LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Work Session & Meeting - May 5, 2025

001our reserve funds and J without further ado, teach us everything we need to know. Very well. Very well. Um so, um Madam Chair, um as you know, we went through this last legislative session and there was a considerable amount of conversation around school district reserves. Um it occurred to me as we were in entering into the budget session um of kind of our our financial calendar that um it's been a couple years since we took a little bit of a a deeper dive into um what our school district reserves um how does it apply to our district in particular and what has our district done over the you know the series of last few decades um to uh operationalize reserves in a way that benefits our students. Um it's my hope today that we'll be

002able to walk through some of these um scenarios that we've um utilized these resources for. Um certainly as I'm stepping through these um I have a tendency to kind of get into the details of the numbers and stuff but um if you have some questions just just call her and I'm happy to address them as we go. Um so let me start just real quickly trying to define what our reserves are. um they're really a representation of funds that we don't intend to to spend um in the immediiacies. Um and this really means that there's different specific purposes that we hold funds in reserves. And we'll kind of talk about how those are structured. Um but if you had to to boil it down to uh just kind of the main reasons that a school

003district needs reserves, ours in particular, um is really these four here. Um we need to stabilize our resources. um we don't have our funding come into the school district um on a fixed perfect basis that we know exactly where we're going to get every month. Um we have to make sure that we can cover what we call lean periods or revenue shortfalls. Um and that's not to say that um we're not fully funded. It just means that money flows into our district at different times at different levels. And I'll talk a little bit about that when we break down uh these um different scenarios here in a moment. um cash flow um kind of ties in with that. Um maybe to a different extent um I've talked about this before in the past, but um

004our school district uh receives 16 to $20 million a year in federal funds and that's aside from COVID and ESSER funds that we received in the CO 19 pandemic. Um all of those funds on a reimbursement basis, right? And so what that means is our school district has to expend those funds and then we go through a process to request and draw those back down from the state. um the state uh they work very um uh rapidly in a sense to make sure that we have opportunities and windows to draw down those funds. Uh but if you had to put in kind of an average time frame, uh if we finished processing payroll at the end of the month, um it's usually going to take two weeks before we finish submitting the information, reconciling it,

005gathering all the documentation, hitting the state's processing calendar in a way that the money comes back into our account. So about a two week float on average is what we have. Um there are times that uh we have hiccups right holidays um a problems uh processing if maybe somebody at the department of education is sick uh and they're not available to process those payments. Those things kind of can come in. Um now capital construction just kind of uh exacerbates that right. Um when we have uh capital construction projects like we have coming online with our district now um it's the same process. we we have to pay those um those vendors and those contractors and then seek reimbursement through the state. So that 20 million can be doubled and then some on those years where

006we have major capital construction projects. Um contingency and emergency funds are are definitely a piece that um in the recent years we've seen growth. Um I'll talk about that when we talk when we kind of look at the structure. Um and then future planning. Um this is important um to address those large capital outlays that um can't typically be um tackled within one year. I like to liken this to like a personal budget, right? Like if um the family needs a new vehicle, we know we can't just wait for one month's pay um to cover that cost that vehicle. We have to plan strategically to cover that cost. Um and that's uh certainly applicable to a school district when it comes to things like new school openings for consumables and um textbooks and certain equipment

007and um all the different pieces that come into play. Um so with that um as we examine uh the level of reserves that we have uh there's five or excuse me four primary factors that we look at um on how we plan for our reserves. Uh the first is the percentage of our total budget. Um that's an important factor. Um and you'll see that here when I talk about the statutory restrictions in place of what we can save. Um we have very specific limits on what we can hold in reserves or what we can transfer to a depreciation reserve which I'll explain here in a moment. We al also have to make sure we have the dollar amounts that are adequate to cover certain items. Um the easiest example that we've talked about um in

008recent times is the one to one devices for our school district. Right? We know that every four to five years we're going to have a pretty significant cost uh to replace those devices and we've um developed a uh reserve fund to be able to move those kids um adequate emergency funds. I alluded to this a moment ago, but um as we see um increasing um insurance costs to cover deductibles um and I'll talk a little bit about this when we get into that fund, but um even um when we have um accidents that aren't necessarily the district's fault, right? We we had a truck back into a building about a year ago that was about a $50 or $60,000 fix. We had to front that cost while we were waiting for our insurance company to

009negotiate with their insurance company to get that money back into our system. So, um, in an effort to get that repair done, we had to utilize our insurance reserves. Um, and then funds availability. Um, and this is what's going to tie directly into our budget discussions. Um, as we come closer to the July U budget adoption date, it's just what do we have available to the district. Um, that can be a significant restriction on the amount of money that we put into a reserve fund. um or in years that we might have unanticipated revenue, it might help address some of those uh unmet needs for the school district as a whole. So, um Madam Chair, I mentioned um just some of the uh um high overview uh reasons that we have reserve funds, but um

010you look at it a little bit more on how are they restricted within a district. Um it can vary. um they have to have very specific intended purposes. Um and that's either set forth in law um or um you as the governing board um as as we've approved our reserve funds over the years have very specific specific direction on how we can utilize those. Um we also have different requirements on how they were established, where did the money come from, um what can we spend them on, and really what happens when those funds are no longer needed. Um if there are surpluses or balances in those accounts, where does it go? And those reserve funds could have different criteria on how that's handled um depending on the funds. Uh but they're really um if I

011can start kind of narrowing it down, there's two main categories of reserves uh specific to our industries. Um and they're both governed by two different pieces of of statute. Um the first when we're talking about reserves, and I'll probably just maybe take a step back. Uh the nomenclature around reserves can kind of be um interchanged within you know cash reserves, spring rainy day accounts, fund balance, um surplus. Um really if we look at it from kind of the statutory language, we have this first piece which is our general fund operating balance and that's what's typically referred to um at least in Wyoming as cash reserve. And you can see the statute that governs that amount and I'll talk about what that means here in a second. Um, but we also have what we call a

012special reserve fund. Um, and there's two pieces of um, statute that govern how a school district like ours can set those funds up and what they're utilized for. Um, so I'm kind of starting to branch this off from just general reserves into well, you've got your general fund operating balance, which I would tell you is basically the money in our checking account in order to make our expenses um, cash flow. And then we have a special reserve fund, which is more like that car example I used earlier, right? we're saving for a specific specific purchase uh down the road. So, um this the whole I'm just going to start a little bit on the the cash reserve squeeze. And so, that first one on that that chart um cash reserves in a school district, it's

013a little misleading. It's it's not a cash amount. Um we have a modified approval basis of accounting in our school district, which is all how this is measured. So you have a lot of liabilities and non-spendable amounts, right? Um an asset on our balance sheet is going to be our inventory, things that we've prepaid. Um all of that comes into play when you look at this this level of uh resources that we can have as a school district. And I'll give you an example. Um but this is u our reserves limited by what statute says we can maintain. Um and this started um shortly after the 1997 special session um when school finance was being litigated. That was the first time you saw Wyoming in particular have a cash reserve limitation um uh enacted through

014statute. Now, if you look at um other states um it's going to vary. Sometimes you see minimum reserve balances that are required in certain states um that they mandate that you have to have a certain level of cash on hand. You do have some other states that also have reserve limits, but it can vary significantly. that's been largely governed by policy decisions as opposed to accounting standards or best practices, but I'll touch on that here in a moment, too. Um, but you'll see here that we're allowed to maintain that general fund operating balance um not to exceed what typically been 15%. Um, and for the short term, um, since the COVID pandemic started, there was a temporary increase to 30%. Um, and I know I've mentioned this a couple of times. Now, that's um set

015to uh be repealed um at the end of the fiscal year 28. Now, it was extended two years. It was supposed to be um at the end of this upcoming fiscal year 26, but we have two more years on that um temporary increase. Now, um the Department of Education takes that statutory restriction and they further u clarify what is used to measure our cash reserves. And you'll see here, I just paraphrased a little bit here, but it includes all resources not legally obligated or restricted by law or regulation. Um, and that has a very specific meaning, and you'll see that here when I pull up our our district's balance sheet in a second. Now, here's the big one is right at the bottom. Um, what happens when we exceed that cash reserve? Um, it's not

016a letter to Dr. Newton saying, "I screwed up." It's not a letter to the board saying that we're non-compliant. The state will take that money. they will seize that one through our calculations of our plan. So the consequences are high and you can see why we spend a considerable amount of time trying to make sure that we have the resources that we need to meet our future demands and our cash flowing but we're not in a position where we'd ever give money back to the state as a result of some type of compliance issue. Um so again very very significant consequences um if we don't state and lower that reserve amount. Um so what I did here was just pulled up um our fund balance and um not to put us all to sleep here

017but uh about a decade ago um governmental accounting standards were modified to show on a balance sheet the level of restriction of that fund balance. Right? And so if you see here at the top this is our general fund. um it breaks it down into certain categories, non-spendable, right? These are things that are non-cash that we don't have access to. Um we have inventories, we have prepaid items for like our health insurance. Um we have inter fund notes to the g or to our federal um grants fund, which I'll talk about here in a moment. Um but if we had any amounts restricted, that would mean that these are legally restricted. Um that there's an external party or enabling law that says you can only use these funds for this purpose. So, you're kind of

018stepping down. You can't spend it. It's restricted by law. And then we get into these areas like committed. Um, and you'll notice these are zero, and I'll explain that as to why, but that means that through a formal board action, the highest level of of um governing authority within the district has committed these funds to a specific purpose. That means we've done it through a board motion. We've done it through um maybe uh uh some other official means to make sure that those funds are designated by the board. um you get into the assigned level and that means that the local government's management um my office has restricted these funds. Um and that's what assigned means here. And you'll notice that there's $6.4 million. Um that's my favorite topic, the carryover incumbrances that we talk

019about every year that these are obligations we've made to vendors um that we have. We're waiting services, we're waiting invoices, we're waiting waiting materials um that we owe these vendors. Now, you might ask, well, if we're entering into a contract with these vendors, why is it showing as just assigned by the school district and not committed or restricted? Well, there's some truth to the logic that um these could be unencumbered, right? Um we cancel a contract or um maybe we decide that we had a a non-appropriations clause and the money's pulled and so those can be rolled back in a sense. And so the state is very intentionally looked at this from this restricted and unrestricted to that letter of the law of what is restricted by an outside party. And then finally this unassigned

020amount that is basically the amount that is not obligated to something within our general fund. So there's no purchase order associated it with it. There's no restriction. There's no inventory. So when we look at how the state calculates our reserves, it's going to be based on this committed, assigned, and unassigned balance. Um, keep in mind that this is a snapshot in time. Um, that account just like you would expect that cash account and that fund balance fluctuates from month to month. You'll see it in the the monthly treasure reports that we provide to you as the board. Um so this is just on June 30th of any particular year is when that measurement takes place. So um this was the end of um our last fiscal year. So fiscal year 24. Um at that time

021our statutory fund balance calculation was 14.4%. Um so we're well below that 30%. Um and we're below the 15%. Um and that's by design. Um and I'll explain that here just in a moment. Um so what is what you would maybe consider an acceptable reserve level level. Um there's a best practice that at a minimum a general purpose government regardless of our size should have no less than two months of reserve. So approximately 17%. That's the the standard. Um that standard goes on to further clarify that it can vary between not only the the type of government but also the specific um circumstances of the school district. Um if you look at what they consider a low to moderate level of risk uh the level of reserves should be approximately 17 to 25%. Um if

022you look at the moderate to high level um it increases 26 to 35%. And then if you're at a high level of risk um you would typically be at a 35 or percent or more level of just your cash reserves. Um now if you take a look at um most of these standards come from the general finance um or excuse me the government finance officers association they can actually walk through these restrictions and you can come to a classification. Um I would tell you that um our district in particular um when you look at revenue volatility um a number of different other factors we would probably fall closer between the low to moderate and the moderate to high. Um and that has a lot to do with changes in our tax collections recently and um

023all the other factors that come into play that makes um tax excess and shortfall calculations that much more difficult. Um so there's an objective measure on these numbers of of where this um kind of target is. Um and again just referencing that um outside of that temporary increase um we're limited to 15%. So, um, to put it into some real world figures, oh, and let me just back up here is you'll notice that, um, it talks about the fund balance in their general fund of no less than two months. And I've talked a lot about how general fund is the back stop for a lot of other expenditures within our district. Capital construction, um, major maintenance is one of them. Um, we also have, uh, the federal grants and some other areas. Uh, the recreation

024district. Um if you look at um where we ended last year kind of on a cash basis um in the general fund we spent $224.2 million um on average um our district spends about $4.3 million and I talked about that unrestricted or um uh unassigned fund balance of $28.4 million. That's what I would tell you is not obligated. um our district is not uh in the habit or nor do we have policies that allow incumbrances to be cancelled um without some justification right like the contract was um you typically will not see incumbrances can within our district um with that in mind um if you just look at the general fund we have about 6.6 six weeks as of June 30th in reserves. So well below um that industry um best practice, but if you

025look at all the other funds um that our school district is responsible for um it's about five weeks. Um now the general fund doesn't backs stop every fund. nutrition services has its own cash and um some other areas. But that gives you an idea I guess um if you even just looked at the general fund on June 30th um if the money just stopped coming about cash operate the district. Um so that's the cash the money in the checking account if you will. Um, now I'm going to talk a little bit more about those savings accounts uh to meet specific needs. Um, these are sometimes referred to as special reserve funds, depreciation reserve funds. Um, in our district, um, long as I was here, uh, the term special building fund was um, and it stuck.

026Um, to this day, we still call it the special building fund. And you'll kind of see when I break down all of our earmarking levels of why that was called that. But um there's two different statutes that kind of govern um this the creation of a special reserve. Um I tell you that um there's two different statute that are explicitly specific to school districts. Um what I qualify that with is there's two different schools of thought. Some school districts have interpreted this to mean that they can set up two separate 10% reserves. Um it's something I would tell you that um I don't think is supported. Um as a matter of fact um working with Molly in a previous uh job position, we had a lot of conversations around this. Um but it does tell

027you how you can utilize those funds. So our district only operates on the fact that you can have one fund transferring up to 10% of the amount budgeted for that year. And we'll talk about how much our district transfers in. Um but you'll notice between these two um citations is that they have very similar language. Um you have for the per purchasing of purchasing or replacing of specified equipment, depreciation reserve for equipment, school building repair, capital improvements. Um very similar language again. And that the money in these reserves may be allowed to pay from year to year until there's a sufficient amount to uh provide for the economical expenditure for those specific purposes. Um, and you'll kind of see that here in a second. Did those funds get discussed at legislature? They did. Um, and

028and you'll see um why that was a significant area of concern for our district um how we utilize those funds. And so I'll bring us kind of back to um what the consequences of that that bill would have been if they would have been passed um when you see a little bit more about um how we utilize those funds. So, um, just a few other points of of reference when it comes to our district's reserves. Um, they did not all originate from transfers from our general fund. Um, that 10% limit um that I mentioned earlier. I'm kind of jumping to this last bullet point here. If you look at um all of the transfers our district has made since our reserve funds were created um in the early 2000s, uh we've transferred less than 2%.

029So well below that 10% statutory. Um but that doesn't mean all those funds came from that particular source. Um as a matter of fact, the original special building fund um came from property that the district owned um before the 1997 Campbell decision. So um specifically um Churchill and Corlet um those two schools when the district sold those properties that money went into that special building fund and that was kind of the seed money if you will for that account. Um but there were also um excess and delinquent tax collections for bonded debt. So uh the last time the district had uh bonded debt in the 1990s um when you work with the county assessor and the treasurer to set those mill levies um it's almost impossible to hit that. So you're going to collect exactly

030the the dollar amount that you need to to satisfy that bond. split with taxes that happen after you satisfy that bond or if they miss the mark a little bit through excess collections. That money was also through that bond approval directed into that bud. So there was some money that flowed into that fund as a result of that as well. Um but we use it primarily to facilitate purchase of capital outlay. Um I'll talk a little about what those examples are. Um we use it to cover the cost of major wind and hail events. um we've seen um more pressure on that fund than I have had anticipated um not just with deductibles but through those um other um areas of insurance claims that I talked about with there's a wreck vehicle. Um we're facilitating

031all of those insurance claims and funding through um that particular fund. Um this year alone we've already spent half a million dollars on insurance claims. Some of that money comes back um when we don't have obviously the deductibles coming back into that fund. Um the money is intended to make sure that we can keep up with those claims. Um a big one here is during new building construction years, we have to make sure that we have adequate funding to provide those opening consumables to a new building. Um the state construction department does provide resources for things like what we call FF, which is fixtures, furniture, and equipment, but there are some things that they don't provide funding for. Um, like I said, um, the textbooks that are necessary, the, um, lab supplies, um, when, uh,

032the school district opened South High School, there was a significant cost associated with opening a high school. All those new athletic uniforms, all those things that you can't just transfer from another school, um, had to come through those reserves. Um, but also a big piece of this is also our Cheyenne Community Recreation District. And I know I've talked about this before too, but um we leverage the district's buying power and our capacity of our staff um to make our purchases and let the contracts for the rec district and then the rec district pays the school district back. Um so that's another area that um we expense the funds and then another entity reimbures the school district and I talked a little bit about kind of what we had transferred over the years. So, um, manager,

033here's kind of a breakdown of the different ear marking that happens within our special reserve fund or aka special building fund. Now, I'll walk us through these here and talk a little bit about um how we've um built these funds over the years and how they um meet very specific needs. So, here um just as a quick note, these are funds um I thought I'd stick with the last fiscal year as a starting point. I'll show you where a few of those balances has changed as we've anticipated and posted expenditures to them. But the first one here is we have a music reserve fund. Um this one actually has a cap um through board um approval that can it cannot exceed $300,000. Um it's used to purchase band uniforms, choir uniforms, um instrument purchases. Um,

034but I highlighted a couple here just as it relates to a board motion that you'll have for consideration later tonight is um when that motion was originally put forward to the board in 2008 um it was missing one important work which is the repair of uniforms and equipment. Um we have significant costs um that our music department um incurs to uh refurbish um band instruments and strings um and even um alter um band uniforms. And um although the statute clearly allows for it, um I wanted to make sure that um we had that same authorization that we weren't inadvertently restricting um the use of those funds. So you'll see actually a motion to allow us to use that fund for repair. Um the second one you'll see here is an equipment reserve. Um this is

035primarily used right now for bus purchases. Um you guys have heard me talk about um how we had that um kind of I don't know large bubble of bus purchases that were a result of some changes with the state changing that um replacement schedule um in a way that it kind of pushed all those buses kind of into a big moving. Um, so in anticipation of that, um, working with our transportation department, we we laid out kind of the long-term replacement schedule and where we would need some of those funds. And so we've met a lot of those purchase needs, not all, um, through setting aside money to make those bus purchases um, over the last um, couple years. Um, you'll also see um, the equipment reserve used for those other things that I mentioned,

036the science lab, the athletic uniforms, new school openings. Um, and renovations is a huge one. um when we have a project like the McCormick uh remodel project, we don't have that same level of um FFN funding. Um so when there are equipment needs, we have to rely um on these equipment reserves to be able to to provide those desks and chairs and all those different things. Um the next one you'll see here is um our career and technical education reserve. Um this one also has a cap of 125,000. Um this one is uh used primarily for construction trade vehicles. Uh trucks are very expensive. Um and with our programs in the schools um this allows us to um save those funds for kind of a cycle replacement between the high schools. I would note you'll

037see here um when we come to the final bud budget in July um you'll likely see a recommendation from me to suspend transfers into that fund for at least the the upcoming year. And that's a direct result of that legislation that came through that restricts career and technical education funding. Um, by moving money into these reserves to to do the same thing that we would with the career and technical education funds, we'd be penalized. It would show that we didn't spend the money on career and technical education. Although we would, we just have to save for it. Um and so with um in light of that, not knowing um where we are with state regulations on how we can use those um we'll withhold um those transfers until we can figure out what that fund

038going forward. Um the next one, the technology reserve, that's a big one. Um this is one I would note that um we had planned and budgeted for that first refresh with Mr. McKenna and his team. Um, so this doesn't just cover that replacement cycle. Um, which we did braid some of our um, ESSER funds to be able to to to meet that replacement cycle. Um, I think this past year we um, out of this fund alone uh, we spent about $5 million of those resources and we're starting to build those funds back up for the next replacement cycle. Um, but we also use this to to fund our device insurance program. Um, as you were aware, when when we went to the onetoone devices, um, we wanted, um, an economical way for students to have

039some type of, um, insurance protection over those devices. So, um, at the at a very minimal price, um, it allows, uh, exactly what it is, um, kind of depicted here is a a self- insurance program for the district. And so when um those funding amounts come in, I think every student's paying that participates that opts into the program paying $25 if they break or lose it, there's some coverage. Um we're also when we have a screen that's broken or we have to fix a device, we're using those resources through that kind of self insurance fund to cover those costs. um things like classroom technology, um these boards, these new lines, those type of things. Um and certainly some instructional and support staff devices to help support those onetoone uh devices. Moving over to the next

040one, the insurance contingency fund. I talked a little bit about this, so I won't uh be super redundant. Um but again, um we're seeing quite quite a bit of pressure on that one. Um, speaking with our insurance brokers for the upcoming year, uh, we anticipate that our deductibles will increase for hail and wind events, uh, just like our own homes, right? Um, what used to be you'd have a set dollar amount for your deductible, we're looking at a percentage of, um, that building replacement value, which is huge. So, um, it's going to increase the demands. You can imagine if we have another um hail and wind event like we did a number of years ago where we had three schools that needed new roofs um we'd be looking at um potentially multi-million dollars in deductibles

041um just to be able to do that. So um this is one area we have to make sure we have those resources available to cover those those emergency situations. Um so let me kind of group these last two into a conversation. You'll notice that I have that one grayed out. It says future land purchases. Um, and you can see this, by the way. Um, our financial statements have these commitments um, listed out. Um, so you can see each year um, where these funds end at the the the end of the year. Um, but this one we kind of treat as an interest corpus. And so I told you about um, the funds from the sale of Churchill and Corlet. Um, those funds go into this account. Um, and we're intended to provide interest earnings into

042um, our special building or district enhancements fund. Um, for the most part, we kind of treat it as an inviot account. Um, the exception being um when the district um purchased um land in the Eastern Hyatt for a future school building, um while we were waiting for the state construction department to reimburse it, um we were able to utilize these funds and then the state reimbured us. But, um that was really intended to be kind of a non-spendable account and that's why I've got it kind of grayed out here. That's that money that originated um outside of our G. Um and so lastly um our district enhancements and so um this can mean um a lot of things. Um this covers um costs that um through policy interpretation um these these areas of school buildings

043are not covered through the state construction department. Um so um things like um uh the CCRD projects are are processed through this account, but the ACT farm project which we'll be celebrating here shortly is a great example. Um there is no state standard that provides funding for um an ad farm whether we're um doing what we did as far as building the additional um barn and and classroom space out there um which leads us to having to utilize these reserves. So that was one of the long-term funding goals that was designed um in with our district enhancement spot. Um other facilities not covered by the school facilities division um outdoor facilities um additional um green space and um auxil auxiliary fields at the school. Um I think you heard Mr. Nap talk about um making

044sure that our gymnasiums for the elementary schools are suitable for sanctioned events means that we have to put two more bricks on the gymnasiums. That's all cost that's not covered by the state. Um those come from these district enhancements is a a big piece of that conversation, right? Um a number of years ago when we worked with the board to address the needs of East High, um it took kind of to get those funds um available to tackle that project. And as we look forward to um what are the next major non-funded um facility related costs that we have uh we know that the central pool is going to be next on that list as far as um how how do we address that um and Mr. Nap and his team have have have reviewed

045it done engineering studies on it and there are going to be some significant costs associated with that going forward. Um so as we start looking at planning out um uh we'll likely look at um doing feasibility studies and kind of putting that flag pole out there um so that we can start planning what the resources are going to be needed to meet that um eventual um repair placement whatever the case may be associated with that school in particular. So that's the next major obstacle we have that'll come out of the district enhancements ear marketing portion of plan. Um so with that in mind, I I just want to bring it back to Trusty Ashley, your point on um uh this past session. So um we did see a bill that would have um essentially just

046said everything that's in that fund cannot be touched. um we wouldn't have been able to um utilize those resources not only for those um non-state funded areas that we need to address, but um the insurance contingency fund, the onetoone devices, all that would have been an all stop situation for us. And so um you can imagine that the level of concern that that we had and other school districts as well. Um so we did provide a lot of testimony around the importance of these funds. I expect that to continue. Um I imagine it'll be a conversation with the recalibrations committee as we move forward. But um this has a very very important um aspect for our district. It's a very important fiscal tool for us. Um and and that's why these funds are set up

047as city. So um that I think I probably talked quite a bit. So I'm happy to address questions um get into any details that committee committee members might have. Jeff, I have a question about that point. Um, would it be safer to start transitioning these funds over into the general fund category? I mean, is it possible to keep these individual funds but move them out of a special reserve fund or does it does the legislator the same? Yeah. Um, Trusty Claus, there's two um kind of uh pitfalls there would be back to that reserve limitation. Um, everything that moved back into the general fund would be counted at that 15%. So, if we were over that 15%, all that money would get seized back by the state. On that point, does this all add up

048to do you know what it adds up to like percentage? Um, yeah. Uh, roughly I what about $28 million give or take? um do the math on the fly here. Uh 21 somewhere in there. Um so uh without a doubt we'd be over the 15. We're at 14.4 right now. We have we can go up to 30%. Um yeah. Yes, I know. But yeah. Um and that's the second pitfall is um the state also has through rule and regulation um uh a clause that says if you move funds to avoid a cash reserve overage that they can treat that as if you were already over the cash reserve and seize it anyway. And I think transfers back and forth out of those funds would probably lead to that we move in funds for the sake

049of avoiding reserve. So we should probably capture those funds. What is their thought process behind trying to get rid of this special reserve? Um it's hard for me to put myself in the minds of the policy makers. I think there was um maybe a little bit of confusion over um how these resources were utilized. Um as you can see um not everything goes towards district enhancements and it has its own uh negative connotation, right? It's you're enhancing. Well um it's it's kind of a misnomer because all we're doing is addressing things that aren't within the standards. Um and so I think that was probably the danger reaction to um you know that that terminology around district enhancements. And so um I think there's you know some policy decisions over how much money can be transferred.

050And as you can see um our district has been pretty conservative on the the level of funds that we move into those accounts. Um I would tell you that um even on years if we had um fully funded technology within our general fund or block grant um you're still going to have those peaks and valleys of where you expend those funds. We're not buying 14,000 iPads every year. We're buying them every five years. Um and so there's always going to be that kind of up and down cycle with those expenditures. And so, um, my fear is that if these were, um, only allowed to be purchased through our general funds, um, we would have to sacrifice of the program, um, some type of educational budget cut in the years that we had to make those.

051So, um, we'd have to make room for that six, seven, eight million. That means we have to cut six, seven, eight million somewhere else in that general fund that year in order to make that work. And that's that's certainly not a good approach. I think that is the motivation though, isn't it? That that you find finds to find the money. Um I think a six7 8 million cut would be pretty pretty dramatic as you would expect. Um uh even when you look at um things like the farm project, I mean that's um approaching a $2 million project um in order for us to do that within our general fund um means something has to give. Um and so this gives us a a fiscally prudent way to save for those costs um and not have

052that jeopardize um a program within our budget. This is sort of semi-related but kind of um what is our loss rate on the iPads? I think out of all the devices in the four years we had them in the first batch I want to say it was about 700 for four years and I was total los don't know who they are so and then yeah did adjust a little bit but it was around Yeah. That was it for the work session. Thank you. All right. Then we will break and break in 20 minutes. Please. It's 6 pm and I'd like to call this meeting of the Laram County School District number one board of trustees to order. Um, we will start tonight with our pledge of allegiance. And this is being led for us by

053second grade students from Hobbs Elementary School. Hello, I'm Ronda Labos, principal of Hobbes Elementary. And I'm Heather Gillum, second grade teacher. This is my class doing the pledge of allegiance. I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Dr. Dr. Newton, do we have any adjustments to this evening's agenda? Madam Chair, there are no new adjustments to this evening's agenda. Madam Chair, I move to adopt the agenda. I second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. All in favor say I. I oppose. Okay, that has been adopted. We're going to start tonight with recognition of staff and students for outstanding achievements. And as you can see by

054our very crowded room, we've got a ton of students. um and folks we're going to be um celebrating tonight. So, we are going to start first um with two student of the week recognitions. Um the first is for the week of April 28th and this I gosh I hope I say this name right and if I if I if I don't I'm so sorry. Um Echo Colin Colin Burks and um Ekko's being joined by principal Troy Lake and favorite teacher Sarah Wilson. Good evening. Greetings. Thank you. Um, it's my pleasure to introduce Ekko. Uh, she has been an absolute amazing student for two years. She's just now a junior, but she's already taken several college classes. Uh, she has amazing attendance and she is is one of our student leaders. You can always count on

055her when there's uh and it's hard to believe that there's drama in a high school, but when there is, we can count on Ekko to help us kind of kind of figure it out. So, with that, Ekko's going to come up and and she promised only speak for about 11 minutes because she's really confident and not nervous at all. Um, my favorite part of Triumph is that everyone treats each other with respect and how the teachers treat us like adults instead of little kids. Um, my future plans are to move to Colorado and start my own business. And um Sarah is my favorite teacher because we have really good conversations and she teaches really good. Well, I have been so lucky to have Ekko as a student and I'm a little bummed she's graduating ahead

056of her scheduled age, but we'll have to let her go, I guess. Um, but I've had a lot of incredible artists over the years and some very intelligent students, but I think it's rare to have two of those qualities in one person at this level of excellence. Um, Ekko is amazing. Um, recently she embroidered well she sewed a human heart like anatomically correct. She borrowed the model from the science teacher and it was gorgeous like all the little stitching that she did and that is just the kind of work that she does. So, I know she's going to be successful in all the things she does, and we'll sure miss her when she graduates next year early. Hope brought quite a support cast, but in the back is her mom, Alicia, and her dad, Barry.

057And some of you may recognize our student of the week. Last time, Delo is her significant friend. And for the week of May 5th, we are excited tonight to celebrate Cameron Tafoya, who is a seventh grader at McCormack Junior High School. And Cameron will be joined by principal Tina Trout and favorite teacher Philip Bennett. Um, it's my pleasure to introduce uh Cameron Toya who was chosen at McCormack Junior High for the student of the week for this week. Uh, Cameron is an outstanding student. She has maintained a 4.0 throughout her seventh grade year. She was selected not only for that, but because she's very involved. Coach Bennett will be speaking to her athletic involvement, but she's also a member of our unified sports program, which uh I think is a pretty special quality in humans.

058So, we appreciate that for Cameron as well. Um, so Cameron's going to speak here just a minute, but we'd like to first extend our gratitude and appreciation for her parents, Jessica and Paul Deoya. If you would please stand and be recognized. All right, you ready? Um, I co I chose Coach Bennett as my favorite teacher/coach because he's always very positive and always believed in me and my team. He pushed me to be a better person and a better athlete. Coach Bennett would find new ways to connect with me and the team and the players individually. Thanks to him, our basketball team improved throughout the season by taking second in conference. I appreciate everything he has done for us and not only taught me as an athlete, but as a person. All right. Well, this is

059kind of new for me um because I've had the pleasure of being the a selected teacher a few times. Uh but in all those instances, um I h I coached them when they were in like seventh grade and then I had them in class in eighth grade. Um so I'm incredibly honored by this uh because I don't have her in class at all. Um what I saw on the court uh is an incredibly hardworking, focused, driven, very competitive young lady. Um who did everything she possibly could to make the team better to just be a great person, great teammate. Um I still see her in the halls and she gives me a weird little peace sign every single day. Um she's just a good kid. And so kind of in preparation for this, I contacted

060all our teachers and I was just like, "Hey, I don't have her in class. can you guys tell me about it? And everything that I saw in sports is the same way she was in class. They were all they raved about her. She's just very deserving of this honor. Okay, readjust for short people. My name is Mary Qu and I'm community relations director. Thank you board and trustees uh or trustees and and uh chairman CL uh Smith for um allowing us to to say a few words. I'd like to bring up Christina CR and she is the marketing manager over at Western Vista and she has a few words to say. All right, good evening everyone. Um as Mary said, I'm Christina Cray. I'm the marketing manager for Western Vista Credit Union and it is

061my pleasure to be here to represent Western Vista. We are honored to recognize Ekko and Cameron, two exceptional students who represent the very best of what leadership, dedication, and excellence looks like. Your hard work, perseverance, and commitment have not gone unnoticed. To celebrate everything you've accomplished, we are th thrilled to present you with a certificate of achievement and a gift card. You've earned it and we can't wait to see where your journey takes you next. We also want to recognize the teachers you've selected. Great mentors make a lasting impact and we're so pleased to present them with a certificate of appreciation and a gift card as a small way to say thank you for the difference you've made in their lives. Congratulations and best wishes for your continued success in all your future endeavors. Congratulations.

062Congratulations. Our next student recognition tonight is of the Central High School STEM team who competed at the Wyoming State Science Olympiad. So, if the team could come up along with principal Karen Delbridge and coach Cara Benner. Good evening, Madame Chair, Superintendent Newton, and trustees. My name is Dr. Dr. Karen Delbridge and this evening I have the privilege of standing in for the science coordinator Julie Caukins to introduce a very special group of students Cheyenne Central STEM club the 2024 25 second place finishers in the state of Wyoming Science Olympiad. So Science Olympiad is a rigorous team-based academic competition designed to spark interest in science and deepen student understanding across multiple disciplines. Each tournament consists of approximately 18 diverse events ranging from engineering challenges to lab-based problem solving. Students compete individually and in teams drawing on

063classroom learning as well as months of focus preparation. While the events are certainly competitive, they are also a lot of fun, blending facts, concepts, process skills, and technical know-how. Collaboration is key, and the students here tonight have demonstrated tremendous dedication. in teamwork and creativity throughout the season. At this point, I'd like to hand the microphone to coach Cara Bernard to share more about the team's experience, and she may also invite a few students to speak about their events and accomplishments. Hi, my name is Cara Manard and this is just part of the team because we have several students who are studying for AP exams tomorrow. Um but they um these this group of students and their comrades do more than just science olympiad. So they um they they pull a lot together here. So this

064is very exciting. This is our third year attending the state science olympiad and our second year placing second. Um they do a bunch of individual competitions. Well, they're not really individual. They're like one and two per they're two and three people teams, right? Um and so most of them got individual medals in addition to the whole overall team pulling together for the second place um the second place finish. So I will introduce Does anybody want to expand on that? No, you feel good. I don't I I won't lie. I don't actually remember your your all of your individual competitions. Some of them did several. So um all right. Well then let's go ahead and introduce I have Connor Crook. And why and why it's a ball Andrew Lance? I'm gonna give Andrew his brother Henry's

065as well. Henry is studying for an AP exam. I have Logan Markham, Henry Magcguire, and Isaiah Urbanette. Isaiah as well. And then I have two other students who couldn't make it today, Porter Carson and Scarlett Samson. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Bernard. And thank you for our students for representing Cheyenne Central in such an excellent way. And I love to hear that they're studying for their AP exams. That makes my heart warm. Um, are there any parents or guardians of the Central STEM Club tonight? And if there are, would you please stand and be recognized? Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Almost every time every share, you should share. Next, I'd like to invite the East High School 4A State Future Farmers of America or FFA Champions into the room. They

066will be joined and recognized by their advisor, Joe Allen. All right. Thank you. Uh, I'm Joe Allen. and I'm the A teacher and FFA adviser at East High School. And up here with me, I've got several of our FFA members who uh back in the beginning of April, um I guess second week of April, the state FFA um state associ or state association held their um state convention and uh they say it's the largest state convention in the state of Wyoming. Um I think over 2,300 kids came to Cheyenne to participate and it was held out here at Archer. um and LC and kind of all over town. And uh this year uh I think this is maybe my 15th year that I've been doing this and this year was like any or was unlike

067any that I've ever been able to experience. It's kind of as an adviser, I had to pinch myself just to realize um how great these kids that are standing up here did this year. Um we ended up with a total of nine state championships as far as teams and some individuals that did some things. So, um, just want to recognize them today, um, on some of their accomplishments. So, I'll start with our horse judging team since these they're right over here. So, if they want to step up. Um, so Abby, Catalina, Callie, and Charlotte um are on our horse judging team, and they're um a a great example of a group of girls who have worked for um several years to be working at trying to accomplish their goal of winning the state contest and

068um being able to compete at nationals. Uh they've been doing this in 4 and in FFA. And they've been super successful in 4 leading up to this. And this year they not only won the state FFA contest, but they swept it, meaning they um won every like I guess you could call them caption awards or different areas um that you could. So they ended up being the high team in all the places. They ended up being the high team in reasons, the high team in perform performance, the high team in halter. Um so we we had just an incredible it was kind of like other teams in the state. They do all of those awards and then they announce the overall and it was by the time they got to the overall everybody knew who

069had won it because we had won everything else that you could win on it. So, u these girls just blew the competition out of the water. So, I'd like to congratulate them. Okay, next up we'll have the A issues team. So, this is a big team. seven individuals in this contest is where uh these kids work on preparing. They have to research a topic that's um faces the agriculture industry in um today that that affects producers and just the industry. And so um they get to work with uh some attorneys here in town that help coach that team and um they it's incredible the places and the way that they get to network. So leading up to the state contest, they presented to the governor of Wyoming. They presented to Supreme Court justices. They presented

070to the um Wyoming uh House a committee. Um just to name a few, the county commissioners. They they got to go and uh get in front of all of these um people to be able to share their big topic. they uh their topic this year was focusing on um how the endangered species act and the federal insecticide fungicide and rodenocide act um kind of co-mingle and how they interact with each other and so and how that affects producers and also just even us as consumers and so um a lot of legal ease in there a lot of information that um I would say that these kids probably are in maybe the top 5% in the nation now on those topics they probably understand them better than most of our lawmakers ers do. So, um, huge

071congratulations to these guys. They, um, have been able to, um, secure their spot to be able to go out to nationals and compete at the national contest, um, where I'm sure they're going to do awesome. So, um, on that team, Brendan Naggie, Reagan Allen, Brody Medina, uh, Hannah Schik, Alex Michai, Danielle Metala, and Cooper Miller. Congratulations. We'll have uh Colton and Brendan step up. A couple of the other two weren't able to make it, but the environment natural resources team um they won the state contest and this is another example of some students who um know the value of hard work and know like how to stick to something. So these guys are seniors now. Um their other two members are also seniors and the four of them started competing in this contest when they

072were freshman and they the first year I think they maybe were 23rd in the state and then the second year they stuck with it and sophomore year I think they were maybe top 10 think. Yeah. And then last year they were reserve champions. So as juniors they were second. They were just that close. Um, we looked at the scores and I think we were like 10 points away from winning the state contest last year. And so they stuck to it and they just said, "You know what? We're going to leave everything on the table and as seniors, we're gonna we're going to do it." And so and they did. They accomplished it. And as a matter of fact, they won the state contest by like 26 points this year. So, um, so really proud of

073these guys. Um, also want to have, uh, Brody step forward. Brody. Um, he is outstanding. He's the one that should be up here because he's great at speaking. So, uh, extempiraneous speaking is a contest where they're given three topics. They get to choose from those topics on which one they want to go with. So, they they get three, they pick which one, then they get 30 minutes to prepare a four to six minute speech. And so, Brody participated in that. He went through all of the went to the district contest, went to the regional contest, won all those, went to the state contest where the top 10 in the state compete and then he won that one. So he um was successful at state and and won that. He's not going to compete at nationals

074because at nationals you can only compete in one thing and he wants to compete in the a issues contest. But congratulations to Brody for being the state champion in And then uh Reagan and Brody, you guys want to step up? Um these two also um for their second year. Last year they won the state contest and were third in the nation in their aggra science fair contest um in their project that was focusing on um depression in agriculture adolescence. And um they decided to do an extension project this year and continue on and survey people all over the country. And um they hands down won that contest again um this year for uh the new project that they did um won the state contest. So they'll be able to go to nationals for that. And

075then um Calie, step up. Callie um she we have to keep a lot of records in a lot of what we do. Um the students do supervised agriculture experiences. Um, this year Callie has a really cool project where she raises munchkin cat kittens, cats, um, and she also does um, she works with black dog animal rescue and she um, fosters pregnant dogs, welps their puppies, and then helps raise the puppies and help them find homes. And so she has kept awesome records on all of those projects, was able to put together a big what's called a proficiency application. Um so her application was competing in the area of small animal care and she won that at the state level and gets to go represent um Wyoming at the national level in that category. So congratulations

076to her on that. And then Brody Brody also did a proficiency application and his was in Agura science research and integrated systems and he won that state contest. um again keeping records on all of his projects that he's done. Um puts together an application. These applications ends up end up being somewhere around 30 pages long. And um so he uh was able to compete in that area and win. So he'll be able to take that project out to nationals as well. And then Reagan um Reagan also had a proficiency in goat production. So, she raises um meat goats at home, has um several breeding doese's and keeps records on all of that and again fills out that application and was able to win the state proficiency in uh goat production. So, she'll be able to

077take that project to nationals as well. And last but not least, um Colton and Brendan, while doing all of these other contests and being successful in those areas, they decided to throw their hat in the ring and run for um state office. So, um FFA members their senior year can run to become a state officer. There's nine positions elected in the entire state. And um these two young men were able to secure um Colton is the um state vice president for this coming year and Brendan will be the third state vice president. So um really proud of them for serving the state association this next year. I'd also like to just thank all of the parents and all of the support. Um this none of this would have been possible without tons of support from

078the the parents and a lot of them are in the back. um standing up already, but if there's anybody else um if we could have parents stand wave if you're back there so everybody can see that you're and of course our administration is incredible at um supporting us and and helping us get to contests and um figure out all of that. and we have a lot of other people in behind the scenes that help with these teams, that help coach the teams and work with the teams. So, um, huge thank you to anybody that's helped with these kids cuz, um, again, this was a year like we've never had. Sometimes we'll qualify one or maybe two teams and again, we ended up with nine state championships this year. So, um, it's a testament for how

079awesome our kids are. Oh, they're all put together. Okay, I think that's it. [Music] You're good. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next. We'll give those families a second to clear out and then we have a huge huge group of kids coming in for our next recognition. Um the next recognition tonight is of students who have earned the Wyoming seal of biiteracy. Um so as those students are coming in, they'll be um I believe joined by uh district world language language coordinator Reagan Kaufman and world language TOSA and CHS teacher Sarah Evans. Good evening. I hope you're doing well. Um Dr. Newton, Chairperson Smith, and board of trustee members. My name is Reagan Kaufman. I'm the World Language Coordinator, and I wanted to thank you for coming out tonight as

080we celebrate our students who have earned the seal of biiteracy. This celebration is made possible through the efforts of our world language educators, our English as a second language teachers, and our dual language immersion teachers. Without this team, we could not get our students to this level of achievement in language proficiency. I'd now like to introduce Sarah Evans, our world language teacher on special assignment and coordinator for the seal of literacy for Larmy County School District number one, so she can share more with you about the seal of biiteracy and tonight's recipients. Thank you. Good evening. Um, the seal of literacy is an award that is given by a school, a district, or a state in recognition of students who have attained proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation. We have several

081here tonight who are more than two, by the way. Um, it's a nationwide movement adopted at this point by all 50 states. Governor Gordon signed our Wyoming state seal of biiteracy into law in May uh in March, excuse me, of 2022. So, it's quite new. Um, LCSD1 has offered a district level seal since 2018. We're thrilled to now be offering these students a state level recognition. Um, to qualify for this award, students must demonstrate their proficiency in both English and an additional world language by means of a cut score on one of several possible standardized tests of language proficiency. They must also meet Wyoming State graduation requirements. Their achievement is recognized on their school transcripts and by a physical seal added to their diplomas. This honor carries weight in many contexts nationwide and is rewarded

082with college credit by many universities. Um tonight we'll recognize them with certificates from the district and from the Wyoming Department of Education. Um we'll recognize two levels of award tonight. The seal of biiteracy and the seal of biiteracy with advanced distinction which requires testing one additional level higher in all language skills. Um to give you an idea of what an accomplishment this is, um the students receiving the advanced distinction have tested only one level of language proficiency lower than what's required to be certified as a teacher of world language in the state of Wyoming. Um, so there's um a lot to be proud of there. Um, they've all done phenomenal work. We're so immensely proud of them. Um, we're going to announce our awardees by school and by language. Um, and one or more teachers

083from each school will announce the awards um, from that group. As we announce names, please hold your applause till we have each school group up front. Um, students, as you come up, please stand in a line up in the front row with your other recipients from your school. We'll stay a moment if uh, folks want to snap a picture and we'll make space for the next school group to come in. Um, and parents of single recipients, once we recognize everybody, um, we will invite you to join us and to go down the hallway out to the left there for our reception in the art space. We'll have more chances for photos down there if you're looking for that. Right. Um, so to start with, I have the pleasure of presenting the recipients from uh, Central

084High School in French. Um, the students who are receiving the Wyoming Seal of Biiteracy in French are Bridget Dillow, Hannah Pollock, Thank you. Ryan McNees, go ahead and step forward when your name gets called since we're not walking in from outside. Thank you. Kenzie Larson, great. And our students who are receiving the seal of bi literacy with advanced distinction in French um are Andrew Lance, Sophie McCall, Brooke Miller, and Jacob Van. Now I'll hand it off to Mr. Vega for Spanish. All right. Well, thank you guys for coming. Um, as you guys know, these kids have done a great job and I have the pleasure of introducing the Spanish kids. Um, so for just the Wyoming Seal, we have Genevieve Shear, Jacqueline Inayalo, Quincy Dreamer, and for our advanced seal is Pablo Huarez. Brooke Miller

085and Ana Patel. Hello. I'm introducing the East High French students. Um, my name is Deborah Sanders and the first student is Carson Costa. He earned the Wyoming Seal of Bioliteracy. Carson, congratulations. Uh Braden Leiday is earning the Wyoming Seal of Biiteracy. Congratulations. And Simon Wolf is earning the Wyoming Seal of Biiteracy and French with advanced distinction. Congratulations, Wes. Um the following student received um the syllabi literacy with advanced distinction in Tagalik and that would be Theodore Armad who could not be here tonight. Um the following student received the syllabi literacy with advanced uh distinction in Russian and that would be Vladimir Klipov who also could not be here this evening. Um, the following students receive the syllabi literacy in Spanish. Um, we'll start with Maline Celway, Thomas Oddley, Melanie Moreno, Amara Peterson, Kylie [Music] Peterson,

086Riley Stevenson, Kora King, Brooklyn Terrell. Um, sorry. Um, Lucy Frost, Warren Barton Smith, Thomas Dixon, David Habercorn, Austin Hay, uh, Abigail Johnson, Liliana Martins, Christina Welch, um Autumn White, Ashton Igelston, Fatima, Darini Luarte, Santiago Ramirez, Munoz, and uh Dianra Moreno. All right, I am going to be reading the names of the students from South High School. All right, first we have Diego Tia Tia Tiara Fria. He's receiving the Wyoming sale of biiteracy. Then we have Braden Selenus, the Wyoming seal of biiteracy. Litzy Vasquez, the Wyoming sale of biiteracy. Ruben Bosio, the Wyoming sale of biiteracy with advanced distinction. Yahir Gracia, Wyoming syllabi literacy with advanced distinction. Cynthia Sto Dominguez, Wyoming syllabi literacy with advanced distinction. Yatsel Fuentes, Wyoming syllabi literacy with advanced distinction. Um, Yennefer Velasquez, Wyoming literacy with advanced distinction. Valyriia Aguilera, Wyoming of

087Literacy with Advanced Distinction. and Ariana Zapata, Wyoming Seal of Biiteracy with Advanced Distinction. Thank you so much. And while I'm so grateful for Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, never mind. I forgot a group. Sorry. So, we have a a very special group of students that we're going to present um to to uh finish things off tonight. And my last two ladies are hanging out in the hallway if they want to come in. Yeah. Thanks. Um, so, uh, the other group of students that we want to recognize are our exchange students who are here with us in Laramu one this year. Um, it looks a little different for us to award them because they're not meeting Wyoming state graduation requirements, but they're receiving a Laramie County seal of biiteracy and they're actually also receiving a global seal

088of biiteracy. Um, and many of them are getting it in more than one language. So, we're very, very proud of their work this year and especially just the tremendous growth that they've had in English getting to be here in our American school system. So, um being uh good exchange students, most of them are actually out traveling right now because it's May and they should be. Um but, uh we have two um faithful uh students here to represent them tonight where I'm very proud of. Um and so I'm going to recognize um Loralin de Mulan um with the uh Lari Seal of Lucy in English and in French and she's right here. Um and also Wakana um with the Larami one seal in Japanese and English. Um, Victoriao Montenevo um with the advanced seal in English

089and Spanish and the Lari1 seal in English and Italian. Um, Tova Carlson with the Lari1 advanced seal in Spanish and in English, neither neither of which are her native language and also a global seal in English and Swedish. Um, and Levvenia Zenoni who is here with us tonight with the Laram one seal in Spanish and English and also with a global seal in English and Italian. and Leon Petta with the Laram one advance seal in French and in English. So, congratulations to all of those exchange students. It's just so much to be excited about. Um, and so while our educators and our school system here is great and we love the support of our admin team, um, what we really love the support of are our families, our parents, our guardians and friends. So if

090you have a student, a child, a friend who is standing before you with a seal of bioliteracy or an advanced seal, would you please stand so we can thank you towards me? Congratulations. Congratulations. That's all you said. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. That was awesome. She's definitely going to be running the school board. Christmas. [Music] Our last recognition tonight is is one we're all really excited for. This is a recognition of the educational support person of the year. Um in order to um do this recognition, I would like to ask our board representative on that um committee, Brooke Humphrey, Trusty Humphrey, to come down and then our community relations director, Mary Quas, to also join her at the microphone and we'll let them take it away. Goodness.

091Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I kind of wish we did this part in the beginning so all the students could see how awesome our educators are. Um, so the educational support person of the year program recognizes district employees that are non-eing or non-supervisory positions for displaying professionalism and dedication to the success of our students in the district. There are two awards that are given out. One to a student support staff and one to a district support staff. We will first recognize our anonymies. Then we'll do runners up and then we will do our winners. So starting with the nominees this year we had 27 district employees that were nominated which is incredible. So as if your name is called if you'll please join me up front. I don't know that we'll have too many seeing

092how empty the room is but And also if I butcher your name I apologize in advance. So, April Barker, Jackie Baxter, Misty Bentock, Sydney Brennick, Gardinia Castro, Jill Curry, Megan Elkins, Caroline Ens, April Eslick, Stacy Ferguson, Kim Harrison, Frederick Colbert, Kristen Layman, Karen Lowe, Renee Lumé, Nicole Lion, Danielle Lions, Maggie Peele, Brenda Schroeder, Gardener Skillern, Amanda Wilson, and Amanda Wolf. Let's give our anonymies a round of applause. I want to thank you guys for being here and would like to give you a round of applause. She already did. Um Mary has your certificates which we will get to you and um do you want to just do pictures at the end? Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So now we're going to recognize those that were um that we actually had the privilege of interviewing as a

093committee. So again, if your name is called, please join me up front. Uh Christine Fitzgerald, Andrea Mason, and Denise Peterson. Let's give them a round of applause as well. Okay. And then I would like to call up uh principal Tina Trout and our winner for the 2025 educational person of the year for student support, Heidi for So some remarks um from someone who knows Heidi very well is it's impossible to measure the significance of an impact on a student's life. Her nomination form states but when I consider the ways in which Heidi has supported the students at McCormack Junior High I am certain she has not only saved but improved countless lives. Tina, do you have any words? Um, so up here, she wants to hide. So, she was very terrified about having to speak

094in front of a crowd, but I think you won. Everyone left. Um, Heidi is uh amazing. Um, she works tire tirelessly. I can't speak tonight. Um, to ensure that our students have all of the supports that they need. Um, she's a fierce advocate and I cannot think of a time throughout the day that you don't see Heidi literally running. She's a runner, but she does it all day long trying to find snacks or fidgets or whatever kids need to be successful in classrooms. And I know teachers um appreciate all of her efforts because all of the things that she does just makes their job easier. So Heidi, thank you so much for all you do. Um, I want to say thank you. First of all, I think to the Laramie County staff. Um, nothing that

095we do as support staff would be possible if we couldn't support you guys. But more importantly, they all left. Um, all the families and students that we work for make coming to work every day a joy. And we just couldn't do it without them. So, I really just want to thank everyone else. Congratulations to Heidi. Okay. Next, I would like to ask um Principal Troy Lake and Miss Wendy Gaines to come up front, please. Miss Wendy was selected as the 2025 educational support person of the year for district support. Let's give her a round of applause. And this one hits this one hits kind of close to me because she was actually my secretary when I was in high school. So Troy like lots of experience every principal knows, every administrator knows. Bottom line is

096uh the administrative assistant secretary I don't know what they are now without the one that can control everything at every level it's it's a it's a problem and Wendy's a person that does that. Uh furthermore when I'm off the rails she'll just come in and say hey I need to shut the door and tell you something. And so she does that and without uh any fear of repercussions she just builds that relationship. And then the other part that maybe I don't know how it is at all the other schools but at Triumph the additional part that she turns into daily is the kids and and we just promote the idea if they like you they get to talk to you because sometimes they don't like anybody else. and Wendy does a phenomenal job just working

097with kids, with the teachers, and then really um guiding me. So, that's really all I need to say about her. Thanks. Thank you everybody. This is very much an honor and I appreciate the recognition. It is a great feeling and it's it's going to triumph every day, especially with Troy there and being able to work side by side with him. He is bar none. He's he's amazing. He just he leads me in the right directions. He gives me the right directions. Um which he's had to do a couple of times, but um and I'm very upset that he's retiring because I have enjoyed my five years with Troy. He is an amazing principal and Triumph is an amazing school. So, thank you everybody for this honor. I appreciate Okay. And real quick, I some remarks

098from um Wendy's nomination. Without Wendy, we wouldn't be able to meet the needs of the students. She sees into the future and knows what needs to be completed before a teacher or student asks. She is always one step ahead of us. So, thank you, Wendy. Congratulations. Um we're going to take a minute and we're going to hand out their certificates to all of you real quick. Parker, right? Thank you so much. Did you get one of them? Okay. All right. One more round of applause for all of our nominees and winners. Thank you. [Music] Thank you. Congratulations. Thanks for all you guys do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. That's money. Well, that concludes the recognition portion of our agenda this evening. We're going to move uh next into our um

099information and report and we're going to start with our public comment period. Um with this we will first hear public comments concerning agenda topics and then we will move into public comments concerning non-aggenda topics. But I don't think we have anyone signed up under that this evening. Um before we begin, I just want to read a a few few requests for a public comment portion of the meeting. 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

100available on board docs under the public comment portion of the meeting agenda. Alternatively, individuals may also contact Darlene Davis to be added to the electric 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 that this is a time for board members to listen and consider, but not to comment or debate. The board asks that all speakers state your first and last name. Keep your comments to three minutes or less. And please note if you wish to discuss matters pertaining 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

101assistant superintendent of human resources or you may request to meet with the board during executive session. So to start with um public comments concerning agenda topics, let me get to our list. We have um just two folks signed up. Um the first of those is u Mr. Dylan Ford. Hi uh Bill Ford, Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you so much for uh taking our recommendations really seriously um and taking the extra time to make sure that we can do these things legally. I was just going to recap uh what we're recommending. Um, so as far as requirements for staff uh and volunteers, conceal carrying quality requirements for biometric safes just so that we know that it's a high enough quality to uh keep kids out of it. Holsters with trigger guards and class

102to keep weapons secured when you're bumping into stuff. Um, capping ammunition amounts uh and regulating types of allowable weapons. And then as far as the district level recommendations, um insurance coverage for students and staff uh in case of gun- rellated accidents, metal detectors at large events with an SRO to privately check permits. So you have the choice. You can either uh pass this metal detector or you can just uh talk with an SRO off to the side, show them your concealed carry license. You don't have to do that. Um and then more specific and restrictive guidelines on uh when firearms can actually be used. And finally, a policy specific to freedom. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ford. Uh, our next individual signed up for um public comment is Jason McGregor. Hello,

103I'm Jason McGregor. Um, I'm here Cheyenne native as of about six years ago. Um, I was uh in in the army for a number of years uh between Colorado and Wyoming. I was also a deputy sheriff down in Colorado in a small county and I did a lot of work between uh the jail patrol as well as out with ICE and US Marshall Service. Uh, so I'm coming to you as also a person that has spent the last 15 years teaching a three-day defensive carry class that is a combination of the NRA basic pistol course, which is a one-day course, and then my own defensive handgun uh class, which culminated as a result of my experience as a law enforcement officer in Colorado. So that definitely exceeds the expectations that the uh school district would

104impose on people um exercising constitutional rights. And I understand that there's uh probably a significant amount of growing pains that's probably going to come from all of this and already has because you guys have had lots of things to debate and discuss and things like that. So I'll submit a couple of points uh for you guys to consider. Um, one is that, uh, the police have no duty to protect you. Zero. None. The only time that there is an exception to that is when you're in custody. And that would that would imply you're either in handcuffs or you are institutionalized in some way. Whether you're in the jail, the prisons, uh, something like that. It's the only time. And cops can't be everywhere at the same time. It's just it's a physical impossibility. I wish

105that were much different, but it you'd have a police state and you wouldn't want that. So, I'm also here to ardently support uh teachers, administrative staff, particularly administrative staff, yourselves included, board members to become much much much more educated on the topic of concealed carry. And I don't mean to undermine anyone's experience. That's not the point. The point remains that in order to God bless you. In order to um be able to speak intelligently on the topic and be able to make rules and have policies and procedures, you are going to want to know the not only the basics but also uh some of the drawbacks that are going to come with restricting someone's rights, restricting your own rights much much too far beyond that which you would otherwise expect those restrictions to ever be

106put in place. the gun on you is much safer than anywhere else. If it's in a lock box, it's inaccessible and therefore useless. So, there is a time and a place for a lock box when it's impractical um to take it with you and have it on your person. And anyone that is afraid of an inanimate object, that's why we have education. That's why we have training. And that is something I believe very strongly in. and I've had lots of years and a couple thousands of students to speak for it. I'm out. I'm out of time. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Next on the agenda is board communication and reports. We have some things noted under upcoming meetings. On May 7th at 6:30 p.m. is the parent advisory committee here in the

107boardroom. May 14th at 1 p.m. we will have executive trustees with the superintendent when we're looking at the agenda for our next board meeting. Um, do we have I don't think we've done signups for that one. Do we have two board members who would be available? Trusty Ashby and anybody else? No. Okay. Jesse Cook. Okay. Okay. So, we'll have that meeting on the 14th, May 19th. Um we get to celebrate our employees with our uh the 38th annual employee recognition reception that is here um at Story and it's from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Um and then that same evening at 6:00 p.m. we'll have our regular board meeting. And that is um it for upcoming meetings um to and we're going to go into individual board communications and reports. Does anybody have anything? Trusty Burton.

108Hi, good evening, Madam Chair, and um everyone who's still remaining. Um I had so much fun in February interviewing fourth graders at Ark Elementary, and I know um several others on the board did that as well. And last week I had the opportunity to go to Casper with those students to Wyot Town. Um I've not been on a school bus since 1980 something. So the first thing that impressed me um the seatbacks are significantly higher. There were shelves where they could put stuff and the buses have seat belts now. Um yeah, that was just a random thing. But, uh, Wyatt Town, I learned, um, it wasn't just the job interviews that we held a portion of. Um, it's an entire program on financial literacy. And so, that was super fun. Um, so, um, I did

109talk to, uh, the student teacher and she said all the lessons were incorporated into like there's a lot of pre-work that had to go into that. And so they incorporated stuff over six or eight weeks into math and language arts. Um but up at Wildtown they were given a little debit card. Um everybody got their salary based upon their job which was either 20 or $25. Um and they had two and a half hours and they could spend money and they did check registry. Um and everybody worked in a different section and I hung out in um town hall with the students there. Um, I was just very I mean the these kids have learned about checkbooks and debit cards and investing and all kinds of stuff. Um, so there's probably 10-year-olds that know more

110than some of my friends. Anyway, um, I just one I was very impressed with what our students did, but I was like, well, if Casper has it, why can't we? Um anyway, I don't know where that would go, but it was just um I was just very impressed with our young folks. Um the medical folks, they they took their job very seriously. The mayor and the judge both got taken to the medical clinic in a wheelchair. Um and of course there's always there's always one. Um the police officer was a little zealous and I think in two and a half hours he issued over 20 citations. Um there was a $2 fine for that and you could buy a cookie for uh they could buy snacks and things. So um in each of those different

111sections of Wyot Town were sponsored by a local business in Casper and the whole event is um run by the Boys and Girls Club up in Casper. I think all of our fourth graders should do it in the entire state, but you know, I've been on the board for six months, so that's a little zealous for me at this point. But it was it was an amazing experience. Thank you. Anybody else? Trusty Cook. Yeah. Um, thank you. Um, couple things I wanted to say. First, start with um, teacher appreciation week. So, any teachers out there, way to go. We support you. We think you're amazing. So, thank you for all your hard work. And last meeting, I had talked about the amazing music educator at Jessup, and I didn't say her name, and it was

112Tanya Severson. She's amazing. And then real quickly, I was invited to Bane Elementary this u the last couple weeks and these two second grade teachers, Lisa Paintner and Emily Keller, turned their classrooms into small operating rooms. Their uh second grade standard is to teach the digestive system. So these kids, so uh Lisa Paintner's husband came at night and um turned these classrooms in. I think each classroom had like four operating rooms and they washed their hands. They put on scrubs. They went in, they had to their desks were the operating table. They had a patient which was a paper child-sized paper doll and they had to cut out all the organs and put them in the right order and label them and they and I asked them what these organs did and they it was

113impressive. So, um you know in honor of uh all these lovely teachers, thanks for all your hard work and it was amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? All right, then we will move right into reports from superintendent and staff. Madame chair, I have a few items this evening. Um to piggy back off, trustee uh Cook, the um tomorrow is teacher appreciation day. Thanks to the board for for spending a good part of your day driving all over Larry County. Um, glad to see Miss Trusty Ashby didn't get lost out in the rural neck of the woods, but here she is. Um, so that's tomorrow and also school nurse day on Thursday. So much appreciation for all those folks that do so, so much for us. Um, one consent agenda item that may not just

114be terribly obvious, uh, D2.1, uh, the new Boseies uh, contract increase. And I would remind the board that this is the um contracted services for our students with autism who perhaps are u needs go a bit beyond the kind of programming that we're able to offer in our schools. So we contract with the the Boseies to um provide services for a handful of our kids there. Um I did want to share with the board some updates on our enrollment. Um, to be frank, I'm a bit troubled as I looked at the enrollment from this time last year to this year. So, I think we pulled it perhaps on April 29th, so couple of days ago. Um, we are down 378 kids from this time last year. I'm going to throw a bunch of numbers at

115you um just to maybe paint the picture why this could be. So, we are currently uh this moment at 12,682. I think we've always thought of ourselves as 13,000 and something. Um, our high was in September of 2019 where we're at 14,239. Um, so we're down 1,50057 students from our all-time high with within the last 10 years or so. I I don't know that our data was quite as reliable um or at least handy uh before that. Um if you look at in Laramie County, those who were born here in Laramie County, um we are seeing if you compare our current seniors, their birth year versus the birth year of our kids who will be going into kindergarten this next year, we're down 146 kids. So some of the decline that we are seeing um

116is adding up yearbyear with fewer babies being born. I'm not sure if Trusty Hinkle can confirm that. I'm sure she's plenty busy, but but perhaps not as busy. Um, our 9th grade cohort right now has,12 students in it. Our kindergarten has 966 students in it. So, we are seeing smaller cohort sizes. Um, and as we start saying over the K12 spectrum, not just the number we're down, but year by year, what we're down, um, we're seeing now in the thousands of kids that were dropping in enrollment. The, um, homeschool numbers, that might be a question. Are we losing kids from our schools because we're seeing an uptick in homeschool? Um, we are up 109 homeschool students uh, from last year. So, we're currently sitting at 650 distinct kids who are homeschooled, but that's only up

117nine. Even though we're up 109 from last year at this time, it's only up nine in 2021. So, what I might say is our homeschool numbers probably aren't trending. They fluctuate. They go up and down. And as you look at that, those numbers, they kind of do that a little bit. So, um, this year at this moment, we're kind of on the uptick, but, um, not much different than where we were three or four years ago. Um, I would note in the next month or two, it's the last we'll be able to talk about our homeschool numbers. with the new legislation where homeschool parents won't report their status to us, we won't be able to um talk about um enrollments and to what degree of likelihood is that due to homeschool. So that data point

118has been useful for us as we talk about why our enrollments are changing. It's just going to be a missing data point now for us as we try and get a better handle on enrollments and perhaps projections or trends. Um so we um I believe our staff has done a very good job of um right sizing our staff this year or this coming year and um that saw a reduction in number of staff as you're down um this past year we were only down 150. So, the reductions that we had to right size this spring are likely going to be very different than the kind of reductions if we don't see a rebound in those um enrollments in order to rightsize staff. So, um we have to pay very close attention to that. We want

119to make sure that we see that coming as as early as we can to make sure that um that um we recognize that we will not be receiving the funding um for those hundreds and hundreds of kids and therefore we won't have the staff um for those kids that are missing as well. So um people are staying people in the central office are staying very much on top of this but it is an alarming trend. Um it's not unlike what we're seeing around the state as we kind of ran percentage drops with some of my uh superintendent peers. Of course, they're smaller districts by and large, so they don't have the same volume of numbers, but the same percentages percentages. We were seeing a lot of districts that are seeing the same kind of drop.

120I know that um perhaps the closest district to us being Casper NRONA with with our size they absolutely are seeing tremendous uh enrollment drops as well. So we'll keep an eye on it. Um and uh and I will keep this board appraised of how those numbers uh fluctuate going forward. The second update I wanted to give a brief update about uh two items that were a big part of the survey that we did at the uh November December time frame. Uh want to make sure that we uh are staying very focused on the results of those surveys, the survey information. Um we're attending to all pieces um bit by bit. Some of them there are bigger announcements and so I want to share two of those with you. And one item that's not only on

121the survey, but it's certainly on everyone's mind is um our student behavior initiative. Um we have a lot of work that is happening. Um members of our senior leadership team have been meeting weekly for the last two months and will continue from here on out. One of the things between some uh current legislation that has changed and um the need to just revisit some of our new emerging behaviors with uh particularly violent kids. We are going to be revisiting our behavior matrix in major ways going forward. Um and of course the behavior matrix is what provides guidance on appropriate discipline consequences for kids who are um who need them. Um we are looking at um as I said making some of those recommended changes. We will be bring be bringing principles in for input very

122soon on some of the um proposed changes and after we get some input from those who actually are licensed to give out consequences. Keep in mind that administrators actually have a license in order to suspend students. We certainly want their input from the very beginning. Um we will also be uh reconvening our behavior committee to work on proposed changes of that matrix. One thing that will be different again in light of some legislation and and probably just uh better and better practice, we will be submitting that revised behavioral matrix um to the board for approval on a motion. Um and maybe a way to think of it is much like the calendar committee. they bring their work and ultimately it's a board motion for you to adopt um the revised behavior matrix in order that

123um we get a lot of different eyes and opinions on that um and knowing that we have a lot of work yet to do this spring um I would look for probably a mid August um for that to come as a motion on in our August our second meeting in August um at our May academic council meeting principles will be conducting a needs assessment on violent behaviors um so we can better understand that the word violent behavior could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different folks and we want to make sure that we have real clarity so we're solving the problems we have and not the ones that we assume we might have. Um this this needs assessment in conjunction with the work that the CTED committee CTE professional development committee

124too many acronyms there. Um those recommendations are really started pointing at more work in this area especially on proactive classroom management um and deescalation uh training and techniques. So, um, that's going to lead our PD efforts for both administrators and our staff in the fall. And there's nothing better than when the needs assessment data of what folks believe they need matches what we intend to give. And so, um, that will be emerging as we wrap back around into our fall PD. And, um, I should also note that this will not just be a conversation that happens through summer and into fall training. We are um launching much like we have our MA monthly academic council meetings. Uh we will now have administrative monthly behavioral council meetings and um our new executive director of student support

125will also be convening um a behavior task force that will work in refining our work throughout the year which will of course be made up of those who understand the behaviors all too well. paraprofessionals, teachers, support staff, administrators in central office. Um the second piece that uh we're um we're really tackling in in some new ways right now is um the issue of staff morale. If violent behaviors can mean lots of different things to lots of different people, the notion of what is staff morale like in different places could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So there's two uh updates on that one that I'm very pleased to announce. Um I had um an idea approach approached um through HR in particular Miss Brownh Hill who's back there nodding

126her head. Um she has just uh launched a uh what is some of you may have heard this in industry um what are called stay interviews. So, not just exit interviews when people are leaving, but stay interviews to better understand why people are staying. Not only what do they love about their job so we can do more of it, but also um I am very sure we're going to get recommendations of how we can fix what we need to fix as well. And it's just a different group to ask that question to, not just those who are moving on, but those who intend to to stay, as it were. Um, I asked Jen this morning um if she has had any sign up yet and she has already had 70 people sign up for interviews.

127So, her dance card is rather full already and she has already started conducting them I believe as of late last week. You'll also perhaps notice um a message went out today. The yearly parent and community survey that we do has just launched and that is a survey keep in mind that we have kept the questions very standard over the course of several years so we can um use comparative data from years past to where we are presently. So we would certainly urge all of our stakeholders to um contribute their input to that as well. So much more to come on uh updates with the the uh November December survey but those were some timely ones um as new work was emerging I wanted to share and madam chair with that that is the end of

128my reports. Does anyone have questions for Dr. Newton? Thank you. The next section of our agenda is 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 from the consent agenda? Okay. Seeing none. Madam chair, I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. And I second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor of approving all motions listed as consent agenda, please say I. I. Oppose. Okay, those are approved. And now we're moving into new business. Madam Chair, I

129move to approve placing the proposed new rule related to firearms on school district property out for 45day public review and comment. The proposed rule outlines training and curriculum requirements for employees and volunteers of Laramie County School District number one who choose to carry a concealed firearm on school district property. The proposed new rule is in response to the Wyoming repeal gun free zone gunfree zones act enacted by the Wyoming legis legislature during the 2025 legislative legislative session. Uh keep going. Read that part. What are you sure what you were reading? Just this I would read I was reading this middle right here. Yeah, I would read that section. The proposed rule will be available for review from May 6, 2025 through June 20th, 2025 at 4M on the district website www.laram.org in the in the

130boardroom in the board of trustees link to board docs or in the administration building at door number one. address is 2810 House Avenue. Comments may be submitted directly online at the district website, www.lair1.org, or via email to rebecca.gillar1.org. I second. Thanks. So, we have a motion and a second. Um before we start discussion on this, um I'd like to ask Miss Polly to share with us about the the policy we're looking at and and voting on tonight to put up for review. Um thank you, Madam Chair. Um and thank you, Mr. McKenna, who is walking up to put the most recent draft up onto the the screen. It is uploaded now onto board docs, and I apologize for the delay in that. There were some last minute changes that we needed to make today. um

131to address some of the issues we identified at the last board meeting. Um just as a reminder for everyone um when the legislature um passed the repeal of the Wyoming gunfree the Wyoming repeal of gunfree zones act um it essentially allows any individual to can who has a Wyoming concealed carry permit to carry on school district property. Uh the legislature allows uh board of trustees to enact rules that govern their employees and volunteers and specifically um requires that the rules um commit or excuse me include a requirement that any person carrying the firearm um maintains the firearm on his or her person at all times or in a concealed biometric container. um and then establish ongoing training requirements, curricula, and instructor qualifications in consultation with local law enforcement. So, you have a statutory authority to

132create rules related to um where and how you're concealing a weapon as well as um establishing those ongoing training requirements and consultation with law enforcement. So, that's what this rule that you have tonight um attempts to do. So, walking through um the rule, um we started with a preamble that just explains what the purpose of the rule is, that it's in response to that legislation. Um and that it's a result of of the board and and the district wanting to maintain that safe and secure environment for students and staff and visitors. Um and so the training requirements are um an effort to um foster that goal. Um we'll drop into definitions. Um there are certain things that were were defined in statute. Um employee spec listed specific um positions in statute. Um it's an including

133but not limited to. We left it with the l the um list that was in statute, but it is essentially anyone who is employed. We did add in that uh temporary or seasonal staff as well as substitute teachers would be considered employees for purposes of this rule. So, if you're um not necessarily um full-time employee of the district, if you're you would still be an employee um who would be expected to meet the training requirements um in order to conceal carry on school district property when you're in that role. Um, uh, another important, uh, piece of the definitions is when you look at school district property. Um, we brought this up and and CTA also brought it up that, um, we're in a unique position in Larmy one that Freedom Elementary School is actually located

134on property that is leased from the Department of the Air Force. Um, I've worked with um, a JAG who's rep who, um, works for EP Warren. Um and today we we got final word that this policy this rule does not apply to EP Warren. So if you are an employee, a visitor, um a volunteer, anyone who was visiting or going onto the campus of Freedom Elementary School, your expectations for concealed carry are preempted by federal law. and federal law and the Department of um defense has very specific requirements on who can carry on um property owned by the Department of Defense. So, if you're an employee and you do not meet those requirements, you may not carry on Freedom Campus. This would include um you know um bus drivers or custodial staff or um maintenance

135staff workers who are just going um you know for a short time onto Freedom's campus. We need to make sure that everyone is aware that this you cannot carry even complying with the um require training requirements outlined in the rule. You still have to meet the requirements that are laid out by the Department of Defense. So, um, something that everyone and and again this rule for our purposes for every other piece of Larmy Prof Larmy County School District number one property um only applies to employees uh and volunteers. This piece members of the public should also be aware that this is a separate piece of property that is not the state of Wyoming that is not owned by the district. It is owned by the United States Air Force and their rules apply in that

136situation. Um, dropping down, we have a section specifically related to um, freedom that that specifies what that federal preeemption looks like in the situation. Um, statute you'll you'll see requires that the school district work with local law enforcement to um, develop training and curriculum requirements and and requirements for um, those providing the training. So, we have run this through um the Lurmy County Sheriff's Office as well as the Cheyenne Police Department and they believe that this the training that's outlined here is sufficient. Um it includes the minimum number of hours that are required by statute. So, statute sets that floor there. Um that is that is what is included in in this rule. Um and then the curriculum, the requirements that um we expect that training to include are outlined um as well. So you

137have 16 hours of live fire handgun training, eight hours of scenario-based training and then on a recurrent basis there's 12 hours annual uh training that is required. Um as Dr. Newton mentioned there is a drop in in student enrollment numbers. Um there there is not there is a small pot of money um that the legislature appropriated um I think back in 2017 when the previous kind of version of this bill um allowed districts to choose uh to adopt policies related to concealed carry by staff. Um I don't believe that there has been money added to that pot since that time. there's so it's a very small amount of money that is um allocated between all 48 districts on kind of an um application process. Um so because there's not um funding provided uh the costs

138associated with training with the firearms with ammunition are going to be borne by the employee. Um, that is something that this board may choose to alter either at this time or at a later date, but at this point that would be the staff's recommendation is that that cost be borne by the employee or volunteer who chooses to carry on school district property. Um again that instructor trainer qualification piece um lays out the experience and kind of knowledge basis that um would be necessary for someone to actually provide the training to employees or staff or excuse me volunteers. Um statute also allows school boards to wave training requirements for employees of isolated rural schools. So for purposes of this, the three rural schools that we typically think of, Willson, uh, Gilchrist, and Clawson would be rural

139for the purposes of applying for a waiver. We put in some criteria that the board would consider if someone did request that that requirement um, any of the training requirements be waved. Um it doesn't mean that you as a board would have to grant a waiver in any situation. Um but you could certainly decide to and it just tries to provide some objective criteria for why you might decide to to grant a waiver in those situations. Um, moving down, we look at uh the use of firearms and when that would be um, you know, an acceptable use of firearms when um, there is a reasonable perception that the life of the individual or or the lives of others are in um, imminent risk of death or serious bodily injury. Um, if you go back up

140to the definition section, which I won't scroll up to, we provided definitions for both the imminent risk as well as um, serious bodily injury to try to clarify what that means. It it needs to be reasonable. Needs to be an active kind of situation, not well, this person might do something. Um, we also outline what happens if a firearm is discharged on school district property, whether it's an accidental discharge or an intentional discharge, kind of what those expectations look like. Um, again, because the legislature delegated authority to school boards to um create these rules um related to the training requirements and and the um wearing on your person or in a biometric lock box. Um, we do expect compliance and outline that if you don't comply, you may be subject to disciplinary action. Um, interestingly,

141the the bill um, and I didn't pull it up, but it has language in there that says that if if not otherwise prohibited, um, you can still prohibit, excuse me, school districts and and other governmental entities can still prohibit open carry. And so, this open constitutional carry is prohibited. Um, just to clarify that absence um, individuals with a valid concealed carry permit or staff with a concealed carry permit who meet the training requirements, there's no open um, constitutional carry on school district property. That would still not be allowed under the rules. Um, liability insurance and indemnification. [Music] Um, this is still, um, the district is working on the liability insurance piece. Um, I haven't talked to Mr. Cicerellia this morning or today about it yet, but um, there may be, um, requirements by insurance um,

142that certain information be disclosed to insurance in order to have um, a weapon be covered under a liability policy. Um, so things like serial numbers um are are things that that insurance companies may ask for. So we will need to ask staff for that type of information in order for them to be covered under the liability insurance. Um, but we also clarified that um, you know, this is not a directive by the school district. This is not a request by the school district but because they are legislatively authorized to carry um you know the expectation is you are solely you are responsible for your actions um in doing so in in carrying um our insurance may come into play um but it's not a guarantee. Um that is sort of a very brief update of

143where we landed on this policy. um any questions or concerns that the board has to answer. So, I'll just start by saying thank you. I know that you and the team from the district have worked really hard to put this together and make it line up with statute and what's required and not exceed that. Um and so, thank you. There have been some big things to finangle and figure out and navigate and um appreciate your time on it. But right now, I'm sure we have questions or comments. So, we'll start with Trusty Burden. Yes. Um, Madame Chair, um, Amy, can you help me understand the need to distinguish between the schools in town and those that are rural as far as like training requirements and those kinds of things? Um, or whatever their waiver is.

144like I don't understand why being I don't know 20 miles from town why some you would need a waiver for something. Um certainly u madam chair trusty burden I believe that the intent of the legislation on that piece is when is based on um response time of local law enforcement and so you know for the most part within Cheyenne city limits we have a very quick response time for our law enforcement if something should happen at one of our schools. um once we start getting out into the county um that response time can go down based on where either the sheriff's office happens to be or if there if there is a highway patrol who happens to be out there. Um, and so I think that the intent behind the allowing for waiverss is to

145allow individuals within the schools to um, you know, maybe not meet every requirement that's laid out in the training, but if somebody comes close or somebody um, presents a compelling reason, the board could allow uh, for a waiver of a train of one of the training requirements. So, I think it's really based on that response time and the ability of local law enforcement to respond to an emergency type situation. Um, you know, there's nothing that would require the board to grant a waiver. Um, and we tried to make that pretty clear that each request for a waiver would be considered individually. Granting one waiver in one situation does not guarantee that you would grant it in another. Um, even very similar situations. It's all um at the board's discretion. But because the legislation included language

146that the board could um provide for waiverss, we wanted to provide um sort of some objective criteria for why you might want to grant a waiver in those situations. Thank you, Trusty Cook. Madam Chair, thank you. Um, I'm unclear as to whether we can request right now a a bit of a change. I'd like to see the training requirements be more rigorous than what has been put into the bill. So, do I do we wait until the comments come back or do we discuss? I know that there are many people that are still sad about this bill. And so I think that if we can at least ask for more rigorous training that might go to quell some of the people's concerns. Um so I'd be a proponent of increasing that training time. Okay. Any

147conversation on that? What we would need is would be an amendment to right an amendment to this policy as it's written later on. No, now you could do it now if you Oh, okay. would like to make an amendment or make a motion to amend it. We have to wait till it has it been seconded. It has been Oh, I didn't hear it. Okay. Well, she hasn't made a motion. Her motion to make an amendment hasn't. We would have to But the motion itself has been made and seconded. The motion for the policy. Yes, this would. Okay. So, so Oh, I apolog So, Madam Chair, I think you could do it either way. Um, Trusty Cook, you could either propose an amendment now to go out for the 45day public comment period or wait for

148the 45day public comment to to run and um based on that public comment feedback, um you could b you could make an amendment at that point as well, but you could do it either way. Just ask. Madam Chair. Um, however, let me if she if we hold and wait based on public comment and we make a change, it likely has to go back out for 45day comment. Um, Madam Chair, Trustee Ashby, it it could need to go back out. It it would depend. um you know so we've drafted kind of a notice uh that we'll put out as well as um a statement of principal reasons. Right now your your policy meets the um minimum required by statute. So likely going above what um statute requires at a later date would be a change that

149you would want to put it back out for 45day. Um but again, even with that July one deadline looming, um when the the repeal goes into effect, you could enact u emergency rules to run while you considered that. So that's increase in hours. Okay. So I will propose an amendment then please. I would like to amend um the live hour training from 16 as it reads in the current bill to 24. I would like to increase the scenario hours from 8 hours to 16 and then I would leave the 12 hours of recurrent at 12. I'll second. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second to increase the um initial training course hours from 16 to 24 hours um of live fire handgun training and then to increase the scenariobased training um from 8

150hours to 16 hours and then you we're not making a change to the continuing. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Um, do we have discussion on that? Trusty Clson. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. I was curious, um, I'd like to ask Miss Pauly where the uh 16 and 8 hour language came from and why it's in our our current draft. Uh, Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson, so that is the um number of hours, the minimum number of hours that were set in statute. Oh, I'm sorry you said that. Um, Madam Chair, can I follow up? Absolutely. Did you speak to any um professionals that are in law enforcement or these kinds of trainings um or that know about these kinds of uh information this kind of information? Did you speak to them about

151these numbers at all? Um, Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson, so we have worked with um, again CPD and the Larry County Sheriff's Office um, and they both have um, said that they thought that the training um, hours and curriculum were sufficient. Thank you. Okay, Trusty Ho. Madam Chairman, um I would like to say for a matter of transparency, however, that there are several uh school districts in the state that also have increased their um hours of training requirement. So, this is not an unusual step. Miss Pauly, do you know the hours that those districts are looking at or what anybody that's going beyond what the statute requires what they're looking at? Um, Madame Chair, so what we have looked at um was um there's a handful of districts who have already had policies in place based

152on the previous version of of this legislation. Um and looking at that, um we pulled um so Uenta County School District number one, they have the same 16, 8, and 12 that's required in statute. um Park County number six. And again, this is under previous statute, but it's mirror language um between that version of the statute and and what's in the repeal of the gun-free school zones act. Um Park 6 has 16 hours, 8 hours, and 18 hours. Um Converse has 40 hours, 16 hours, and 12 hours. And Campbell had 32, 24, and 12. So variability on the number of hours. Um I will say that the training and curriculum requirements are pretty consistent. Um the the topics um are consistent. The number of hours have varied from school district to school district who've adopted

153policies. Thank you Trusty Bergen. Madam Chair, I have a a follow-on question. Um, what are the basic requirements to get a concealed carry license in the state of Wyoming? Um, Madam Chair, Trusty Burton, I believe that it's a 4hour uh training. It satisfies the requirements for the concealed carry and then there are um fingerprinting um background checks that that go along with that as well. But I believe the total number of hours is four. Trusty Humphrey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um Amy, I don't know if you know, so the four hours for the concealed carry class, is that an annual 4 hour they have to renew their permit every year? Is that 4-hour live scenario? Is that just a cumulative 4hour basic training? So that uh Madam Chair, Trusty Humphrey, um my understanding is that

154in order to get your concealed carry, you have to complete um that 4h hour training. So that's a one time and then your concealed carry permit lasts is is good for 5 years. Um I'm not positive but I do not believe that there's additional training requirements um after that initial okay so even requiring our 16 live hours initially plus the eight I mean we're already significantly we're requiring significantly more training than just your basic concealed carry on top of the 12 than annual that will be required. Um, okay. Thank you. Anybody else? No. Um, I had messaged um, Miss Polly earlier today. I was I actually thought what would be required in the 16 and the eight hours of training I thought it was pretty extensive and maybe a little bit cumbersome. Um there's I

155mean there's a lot there to learn. But one of the things I noted on that um was with the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academyy's close range pistol proficiency course um that they have to score an 80% on that. I mean they they've got to be a pretty good shot um in this Wyoming Law Enforcement Academyy's course. Um, and with those requirements to even pass and be able I mean for us to consider even allowing an employee to conceal carry. Um, that I had thought that was probably a fairly stringent requirement. Um, I'm not bothered by the 24 or the 16 and the eight hours of of time required um in education before they're allowed to our employees are allowed to conceal carry. Um, I mean I it almost feels a little punitive and in increasing that

156to a 40hour course. Um, employees will be doing this on their own time. Um my guess is that any employee carrying a gun is probably doing so because in their heart they genuinely desire to protect um the children that are in their care or their co-workers. Um so to make this punitive and to say you you've got to go through 40 hours of education this summer before we'll allow you to um conceal carry in the fall um or whenever they choose to do it. Um it seems a bit much. So, I personally am comfortable with this these training hours. Um, to hear that our local law enforcement also agrees that this is sufficient and that this is um a good standard for us to set and to follow what the legislature says. Um, I take

157comfort in that as well. Have any other discussion? Trusty Ashby. So, I had a little bit of a discussion with some of the board members that um were at the Wyoming School Boards Association meeting, not in the meeting, but separately around this and some of the ones that have the higher um training requirement. And some of the conversation that they had really did extend around that concept of if they're going to be in the schools and and caring, they're sort of by default the good guy with the gun. um and um need to be sure that they are able to act as such. And so the ones particularly the ones with the higher training really did think through it in a way that was um how do we make sure they have the knowledge and

158skills they need that they will automatically take have to take responsibility for. Um, and so, um, making sure they have the training, um, like we were talking about, I think is a good idea. Trusty Hinker. Um, I think this is one of the few things we can do to try and increase the safety for our children in their schools. And so, if we can do it, I think we should do it. Okay. Any other discussion on Trusty Cook? Yeah, ma madam chair. Um again, I think this goes to um supporting the teachers that are really concerned about having this um guns in schools. And I know that there are educators out there that wouldn't want to wouldn't want to teach next to a a teacher that has a concealed carry. And so I think that

159perhaps if we could increase the training that they would go through that would benefit everybody, the kids as well. Trusty Burton, did you have something? Um, well, I had a it might be derailed from this numbers here. Um, I had a staff member recently um express that one of her concerns, I mean, obviously this policy is for um employees and volunteers, but she's like, I wouldn't be safe, you know, I wouldn't feel good about this. She goes, I've got some parents this year that are just, you know, that she's just afraid. she would be very afraid of them if the parents or guardians or whomever um were allowed to carry firearms into the schools. So that was her concern and I know the policy is just towards um students and staff, but um one of

160the questions I thought through was you know if if a staff member has a I don't know whatever not so positive relationship with a family or they sense that the family is mad about you know Johnny getting you know in trouble for whatever. Um, can the staff keep people out of their buildings? I know that's maybe that's a different question for part of this, but maybe maybe not. Madam Chair, uh Trusty Burden, um we have had occasions in the past where we believe that the the relationship had become um either unpredictable or volatile and we make different arrangements under those um conditions. Um sometimes the meetings are held up here rather than in the school. Um so depending on the circumstances I would say we've always um taken precautionary steps and we will continue to

161do so if if there's a a fear that that perhaps it's not um a meeting space that is going to be productive. Can I just just ask Madam Chair? I guess this is question I just to verify my understanding is that by allowing concealed carry on campuses that does not change the rules for who we can and can't allow in the buildings. Correct. Madam Chair, Trusty Ashby, that is correct. And um and so my comments more were in general of not we're changing the meeting because we believe they might be concealed carrying but we're we're altering the meeting simply because of the volatility of the relationship currently. And maybe I should have um said originally um we absolutely can keep um secure vestibule area. we do not have to allow any members of the public

162into the inner workings of our buildings. Um and so we um we already have those measures in place um to where we don't have people roaming through our buildings freely as is. um whether they're concealed carrying in the future or not, uh we can control who comes and goes in our buildings once inside. And I you know when another thing that I asked Miss Polly about today was the the section on volunteers because any parent could come into the building or to lunch or to a school assembly carrying and we can't do anything about it. But we might have a grandmother that chooses to read um to a third grade class once a week or once a month. Um but any volunteer the way this is written that would have access maybe to those more

163the the inner parts of the school um would also have to adhere to these same training requirements that we are um expecting our staff to do. Um Trusty Cook. Yeah, Madam Chair, that volunteer can choose to leave their gun at home. They absolutely do not have to conceal carry. That is correct. That that's an option. But if they are going to be in the school with a concealed carry weapon, um they would have had to have proven that they've done this education and met those requirements. Anybody else? Okay. So, we need to vote on the amendment at hand and that amendment is to increase my computer went dark. Um, increase the hours of live fire handgun training from 16 to 24 and increase the hours of scenariobased training from 8 to 16. We have a

164motion in a second. So, all in favor of increasing the hours required, please say I. I. I. I. Do you mind to raise your hands? Let's just do a Okay. So, Trusty Cook, Trusty Hinkle, and Trusty Ashby. Um, all of those in favor of leaving the hours um as written in the current draft of the policy and required by statute, please say I. I. I. Okay. Would you raise your hands? Just make sure. Okay. trustes Burden, Lawson, and Humphrey. So, I get to break the tie. Um, and I um would vote to leave the hours the way that they're required in statute. So, that um motion fails um four to three. Do we have other discussion, questions, amendments to um the policy as proposed? Yeah, trust. I don't have an amendment, but I just wanted

165to say um to the CTA and the teachers out there that we did take your uh recommendations um under advisement and um we are not able to do many of them because of how the uh bill from the uh legislature reads. Um and we are not able to do some of them because of uh cost proh being cost prohibitive. Um, but I wanted to let you know that we did uh take your concerns very seriously and we all on this board, whether we're for this policy or not, understand um the concerns that you have and so thank you for bringing those up and we did um take them very seriously. Trusty Classer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just going to ask Miss Paulie um kind of along the lines of what Trusty Hinkle just

166said. There were a couple of things that I asked about regarding uh including language just asking why there wasn't language um for some of the recommendations that were given from the um different groups in town. and um she referenced a a statute that was repealed and I wondered if you could just touch on that topic a little bit for our community to understand it better. Um sure, Madame Chair, Trustee Clawson. So, as I've mentioned um a couple times, I think there was there was a kind of a previous version of of polic, excuse me, of statute that allowed school districts to enact rules governing um or allowing for staff to conceal carry. Um that was u 213132. um that that particular statute had different um language than what ultimately got included in the changes to

167um 68 uh where are we at? 105. Um then when you also look at at um House Bill 172 or in House Enrolled Act number 24, there's um they made changes to um the legislative preeemption statute. Um and so taking all of that together, um I think there's at least an argument to be made that the legislature has preempted um districts from going beyond um training and curriculum requirements um requiring a car a carry on your person or in a biometric block box. So, we tried to stick very closely to what statute did authorize uh school boards to um enact rules and regulations on and not go beyond um that that answer. Thank you. Any question? Madam Chair, I have one more. It's nonsubstantative, but just caught my eye and I thought I would bring

168it to the board's attention and hopefully there's no objection to it. Uh if you look at the preamble, I would like to propose an amendment to the second paragraph first or the second sentence. It starts out with a clause to achieve this goal. Um I actually don't think we need to make that opinion stated. Um, we could just state in the first sentence as it's written, Laramie County School District number one is dedicated to maintaining a safe and secure environment for all students, employees, and visitors. And then start the second sentence with the district does not require or uh request that and and you know continue on with that sentence. So my amend my proposed amendment is to strike to achieve this goal. So we have a motion to remove the words to achieve this

169goal from the second sentence of the second paragraph of the preamble. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. So we have a motion in a second. Do we have any questions or conversation on that? No. Okay. Well, we do have a motion second. So, we will vote now then on the amendment to remove the words to achieve this goal. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay. So, that passes and we'll remove that phrase and just start that second sentence with the word the. Okay. Thank you. Are there any other amendments, questions, concerns, any clarification? Okay. Well, seeing none, um we do have an amendment to um I go back to the language to approve placing this proposed new rule um as amended out for 45day review. um public comment and public comment. Um so

170we will vote on that now. All in favor of putting the amended uh proposed new rule out for 45day review, please say I. I opposed. Okay, that will go out for 45day review starting today. Um, Miss Polly, just to clarify then, um, if that 45day review starts today, I believe that ends after our second meeting in June. So, then what will our next steps be? Um, Madam Chair, that is correct. So, your 45day public comment period will started tomorrow and it will run through June 20th. Um, which is a few days after your second meeting in June. Um, again, the statute that repeals the gun-free zones um goes into effect July 1. So, you have two options as I see them. One, you could adopt your rule um at your 2nd June meeting on an

171emergency basis um to cover the period of time from um July 1 through about I think your your board meeting in in July is on the 15th. Or you can call a special meeting after the 20th. um to adopt um whatever version of of the um rule gets through. So um two choices. Um I know it's summer and it's hard to to get people in. So um you can either again schedule a meeting sometime between, you know, June 21st is actually a Saturday, so the tw June 23rd. Um it's it's kind of a you've got about a week there. um and one day I think before the 1st of July or you can again adopt it on an emergency basis just for the period of time to cover that 14 15 days before your next

172board meeting but it's really at the board's pleasure. Thank you. So we can discuss that as we get a little bit closer in that process. Okay. All right. Moving on. Madam chair, I move to approve funds for the additional work being performed with the Clark Allen a farm livestock building addition not to exceed $30,000. I second. You have a motion, a second. Do we have any questions or discussion about approving additional funds for the work being done at the new or the new and improved egg from Livestock Building Edition? No. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I oppose. All right. Those funds have been approved. Madam chair, I move to grant permission to purchase science dimensions, earth and space science textbooks, teacher resources, and access to online resources from Henon Mifflin Park for high

173school geologic systems students for a price not to exceed $100,000. Second. Have a motion, a second. Any discussion on the approval of purchasing these science resources? Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay. That that permission has been granted and D3.4. My loading dear. Okay. Madam chair, I move to amend the music reserve fund to allow for repair of music instruments and uniforms. Second have a motion to second. Any discussion on that? Trusty Ashby. Madam Chair, do we just want to clarify what we're doing there? Sure. Dr. Mr. Cigarelli, please. Madam, excuse me, Madam Chair, Trusty Ashby. Um, yes, certainly. Uh, the school district has had a music reserve fund since 2008. Um, statute allows us to utilize those funds for the repair of music instruments and uniforms. However, um, when that original motion

174was presented to the board in 2008, it was missing that operative word repair. Um, and so this would just ensure that we are allowed to utilize those funds in that manner. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crelli. Anybody else? All in favor of um amending the music reserve fund to allow for the repair of music instruments and uniforms, please say I. I. Opposed. Okay. And next, 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 administrative administrator professional salary schedule. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on that? Yes, trustee. I'll ask my usual question. Are these new positions or filling older positions? Madam Chair, Trusty Eagle, these are all replacing existing positions.

175Thank you. Anybody else? All right. All in favor say I. I. I. Post. All right. Those have been approved. Dr. Newton. Madame Chair, trustees, I believe we have Mr. Dishman and his lovely bride with us here tonight. Both fittingly dressed in central high red. So, you're off to a great start. So, congratulations, Mr. Dishman. We have one more motion. Madam Cherry, move to grant permission to contract for communication platform software from Parent Square for an amount not to exceed $131,000. $131,725. I second. We have a motion and a second to grant permission to contract for the communication platform software. Trusty Ashby, was your hand up? Yeah, take it away. Um, so I guess this is probably a Kyle question. So I probably Yeah. Is there will there be training for both teachers and parents that

176go with this? because I feel like we just got to a point where we're using Remind correctly. Madam Chair, Trustee Ashby. Uh yes, absolutely. Um we have yet to nail down the structure of the training, what it looks like. We'll obviously have a lot of communication going out after hopefully it's approved here tonight. Um and uh yes, there is a comfort level with Remind. We know it's heavily used. Um an upside here is um and what actually kind of precipitated this is parent square bought um about a year and a half ago I believe and so it's likely a matter of time before remind went away anyways um okay and um so we went out to an RFP ended up parent square one which is going to be good I think on the side of

177they're familiar with her mind they'll help us with training they'll help us with that transition and um and honestly it's a much better platform consolidating Remind and websites and so on. So hopefully it won't be a very bumpy road. We're already planning out the training for um TSS staff and principles next year working with Teresa um and then we're going to be putting together a lot of communication for parents and students honestly and rest of the community. Okay, Mr. McKini. Um, could you share a little bit of a teaser of what's to come? My understanding is it may have the ability to consolidate messages to the end of the day. That might be a welcome piece of information for everyone listening. Yeah, there's there's a lot of uh positives. Um, and that is a big

178one as a parent myself and knowing the remind. It's great for communication, but sometimes it's a bit much to track through the day. Um, one of the nice features about parent square is it gives you you the flexibility to get um, messages delivered immediately or as a daily summary or both um, even and my understanding is uh, based on like each class or group or whatever you want to call it. So you could say some things I just wanted in a daily summary, some things I want right away. And the district and the school has the opportunity. This will also actually replace um the messenger portion of Infinite Campus that does attendance calls, um lunch balances, and my favorite thing at 5:00 a.m. 4:30 a.m. the snow day calls in a much more streamlined fashion.

179So it can also push through communications that are urgent. Um so it gives you some flexibility but it also lets us uh get through when we need to. Um, additionally, uh, and this is a big feature I think, um, you know, in your mix of remind currently, you have maybe a message from the teacher and then something from the school about an upcoming activity, a book fair, and then there's maybe something from the high school and you have an elementary kid, right? It it kind of gets mixed in. Sometimes it's hard to pick that message about your kid specifically from your teacher that day. um those types of posts that are more informational uh and I just use the word are like a post with parent square where they come through sort of like a

180Facebook feed. So the book fair, the uh the basketball camp at uh the high school, those types of things will be more in like a feed and that'll also be mirrored on the website um so that they don't have to update school staff don't have to update in two places. um and it gives you another place to find it quickly. Um but those messages then they kind of come through in a different fashion. So it's kind of like you're on Facebook, you have the messenger for the more direct type communication and then you have the justformational posts and these and it's more of a feed. So I think there's a lot of upsides for parents, a lot of upsides for teachers. Um and it does other things that teachers will hopefully love like uh parent

181teacher conference scheduling. Um, it has sign up for volunteers or chaperones for a field trip. It has sign up for like supply lists. It has uh interactive forms, customizable forms that you can send out to all your parents. So, there's a lot of cool new features in there um on top of what we're used to already with trusted mastery. So, thank you. It sounds like there's some great things. just please please think through that front end and how we teach people to download the app to get into their each individual classrooms and activities. Um just felt like for the first 10 years of my children's career. This is a naughty governance thing by the way. This is my me personally. We changed communication platforms about every other year. We finally got to remind and now

182you're telling me that I have to learn something else before my child graduates. Uh, Madam Chair, Trusty Ashby, we understand it's a it's a big change and it touches everybody. This is one of those that's like it's about as big as it gets as far as our community as a whole. And um, and we certainly want to make it as painless as possible. And again, I think that having the team that supports mind also be there to help us support on the parent square side, they know what everybody's used to, you know, and as do we. And so I think together we'll we'll come up with that. Yeah, it it'll be as seamless as hopefully we can make it. But there'll be bumps. Trusty Cook. Yeah, Madam Chair. Um, as long as you're up there,

183do you have any update on Zoom and how long we'll be using that? Can we can we hold that question for just a minute and finish this discussion? Is that as I in case any I actually had a couple questions, but maybe others do too. Do you mind if we'll just hold up and get through this item? Anybody? Just me. Um, so I just had a a couple of questions. Is this an interface that you can access from your computer if you have a parent that is loaded like just bogged down on their phone or maybe they like a flip phone or I mean is there another way to access this besides a smartphone? Madam Chair, yes. Um, and that was actually one of the critical differentiators between this platform and some of the others.

184Um, is well, not only is it accessible through the web, so you don't need an app. Um, which is great. Your mind had that also, but it it does text messages. So you mentioned the flip phone, those who just have just as as simple as it gets with a phone technology, the SMS messages, it'll it'll send those as well, which reminds also, but the nice part there is a teach um parents do not have to sign up to get the message initially. So just like with Infinite Campus and the snow calls or the those messages that come through as a text, those will come through. you don't you would opt out of you will get them by default we'll feed those numbers in over to the system you'll get those messages then if you want

185and we hope people do if you want to get the app or log in online if you don't want to get the app but just go to a website those options are there and you sign up with your phone number or your email address which we'll already have from registration thank you um another question I had and sort of piggybacking on Trusty Ashby's concern as a parent of five children. It took me forever to wrap my brain around her mind in the like 10 bazillion messages you get from five different four schools and different teachers and coaches and adviserss and principles. And one of the things I always wished we could do with Remind was group messages by student. Um instead of having this very very long list of things you subscribe to to get

186messages on. Do you know if this platform would allow you to like for my sixth grader, could I just look to see what sixth grade messages are and then instead of having this huge feed, do you know? Yeah, manager. I I'm trying to visualize it, right? Sometimes and and we've seen it a while back. Um and then of course with the RFP, my my belief is yes, I know you can do it by school as far as the feeds. So like those feeds kind of come through and schoolbased or even the activity itself. I know what you mean with the things on the left where it's kind of a jumbled mess and sometimes they're not named great and you know that's kind of it's confusing too. There'll be the district and there'll be like a

187class but a school message will come through in it. Um I think it's much more clear with the way it looks that it's easier to decipher who it belongs to or who it relates to. I don't know for sure though if you can like pick a student name and filter it that way. I think it's more based on the school or the group um or the class or the you know that type of thing. I know it looks better though. I I I I know it it it makes more it's more intuitive just when you log in and look at it. Again, kind of that Facebook thing. I think people are kind of comfortable with it. And we actually looked at this platform when we looked at Remind back in 2018 I think it was.

188Um, and uh, that was one of our favorite features even then was sort of that Facebook feed, but it was missing a lot of the other things that they've now now they're getting from as they acquired it. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Trusty Cook, did you want to ask your question and then we need to vote on this item? Um, yes. Just just any update on Zoom if there's people listening via Zoom and wondering if it's going to go away or if we'll switch to something different. Uh yeah, Madam Chair, Trusty Cook, it's we we upped it at the lowest possible because it came up for renewal. So we we knocked down the licenses as much as we could and we renewed it. And the reason why actually is in testing teams um which was

189going to be the alternative that was well free already included. It it requires a sign up process to join the meetings which we don't have currently. you can just hop on. Um, and it's one of the complaints about Teams, but they don't have a way around it. So, for now, we have another year of Zoom. Um, again, we cut down the cost as much as we could, and we'll still be moving to Teams for everything else we do. Um, hopefully Microsoft will give us a better uh method or be able to control that in the future, but for now, it'll be just like it is. And to the question, if there's anybody online there, there has not been. Thank you. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second to um allow for contracting for

190this new um platform. So, all in favor um please say I. I. Anyone opposed? All right. Um that contract for Parent Square has been approved. The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, May 19th, 2025 at 6 PM. The business of the district is done. Um, and I we have one more motion, I think. Madam Chair, I move to go into executive session prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspension, expulsions, personnel, legal advice, and potential litigation. And I second. Okay. We have a motion and second to go into executive session. All in favor say I. I oppose.