I can leave an office or leave a classroom and have to look left and look right and then check again both directions to make sure somebody isn't flying around a corner as part of their training. So, it's hard uh to be an athlete in the winter, but it's hard to be an indoor track athlete when your facilities are just the hallways and the open spaces at East High. But,

037these kids do a great job of making the best of it and had a great season. So, I'd like to introduce head coach Jesse Blunt to talk a little bit more about their accomplishments. >> Thank you. Uh, thank you guys so much for having us. Um, like Mr. Kersner said, this is a special group of of guys. And then we got Maggie up here. She she's a state champion as well. Um, I guess the big thing also I'd like to say is thanks to the admin and and everybody that supports our kids. Um, this year we got quarter inch uh rubber for our hallways. And I I do think it made a huge difference for our kids. Uh, it was kind of a pain to lay it out um 80 yards of rubber every single

038day. And and that was funded by our admin and and how much they support us and support our kids. And it's it's really great uh for to to be a part of it. These guys, I'll talk real quick. Um I talked a lot of these guys into coming out this year uh for indoor track. They they hadn't participated or they they came and they got um they they found snowboarding and other activities to do and and they bonded together as a team. And if you looked at the rankings all year, um, our kids, our guys were always like second, but, uh, us coaches, we knew that it was, we started talking in mid January about how special they could be and and we got a chance to win it. And, uh, we went up to

039Gillette and put it all together and and the Sheridan guys knew that we were coming for them and it was it was pretty great to beat him by two and a half points. So, um, every single guy up here contributed in some way, uh, whether it was scoring points or, um, or cheering their guys on and it just came down to to the very end to a 4x4 that, um, that broke the school record. And we had to get we had to get sixth and we came in ninth and we got fourth and it finished with our uh, anchor diving across the finish line to help seal the deal. So, it's pretty special group and we all knew it was going to come down to this. So, I'll just introduce uh each guy and and

040then I'll have the state champions at the end. So, DJ Murphy, he's a triple jumper and high jumper. Cam Griffin is a triple jumper. Uh 4x4 and long jumper. Dayton Rhodess is a long jumper, 55 200. Um Brennan Lamb is a thrower. Alex Cooper right here is a is a sprinter 200 sprint sprint medley 4x two. Um Jayce Pearson is uh 55 200 400 4x4. You can see that all of them contributed with multiple events. Um Taj Rean is a high jumper, triple jumper, long jumper, sprinter, sprint medley. Aiden Ricardo is a high jumper, long jumper, triple jumper. Um Spencer Brown is a palter. He runs a 400. Uh Tyler is a 55 and he pvault Tyler Cressilius. Uh Trinity Redden is a long jumper sprinter 4x2 sprint medley. Um Tevin Riselle is a palter

041runs a 400. Braden Palmer is a sprinter 200 55 400. Davy Ruff is a hurdler um and he's on the relays high jumper as well. Jace Ketchum is a distance guy. I got real nervous right there. Calling him out, making sure I don't mess him up. Ben W Keenan is 400, 800. Ethan Upton is a distance guy, 800,600, 3200. Aiden Zwaner is a distance guy, 800, 1632. And Lucas um is a 800632. Um, and then Maggie is our state champion in the girls 16 and 32. So, like I said, it's a great group of guys. Um, and and Maggie is is just they put it all together. So, um, I guess next thing I'll I'll talk to the individual state champions. The first is DJ uh Murphy. He's a he's a state champion in the

042um triple jump and the high jump and he also set the record at East for the um triple jump and the high jump and he got very close to the state record as well. So DJ and then next is Dayton Roads. Dayton set the state record in the 55. He set the school record in the 55. He set the school record in the 200. He set the school record in the long jump. He won all of those at state. And then he was on the school record um breaking 4x4 team that helps uh seal the state championship. So he had a an amazing year and he's only a junior. So Dayton Chan Ike is our other um palter. He was the state champion uh and he couldn't be here tonight. He had a um prior

043uh engagement in Colorado. I gota double check make sure I don't leave everybody out. Um and then Maggie Matson, I just talked to her. She won the 16 and 32. um and she was hurt almost all year and then came out and sacrificed what could have been another injury just for her team to to score some points for the girls side. So that's really impressive. Um like that's it for these guys. I the parents can you guys please stand up? the the parents, you kids need to give your parents hugs, okay? They support you guys. They drive probably drove you everywhere when you were little and to do all your little activities and and um it's a big deal. It's it's a big deal for them to be here and uh and support you guys.

044So, make sure you give them a hug. I know some of you guys are probably really good huggers, so give them hugs tonight. And um and then Mr. Kersner. Okay. And like I said, the the admin team at East um Coach Slabs. Okay. Unbelievable. Uh we we wouldn't probably be here if it wasn't for these guys supporting these kids. And uh it's it's a big deal for these kids um to have sports and and I think there's maybe a couple of these guys that might not be here if they didn't have sports. And uh so thank you for your support and supporting East High. Thank you sir. >> Thank you sir. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Right. Well, we have a couple more recognitions to do, but

045they are employees. So, we're going to shift gears just a little bit. Um, the next recognition we're doing is our LCSD1 employee spotlight award, which we started last year just as a way to recognize outstanding um, staff members in the district for their contributions and all that they do. So, this month we are excited to recognize Christelle Gomez from the finance department. Um she is going to be joined up front by Wendy Gaines who is the TSS president and Jed Sar Sigurelli our CFO for the district. >> You just or maybe just J. >> All right. Well, good evening everyone. Um I'm Jedelli. I have the pleasure of having Christelle Gomez as part of my department and it's my honor to be able to introduce her tonight as part of the employee spotlight. Um for

046those of you who don't know Christelle, um she serves as an accounts receivable specialist in our district and she's been with us about four years. Is that four years right? Um and she's a truly valued uh member of our our finance team. Um and I want to take a moment just to pause because it's pretty special for us to have uh somebody from the finance team um recognized. It's um a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, but I think this is a testament of how that work doesn't always go unnoticed. Um as a matter of fact, she was nominated by one of her co-workers, which I think is was um even more important. Um these are the people that you work alongside every day. Um and they're the ones who see the

047consistency and the extra effort that you put in. Um and when a co-orker recognizes that, um I think it's really important that they sit down and say, "Somebody should know about this." Um, and that's a reflection on you. Um, the truth is for everyone, uh, the district doesn't run as smoothly without people like Christelle. As a matter of fact, Madam Chair, I think I'm pretty confident in saying if there was a state championship for accounts receivable, she would take state each and every year. >> Um, but uh, uh, one thing that um, did stand out to me in the nomination, and I want to read this, make sure I get it right. Um, Christelle goes above and beyond to help everyone she encounters. Um, this is the kind of person she is. she doesn't hesitate

048to jump in. Uh whether it's a phone call from a school bookkeeper, asking a question, stuffing W2 envelopes or or maybe solving an accounting problem with a T- chart on her marker board. Um she's always the one that steps in and does the extra work. Um she had she and I have a little inside joke. Um and I'll just say this. Um sometimes the best hires come along in a way that reminds you of how lucky you are when things land exactly as they should. Um our team is better because you are here, Christelle. Um, thank you for everything you do, um, and all the people you support and congratulations on being recognized tonight. And Mary, I think we have a 45 minute u video montage that maybe we'll play it next time, but uh,

049you're more than welcome to say a couple words. >> Well, thank you to everyone who supports me and I couldn't work with a better group of people from the admin building to all the different departments, all the bookkeepers at the schools, principles, everybody I deal with. Um, but Jed took the words right out of my mouth. It's really nice to be recognized by my boss and the board and the administrators, but the thing that meant the most was that it came from a co-orker who took the time out of their day to nominate me and see what I do. And um that means a lot. That that is what got me is that it was a co-orker that nominated me and that they appreciate everything I do and see the hard work that I put

050into our team. So, thank you. >> So, actually guys, before we shake hands, um I'd like to ask Mr. Mason from Western Vista to come back up. He has um a little bit of additional award for you. Crystal >> congratulations. As a fellow finance person, I can I have a lot of respect for the work that you do and dedication and uh accounts receivable is at least as important as accounts payable. And now we would love to shake your hand if you don't mind. >> Thank you so much. the last but not least tonight, we actually we we've got quite an educator to recognize. Um, next this is we'll be recognizing the 2026 Wyoming Art Educator of the Year and same person, secondary art educator of the year. Um, so if I could have Mr.

051Mark Kushner come up and Teresa Ross who is our district fine arts coordinator along with Steve Knox um, a teacher at East. Thank you. It's really exciting to be at a board meeting where we get to recognize both students and staff. And uh it's my pleasure to talk a little bit about Steve Knox. We're really fortunate at the East High School to have a great art department. We have a lot of great art teachers. Um and Steve is is an important part of that department. What always amazes me about Steve is how he makes creativity infectious. He uh inspires students of all ability levels, and I mean all ability levels, to uh create art and to find their voice in in the artwork that they produce. And so I'm always amazed by the artwork that

052the students produce under Steve's guidance. And we're just really fortunate to have him at East High School. At this time, I'd like to introduce Terresa Ross, district fine arts coordinator, to talk a little bit more about the awards for Mr. Knox. Thank you. Uh, it's my pleasure to recognize an outstanding educator from our district, Mr. Knox, Wyoming's art teacher of the year. This is my first year as the fine and performing arts coordinator for the district. And every time I've interacted with Mr. Knox, it has been nothing but a pleasurable experience. He encourages adults all across the district to engage with kids, talk to them about their art in ways that are meaningful to kids. But that wasn't enough to say about Mr. Knox tonight. I wanted to highlight some of the things about him

053that absolutely shine across our district. So I asked our art tossa Mrs. Cameron to share a few highlights of Mr. Knox with me. They've been colleagues for over five years um five of which have been at East High School. Uh Mr. Knox taught for art 14 years at Goens Elementary in the past five years at East High School bringing creativity, passion, and dedication to students across our district. In addition to his work in the classroom, he's been an artist himself for 44 years. You may not have wanted that detail included. You're welcome. Yes. Uh Mr. Knox is deeply engaged not only with his students, but also with his colleagues. When opportunities arise to support other art teachers or create meaningful experiences for students, he's often the first to step forward. He's helped our high school

054art group in organizing shows and creating unique opportunities for students to share their work and talents within the community. And I would agree with something a coach said earlier. I feel like a lot of our students in our district are lucky to have him and our art department and they are here every day because of the services that our teachers provide to them. What stands out most is the strong connection Mr. Knox builds with his students. As a professional artist, he's able to share his own creative journey with them, helping students see what is possible through art and encouraging them to find their own voice. Outside the classroom, Mr. Knox is a husband, a father of four, and an active member of the Cheyenne and Wyoming arts community. He is a passionate advocate for the

055arts and continually works to elevate the role of art in our schools and community. And if you're not already aware of his artistic presence across Wyoming, you might have heard rumors about the statewide tea shortage, due in part because he uses tea bags as a canvas for some of the many pieces of arts he creates. Mr. Knox is someone who is always striving to grow, improve, and create, whether for his family, his students, his school, or the broader arts community. Please join me in congratulating Mr. Knox, Wyoming's art teacher of the year. >> No, you can't. >> Well, I guess this started in seventh grade. Um, I had an art teacher and very memorable day. He told me, "You've got something. Do something with it." Art teacher that day from from then on. So, I

056guess it's that human connection you mentioned. Curriculum. Great. Mark talked to me later about it. But whatever. What do I remember about Tom Hart, my seventh grade art teacher? Has nothing to do with curriculum or the grade he gave me. There's a human connection. That's where I'm at. That's what I teach. That's what I do. So, Thank you so much. Congratulations as always. I told my kids our recognitions tonight might take an hour and it's exactly like one hour. Um gosh, next we're moving into information and reports. And we would typically start with this with public comments from visitors on agenda topics and non-aggenda topics, but no one signed up. Um so we're going to move right on into a discussion just about upcoming meetings, and then we'll go into our individual board communications and

057reports. Um on March 31st from 12:00 to 1:30, we have our executive meeting with the superintendent. So that is with vice chair Clawson and um treasure um trustee Ashby or trustee treasure Ashby. Um on April 1st at 6:30 p.m. the parent advisory meeting will be held here in the boardroom and then on Monday, April 6th, we'll have our next regular board meeting. We'll start with a 5:00 pm work session and then the board meeting in this room at 6 pm. Um after that on April 14th we will have a planning meeting trustee planning meeting with the superintendent. Um so for that we'll need two other trustees to sign up. Um so I believe trustees Burton and Cook were at the last one. Um are you available Trusty Humphrey for that one? >> Yes. >> Okay.

058So, we'll have Trusty Humphrey and then um Trusty Hinkle is not with us tonight, but um would one of the two of you be interested or able to attend that one? Trusty Cook. Either one. Okay. >> Which one? Trusty Cook. Okay. Okay. So, that'll get us through the next few weeks. Next, excuse me. We'll move into individual board communications and reports. Does anyone have anything to share? >> Trusty Ashby. >> Um, couple of things. One, I just want to say thank you for um, all of the elementarymentaries that continue to do Read Across America. Um, I did not tell the public relations committee that I was reading because I didn't want to be photographed. But, um, I did have the opportunity to go read to the first graders um, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, thank

059you for continuing to do that. Uh and then um I had the opportunity through my work with uh the Wyoming School Boards Association this last week to attend the COSBA or the Consortium of State School Board Association um in Louisville, Kentucky. And I fully aware that I add too many letters to that that name because if they say it, it doesn't sound like that. Um but it was uh very informative. They had a lot of great present presentations and an opportunity to really network and learn about what is going on across the country as well as across our state. We had about 50 people from uh the state of Wyoming that attended COSBA. Um and so I got the opportunity to talk to a lot of different um people um including our um crew from

060Laramie 2 and got to hang out with them a little bit and find out what's happening in the eastern part of the county. Um but uh I'm happy to share anything that came across. A lot of themes, a lot of discussion about decreasing enrollments across the country. Um a lot of um discussion around safety and security and mental health. So >> thank you Trusty Cook. >> Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. real quick. Um I should have talked about this the last meeting, but um I I love to call out amazing people that work in our district and there was a group of kids that went from Cheyenne, Wyoming and they were heading to Simpla Games in Pocutella, Idaho and um they drove out through bad weather happened upon a fatal accident. they weren't a part

061of it, but they came right after and um they were stuck there. So then I believe it was people from Evston that came and got the kids, brought them to Evston. They had to spend the night. However, we had an amazing bus driver, Amanda Crom, who spent the night in the bus, stayed with the bus, and then Mr. Greenwood um texted her throughout the night to make sure she was doing okay. But that's what kind of people that we have working in our district. And when I thanked her through via email, she said, "Every time a child gets on that bus, they're my children." And I thought, "Wow." So, we're lucky to have such amazing people that work in our district. So, thank you. >> That's wonderful. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, Trusty Clawson. >> I

062love that. Trusty Cook, thanks for sharing that great story. Um, I just want to also say that I Trusty um, Trusty Cook and Trusty Burton and I got the had the pleasure of attending Henderson Elementary's is it literacy night? Am I saying that right? And that was just really terrific. I've been there before. I think it was my fourth time visiting. But it was just really lovely. They always do a great job and have all of their parents come in and invite them to have dinner and um go around to different stations and do little exercises. They had a local artist who had um written her own children's book and she read one of her books to the the students and the families while they were having dinner there. And um and then at the

063end of the night, which I loved, you know, they had all kinds of goodies for the families, but they gave each of the the families, each of the children a coloring book that was also a reading and phonics focused book. And I'm so grateful. I was grateful to see that. And she said, "Well, please mention it at a board meeting." So, I just want to give a kudos and shout out to our wonderful language arts uh folks just making sure our young ones have the road maps that they need to be able to read at an early age. So, great work by Henderson Elementary and great work by our district to ensure we're teaching those those in essential skills. >> Thank you, Trusty Br. Uh, Madam Chair, to add to that, um, I also had

064the opportunity to read a book to first graders at Arp Elementary. Um, and it was very fun and it was a Friday and I went in and everyone was in pajamas and I did not get the memo that I could wear my pajamas on Friday. Um, and then I decided it was okay that I was not in my pajamas because our media folks were there and took a few pictures. Anybody else? All right. Well, I just have one thing to share that's kind of a big deal. Um, and this is that um for the last month and a half or so, we've been undergoing a process to select a name and a mascot for the new um 56 elementary school in the South Triad. And just so everyone here or listening is aware of how

065that worked, we reached out to the principles of each of the South Triad elementary schools and said, "Please work with all of your students. We want their top three possible school names and their top three possible school mascots." So, we collected a very long list from the um all of the South Triad Elementary School principles. Um and then we had a committee review those and we narrowed down to our top three combination of school names with combined with a a mascot from from what the kids had provided. Um, we then sent those combinations back out to these school principles and asked if they would please get input and vote tallies from their kids and their staff members. Um, so we got those back in and then our folks um in the admin building have been

066working very hard to come up with um what that might look like in terms of a mascot. So, we have a video, but before we show it, I just want to tell you the top three that we narrowed down to. I said it at the last meeting, but um the choices were Analopee Valley Elementary School Prong Horns, Cottonwood Elementary School Rattlers, or the Mountain View Elementary School Red Dogs. So, Mr. McKini has a video to I think for the first time share our winner. So, you heard it here first, the Mountain View Elementary School Red Dogs. Um, red dogs is actually the nickname for a baby bison. So, I think it seemed quite fitting for um, a South Triad Elementary School. Um, but thanks to everyone who seemed on your teams who worked on that.

067I did actually send the link out to those principles this afternoon and said, "Please share with your kids and your staff." I don't know if that happened, but maybe tomorrow the kids will get to see that little clip, too, if they didn't today. So, um, and that was over 50% of the vote was for Mountain View Red Dogs. So, um, that was super exciting. Yeah, Trusty Class. >> Madam Chair, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing. I have one more thing and I really want to say it. So, I I apologize for jumping back in, but >> um, I know each one of us would would probably will agree with this. I'm just going to take a leap of faith. But I think um we are all very grateful for Superintendent Newton and his staff for

068all the great work that you did this last week during the crazy windstorm of the century. So just thank you for handling all the down trees and the different um taking care of our kids and all the different problems that arose from that that windstorm. So thank you. I'm so glad you thought of that. Thank you. Yeah. To all of you, thank you. All right. Well, at this time, I will turn it over to Dr. Newton for reports from superintendent and staff. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, we're going to have Mr. Curelli come up here in a minute and give a legislative update on um the recalibration bill. There are some other pieces of legis legislation that I would like to also talk about uh briefly. some of them um there are many bills

069that I won't share that have some implications some of the property tax bills and so forth but some of the bills that uh directly affect us I just wanted to kind of uh bring to a head and and talk a little bit about and um these are bills um perhaps not the most important but the ones that are going to result in us having to make some new decisions and um engage in some new work. So um house enrolled act 27 carrying of concealed weapons. This has lowered the age of concealed carry down to 18. I would note that students are not allowed to carry even though um they may be uh in that age bracket that the age is reduced to. So but it will not include students in that. So, um really our

070policy doesn't need to change, but I did think it was important to note um that there is an exemption that students are not allowed to conceal carry. Um, House Enrolled Act 10 was the appropriations that we were hoping for to get through, which will include the demolition for uh the old ARP, uh the uh the space renovation for East High due to capacity issues and the funding for the new Hobbs Elementary. So, that made it through. Very pleased about that. Uh Senate enrolled act 46 46 on district cell phone policies. Uh this board um worked in advance of this legislation and adopted u and revised the policy and so um this requires all districts to do so. We already have. So really the work that needs to be done is just for us to submit

071it to the department of education. We did see in Senate enrolled act four an increase in the halfway scholarship awards. um it ranged between three, five, and $700 increases per year on those award amounts. We're always very grateful for uh the the scholarship gift um that the Hathway Scholarship presents to our kids. The Senate Enrolled Act 24. This was the um bill to make sure that we keep um our students um at um not compromising their amateur status by receiving um name, image, and likeness money. the NIL money and so um that codified that our kids cannot receive those funds. There was some question um that was percolating through the activities association on uh independent of uh legislation if we wanted to take a stance on that and um I I would say that the

072the collective um activities association was in keeping with where the state ultimately ended up in u in saying we need to keep our kids amateur status u protected. There is a Senate enrolled act 43 which is the statewide uh K12 language literacy bill and uh certainly efforts there to u improve reading instruction and student literacy outcomes which is something that everybody can get behind. It will uh create some new logistical challenges for us as we figure out um what kind of uh screener we're going to do, what do IRPS look like as they move beyond just a K3 approach all the way through a K12 approach. So um some new work to be done there. The um I'm going to skip over enrolled act 56 and enrolled act 56 which is the recalibration finance bill

073that Jed will be coming up here in a minute to discuss. um and leave that to him. And then the last one, Senate Rule Act 36 that I would mention, school facility use fees. And um that that bill basically says that if a district is going to open its facilities to the public, there needs to be um a real accurate cost calculation for what those fees are that are charged. And so um I am pleased to announce that we stayed a bit ahead of that one as well. And I know that Jed's group has put a request for proposal RFP out on the street to get a third party consultant to do the the calculation um for um those fees which um one of the things that I think everybody in our public will be

074pleased um with that work because it will bring a third party perspective to um not only what should those fees be but what would be a defensible way in the future to raise those fees if and when that should become necessary as well. So, uh we're looking forward to a partnership uh third party partner on that. Um that will be happening in the next weeks and months to come to make sure that the fees u that we do put in place are um are actually costbased as the new legislation demands. But with that, I will call Mr. Cigarelli up. He has a brief presentation on Senate Enrolled Act 56 and a few other budget items as well. And so with that, Mr. Right. Um, thank you, Madam Chair, Dr. Newton, members of the board. Um,

075as Dr. Man mentioned um as we start to ramp up um our processes to develop a budget for fiscal year 27, I'd like to take a at least a few minutes and address the board and talk about um where we are with our current revenue and expenditure projections for the year we're um entering into the fourth quarter on and then from a a financial kind of lens look a little bit at um what we might be um addressing with some of the legislative changes that Dr. Newton mentioned just a moment ago. Um I will start um and albe it um a little quicker than I typically do just um in the sense that um we have a little bit of ground to cover with some of the legislative changes. But I'm going to start with

076a quick overview of our revenue uh outlook for the for the year that again that we're um um completing. And I'll just note that um I tried to take a little more focused look um at where we are with our financial operations and look at the general fund. I don't want to be repetitive and um dive into the board report that you all see every month. Uh but I do want to u point out a few things that we're tracking. And I'll start with the revenue side. Um what you'll see here is a um a projection based on the historical trends and other assumptions that I always kind of provide that disclaimer. Uh just noting that these are the the best estimates that we have based on the information that we have um currently um

077at our fingertips. Uh, one of the things that you'll notice is that we're on track to miss revenue projections by about $1.2 million or about a half a percent. Um, I would caveat that with a lot of things happen when it comes to revenue in the last quarter of the fiscal year. In particular, a lot of trueing up with our our local tax collections and our state entitlements. So, we could see swings um either way on some of these production or excuse me, revenue uh projections. Now, um, one thing that I would point out, um, I always seem to be able to find an opportunity to mention Senate File 60 from a few years back. Um, it certainly still is a obstacle as we try to pinpoint our revenue, um, and what we receive for

078state aid. Uh, one of the things that, um, we will see in the next two weeks is my last opportunity to adjust those figures with the state department of education. So, um I will look at the uh the tax collections that our county treasurer just remitted to us uh this week and then um make some estimates and adjustments and uh precise those figures with the state department. So, we'll see a little bit of adjustment there as well. Now, um, with local investment earnings, uh, this has been a a major topic, and you'll hear me talk a little bit about it when I get to the retire or, excuse me, the recalibration bill, but, um, when we developed the budget, I told you that, um, I anticipated we'd have, um, less in interest earnings for the

079the year that we are in just with the result of how the market has changed and the Federal Reserve rate. And that's certainly the case. Um, we're at about $2 million, um, in general fund interest with about four months um, still left to post. Now, um this is one of those strange areas where um the changes in the recalibration bill that I'll talk about here in a moment represent a real liability to the district. Now, so that 2 million that we've earned so far, a million of that um will be captured by the state next fiscal year. And it'll always be kind of on that look back calculation where half of our interest earnings will be um collected by the state. Um and I'll get a little bit more into that when we get to

080the recalibration bill. Um, another couple of areas that I'd like to point out is, um, every year we renegotiate our indirect cost rate with the Department of Education, um, based on the administrative costs that we incur to manage our federal grants and those type of things. Um, every year we we um, look for opportunities to um, maybe dial in that inter indirect cost a little bit more. Um, so we saw a few basis points increase this year. Um, we will as well when we flip into uh, the next fiscal year. So that will again bring revenue back to the general fund. Um, and I would tell you that there's fewer and fewer revenues that we collect as a school district um, that are unrestricted in the sense that it won't offset our state aid as

081we go forward. Um, and so these are those those very important revenue sources for us that um, we're allowed to reinvest in the educational program. Um, a couple of other areas just big picture. Um, our state revenue as you'll see kind of in the the far right hand side of the uh the bar charts there showing um that we have changed that disproportionate amount of local versus state in a way that reflects kind of the decreasing in our adalorum tax collections. Um, but we're also seeing some some changes in areas that we're not quite hitting. Um, our initial projections that might seem pretty small, but you'll see in the other line there, we're about 10% high behind in other revenue. Uh, this is where we collect um, uh, insurance proceeds for the loss of assets

082typically around transportation. And, uh, hopefully I'm not going to jinx myself, but we've seen um, less of those insurance claims when it comes to transportation this particular year. Um, Madam Chair, I know this always seems to hide behind uh the screen here a little bit, but um I'm going to flip a little bit over to the expenditure side of the uh uh the ledger, if you will. Um at the very very top, you'll see um what I always explain is probably the biggest and most important part of our general fund budget, and that's our payroll and personnel budget. Um and you'll see at the top we um have a $28.4 million budget. Um we're on track to be um total expensed about $26.5 million. Um you might remember as we closed the fiscal year this

083summer. Um I was sweating a little bit on how tight we were with our payroll budget. We were within a few hundred,000 of that uh that projection. Um a little tighter than I like to be. Um I'll tell you that um we've done two things. Um we've refined our payroll projections. Um, in particular, we're utilizing our system to encumber salaries, which allows us to track contract payments for our staff in a more um detailed manner. And that's helped immensely with our um payroll and labor projections. Um, but the other piece of it um is uh the savings from efforts to collapse positions and find efficiencies. Uh Miss Chafffield and Mr. Lewis have all been involved in reviewing every position vacancy that comes open in the district. there's a very um uh intent um deliberation around

084will we fill those positions and when we can collapse those positions we see the benefit um in that particular budget right there. So when we roll into the next year uh those savings will come with us as well. The rest of the chart you'll see um categorizes our our 60 plus budgets into different categories. Again um this is similar to the information that you've seen before. Um this represents about 46 to 48 million um including incumbrances for our school district. Um now I will note we um see that number at the very bottom right about $7.5 million. This is uh my best guess at this point in time of what we might see for carryover obligations and this is an important aspect for us. Um typically we're usually around the $5 to million range. Um

085and you'll notice that it is higher and this is really a result of a couple of things. Um we had some long software contracts that we renewed 5 years or more um that will carry that obligation um as we fully expense and liquidate those uh purchase orders. U we have some curricular costs and some residential treatment um obligations and incumbrances that will follow us from year to year as well. So um I'm projecting that we'll be a little bit high higher on those carryover POS. Um just to quickly make a few comments with regards to um the rest of our non-personnel budget. Um, I'll tell you, we're still seeing those inflationary pressures. Um, whether it comes from supplies and materials, um, or some of those harder to um, uh, plan for purchases like curriculum. Uh,

086with the legislation that I'll go over here in a moment, um, you're going to see where some of those areas are going to become increasingly difficult, uh, to plan and address on a perfect um, kind of context of a single-year appropriation. Um, but I will say that we we're still tracking those costs. um and uh um addressing them as they come. I think one important point I would add to that is um when we look at our utility budget, and I always find a way to bring this up. It seems like every year uh we are um seeing the benefits, if you will, of uh I think I don't want to get the uh quote the article wrong, but I think one of the the warmest uh winters we've seen on record in Wyoming. And

087if there is a bit of a silver lining, um it's it's shown in our utilities budget. Um but uh if if I was to contract that budget um expecting that to continue um we could definitely be in some financial hardship. So um we'll look at that as well as um the possibility of some global conflicts creating some price volatility. But um really the weather patterns still remain the most influential factor when it comes to forecasting our utilities budget. Um, as I kind of wrap up, um, roughly about 99%, um, of our budget is, um, assumed to be expended here, uh, we typically come in about 97%. Um, and that's really good financial practice. Um, I think the last thing you as a board want is for us to be right up against that maximum appropriation

088every year. So, there's always going to be those budgetary res reversions that we talk about on a year-to-year basis. Um, one point I did fail to mention that I want to uh throw out there on the the the utilities is that uh we're going to see a different type of look back adjustment when it comes to utilities from the recalibration bill. Um, as you know, when we add a school and bring it online, there's a mechanism for the state to adjust our funding. Um, what's different this year is um, when a school comes offline, they're going to do that same adjustment. Um, we're hoping to get some clarification of what mean what offline means to the state department of education. if it's still in our inventory and we're still heating it and we're still maintaining

089utilities, um will we be able to still receive the utility funding for that? And that's that's our hope as we work through some of the uh the rule and regulation pieces of the uh recalibration bill. So, um Madam Chair, with that I'm going to um segue into um some of the the legislative impacts uh as Dr. Newton mentioned. Now, I I will say one thing that's notably absent from um some of these slides that you typically don't get from me is the lack of numbers. Um and it's really twofold. Uh the first is that um everything is very tentative. Um we have uh very limited uh budgetary tools for forecasting and making our budgetary assumptions. But um we also went into some of the details in a work session a couple weeks ago. So um

090I'll I'll keep us high level and talk about some of the impacts. Now, um there's a couple of things here I'll note. Um is that the bill or the school finance bill, Senate File 81, is going to imple implement some but not all the elements um as recommended by the school finance consultants. And I'll point a few of those out as we progress through this. Um but really what it does is it modifies our education resource block grant model. And that's a little bit of a misnomer. And I'll talk about how that block grant is being operationalized and how it's restricted. I think we've a lot of us have heard about the educational or instructional silo. Um, and I'll talk about how that works. But what this does is it changes a lot of the

091rules around things like cash reserves, how foundation funds are received, how they can be spent. Um, and and Dr. Newton and I have had a chance to talk about this with some of the policies. Um, there are definitely some advantages to even the operational side on how this bill is being implemented. Things like bus purchases. U, we won't have to wait five years for the school district to receive those funds. uh special education placements. Um we'll be able to receive those reimbursements on a more timely manner which will help lessen some of the impact on our cash reserves. Um there's a there was a an amendment um as it works through the process that creates a new dual enrollment reimbursement program. Uh again, this is going to be subject to the state department of education

092rules and regulations on how this works. Um, but what this does is provides additional funding up to $10 million uh per year for school districts across the state um to help support those dual enrollment programs which up until this point had been restricted because of the amount of revenue that both the community colleges received and the school district as well. Um, continuing on with with Senate File 80 81 here. Um, I think it's a a bit of an understatement to say that this was a complex overhaul. Um it's even more complex when you think about um about 55 to 60% of the funding that we received what used to be part of the block grant is now in some way categorical or restricted. So that's a that's a big portion of the resources we receive

093as a school district. Um there's a lot of compliance requirements. Um this is going to impact everything from our budgeting and our staffing decisions, um our cash flow, our program planning. But again, I just emphasize that um at this point in time, we only have very limited tools to estimate the financial impact. Um one way I might describe this um as I've been working with my colleagues from around the state is um it's a bit like you have 48 business managers learning a new board game and we're missing the last two pages of the instruction and everybody has an opinion on what is probably in those last two pages. And so as we fill in those details, um we'll definitely uh have updates as we progress through the system. Um, a couple of other points.

094Um, and we talked about these in more detail when we had the work session, but um, we're looking at new staffing ratios, whether it's teachers, clerical, technology, um, administrators. There's different assumptions into the revenue, um, that will be generated for our school district. Uh, some of the new areas that we hadn't seen before are specific, um, calculations for counselors, uh, librarians, um, aids in particular. Um, library aids is a is a new category within our funding system. Um, the state still does not consider educational paras or instructional paras grant. Um, so those are simply supervisory aids as their resource to us. And so we're working through how those fit into the educational silo, which I'll talk about here in a moment. Um, and certainly the changes to core and elective teachers that we um have

095spoken about before. Now, when it comes to the model salaries, um there's sweeping changes to a lot of different categories. Um and it's important to note that these are not uniform. Um there are certain model categories that will show very big increases. Um while others will affect lower modeled salaries even to what was currently in law, um we will see a slide back on certain things in like um maintenance and operations, administrative salaries. Those model salaries went the other direction. Um, and here probably I think is one of the more important aspects um is the restriction on how districts can spend these resources or what's being referred to as the instructional silo. Um maybe to to put it another way, it's like the school finance version of the hotel California, right? Um you can staff

096outside the silo, but the money can never leave. By the way, I've been holding on to that one for a long time. So, um, districts can create, um, it's not a mandate, but they may create instructional reserve accounts. Um, and what this would mean is if a district doesn't fully expand this instructional silo, um, allocation that it would carry over in almost a restricted or categorized funding amount that would roll from year to year. Now, um, there's a lot of questions um that we don't have answers to of how that will look. Um, we do have some answers. for example, um it, as I just mentioned, it won't lapse from year to year. Um they're excluded from our cash reserve calculations. Um they have to be used for instructional purposes. Uh some of the very

097specific language is that it's for mitigating declining enrollment um to recruit, hire, and retrain or retain instructional staff. Um but it also requires some additional reporting to the WDE um on how we utilize those resources. Uh, but the big one that I would tell you that um I'm tracking is how do things like health insurance and retirement reimbursements fit in that equation? And and those are all um questions that we just don't have answers for at this point. Now um a couple of other key points um is uh the cash reserve side. Um one of the things that we saw was a prohibition on any funds that are transferred to our special reserve fund. Um a few months ago I had the opportunity to walk through um how that works in our district in particular.

098So we can't expend those um those funds on things like major facility repair and replacement. Um I think the easiest example um that I can point to in this is that things like the um a center um that we invested would not be allowable um under this law going forward. And so how that will work is something that we have to um uh really work through with the state department of education on how that will be operationalized. Uh another key point is that um there are uh amounts that that sit within our our general fund reserve that predate the the major Campbell decision in 1997. Um and this has been an important piece for our financial planning. that amount um has stayed within our general fund and allowed us to cash flow um all of

099our operations from payroll to federal grants. You've heard me talk about probably a million times, but um that will no longer be the case. Um so I expect that we'll have some conversations on how um we'll adjust policies going forward as well. And I already talked about the uh the local investment earnings, so I won't um uh plow through that ground again. Um, Madam Chair, I promise I'll move to to some of the other bills here in a second, but there's so much to unpack with this. Um, I'll tell you that um, one of the other key points is what we call section six in the new recalibration bill, and that's where it provides specific direction on how districts are to set salary schedules. Um, there are average teacher salary adjustments that need to meet

100the model amount or other statutory thresholds for three years as it's currently envisioned in this legislation. So, fiscal year 27, 28, and 29. And that also coincides with that instructional silo piece that I mentioned earlier. Now again, um this will require some interpretation and rules from the WDE on um how these pieces will work. I I'll tell you, I talked to a colleague in another district that um they were um already at model salaries. Um as a matter of fact, their model salaries went down a little bit. Um and they're not real clear on their path forward on how that's going to impact them on what adjustments they need to make for certified staff. Um a couple of other areas that um we had been tracking as as very very concerning for the district. Uh

101the first was that the mandate to move to the state health plan was removed. Uh as well as the ongoing study surrounding u the potential uh mandate to move school district employees to the state health plan. Um but there are some very very important changes that will impact us um on the financial side. Uh the first is that model funded participants. So um basically um anybody who's funded out of our our block grant allocation whether it's within the silo or outside of the st silo um will be um calculated using a state contribution rate. Essentially what that does is it creates a ceiling. Um the amount that's resourced for our school district cannot exceed what the state provides per state employee. But there's also a downward reconciliation. So if we um have a plan that's

102less than the state plan, there'll be an adjustment the preceding year where they'll look back and say, "Okay, how much did you spend under the allocation?" And that will be reduced from u future allocations to the school district as well. So it's it's kind of a a double calculation. Um it's um almost two different layers of a a ceiling, if you will, with that calculation. Um, and I don't want to um uh to to miss the opportunity to talk about how important this this impact is to us financially. Um, this will reduce our funding by about $9 million for health insurance. And to put that in perspective, that's almost a third of the funding that we get for health insurance for the district as a whole. Um, so this is this is one of the

103harder pieces of this legislation to navigate. Um, and we're working to put those pieces into place. Um I talked a little bit about um the rule making requirements that are ongoing um both around the dual enrollment and the instructional reserve. Uh but there are additional topics that will continue to be studied through the the um select committee on school finance recalibration. Um things around mental health health supports, SRO's, nutrition, um technology and cyber security are still topics that that select committee will continue to deliberate um over the next interim. Madam Chair, I'll pause there just real quick um before I jump into some of the other school finance related bills. Um again, this isn't an exhaustive list. Um but I did want to just hit on a couple of them real quick. Um so the

104first is um as Dr. Newton mentioned, um the the K12 facilities appropriation. This has kind of become almost an omnibus um state construction funding bill. Um, in addition to the direct appropriations for our school district, there are a couple of areas um that I know Mr. Nap and his team are tracking. Uh, in particular, there's a $10 million allocation for safety and security. Um, it's almost envisioned as somewhat of a competitive grant. Um, as the state construction department develops the criteria for qualifying those those dollars, um, I'm sure him and his team will be actively pursuing those those resources. Um, but the other piece that I've talked about before is our allocation for major maintenance. think about this time last year, I said, "Hey, we're looking at the potential of additional $4 to5 million in

105our major maintenance allocation and I cautioned it with it's probably going to be temporary." Um, and that was certainly the case. We'll see that um that increase which was meant to address additional educational square footage in a school district, it'll come off. It'll fall off that calculation. Uh we're waiting for those precise figures, but um it's likely that our major maintenance allocation will return to about $1 million a year. That'll be about a $4 or5 million decrease from the year that we're in currently. Um, a couple of others. Um, venture, again, I I'll try to be brief on these. Um, the first is, as Dr. Newton mentioned, there's some impacts at least indirectly on the district for things like the long-term um homeowner tax exemption revisions. Um, what this means uh to the district or

106excuse me, as the state as a whole is about a $30 million a year decrease in money that goes into the school foundation account. Um so while we don't um feel that pinch directly um because of the guaranteed level funding to our school district um it'll certainly be something that our policy makers will address going forward. Uh I mentioned the review of charter school applications uh for people like uh Mr. Jackson and my team that um are heavily involved in renewals on the charter schools or new applications. This will give us a little bit more runway for reviewing those applications with you. Um a couple of areas that um I would tell you um as Dr. Newton mentioned really reflect current practice are um the last three bills you see here. Participation in school activities,

107attendance of students in K12 schools, school facilities use fees. Um I think one important aspect of the attendance of students in K12 schools or excuse me rather the participation in school activities is we saw as that bill progressed through the the session that there were attempts to amend u that bill to add additional funding for school districts that um had students that are participating um that are not enrolled directly with the school districts and we saw those amendments fail. Um but there is a very real um uh cost associated um with additional students participating in those those programs. Um that money won't come as a result of that bill, but um it'll be certainly something that we are tracking as we look where the the voucher bills might go and those type of things as

108well. Um, as I kind of uh wrap this up, I'll just segue into um the timeline for our budget developments and the next major milestones as we kind of move into the spring and summer. Uh, this April, we'll we'll um continue to refine budgets. Um, we'll put some work into our school and departmental non-personnel budgets as well as negotiations. Uh, the next major milestone would be u the preliminary budget that uh is due to you in about eight weeks. Um and hopefully in those next eight weeks we'll be able to fill in the blanks on a lot of these pieces that um we just don't have that information. So um with that madam chair I'm happy to address questions. I know I went through that pretty quick. >> Thank you Mr. Curelli. I think Trusty

109Clawson has some questions. >> Yes. Thank you Madam Chair. I just have one question um as you were speaking Mr. Curelli about the major maintenance falling off and is that because we're going to lose the square footage in the old ARP or is there something I'm forgetting or maybe I haven't been told yet? Could you could you fill the board in on what you meant by that? >> Sure. Um Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson, um last year at the state construction department's request, uh a bill was drafted that um increased uh our allowable gross square footage calculation. So you can imagine a long calculation that takes into account our educational gross square footage, our teaching stations. At the very end there's a multiplier um and it's 115%. And what that is intended to do is address

110additional gross square footage where we don't have the enrollment counts to um provide the funding for. So as you can imagine as a school district has decreasing enrollment, our major maintenance calculation goes down. Um but the state construction department acknowledges that there's additional gross square footage not only in our district but across the state that needs to be addressed. Um and in order to maintain those facilities uh they moved that calculation up to 135% for one year. Um and it had a sunset and there was a couple attempts attempts not to sunset that that provision um but ultimately it did and so we'll return back to 115%. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? >> No. >> We're glad that you are got your brain wrapped around this and keep us a breast of of the

111higher level things. But thank you Mr. Sally for all your work. Thank you Dr. >> Oh, another question. I'm sorry. >> I don't have a question. I just have a statement that um I during cause bio I was had the opportunity to hang out with a number of uh superintendent mostly and uh Jed's name continues to come up as the lead expert in how this is going to shape up. So um thank you for continuing to do that. >> Madam Chair, just a couple of more updates. I should have mentioned it at the time, but if you noticed on the new Mountain View Red Dogs um emblem, the mascot, it um the artist used the South High School bison mascot and turned it into kind of the baby version of that. So, um they actually

112used that piece of artwork as the model. And so, the tie back to the um uh between um the schools in the Triad is going to be very strong there, I'm sure. Um, I also wanted to say a few things um about I guess we're calling it the wind event. That seems u to probably not do justice to what we experienced here in Cheyenne. Maybe maybe as I was sitting here trying to think of what it could be called is uh maybe a waterless hurricane. Um even though hurricanes apparently can be only 74 mph winds and that would have been a reprieve at some points for us. So, um the um a couple of things that I would say. Um we hear a wide range of responses from our community during the same event. And

113those um comments ranged from um a thank you for taking care of our kids to others who said clearly you don't care about our kids um because of the decisions that we made. And so I want to talk a little bit about those decisions that we make. The first thing I would say is is there's a little bit of irony that um in every emergency we face, we sometimes get a sense from some community members wondering why emergencies are so chaotic. Um by definition, emergencies are chaotic. And so we do our level best in those moments of chaos. and I'm very proud of the efforts that we put into place um on Thursday. One thing that um I think is different than some of the other emergencies that we faced, if we think about a

114big snow event, typically those hit most schools about the same. And one of the things that we found in this event that uh believe me is is um and we have a meeting tomorrow on this very topic. How do we think about emergencies that have a differential impact where some buildings can still flush their toilets because they're older buildings that don't have electronic toilets and other buildings can't? Um, some buildings that have a lot of natural sunlight that comes into the building and others that got very dark because of the interior of the building and no natural light. So, uh, we're going to be talking a lot more about how we think about responding to the needs of our buildings when those needs can be very, uh, different in in an event like the one

115that we had. Um, so just I I just thought I ought to sometimes I might be prone to exaggeration and I don't want to exaggerate here. Um but just to give the public a sense of what the um the staff and the students and and of course the families as well um were up against the I was on probably about eight or nine separate text threads managing uh what was going on. And I just looked and on one of the threads there was 184 text messages. Um, and those were all our administrators in this case that were in communication with our staff making sure that those kids were safe. 184 in one text string alone just to make sure that we were making decisions that absolutely did have our kids' best interests in mind. One

116of the things that many realized but others maybe didn't is um the community itself became rather dangerous by the end of the day between down trees, down power lines. And so we had to be very thoughtful of when do we put our kids back out into our community. As much as I know that we had some staff members that were struggling with um buildings that were um as I said to my wife, we have far too many pine trees on top of our building today that I'm comfortable with. Um we had many challenges within our buildings, but um but there were many challenges within our community as well. And so that goes into the calculus of whether we keep kids or send them home. Excuse me. And um and maybe the last thing that I

117will say is um we always need to remember that um we can't once we take the kids into our care, we can't be exactly sure what um the the parents in of those kids are going to be able to do throughout the duration of the day. Some of them uh may work out of town. some of them uh may have jobs that don't allow them to come home and be with their kids. Um or those who maybe um were climbing up the power poles getting everyone's power back on. If they had children in our district, if we sent those children home, those kids would have been alone. And I think we have to be very thoughtful about um under what I think is fair to say were very scary conditions. What would it have been

118like to be a 5-year-old home alone during all of that? Not just how scary it is, but but truly how dangerous it could have been for them. So, lots of thought and uh went into all of the decisions u that we made. But with that said, uh we're going to get better and better. And a special thank you to to all of our staff um in the buildings with the scared children. Um but those cutting trees off of the buildings um or support ops or facilities, nutrition, transportation. Um all of that work didn't end once the last kid uh got home. we were back in conversations about what is looking like what does it look like getting our kids home back to Cheyenne who were out of town. Um so transportation was um their work

119only really had begun at that point. So I couldn't be more proud. We always can do better. We absolutely will do better. But um this this was a great example of a whole lot of people um taking extra special and different steps than they normally do to protect the kids of our community. Uh I couldn't be more grateful and proud of them for that. And madam chair with that that is the end of my updates. >> Thank you Dr. Newton. Next section on our agenda is the consent agenda and routine matters. All agenda items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion on these items. Any item removed from the consent agenda will be

120considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. Does any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda? Okay, seeing none, do we have a motion? >> Madam chair, I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. >> And I second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. Okay, those have been approved. around. I'm sorry. I'm trying to get my computer back on. We will move down into new business. Do we have a motion? >> Madam Chair, I move to adopt the proposed calendar for the 20272028 school year for Laramie County School District number one. >> And I second. >> We have a motion and a second to adopt the proposed school calendar

121for the school year. Do we have any discussion on that item? Trusty Cook. >> Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just it was my first time being on the co um the committee for the calendar school year and it was interesting to see what a thoughtful process um that the um teachers would pairs they would all bring information and um they negotiated what was best for the kids. So, it was an interesting process, hardworking group of people and um Miss McGuffy was in charge of it. She did an awesome job. So, >> awesome. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Excuse me. All in favor of adopting the proposed school calendar, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. That has been adopted. Do we have another motion? >> Yeah. My thing. >> Disappeared on me.

122>> Thank you. Number two, Madam Chair, I move to approve a fee proposal with Monument Builders in the amount of $2,31,800, including a 10% contingency for associated governmental fees and requirements for the purchase and installation of administration restrooms repairs and compliance. >> Second. We have a motion and a second to adopt the proposal of monument builders um for the purch installation of administration restroom repairs and compliance. Do we have any discussion on this item or questions? Dr. Newton, I was hoping you could just um this is or maybe Mr. Now, but these are the restrooms in the building across the way or both of these buildings or >> Madam Chair, this includes uh all of the restrooms in that building. So, there's four stair four towers stack up the two main ones on the east

123side of the building that are three stories. And then as you go down the hallways back to the west, um if you're familiar with the building over on the north northwest side and the southwest side. So, and that's why it's broke and it is broken down into these different phases. That's how it'll be performed as well. So, there's not as much disruption. And uh what this is is a is basically repairs and compliance for uh most of the fixtures in there if you look at them are original and the building's 100 years old. Um as they have uh worn out over the years between some of the floors, they're inaccessible. So, they've had to be cemented shut. And uh so what this is is to pull all of that out and replace that in each

124section as well as uh bringing them up to ADA compliance. >> Good. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Okay. All in favor of approving the fee proposal for the first installation of the um administrative restroom repairs and conformance. Please say I. >> I oppose. Okay, that's been approved. Madam Chair, I move to grant permission for Central High School DECA students to fundra for their trip to the DECA International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia from April 25th, 2026 to April 29th, 2026. >> I second. >> All right. Do we have any discussion on this item? Okay. All in favor of granting permission for the central DECA students to fund raise for their trip, please say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Okay, that's been approved as well. Madam Chair, I move to approve the administrator professional

125contract on the attached list for the 2026 2027 school year and to place them on the appropriate step of the administrator professional salary schedule. >> Second. >> You have a motion and a second to approve this contract. Do we have any discussion or questions on that? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Okay, that's been approved as well. One more motion. Madam chair, I move to approve a leave of a leave of absence on the attached list for the remainder of the 2025 2026 contract. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion, a second to approve the leave of absence on the list of your supporting documents. You have any questions on that item? Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. >> Oppose. Okay. That absence leave of absence has been approved

126as well. >> The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, April 6, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. A work session will begin at 5:00 p.m. The business of the district is now done. We have a motion for executive session. >> Yes. Madam chair, I move to go into executive session at this time prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible long-term suspensions, expulsions, negotiate negotiations, personnel, legal advice, and potential litigation. >> And I second. >> Okay, we have a motion to go into executive session at this time. All in favor say I. I. >> I opposed. Okay, we will recess now and go into executive session. Thank you all for being