LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Meeting - May 19, 2025

001Good evening. It's six o'clock and I'd like to call this meeting of the Laramie County School District number one board of trustees to order. Please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. Hi, I'm Brooch Cheni, the proud principal at Bags Elementary. My name is Cassidy Hager, and it is my joy to be a second grade teacher at Bags Elementary. And this is my class reciting the pledge. to stand indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Dr. Newton. Do we have any adjustments to tonight's agenda? Madam Chair, we do have one slight adjustment to this evening's agenda. If I could direct everyone's attention to um motion D3.3 and I'll read the motion with the adjustment we would like to request to grant permission to purchase four vehicles and one mover from Fremont

002Chevrolet GMC, Fremont Motor Company, and 21st Century Equipment for an amount not to exceed $282,170 and to declare one vehicle as surplus. The current motion reads two vehicles is surplus. And if I could just explain that we are indeed surplusing two vehicles. However, at the uh April meeting, one of those vehicles was put forward as a motion and was approved for surplus already. So, both vehicles will be surplused. One has just already uh received your approval. So, tonight's motion to be most accurate would say one vehicle still needs to be approved for surplus. Madam Cherry, move to adopt the agenda with any adjustments. A second. I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda with this agenda. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay. That has been adopted. All right. We will

003move right into um what I think for us is always a highlight of our Monday night meetings and that is the recognition portion of our program. And we'd like to start tonight with uh the student of the week recognition. Our first student that we were going to be recognizing wasn't able to be here with us this evening, but I wanted to still announce his name and his school and we'll celebrate him at another meeting coming up. Um but that student is Joshua Padilla, who is a senior at East High School. Um so we'll we'll celebrate Joshua another night. Uh the other student that we're excited to celebrate tonight is Dante Contreras. Um an eighth grader from Johnson Junior High. So if I could have Dante come up along with principal Michaela Bradshaw and favorite teacher

004Brandon Schumacher. Good evening. I'm Michaela Bradshaw, principal at Johnson Junior High School, and it is my absolute pleasure to introduce Dante to you. Dante has been such a steady, dependable, and honorable student these last two years at Johnson. Uh this year, he has had the best attendance I have ever witnessed as a principal or teacher, may I say. And there was just a few days in February where he was sick. Other than that, he is here and ready to learn, ready to be a great role model. Um, and I just I'm so proud of you and I would like to let you introduce Mr. Schumacher. Hi, I'm Dante. I would like to thank LCD one and the school board for allowing me to to be here today and choosing me for student of the week.

005I want to thank Johnson Junior High for having wonderful teachers and staff that make me laugh every morning and help me teach me things I didn't know I want wanted to learn. This recognition is important to me because it makes me feel like I'm more capable to get into better colleges, better chance for better degrees, and this helps me think I can get better jobs. I want to thank my family for helping me when I'm struggling with my homework, helping me when I'm confused on how to do honors projects, and I just want to say thank you for helping me grow into the person I am today. I want to thank Mr. Schumacher for teaching me how to read music better, teaching me how to play and keep the tempo better, and also for making

006me laugh all the time. He has been one of my many favorite teachers in my life. So, thank you for having having me today, and I hope I see you guys again soon. Um, Dante has been uh just absolute joy to have in class. Um, he he's just always fun. He has a smile on his face. He tries his hardest. Uh, he helps others. Um, I was just happy to have him in my class and thank you for the recognition. Congratulations. Congratulations and David here. Thank them. Then I'd like to introduce Crystal Irons and she is a branch manager for Western Vista and she has a special award for Dante. Thank you for having me today you guys. My name is Crystal Irons. I'm the branch manager for Western Vista at our story location. Um,

007at Western Vista, we are very honored to be here every week to present student of the week. Dante, good job for getting where you are today. Um, with your recognition and efforts for put forth, I'm sorry, for student of the week, we are very proud to present a certificate and a gift card to you and to your teacher of recognition. So, keep doing all your hard work and I'm very happy to see you here today. This is yours. Congratulations, Dante. Our next recognition is our um new new this year, so new to us. Um LCSD1 employee spotlight recognition. Um this month we are pleased to recognize Sher Blasto um who's a teacher at Pioneer Park Elementary School. So, if Sherry is here, if we could get you to come forward with um your principal, Holly

008Burningham, and I think maybe a CTA representative. Is Sherry here? There she is. Sherry Blazedell. I'm so excited that the CTA um reached out to me to to recognize her. She is an incredible staff member in our district. She goes above and beyond every single day. Um she works so hard for our students and she also is an advocate for our staff. Um and she's just one of those teachers that is rare. She she works tires tirelessly um at school and at home um to make sure that all of our students who receive special education services are getting the best services that they can get. Um she's absolutely incredible and I'm proud that she's a staff member at Pioneer Park. Um, thank you for the recognition and I'd like to say that um, a resource

009teacher or case manager cannot do their job without the outstanding pair of professionals that support them and the students. So, we have two of them here today, Brittany Ley and Brandy Long. If you could stand up and give them a five. All right, Sherry, on behalf of Western Vista, we want to congratulate you on getting where you are today. You obviously matter a lot to a lot of people and you're making a difference. Um, your dedication and willingness have made a lasting impression and we truly admire your commitment. With that said, you also are getting a gift card and a certificate on behalf of Western Vista. Keep doing what you're doing. We're very proud and happy to have you in our community. Our next recognition is um I guess you could call them scientists. I'm

010roboticians maybe. But we will be celebrating uh the LCSD1 robotics grand champion team today. So I'd like to invite our science coordinator Julie Caukins along with coaches Beth McCay and Mary Kinsler and principal Holly Burningham to come forward with um their students and the Pioneer Park Pirates. Come on up Pirates. Good evening, Madame Chair, Superintendent Newton, and members of the board of trustees. It is my pleasure and privilege to introduce to you the Pioneer Park Pirates, an outstanding team representing Pioneer Park Elementary School in the 7th annual Laramie County Robotic Scrimmage and Expo that was held Saturday, May 3rd. I am proud to announce that this remarkable group of students were named grand champion. The Pioneer Park Pirates truly excelled in every area. They tied for first place in the robot games with a top

011score of 209. They earned first place in the innovation project category, took second place in robot design, and captured first place in demonstrating the core values that are at the heart of this program. Because of their exceptional performance across all judging areas, the team was awarded the title of grand champion. And so, I just want to clap for that again. At this at this time, I'd like to invite Mary Kinsler and Beth Mccay, who are two the two coaches for this team to come up and talk a little bit about their team. Give the students an opportunity to say something about what they did and show off the new evolution of a robot I believe they brought with them and then to give them their certificates. Miss Kinsler. Uh we have been um playing with

012robots at Pioneer Park for 14 years now, and I'd like to thank our principal for allowing us to continue the fun because it really is a lot of fun. Uh this team, they are the most math-minded students I have ever seen. So, the programming thing came completely naturally to them. When we first started our first year, we scored 45 points and we were like, "You're the greatest thing ever." Because we scored points. And now you just heard they scored 209 points. So we have kind of evolved a little bit. Um our program has gotten so much stronger because of students like this. Our core values of let's have fun and uh friendly cooperation. So we have two younger teams that competed with them and anytime I would say hey they need help with building an

013arm. They are stuck on this program. These guys would step up and be like I got this. So that part has been phenomenal. Um, out of our 14 years, I have been blessed to be co- coached with Beth McCay and she's going to continue this, but I have to tell you the evolution of the robot first. Um, we started, I don't know, three years ago, naming our robots, and they have to be a math or science. So, anytime we get a new robot, they would propose somebody as our new name. So, you're going to meet Aristotle tonight. And Aristotle used to be a competitive robot for Legos. And then a couple weeks ago, the boys have a new project on Force and Motion. And he has evolved into what you see now. So he was

014um they lovingly called him scorpion this year. Aristotle was scorpion because he had a tail that would smash and then two arms that could grab and then two googly eyes because of course you have to have googly eyes. All right, Beth, your turn. I don't think I have anything as eloquent and beautiful as Mary already gave you. So it has been my absolute pleasure to work with Mary Kinsler, our head coach. She is just incredible and brings out the best in these kids and they really have the best to offer. They've been a delight. I'm going to let them talk a little more about their project and their robot because their enthusiasm is going to win you over too. All right. First, we're going to introduce ourselves. Oh, no. Okay. So, as pirates, we need

015pirate names, too. So, as the pirates, I am Captain Blake. I'm swashbuckling Finn. Um, I'm Redbeard Lex. Normally I have a little red beard, but I don't have it on right now. I'm first mate Nate. I'm Parrot Tamer Lincoln and this is Perry Squawk Squawk. And I'm Swashbuckling Jacob. Thank you. Uh so part of our project we were um looking at some of the innovation um that we needed to do to help clean out our rivers. And um we were looking at the source of trash, which is one of the biggest problems in our rivers. And um we found that that we could easier tackle the problem uh through the rivers, which is the source of lots of the garbage. So, we actually designed a robot and we made models like we 3D printed models

016um with custom 3D modeling programs and then we made a cardboard model that was more accurate and I'll let Blake talk more. Um, so we made the models and then we um eventually we also made a website. That was cool and all but eventually because we were running it on school iPads. They blocked the website that we were using to create a website. So we lost our progress on that. But um Lex and the rest of the team helped create a actual video game which um which is really which we all thought was really cool. So we just said, "Okay, make us a video game. Yay." Okay. Okay. I guess I'm talking about that thing. Also, real quick about the website. If you do want to visit it, it's on my PC now, just in

017case you want to visit it. Um Okay. And then also for the video game, I'm not sure we we or we were considering doing something like a video where or like a presentation or something like that. Um but I'm not sure who really wants to listen to 30 minutes of little kids talking about um their project. So instead we went with a video game. And for the video game, basically how we did it is we used a software on my computer called Unreal and Blockbench. They both and then what we did is we had four mini games. And in each one of those you could control a character um who could go to those mini games. You could play them. One of them you would end up getting to collect some trash. Another one you

018would get to visit the robot and tinker with it. Um, sadly we didn't end up getting to finish it because I'm moving. My PC got packed up. Um, so the game was or the game was like unfinished. Um, and it missed two of the mini games, but we did work on it. Now we will talk about our robot's evolution from a game robot into this. So this is our torture machine as we call it sometimes. No, it's not that. It's our deadly deadly swing ride of doom and destruction. You You have to be 17 plus to ride it and you have to sign a waiver before you do it. So, originally our robot was, as our coaches said, a scorpion type robot. It had an arm that we called Big Smashy. It was just a

019few rods with a big wheel at the end for like a weight at the end so we could use force to hit levers and stuff. And then that was what we had for our state competition. And then next we added that some two closing arms. So the scorpion arms were used to like grab things and pull things in. And we had these only at our district competition. It would have helped us in state, but we didn't think of them yet. So we had to get two extra motors from different robots to make it work. And so these parts, so the parts of this have all parts of our robot, the brain, and then three motors. So for the project this was made for, we're doing a project on Newton's three laws of motion. And so

020we split up our two classes, Miss McCay's class and Miss Horn's class, into groups, and we're designing amusement park rides for Newton land, as we call it. So this is our amusement park ride. We made a swing ride and as you can see it's you you'll see [Laughter] because as you can see there's there's more than robots to robotics. It really takes a lot of different skills and these guys have them all. Lex Culver, Nathan Holland, Henry's not here, but we do want to recognize Henry Wright, Blake Troutline, Lincoln, Kenny, Swashbuckling, Finn Olsen, Jacob Moore, and also not here, Tristan Hansen. We're our champion team. Thank you. Thank you, Miss McKay and Miss Kinsler. Of course, these things don't happen in isolation. If there are any parents here tonight, please stand so that we can

021recognize you. Thank you. And of course, m And of course, Miss Berlingham, thank you as well. Thank you. Nice. Thank you. We have some more exciting recognitions. So, I think that one might be hard to um might be hard to um follow up on here. So, our next recognition um are some of some outstanding students from South High School. Um we'll be recognizing the 4A Skills USA champions from South High School. And I'd like to invite, sorry, I'm waiting for my computer to change. Principal Carrie Gentry and their advisor Brian Belnap to come forward along with the students. Come on in. and Paula. I know. While they're making their way up here, um we have some amazing Skills USA advisors, Mr. Belnap and uh Dr. Bellnap as well, and they're here to introduce all the

022wonderful things that these kids achieved, and I do believe that they've got other things that going on this summer as well. So, I'll let uh uh Dr. Belnapa take the lead. Hi, I'm the main adviser and my co-advisor is Mr. Bellnap because he's married to me so he had to. Um, so who I want to introduce, let you guys know that this is most of the group. We're missing one person who didn't make it tonight. Um, but I just want you to see all the metal that's jingling on top of them. So, it's the best year that we have had in a long time. Um, I'm going to have each of them come up and let you know what their name is, what they competed in, if they um, meddled or not, um, and what

023their plans are going forward. Okay. Ara. My name is Ara Fisel. I competed in health knowledgeable and nurse assistant. I went gold in both. Unfortunately, I do not have my medals tonight. Um, my plans going forward are to go into parame medicine and hopefully hand off my title as president president to one of these wonderful members. So, Keegan. Um, so my name is Keegan Potter. I competed on health knowledgeable and nursing assistant and I ran for state officer position and got that. So I started that this summer. Uh, I got gold and health knowledgeable, silver and nursing assistant. I plan to go to LC for nursing school and become an ER nurse and then dual certify as a paramedic and I'm a certified as an EMT and a CNA already. So, and then I hope

024to watch all these people grow and I just got a job as an ER tech. Key. Okay. I'm Key Henderson and I got gold in medical terminology and health knowledge bowl. Um I just graduated from LC and then I graduate from South or this week and then I'm going to go to UDub to study kinesiology before pursuing physical therapy. And I hope you heard I hope you heard that she already got an associate degree before she graduated from high school. So she'll get both of those. Plus, she already passed her GRE for her masters as well. So, she's a little brainiac. Yes. And she's the top of her class and is in the running for senior of the year, too, for the district. She got it. Good job. You got it. Jack. Hello. Uh, my

025name is Jack Boo and I competed in first aid CPR and got bronze and I was lucky enough for the top two to not be able to go to nationals. So, I'll be able to take up on that opportunity with the health knowledge bowl team. Um, my future is to follow the pathway with Dr. Bellnap, of course, past my finals, of course. Um, I plan to go to LC to finish all my prerexs and then I'm trying to go to Washington State for dental school. Abby C. Hello, my name is Abby Chavis. Um, I participated in basic healthc care skills. I got bronze and hopefully I will pass my finals this week and I hope to go to UDub for a few years and eventually move on to Washington University to stutter uh to study

026neuroscience. Next up is Jaylen. Um, hi. I'm Jaylen Brown. I competed in basic healthcare and jamo jam demo A. I did not medal, but I did make it to the final six and place top six overall. Uh, I hopefully I also pass my EMR test with Dr. Belnap next week. Um, I will don't know exactly where I'm going yet, but I want to um pursue my nursing in labor and delivery or something else. Abby B. Um, hello. I am Abby Bellnap. Um, I competed in basic healthcare skills. I did not medal, but I placed top five. Um, I have no clue what I want to do with my life, but I am currently pursuing the EMT course with my mom. Um, I am I have a couple options lined up. I might want to go

027into psychiatry but also maybe parame medicine. Zeba. Hello, my name is Zeba Shank and um I competed in CPR and first aid at state. I made it to the top six and then um I hope to follow the pathway with Dr. Belnap by passing the finals hopefully and then go to Udub and get my nursing degrees and then Mr. Bellnap has a final announcement for this chapter. And last but not least, uh this is our first year we ever competed uh for it's called the chapter of excellence program. It's a tiered level which is a bronze, silver, and gold. And this year and our first time we've done it, we won bronze this year. And if we have any parents in the room, could you please stand up for recognition? And it sounds like you

028guys have studying to do this week. So, uh, make sure that you Oh, well. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job. Thank you. Congratulations. Our last student recognition for the evening is of the East High School 4A state DECA champions. So, Mr. Mark Kersner and um advisor Manuel Flores, I believe, are coming forward with some of their students. So, Mr. Flores, our adviser, sends his regrets. He wasn't able to make it here with us tonight, but we have a few representatives from the East High School state champion DECA team with us. They did some amazing things. We want to recognize a few students that weren't able to join us tonight. uh Brooklyn Terrell, Natalyia Copac, Hi Abbott, John Roberts, and Ev Evelyn Lyker all had first place finishes and contributed to the state championship. So we

029want to recognize them even though they're not able to join us. Um but as far as the students that we have in front of us, I'll start off with Sarah Mortz. So Sarah placed first in integrated marketing campaign in service and first in hospitality services team decisionmaking. Braden Leay, first in entrepreneurship series, first in financial consulting, and first in business law team decisionmaking. And then we also have Jacob Schwarz, who placed first in retail merchandising series. So these students did an excellent job. I know they work very hard. I also know that they're in a league of their own as far as DECA and as far as competing. And Mr. Flor has also wanted me to mention that Sarah um has placed internationally in the top 20 three times in her high school career. So,

030let's give them a round of applause. I know we have some parents in attendance tonight. So, if you're a parent of one of these outstanding students, would you please stand to be recognized? Thank you. We're going to wrap up recognitions tonight with one more very exciting recognition time and that is for the LCSD1 teacher of the year um to lead this for us. I'd like to ask um Mary Quest, our community relations director, and um Jim James Yates, Jim Yates um to come forward, please. And I'm I'll come down and join you. Good evening. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. And we do we have quite a few certificates here um and some great uh teachers that we'd like to recognize. Um so uh we are excited uh to present our teacher of

031the year awards and and to start off I can uh let you know how that works. Um in order to be selected as an LCSD1 teacher of the year teachers are nominated by students, staff or community members. Teachers must then fill out an application form. It's reviewed by a selection committee made up of LCSD1 staff from various roles and departments as well as um community members as Jim can attest to. But this year we had a record 37 nominees who turned in their applications and uh the selection committee went through all of those applications and scored and chose um an elementary, a junior high and a high school teacher to continue on as finalists. So, uh, it's quite the process. Um, but the first part of this ceremony is we'd like to call all of

032our applicants that may be here um to the front of the room um to receive a certificate from Mr. Yates here. So, and I I promise I'll try my best to pronounce these names correctly, okay? But, um, I'm going to list everybody. So, we have Raven Alexander, uh, Philip Bennett, Erica Brahmagen, Zamboni Brown, Paige Cathcart, Callie Coun, Liz Eddington, uh, Shaina Flanigan, Leslie Fox, We we also have Natalie Fry, um Ashley Garcia, Julie Grant, Kristen Green, Lisa Harbison, Tiffany Hopkins, Tonnie Kelly, Jeremiah Kolkman, Julie Kramer. Um, Jeremiah. Yes. Oh, thank you. A certificate for you. Um, let's see. I said Julie. Julie Kramer. We had April Mner, Joanne Marx, Misty Ma Matisi, um Clara Olasher, Courtney Paul, Travis Pearson, Bryce Ramsey, Ally Rose, Michelle Ross, Michelle. So, Ty Severson, Melissa, just love it when people

033come. Okay. Melissa Shance Stephanie uh Sturdivant Christian um to Cher um Ryan Walkenfelder and Janet Weisebrook. And I mean, I would just say that this is a very um detailed application and we we so appreciate everybody for um filling that out. And I'm going to turn around and do a a quick picture. Okay, as as um our applicants are shaking hands, uh the next portion of this is um like I said, we have some finalists. And so I'd like to call our finalists up to the front of the room if they're here. Um, we've got Kerry Junior High English language arts teacher, Alyssa Miner. Uh, South High physical science teacher, Caitlyn Russ. Congratulations. We've we've got a lot of steps here. Okay. And then um finally um you know it's time for us to present

034our 2025 2026 teacher of the year award. Um, so I'd like to call up Metallark Elementary, sixth grade math and science teacher, Christina Mey, and her assistant principal, Megan Cely Morazz. Oh, we are so fortunate at Metallark to have Mrs. Mey um doing all the things that she does and every day she goes above and beyond and is creative and thinks about hey why don't we try it this way and is never afraid to go rogue in a good way and um come up with a new project and have a new way for students to demonstrate their understanding. And so we are very fortunate at Metallark and we are excited to share her with you tonight. Okay, I wrote a few notes because as my students know, I can take a 30 second speech and

035make it last an hour and a half. So, thank you. I appreciate being nominated for this award. I've enjoyed teaching since day one, which has been a while, and that sure hasn't changed. Where else would someone get the opportunities to share what they love, um, all while being just a tiny part of, at this point thousands of students educational adventures? Not to mention, I can say that I have survived the years of fidget spinners, water bottle flips, questionable fashion choices from both students and myself. And this year, everything being Skippy RZ. I am so proud to be a public school teacher. And I've had amazing role models along the way, starting with my parents who both um taught in Laram County School District number one along with co co-workers and admins at both Alta Vista

036and Metallark who has helped shared what it means to be a creative hands-on learning community with high expectations and not to mention what it takes to push to be the teachers that we want for our own children. There is so much hard work going on behind the scenes to build classrooms where learners want to learn and where learning is allowed to be both fun and challenging at the same time. I am so lucky to be just a tiny part um of so many classrooms that are working towards that same goal and I look forward to helping highlight uh the wonderful students and public school teachers that I am lucky enough to work with each and every day. Thank you again for this award. Well, and um I did forget a a huge portion of this

037award um so one of the things that um actually our finalists and Mrs. Mey will receive um are uh gift certificates from uh First Education Federal Credit Union and and um Mr. Yates. So I know that you've got that that you'd like to present and then um Mrs. Melee will also receive $500 from Laramie County School District number one to spend on classroom supplies. Oh yeah. So, but we will we will get you your first education uh certificates as well. Yeah. Let me Okay. We are now moving into the information information and report section of our agenda and we're going to start with public comments concerning agenda topics and non-aggenda items. Um I have a little statement I'd like to read before we get started with that and then we actually only have one individual

038signed up tonight. So, we'll move on to her comments here in just a minute. The purpose of the board meeting is to conduct the business of the district publicly. The board sincerely values community input and feedback on school operations and welcomes public comment on both agenda and non-aggenda items. Individuals wishing to comment during a board meeting must sign up by 5:45 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Sign up for public comment can be done electronically by accessing the form available on board docs under the public comment portion of the meeting agenda. Alternatively, individuals may also contact Darlene Davis to be added to the electronic signup sheet. We will begin by hearing public comment on agenda items followed by public comment on non-aggenda items. Please keep in mind this is a time for board members

039to listen and consider, but not to comment or debate. The board asked that all speakers first state your first and last name. Second, keep your comments to three minutes or less. And third, if you wish to discuss matters pertaining to the employment of a district staff member, such as the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, investigation, discipline, or dismissal of an employee. This will not be done during the public comment portion of the meeting. Such comments should be directed to the assistant superintendent of human resources or you may request to meet with the board during executive session. So our first um public comment time is on the agenda items and we do not have anybody signed up for that. Um so moving into the non-aggenda items um we have one person signed up and that is

040Patricia McCoy. Um, we don't Oh, there we are. Okay, good. Hello again. My My name is Patricia McCoy and I'm here to tonight to discuss two critical pieces of legislation from the 2025 general session. House Bill 0316 on school finance and House Bill 0172, the Wyoming repeal of gunfree zones. First, House Bill 0316 adjusts school funding for the 2025 2026, mandating an 8.5% raise for teachers, principals, aids, and custodial staff to keep our schools competitive. It's only fair that those who dedicate their lives to educating our children are properly compensated. Will you ensure these raises are fully implemented as intended? How will you show transparency so our community can trust these funds reach our staff? Our teachers are long due to a pay increase with many I have spoken to advising they have not received

041one in 12 plus years. This should be unacceptable to anyone. Now let's turn to House Bill 0172, the Wyoming Repeal Gun-Free Zones Act, effective July 1st, 2025. This law restores the right to con carry concealed weapons for permit holders. Representative Jeremy Haroldson's video available to the public on his Facebook page underscores the legislaturator's intent to return this right of self-defense to the people while providing structure for districts to set rules. For example, the law allows school boards to adopt regulations for employees and volunteers carrying concealed weapons requiring training and continuing education, but it also puts limitations on what you can put into your policy regarding the training. As already seen, trying to add more training hours, as a trustee tried to do at the last meeting, is a violation of the bill, as well as

042the additional restrictions in the current proposed policy in regard to who can and can't provide the required training. I encourage this board to adhere to these guidelines in the legislation and the intent of the law. I also want to mention statutes 21-3-135 and 21-3-136 which provide reimbursement for firearm training costs through the Department of Education. The Department of Education uh reimbursement process starts on June 2nd with submissions due by June 30th. According to the recent update from Superintendent Deanfelder, as Representative Haroldson stated in his video, if the district is going to make a policy, then they must take on the legal and financial burden that goes with it. It is unjust to burden teachers with these costs when the state offers funding. These laws reflect a commitment to fairness and freedom, supporting our educators with

043deserved raises, and empowering our community. But it's on you to act responsibly with the authority you've been given. I urge you to provide clear answers on how you'll implement the raises and address the concealed carry policy. And I thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss McCoy. We're now moving into board communication and reports. Um just want to give an overview of some big things we have coming up. Um May 28th we will do the executive trustees meeting with the superintendent. That'll be our board planning meeting for the um first meeting in July. We have two trustees who would like to attend that Britney. Okay. Anybody who May 28th May 28th Wednesday May 28th you can come to that one. Okay. That's Britney in Maryland. Yeah. Okay. So that's May 28th at 1:00 p.m. May

04429th at 400 PM we have the Triumph High School graduation ceremony here in Story Gym. May 30th, um we will have graduations um at 9:00 a.m. for East High School, 100 p.m. for Central High School, and 5:00 p.m. for South High School, all at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Park. Um then on June 2nd, uh that'll be our next meeting night. At 5:00 pm we'll kick off with a work session and at 6 PM we will have our regular board meeting. That is it for for now at least for our upcoming um meetings. So we'll go into um any board reports. I believe we're going to have a conversation tonight about cell phones. But before that, do we have any trustees who would like to report on anything that they've done or anything to share? Nobody.

045I know that um Trusty Cook and Trustee Clen and I all attended the um dedication and the ribbon cutting of the new um and improved expanded a facility um on Friday. That was really an incredible opportunity to see what the district's been able to do to really enhance that facility for our students who um take agricultural education classes and are involved with FFA. So that was that was really a highlight for me these last couple of weeks. Anybody else have anything to share on that or on other happenings? Um so we um in the spring had asked I asked Dr. Newton um to visit with our staff and to well to do a survey of our staff and our secondary schools to um find out what their perceptions were about cell phone use in our

046schools and how that might impact or maybe not impact um the learning environment and what their experiences were with that. Um Dr. Dr. Newton was able to um work with Kyle and um get a survey sent out to secondary certified and classified staff. Um we got that data back and then I routed that to you all um in April, but excuse me. I hope maybe you've had a chance to look at it. Um I don't know that we right now need to you know will do anything with it but Trusty Cook I believe had some thoughts after reviewing that data and so I just um wanted to mention you have the survey results. Please look at them if you haven't but um I'll turn it over to Trusty Cook right now. Thank you Madam Chair.

047Um real quick back to celebrations if I could. I went to Miller's um school celebration um and it was lovely. It was really well done. Um, Sarah Linhardt, the principal, had a just a real small, um, program and there were former educators there. There were adult children that had gone through that came back. I had a couple of kindergarteners that that are adults now that live together, you know, so that was kind of a fun. And then it was so these kids, some adults came from out of town to just to say goodbye to Miller. I saw parents there that um their children were elsewhere, but they came to say goodbye. So, it was just a really well done um program. So, and then on to cell phones, if I could, um it's been five

048years. Our cell phone policy is 5 years old, and I think a lot has changed with cell phones in that time. So, I'd like to maybe just tweak what's there. Um, I have some suggestions. I probably won't go that far, but um I've had teachers come and talk to me and say, "We could use some help with the cell phones." And these are not just new teachers, but seasoned teachers that have good classroom control that are struggling with cell phones in the classroom. So um and then also I've read the anxious generation and it is if you've not read it an excellent book sings the praises of not the praises it talks about how detrimental cell phones are to um middle school children but specifically the mental health of middle school children and specifically females

049are um at high risk with cell phones. So um this was eyeopening to read this book. Anybody's welcome to borrow it if they'd like to. Um and even some of the schools have used this book as a book study. The staff is and I even think some AP students have read this book and they are about to do a presentation for the entire district. So um and then lastly that cell phone survey was pretty eye openening. um it was sent out and um I think it's it's pretty statistically significant in that it went out to um classified and certified staff. I think we have about 600 certified staff and over 300 of them have responded. So more than 50% of the staff has gotten back to us and it was at a time mid-March. So

050I thought of the calendar. a time when teachers were low in energy. They had um assessments, report cards due, uh spring break hadn't come yet. So to have that kind of response, I thought was kind of amazing. And of the 355 people that responded, 68% of them mentioned at least once that they'd like to see a policy change. They also in the survey could do a one, two, three, four. four being that cell phones are very distractable. And again, that was a very high number. 68% said they're terribly um distracting. And like I said, I could go further to um some proposals that I think or we could just open it up for discussion. I I acquies as to what you want me to do. Um, do other members of the board have thoughts about

051the survey results or further movement on it or Yeah, Trusty Clson. Um, thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank Trusty Cook for bringing up this very important issue. I actually was the one who proposed the cell phone policy that we have currently in 2019. And at the time um we got it passed I want to say in the spring and then we shut down for COVID. So I was reading through the survey that was um shared with the board. I'm not sure our our building folks have had a chance to see the results of that survey like our principles. But uh a lot of a lot of comments were we need a cell phone policy. And I thought well geez we have a cell phone policy and um others were you know sort of

052in that line like boy this school or that school sure has a great cell phone policy but we you know need one districtwide. Well that school might be following the district-wide cell phone policy which is why maybe they're having some success. So, I'd really love to see uh make sure that the results of this policy are shared with our building principles so that they can see the feedback that that we are getting as a board. Um I we have a couple of principles here tonight and I know some watch online. We we I think all care about this issue or I maybe that's too much. I haven't had a chance to speak to my colleagues, but this is a really important issue and I think um if you look at our policy, it says portable

053devices because it goes beyond cell phones. Kids bring in smartwatches. They bring in actually little videos that they can watch movies on. I've actually witnessed this. Um there's all kinds of things that they can bring in to distract them. There's a lot of really great research. I haven't read I haven't done the research recently, but when I when I proposed this policy originally, I presented it to the board that having your cell phone out during teaching and learning time not only distracts you and affects your short and long-term memory, but it it affects the your neighbors short and long-term memory. So, uh, I I would hope that we can try to make sure that with Fidelity, we're following our policy and, um, I'd love to see what our buildings have done with it and, um,

054kind of learn more about about that process, um, just so we understand the full picture of where we are as a district. Thank you, M. Anybody else? Anybody else? I took the survey results and broke how it was in Excel. Um, but I I took it and I created sheets for each school so that it would be easier just to really get a sense of of what the certified and classified staff at those schools were saying. Um but my thought after reading it is that if um you know the board asked Dr. Newton just to do that survey for us um but if if maybe the next best step would be for Dr. Newton to share each school's data with those principles and maybe for you and those admin teams and the schools to get

055a sense of what their staff have said and and see what it might look like if if because there were a couple of schools where I mean most of the responses were you know I don't like cell phones or they're a distraction but actually we're doing a really good job here and this policy works and this the way they're implementing it works And so I don't know that it's necessarily my sense was not it's an across the board issue right now at every school or at least not to the same magnitude. But I wondered if um maybe if we could share that data with the administrative teams at each school and I you know they're they're the ones there dayto day who who might have the best sense of how to implement the current policy.

056um and and maybe have feedback for us on if we need to tweak things or change things. I I would appreciate their input though. So, that was one thought I had after breaking it out by school and seeing some some real variation I think from school to school. Madam Chair, Chusty Cook, um I truly believe that the policy needs to there's some things that need to be taken away from the current policy. There's some um areas in the policy that I think are confusing. I've spoken with ev almost every single secondary principle and they would welcome um stronger um more clearly worded policy. Um they also um I I would propose that there's no cell phones from K through 8. Um I do think that's what's being done currently right now. I also think that

057um high school it would be nice to have lock boxes for cell phones that kids put them in instead of carrying them around in their backpacks. Um, but I do think that um, administrators would welcome a little bit stronger policy. Anybody else want to weigh in right now? Yeah, I Madam Chair, I you as we were campaigning um last fall, it's you know, I know as we've I've now gone through a couple different cycles of this, you there's something that comes up, right, every time and this was definitely the thing, right? This was the thing that we got comments on almost every time we talked to someone is that, you know, there can't be phones in the classrooms. Um we got to got to get those out. And I agree that the policy allows for

058them to not be um but I also am not sure why there's such a discrepancy, right? And so um I think getting some feedback from the principles, but I I think um having taking a look at how tweaks might look couldn't hurt either. Um I you know I agree with Barb that you know things have changed. There's different types of electronics and maybe we need to be more specific when we talk about, you know, the earphones. Children may not read earphones in portable electronic devices. Um, and so I I don't know that it could hurt to to look at how it might be tweaked in addition to having conversations with with the principles about what that looks like. Jessica. Yeah, Madam Chair. Um, one specific area that um, a principal got back to me, I

059the portable number three on the uh, cell phone policy. Portable electronic devices may be used in support of instruction as approved by district stra staff in accordance with district pol policies, regulations, and rules. To me, that's a slippery slope once they use it in class. I mean, I've heard that teachers will say or kids will say, "My my iPad or my um it's dead. Can I use my phone?" So, teachers will allow them to use their phone. Well, I think if we let them use it once, it just becomes a slippery slope. Some art teachers will say, "Listen to your music." So, I'm a proponent of saying, "No, you don't use cell phones during class at all." And so that would be one area that would be very specific for substitutes. And and you know,

060if we leave it up to each individual building having their own little policy, um then the poor teacher that goes to multiple schools will have multiple rules to follow. So if we have one really strong strict policy um and like I said there's that was one example of when I had said it to a principal they said yeah that really is a slippery slope for using phones in in class. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Trusty H. Madam chair. I would agree with um Britney that I think it's important that the building administration see the results of I don't like that I can't look at you and also be heard. Um I think it's important that they see the results of our of the survey. Um and I also think it doesn't hurt to

061just have conversation about um verbiage and language in the policy. I think that one specific example um is a good example of of how it could be a slippery slope and if that's how a lot of our building administration feel I want to be supportive in um how we move forward with that. So, I think let's start with um getting the survey out to our building administration and then move forward with conversation and potential talk about um updating the policy. Anybody else want to weigh in on cell phones? So, we're not voting at this point in the meeting. Um, I just thought it would be good to have a healthy discussion about it. Um, Trusty Cook, if you um wonder if maybe you could route the some of the the edits that you would consider

062or that you think might be important if you could route those to the board just so everybody can see what what you're envisioning. Um, but I wonder if the board would be in agreement at this time of asking Dr. Newton to start to work with the administrative teams at each high school to take a look at we do have a policy. So for to say that we're not, you know, there is no policy or we need it, we have a policy. It's just maybe not being implemented uniformly um throughout the district. Um, so maybe if would you do does the board agree to maybe take this to the administrative teams at the secondary schools now and get their feedback and see what's working and what's not and really like for them to have a chance

063to look at that data as well. Um, but that sound okay. So, with the the part of policy that Trusty Cook brought up with um your iPad, just go ahead and use your phone this time. I'm curious if our district iPads allow u use for like chat, GPT, or other AI services. Do we know? Mr. McKenna, could you please come up and address that question? Madam Chair, Trusty Humphrey, we do not block any AI services. Um interesting. They don't uh there was a discussion when init chat GPT initially came out um with cabinet and uh there was talk about it being an equity issue. So you could have kids with chat GPT on their phone, kids with no phone and no access. And uh it's not breaking any copa or furpa or anything. We're not

064encouraging its use but we don't block it. uh or SEA the why we have a filter in the first place. Okay, thank you. I think that maybe kind of derails my point, but my my thought was well if the iPads don't allow for chat GPT, but then oh so and so forgot their iPad, but they have their phone then they can be using which that's a whole bigger animal that maybe this policy doesn't need to cover, but that's all. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, Madam Chair. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I made this point, but I want to emphasize I'm really interested in the fidelity of implementing the policy that we have because my impression, you know, there's been teachers that have come even before the election that have said we need a cell phone policy.

065And I thought, why don't they know about this? Um, and we have been, you know, we've had some different leaders in the district. We've had turnover with different principles over the years. we had COVID. Um, so I I guess as a board member, I'm really curious about this fidelity issue and I would rather find out how um how thoroughly it's the policy is being implemented before we discuss additional things because I think that's a big piece of it. we could pass new policy or fix it up, you know, the way we think is best and it still could have be the problem if it's not being implemented with fidelity. So, I really think that's step one for me is I want to know um you know in the policy and I don't have the language

066in front of me, but I believe uh it said that self you know portable electronic devices are prohibited. It's pretty strong. Um with the exception of some with some exceptions for for education. I can't remember exactly how it I have it up in front of um you do. You want to read that piece of it for us, but it in my point Oh, thank you, Barb. Um anyway, it's been it's been five years, so I don't remember the exact wording, but that's pretty strong. And and I'm not saying that I'm opposed to looking at strengthening it, but I think that my impression has been that just the time and all the various things that have been going on that have been um focused on other things that this might be a fidelity issue. And then

067you have the issue of a building might be really good and you know the leadership may be saying no this is policy we're following it. But you might have personal opinions where you know some certain teachers are like ah it's no big deal you know like your example go ahead and get your phone out. Um and and that really hurts the teachers that are trying to enforce the policy. And so this is uh this might be bigger in other words than the words that we put in our policy. It might be how do we enforce the policy. So, I would really ask that we start there and kind of understand what's happening um from our principles and what problems they're facing in that way. So, thank you. Thank you, Trusty Clen. Trusty Cook. Yeah. One

068more time. Thank you, Madam Chair. Couple things I would love to also see in the policy. Um true. If this happens, then this is the consequence. So as specific as the consequences um would be in the policy. So there would be no questioning. Uh second thing is I do know medical I mean some type 1 diabetics need their cell phones. So that would be an exception. And the third thing is just a question I have if these people responded to the survey is there any confidentiality? I know some of the comments were specific to a school and I'm a sucker. I don't want anybody's feelings being hurt. So, I don't want principles feeling bad that if somebody had said, "Oh, it's not being enforced here." Or so. Is there going to be a problem with

069that? Madam Chair, Trusty Cook, uh, what I would be inclined to do is send each school the responses from the staff at their school only. and um and so they wouldn't see the the comments made about other schools or other personnel. But I think uh for a principal to reach some sort of conclusion about what the data is telling them, they would uh absolutely need to see their own data. Okay. And with the board's direction, I'd be happy first thing in the morning to send each school's data out to their respective principles. And trustee Cook, I didn't am looking at that. But I there are IP addresses. Um a number of the IP addresses were the same. I thought maybe that linked back to the school building where they were sending from. Yeah, Madam Chair,

070I I I don't believe that would give us any reason to suspect it was the same person doing multiple entries. Um but I will also mention that I will there's no need for us to include the columns that show those IP addresses. It'll clean up the data a little bit if I chop those off. um which just there there really is nothing that links an individual person to an entry, but we'll clean it up even further to avoid any sort of suggestion that multiple people or mo one person took the survey multiple times. So um that does not appear to be an issue at all. Um so we'll we'll carve off those IP addresses to not give that impression. Right. So, I believe we're all in agreement that for now, let's let's send this data

071out to the admin teams at the schools. Let them kind of wrap their brains around what their staff are saying about what's happening in their buildings and, you know, taking a look at the policy and seeing the feedback. It it it may be very much more a fidelity issue and how they're implementing that. Um, so but let's let's let the professionals who who deal with these things day in day out um take a look at it first if that's okay and then I know you'll report back to us after they've had a chance. And knowing we're going into summer, I don't want to ruin any vacations, but um just we'll we'll just wait to hear back from you on that then. Thank you. Is there anything else for board reports? Okay, turn it over to

072you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I only have one quick report. Um, as I call up Mr. Curelli to do his um preliminary budget update, I'll let him start making his way up there as I share one uh update, and that's um consent agenda item D2.2. Sometimes the motions don't exactly tell um the whole story of of what an agenda item might be. So, I just wanted to share um that the permission to renew a contract for an employee assistance program. Um that is the services that we contract with for staff members who may be struggling um need a bit of in-person or video counseling, things along that nature. The national average for staff is about four to 5% of staff that um that avail themselves of these kinds of programs. And I um can tell

073you that this year we have had 87 participants in the employee assistance program which um appears to be a 4.07% utilization rate and as I said the national average is 4 to 5%. So we're very pleased that we're able to extend the services to sea this service to staff members who may need a bit of help and assistance. Um, and so this is a consent agenda item renewing that contract for another year. So, um, just a little bit more explanation for that if it wasn't entirely clear. But with that, I see Mr. Cigarelli is, um, is ready to go. So, at this point, I will turn over the board reports to, um, Mr. Curelli. Thank you, Madam Chair, Dr. Newton. Um, excuse me. So tonight I'm um going to present hopefully a brief but not

074too brief uh update on the fiscal 26 budget development. Um I will try to focus on the highlights of the impacts to our financial outlook as we approach the upcoming year. I just want to start with a quick note. Um within the meeting materials tonight is a more detailed uh summary with a a budget plan that goes over a lot of what I'll summarize tonight in more detail. And as you know, when we come closer to the actual budget adoption date in July, um there'll be even more detail as we get closer to that adoption as well. Now, um a couple of other points while I'm um kind of setting up the the summary that we'll go over. Uh this does capture the best known data points that we have at this point in time.

075Um being a preliminary budget, there'll certainly be refinements um as we work through the next couple of months. As a matter of fact, we'll rework rework again and probably rework yet another time all of our revenue and our expenditure projections as well as other inputs that are going to um impact our funding for the upcoming year like things like student counts and and other areas. Um and I'll touch on that a little bit um as we work through this summary. Uh to start with um there's a uh a very specific timeline that is called out in the municipal uh fiscal procedures act and I've kind of condensed that to down to uh the current time frame and what's left before uh the final appropriation and budget hearing happens this July. Um this timeline covers this

076preliminary budget which gives us that first look into that framework for the upcoming year. And again, as we work through um the oncoming months, we'll we'll continue to refine those figures before the appropriations are submitted for your consideration uh on July 14th. Okay. So, um this slide provides a summary of the district's total financial picture. Um, as I've to noted before, our district operates six major funds, uh, with a combined total of more than $427 million projected for the expenditure budget for the upcoming year. Um, I will tell you that that's about $40 million higher than what was approved for the current year that we're operating in. Most of that's going to be a direct result of capital construction appropriations. I'll get into a little bit more detail here in a moment. Um, but we

077do capture um, a lot of details. um for the numerous subf funds um that comprise our our district um as well as our non-general fund categories. Um as we know the general fund represents the largest portion of our main operating funds. So I'll focus mainly on the general fund, but um as we near the end of the presentation, I'll go over some of those supplemental and restricted funds as well. So Madam Chair, I'm going to start um on the revenue side of the ledger, if you will. Um and again I'm speaking from the the context of the general fund. Um we continue to see cost pressures on our general operating funds. Um and of course ECA driven gains are the major factors um that we've accounted for in this year's changes. Uh the preliminary budget

078accounts for um the most recent legislative session um as well as other various mechanisms that are built into the funding model. Um some of those are uh are able to be projected at this point in time. Um some of them are not. Um, and I'll kind of point those out as I hit these high points that you see on the screen here. Um, but kind of starting here at the beginning, um, right at the top of the list, um, I went over this a little bit in March, uh, the external cost adjustment, uh, will provide about 9.3 million additional dollars to our school district as a whole. Now, keep in mind that external cost adjustment uh, is based on model salary allocations, not what the district pays. So those adjustments um to give you an

079example of a certified teacher, the funding model contemplates about a $40,000 starting salary for a teacher in Laram County School District 1, our starting wage is 51,250. So an adjustment to $40,000 is going to be very different than what is applied to the actual teaching salaries. But you'll see I've profiled some of those adjustments here. You'll notice that on that first line I have a negative $491,000 right after that amount. Those are the amounts of that external cost adjustment that will flow to uh both the uh district approved charters for air and pass as well as the state approved charter. So that money will come out of that $9.3 million uh that I've shown here. Now some of the other impacts um I mentioned in March that uh there was a change in law that

080directs some of our central office funding um to the charter schools. That will represent a decrease of about $582,000. Um, now CTE, uh, career and technical education was removed from our block grant. So within our general fund, it'll show a decrease of 573,000, but that amount will be moved over into our special revenue fund as a restricted amount. So that kind of just moves places within our our financial framework. And then lastly on the legislative changes, you'll see routine maintenance. Um, there will be a one-time adjustment to our funding for routine maintenance. That's for um the the normal upkeep of our buildings. groundskeepers, those type of things. Uh we'll see an increase of about $466,000 as a result of that change. Now, um moving a little bit further down here, you'll see funding model inputs.

081Um these are the pieces that change on a routine basis, uh without any legislative action. Uh student counts is certainly one of those adjustments that I'll talk about here a little bit more as well. Um that's going to represent a decrease in funding of about $3.2 million for the district. Um, kind of skipping over some of these other to be determined ones, uh, health insurance is a major component in our compensation plan. Um, our health insurance is tied specifically to the state's insurance plan. Um, so when there are no changes in the state's plan, uh, there's no additional funding to our district. Uh the reason that you see an actual decrease here um is based on kind of the the composite mix of all the school districts in Wyoming um their uh representation of who

082are taking family plans or single plans is all calculated into that amount. Um and so we'll actually see a decrease in our health insurance component for the upcoming year and I'll I'll reference that here in a moment when I start talking about the compensation adjustments. Um some of the other areas that you see that we still need to work through um education experience. Those are adjustments that we'll see um adjusted as we come into the next year. Um school facilities data, reimburseable components like transportation and special education. Um student demographics around uh um at risk students, the funding that u provides additional tutors and counselors and pupil support positions. Those inputs will be adjusted um as we finalize the year's data. So, the net effect of all those adjustments um is approximately $4.7 million more

083to the district. Um, and I'll kind of parlay that into a a little bit more detail on um how we're operationalizing and deploying those resources here in a moment. Before I do, um I want to touch a little bit more on that student decrease. And I know uh Dr. Newton provided an update recently on this particular piece, but um it's very important when we come um to you as a board to talk about the amount that we would like you to consider for appropriating. Um even slight increases or decreases in our student counts can have impacts of millions of dollars on our school district as a whole. Um as you can see, um Dr. Newton mentioned this uh recently. Um at our peak, we had about 14,261 students. Um and that was around that right

084before the pandemic and you've seen kind of the gradual change and decrease um since that time. Um to date um for the current year we'll lose about another 129 students. Um and that's what represents that decrease in funding of about $3.2 million. Uh if you look at it from kind of before the pandemic to now, um that's about a thousand students less than we had or 7% decrease in enrollment. Um and so with those small deviations um up to large deviations in student counts um it really dramatically impacts our long-term uh financials and uh we have moved from just projecting and budgeting for the upcoming year to really looking at a two three-year projection so we can navigate some of those changes and certainly um the upcoming year expecting those uh decreases to impact us

085as well. And so um I'll talk a little bit about how that next year focus comes into play. Madam Chair, I'll move this little screen here for a second. Um, so what you see here is a summary of our general fund revenue. Now, um, as we know, most of our funding comes from the state level. So if you kind of look at it from the top to bottom, our local revenue is at the very top. This is going to be primarily our ad valorum tax collections um interest earnings some of the other uh treasure funded or excuse me treasurer collected revenue that we receive as a school district and then we move into county state revenue federal and then other sources. Now, just to hit on a couple, um you'll notice that we have uh

086the fiscal year 2425 year, which is the year we're in, the budgeted and the estimated amount. Um and then in the gray, you'll see the uh preliminary budget for the upcoming year. I just want to point out a couple of things. Um you'll notice on the local revenue side, um we're trending um significantly higher than our initial estimates. Um a lot of this has to do with the advalorum tax collections, mostly in mineral assessments. Um we are up about five million from what we initially projected. Um which is great. Um but there's always going to be an equalization that happens. Um the more we collect in local resources means the less we are provided in state resources. Um so there's really no uh gain to the school district when it comes to those additional collections

087other than that creates a lot of um obstacles and um navigating that we have to do in order to cash flow. Uh there are some revenue sources that do help the district, things like interest and investment earnings. Um we are trending about $1.7 million higher than we anticipated uh for interest earnings, which is great. Um you know, we had um uh conservatively estimated that we would have about $2.5 million in interest earnings for the current year and we'll exceed that, which is great because that goes right back into our general fund and our educational program. Um one last note on our local revenue. Um we uh as a school district um in incur cost to manage our federal grants. Um as you can imagine uh running payroll, human resources, accounting, all of those pieces um

088in some way, shape or form touch the administration of the the the federal grants. So we negotiate every year with the Wyoming Department of Education what we call an indirect cost rate. Um, as we came out of the ESSER funds, um, we were in a unique position where we were able to negotiate an increase in that indirect cost. And so, we were able to defer a lot of those indirect costs revenue to be able to to to pull more into the general fund to offset those costs. So, we're trending about 1.3 million ahead in indirect costs. And similar to um the investment earnings um we're able to invest that back into the educational program acknowledging that even when we went through the the ESSER and COVID funds we had significantly more administrative costs um just

089to manage those funds. So that offsets those um and those resources are available for appropriation. Now I'll just um as I kind of move on from the revenue I'll just point out that it continues to be a moving target. Um, as a matter of fact, that uh additional 5 million in mineral assessed valuation that I talked about earlier, um, that will, um, require and did require me to resubmit all of our financials to the Department of Education so that we could get an accurate, uh, depiction of what we would collect as a school district for the year. So, um, we will, um, try to thread that needle, if you will, um, to make sure those estimates are close as possible to reality. Um, and we'll see a little bit less in the state revenue as

090a result of that. um county has similar adjustments. And then um I'll just point out at the very bottom where you see other sources. Um this is where we would record um our reserve transfers for our buses to cover those uh new bus purchases that we um have on order. We don't anticipate a lot of those coming in before the end of the year. So that will move into um our requests for the upcoming year. So you'll see less revenue into the general fund as a result of that. So, Madam Chair, moving on to kind of the expenditure side now, if you will, um, of the general ledger. Uh, there's a lot to unpack here. And so, um, let me kind of start by summarizing a couple of things. Uh, I mentioned that we will

091receive additional funding through that external cost adjustment for staff compensation. Um, but we lacked any adjustment for health insurance. Um later on in your agenda um subject to your voting uh the respective units um will have uh adjustments that will equal about $12.2 million in compensation adjustments. Um and for those of you kind of doing the back of the envelope calculations, um I just explained that we would have less than $9.3 million coming in as a result of that adjustment. Um and we're spending 12.2. Um, I'll break down that math here a little bit for you, but what that means, at least on the salary side, certified staff will see a $2,000 base adjustment, which is about 4.96% depending on where those individuals are on the salary schedule. Uh, classified between steps and base adjustment

092will be about 5.8. Um, administrative staff will be about 4.5%. Now, that certainly has the cost implications that hit that 12.2 million. Um but also we incurred a pretty significant increase in our health insurance uh for the upcoming year which again um we will receive less funding for the school district for the upcoming year. Uh that would be about a 12% increase. The district share of that increase is $4.6 million. So that's part of that $12.2 million that you see here. Now in order for us to kind of balance the ledger, if you will, um we had to find um reductions in other areas. So, um you'll see here that we will um adjust through attrition staffing. That will be about a $3.1 million savings to the district. Um but we also took a hard

093look at our non-personnel budgets. Um our department budgets um we uh combed through and as of today we have about $2.8 million of savings um as we were looking for ways to um provide that compensation adjustment to our staff. Um so that increased cost that you see here of about 12.2 two, the budget reductions about 5.9 are offsetting some of those costs um to get us into a situation where we can provide those adjustments. Now, I'd be remiss not to mention that um it's important that we do highlight um some of the uh the global trade conditions that we're we're experiencing. We um our purchasing agents are um on a routine basis getting notifications from our suppliers that they are anticipating um cost increases. uh it's getting difficult for a a supplier uh to to

094hold a bid more than 30 days for us right now because of that uncertainty. Um and we'll we'll certainly continue to monitor that. Um at the point where those increases become more than just a marginal impact to our funding um and our expenditure budget. Um we'll certainly uh continue to monitor and and make adjustments as we come to the final uh budget in July. Um, Madam Chair, just a couple of other things as I I move on to what what I like to characterize as the most confusing slide of the slide deck. Um, this is um a prescribed statutory format um on how we present um the most recent full completed fiscal year as well as the budget versus estimate for the current and the the budget request or preliminary budget for the upcoming year.

095Um now what this does is it represents a worst case scenario. um little or no budgetary versions and very conservative revenue estimates. Um now we are tracking below budget for personnel expenses slightly um year-to date on the current side where you see the estimate for um expenditures of roughly $230 million. Um and as I just mentioned before, we're slightly up on the revenue side. Um but we also have some other areas that will need to be addressed as we start to budget and plan for the upcoming year with um projected enrollment decreases. Now um you'll see in that that slide there that the the net change um in operations for the upcoming year is estimated to be about um $8 million decrease. Um, I always kind of um provide the caveat that's if we were

096able to fit everything that we do as a school district into um a a fiscal year and that's certainly not how things work. Um, nothing fits perfectly within that time frame. So, we do anticipate that there'll be carryover expenditures and those type of things that'll impact that ultimate fund balance. So, moving on to a little bit more detail. Um, I mentioned that a bulk of our budget supports our staff through wages and benefits. Um, and you'll see that at the very top of the the chart here, um, the estimate for the the fiscal year that will end about $195.5 million in personnel costs. Uh, if you move to the right, um, the budget is anticipated to be $25.7 million for the upcoming year. That's about 83 almost 84% of our budget as a whole. um

097and represent certainly the largest part of our general fund expenses. Now um as you kind of move through the the chart and and follow down um these are departmental groupings that um you're probably used to seeing in your treasury reports. Um this is where you'll see budgettobudget reductions from fiscal year 25 to 26 in a number of different areas. Um we'll profile these out in more detail when it comes to the final budget, but we've reduced um funding for um equipment, materials, um uh utilities where possible, um departmental budgets, uh school budgets for the most part will be flat for the upcoming year. Um but would certainly acknowledge that they're feeling some of those inflationary pressures as well. Um, moving past the general fund, this is the the really hard to follow um eye charts

098here. So, I'm going to do my best to to summarize some of this and actually maybe make it a little bit easier to follow. I've gone through um quite a bit of the uh the general fund. So, I'll focus on um these restricted and supplemental funds. Uh, and by the way, uh, this is the last slide, so it'll just take a little bit to get through here, but um, I'm going to start on the special revenue side, and this includes anything that is restricted by an external party. So, um, this will cover our student activity funds, our scholarship fund, but primarily this is going to be where you see our federal and restricted grants. Now, I'll pause here a little bit and tell you that there's there's still a lot of uncertainty when it comes

099to our our our federal grants for the upcoming year. here. I know Mr. Jackson's been working hard with the Department of Education to get um updates and projections for the upcoming year. Uh by this time, we typically have a good idea of what our allocations will be for the upcoming year. Um we don't at this point in time. Um we still need um some of those federal estimates from the WDE. Um and certainly they're working to get those figures to us. Uh but we'll also have um those changes with career technical education um that we'll profile here specific to the financials that I have pulled up on the screen. Um one thing you'll notice as you work through the preliminary budget book is that historically we've had the general fund providing a note or a

100loan to the special revenue fund. Um now that we've moved through those CO 19 funds, um we've alleviated some of the pressure on that special revenue fund and we've decreased that loan. That means that there's $2.5 million that moves back to the general fund um that had been um used to prop up our special revenue fund. So that's um some great news there. Now um the next fund you'll see his our major maintenance fund and I alluded to a little bit of this earlier about some funding changes for the upcoming year. Um there will be um really two changes to the calculation that determines the level of resources we receive as a school district for major building maintenance and infrastructure costs. Um the first will be temporary in nature. Um it will only be for

101the upcoming year and the second will be more ongoing. Um until we get final student counts submitted from the the department of education over to the school facilities division, it's difficult to pinpoint this. Um we have profiled about a $3 million increase at least at this point in time. Um as we get those final amounts uh we'll amend that to be more precise for the upcoming year. Um but I will tell you that on the expenditure side um we have the ongoing cost for the McCormick Junior High. That'll be about a $20 million project in total. Um and right now we have projected another $5 million in operating um costs for major maintenance projects. But that will be again um finalized when uh Mr. Nap and his team uh bring forward the major maintenance projects

102and planning for the upcoming year. Um the next uh fund I wanted to talk about um are the resources to fund major capital and local infrastructure projects. Um, as I've mentioned before, our state construction fund is um, uh, the primary account that we use to um, contract for new school buildings approved by the school facilities uh, department. So, you'll see here that we've projected about hund00 million uh, for the new elementary schools that are planned. Um, and these amounts are based on the appropriated amounts from the legislature. Now, um I think uh equally as important is to explain how this uh particular fund works. So, um last year about this time, we brought forward a budget request of about $60 million because we didn't know what appropriations would be released, um through school facilities. Um

103but we wanted to ensure that we had those resources available. Um what happens in a a state capital construction fund is we reappropriate so that $60 million doesn't flow into the next year. we basically zero out the budget and then build it out back. And so that um $und00 million is um resetting to match those state appropriations. The 60 million doesn't doesn't flow forward from the prior year. Um the next fund here is the special building fund and um we went into quite a bit of detail on this uh recently. And just as a a quick reminder, last year we utilized this fund to uh do our 1:1 student device refresh, which was um approximately $6 million for the district as a whole. Um but we also have um a number of different areas that

104we'll continue to cover um costs for as we um um are now nearing completion of the a farm project. We'll have contract uh payments that will um tie out that project as a whole. Um, with the two new schools, we know that there are um costs that will be um outside of the state standard that we will um utilize these funds to cover like the additional height on the gymnasiums and those type of things. Um, but we also cover um costs like um the Cheyenne Community Recreation District is fully funded out of this fund. All the expenditures um to operationalize those project comes out of this account and then the rec district pays it back. Um, a couple of other things to point out here. Um, I had mentioned previously that, um, we will have

105a temporary stay on the career and technical education reserve account until, um, we kind of navigate the changes with restricted CTE funding for the state as a whole. But probably the biggest takeaway um that uh I would leave with you on the special building fund is just the insurance costs that um we're working currently to address um and facing some um sizable increases in our insurance premiums in the way of deductible changes. And so um we still have to to finalize our insurance plan and um documentation with our our insurance broker. Um, I would tell you that we're definitely going to see an increase in our deductibles. We're moving from a set $250,000 deductible for hail and wind um to a percentage of building replacement value. What that means to us as a school district

106is that if we have a major event and we need a new roof on a school, it could easily be six figures, potentially seven figures in some of our schools. And so we have to position ourselves uh to be able to address those deductibles uh on a on a reliable and continuing basis. Um madam chair just a couple of other points to to bring to your attention. Um enterprise funds as we know are kind of operated as business units. We have two major units within this is um first the the preschool tuition preschool program. Um that has been scaled back considerably. We will have um one uh preschool program which will alleviate some of the cost pressures on the general fund to cover those deficits for the upcoming year. Um but probably the the the

107major focus is going to be on on the school lunch fund. Um this is where we operationalize all of our um federal funds, our um meal pricing, um all of our expenses for our nutrition services program. And we are fortunate to have gone seven years without a transfer into the excuse me, the nutrition services fund to help support those operations. Um I as I'd kind of um alluded to in a number of different uh budget presentations over the years, uh we knew that at some point in time we we back um to having to supplement that program and and we're nearing that point. Uh as a matter of fact, one of the main focuses before we bring you a final budget, we'll be examining um if we need to at least profile a a transfer

108to the nutrition services fund for the upcoming year. Um you'll see here um based on preliminary figures uh we're looking at of a fund balance at the end of the year of about 692,000 a little closer to zero than I'm comfortable with. Um but uh we'll certainly keep apprised of that. Um likely conversations around lunch school or school lunch pricing and other areas as well. Um as we kind of near the end of the um the monster chart here, uh trust funds. Um these are the funds that we operate our other post-employment benefit programs for the district. Um you'll see here we're profiling about $2.8 million in expenditures for the upcoming year. Um these funds together represent um a little over $20 million in liability for the district. Uh I'm happy to report that we

109continually get closer to that fully funded status. Um this year we'll see a step back. um we'll see about a $3.2 million increase to that liability um as a result of changes to that subsidy for that early retirey health incentive program that we have for the upcoming year. So, it'll just put it a little bit further out of reach. Um but we're continually um moving and closing the the distance uh to have those those programs fully funded. Um and then finally, um this fund represents the pass through amount that goes through our state charter schools. Uh so the money that we receive um through that block grant um that we're required to pass through to Cheyenne Classical Academy um you'll see here um this represents the best um information I have available on student enrollment

110counts um roughly 180 students um this does account for that increase in that central office allocation that will go to those schools um as well as the uh lease payments that the the school has been approved for that will flow through from the school facilities division through this account and then ultimately to that school. Um so that's profiled here as well. So um Madam Chair, just as I kind of wrap up here, um this budget reflects a stable and um strong financial position as we uh move forward to that final adoption in July. U if there are any questions, I'm I'm happy to address them. I should have probably uh mentioned at the beginning, you're more than welcome to interrupt me, but now that we're at the end, I guess it doesn't matter. So happy

111to address any questions. Anybody? No. Thank you, Mr. Oh, yeah. Jesse, I just go ahead. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Cigarelli, for um going through this thoroughly. It's always so complicated and a lot going on. So, we apprec I appreciate very much hearing from you. Um I have a couple of questions. Just wondering does the model the the funding that the legislature use uses does it include paying for um employee health insurance? Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson, it does it does have a component um that is uh designed to to provide a proxy on what that cost would be for employee health insurance. That's what I thought. Do you happen to know uh like a percentage of what they recommend or do you have any idea of how much is recommended? Um it's

112not madam chair trusty clawson it's not tied directly to a percentage. Um what it does is it takes the employer cost to the state. Um so if uh the cost for the state of Wyoming to provide family coverage to um a state employee is we'll say $25,000 a year. um it takes that amount and then looks at what's the mix of every school district in the state and kind of weights that across the other plans and then provides that that kind of proxy amount. Um that amount can vary. Um right now we're receiving about $15,000 per staff member for health insurance. Now um again knowing that um you've heard me talk a lot about health insurance over the years. Um a family coverage for our district is um in excess of $30,000 a year. Um

113so the difference between those is not um every position that the model allocates is filled. Not every employee takes that full amount um for for health insurance. So that's kind of the the math if you will on how that that allocation is is derived. I guess that's what Thank you, Mr. Sigrelli. I I wanted to follow up on that. Um thank you for that expla explanation. So, do we add on to that typically? Like I know we subsidize our employees health insurance um quite a bit and do we add on to that above what that allocation uh level would be at the state in the state model after they do that calculation like we do with salaries? Um Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson, um it really depends. Uh there are um some aspects of our health

114insurance plan that um are cheaper than the state plan. Even if you look at it just from u the lens of the employer on what they're paying. Um we might have a more cost-effective family plan and maybe it's a little bit more on the single side. Um but there are vast differences years yeartoear. Um sometimes the state plan is significantly less. they might use their reserves to buy down that cost, which means less resources come to the district, which means um what we pay for as far as as far as the 92% of that premium might be higher, but it's going to really vary yeartoear. Um so it's a difficult one to pinpoint. Um in some regards, we are cheaper, some regards we're a little bit more expensive. Um but uh it's a it's a

115a 928 split for the district right now. Um that 92% as I mentioned earlier is that $4.6 $6 million increase for the district. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cigarelli. I have one more question. Um, it's related to just a comment. Um, you mentioned that we're down to one tuition preschool this year. Is that correct? Did I hear that right? Um, Madam Chair Trusty Clawson for the upcoming year. That's correct. Yeah. Yep. Thank you. Um, but that doesn't preclude that we have title one preschools still u available to our students next year. Um, Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson, um, yes, thank you for that clarification. Strictly from the tuition PK program perspective, it's just the one program. Title one programs will still exist. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Sarelli. Anybody else? Thank you, Mr. Sarelli. And thank you for

116the time you spent with a lot of us, I believe, in the last couple of weeks going through and just giving us some more in-depth look with that budget. We appreciate all your work and your team. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Cigarelli. There will be a quiz at the end of the meeting on everything you covered. But with that, that is the end of my board reports. All right, moving right along here into the consent agenda. All 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 considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. Does any board member request to remove a motion

117from the consent agenda? Thank you. Madame chair, I Just Madam Chair, I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. I second a motion and a second to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. All in favor say I. I opposed. Okay, those have been approved. All right, we will move into new business now. Madam Chair, I move to approve the administrator professional contract on the attached list for the 2025 2026 school year and to place them on the appropriate step of the administrator professional salary schedule. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the administrator and professional contracts on the attached list for the coming school year. Do we have any questions or discussion on that? Yeah, Trusty Humphrey, if I could just ask uh Trusty Hingle's always question of are

118these new positions or replacements? Madam Chair, um yeah, Trusty Humphrey, thank you for it would be a shame if we didn't ask the question. Um these are all replacement positions at this time and I do not believe we have anyone here this evening to uh to recognize, but they are all replacement positions. Thank you. Anybody else? All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor of approving the contracts, please say I. I. I. Opposed. All right, those have been approved. Madam Chair, I move to amend the general fund budget by transferring $1 million from general fund from general support to fund transfers. Amend the special revenue fund budget by transferring $1,500,000 from instruction to general support and $75,000 from instruction to non-instructional support and amend the special building fund budget by transferring

119$60,000 from capital outlay to general general support. I second. We have a motion in a second to amend the excuse me the uh general fund budget, the special revenue fund budget and the special building fund budget by transferring money. Um do we have any questions or conversation discussion on that? Nobody. All right. All in favor please say I. I opposed. Okay. Those budget amendments have been approved. And we have one more motion. Madam chair, I move to grant permission to purchase four vehicles and one mover from Fremont Chevrolet GMC, Fremont Motor Company, and 21st Century Equipment for an amount not to exceed $282,170 and to declare one vehicle as surplus. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to um purchase four vehicles and declare one vehicle for surplus. Do we have any questions?

120Yes, madam chair. I just want to because I think the one the mo motion in our on the online says two declare two vehicles as surplus. Can I clarify that? We adjusted the um agenda and changed that motion approved. Got it. We had declared one a surplus at our last meeting. Okay. So, we only needed to do one today. Sure. Anybody else? Okay. All in favor of granting permission to purchase four vehicles and one mover and to declare two one vehicle is surplus, please say I. I opposed. All right, that has been approved. Um, that concludes our new business. Sorry. The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, June 2nd, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. A work session will begin at 5:00 p.m. The district or the business of the district is done. I

121have a motion. Madam Chair, I move to go into executive session prior to returnment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions, expulsions, personnel, legal advice, and potential litigation. Second motion to go into executive session. All in favor say I. I. I. All right, we will break now and go into executive session.